Dog Community

When do dogs learn to catch?

Posted : 7/22/2006 6:03:27 PM

When I throw treats at Pocket (for her to catch), she just waits for it to hit her on the head and fall on the floor. She's a bit of a klutz in general- she walks into stuff ALL the time, and falls over a lot. She's only 6 mths at the moment, so she might not have the coordination yet, but I see dogs playing fetch in the dog park and I want to know when she'll be able to do it too!

Can your dog catch?
When/how did he/she learn?

thirdday82

Posted : 7/22/2006 6:18:13 PM

gus does the same thing. i want him to be able to catch a soft toy in the air and eventually flying discs. right now he just lets it hit him or backs away from it. he is only 4 months though.....

Xerxes

Posted : 7/22/2006 6:32:44 PM

Once your dog can focus on you for more than 2 seconds, put your pup in a sit/stay. Have a fairly good sized treat in your hand (bigger than a piece of kibble but not as big as a golf ball) start tossing the treat a couple of inches up and down in your hand. Your dog should be watching your hand at this point and moving his head up and down. Toss the treat about 6 inches up arcing the treat towards your dogs mouth. It may take a few tries for your dog to "get it" but this method will work. If the treat hits the groud, it's off limits. Otherwise why would the dog try to catch if he/she can get it off of the ground?

After two weeks of working with the dog, you should have an accomplished treat catcher in your house. Eventually the dog will decide that catching other things is possible too.

Xebby

Posted : 7/22/2006 6:33:23 PM

Gizzy never really liked playing with most flying toys till she was a little over a year old, now she loves them. The fisbees have to be soft otherwise she will not catch them. I also like to throw balls for her to fetch, thoes also have to be soft and squisy for her to enjoy. Some dogs just never like playing games like that, instead they like differnt type of toys, just depends on the dog.

Dafne

Posted : 7/22/2006 7:12:59 PM

I actually have no clue how my poms learned. Currently, since Im mostly on comp Luna or Kero will bring the ball or a random toy, drop it and begin to whine for me to throw [

] its adorable! But i think what I did, was I continued to throw a random soft ball. (they're scared of tennis balls. hard balls) And sooner or later they would grab the ball. I would give them a treat, no they still didn't bring the ball back. But i gave them a treat anyway lol. Once he got the idea of catching the ball as I throwed, I would pat my lap but he'd forget the ball. I wouldn't give him the treat, yes first it was Kero. Luna I never showed anything, becuase she did anything he did. She know knows how to shake cuase Kero does. yay! lol. [

]

kritter714

Posted : 7/22/2006 11:14:40 PM

this is how I teach catch I get a slow falling food popcorn is my favorite but people use cheerios or "pupcorn" these treats are light and fall slower than regular food then I hold the treat in one hand and move it up and down as I count i.e. one (hand up and down) two (hand up and down) three hand up and toss treat gently the goal is to get the dog to watch the treat move in with my hand and then catch means open mouth food is coming but loft the treat don't throw so it falls down not straight at the dog they will learn took my dog 3 months but she got it

fuzzy_dogs_mom

Posted : 7/22/2006 11:21:52 PM

Max will run after a squeaky to (and usually catch it) if I throw it in the living room. At the dog park he's just to distracted to catch anything. He'll run along with the dog that's going after the ball, but he won't try to get it himself.

Joyce

Vinia

Posted : 7/23/2006 2:57:50 AM

Thanks for the training tips Xerxes and kritter714- I never thought to try throwing the treat up into the air a couple of times first!

jones

Posted : 7/23/2006 1:05:29 PM

Russell was a clumsy pup too - still is a little klutzy actually. He couldn't even come close to catching anything until he was close to a year old, not for lack of trying. Now he can catch a tennis ball sometimes, and a treat pretty consistently.