Dogs are amazing athletes, capable of jumping, running, and catching frisbees with ease. But how do they do it? To catch a frisbee, a dog must combine speed, agility, and precision. They must also be able to judge the frisbee’s trajectory and adjust their own body accordingly. This is no easy feat!
A Frisbee Olympic Class Athlete (the woman is ok also). Image by Herbert Aust from Pixabay
There are a few factors at play. For one, dogs know how to use their eyes dynamically. Dogs use the same method of tracking a frisbee that baseball players do with baseballs. They keep the target in sight and move along a straight path. This is called an optical trajectory or LOT. The speed of this path appears constant to the dog.
Dogs can also see the frisbee better than we can, thanks to their ability to process images more quickly. In addition, they have a strong sense of proprioception (awareness of their own bodies in space) and kinesthesia (awareness of movement). This allows them to make split-second adjustments in order to position their bodies for the catch. Finally, dogs are able to generate a lot of power with their hind legs. This gives them the leaping ability they need to reach high-flying frisbees.
Not a show-off, just having fun. Image by Herbert Aust from Pixabay
Catching a frisbee is difficult. Doing so successfully requires the catcher to weigh a complex array of physical and atmospheric factors, among them wind speed and frisbee rotation. A physicist would need to understand and apply Newton’s Law of Gravity in order to write down frisbee-catching as an optimal control problem.
Yet despite this complexity, catching a frisbee is remarkably common. It is a task that an average dog can master. Indeed some, such as border collies, are better at frisbee-catching than humans.
What About The First Time?
But what if your dog is a fris-bee-ginner? Just as a human baby learns to crawl first, then walk, there is also a sequence that dogs follow to learn to pluck a flying frisbee out of the air.
Here are the steps to follow to make it even easier for your dog to learn:
The 6 Steps To Teach Your Dog To Catch A Frisbee
1. The build-up – Get your dog excited about the frisbee by letting them meet it and smell it and by showing them how excited you are.
2. The challenge – teach and practice letting go of the frisbee with your dog so they know how to release it on command.
3. The frisbee roll – turn the frisbee on its side so your doggie knows how to pick up this unfamiliar object.
4. The run-around – train your dog to run around you before jump-starting after the flying frisbee.
5. Ready, set, almost go! – encourage your dog to grab the disc from your hands when you say the command “catch it.”
6. Scale to the moon! – soon, you’ll be able to increase the distance you throw the frisbee. Just keep working on all of the steps!
Here’s a real-life demonstration of Dog Frisbee 101:
The next time you see a dog catching a frisbee, remember that it’s not just luck or chance, you’re seeing the result of thousands of years of evolution. They have the skills and abilities necessary to make that catch, thanks to their incredible sense and powers of perception. They probably also had a buddy to get them started!
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Featured Image Attribution: Photo by Anthony Duran on Unsplash
