Teaching my Border Collies to retrieve

Hi everyone! I'm new here, and wondered if anyone had any advice on how
to teach my 9 month old Border Collies to retrieve. I'd like to teach
them to play frisbee (recreationally, not competitively), but they
don't seem interested in retrieving anything! Whether it's a ball, a
toy, or a frisbee, they love to see it thrown, and they'll run up to
it, and look at it. Once it stops moving they completely lose interest
and walk away. I have gotten them (through clicker training) to first
touch the object, and then to pick it up, but they won't hold it for
more than a fraction of a second, and they certainly won't carry it
anywhere! I don't know where to go from here. I would greatly
appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks,
Pam

Pam wrote:
> Hi everyone! I'm new here, and wondered if anyone had any advice on how
> to teach my 9 month old Border Collies to retrieve. I'd like to teach
> them to play frisbee (recreationally, not competitively), but they
> don't seem interested in retrieving anything!

Most retrievers do so by instinct. It's bred into them (and not all
"retrievers" retrieve, either!). I've had several hunting retrievers,
for example, that I took out into the field and they ran out and
retrieved shot birds with absolutely NO training at all. It was all
instinct.

Different breeds of dogs typically have different instinctive
behaviors. Retrievers (in general, as always) retrieve, and usually
swim. Hounds track and chase. Terriers dig. Protective dogs protect.
Herding dogs herd.

Border collies (again, in general) are instinctive herding dogs. They
LOVE to run in circles around things or groups of things, like sheep,
cows, kids, whatever. We have a neighbor with an adopted border collie
that loves to run in a big circle in the front yard. They have a
30-foot-wide "donut" with no grass in their front yard as a result!!
But again, it's just his instinct, he's just being himself.

So the moral is, obviously, don't try to make your dog into something
he isn't. Your border collie is not a retriever.

As far as chasing frisbees, PLEASE don't allow him to do that!!! When a
dog repeatedly jumps up in the air and lands on his hind legs, it
places ENORMOUS stress on the anterior cruciate ligament in the knee.
Dogs aren't anatomically designed for it. Eventually he'll start
limping from a torn ACL which will require thousands of dollars worth
of surgery and months of recovery. And even then, the leg will never
return to full functioning and the dog will be permanent lame in that
leg.

A nationally prominent veterinary surgeon I know personally, who
specializes in joint surgery in dogs, said 95% of the ACL surgeries he
performs are on dogs who chase frisbees. He HATES frisbees, and says
frisbee-catching is absolutely the worst activity that's ever been
invented for dogs.

Kind of a longish answer to your question, but I hope the information
is useful, and keeps another dog off the surgeon's table.

Robert S.