Some dogs just don't know how to fetch, so have to be trained. Others are "born to retreive" regardless of breed! Each dog then must train its people accordingly!

In a similar vein, we had one dog (Gracie the mostly Great Dane) who would NOT catch anything. Even pieces of food! They'd just bounce off her face, then we'd have to point them out and THEN she'd eat them. We finally gave up trying to teach her - we felt like someone might report us for dog abuse before she ever learned ...

"Officer, I saw them! They just kept throwing things at that poor dog. They throw them at her face, over and over"

"But, officer, it was food, honest! We were just trying .... oh, never mind."

Great Danes are not known for their vast intelligence but she was a great dog despite that!