Teaching, "Catch!"

[MyBuddy]

I love teaching a dog to catch! Buddy was really good at it. I remember showing my sister and she was so impressed! She thought that was so cool and I don't know why she never thought about teaching her dog that when she's had dogs all her life. But anyway I always tell this story because it was so hysterical. You had to 'be there.' But you might get the idea.

We were both standing in front of her dog and she said let me try! So she settled her dog, told it to catch and tossed the treat at her dog.

It bounced off the top of her head and to the floor while her dog just stood and looked at us like, what?

We were laughing so hard! I said, well I guess that's a start! Somehow you have to get them to realize that they want what you are throwing. Sometimes you start off with just hitting them in the face. I did the same thing with Annie. First few times she didn't even know I was throwing something. Then it hit her in the face. And then when she saw what I was throwing, she made an attempt to catch it. If she didn't catch it I would grab it before she did. I wasn't always as fast as her but she got the idea that if she didn't catch it, she didn't get it.

So now she's pretty good at it and it's really only been about a week or so.

I tried to toss a toy at her to catch and she didn't. So this trick needs some refining. I want her to associate the word 'catch' with catching anything. A treat, a ball, a toy, whatever. But for right now she's doing very well with treats.

This was early this morning. I was still in my robe!

Anyone else teach their dog to catch? You can post some videos here if you want!

 

[Oh Little Oji]

Oh, Annie is so good looking! I love the substance to her snout!

Yes, Zephyr likes to catch treats and sometimes ice cubes (but I suppose that might be risky to the teeth?)

I have a slow motion video or two. It's kind of hilarious, but a while back our Chewy shipment had not arrived so while at the grocery store I picked up some (yeah, judge me, I don't care) Caesar brand dog food. I figure his stomach is pretty tolerant and this stuff was on sale. I didn't know how tiny the kibble was in the little 2.7 lb. bag. Well, now we use them as treats for training and also when we want to entertain him and ourselves by throwing the kibble to him.

It's hilarious, but with his rather cavernous mouth, sometimes he catches the piece of kibble then looks around for it, not realizing it's in his mouth.

 

[JanS]

Good girl!
I never taught Elroy to catch but he picked it up on his own. He has a habit of forgetting a toy down by the door when he goes out so I will toss it up and he catches it most of the time if my throw is good enough.

 

[MyBuddy]

It's hilarious, but with his rather cavernous mouth, sometimes he catches the piece of kibble then looks around for it, not realizing it's in his mouth.

Oh yes, I have some tiny treats like that too and now just give them to Kali because Annie does the same thing! Like, "I thought you just gave me a treat??" She probably swallows them whole and didn't even notice!

 

[MyBuddy]

I have a slow motion video or two.

Please post them!

 

[Oh Little Oji]

Please post them!

 

[MyBuddy]

So cute! I never thought of doing it in slow mo!

 

[Oh Little Oji]

So cute! I never thought of doing it in slow mo!

Thanks. Yeah, I think my daughter suggested it. Maybe if I had zoomed closer in it would've been more dramatic. A full speed vid might be fun too, as his speed is impressive to me sometimes.

 

[MyBuddy]

full speed vid might be fun too, as his speed is impressive to me sometimes

Oh yes! I just came in from a walk and tossed a treat to Annie and was amazed at how fast she caught that at the last second! I didn't even think she caught it! But she did!

 

[Two Dobes]

So great.....I have this from when Falcon was 5 months old. I started him with catching popcorn, cause it floats and he could 'see' it...he graduated to cookies, and this video I think was brocolli stems. Glory gets it right away, and in the slow motion misses! I will have to do another video, now that he is bigger!

 

[remy]

I was training with Remy earlier and tossed him the treat because he loves to catch them. He bounced it off of his nose and still managed to catch it lol.