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!
