Frisbee People

[mobcmom]

My first Jaws disc was a misprint Jaws. The printing has long worn off but the disc is still going strong. I think it is my dog's favorite disc.

 

mobcmom

[Ellie]

Ellie would not even look at the frisbee "flying squirrel" and now she cannot get enough. And talk about agile. I have seen her flip in the air catch it upside down then land on her feet. She jumps for it and gets all 4 off the floor and it has helped teach her go around come around down bring it as closely as a rescue princess will come anyway! She now has been teaching the pup Hank by catching it waiting for him then letting him bring it back to me at 10 weeks. I am fairly certain Ellie told me this is what she wanted. Good eye contact! She will even play "baseball" I look at her while keeping up a radio commentary "a hot day here at the park. THe pitcher looks for the sign, (here Ellie gets part way up) takes it checks the runner on third (or first) goes into his wind up uh oh it's a steal (by now Ellie is off at a full tilt, the throw in time and he's out. Sometimes I ahve to go through the entire play by play sometimes it's football commentary and sometimes just a long eye contact look and a shift of the head to give a direction. Hey she's teaching me but aren't they always!

[NickyHannah]

This is my first time on this board about Border Collies. I have a question and hopefully, someone can tell me. I have two Border Collies. One of them I have him for two years since he was 9 weeks old pup and he first learned how to catch the Frisbee in the air when he was about 3 months old. He loves to play Frisbee and the balls. Last Saturday was the first time it ever happened to me that my dog collapsed and his body was like whole muscles was spasms twice after playing with Frisbee. I thought I might have either playing Frisbee with him too long or he (I just heard about it and it never occur to me before b/c I'm hearing impaired so I can't hear their breathing or air) gulp too much cold damp air every time he catches the Frisbee? How long playing the Frisbee with Border Collies is long enough? I know that some Border Collies don't know when to stop until someone force them to stop.

 

Does anyone have deaf or hard of hearing Border Collies?

 

I'm very surprised to learn that current expert is Vergil Holland!! B/c we bought a puppy from him back in 1985 in Ipswich, MA and her name was Skippie. She was our first Border Collie. She was the best watch dog we ever have and she was the best dog we ever have, too! She was very protective of all of us, protective our cats (she always round up our five cats together into like a herd like a sheep every time she sees the cats come together after I called their names to time to come in b/c we don't let the cats out at night b/c of wild animals), every time our chicken(s) get lose and she herd them back into the chicken house, chased the stranger dogs off on our property, she stays on our property no matter what (we didn't have fence all the way around at that time) and so on. We didn't teach her to do that b/c she was about 5 months old when we got her and she already learned it from her parents Robin and Sugar.

[RaisingRiver]

When my BC was almost 1 yr old, I took her outside around sunset in the late summer to play frisbee. After literally 5 throws, she caught the frisbee, took like 2 steps and collapsed. She tried to get up but back legs went wobbly and she fell again and wouldn't get up herself. Turns out it was just a bit a heat stroke (she had been used to the air conditioned house all day too) and she was fine a little while later and it hasn't happened since (she's now 3).

 

One of the easiest ways to know if your BC has had enough is the end of his tongue will get very round - think spoon shaped end with normal rest of tougue - instead of a pretty straight tongue altogether. Also if your BC lays down first before he brings it back (as mine sometimes does).

 

River & Max (littermates): Max is showing the spoon tongue - photo was right after he played frisbee on a summer day:

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River, on the left with tongue just starting to spoon-shape (she had been playing fetch w/ me just before this photo - but hers will end up looking like Max's in the above photo) and Diesel, in the middle, with 'normal' tongue shape.

 

There is at least 1 deaf BC & 1 blind BC on this board both owned by user Jo&Tex.

[NickyHannah]

RaisingRiver ~ Thank you very much!! Oh, my! I didn't think Border Collies can get heat strokes in very chilly evening in the Fall after playing the Frisbee. Yes, I have noticed about the spoon shape tongues but never knew about the tongue symptom. I'll stop him when his tongue is starting to have a spoon shape again. I usually bring the bottles of water only if we go out of town but we went to across the street from my house (no bushes or trees are in the way) but I'll bring it, anyway, to keep him cool inside his body. I'm so glad that he was okay b/c I was freaked out and was very upset about the whole situation. The reason I was so upset b/c it reminded me a lot of our previous Border Collie who died of heart failure two years ago that she got it from her father who have heart failure, too. Anyway, do you do the agility for your dogs? I was told it was expensive to have agility lessons but I don't know how expensive is it. I'll probably have to figure out the way how to teach my dogs new tricks beside Frisbee and the balls. Was it difficult to train the dogs to do agility by yourself?

[RaisingRiver]

I have trained 3 of my dogs in agility - 2 of the 3 completely, and only competed once with River. You can certainly have fun with your dog and agility at home. You can make obstacles out of just about anything and there's tons of online resources about how to make your own (plus tons of instructions on how to train too!). If you want to get into heavy duty competing you might want to take classes - also even if you only take the first set of classes - often 8-16 wks worth, you'll know all the correct foundation skills you'll need to have fun on your own. I think agility is a great way to create a stronger bond with your dog.