How To Train A Dog To Catch A Frisbee

If you have gone for a walk in your neighborhood or visited a park or a beach, you may have came across a game of frisbee being played between a dog and his/her owner. You may have thought to yourself “Wouldn’t that be fun to play with my dog?” The matter of fact is that playing frisbee with your dog is a ton of fun. It is also a great way for you to give your dog some much needed exercise and to develop a stronger bond with him/her.

But, the problem is that your dog may not already know how to play frisbee with you. So, you will need to teach your dog how to do that. With that in mind, I am going to show you how to train a dog to catch a frisbee so that you can get the fun started. Here are the steps to walk you through the process.

How To Train A Dog To Catch A Frisbee In Five Steps

1. Obtain A Frisbee

I would like to state the obvious here. In order to play frisbee with your dog, you will need a frisbee to play with. So, if you don’t already have a frisbee at home, the first step will be for you to buy one.

You will want to get a frisbee that is soft because catching a hard frisbee can be tough on your dog’s teeth. A hard frisbee is fine if you are playing with another human being. But, for your dog, go with the soft one.

The Hyper Pet Flippy Flopper Dog Frisbee is a great option. It comes in either two or five packs. They typically come in three colors – green, blue, and pink.

You can order the frisbees from the comforts of your own home and have them delivered to you for use with your dog. You don’t even have to drive to a store to get them.

2. Get Your Dog Introduced And Interested

Now that you have a frisbee in hand, the next step is for you to introduce your dog to it and get him/her interested in it. First, you will want to rub your frisbee with a treat like hot dogs because doing so will make the frisbee smell good.

That will help with driving up your dog’s interest in the frisbee. If you don’t have treats, I would suggest that you order up some Canine Carry Outs Dog Treats.

Now, show your dog the frisbee that you have rubbed with a treat. Once your dog gets his/her eyes fixed on the frisbee, walk around the house with it in hand. If your dog comes after your frisbee, praise and reward him/her with a treat.

Now, place your frisbee into your dog’s mouth. You will then want to play tug of war with your dog for the frisbee in a gentle way.

While that may not sound fair to you, you will want to let your dog to win the tug of war by allowing him/her to pull the frisbee out of your hand. Doing that will help to encourage your dog to engage with your frisbee.

3. Determine The Location For Frisbee

Once you have introduced and gotten your dog interested in your frisbee, you will then want to figure out where to play frisbee with him/her.

Even though this may not be necessary when first training your dog with frisbee catching, you will want to make sure that there is enough space for playing frisbee. That is because, at the end of the day, you will be throwing the frisbee in the air across the area and your dog will run to catch it.

So, ideally, you will have a good sized front and/or back yard so that you can play frisbee with your dog at home. If that is not practical, you will want to find a park or some other open space within your neighborhood with sufficient room for the two of you to play frisbee.

Just be careful around other people and dogs when playing frisbee as another dog could jump in on the fun or your dog may prefer to play with another person.

4. Roll The Frisbee

Once you have found a space for playing frisbee, you won’t be throwing it in the air just yet. First, you will be rolling your frisbee on the ground. That will help your dog to learn how to track your frisbee so that he/she can go after it and pick it up.

So, place your frisbee on the ground in a vertical position and then push it forward. It should roll on the ground in the same manner that a wheel would.

Once the frisbee has rolled, watch as your dog goes after it and picks it up. Be sure to praise and reward your dog with a treat once he/she does that. Repeat the rolling process at least a few more times.

5. Throw The Frisbee

At this point, you are now ready to start throwing the frisbee to your dog. Once you start throwing the frisbee, your dog will probably wait for it to fall to the ground before picking it up.

That is ok because it will take a good amount of practice before your dog successfully catches the frisbee. So, patience is key here, but your dog will get there.

Start out by doing a slow frisbee throw close to your dog. I would also suggest that you throw the frisbee from a kneeled position at first so that the frisbee is at the same level as your dog’s mouth.

Be careful that you don’t accidentally hit your dog with the frisbee. Don’t forget to praise and reward your dog with a treat after a successful frisbee catch.

Once your dog gets the hang of catching the frisbee, you can gradually increase the distance and speed of your frisbee throws. You may still want to stay in the kneeled position some more and then you can stand up to throw your frisbee at a higher level to encourage your dog to jump to catch it.

With continued practice, you will eventually get to witness the beauty of your dog’s frisbee catching prowess.

There You Have It For How To Train A Dog To Catch A Frisbee

These are the steps for you to go about how to train a dog to catch a frisbee. What are your thoughts? Have you had fun playing frisbee with your dog? Feel free to leave a comment below.