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Jitensha wrote:

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Anyone know the best way to get a dog to learn to catch a frisbee or ball? He loves fetch and he loves tugging with the frisbee, but we've been unable yet to get him to catch in the air...

You just have to keep throwing it. Over and over. I can't remember how old your pup is, but I don't think that Duster caught a frisbee until he was 2 or so. He started catching tennis balls earlier than that though. I think we started out just tossing him the tennis ball so he could catch it, then would throw it past him a little. He loved chasing the ball so much, that Mr. Tigerjag got a tennis raquet and started hitting the ball really far. No matter how far it went, he would find it. After he started chasing the ball really far, we got a couple of frisbees and tried those every now and then and eventually, he caught one and his frisbee obsession began. When I went out in the backyard, he would run & find a ball or frisbee and then put it in my lap. If the ball rolled off my lap, he would chase it down and put it back very carefully, so it wouldn't roll off again.

When we got Picante, he just learned from Duster. Whatever Duster was playing with, Picante wanted, so he was chasing tennis balls before he was coordinated enough to pick them up. Picante has always preferred tennis balls over frisbees, but he can still catch them. When Duster started getting achy knees, we had to stop frisbee throwing. We rolled the ball for him, so that he wouldn't leap for it, because even with bad knees, he'd fling himself into the air and pay for it later. About the last 6 months of his life, I would only toss it to him, just like I did when he was learning. The day before we had to put him down, I tossed him the ball several times and he caught it every time. He put it back in my lap until he got tired, then he laid down and chewed it.