learning to catch things

Okay, Nala is now able to catch a frisbee or ring if I throw it right to her. I used to think it was hopeless to even try, but she suddenly started doing it!

Anyone know how I can get her to understand that if I throw it farther away, she has to run to go catch it? LOL. Maybe she's just not a catching/fetching type of dog. But I have to make her back up and tell her to stay and then toss it right at her. If I toss it farther, she watches it sail past and then goes to get it (and never brings it back).

 

Annie too seemed to not be exactly catching inclined (she's let it hit her in the face...making me feel really guilty)..but a couple months ago she decided she could of course catch things that were tossed to her...crazy dog. But anyways...I had to pitch it it the air in front of her...if I threw it for her to run out and fetch, she just let it hit, then picked it up, but if I threw it far and hard so it bouced up when it hit the ground..she'd grab it out of the air...so I just let her practice that way for a while, now she will ocassionally grab it before it hits the ground...she still thinks frisbees are alien life forms and won't have anything to to with them..

 

Hi Jamiya,

This is where a deserted feild came in really useful when I started Floob with the frisbee.
It didn't take more than a few times of really stupidily loud excitable praises for him to 'want' to play catch.

Frisbee's actually hurt when they catch them though. I didn't realise until I noticed Floobs mouth, at either side, had little blood blisters on. He was also a bit lame after playing with it. I noticed that when they jump up to catch it they automatically bring their front legs up, banging them over and over again. Within a day or so of not playing frisbee his limping stopped and has never returned so it had to be the frisbee.

We always use the ring now and have had no problems. They're much softer so he's much more eager to catch it.

What was the question again?? :lol: I always go off on a tangent

Oh yeah, How to?

Have you tried 'watch'? Now, when I say that Floob knows there's a command coming so if I have a toy in my hand he knows it's going to get thrown and springs to life. If he's uninterested I do the '1....2.... 3!' thing and he's running by 2 ready to catch it.

I trained him to bring everything back with 'to me'. I said it really silly and fast, sometimes clapping, jumping. I don't say it anymore as he just comes over with it now but if/when I do he knows and comes right over. Oh, I found standing or sitting still worked best. If we were walking he'd drop but pick it up straight away. If I'm still he drops it at my heels and runs around into a down. It's so cute

I haven't really helped much have I :mrgreen:

 

maybe nala is just being good and that is why she watches it go past. like say you tell her to sit at one spot and stay until it is thrown. so she thinks she needs to stay at that spot. so maybe you need to teach a run command or something? does that make any sense/ good luck!

 

It could be worse... Clover used to let frisbees smack her in the head instead of opening her mout. :shock:

 

Well, when Nala was a pup we tried to teach her to catch treats in her mouth, but she just sat there and they'd bounce off her head and we were laughing too hard to continue.

I do give her the release command before I throw the object so she no longer feels compelled to stay, and I add the command "Catch!"

One day I tried rewarding her for catching it, hoping to improve her accuracy, but she got tired of the game. And she wouldn't bring the object back. She'd catch it, drop it, and run to me for the treat. It was aggravating.

I use soft frisbees because I always thought the hard ones look painful. But she LOVES those because they are cloth, so once she gets one in her mouth she wants to shake it (to kill it, apparently) and then eat it. We haven't tried it outside because I am afraid I would never get it back from her.

Perhaps I should go back to basic fetching and work on the "bring it back" half.

Leaping through the air to catch frisbees can be VERY hard on a dog's joints, especially if they are twisting around in the air. I don't ever intend to do it a lot, but it would be fun if she could do it once in a while.