Frisbee Starter Tips
Luna doing what she loves!
Frisbee tips to get started in the right direction
The frisbee has been around for a very long time. Many believe it originated sometime after the Civil War when Yale students who bought pies form a local bakery would throw them about after finishing off the pie. The first actual frisbee sold as such, was created by Fred Morrison in 1951. Morrison’s plastic “Pluto Platter” was sold at local fairs and eventually began to gain popularity with children. Regardless of how we came to love the Frisbee, its popularity in recent years with Ultimate Frisbee and Frisbee golf can’t be denied. Another huge fan of the frisbee is our loyal K9 companions. Some dogs “really” love frisbees, some could care less, and others treat them like dangerous missiles to be avoided at all costs. Frisbee/discs are a great and very versatile way for your dog to get some exercise and for you to have fun and bond with your dog. Border Collies especially love and excel at frisbee/disc dog activities, but there are a few things to keep in mind to get your dog moving in the right direction and to safely enjoy the game of frisbee with “Fido”.
Start slow and soft. Many dog owners want to teach their dogs to play frisbee and they come out of the gate tossing hard plastic discs at their dog’s face and ultimately turn him/her away from frisbee for good. Start by getting some cloth or softer foam frisbees and if your dog is a puppy make sure to get size appropriate discs. Get your furry friend to learn to interact positively with it by rolling it, tossing it down around them and entice them to play tug with it. (This is a perfect time to work on the release or drop it command) Stick with this for a while until they get excited when you bring this soft disc out.
Young dogs, and sometimes adult dogs who have never been taught to catch something thrown at them, can have trouble with the very act of catching in general. Work on this skill by holding different items “soft or rubber” that are easy for them to catch directly above their heads and dropping it giving them the opportunity to to practice catching a moving object as it falls or comes at them. longer thin floppy cloth dog toys are perfect for this, never leave these for your dog to chew on and swallow cloth as it can cause serious intestinal blockage issues. Be sure to play tug and praise him when he catches it in his mouth! Never drop anything hard or heavy that could hurt your dog by hitting him in the nose, eyes, or teeth. This is a quick way to make them avoid catching anything dropped or thrown at them.
It’s time to start working on catching that favorite soft/foam frisbee. It’s also a good time to have them work on “wait” if you haven’t already done this. Have them sit or stand with the wait command and then back up a few feet and lightly toss your soft frisbee toward them. Slowly work on tossing it up or at them until they start to try and grab it. You will notice them start to get excited and attempt to grab it with their front paws. Some dogs are naturally “handsy” and some aren’t. once they get the hang of catching or attempting to catch it, eventually start to throw it eye level past him to the right or left and you can help them work on keeping those paws on the ground!
It’s always important to keep the frisbee up and away from your dog until you are ready to bring it out. These soft frisbees are easy to destroy and dangerous to let your dog rip and swallow. Always monitor your dog with these frisbees and it’s a good practice to be the one who provides it and then removes it when playtime is done. Make sure they understand what it’s called! They will learn quickly and get hyped up with a quick whisper of the word “Frisbee” or whatever you call it as they learn to enjoy it.
Start to transition to a better flying frisbee. I really like the cloth “Para flight Chuck it” frisbees with the neoprene rim. They fly decent and you can throw them up at a slight angle and let your dog learn to properly track them and catch them with no impact to their mouth and face. These are great for harder throws directly at them once they get good at front catching. (Never throw a hard plastic frisbee directly at the face of a novice dog.)
Eventually you will be ready to upgrade to the real deal. Make sure you get a dog frisbee! These come in a lot of different styles and firmness. The “Chomper super flex” is a great beginner softer plastic frisbee. Chomper and the more advanced Hero brands make a lot of different types and consistency of dog appropriate frisbee. There are plenty of other dog frisbees out there, do some research and you’ll find the right one for you and your dog. (Using the wrong type of frisbee or hard heavy frisbee’s not made for your dog can cause tooth wear or damage.)
Ok you and your loyal K9 companion are having a blast learning frisbee together! This may sound silly, but if you are not an advanced frisbee tosser, you need to practice throwing your frisbee before you move into the next phase of frisbee with your dog. It is extremely important you don’t put your dog in danger with bad throws or forcing them to jump very high off the ground early on. Dogs less than 15 months of age should not be making routine high impactful jumps and dogs less than a year should be limited to little to no jumping for frisbees at all. Another reason you want to be an accurate frisbee tosser is that a lot of dogs, many border collies among them, have little to no regard for their own safety when they get focused on a object they want. They will fling themselves in the air and twist and do whatever it takes to get that flying disc and if you are forcing them to turn and twist in the air they can come down wrong and seriously injure their necks or backs in several different ways.
How do I avoid this you might ask?
Learn to not just throw the frisbee, but throw it in a way that creates enough spin for it to float for easy catches at appropriate heights.
Learn to float the frisbee out in front of them so that they can catch it on the run while it is moving away from them to minimize stop impact and jump impacts.
As you start making longer throws, teach your dog to heel at your side or in front of you and then use a command to get them to go around behind you as you are in throwing motion so they can properly track the frisbee in flight.
NEVER! let random people who don’t know how to throw a frisbee properly for dogs, throw frisbees for your dog unless your dog is very experienced and you are confident he knows what a good and a bad throw looks like. One of your Border Collies “River” is an expert at this. She will bring a guest a test frisbee to test your frisbee skills. (Yes she is beyond intelligent!) If the person throws her a bad throw or it does not glide the way she expects, she doesn’t bring it back! River knows what she wants and where she wants it when just playing for fun. She is all about rules and safety! She will never put herself in danger catching a frisbee. We have another girl, Luna, who is committed beyond reasonable safety to the task of obtaining a flying frisbee! It’s not that Luna isn’t intelligent, you better believe she is. She is just one of those dogs that loses self preservation because she commits to everything 110%. Her focus is on obtaining that amazing flying disc and she would turn upside down and do a flip if that’s what it took to catch her prize. We do not allow anyone who is not a skilled frisbee thrower to throw Luna Frisbees.
Avoid throwing high or hard to catch frisbees over an inexperienced dogs head that is waiting out in front of you. This can cause them to spin and twist in ways that can get them injured.
Frisbee is a great way to have fun with your dog! It’s a great way to get them exercise and to bond with them. Take it slow and learn your dog and what they are capable of and before you know it you’ll be a yard frisbee expert! Do it the right way and do it safely and you will have years and years of enjoyable exercise to together.
(Please note that I am not a trained professional by any means. All The above advice is practical knowledge we have learned over the years from doing our own research, observing experts, and actually teaching all our dogs to play frisbee and doing it daily and safely without injury. There is not a day that goes by that one or all three of our Border Collies does not enjoy some frisbee time!)
