Teaching Adult Goldens to Retrieve

Question
We just brought home two rescued 2 yr old female litter mates. The more dominant one shows a slight interest in retrieving, will run after a ball or frisbee once, put it in her mouth and drop it within the first few seconds, the other female shows no interest in a ball or frisbee at all. We had another golden that always wanted something in her mouth and loved to retrieve. How can we introduce these two to the pleasures of running after a ball?

Answer
They may need a couple more days to adjust.  Supply them with high value toys, that is to them, not your remote.  I am amazed at both how much dogs like tennis balls, and how well they last even with problem chewers.  You do need to watch them carefully and discard them when they start coming apart.  Sometimes I will finish ''skinning'' one once it starts to avoid the dog choking on parts of the skin.  As the dog develops interest in the ball, wave it around in the dogs face, perhaps bouncing it too, before throwing it.  Praise the dogs for chasing it.  Once you have them running after the ball, you can work at calling them to you with the ball.  

The pet stores are full of toys that many dogs will quickly chew up into
pieces they could choke on or cause intestinal blockages.  If you are not
there to watch, stick to sturdy stuff such as Nylabones and Kongs.  Keep a
close eye on chew toys and quickly discard anything that is coming apart in
pieces.  Rawhide is especially bad because it swells after being swallowed.
I don't trust any of the consumable chews.  The dogs just gnaw them down to a
dangerous size too quickly.  These problems are the worst with, but not
limited to, large, aggressive chewers such as Labs.