Canine Disc or Canine Frisbee® is fundamentally a very simple activity. You throw a plastic disc and the dog catches it and returns it to you. Frisbee® is a trademark of the Wham-O corporation and thus the general term used is "disc". We know that there are literally thousands of closet Disc Dogs across Australia waiting to be discovered. If you have a dog that likes playing fetch with a stick or tennis ball then you can expect that your dog can easily be transitioned to catching discs. Dogs especially love discs because the disc can hover in the air a long time and they are very challenging for the dog to catch. Playing Canine Disc with your dog can be a great way to help keep your dog healthy and stimulated both physically and mentally.
Playing Canine Disc with your dog is not rocket science, but there are some important things that we want you to know.
Always a crowd pleaser, Amy King's Daschund mix Bogey executes a back vault during the
2002 US Disc
Dog Freedom Weekend Nationals in Anderson, South Carolina.
Photo: © Karen Noud (Used with permission).
First of all, you need to play with a disc that is safe for your dog. Many types of flying discs, including some that are marketed specifically for use with dogs, are not good choices for playing with your pet. After reviewing the many different types of discs available worldwide, ACDA has followed the lead of the world's other Canine Disc clubs and event organisers by approving a select list of discs for use as the approved disc for competition use in Australia. Wham-O Fastback Frisbees are one of these discs and they have only recently become available in Australia. BARK will have Fastback Frisbees available for sale at all of our events. Alternatively, you will be able to purchase one by contacting the K9 Flyers.
7yo Christopher Ventura demonstrates his excellent throwing
technique.
Photo: © Damian Noud (Used with permission).
There are three basic skills for playing Canine Disc: Throwing, Catching, and Retrieving. With all of the canine skills you need to train the dog in a deliberate manner using an abundance of praise and positive reinforcement so that your dog knows that playing Canine Disc is a fun activity.
You can also download our Getting Started Guide (PDF 2.3MB) which contains tips and contact details for BARK.
The below training tips are reproduced from the free K9 DISCussion ezine.
Canine Disc training relies heavily upon the repetitive use of positive training techniques. Your dog will be far more enthusiastic about learning to chase and catch discs if they think it is a fun game. For best results, keep your training fun and accentuate every positive. Many of the World's best animal trainers rely almost exclusively upon positive training techniques, and they work really well in helping a dog acquire superior retrieval skills. Keep it fun and your dog will love playing with you and learning new things.
Never let your dog overheat. Always have plenty of water available for your dog and exercise discretion about when to play. Some days it will be too hot to play. If your dog becomes hot or tired it is time to stop the game, even if your dog wants to continue. Some dogs will not know when to stop playing, so it is your responsibility to take control in ensuring that they stop before becoming overheated or exhausted. And by the way, never leave your dog alone in a car on a warm day even for a few minutes because heat kills dogs. Be careful and avoid the heat to keep your dog safe.
Safety has to always be your number one priority in any activity with your dog. Puppies should not be encouraged to jump until after their growth plates have fully sealed, something that normally happens by the time they are 12-18 months old. Until that stage it is a good idea to always keep throws low so your puppy does not risk landing awkwardly. Even after that age however, throws should intentionally be kept low until after your dog has demonstrated an ability to land consistently with all four feet landing on the ground at the same time, minimising any risk of wear and tear on your dog's legs. To accomplish this, don't hesitate to rely upon lots of rollers and practice your throws. Keep it low and go, go, go!
By necessity, Canine Disc is a team sport. You can't play without the dog and the dog can't play without you. To successfully complete catches requires a common goal, clear communication, and teamwork. If you are on top of your job it is going to give your dog the best chance to make catches. That's why it is important each time we decide to play that we are ready to have fun and play our part in the game. Catching the disc isn't easy, but throwing the disc isn't an intuitive skill either. That's why learning good throwing technique and regular practice can make a huge difference to your dog's catch ratio. Good throws make for lots of catches, and occasional throwing practices without your dog will help you improve your results.
Competing in Canine Disc events can be a blast. Aside from the carnival atmosphere of enjoying the event and socialising with old and new friends, competitions give you and your dog a chance to shine. However, some people find competing a little nervous, especially the first time, so here are a few hints that can help settle the nerves. First, relax. It's all about throwing plastic, that's all. So please don't take yourself too seriously. If you relax your dog will relax and everything will be great. There are no sheep stations at risk. A few deep breaths can help, and don't rush yourself. Be in position ready to compete when your turn comes, but as you step towards the throwing line slow yourself down and concentrate on just making good quality throws without trying to get extra excited or throw too hard. And always have fun!
Despite any ideas to the contrary, wind can be a disc thrower's best ally, especially if you are aware of the wind and how it will affect your disc. A moderate headwind will help most teams improve their catch ratio, as a headwind will make the disc hover for a longer time making it easier for most dogs to make catches. However, a headwind may also require a greater angle of release (increased hyzer) so that the disc does not turn-over and get pushed off-course. Conversely, throws downwind should normally be released with less hyzer (the disc should be released at a flatter angle) and thrown later. This is because the wind coming from behind the disc will push the disc out faster and it will drop to the ground quicker. While this may suit really fast dogs, it will make timing the throw and catch more difficult for most teams. Crosswinds are normally best avoided, as they will push the disc in the direction that the wind is blowing. The best way to deal with wind is to practice with and without your dog in a variety of wind conditions, so that you learn how to identify the wind direction and adapt your throwing strategy to best effect. Happy throwing!
What do you differently if you are training a Disc Dog puppy as opposed to an older dog? Very little, actually. However, with puppies it is extra important to keep your training fun. Fun! Fun! Fun! Keep praising the puppy for everything they do that is remotely of any value to you as the trainer. Never hesitate to get waaaaaay too excited about the littlest things and have a blast teaching the basics to the little ones. It is important to remember that puppies have a very short attention span. 30 seconds of playtime can be too long for many puppies, so keep your training sessions ultra-short and train often. In fact, be aware that everything you do with a puppy is a training session of some type, whether you know it or not; They are sponges for learning. So above all else, always keep it fun so they enjoy playing with you and want to discover new things with you.
What gets a Disc Dog excited? Answer: The disc! Enthusiasm for plastic is a critical element in producing a new disc-catching quadruped. The key question for any new team then is "How do we get our dog interested in the disc?" Put at its simplest, positive praise is the answer. There is no way to teach a dog to catch a disc through negative reinforcement techniques. The trick is to be enthusiastic every time your dog shows just a little bit of interest in the disc. It doesn't matter if your dog doesn't yet look at the disc, chase the disc, try to catch it, or make a successful catch. Just remain positive about your dog's efforts at each step of the way and reward your dog with an abundance of praise every single time they make any progress. If you don't get discouraged neither will your dog.
If you are having difficulty getting your dog interested in playing Canine Disc one idea is to try feeding them out of a disc instead of a traditional dog bowl. This can help the dog get a feel good feeling about the disc. If you are lucky your dog may even bite the disc after they have finished eating, a behaviour that you would want to enthusiastically praise. For many dogs using the disc as a feeding bowl is not a productive exercise, but for some dogs this has been a helpful training technique for helping stimulate initial interest in the disc. For safety reasons, the disc should not be left with the dog unattended. As soon as the dog starts showing interest in tracking moving discs it is recommended that you stop feeding the dog from the disc. Bon appetit!
Thinking about freestyle? It's awesome fun, especially after your dog understands the concept of playing with multiple discs. This isn't something that comes naturally to many dogs, so it is a prized skill that may require nurturing. Getting a dog used to using different discs early in their Canine Disc playing days is a good way to avoid any multiple disc problems at a later stage. There are several ways to get a dog willing to catch multiple discs. One way is to alternate discs in your Toss & Fetch throws. This often has the side-benefit of encouraging the dog to drop their discs quicker because they know the next throw is going to happen straight away. You might also try to encourage your dog to quickly drop their current disc by throwing the next disc in their line of sight as they approach you, which will be the opposite direction to the previous throw. (Advanced Tip: An extra benefit of doing throws in alternate directions is that you will also be teaching your dog how to do passing sequences, one of the 7 Team Skills scored during a freestyle routine.)
Canines, like humans, obtain enhanced learning through repetition. One of the most useful drills you can practice with your dog on a repetitive basis is "overs" practice. An over is when your dog jumps over any part of your body to take or catch the disc without making contact with you. The simplest over is to sit on the ground with your legs together stretched out in front of you. Position your dog on one side of you and then ask them to jump over your legs while taking the disc out of your hand. Be patient in setting your dog up in the right position and having them stay until you ask them to make the take. Only after your dog masters the take should you then experiment with hovering the disc out of your hand. Doing overs over and over and over teaches the dog to lift their backside (in order to clear your legs) and helps them practice landing on all four legs. It is a cool little trick, but the biggest benefit of this drill is that it will help your dog be more controlled when jumping (and landing), which will help ensure safe play.
The previous issue's Training Tip discussed the benefits of "overs" practice. An over is when your dog jumps over any part of your body to take or catch the disc without making contact with you. After your dog is reliably catching hover throws while you are sitting on the ground you can make it more challenging for fully grown dogs. To do this, simply kneel on one knee and stretch your other leg out in front of you. This creates a slightly higher barrier for your dog to jump over. After your dog masters this you can then stand up with one outstretched leg and repeat the drill. You and your dog now have a very cool trick. With all overs make sure your dog is maintaining good forward momentum and that they are landing safely by distributing their landing weight equally on all four legs. (Advanced Tip: An extra benefit of doing overs is that it is one of the 7 Team Skills scored during a freestyle routine, and you can personalise it too by changing your body position and the way you throw the disc.)
Christmas is coming up and one of the things might have on your list for Santa is the ability to throw an extra 5, 10 or 30 metres. If you want to make your throws longer then make it one of your New Years Eve resolutions and follow these tips. First of all, don't be obsessed about always throwing straight. Most dogs will snaggle anything that is catchable within a 45 degree arc, so allow yourself the freedom to vary your direction within reasonable limits. What is important is that the disc travels towards the ground at a relatively flat angle, otherwise the dog will have great difficulty wrapping their mouth around the disc. The longer you throw the more hyser you will need in order to have the disc at a flat angle at the dog's catching height. Hyser refers to the side to side tilt of a disc at release. In simple terms, this means the longer you throw the more you will want to angle the outside of the disc down towards the ground. This is especially important if you are throwing with the wind either in front of you or coming from your left. Give yourself lots of arm movement. Use your throwing arm more, but generate lots of spin too by snapping your wrist firmly. Maintain your balance. Ideally, you can transfer your weight from your back foot to your front foot as you rotate your hips. The most important tip is practice, practice, and practice some more. If you throw 50 discs a day for a week your technique and distance is almost guaranteed to improve straight away. This is most easily accomplished without your dog, especially during the hot summer months. There have been many instances of handlers dedicating themselves to increasing their distance and then adding an additional 10-20 metres to their throws within 12 months. Maybe this is a goal you might want to set yourself for 2007. If you do, good luck!
Attend enough Canine Disc training clinics and/or competitions and before very long you will inevitably see a dog that looks like it's a great disc dog, well for one throw anyway. ;-) One of the critical Canine Disc skills, in addition to running and catching, is the retrieve. If your dog doesn't return the disc to you then a lot of your potential as a Canine Disc team will be wasted. Dogs that enjoy playing the game and who understand that bringing the disc back will most likely mean another throw will reliably return the disc without any hesitation. Solving this problem is almost always a training issue that requires handler discipline and patience. It is not the dog's "fault", but rather it is a training issue that needs to be resolved through regular practice that emphasises positive rewards for the dog when they return the disc. Most likely, the positive reward that the dog will value most is another immediate throw of the disc. However, enthusiastic praise when the dog drops the disc at your feet or gives it to you is typically under-valued by handlers as a way of communicating to the dog that good things are in progress because of the dog's decision to retrieve the disc. If you want to improve your dog's retrieval keep your sessions short but do lots of retrieval repetitions. How do you do this? You can do this easily by throwing a shorter distance, say 5-15 metres. Keep it short, keep it fun, and your dog will most likely quickly learn that returning the disc to you is almost as much fun as catching the disc. As you teach your dog this skill you will be set for a lifetime of fun playing together, so enjoy!
In the previous K9 DISCussion we discussed how to help your dog develop a reliable retirieval of the disc. Clearly, one of the secrets to securing higher scores is to have a faster retrieve. The faster your dog's retrieve the more throws you will be able to make within the tme limit and the easier it will be to make multiple catches.
So, how do you help your dog to retrieve the disc faster?
The most obvious answer is to keep your dog in great physical condition. Watch their weight because a couple of kilos of excess baggage will slow a dog significantly, especially towards the end of a competition round.
Encouraging your dog with your voice can help your dog get excited and run back to you faster. Hig-pitched voices tend to work best. Some handlers think moving around excitedly and waving your arms can help too. Also, if your dog is food motivated then randomly producing a yummy snack immediately after the moment the dog drops the disc might also be helpful. Sometimes occasionally throwing the next disc in the opposite direction can also help stimulate a faster retrieve.
One technique that often stimulates a faster retrieve is to run away from your dog. Often, someone's dog will be more motivated to return to their handler if they are running away from their dog. Try it sometime after you make a throw by running out onto the field after your dog. Then, as your dog makes the catch turn around and run back to the throwing line. You can get a friend to watch and tell you if they think it makes a difference (or you can time the retrieve).
Don't hesitate to experiment. If you find a little extra speed it might enable you to comfortably make the one extra throw that turns your good score into a great score. Good luck!
In the two most recent K9 DISCussions we have discussed how to help your canine improve their retrieval and their speed. This Training Tip focuses on how to help your woofer with their catching ability, and it's all about throwing cleverly not perfectly.
Dogs' abilities to catch the disc vary greatly. The biggest determinant of a dog's ability to catch the disc is the quality of the throw. Unless the dog can get to the disc it can't catch it. Additionally, if the disc is not at a relatively flat angle to the ground it can be very difficult to catch, especially if it falling towards the ground at speed. There are lots of things that can go wrong between when the dog is asked to catch the disc and the catch is secured into the mouth - Be careful not to presume that a disc has been dropped because the dog didn't make a good catch attempt because that is very rarely what actually happened.
Many handlers exagerate the importance of making a straight throw and spend lots of effort routinely practicing with their dog straight throws at maximum distance. This is NOT something to be recommended. During practice it is a clever tip to intentionally vary the direction and distance of your throws so that your dog does not routinely expect the disc to be in a certain place every time. If your dog gets used to the disc always being in the "same place" then they can become lazy about tracking the disc and monitoring its flight path, which can lead to unecessary drops during competition, which is when throwing for beginner handlers usually isn't as accurate.
So, can you help the dogs with their ability to catch? The answer is yes. Practice makes perfect, well, maybe not quite perfect. Dogs typically make substantial improvements to their catching ability with practice. Catching a disc is a precise skill for dogs that requires great timing and experience in different flight conditions. Experienced dogs that are single-mindedly tracking the disc will anticipate changes in the disc's movement long before the flight path changes becomes apparent to inexperienced dogs (or the thrower). An experienced dog will also have a decreased catch percentage if they haven't practiced recently.
Puppies and inexperienced dogs will benefit from lots of short throws to help them gain confidence. It is very important that dogs enjoy practice routines where they have lots of success and receive plenty of positive praise. Sometimes, for an inexperienced dog, it might be best for the thrower to practice their long throws without the dog before giving the dog some shorter easier throws that are more catchable.
It takes two to tango. And it also takes two to be successful in Toss & Fetch.
Once you have a dog that chases and catches discs and brings them back to you it should be easy to rack up high scores, shouldn't it? Yet, event results show that often we struggle to show-off the dog's catching talents at competitions. Why is this so? For your reflection, here are a Top 7 of Toss & Fetch Throwing Errors that often contribute to reduced scores.
#1: Handler hurry. You train like a champion every day then all of a sudden it's a competition and everything is a blur and everything goes wrong. If you experience this feeling you may be suffering from "handler hurry". Slow down, take a deep breath and consciously make your dog wait one or two seconds before you prepare to make each throw. Watch the more experienced teams and see how deliberate they are in setting themselves for their throws and try to learn from their experience.
#2: Insufficient hyzer. Hyzer is the downward angle of the disc. Most throwers do not have enough hyzer on their throws, which cause the disc to fall away to the right. For many novice throwers their discs routinely arc to the right making it very dificult for the dog to make the catch. If this happens to you increase the downward angle of the disc, perhaps by bending over at the waist.
#3: Poor selection of throwing direction. This a diagnosable disease easily transmissable from one handler to the next handler to the next handler. The first thrower chooses their direction of throwing and inexplicably everyone else seems to tag along and choose the same end. Experience shows us that more than 75% of Novice handlers typically throw from the "wrong" end of the field. For most teams (expecially Novice teams) the best direction to throw is normally into the wind. This gives most dogs the best chance of success to catch the disc. Yet, throwing into the wind is more difficult, so many handlers either follow whatever end other people are throwing from or consciously decide to throw down-wind. Unless you have a very fast dog your dog will probably find it 2-5 times more difficult to catch downwind throws. If you throw into the wind you may find that you score more points even after allowing for making some bad throws that will not be catchable.
#4: Not making allowances for the wind conditions. If you are throwing into the wind or the wind is coming across you from your left you need more hyzer. If you are throwing with the wind or the wind is coming across you from your right you need less hyzer. Usually, if the wind is strong you will need to throw with more arm and body speed if you are throwing into the wind, but with less arm and body speed if you are throwing downwind. Think carefully about the wind before you step up to the throwing line for your first throw.
#5: Dog gets too far out in front of the handler. It is extremely difficult for a dog to catch the disc if they are in front of the disc or underneath it. If your dog is getting too far out in front of you then consider training your dog to run around you so that you have more time to release the disc in front of the dog. You may also find it helpful to throw earlier or lower.
#6: Insufficient spin on the disc. The aerodynamics that make a disc fly rely upon spin. Spin is critical, so do a Warney and give the disc lots of spin. Flick your wrist just like you would flick a towel. Do not hesitate to practice your wrist motion while watching TV. And when practising your throwing always think about flicking your wrist and generating lots of spin. This is very important in all wind conditions, although a stronger wind will normally require more spin in order for the throw to remain stable.
#7: Poor disc selection. More than 30 years ago the Fastback Frisbee was specially designed for safe and effective play with dogs. With good spin they hover for a very long time, which is perfect for our pampered playing pooches. Simliar disc designs (eg. Hero 235, K-10 Competition Standard) also work extremely effectively. Discs made of heavier compounds including budget-friendly discs designed to withstand hard-biting dogs are designed primarily for durability and their modified flight characteristics mean they don't fly as well. The differences are often very subtle, but during an extra one second of hang time a fast dog can travel an extra 4-8 metres, which can make a substantial difference to your catch percentage.
During your summer training sessions try some of the ideas suggested above and you may find that your catch percentage improves considerably. Experiment and enjoy!