Playing game of fetch ball/Frisbee - Updated on November 1,2010
** Updated area in red **
Dogs love chasing moving objects: jogger,cars,bicycles, squirrels,balls, Frisbee..
Our dog "Palette" loves playing game of fetch with ball or Frisbee or squeaky toys. She gets very excited and pause to get ready to chase the ball/Frisbee/squeaky toys and she gets very talkative when she knows she will play the game of fetch with me. We play the game in our yard sometime when weather is nice, and we play the game inside the house when outside is bad weather and, not being able to go for walk.
Palette runs after the ball with full speed, grab it in her mouth, comes right back to me squeaking the ball. Then, toss the ball or Frisbee to me as if to say "Do it again!" and there is no end for this game for her. I sometime wonder whether she is not getting tired of the game because doing the same thing over and over but it seems, never get tired of the game of fetch.
I think the game of fetch is great game because the game is fun, and you and your dogs can play together and you can make your bond with your dogs stronger. Not only that, the game gives your dogs outlet for pent up energy and game is incorporated with the use of their natural instinct. And, you can also teach your dogs a few important cues through the game such as"Give" or "Drop it",and you could also teach them impulse control through the game,too.
Especially "Give" or "Drop it" cue could become life saving cue when you see your dogs were trying to grab/eat something that could potentially hurt them (Fried chicken bone dogs find on walk,sharp objects, sticks etc), and you would like them to spit it out from mouth. "Give" or "Drop it" means drop everything from their mouth.
Bellow picture is 3 top items Palette loves to go fetch. Frisbee, squeaky ball, and soft squeaky toys.
Recently, Palette and I found that the squeaky egg is the great item for this game of fetch. Why, you may ask? It is because it is nice size for Palette to grab and it squeaks and it bounce better and the egg can bounce to unpredictable direction for her and she is having great fun with it.
The squeaky egg is actually from one of her interactive toys and, we are using it for other good use
Palette's recent favorite for the game of fetch; Squeaky egg..
You can read more on this squeaky egg in the previous entry titled "Palette's note:Hide a squirrel Animal Puzzle" here .
The ball I use for game of fetch is squeaky ball, not tennis ball because material is soft and squeaky sound makes her more excited and fun.
I sometime use small soft and easy to grab squeaky toys for fetch game. I believe the squeaky toy in the picture is called "Booda Racoon squatters" and she has chicken one and rabbit one.
Then, the Frisbee in the picture above is called "Soft bite floppy disc" and hers is 7" size. I have tried other Frisbee as well but,I like this one best because it is soft enough to be able to fold and gentle to her mouth when she fetch it. Some of the discs available on the market is either harder material or size is much bigger than I want it to be. She is big Corgi that stands 14" tall while average Corgi I hear is 12" tall. Still, when she use average size discs,she gets stumble over when she bring the disc back to me and this one is so far our favorite to play Frisbee.
Palette naturally loved playing ball but, when she was puppy, I needed to teach her to bring the ball back to me instead of grabbing the ball and wondering off to the side and play squeaking the toys.
First, Palette is clicker trained and she learned all the basic cues from sit,stay,down etc.. with clicker.
** What is clicker?? **
Clicker is small training tool that has metal that makes unique sound. This sound is so unique that dogs would probably not hear the same sound in their daily life other than in clicker training session. This makes training more effective.
** How Clicker training works?**
How clicker training works is that, when dogs did what you asked them to do,you would click the clicker and give them a treat. Repeat it,finish the training with success or better yet, fun game like "Find it game" just like I play with Palette (To watch how Palette play "Find it" game,please click here.).That is it.Very easy.Kids can train dogs, too.
Good thing about clicker is that you can mark your dogs exact behavior you like without delaying the split seconds. If you teach "Sit" with clicker,as soon as your dog's butt touch the floor with all 4 paws on the floor,click and treat. So,they know sit means 4 paws on floor with butt on floor.If you use "Good boy" as the way to tell him he did good.Sometimes,he may perceive it as you rewarded him the behavior of "sit and then jump up".
So, clicker eliminates possible miscommunication and the unique clicker sound makes training more effective.
If you train your dog with clicker, you need to let your dog know first that the clicker sound means good thing coming. Our puppy training trainer told us to just click and treat,click and treat to let your dog associate clicker with treats. After dogs started looking for treats when they hear the sound, it can tells you they now know what clicker sound means. So,you can now use the clicker to let your dog knows he/she did it right during the training session.
You can read more on clicker training in the previous entry titled "Clicker training;Clicker is your friend" here .
How to teach your dog to fetch the ball and bring it back to you?
1. I taught her to "sit"
To teach your dog to sit, hold the small treat in your hands and bring it above his head. Naturally,when dogs follow the treat you have in your hand with nose, their butt should touch the floor. As soon as the butt touch the floor, praise him and give him a treat. Clicker training is very effective to teach many thing because click sound can tell your dog very fast what behavior earned the treat.
** With Palette, once she learned "sit", I let her sit before everything she loves: food, game, go outside for walk or potty, or being pet etc
2. I taught her "Give"
To teach "give" , Palette's puppy training class trainer has told us to start with low valued items to trade. Then, make sure to give items back to him and praise.
How Palette and I did with low valued item is that, I let her grab the item and just offer the small treats. Yummy treats vs not so interested toy.. She dropped the toy to grab the yummy treats, and that is when you click the clicker and label the behavior "Drop it" or "Give", and then I gave the item back to her. And repeat it again; let her grab the toy,offer treats,click clicker when she drop the item from mouth and give treats with big big praise.
This is to tell them everything you take away would not gone forever but would come back. So, they do not need to guard them or growls at you when you reach your hand to the items. As Palette gets better understanding the meaning of the "Give" cue, I made the trade item value up gradually.
At some point,the item can become something the dogs do not want to let go even if they see treats in front of them. As human instinct, you might grab the item that are still in their mouth and you might try to take the item away with force but don't. Do not take the object away with force, and all you need to do is to just simply be patient,say nothing,just gently holding the object and as soon as your dog release the object,you click the clicker and give treats.
I also found it very effective to teach her "give" is through game "Tug of war". I let her sit, and when I got her attention, I shake a rope toy a bit to get her excited and said "get it" and let her play tug of war with me a second or two and, without a word, I just stop moving or stop any vocal to her and eventually she gets bored and she release the rope toy from her mouth. When she dropped her side of rope toy, I said "Give" and praised her and gave treats.
At this point, Palette learned she needs to sit if she wanted to play game with me, and she also learned what "give" means- "give" means drop items from your mouth.
3. Tossed the toy very close distance and encouraged her to go and touch the toy, even better if she grabbed the toy. When Palette grabbed the toy,I clicked and gave her treats.
4. I taught her to bring it back to me.
When she goes after the toy,grabbed it in the mouth, and turn around, click and treats and eventually, clicked when she grabbed the toy,turned around, and moving toward me with the toy.
If your dog did not trot back to you with the toy/ball in their mouth to claim their treats, you can use the method of teaching your dogs "Come when called"- When you teach your dog to come when called, you would run the opposite direction after calling your dog name.So, you can use the same method for the game to teach them to bring the ball back to you.
5. I taught her to go get it and bring it back to me with further distance
Once she knows "get it""bring it""give", she could play fetch ball game with me.
Concept of Frisbee is similar but, with different toy shape(?), I needed to teach her to go get it and bring it back to me too. She first learned to go after and get it and bring it back to me just like we play fetch ball. Then, once she seemed comfortable with the Frisbee toy, I taught her how to play differently: catch it in the air.
What I did was "pretended" I am her Frisbee and I hold the Frisbee with my hand and move it toward her and when she get it in the mouth,I clicked and treat. Gradually, from short distance, I tossed the Frisbee and she went after and caught in the Air and, I made the toss further distance as we practice it.
I am not good at tossing Frisbee in the Air, and I need practice to toss the Frisbee better but that is ok. Palette has fun and so do I. It is one of our favorite games to play together.
Watch how Palette enjoys ball/Frisbee bellow.
Palette enjoys fetch ball
If you are a blog subscriber or reading from facebook,please click here to watch the video.
Palette enjoys Frisbee Part I
If you are a blog subscriber or reading from facebook,please click here to watch the video.
Palette enjoys Frisbee Part II
If you are a blog subscriber or reading from facebook,please click here to watch the video.
To play the game of fetch ball or Frisbee, here is a rule for Palette
** Sit & quiet before the game - I would not toss the ball or Frisbee if she were jumping around or barking continuously. Only when she is calm and quiet, game begins. Also, she needs to release the object in the mouth to continue playing the game.
** Sometimes,even if you try to play the game of fetch,your dogs may not show interest in the ball you throw. If that happen, try get your dogs excited first by squeaking the toys in front of them with movement and then,let them sit and be quiet for the play and try throw the ball. It might make a difference.
** This rule is for human but, when/if your dogs did not bring the ball back to you,don't go to your dogs to take the ball from them or chase after them. It could become "Keep away from mom and dad" game. Dogs are very good trainers to train human
** It is also good idea to use 2 or more balls. When your dog come to you with ball, if she/he were playing hard not to let go the ball,you can always toss the another ball you have. Generally, they tend to release the ball in the mouth when they go after another ball you throw.
It is also good to stop the game before they loose interests in the game.
Playing fetch ball is a game, but this game can teach your dog many things, especially teaching them to "give" through this type of game is very effective and fun. Using clicker to train your dogs is also plus because it gives very clear signal to them and let them think what made you click and they got a piece of treats. You can teach your dogs many fun tricks using clicker.
When we play game of fetch ball/Frisbee, Palette sleeps very deep. Next morning, she stays in the crate even if the door is opened for her to out to stretch. She sleeps in and yawn very big, and finally out from her crate.
She yawns VERY big! But she is always ready for another set of fetch game
Do you play game of fetch ball/Frisbee with your dogs?
What is your dog's favorite game to play with you?
Dogs love chasing moving objects: jogger,cars,bicycles, squirrels,balls, Frisbee..
Our dog "Palette" loves playing game of fetch with ball or Frisbee or squeaky toys. She gets very excited and pause to get ready to chase the ball/Frisbee/squeaky toys and she gets very talkative when she knows she will play the game of fetch with me. We play the game in our yard sometime when weather is nice, and we play the game inside the house when outside is bad weather and, not being able to go for walk.
Palette runs after the ball with full speed, grab it in her mouth, comes right back to me squeaking the ball. Then, toss the ball or Frisbee to me as if to say "Do it again!" and there is no end for this game for her. I sometime wonder whether she is not getting tired of the game because doing the same thing over and over but it seems, never get tired of the game of fetch.
I think the game of fetch is great game because the game is fun, and you and your dogs can play together and you can make your bond with your dogs stronger. Not only that, the game gives your dogs outlet for pent up energy and game is incorporated with the use of their natural instinct. And, you can also teach your dogs a few important cues through the game such as"Give" or "Drop it",and you could also teach them impulse control through the game,too.
Especially "Give" or "Drop it" cue could become life saving cue when you see your dogs were trying to grab/eat something that could potentially hurt them (Fried chicken bone dogs find on walk,sharp objects, sticks etc), and you would like them to spit it out from mouth. "Give" or "Drop it" means drop everything from their mouth.
Bellow picture is 3 top items Palette loves to go fetch. Frisbee, squeaky ball, and soft squeaky toys.
Recently, Palette and I found that the squeaky egg is the great item for this game of fetch. Why, you may ask? It is because it is nice size for Palette to grab and it squeaks and it bounce better and the egg can bounce to unpredictable direction for her and she is having great fun with it.
The squeaky egg is actually from one of her interactive toys and, we are using it for other good use
Palette's recent favorite for the game of fetch; Squeaky egg..
You can read more on this squeaky egg in the previous entry titled "Palette's note:Hide a squirrel Animal Puzzle" here .
The ball I use for game of fetch is squeaky ball, not tennis ball because material is soft and squeaky sound makes her more excited and fun.
I sometime use small soft and easy to grab squeaky toys for fetch game. I believe the squeaky toy in the picture is called "Booda Racoon squatters" and she has chicken one and rabbit one.
Then, the Frisbee in the picture above is called "Soft bite floppy disc" and hers is 7" size. I have tried other Frisbee as well but,I like this one best because it is soft enough to be able to fold and gentle to her mouth when she fetch it. Some of the discs available on the market is either harder material or size is much bigger than I want it to be. She is big Corgi that stands 14" tall while average Corgi I hear is 12" tall. Still, when she use average size discs,she gets stumble over when she bring the disc back to me and this one is so far our favorite to play Frisbee.
Palette naturally loved playing ball but, when she was puppy, I needed to teach her to bring the ball back to me instead of grabbing the ball and wondering off to the side and play squeaking the toys.
First, Palette is clicker trained and she learned all the basic cues from sit,stay,down etc.. with clicker.
** What is clicker?? **
Clicker is small training tool that has metal that makes unique sound. This sound is so unique that dogs would probably not hear the same sound in their daily life other than in clicker training session. This makes training more effective.
** How Clicker training works?**
How clicker training works is that, when dogs did what you asked them to do,you would click the clicker and give them a treat. Repeat it,finish the training with success or better yet, fun game like "Find it game" just like I play with Palette (To watch how Palette play "Find it" game,please click here.).That is it.Very easy.Kids can train dogs, too.
Good thing about clicker is that you can mark your dogs exact behavior you like without delaying the split seconds. If you teach "Sit" with clicker,as soon as your dog's butt touch the floor with all 4 paws on the floor,click and treat. So,they know sit means 4 paws on floor with butt on floor.If you use "Good boy" as the way to tell him he did good.Sometimes,he may perceive it as you rewarded him the behavior of "sit and then jump up".
So, clicker eliminates possible miscommunication and the unique clicker sound makes training more effective.
If you train your dog with clicker, you need to let your dog know first that the clicker sound means good thing coming. Our puppy training trainer told us to just click and treat,click and treat to let your dog associate clicker with treats. After dogs started looking for treats when they hear the sound, it can tells you they now know what clicker sound means. So,you can now use the clicker to let your dog knows he/she did it right during the training session.
You can read more on clicker training in the previous entry titled "Clicker training;Clicker is your friend" here .
How to teach your dog to fetch the ball and bring it back to you?
1. I taught her to "sit"
To teach your dog to sit, hold the small treat in your hands and bring it above his head. Naturally,when dogs follow the treat you have in your hand with nose, their butt should touch the floor. As soon as the butt touch the floor, praise him and give him a treat. Clicker training is very effective to teach many thing because click sound can tell your dog very fast what behavior earned the treat.
** With Palette, once she learned "sit", I let her sit before everything she loves: food, game, go outside for walk or potty, or being pet etc
2. I taught her "Give"
To teach "give" , Palette's puppy training class trainer has told us to start with low valued items to trade. Then, make sure to give items back to him and praise.
How Palette and I did with low valued item is that, I let her grab the item and just offer the small treats. Yummy treats vs not so interested toy.. She dropped the toy to grab the yummy treats, and that is when you click the clicker and label the behavior "Drop it" or "Give", and then I gave the item back to her. And repeat it again; let her grab the toy,offer treats,click clicker when she drop the item from mouth and give treats with big big praise.
This is to tell them everything you take away would not gone forever but would come back. So, they do not need to guard them or growls at you when you reach your hand to the items. As Palette gets better understanding the meaning of the "Give" cue, I made the trade item value up gradually.
At some point,the item can become something the dogs do not want to let go even if they see treats in front of them. As human instinct, you might grab the item that are still in their mouth and you might try to take the item away with force but don't. Do not take the object away with force, and all you need to do is to just simply be patient,say nothing,just gently holding the object and as soon as your dog release the object,you click the clicker and give treats.
I also found it very effective to teach her "give" is through game "Tug of war". I let her sit, and when I got her attention, I shake a rope toy a bit to get her excited and said "get it" and let her play tug of war with me a second or two and, without a word, I just stop moving or stop any vocal to her and eventually she gets bored and she release the rope toy from her mouth. When she dropped her side of rope toy, I said "Give" and praised her and gave treats.
At this point, Palette learned she needs to sit if she wanted to play game with me, and she also learned what "give" means- "give" means drop items from your mouth.
3. Tossed the toy very close distance and encouraged her to go and touch the toy, even better if she grabbed the toy. When Palette grabbed the toy,I clicked and gave her treats.
4. I taught her to bring it back to me.
When she goes after the toy,grabbed it in the mouth, and turn around, click and treats and eventually, clicked when she grabbed the toy,turned around, and moving toward me with the toy.
If your dog did not trot back to you with the toy/ball in their mouth to claim their treats, you can use the method of teaching your dogs "Come when called"- When you teach your dog to come when called, you would run the opposite direction after calling your dog name.So, you can use the same method for the game to teach them to bring the ball back to you.
5. I taught her to go get it and bring it back to me with further distance
Once she knows "get it""bring it""give", she could play fetch ball game with me.
Concept of Frisbee is similar but, with different toy shape(?), I needed to teach her to go get it and bring it back to me too. She first learned to go after and get it and bring it back to me just like we play fetch ball. Then, once she seemed comfortable with the Frisbee toy, I taught her how to play differently: catch it in the air.
What I did was "pretended" I am her Frisbee and I hold the Frisbee with my hand and move it toward her and when she get it in the mouth,I clicked and treat. Gradually, from short distance, I tossed the Frisbee and she went after and caught in the Air and, I made the toss further distance as we practice it.
I am not good at tossing Frisbee in the Air, and I need practice to toss the Frisbee better but that is ok. Palette has fun and so do I. It is one of our favorite games to play together.
Watch how Palette enjoys ball/Frisbee bellow.
Palette enjoys fetch ball
Palette enjoys Frisbee Part I
Palette enjoys Frisbee Part II
If you are a blog subscriber or reading from facebook,please click here to watch the video.
To play the game of fetch ball or Frisbee, here is a rule for Palette
** Sit & quiet before the game - I would not toss the ball or Frisbee if she were jumping around or barking continuously. Only when she is calm and quiet, game begins. Also, she needs to release the object in the mouth to continue playing the game.
** Sometimes,even if you try to play the game of fetch,your dogs may not show interest in the ball you throw. If that happen, try get your dogs excited first by squeaking the toys in front of them with movement and then,let them sit and be quiet for the play and try throw the ball. It might make a difference.
** This rule is for human but, when/if your dogs did not bring the ball back to you,don't go to your dogs to take the ball from them or chase after them. It could become "Keep away from mom and dad" game. Dogs are very good trainers to train human
** It is also good idea to use 2 or more balls. When your dog come to you with ball, if she/he were playing hard not to let go the ball,you can always toss the another ball you have. Generally, they tend to release the ball in the mouth when they go after another ball you throw.
It is also good to stop the game before they loose interests in the game.
Playing fetch ball is a game, but this game can teach your dog many things, especially teaching them to "give" through this type of game is very effective and fun. Using clicker to train your dogs is also plus because it gives very clear signal to them and let them think what made you click and they got a piece of treats. You can teach your dogs many fun tricks using clicker.
When we play game of fetch ball/Frisbee, Palette sleeps very deep. Next morning, she stays in the crate even if the door is opened for her to out to stretch. She sleeps in and yawn very big, and finally out from her crate.
She yawns VERY big! But she is always ready for another set of fetch game
Do you play game of fetch ball/Frisbee with your dogs?
What is your dog's favorite game to play with you?
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