Would you like kibble with that frisbee?

One of the things that I have heard at the shelter and also in dog training is that dogs need to not only be worked physically, but also mentally. Dana recommended that we give the dog puzzles. One such that she recommended was to put some of the dogs food into the open part of a kong and put in a touch of peanut butter and jam the whole works with a dog biscuit. She recommends putting this in the dogs bed at night so that they have a snack and settle in and also when you leave the house. The dog has to figure out how to get the food out and snacks on it. I have been doing this and it seems to work pretty well. I have also noticed the past couple of times that I have come to pick Sandy up at the shelter that she is bouncing up and down like a spring. She will leap a couple of feet into the air with excitement. Seeing her do this brought the image of the border collies and border mixes that I have seen doing competitions with frisbees. I guess you can see where this is leading. I thought to myself, get a frisbee, it will be challenging for the dog and a mental/physical release.

Well, I was at a local discount retailer on Saturday and picked up a $1 frisbee and took Sandy out in the yard with it. I tossed it and she ran away from it. When it landed, she went over and checked it out and seemed to think it might be a pretty good toy for her favorite game, run around the yard with the toy in her mouth. She picked it up and proceeded to do some laps of the yard until she dropped it and didn't grab it back. I tried a few more tosses which elicited the same "you aren't going to throw that at me" response followed by the picking up and running. We both went back inside and I figured this is something I can ask Dana about and see if she has any thoughts. Later Sat. night, I let Sandy out into the yard and didn't pay any attention. Sunday, when I looked out in the yard, I found that Sandy had chewed up about $.05 of the $1 frisbee. Luckily there were no missing pieces, but I can't leave her unsupervised with a frisbee anymore, I need to pick it up after playing.