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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
