"Catching" food.

[BDawg]

Lexi learned a lot while we had our doberman. Ayda of course was very willing to please and VERY obedient. That's how we taught Lexi how to "wait" for her food. And also how to swim out in the lake and fetch the tennis ball. WOAH!

As for catching things, Miles and Lexi will occasionally catch their tennis ball several times in a row for me. But with food, like most everyone else has said, they just let it hit them in the face and fall to the floor. :p But let's think about this: Would you just catch something in YOUR mouth that someone just threw at you? Why do we expect our kids to do this?? lol… And my kids NEVER eat a treat where you give it to them... they always have to go to their special place. And as for the life pellets in the Blue Buffalo dog food we give them, they pick them out. You should see their dog bowl- it's like the parting of the red sea- life pellets on the left, the good morsels on the right. But all the life pellets end up in the middle of the living room floor- I guess they've now considered that The Dump! :mad:

As for retrieving- Lexi is VERY good at this...when SHE wants to be. Generally speaking though, she will get her "baby" for you- her plush pelt of choice. This is how it usually goes... We get a new toy. Lexi wants to make it her baby. She cleans it and just carries it around. Miles wants to destroy it and remove it's evil squeaker. So it snows in the living room (all the fluff) and we end up with a million different plush pelts with dangling limbs, no eyes, and broken necks. But those are sometimes the best ones to play with- because when they pull another piece off, they feel victorious! They always retrieve when we play hide-n-seek though. Miles really likes to chase tennis balls now too.

When we used to take Lexi to the dog park in Georgia, she'd only run around the ball and come back to say, "I found it! It's over there!! AND I beat all the other kids to it!"

[JazzysMom]

@BDawg:

But let's think about this: Would you just catch something in YOUR mouth that someone just threw at you? Why do we expect our kids to do this?? lol…

When we used to take Lexi to the dog park in Georgia, she'd only run around the ball and come back to say, "I found it! It's over there!! AND I beat all the other kids to it!"

Well, maybe if I were begging and begging for a piece, and I was pretty sure I knew what was being tossed. And human kids love to play the game where they toss popcorn or M&M's or whatever to one another.
But even if I wasn't sure what was being tossed, I would at the very least move my head so whatever is being thrown doesn't hit me in the forehead,LOL. :p

Yes, Jazz does that w/a soccer ball in the backyard. She will jump around, run out ahead of me and me, waiting waiting, and begging for the ball to be kicked across the yard. Then when it's kicked, she and Gypsy will tear out after it, she'll get there first and then run back to let me know she was first there. Gypsy may bring it back, although now that she's old she's losing her zest for the game, so usually I have to run out there and kick it back the other way. Oh well, I get my exercise too!

[tanza]

@Quercus:

None of my Basenjis will catch food…but I have seen at least one that will. But I think his handler said he had to be taught!?!

Ivy will catch what we call her "squeaky ball"..and both she and Bella, and Ariel will retrieve *only when they feel like it, and *until they feel like quitting

Pat Cembura was almost always able to get hers to catch food… My Mickii would sometimes... and Kristii will retreive her "lama limer" toy.. but she will only bring it back to the doggy cushion in front of the TV or the couch...;)

[Duke]

This thread is too funny - I love it. Watching the treat hit them in the face . . . LOL!!! Daisy lets it hit her face, but Duke will do his best to catch it mid-air. He's mixed with JR and so jumps for it too. He's successful 75% of the time - so Daisy doesn't get the chance to sweep the floor and eat it first. Both know how good the treat is, of course.

[Jody]

Catching food is REALLY beneath a Basenji. They have far too much class to play silly DOG games.

[Jen_westoz]

I have been told that some dogs eyes are set too far forward in the heads and they have trouble focusing on the food as it comes towards them. This is what I was told with my dobermanns anyway. One of my Dobes used to catch quite well however so that ruined that theory. However I did find if I threw a ball for them they seemed to lose track of it in the air and only went after it if it bounced to give them a chance to notice where it went. But usually just stared at my hand to say.."wow, how did you make it disappear like that???"

Our kelpie used to balance a biscuit on his nose and then when told it was "OK" he would flip it up into the air and catch it. So clever!

If they have a rope toy or something easy to catch then it might be worth starting with that and give a reward when caught and then progress to catching food when they have the general idea.

[Quercus]

@Jen_westoz:

I have been told that some dogs eyes are set too far forward in the heads and they have trouble focusing on the food as it comes towards them. This is what I was told with my dobermanns anyway. One of my Dobes used to catch quite well however so that ruined that theory. However I did find if I threw a ball for them they seemed to lose track of it in the air and only went after it if it bounced to give them a chance to notice where it went. But usually just stared at my hand to say.."wow, how did you make it disappear like that???"

Our kelpie used to balance a biscuit on his nose and then when told it was "OK" he would flip it up into the air and catch it. So clever!

If they have a rope toy or something easy to catch then it might be worth starting with that and give a reward when caught and then progress to catching food when they have the general idea.

Good theory…but it should be the other way around. Forward facing eyes help an animal judge distance and have better ability to track and catch prey. Predators have forward facing eyes....prey species have eyes on the side to give them a better range of vision, but not the accuracy in front. Primates have the most forward facing eyes, presumably to help with depth perception in leaping and climbing; and in the higher primates, tool use.

[BasenjiDiva]

Cory doesn't try to catch it….she just waits until it lands. Another thing I've wondered about: Researchers say that dogs are the only animals that know to look where a human is pointing to see what is being indicated. They say almost from birth, a puppy instinctively knows to look where a human is pointing. A Wolf and even a chimp can't do that and can't be trained to do it. It is specific to dogs. Our Lab was an expert at determining where we were pointing. She could just about follow our eyes to where we were looking. Now Cory....Different story. She isn't so adept at it and I sometimes get a "What!! Are you trying to tell me something?" look. Is this a Cory trait? Or do your B's not always seem to know to look where you are pointing? If it is fairly common among B's, I wonder if it is because they are a more primative breed. Just a coffee fueled random thought.......

Or......Cory may just think pointing is rude.

Pat

[Quercus]

@BasenjiDiva:

Cory doesn't try to catch it….she just waits until it lands. Another thing I've wondered about: Researchers say that dogs are the only animals that know to look where a human is pointing to see what is being indicated. They say almost from birth, a puppy instinctively knows to look where a human is pointing. A Wolf and even a chimp can't do that and can't be trained to do it. It is specific to dogs. Our Lab was an expert at determining where we were pointing. She could just about follow our eyes to where we were looking. Now Cory....Different story. She isn't so adept at it and I sometimes get a "What!! Are you trying to tell me something?" look. Is this a Cory trait? Or do your B's not always seem to know to look where you are pointing? If it is fairly common among B's, I wonder if it is because they are a more primative breed. Just a coffee fueled random thought.......

Or......Cory may just think pointing is rude.

Pat

Absoultely not true. Apes can definitely follow hand gestures…they use them within their own species, and those that live in captivity take physical direction and give physical direction from humans. As in, I personally have had a chimp point to what she wants on a counter, and indicate she wants me to hand it to her.

Dogs are much more apt to follow your gaze, than your hand to follow physical direction. And you can test this out. If your dog knows 'go get it'...point at one thing, and look at another, and say 'go get it'....they will almost always go to the thing you are looking at. We teach them to follow I point by looking at the thing we are pointing at and telling them 'go get it'. Ask anybody who does agility. You have to have your body pointing at the next obstacle...not just your hand, because your dog cues off your body orientation...not the pointing.

[wizard]

EL D also just lets the food hit him in the face. But I think he has a pretty good sense of smell because sometimes he doesn't even bother sniffing some pieces when they hit the floor - he knows he isn't going to like some so they get ignored. On the other hand if it's something he really really really likes like popcorn he'll jump up to snatch it away from me or climb all over me if I'm sitting down.

[BasenjiDiva]

I don't know if I am posting this link correctly…If you goggle "dogs point wolves chimps" you'll get all sorts of references to the research I was talking about. I probably (definitely) paraphrased the research findings poorly. And Cory probably does think that pointing is just tacky! And while my grandparents did own two spider monkeys, I really haven't been around any non-human primates. (OK…I've worked with a few people that I've wondered about....:D )

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3077441/

This article is titled "How dogs developed smart pet tricks"

Pat

[Tayda_Lenny]

I've never actually tossed food at Tayda or Lenny - ha ha. I'll have to try. When I throw toys at Lenny he stands up on his hind legs and tries to catch the toy with his front paws, he thinks he's human.

[Quercus]

The article was interesting…but it seems like comparing apples and oranges to me. At least the part about comparing chimp performance with dog performance. The dog stuff made total sense...early humans surely chose the dogs that adapted to human life most easily, kept those dogs around. So their relatives would clearly be more adept at reading human signals than wolves, since they have been divergently evolving for what...several thousand years.

I don't buy that dogs can 'tell what we're thinking' though. I think they are just superb at reading very subtle changes in body language, and very VERY adaptable

Interesting read though

[Barklessdog]

i have to believe basenji's are far sighted. They just seem to miss things that are so obvious up real close. Ours missed a mouse that ran right under the dog!

[raye_hicks]

Basenji Catching or fetching, I would not believe it. Our first B (female) wouldn't fetch anything. This past weekend my son said he has his B (male)catching a ball and he actually brings it back. So I bought Zeus a ball and with in two days he was bring it back to us. Today he actually did catch it. He loves to play with it he even just start playing with it by himself.

[gbroxon]

@Barklessdog:

i have to believe basenji's are far sighted. They just seem to miss things that are so obvious up real close. Ours missed a mouse that ran right under the dog!

I totally agree at least with my boy. I can throw a treat quite close to him (say in the grass), he'll see me throw it, I can see it clearly, but he'll have to sniff it out to find it. But yet if something moves out in the distance, he's right on it!

[laskiblue]

Taj really likes to catch thrown toys and tossed treats and is actually very good at it! He's such a little goober a lot of the time that it amazes me he has that kind of concentration when the goal isn't creating mischief.

[Rivermoon]

Neither of mine will catch food, it hits them in the face and falls to the floor too. They're both pretty good at catching toys when I tell them to but do get bored with that game rather qiuckly.