# Skyhoundz frisbee competition (a.k.a. doggy acrobatics!)



## GottaLuvMutts (Jun 1, 2009)

Alright, folks - you're in for a treat. This weekend I headed to Olympia, WA for a Skyhoundz frisbee training clinic and distance/accuracy competition. Since I don't see many folks active in this sport on this forum, I'll explain first how this works. Skip over the wall of text if you just want to see some pretty pics.

Distance/accuracy event: Each dog/handler pair gets 60 seconds to get in as many throws as possible. 5 is decent, 6 is better, 7 is almost unheard of. You only get points if the dog catches the disc. Longer throws get more points and there's an extra 1/2 point if your dog becomes airborne. There are two rounds per competition usually. 

Freestyle event: 90 seconds to do whatever you want. There are judges to determine who wins, but it's relatively subjective. People get really creative and do crazy moves. This is absolutely SPECTACULAR to watch. The vaults are my favorite. 

Kit and I are just starting to get into freestyle a bit, so we didn't do any of that on Saturday. In the distance/accuracy competition, we bombed the first round (mostly my fault), but we rocked the second round and ended up with second place in the novice category. Given that this was our first competition, I'm very happy. The biggest triumph, though, was that Kit was able to ignore all the distractions!!!! I was so impressed, given that there are camera people, spectators with food, other dogs, and judges lining the course. 

On to the pics! First Kit's D/A.
































































Look at that smile! Dogs don't get happier than this. The red ribbon around her neck has her medal on it.

More!....


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## GottaLuvMutts (Jun 1, 2009)

Next up: other dogs' D/A:









I love this split face!









Shelties, anyone?









Chomp!



























The ACD does some acrobatics!

More...


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## GottaLuvMutts (Jun 1, 2009)

And I saved the best for last: Freestyle!









The malinois does a vault.









Nothin but sky!
This BC x pit could be a freestyle champion. He rocks this event!


















To give some perspective on how high he's actually getting. The handler is NOT short.









Wee!



















For obvious reasons, these pics were not taken by me, so a big thank you to the folks who took them.

That's all, folks. I hope you enjoyed the pics!


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## Michiyo-Fir (Jul 25, 2009)

These are absolutely AWESOME! I love disc dogs! I want to get Nia started on discs soon! Too bad she's tiny and not the greatest jumper so she probably will never be like some of these dogs.


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## jinnyretr0 (Oct 13, 2009)

Such great photos! Thanks for sharing, it brings back such great memories! My dad's ACD has been doing distance/accuracy for about 5 years now and when I lived back home in IL I would go with to tournaments. It is a really fun sport and I am kind of bummed my little ella didnt take to the frisbee!


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## Crantastic (Feb 3, 2010)

Excellent pictures! I know you were wanting some of Kit in action, and these do not disappoint. I love that split-faced Border Collie as well, and the freestyle pics are cool. I'd love to be involved in some sort of dog sport; it seems like such fun.


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## GottaLuvMutts (Jun 1, 2009)

Crantastic said:


> I'd love to be involved in some sort of dog sport; it seems like such fun.


One thing I like about the disc dog community is that it's very very friendly/non-competitive. Everyone is rooting everyone else on, and as long as you're dog is having fun, it doesn't matter how they score. This is how all dog sports should be, IMO, but many aren't. I couldn't tell you why.


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## RaeganW (Jul 14, 2009)

Such big smiles on the two of you!



GottaLuvMutts said:


> And I saved the best for last: Freestyle!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That Pit is AWESOME! Holy SMOKES! 

I love disc sooo much. Every now and then I get it in my head to try getting Gatsby interested in it, but he's just not buying it. Maybe this time...


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## Locke (Nov 3, 2008)

As an ultimate player, I LOVE these pics. Congrats to you and Kit!! Must've been so much fun. You have inspired me to work harder with Mitch, cos he can get really good air, but he prefers to catch the disc between his paws than in his mouth.


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## RaeganW (Jul 14, 2009)

They should really make a version of Ultimate that includes the dogs. How awesome would that game be?


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## GottaLuvMutts (Jun 1, 2009)

Locke said:


> As an ultimate player, I LOVE these pics. Congrats to you and Kit!! Must've been so much fun. You have inspired me to work harder with Mitch, cos he can get really good air, but he prefers to catch the disc between his paws than in his mouth.


I've played some ultimate myself, but I got sick of always having someone guarding me and trying to block my shots. At least with this sport, the dog is working WITH me and only gravity is against us.

I've heard that some dogs will try to catch with their paws...never seen it, though. I guess I'd try to throw some relatively short throws at about knee height. If he even ATTEMPTS to catch one with his mouth, throw a party. At first, you'll probably need to reward every catch. Later on, phase it out, because most competitions won't allow it.

Here's another trick to increase your catch ratio: Have your dog circle “around” your legs right before you throw the disc. This will help get your dog into the position of running "down field" to make the catch. You'd be surprised how many of the best dogs do this, even in competition. Kit knows that I won't be throwing anything until she circles me once.


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## Locke (Nov 3, 2008)

That's a great tip about the circling thing. I will have to implement that because his biggest problem is that he stands facing me and then when it flies over his head, he can't catch up to it before it hits the ground (we're using a kong frisbee which means NO floaters). Also, Mitch would puncture a plastic disc in one catch...how to prevent the disc from being destroyed? 

Raegan - Dog ultimate would be the best sport ever. 3 people and 3 dogs per team. Send the dogs after the disc off the pull. Whichever dog gets the disc, that team is on offence.....not sure how game play would work, but it's a start


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## RaeganW (Jul 14, 2009)

Well the dogs would have to be able to run with the frisbee, I think it would be too hard to get them to stop when they had it. Maybe when a dog has the disc, their humans would have to stop and be delivered the frisbee. The other team could run around and try to lure the dog off though.


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## Locke (Nov 3, 2008)

RaeganW said:


> Well the dogs would have to be able to run with the frisbee, I think it would be too hard to get them to stop when they had it. Maybe when a dog has the disc, their humans would have to stop and be delivered the frisbee. The other team could run around and try to lure the dog off though.


OOOO! That's a most excellent idea. The other dogs can try take the frisbee too. When the disc is delivered to the human, and the human throws, is it just a dog human free for all? or dog catching only?


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## RaeganW (Jul 14, 2009)

I feel like the only safe answer is only dogs can catch. I've seen nasty collisions with human players, when all eyes are up bodies get in the way. I'm going to go start a thread in the General Discussion area so we don't clutter GottaLuvMutts' thread up.


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## Marsh Muppet (Nov 29, 2008)

GottaLuvMutts said:


> Look at that smile! Dogs don't get happier than this. The red ribbon around her neck has her medal on it.


If people got that happy, somebody'd try to make it illegal. Killer smile.


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## GottaLuvMutts (Jun 1, 2009)

Locke said:


> Also, Mitch would puncture a plastic disc in one catch...how to prevent the disc from being destroyed?


Oh, I've got you covered there: http://hyperflite.com/jawzdiscs.html
Jawz discs are amazing. Would I compete with one? No. They're a little on the heavy side and won't get as much distance as some other discs (although with a good toss, we're still talking about ~40 yards or so). They're my standby for training, though, because Kit can catch it over and over without so much as a scratch. They're a bit pricey, but you'll only be needing one. 

For competitions, I like this one for the extra distance: http://www.herodiscusa.com/hero-xtra-235-distance.html
I may be ordering a bunch of these in bulk soon, as we have four more competitions coming up this spring/summer.

Hyperflite and Hero (the links above) are pretty much the big names in this sport.

NEVER let your dog play with a damaged disc or a disc not specifically designed for canine use - I've seen mouth injuries (including blood) first-hand. To keep softer discs in good shape, you can sand down small bite marks with sandpaper. Into the trash it goes, though, if there's anything sharp.

The "around" command will take you from good to great in no time. I was shocked at the transformation.


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## Locke (Nov 3, 2008)

That's awesome thank you so much!!! I'm used to tossing 175 gram discs, so I'm excited to see how far I can launch these lighter ones!


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## WashingtonCowgirl (Mar 8, 2010)

GottaLuvMutts said:


> Alright, folks - you're in for a treat. This weekend I headed to Olympia, WA for a Skyhoundz frisbee training clinic


I almost went to that! They are about 20 minutes away.. wasn't it at fidos farm?


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## GottaLuvMutts (Jun 1, 2009)

WashingtonCowgirl said:


> I almost went to that! They are about 20 minutes away.. wasn't it at fidos farm?


Yup! I think they're changing venues for next year, though. I heard lots of grumbling about the field.


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## WashingtonCowgirl (Mar 8, 2010)

Really? I haven't been there yet... so I don't know what it looks like... I have heard decent things about the trainers there though. We are going to take our CGC there


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## GottaLuvMutts (Jun 1, 2009)

WashingtonCowgirl said:


> Really? I haven't been there yet... so I don't know what it looks like... I have heard decent things about the trainers there though. We are going to take our CGC there


I'm sure it's great for most stuff - agility, stock work, obedience, etc., and I bet their trainers are great. It's just that they didn't have a great place for the disc dogs. The area was smaller than I expected and the field was a bit uneven. As much as I hate manicured lawns, those make the best venues for disc dog stuff. Even the park that's a 10 minute walk from my house has a nicer lawn.


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## GottaLuvMutts (Jun 1, 2009)

Just in case anyone needs a bit more inspiration, here's a promotional video for the 2010 NW regional competition. Kit and I will be there, but I doubt we'll be doing freestyle. Anyway, the video has some spectacular moves in it. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0eB-T_Jdmo


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## Tofu_pup (Dec 8, 2008)

*Sigh*
And my roommate wonders why I want a second dog so badly. Kaki hates the frisbee. Someday...


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