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Training with frisbee quick question


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I have the pleasure of looking after a gorgeous BC for a few weeks. Somewhat frisbee obsessive. In the interest of keeping things interesting for him I was wondering how best to use his frisbee focus to teach him other things. He has clearly got into the pattern of chasing and retrieving the toy before dropping into a down at the thrower's feet....seems happy to do that to exhaustion. However he doesn't seem to have a sit command and I suspect the down is just a natural reflex. He doesn't seem too interested in food so basic luring and shaping might be tough. How best can I use a frisbee to work on a few other games, commands and/or tricks? Can you lure with a frisbee? If I am living with him for a bit I would like to make his time mentally interesting as well. Any advice appreciated.

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My girl used to be very uninterested in food, but making her work for every meal and using meat and other high value treats got her going great. Or if you use hot dogs, cheese, etc. that usually works too.

I love using toys to train. However, I use food to lure and shape a behavior, and then the toy as a reward, usually a "jackpot" reward.

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I had a frisbee obsessed border collie. I tried once, and a professional trainer tried once, to train him using frisbee as reward and/or lure. I say "onece" because it was obvious immediately that if the frisbee were within sight, or even if he knew it was in the room, he could not possibly focus on anything but getting that frisbee so I would throw it for him. So, not a good training tool.

 

I agree that using his kibble, one piece for one requested behavior, is probably the best way to go. Or, try different treats: cheese, liverwurst, roast chicken, anything smelly and delicious and cut up into tiny tiny pieces.

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Our first lab was Frisbee obsessive and I mean obsessive. We trained him to sit, lay, stay, shake, speak, roll over, beg and a few other tricks using that obsession. We always let him retrieve the Frisbee for a little bit (no training) for a couple of reasons: First and foremost to burn some of the energy off and secondly to get him into a rhythm.

 

Once he was into a rhythm, we started training. We did not throw the Frisbee until he did what we were asking him to do. Unfortunately I can't tell you exactly how we did it, we just did it. But Uther was an exceptional dog, he learned tricks very very fast. For whatever reason he learned that the sooner he learned the trick, the sooner he got his Frisbee.

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You have to ease into it, and not have the frisbee out and in "about to throw position," and use it toreinforce things you have already taught him how to do.

 

I have an obsessed Border Collie and an obsessed Papillon. I use it to reward stationary positions, platform performance and quiet (Jasper the Pap tends to get super vocal sometimes).

 

We throw 2-3, I tuck the frisbee under my arm and ask for a behavior. Keep it simple. Sit, down, back up (my dogs already knew how to back up), quiet, get on table. As soon as I get what I want, I say "yes!" and pull out the frisbee and throw it.

 

As far as teaching new behaviors, if he is really high on the game, his brain is going to be poorly situated to learning completely new things. His brain will have shut down the "think through it" part. Teach them boringly and slowly without the frisbee, then use frisbee time to help generalize and work on fluency.

 

It also keeps playing fetch from being "dumbball" where your dog just gets super high on adrenaline and wound up. At some point he has to relax enough to find the "think" and use it.

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