Can minis catch treats?

[GailK]

I'm trying to teach my mini to catch treats, but he just ducks out of the way and looks for the treat on the floor (I try to snatch them up before he can get them).
I tried to teach my first mini to play catch with a Frisbee, but it would just hit him on the forehead and land on the ground.
Am I just wasting my time? Can they catch?

[Schnauzerluv]

Yes! My 1st mini Snoop could snap a treat from the other side of the room! Never missed haha! He just did it though, my current pup only catches toys. I think it's because I taught him impulse control for treats, he just lets it hit him on the head and waits for me to say "ok" to get it off the floor . If I tried hard enough, he would catch treats just the same I'm sure, but definitely can be done.

[Dawnspell]

Jasper wouldnt even try to catch anything in his mouth, instead he'd try to catch larger things like toys in his front paws like a human. If I threw him a food treat from face on it would hit him in the face. If I dropped one from above it would drop on his head.

However I've been doing some new training with him and it works better if they can catch treats. Dropping them from above he now gets about 7/10. It took well over a week to get to this level with several short sessions a day. I've just started throwing treats towards him from the front that's getting about 2/10

Catching a frisbee is a different matter

I used cooked chicken breast you can tear it up into very thin stringy strands that are easy to see and because they are long and thin they stand a better chance of catching as it falls.

To start with hold it just above his nose as soon as the mouth opens just drop it in. It takes a bit of practice to get the timing right. If it drops on the floor don't try to rush to grab it you just build up excitement level for the food, let him have it, they need to be calm to concentrate, you don't want him getting excited and trying to jump up to get the food. Once he's got the idea of food dropping in the mouth you can then raise the food a couple inches higher. Once Jasper had the hang of that I then found he found it easier from about 12" above his head rather than trying to keep increasing by a little bit each time. I also started saying catch as I was about to drop so he knew it was coming.

He can now catch any size or shape treat after lots of practice

[GailK]

Thanks! I'll try that.
Whatever the outcome, I'm sure he will enjoy this practice!

[Schnauzerluv]

Hey thought i'd check in and see how you're doing? I decided to try doing treat catching with my pup this afternoon. Since he already knows to catch toys, it took me 2 tosses to get him to catch treats. They are naturals!