I have been chucking a flying disc to my dogs for as long as I can remember and competing at it for the past 11 years. Our disc club, Disc Dogs of the Golden Gate, means the world to me and has brought me a lot of life-long friends.
One of the reasons I love discdogging so much is that everyone you meet in the sport is friendly and supportive. Sure we’re competitive, and every one of us tries to win every time we go out there, but at the end of the day we always root for all the dogs to catch those discs.
One of the most endearing things about discdogging is that it is open to any dog, regardless of size, shape, or pedigree. Many former World Champions have been all-American mutts rescued from shelters, and you can’t help but feel good about that!
The herding breeds are still the most prominent in our sport, but our own club includes Sammy Davis, a five-year-old Dachshund owned by Patrick Major. Sammy is awesome at disc and is also the 2007 Weinerschnitzel Weinerdog National Champion.
Club member Jonathon Offi competes with Aztec and Sati, two very loving Pit Bulls. Jonathon and his dogs are changing minds about this often misrepresented breed every time they take the field! Our club has helped many different kinds of dogs get hooked on playing disc, but I must admit that teaching a Pug to catch a Frisbee™ would be a real challenge!
If you’d like to give canine disc a try with your dog, be sure to have your vet approve him for vigorous exercise. Special care should be taken with young dogs, as their physiology takes a while to fully develop. We strongly discourage any type of jump or vault training until a pup is at least 18 – 24 months old. You can train low catches, a good retrieve, and lots of tricks with your young, disc-hungry puppy until he’s ready to get airborne.
My wife Jill and I – along with Guinness, Sandy, and Irish – comprise Team Flyin’ Irish. On May 23rd, we were victorious at the Hyperflite Skyhoundz Southwest Regional Championship, qualifying with our youngest dog, Irish, for the Hyperflite Skyhoundz World Canine Disc Championship, to be held in September in Chattanooga, Tennessee. More than 100 teams from California, Arizona, and Nevada competed. Irish, a four-year-old Australian Shepherd, did two Freestyle routines and a Distance/Accuracy round, placing us 4th out of 39 teams in the Expert Class.
Guinness, our other Australian Shepherd, qualified for the World Finals in 2003, 2004, and 2006, and our Shepherd/Lab mix Sandy qualified in 2004. Guinness and Sandy, at almost 12 years old, competed this year in the Masters Division (for dogs 9 years and older) and brought home First and Second Place medals, respectively.
It’s so great to simply go out and play with my dogs; when we compete and win it’s a huge thrill.
We would love to help you and your dog get started in canine disc. You can find more details at our club website, www.discdogg.com, including a schedule of events. We host play/training days open to the general public and also do shows, mostly to raise money for shelter or rescue organizations. There might be an event coming soon near you!
Steve Teer is one of the founders of Disc Dogs of the Golden Gate (www.discdogg.com) and is in his 11th year of competing in disc dog tournaments. He welcomes questions from prospective discdoggers at moteer@aol.com.
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