How To Train a Dog To Catch a Frisbee
We are so honored to introduce our next Experts in Residence for our Show & Tell series. Meet Anna Privette (she/her) and Ben Rimbey (he/him) from Lucky Mutt Dog Training and Fairly Odd Dogs who hung out with us for a month to share information on the wonderful world of disc dogs! (YAY frisbee time!). Keep scrolling for all of Anna and Ben’s amazing content from their Show & Tell residency with TOC!
Getting To Know Anna and Ben
Anna and Ben own and operate Lucky Mutt Dog Training and Fairly Odd Dogs. In addition to competing with their own dogs (they are the 2018, 2019, & 2020 Minnesota State Disc Dog Champions!), they also offer online courses, provide private training sessions, and offer board and train services out of their home for pet dogs.
When it comes to frisbee training, they have awesome content to share, ranging from how to get your dog interested in the disc all the way up to teaching your dog to do tricks with the disc.
Getting Started With Teaching Your Dog To Catch a Frisbee
Have you ever dreamed of teaching your dog to catch a frisbee?! Many people think that if they throw a frisbee and their dog doesn't catch it or even chase it, they'll never play. That is FAR from the truth.
First you need to get your dog interested in the disc. Most dogs do not naturally track flying objects. Many dogs just need to be taught through rolling the frisbee to chase it down and grab it like they would chase a bunny or a squirrel! In the video above, we breakdown rollers and show you how to roll the disc. In this way we can start to unlock your dog’s prey drive.
Many dogs can build a love for the frisbee through tug of war as well! From there, make it a fun game of back and forth play. This will grow your dog's focus on you and the game! Over time you slowly replace doing a “take and tug” with a little toss up of the frisbee (that we demo in the video) and then tug rewards your dog. Some dogs prefer shorter throws to get them started and other dogs like longer throws.
Once your dog is showing nice disc engagement, we like to play more interactive games where you throw the disc back and forth. So start by throwing the disc out one way and then flash the disc and once they drop it throw it the other way as a roller or air throw. Flash, drop, and toss. That’s it. It keeps constant motion and it’s really fun and engaging for you and the dog. Doing games like this will help with drive building, engagement building, and for higher drive dogs it will help them collect. Don’t forget to have fun when you’re playing. For pretty much all dogs, we avoid doing air throws at this stage. You know when your dog starts powering through catching a roller they are ready to start tracking and chasing down an air frisbee.
Skills To Make the Frisbee More Fun and Enjoyable for Your Dog
Once you build up some interest in the frisbee and your dog is getting into it and having fun with it, there are basic skills you will want to teach them. These skills will help you with control with things like being able to get the disc away from your dog, or being able to get them to drop it near you. If you get into the competitive world of discs these are helpful skills to have. A lot of these games will make it a little more fun for your dog and a little more interactive to help build connection and drive.
So how do you get your dog to drop the frisbee or give it you in your hands and drop it from a distance if you want to play with multiple discs? Well it’s actually pretty simple. One of the best ways to teach this is to get your dog excited about the disc. A lot of dogs like playing tug of war, as we outlined above.
So here’s what we suggest to teach them to drop the frisbee:
Cue a tug and have them tug the disc for a bit
Flash another disc to get a give or drop from your dog
Repeat the two bullets above.
This is a great way to get your dog to see it’s fun to give the disc back to you.
Here’s another way to get your dog to learn to drop the frisbee:
Cue tug with your dog and tug the frisbee with them
Once you want the disc back, become boring and hold the disc stiffly and close to your body
Right when they let go, mark it and reward them with another toss up toy - in this case it’s a frisbee
We like teaching dogs by using multiple discs to learn drop it. We wrote earlier about the back and forth game, where you toss it one way and you toss it the other way. It’s a fantastic engagement game also for getting them to drop it for you.
Here’s what you do for the back and forth game to teach drop it:
Toss a disc out for your dog
Call them with their name or a sound to get their attention
Flash the disc in the air and cue drop or out
The moment they drop say “yes” and reward with another throw
Bring them in for a tug, pets, and praise and show them how fun it is to play disc with you
In the video above, we also demonstrate how to teach your dog around, which is very helpful for a lot of dogs to setup your frisbee throw. TOC also breaks down the steps to teach orbit here.
Ways To Help Protect Your Dog From Injury When Playing Frisbee
A lot of people love throwing a frisbee to their dog, but most people don’t know how to keep their dog safe in the process. You might not know that you could be setting your dog up for injury, even in the backyard.
Take a minute or two to warm up your dog and get their muscles going. It’s a great way to help prevent injury. Even the fancy things that we like to do have to be done in moderation. So think about that if you are playing any game with your dog or doing any high impact activity like disc, agility, or flyball. Basically give them multiple ways to use their energy so they are utilizing multiple muscles and not using the same ones. That is a fantastic way to keep your dog safe in disc.
Some things you can work on to help with this is warming your dog up. How we like to do that is learn a few tricks with your dog. Leg weaves are a great little warm up. Doing a scoot is engaging the muscles. If you don’t know some of those things that’s fine too. You can do little switches or turns which are also great at engaging some muscles. Take a little bit of time before you play session to warm your dog up. Another great way to warm them up is to take some time to do some short throws with your dog, which are little short throws to get your dog warmed up and moving.
Another way to prevent injury is to learn how to throw better for your dog. For our dog, we typically throw lower line drives so she doesn’t leap up in the air and land hard up and down. We throw nice and low. If you dog isn’t going to lay it all on the line for a disc, you may not need to focus on this.
Lastly it’s a great idea to meet up with an animal chiropractor and or a certified animal massage therapist. If you have a dog message therapist or chiropractor they can help work out kinks for your dog and can usually suggest excellent stretches for your dog as well. We like to do our stretches after we are done playing. So we warm up to begin, monitor with them while we’re playing, and do stretches at the end. Then you will have a long life with your happy disc dog.
Are you working on teaching your dog to play with a frisbee? Maybe it’s even something you’ve been practicing in Camp TOC! How’s it going so far? Let us know in the comments!
Pandemic Puppies: Training Tips and Tricks
We are so honored to introduce our first ever Expert in Residence for our Show & Tell series. Meet Karishma Warr (they/them) who is here to share all sorts of training tips and tricks for your PANDEMIC PUPPIES! As the head of training and behavior at Calm Canine Academy, Karishma is a certified professional dog trainer specializing in treating complex behavior concerns in an urban environment. Keep scrolling for all of Karishma’s amazing content from their Show & Tell residency with TOC!
How To Think About Your Pandemic Puppy’s Routine
So you just got a pandemic puppy?! YAY! What comes next?! Did you know that with a young puppy, it can be helpful to stick to a predictable schedule that meets their biological needs and encourages healthy behavioral habits? There's no single playbook when it comes to scheduling every dog - what your dog's day looks like depends on breed, age, location, resources etc. We encourage you to think about “The Puppy Triangle” when organizing your day with them. As your puppy gets older, they tend to spend less time resting, and have longer periods of activity and enrichment. Potty training and feeding take place within this schedule as needed!
The Puppy Triangle
1: ACTIVITY
When your puppy wakes up from sleep or from a nap they will need to go straight to potty before engaging in an activity that meets their needs, and builds the skills they need.2: ENRICHMENT
After a period of activity and the chance to use the bathroom, we often give puppies a little 'project' to work on. It frequently involves food of some kind, but the idea is to give your puppy some time to do their own thing, use their brains, and settle themselves down after a period of activity. You can use their allocated daily calories in enrichment toys, or you can simply let your pup sniff around, self play or chew on a bone. Many people will choose to have their puppies in their puppy pens, gated into a room, or tethered to a heavy piece of furniture to keep them in their sight and help condition containment systems.3: REST
Did you know that puppies under five months need 18 to 20 hours of sleep PER DAY? With all of us home 24/7 it can be hard to not interact with your puppy all the time, but lack of proper rest can lead to increased mouthing, whining, barking, and hyperactivity - which is NOT cute when you're on an important Zoom call! After their needs are met through activity and enrichment - and they've had a chance to use the bathroom - puppies must be given time in their puppy pen or crate with a white noise machine to rest and recuperate before it all starts again!
Five Training Ideas to Help Socialize Your Pandemic Puppy Indoors
Many of us are struggling to get our pandemic puppies out and about due to COVID restrictions. However we can do a lot at home to get them comfortable and ready for life post pandemic.
1. CONFINEMENT
Conditioning your dog to confinement systems like crates or puppy pens can help set them up for success when you start to practice leaving them alone in preparation for returning to work or other life obligations!
2. OBJECTS AND SURFACES
To build confidence and prepare them for the unpredictable human world, you can work on new surface and object acclamation. You can use items like exercise equipment, kitchen tools, furniture, couch cushions, vacuums and more! Pairing these items with food, play and attention can help puppies learn that objects that move strangely and look a little bit odd are nothing to be feared.
3. SOUNDS
Acclimate and habituate your dog to new sounds that they will be expected to deal with when the world returns to normal. Plays sounds like sirens, motorcycles, children, dogs barking, construction noise, thunder, fireworks, etc. at a low volume on your phone or speaker and pay them with primary reinforcers like food, play, and praise.
4. HANDLING
Your pups will be expected to tolerate being touched, inspected, injected, brushed, washed, and wiped, which can be very challenging for young puppies and can lead to a lot of nipping. By pairing these things with high-value food like cream cheese and hot dogs, we can start to teach them that it’s nothing to fear!
5. TRAINING
If you want your pups to be able to walk on a loose leash, give you attention, and settle in busy urban environments, at parties, and around people and dogs, training starts indoors. This video shows me playing a fun walking game with my dog around my house! Definitely enroll in an online puppy class or work with a certified trainer to get your pup the skills they need in a low distraction environment before returning to a busy post-pandemic world. BTW Calm Canine Academy offers The Puppy Program, which is a LIVE four-week digital puppy raising course!
Training Tips and Tricks for Prepping Pandemic Puppies for Alone Time
When it comes to preparing our puppies for post pandemic alone time, the biggest advice we can give is to START NOW! Start helping your pup adjust to solo time weeks or even months before a significant absence - aka returning to the office. You’ll do this through a systematic desensitization process - aka slowly exposing your pups to the experience of being home alone in small increments that they can handle without panicking.
For many dogs this starts with simply stepping out of the door for one second, building up to two seconds, then five seconds, then one minute over a series of days. Those minutes will become hours with systematic daily practice, but we are often talking a matter of months not weeks for some pups to get truly comfortable with regular long periods of alone time.
To ensure our pups are always comfortable with our incremental absences it’s vital that we set up a camera or viewing system of some sort to observe and document their behavior. That way, if you have built up to two minutes of alone time, you can watch your pup through your camera and be sure to come back BEFORE you see signs of panic. This teaches your pup that absences are SAFE and that you'll never leave them for longer than they can handle.
Important management tip: While our puppies are still learning to be comfortable when left alone we need to avoid letting them cry it out! Imagine someone who’s afraid of water being pushed in the deep end of a pool - that might actually make them MORE nervous to be around a pool in the future! Well that's what it can feel like to many pups who are 'thrown in the deep end' with regards to isolation. It’s vital we take it at their pace, knowing that's the only way to truly get them safe and avoid sensitization.
For many the thought of breaking down a four hour absence into seconds and putting in place a systematic desensitization protocol seems overwhelming and that's where the professionals come in. We HIGHLY recommend reaching out to a CSAT (certified separation anxiety trainer) to get the coaching and support you need to successfully see improvement with this challenging behavior.
For many more training tips and tricks for pandemic puppies, check out this live interview we did with Karishma on Instagram.