The Dog Who Forgot How to Play

Athena is not the kind of dog that lacks play drive.  She is alllllll about play time.  We have yet to find a toy (or off-limits object) that doesnt satisfy her desire to play whether it be a ChuckIt! Ball, a stuffie, a Kong, or a piece of clothing from the dirty laundry.

Soooo, are you going to throw the ball or what?!

Because Athenas desire to play is so strong, we actually had to begin by gradually keeping toys out around the house for her to play with.  When we first brought her home from the shelter, Athena would play so hard and so wildly ALL OF THE TIME (which often escalated into bitey zoomies) that we only allowed her to have toys during designated play sessions a couple of times per day.  She has now progressed and is able to handle having a couple of toys laying around the house to play with when she feels the urge (with no more bitey zoomies- yahoo!).

Needless to say, this girl doesnt need any lessons on building play drive.  Shes got it pretty covered.  That is, until we introduced her to a new toy this week.

Meet the AEROBIE Pro Ring.  A soft rubber frisbee that we picked up at REI for $10.

We specifically bought this frisbee for Athena to play with because as much as we love the ChuckIt! Ball Launcher, Athena is just a tad bit obsessed with it.  So, we wanted to find another park toy that would not only allow for some vigorous exercise, but would help to eliminate some of Athenas OCD behaviors towards her ball and launcher.  Also, we had seen a dog and handler at the park a couple of weeks ago doing super cool tricks with a frisbee, so B asked about it and we decided that we needed to be that cool too, so we bought the same one.

Athena loves ALL toys and moving objects, why wouldnt she love this super

fancy frisbee?

I like to wear the frisbee as a necklace.  I do not like to play with it!

Well, we gave the frisbee a few tries and so far is have been a pretty big flop.  I swear, Athenas strong play drive went out the window and she forgot everything she knows about "fetch" when we flung the disc.  Rather than retrieving the frisbee, she does one of two things: 1) Run after the frisbee, look at it, run back to mom and dad without frisbee 2) Stare at mom and dad when they throw the frisbee, dont run after it.

One of the rare occasions when Athena actually had a go at the frisbee

To make frisbee fetch seem like the best game on earth, B and I threw the disc back and forth to each other.  If Athena happened to get the frisbee and put it in her mouth we used our most exciting voices to cheer her on.  We also laid the frisbee on the ground and put treats all over it for Athena to eat, but that didnt even keep her interest for that long.  Finally, we tried sparking a bit of drive by placing the frisbee around Athenas neck, but that only resulted in a dog wearing a frisbee necklace.

So, any ideas on how to help Athena learn how to play/retrieve the frisbee?  Maybe our choice in frisbee was poor and we need to look for a more "dog friendly" model?

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