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From The Editor:Well it’s hard to believe that another year has gone by! Soon it will be the New Year and a new season of disc dogging. New beginnings! New dogs entering the competition fields & new handlers getting bitten by the disc bug! Disc sport is growing in leaps and bounds here in Canada and we’ve proven that talent abounds here in our province. 2008 saw some amazing new dogs and handlers hitting the fields; and some awesome improvements in already competing teams. Everyone is upping their games! Kudos to everyone for jobs well done!! Let’s keep the momentum going as we go into 2009!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all
Jackie
SODH Membership Renewal
It’s that time of year again when SODH membership renewals are due. You can find the SODH membership form link on the main page of the SODH website: http://southernontariodischoundz.blogspot.com/ Membership makes you eligible to receive the various club achievement awards and gives you discounted prices on SODH hosted trials, events, and supplies. Your membership also makes it possible for SODH to keep running and hosting trials.
The 2009 Triple Crown Disc Dog Championships
Due to scheduling conflicts prohibiting the event taking place on one long weekend, the Triple Crown Disc Dog Championships will be a two city tour this year, with the USDDN leg taking place in Ottawa, Ontario. Exact date and location for the USDDN tbd Information will be made available as soon as possible.
Rowdy At The Argo’s Game!
Back in October, Rowdy and I had the amazing experience of performing disc at the Argo’s Half Time Show in Toronto. We teamed up with Angelo Marinakis and his dogs Stanley and Fire. I tend not to be a spectator in my own routine so I don't always see whether or not Rowdy makes all the catches but I could hear the crowd cheering like crazy for some of his moves so something must have been going well
The Accidental Lesson:
Teaching Rowdy The Back Vault
The back vault has been, and continues to be a challenge for Rowdy and I. I find myself frustrated when I see other people doing back vaults seemingly effortlessly, while the skill seems to elude my dog. Equally frustrating is the fact that I can teach other people to successfully master the back vault while, I myself, still struggle with it.
From Rowdy’s perspective there’s no point in jumping on me when he can see the disc in the air on the other side of me > he can just run around and catch it on the way down. Sure he can vault if there are people spotting him and preventing him from running around, but take those spotters away, and bye bye back vault.
So I decided that the best way for me to teach Rowdy a back vault would be to teach him a back stall first. A back stall is when the dog jumps up onto the handlers back and pauses/poses there. But that too presented a challenge for us that Rowdy just could not seem to overcome. He was extremely reluctant to jump “on” me. His signature flyball vault came naturally, but the common back stall and back vault were proving to be a next to impossible feat. None of the ‘traditional’ ways of getting a dog up onto the handlers back were working for Rowdy. So I had to come up with a new idea.
As is often the case, the new idea came quite by accident. I was trying to figure out a way to get an extra aerial roll over into his helicopter move and came to the conclusion that in order to achieve that, I would have to have Rowdy jump onto the disc from behind me. So I started holding the disc over my right shoulder and encouraging Rowdy to jump up and grab it. On one of the tries I started to lose my grip on the disc and I instinctively bent forward to balance Rowdy as I re-gripped the disc, and lo and behold, we were in a back stall. Huh? Could it be that easy?? Let’s try that again. Yup. Worked the second time too. And the third. And the fourth as well. We had accidentally stumbled on a way to get the back stall happening. Now it wasn’t exactly pretty in the beginning > Rowdy was hanging onto the disc the entire time > but hey …. it was working!! With repetition Rowdy got comfortable jumping up on my back & eventually didn’t need to grab the disc to execute the move. I still use a disc tap on my back as a cue for him to jump on my back, but he no longer needs to be grabbing it. He finally has the concept of just jumping up into the stall.
So now what about that elusive back vault? Well once I had him in the back stall, I practiced tossing a disc up to him for a dismount. To achieve the vault I simply shortened the pause time in the back stall until there was no pause up there > just a land and leap. It’s not perfection yet but at least we’ve achieved the basic mechanics of the move.
In all areas of my dog training I’ve found it useful to use an existing move to lead into teaching a new move. For example, in musical freestyle I use a get in finish as a lead in to teaching reverse pivots. And I use reverse pivots as a lead in to teaching right moving side passes in heel position. I use a move that gets the dog moving in the right direction and then ‘sneak in’ the new move, so that it kind of morphs naturally. So with Rowdy’s back vault it was morphing a behind the back disc grab into a back stall, and then morphing the stall into a vault.
2009 Skyhoundz Regional Championships
The 2009 Skyhoundz Regional Championships will be held once again at Chinguacousy Park, in Brampton, Ontario on the August Holiday Monday which falls on August 3rd, 2009. We had considered changing the date and venue due to a conflict with the AAC Nationals, but decided to keep the same date/venue due to scheduling, venue, and judge availability. We have competitors as well, who plan their vacations around this weekend a year in advance. The AAC Nationals run from Wednesday to Sunday, so for the die hard discers, it will be possible to compete at the Skyhoundz Regionals on the Monday. According to Mapquest Ottawa to Brampton is a five and a half hour drive. So depending on what time you finish competing, you could be in town as early as 10pm on Sunday night. If you’re not “in the ribbons” > you can hit the road early right after your runs. It will be a busy weekend and a bit tiring, but unfortunately the club making the bid for AAC Nationals didn’t check to see what other dog sport events were already taking place. Or if they did, then they didn’t consider the “Worlds Qualifier” for disc to be important. The Skyhoundz Regionals has been held on the same weekend for the past 3yrs and this is the traditional weekend for this trial & it is well known. However ….. the silver lining is that agility ends on Sunday so it is possible to compete in disc on the Monday. There are only so many weekends in a summer so there are bound to be conflicts from time to time.
Introducing the Flying Disc Dog Open (FDDO)
For those not competing in agility we will hold other disc events on the August Holiday Weekend. We plan to host the first ever FDDO competition held in Canada, with the help of our American disc friends. I’ve been in touch with Bill Watters, director of the FDDO and he is excited about bring the FDDO into Canada and our good friend Ray Lowman (from MADDogs) is a board member of the FDDO and will assist us in running this event. Information will be made available to club members as soon as it is available. We will host some FDDO practice days during the summer so that players can familiarize themselves with the obstacle course. FDDO features the obstacle course as well as toss/fetch and freestyle divisions. For more information about the FDDO go to http://www.flyingdiscdogopen.org/
How Do You Teach That?
The Juggle
You will need two discs for the juggle trick. The juggle is a variation of multiples.
Hold one disc in each hand and have your dog stand in front of you with about a foot (twelve inches) space between the two of you
You want to make sure that there is enough space between you and the dog so that a clear toss/catch can be seen by the judges >> be careful not to let your juggle look like ‘takes’ (where you simply hand the disc to your dog without the disc ever being airborne)
Toss the disc in your right hand to the dog & pass the disc from your left hand over to your right hand immediately (almost simultaneously)
With your left hand, take the disc from the dogs mouth
Now you have 2 discs in your hands again
Toss right hand disc to dog
Pass left hand disc to your right hand
Take disc from dog with your left hand
Toss > Pass > Take
Slowly increase the speed of the toss/pass/take as both you and your dog gain proficiency at the move. Ultimately each toss/pass/take happens in about one second & you aim for a nice rhythmic cadence. Even if you go slower than one second per juggle, still aim for a nice rhythmic cadence so that the move looks smooth and not choppy
It helps to practice with a human playing the part of the dog at first > just to get your coordination going
Ideally you want the dog to remain stationary. If your dog keeps moving either away from you or toward you, try practicing having the dog sit on a chair so that he learns to stay in one place. I also use the verbal cue “stay” when I do the juggle with my dog. With each toss I say “stay”.
With a small dog I would recommend kneeling down to do the juggle so that it is easier for the dog
Once you master the juggle you can create many variations of the move. For example you could do the juggle with a dog on a foot or back stall. Or you could turn on the spot so that the juggle is like a mini around-the-world move. Or with a big dog you could have the dog up on his hind legs. The possibilities are endless.
The Canadian Disc Dog Derby
Congratulations to Rudy Sudrich and Angela Ewtushik on becoming the first winners of the Canadian Disc Dog Derby. Rudy and his dog Aero from Alberta, won the mens division. And Angela and her dog Rally from Ontario, won the womens division.
2009 will see the Derby being hosted once again by K9 Korruption in Alberta, and by SODH here in Ontario. Derby contest dates will be posted on the Derby website at http://canadiandiscdogderby.blogspot.com/ as soon as they are set.
The Derby can be hosted by any disc club or trial in Canada. If anyone is interested in hosting a Derby please check the website for details about how to do so. The more Derby’s held, the bigger the payout at the end of the year.
Conquering The Wind!
Many of us struggle with the wind in our freestyle routines and many of us have witnessed a fellow competitors’ routine quickly descend to the dumpster due to ….. WIND! So how do we conquer the wind? Here is a training tip that I read about somewhere and made a note of. (my apologies for not knowing whose training tip it is)
Get a small note book and list all of your freestyle moves > one per page. On the next windy day go out with your note book and practice one or two moves. Take note of how the wind affects your throwing for a particluar move, and jot it down in your note book. For example: don’t throw into the wind; do throw into the wind; best thrown in cross wind; for best results throw with wind at 2 o’clock . Making specific notes like this will help you to figure out how the wind affects your throwing and by taking note of how the wind affects each individual throw/trick in your repertoire you will be better able to build a ‘wind proof’ routine.
The Duck Story
I love this story and thought I’d share it with all of you. Author Eckhart Tolle told this story to Oprah Winfrey. It’s basically about how we humans personalize everything and hold onto negative emotions and “stew” over things. I laughed out loud when I first heard this because it is sooooo human
Eckhart tells the story of how he observed two ducks on a pond. Suddenly they got into a fight, and then afterwards they both separated and swam off in opposite directions. They were both clearly still agitated and then, both ducks lifted themselves up on the water and started vigourously flapping their wings and making odd noises. And then just as suddenly as the agitation and fight broke out ….. they were totally peaceful again. It was over. Unlike humans, who hold onto everything, the ducks ‘shook off’ the negative energy. Eckhart called it their instinctive natural intelligence taking over and dissipating the negative energy. They were totally peaceful afterwards. He went on to say that they don't have the human mind, which repeats the story of, "What this duck did to me and what I'm going to do to this duck next time," or "I'm never going to get close to her anymore.”; “And then talk to other ducks about what that duck did to you.” He says it’s this kind of story-making that goes on in the human mind that keeps the old emotions alive, and this is why we, as humans, have trouble getting past things and harbouring ill will. He says we need to be like the ducks and learn to ‘shake things off’
SODH 2008 Club Cup Results
Toss/Fetch
1st place = Don Blewett & Meg
2nd place = Jackie Parkin & Biddy
3rd place = Jackie Parkin & Maeve
MicroDog Toss/Fetch
1st place = Amanda Morten & Harley
2nd place = Jackie Parkin & Rowdy
3rd place = Jackie Parkin & Josie
Freestyle
1st place = Dennis Alexander & Case
2nd place = Jackie Parkin & Rowdy
3rd place = Rick Rauwerda & Riff Raff
MicroDog Freestyle
1st place = Jackie Parkin & Rowdy
2nd place = Amanda Morten & Harley
3rd place = Sheilagh Sargent and Frodo
New SODH Group On Facebook
I started a group on Facebook for Southern Ontario Disc Houndz. There is a discussion board and I will post upcoming events etc. there as well. If you are on Facebook, check it out.
Quotable Quotes
If you fail to prepare > you prepare to fail (author unknown)
Hard Copies of High Flyin’ K9s
Hard copies of all ten issues of High Flyin’ K9s are available upon request for $10
If you would like to receive this set of 10 copies of High Flyin’ K9s send your order with payment to Jackie Parkin, 1625 Norfolk County Rd 19 East, RR 1, Wilsonville, Ontario, N0E-1Z0
