Force Fetch, or "the trained retrieve" if you want to be politically correct about it, is a training method that turns bringing stuff back into a "chore" for the dog.  Not that it makes it unenjoyable, on the contrary, a properly trained dog is excited to do the work.  Colt, for instance, is the best fetch-trained dog I own (thanks to John Murphy) and the crazier and more difficult the retrieve, the more he likes it.

What I mean about making it a chore is you make the dog understand it isn't optional.  Take a dog with a lot of retrieving instinct (like your typical Lab or Golden) and he will bring you a tennis ball 1,000 times out of 1,000 on his own, just for fun.  But I don't shoot tennis balls, and I want to know my dog will run down, find and bring back a wounded bird, even if it's a half mile out of my sight.

Force fetch is the basis of so many aspects of dog training that you have to "install" it early.  In addition to the retrieving and duck searches, FF establishes and control over the dog in ways that other training do not.  It's important, I think, as a cornerstone of obedience.  So we run exercises that involve praise when they do it right, and discomfort for doing it wrong.  It reminds me so much of multiplication flash cards (that were so hard for me).  Once I learned the task, I was very proud of my new found skill.

Because we use both positive and negative rewards, and we actually start from the negative, this training is very difficult and intimidating for new handlers.  I have started a couple of times and then passed it off to pros.  The real key to the whole thing (after learning how) is being consistent and letting the dog win by doing it right.  Not allowing him to screw up so badly that you become a frustrated mess.

Brutus has been easy so far.  Four days and he's taking steps, picking up off the ground, and bringing back.  I have heard of dogs that were done with FF in two weeks, but never expected to own one.  I have no doubt Brutus, in the right hands, could finish FF in 14 days. 

We are working just 5 to 15 minutes a day.  My goal each time is to take the next tiny bite out of the process.  It's tempting to do more, but it's important to not put too much pressure on.  We start doing each of the previous steps once, repeating yesterday's lesson, then working towards the new goal.  If he does it right a few times, we have the big finish and something I've learned from agility training, a cookie.

Brutus is so excited to do his fetch training, even though he knows he'll get his ear pinched, he can hardly stand it.  If I move a training dummy or paint roller (learned that trick from Smart Fetch) he goes nuts trying to get me to start training.