The natural retrieve of a dog is important when it comes to how good of a retriever a dog will be. The more natural drive they have to play the game, the less likely they will be to be discouraged and decide the game is not fun inadvertently.
Now, that natural drive for retrieving is not created equal, some dogs have a much higher drive for it than others. However, in my experience, with many puppies of many breeds, almost all dogs have some level of natural retrieved that can be developed.
In fact, from the dogs I’ve worked with I find that with most the dogs that don’t retrieve it is not a matter of desire to retrieve, but that at some point the decided retrieving was “bad”. This is usually not an intentional lesson that was taught to them, it was taught inadvertently through small things as the dog grew up.
An example: a puppy gets into a laundry basket at home and steals a sock. Not wanting the sock to get ruined someone runs over and takes the sock away. When the pup runs for the laundry basket again they are once again told no and the basket of clothes is taken away.
Now this wasn’t a “bad” event for the pup but it is possible that the pup got the message of “don’t pick things up and run around with them”, which is kindof the whole idea with retrieving. The goal wasn’t intentionally to discourage the retrieve, but in the puppies mind that was the lesson learned.
I’m not saying don’t take the sock away. It is important for a young puppy to learn not to destroy our clothes. What I’m saying is we need to make sure we are clear in our communication with them. At the end of the interaction they need to understand that it wasn’t the action of picking something up, and running around was wrong. It was the ITEM they choose to run around with that was wrong. But that the right items are fun to pick up and run around with. Even better, that if they pick up the right items we will play with them by throwing it. If you can be clear wit