Last weekend was the first in person freestyle weekend of 2020 and it was phenomenal! Of all the dog sports I play, disc is easily my favorite and freestyle is hands down my favorite game. The rules of freestyle are, there are no rules! Okay not exactly. There are definitely rules when it comes to freestyle BUT the game is literally all about making it your own. That means being able to play to your teams strengths/abilities and putting together a routine that showcases those areas. No two freestyle routines are alike and each player tends to develop their own style of routine. Last weekend was one of my favorite weekends of disc ever. We camped in the van, hung out (distanced and masked) with friends, and just had a great time all around!
I knew going into the weekend that it would be a big emotional weekend because it was Rugby’s first time back competing in freestyle with me. I didn’t care how we did, I just wanted to share the field with the rotten red dog and walk off the field with a sound happy dog. Two years ago, Rugby’s routine was full of vaults but I decided to take it easy and I changed our whole routine. It wasn’t our usual but I didn’t care. It was awesome, and there’s something truly special about playing with Rugby. We just click and it’s like he knows what’s next before I do sometimes. He was pushy and I rushed more than I would have liked but we will get our groove back with time. It just felt so good to be out there with him again.
Photo by Ambient Exposure
Don’t get me wrong I enjoy playing freestyle with Rumor too but up until this past weekend, each round has been a lot of work. Work to be patient, work to have fun, work to be clear with Rumor about what was next, work to be flexible for his crazy antics. It’s always been a lot of work playing freestyle with Rumor. He has made me better as a trainer and a handler and he has taught me so much in the past two years. This past weekend was different. It wasn’t work. The energy was different, and it was just fun. Exhausting fun, but fun. I have never had so much fun playing with him. Which tells me, even though I didn’t think I was, I was putting a lot of pressure on us before. Rumor enjoys running around and being goofy. Catching discs in and of itself isn’t highly motivating to him but doing stuff with me is. Doesn’t really matter what the stuff is, he wants to do it and I appreciate him for that.
Photos by Megan Quinn
Even before the results, it was an amazing weekend but the weekend results really did add another layer to the awesomeness. Rugby finished 3rd on Saturday earning an invite to 2021 World Finals and Rumor finished 1st on Sunday in our UpDog Performance Round. We finished up our weekend with a private lesson split between Rugby and Rumor and I’m excited to keep working on things with them.
Radical Canines 
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