First Disc Dog Competition tomorrow. HELP?

Haha, I am sooooo nervous for the disc dog competition tomorrow. We are just competing in the throw and catch portion.

The thing is...in low distractions, Leo is GREAT at catching frisbees. He catches almost all of them.

He will still play with distractions (aka dogs and other people), but sometimes he doesn't always bring the disc back all the way and sometimes he completely ignores it. I am very afraid the latter is going to happen tomorrow and he is going to make a fool out of me

Is there anything I can do to increase the chances that he will be focusing on me/thefrisbee?

I have been taking him to the dog park every day this week to hopefully reduce the excitingness of other dogs (other dogs are suuuper high value to him and definitely his biggest distractor).

Do I run him before taking him to the event to get some energy out? Do I not run him so he has tons of energy? Do I only give him half of his breakfast and then keep some yummy treats with me? Do I take him there early so that he has an opportunity to see all the people/dogs, or would that just overwhelm him more?

Basically, either he will play or he won't, but I really want to stack the odds in my favor that he will be all over the frisbee during the event.
It's a free event, so no harm no foul if he doesn't play, but I would rather not be made to look like a fool in front of hundreds of people :rofl1:

Any newbie advice? This is our first dog competition event. It doesn't matter if you have never done disc dog, if you have done any dog event I am sure you could help me out!

First off: GOOD LUCK!!

Second: Deep breath. No one there is judging you. At all. Everyone is just super excited for new people to join the sport regardless of how they do and no one is going to sit there laughing and pointing thinking "Stupid person, why did they even bother!"

Story time!

My first competition I competed with both Didgie and Traveler. Didgie is my no matter what is going on she only cares about the disc and me dog. So easy in that situation to keep with me.

Traveler? Well Traveler likes attention. Traveler loves people. Traveler is a stupid boy with a stupid boy brain that likes to take leave sometimes.

I go out with him for the first time in the Distance and Accuracy portion (toss and catch of Skyhoundz) and he's grinning at everyone, looking around and I'm SO nervous. I've got a long line on him because the field wasn't fully fenced and I didn't trust him enough. Time starts and I try to get his attention and he's not looking at me a bit. He then goes over and pees on the first upright thing in the ground which was one of the markers for distance.

Then his long line gets wrapped around my leg and he takes off. With it around my ankle.

By the time they called time he hadn't chased a single disc and had gone and visited people.

I competed in a three more things with him that day and by the last time we were done with the long line and he only visited our tent

So, my point is that things can very easily not go well but that's what starting a new sport is like. And you know what? I look back on that day and I laugh and then I look at where he was a few months later at the last comp of the fall where he was a beast and am astounded by how far he came.

One of the things that really helped me getting his attention back on me was to get ready while the person before me was going on the sidelines so he couldn't see them. I would do tricks with food and the disc (food at first because he would focus more on that then). I did sit pretty, leg weaves, heeling etc and then I would heel over to the start line when it was our turn transferring over his attention to the disc.

Then, the guy there is going to ask to tell him when you're ready. My biggest mistake with Traveler was taking too much time there and trying to get ALL the focus on me rather than just going into it while in the groove we had gotten in, instead of nagging him at the start line. So just tell that guy you're ready as soon as you can, take a deep breath and GO.

People at disc comps so far in my experience are really good about keeping there dogs away from the field (though Traveler did go visit a spectator and her dog at my second comp).

I keep my dogs crated during the comp. I don't over expose them to things and I don't run them before. I take them out to pee and stretch periodically and might go do a couple warm up fetches in a field but overall they spend it in the crate and covered.

I take them out about three people before me to warm up then. Oh, and you should warm up too! Anytime people are allowed to go practice throwing on the field between or before events do it! And mark your discs so you know which ones are yours.

My last piece is to breath while you're up there throwing. Don't rush yourself, don't try to throw it farther than you're capabilities. Every time before I throw I take a deep breath to give myself a second to orient myself. Don't rush yourself or your dog.

And have fun, seriously you'll have a blast no matter what happens!

Good luck and have fun!

I don't compete in disc yet, but I have met a ton of disc people around here and I do compete in other dog sports. All the disc people I have met around here are just excited to see new people in the sport as Linds said. They aren't going to be out there judging you. When I went with one of my friends to a disc dog award ceremony a couple people were talking to me about trying disc with Cricket. I told them it's been a little struggle building up her interest in it. Some days she is so ON and other days she could care less. They said "no big deal we would love to just see you out there giving it a shot anyways."

As for other sports... I mainly lure course. I have an Ibizan that won't always course. He can run the entire course and has sooooooo many times before. His first actual competition he barely qualified. He came off the bag and started running towards me and then went back on the bag and finished. The next trial he quit every run to go visit the lure operator, judge, spectators and then came trotting back to me happy as ever. It was embarrassing I'll admit, but instead of people turning their noses up at us they said they couldn't wait to see us out at the next event.

Best advice is to go out there and have fun!!! That's the whole reason for the sport and the main thing we want new people to take away from it. I always like to do a little warm up with my dogs before the comp if there's another flat open area away from the field. But that's my dogs. GOOD LUCK!!!

I don't have any advice, but good luck and have fun!

We are back!

Leo did so well! I am SO proud!

In the first round, he caught three out of three pretty long throws and was definitely focused on the disc. The only problem was that he was walking the disc back so we only got three throws off, so that's something to work on.

Well, I almost left entirely at that point, because only the top 10 dogs move on to the final round (out of more than 30) and I felt positive we weren't high enough. But as I was driving off, I had a change of heart and decided I really wanted a shirt from the event. So I grabbed lunch nearby and headed back to the field.

I only wanted the shirt (still positive we hadn't placed high enough) and thus almost only took my wallet and left the disc in the car. But decided to bring it along "just in case". Got to the field, just in time for them to announce my name opcorn:

We had tied for 10th with 18 points! So we got a second round to play! The second time, we got four throws in, and he caught three and jumped for two (I try to not let him jump since he is barely one, but he didn't jump very high). Again, he walked the disc back.

If I can just get him to sprint the disc back instead of walking, I think we could start placing higher! Any tips on how to do that?

Overall, I was just soooooo impressed with how he did. There were hundreds of people and TONS of dogs, and Leo is a tiny bit leash reactive (he pulls and barks/growls because he wants to greet all of the dogs)! Well, he was pretty whiney and a little overwhelmed when we first got there, but then he acclimated. By the time we had our first round, he was totally relaxed and able to stand in close proximity with other dogs without even looking at them.

So proud of my boy

Way to go!

Awesome news! Way to go

Woah, they just announced the finals results, and we ended up finishing 4th with 22 points!

This was just a fun competition (no points towards regionals etc.) so I am sure we didn't face any top competition, but I am still completely ecstatic!

Again, I was shocked with how many points we scored. I guess I throw far? :lol-sign:

Congrats!!

I was really nervous for my first competition too, but I think overall the people there are really easy going. It's kind of addictive though.

Huge congrats!!! What a way to knock it out of the park at your first comp!!

Huge congrats!!

As for speed coming back, what do you do when he catches it. Do you talk to him? Slap discs together? Do you have an around/through command for throws?

I've found "through" (Recon's word to go between my dogs to the right and circle around to run out) really amps Recon up because he knows he goes "through" to chase the disc again, so I take a few steps backwards, ask him if he "wants to get this" and tell him through, he puts a lot of pep in his step for it at that point. When I call through, I hold the disc to the side I want him to turn to (my right side since I'm right handed) and it drive him forward even faster because he can see that I'm preparing to throw...

I don't know if that makes any sense, but it works well for us! I also started doing Frisbee rollers with him recently and that's really pepping him up for disc as well, which I love! I wish I had learned to do that sooner.