Friday, April 18, 2014

Learn How To Be a Disc Dog

Rocco got a chance to try his own paw at the toss and fetch competition
This past weekend, Rocco and I got to experience our own performance dog doubleheader.

First, we had a great outing at our first USDAA agility trial, and then we spent the day at the Disc Dog Southern Nationals where we got some great disc dog tips from our pals Melissa Heeter and Marni Brown.

Rocco's learning to grab the disc and retrieve it when I roll it on the ground. We haven't advance to catching it in the air yet, but it's still great exercise for both of us as we combine chase games (Rocco chases me) with fetch and retrieve to help build our bond, drive and focus.

If you're interested in having fun with your dog with disc games, check out this new book from Disc Dog World Champion Melissa Heeter.
Champion Disc Dog!: The Ultimate Guide to Getting Your Dog Airborne in 18 Days includes a DVD, making it a super value with easy to follow instruction and lots of photos. While the book and DVD provide thorough instruction on every phase of the sport, Heeter also emphasizes the benefits of exercise, safety and bonding with your dog.

Check it out! We're having lots of fun with it!


Melissa shows her technique at an event we attended last year
We also had a great outing at our first USDAA agility trial.


We had lots of fun and Rocco earned a couple of first place and qualifying ribbons too! This weekend we're heading to our first AKC trial. We'll let you know how that goes! 

Does your dog like to play disc dog games? Or is agility more your style? Of course you can do bothThe variety keeps it interesting and fun, and provides another cross-training opportunity to improve overall fitness for both you and your pup!

If you haven't entered yet, our FitDog Friday anniversary giveaway is still open. Click here to learn more and enter!

The fun and games continue every Friday with FitDog Friday, the weekly Blog Hop brought to you by To Dog With LoveSlimDoggy and Peggy's Pet Place to promote a healthy active lifestyle for pets (and their people, too!). Join in every Friday by linking up your FitDog story or visiting the blogs in the Hop.







9 comments:

  1. That looks like great fun. Just right for this time of year when the sun is shinning and it is not too hot yet. Have a fabulous Friday.
    Best wishes Molly

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  2. :-O Check out all of those rosettes! Well done! What fun!

    Lots of Woofs from Earl an I at Earl's World!

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  3. Disc dog would never work for us as we have no interest in catching things, but we love to watch that sport. Agility we would enjoy, but we decided to go the nose work and tracking routes instead. Sadly, there just isn't enough time or money to do it all! Have fun and congratulations on all your wins, very impressive!

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  4. Congrats on your pretty ribbons and best of luck at the upcoming trial. I bet brown dawgs would like disc dog, but we can't do it all....lol.

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  5. Awesome! Congrats on all the ribbons!
    Disc is our passion, but we have a lot of background research to do before applying it to make sure we all stay as healthy and safe for the sport (those high flying leaps can be tough on joints and even dangerous if not executed with proper form). We've done a little bit of Agility (mainly Bella), which was fun. Terra will probably love Agility a lot as she loves to run, so we're working on building our bond and direction before debuting (we don't want to be that team on the field where the dog just does whatever it wants or even runs off of the field). Kronos's passion probably lies in Dock Diving as he is a water fiend! We'll be exploring this sport more together too. But he does love his high leaps as well! He can jump five feet in the air (again, this is why we're so concerned about him learning proper control of his body so he doesn't hurt himself in his high leaps!). Thanks for the book reference and good luck at your next trial!

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  6. Mr. N likes agility but he shows no interest in discs. Unless the disc golfers throw it lol. His true love is lure coursing though.

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  7. I just love watching disc dogs in action! They're incredible. It looks like a fun sport, though I'm not sure how interested Petal would be in it. She has a rubber disc that she really likes but she has a hard time getting the plastic discs off the ground due to her overbite.

    Looks like you guys had a blast! Love the photo of Rocco with his ribbons. Congrats!

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  8. Barley has no interest in playing with discs. She'll chase one a couple times and then she slaps it onto the ground and lies on top of it to send a not so subtle message that she's over that game :) Congratulations on the success at the trial! Good luck at the upcoming one!

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  9. Nailah loves playing frisbee! :) She jumps up and catches it in the air (when I throw it correctly)! She's also a big fan of agility, anything that lets her be a wild dog!

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