Zumi Disc Dog!
The majority of our weekend was spent at the disc dog event playing Up Dog games! Goal was just having fun and getting Zumi more experience with working in front of an audience and around dogs. But since Up Dog actually allows rollers for anyone who thinks that is the best choice for their dog, Zumi was technically competing in all but the Frizgility game where she had to run as FEO since she's not doing jumps yet.
Zumi waited politely for her turn to take the field each time, did beautiful sit stays for the timer count down, and didn't run off with a disc once! Usually the first roller had a loopy I'm thinking about running around feel to it, but every other throw brought her immediately back to me. Considering she still is not even close to being reliable with that at home I was very impressed!
Zumi played 3 games on Saturday and 4 on Sunday. And in some crazy world she technically met qualifications to go out to Up Dog's World event! I find it humorous that due to the allowance of rollers Zumi could compete in a national event without ever catching a flying disc. Safe to say we will not be going :)
Frizgility
It was fun to get to practice baby agility and reward with a roller!
4 Way Play
Look at the distance drops and easily switching to the new disc!
I can't wait until the Duck is old enough to start doing real frisbee! I doubt we will go to any more disc events this summer as the other organizations don't allow rollers. But next summer hopefully!
Yayyy puppy! I can't even imagine my puppy doing that sort of thing at right now.
Also thanks for sharing about that organization - not one I've heard of before (so many things come and go - but this seems like it has some unique approaches that might help it stick around!).
I hope it will stick around! I think there's quite a bit of mixed feelings about all the games, especially about "frizgility." I personally like the game variety and strategy involved in some of them. Certainly more fun than just the main staple of "toss and catch" everyone else has, with the occasional distance game offered.
I do think the competition was the smallest in terms of number of competitors there has been with almost nobody traveling from out of state. But people had a lot more opportunities to play as each round was scored separately, vs cutting down competitors in half for round 2.
We will just have to wait and see if it can compete with the others!
Good feedback.
There are a few people in our area promoting disc but without a lot of success directly here (events 2 hours south or a few hours north). But some of the variety/simplicity/'everyone wins' feeling from the website could help attract some of the pet owners that we see in classes - esp if we could easily host events for them. It's not something I've paid too much attention to - my dogs aren't built for the typical versions.
Oh yes, there were so many ribbons and medals!!!! And so many little achievements to "unlock." People new to dog sports just eat that stuff up.
Also the Frizgility while it may be more controversial for the seasoned competitors, is super attractive to the crowds! Everyone wants to do "agility" because their dog just "loves to jump!" I think it's a great way to get people interested in disc.
Yay I managed to get both videos to load. She is so awesome at catching those rollers!!!! I love it!! I've never heard of this organization either, but it sounds really awesome. I hope it catches on and sticks around. I'm with you, I can't wait until Zumi is old enough to start catching discs!! She's going to be so awesome at it!