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A week and a half ago, my wife and I brought home a 4 month old Aussie puppy "Sapphire" (now known simply as "Fire")to join our dog pack. It has been very eye opening for me going from working with my disc obsessed 2 1/2 year Aussie "Stanley" to starting from scratch with a puppy. I quickly realized that I needed to observe and adapt my game what motivated Fire rather than wondering why she wasn't doing what Stanley seemed to pick up so effortlessly. So, after 10 days of living with Fire and slowly getting her interested in playing with the disc, here are a few introductory tips:

When I told my wife I would be writing an article about what inspires me to create new material and routines she said “That’s easy-- the Mosh”. The more I think about it, the more I think she’s right, Java and Moshi inspire me. But since that answer isn’t much of an article, and won’t help anyone I’ll try to explain it in a little more detail.

What size does a good canine disc athlete have to be to do freestyle? Well, the answer is pretty obvious, right? The dog would need to be athletic and a good range would be 35-50 lbs and a good height range for dogs in the sport is around 20 inches at the shoulders, give or take a few inches.

One of the key aspects of any spectator friendly sport is to put on a show. What qualifies as a show is left to free interpretation, but definitely does encompass the basic requirement of being able to capture the attention of a significant proportion of spectators from beginning to end. The same rule applies to freestye disc dogging. Mimicking moves that we see on video or at competitions is a good way to start, but building entire routines on mimicked moves takes away from the basic requirement of what makes for a show. If the spectator starts to think- 'seen that, seen that- know what is coming next'- well that show has just ended for that spectator!

Aah, there is a nip in the air these days. The leaves are going and winter is around the corner. What does that mean for your disc loving doggie? Well, absolutely nothing! It does seem unappealing to step out with multiple layers of clothing to play a game of toss and fetch- not to mention tossing a disc with gloves on. In addition, when your doggie gets the disc back with a generous dollop of slobber, you can be sure that the wet disc will pick up a pound of snow on the next retrieve and you will spent a minute or two dusting it off and making the disc airworthy again! So, why train at all in winter? One thing about disc dogs- well, they don’t care that it is winter. The fact that it is twenty degrees below freezing is of little concern to them. All they care about is getting out and playing. Chances are that they will play harder than what they did in summer or fall, given that it takes a lot less time to cool off. Is it then worth it to train in the cold and snow???