Disc Dogs of the Golden Gate (www.discdogg.com) was founded in 2003. We are halfway through our 13th
season and our passion for helping others discover the joy of playing disc with our dogs is as strong as ever! Our club hosts training days, workshops and tournaments. We also put on great demonstrations, most that are donated to help out shelters and rescue organizations. The great thing about K9 disc is that just about any dog can do it. Of course, we do recommend that your dog be deemed healthy for vigorous exercise by your vet. From small to giant, Dachshunds to Great Danes have all enjoyed our events, and many K9 disc World Champions have been mixed breeds rescued from shelters. Many dogs are turned in at shelters because the owners can’t handle their energy level; learning disc play gives those energetic dogs the physical exercise they need and that healthy “job” to do!
How to:
Basic obedience and a good recall are necessary to become a successful team, but not to get started in training. Letting a dog without good recall off leash can be scary for the owner, so we always start training by clipping on a 30 or 50’ long drag line to the dog. This gives Fido the feel of being off leash and able to work with the disc, but gives the owner the added safety factor. If your dog gets out of your comfort zone, simply step on the long line and gently reel your dog back to you. Many people tell me that their dog won’t bring it back or plays “keep away” when they try to take the disc out of Snoopy’s mouth.
Guiding a new disc team through this is much easier in person, but here are two useful tips. When your dog gets his toy and turns toward you, run away from him acting like a crazy person, calling his name in a high, happy tone. Most dogs will beeline to you to see why you have lost your mind! Also, if the dog is bringing the toy most of the way back to you and you lean or step forward to get it, in fact, you are playing into the keep away game. Lean back or slowly walk back until he is pushing the toy into you. I teach my dogs to place the toy in my hand in a very small, no distraction space like my living room. Then I add distractive environments as the behavior becomes solid. There are many more tips on our website training page and we would love to have you join us at one of our events, where we can help you to become as addicted to this great sport as we are.
Dogs with special abilities:
We have helped hundreds of dogs who have never seen a disc before become Frisbee maniacs, and the look on an owners face when their baby catches his first disc in the air never gets old! It’s one of the main reasons I have been doing this for 17 years now.
As I said before, we have all kinds of different dogs in our club, including deaf, unilaterally deaf and vision impaired dogs. I have been competing with my pups for many years, we have qualified for 11 world championships and won some big titles, but every one of my 5 dogs has taught me something different.
The Story of Finn:
My newest pup, Finnian, a black bi Australian Shepherd is no exception! Finn was born in North Carolina at Apropos Aussies on April 25, 2014. His father is a top agility dog and his mother is an Obedience dog with an exceptional temperament. I reserved a male pup before the litter was born and the excitement began! There were only 4 pups born and Finn was the only male. My wife and I fell in love with the little bubbahead via photos, videos and Skype. Finn’s breeder became concerned that Finn might have some hearing damage, so at 6 weeks old, the entire litter was BAER tested. Finn was found to be completely deaf in his left ear. My wife and I discussed it and we both felt that we still wanted him, even if it presented some training challenges. And so, that happy, sweet boy joined our family.
When Finn was 12 weeks old, he was playing with Irish, my 10 year old Aussie. Irish loved him and was being so gentle in her play with him, but Finn was already very rambunctious. One Sunday afternoon, he got the zoomies, flew around the room and had a head on collision with Irish. Her teeth caught the outside of his right eye, the eye muscles tore and the eye came forward. We rushed to the ER vet and there was no light response to his eye. I got him to a top ophthalmologist the next morning who worked diligently to save Finn’s vision and eye for the next nine days. In short, there was too much damage for any chance of sight and we made the decision to have the eye removed.
Finn began catching soft toys and floppy discs within days of that cone coming off.
He is now 14 months old, has competed twice this year and has won 2 1st place medals in our Pro division! He really amazes me and has taught me about different abilities rather than disabilities. Finn and I will soon give a talk and demo for a kid’s camp and he will begin therapy dog training soon also.
We would love for you to come to one of our events, check out the fun and give Finn a pat or two!
Steve Teer is one of the founders of Disc Dogs of the Golden Gate (www.discdogg.com) and is in his 17th year of competing in disc dog tournaments. He welcomes questions from prospective discdoggers at moteer@aol.com.
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Main article photo by: © 2015 Jason Largent
