Radical Canines

When I first started playing disc with my dogs I thought toss and fetch was so simple. It sounds like it should be, right? You throw the disc, the dog catches it and brings it back. Rinse and repeat. I thought it was so easy that I rarely practiced it, spending more time working on freestyle. October 2018, I was at my first World Finals and scored a 2 (perfect score was a 22.5 for reference) and realized maybe toss and fetch wasn’t so easy after all.

Since then, I’ve made it a point to practice more and have definitely improved but it’s still hard and I’m still not great. For a while I hated toss and fetch because it was hard and I was no good at it. I’ve tried to reframe my thoughts around toss and fetch and its definitely still a struggle. Since 2018, I’ve realized theres so much more that goes into successful toss and fetch then just throw, catch, return. There’s timing, the dogs ability to track and adjust, the speed of the return, the handoff, the throw itself, adjusting to weather conditions and I’m sure much more to consider. And different dogs need different things. Rumor needs more time to get out than Rugby does because he’s not as fast. Rugby tracks pretty well and is getting better at adjusting but Rumor really struggles with super floaty throws. Rugby hands off better at knee height on my right side but that’s too much pressure for Rumor so he hands off better with two feet up at chest height. The boys and I have spent a lot of time working on their handoff and drills for tracking. It’s interesting but I’ve heard many times that if you’re not careful, the better thrower you become the worse of a tracker/catcher your dog can become because they are so used to the consistency of the disc always being in the same spot.

It’s all very much still a work in progress but the part that I’ve really struggled with is making consistent, quality throws past the 40 yard mark. I can hit low to mid 30s all day long but those last 5-7 yards to make it into 40 have been so elusive. This weekend a good friend made the trip from Michigan to play and teach throwing lessons and it was amazing! She is easily one of the top female throwers in the USA and a great teacher. We spent an hour changing all sorts of things in my throw. Reach back, elbow up, don’t dip, snap for spin, engage the hips/lower body, then follow through (make it pretty). IT’S A LOT and it’ll be a while before I can say I’ve mastered it but I’ve already seen results in the distance and quality of my throws. Now to just put all the pieces pack together so we can hopefully get more catches. Who knew something so simple could be so hard!