Have a dog who likes frisbees? Join us for a conversation about UpDog — including What's UpDog and how you can compete!

 Transcript

Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast, brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an online school dedicated to providing high quality instruction for competitive dog sports using only the most current and progressive training methods. Today we'll be talking to Sara Brueske about competing in UpDog and all the different games you and your dog can play with a Frisbee. Hi, Sara, welcome back to the podcast.

Sara Breuske: Hi, Melissa, thank you so much for having me. Excited to chat about this. It's definitely a favorite topic.

Melissa Breau: So to start us out, do you want to just remind everybody a little bit about kind of who you are, who your dogs are and what you're working on with them? Sure. I have a lot of dogs and I've been competing in UpDog since its creation. So 10 years ago, they had one of their first beta tests off site up here in Minnesota and I was at that.

And then my dogs and I competed at the very first UpDog. So that's the Updog International finals. And we came away with a lot of awards including overall champion, Versatility champion, when they were still doing that across all hype divisions and all of the games. That was Zip tie that did that. And then same thing for the next UpDog. They weren't doing the versatility champion anymore, but we did place high in a lot of the games and championed a lot of those games as well.

So I've been competing ever since my current competition dogs. So I have a whole bunch of retired old dogs that were my Frisbee performing dogs that I used to do halftime shows and work for Purina for, and we just perform every single day. And then now my current competition dogs, I have two Australian Koolies, I have a two year old named Cake, a four year old named Vibrant, and then I have a little Papillon who is my tiny dog named Pop Rock and she is two years old.

Melissa Breau: I don't understand how Cake and Pop Rock can both be two already. That's not a lot. I know. And also at the same time, like you guys, you are two years old, you are adult dogs now. So let's talk disc. Can you talk just a little bit about kind of what it means to compete with your dog in Frisbee, what venues there are and kind of what is UpDog maybe why you like it in particular?

Sara Brueske: Not much. What is up with you?

Melissa Breau: Nice.

Sara Brueske: So the first thing I kind of want to mention about disc in general is that it is super welcoming to newcomers. So if there is, if you haven't been involved with a sport already. And your dog loves to play Frisbee in the backyard, just find a local club and start competing because it's really geared towards getting people more involved with their dogs and kind of welcoming newbies into the fold as.

As you know, as we say it. So with Updog in particular, that is the whole reason behind it. The founders created it as a means to get more people involved with their dogs outside of just sitting on the couch with them, get them more involved, get them more active. We know that active dogs are healthier dogs and people doing things with their dogs are making healthier people as well.

And so that was kind of the whole foundation behind Updog from the creators. And so for that reason, it is one of the most welcoming venues. They can include things like rollers. So if you're like, I can't throw a Frisbee that well or that far, a rollers, where you just roll the disc along the ground and that counts as a throw in Updog. Now, as far as disc in general, disc dog, not all of the organizations allow things like rollers.

Some of them do. You have to look at the rules and guidelines as far as that goes. Most of them are more traditional based, meaning there are two different games. So you have toss and fetch, which is throw the disc as far as you can. You get points for distance and accuracy. And then there's freestyle. And that's the creative routines that we do with the tricks where our dogs are like jumping off of our body to catch the Frisbee and that's set to music.

So those are the two foundation games, the traditional games for just dog. And then Updog has kind of got taken, taken those and ran with them and made a whole bunch of really fun strategy games that cater to all the different skill sets for dogs and their handlers.

Melissa Breau: I think, you know, when the uninitiated kind of hear that people compete in Frisbee with their dog, you know, throwing goes kind of with their picturing.

Right. Throwing the disc, having the dog retrieve it. First of all, is it that simple? Right. What else is involved? And can you paint a little bit of a picture of some of those different games?

Sara Brueske: Sure. So throw and go is just like the toss and fetch that I was talking about earlier. It's designed to be a more traditional game, however, strategy games. When I talk about strategy games, it turns out that there are some strategies to that game.

In particular, that Updog game, Throw and Go, that make it one, a little bit more beginner friendly and two, Allows you to get a lot more points than just throwing as far as you can. So that's one of the games that I talk about in week two in my new Disc Dog class. What is up dog? Because people don't realize that the high points in that game are actually scored by throwing a 10 yard throw.

So to the first line and back over and over and over again. So you don't have to throw these monster 45 yard throws to score well in that game. And if you look at the points and watch, you know how these big teams are scoring, it's not from throwing long distance in that game at the level one. Now level two with Updog, it does change the game a little bit in the strategy a little bit. But level one, you don't need to throw a 45 yard throw to be successful in that game.

Melissa Breau: What skills do you consider foundation skills?

Sara Brueske: If a team is starting to play with Frisbee and they intend eventually to compete, you can play all of the games at Updog with just one disc and having your dog bring it back to you. So if that's how you taught Frisbee, you can compete and be successful with those outside of freestyle.

So all of the games can be played that way. However, if you want more points and you want to place a little bit better and be a little bit more competitive, you do want to teach your dogs how to play with multiple Frisbees. So, you know, some of the games allow for up to eight discs at a time and that really caters to the strategy for each individual game.

And so teaching your dog to drop at a distance so you can throw another one, teaching your dog to do a go around, which is where they go around their body so they can accelerate to catch those longer throws, that's another skill. And then a retrieve to hand. So to have the disc and bring it to me or drop it at my feet. So those are kind of the three foundation skills that I think are really helpful for anybody getting started with disc. But like I said, if you have a game where you just throw the disc, you can still be successful in Updog.

Melissa Breau: I like that. So let's dive a little deeper into what it means to actually have a strategy for Updog games. Can you talk us through a game and maybe one or two of the strategies that might apply to it?

Sara Brueske: Yeah, so I'll talk about two ones since I already mentioned throw and go and doing those short throws.

So one of my dogs, Zip Tie was I was battling to try to take the world record spot for him two years ago. Now he's unfortunately too old. And so for him to get that world record spot two years ago it was to get seven 10 yard throws. So just on the 10 yard line within that minute time. So seven of those one little, I think I did like a one point throw and then just as the time was ending, throw a 45 yard roller to the end to get an additional 12 points.

So looking at, you know, with the strategies, looking at what is the fastest way to get points. So if I do that 10, that 10 yard throw that is worth 6 points times 7, what's quick math? I don't know 6 times 7. I know 6 times 6, 36 plus 7. I hope it's somewhere in there. Anyway, the math works out where if I can get seven of those six point throws in that time frame, it's much better than getting, you know, my three 12 point throws or four 12 point throws or however it might be and then saving that big long throw, that 12 point throw for just as time is being called.

Because up down always creates these sweet spot bonus point opportunities. And in throw and go. The one that they call the active sweet spot bonus is you throw the disc before time ends. So the disc has already left your hand before time ends, the T in time, but the disc is caught after time ends and it has to be after the 20 yard line in the bonus zone.

So it's very particular about where it's thrown. You get that additional five points for the sweet spot bonus and the points for that throw. So that one throw is worth 17 points. So I can come up with a strategy where I can really maximize those additional bonus points that each game offers as well as capitalize how many throws I can possibly get off by making it as efficient as I possibly can.

So that's just one game. There's another strategy for one of the more popular games called four way play. And in that game they have to get a catch in each of the four quadrants before repeating the quadrants again. And so they're worth a certain amount of points. But we found, and the top teams, they're not throwing long throws to those tiny little quadrants. Those quadrants are only 5 yards by 10 yards.

So if you're throwing a 20 yard throw from one end to the other, it's really hard to hit that quadrant. For a lot of dogs, especially if you have like a big leaping dog, they're going to leap right over that spot. So if you run yourself as the handler to each corner of the game and just do this short, little deep toss that counts as a catch. And so that reduces my chance for missed catches because I'm not throwing it or catches out of the zone because my dog is in the zone.

I put them right there and then now the points are just dependent on how fast I am as a handler. I don't have to run around and collect us that my dogs dropped where they're not supposed to. And it just gets rid of all of those chances of error and increases the probability you're gonna get as many points as possible. And so while it's not the most, you know, the most sexy version of the game, right, it is the most efficient.

And that's where your world records are coming from and your high scores are coming from. And it's really great when you have dogs that are struggling catching because they pre jump like cake. Cake does that. And so for her, she's, you know, she cleared out four quads at our last competition easily with this method because she wasn't missing discs, she wasn't jumping too early, she wasn't jumping out of the zones, she was getting those discs as I through them. And so that was a huge, huge help for a strategy for her to be successful.

Melissa Breau: What factors like do you tailor those strategies based on the dog and what factors kind of about the dog might make you choose one strategy versus another?

Sara Brueske: Yeah, it totally is dependent on the dog. And so while I, as a competitive player, I'm going to try to push my dogs to these most competitive strategies as I possibly can because I want to place, I want to win, I want to set world records, that's what I want to do.

But that's the beauty of it. These games are designed in a way that there are many different strategies you can play to be successful with your dog. And there's personal best you can earn so you can go onto the field. And even if you don't place at that competition, you're still earning points towards qualifications and towards your titles. And if you do the best round you've ever done in that game with your dog, then you get a personal best.

And a lot of the competitions have special awards for that. And so even though you don't want to be competitive, setting up the strategies for your dog to be successful is a great option. And so I definitely don't play my little five pound Papillon the same way I play my big, you know, 36 pound fast running Koolie. And so the strategies that I'm going to play with her are going to be very different than I do with my, my bigger, faster dogs.

Melissa Breau: Can you go into that just a little bit more like what some of the differences are between what you do with Pop Rock and what you do with somebody like Cake?

Sara Brueske: Yeah. So for Pop Rock, in that four way play game that I mentioned earlier, I do throw rollers because she is not successful with those little short tosses. Catching a disc out of the air is a real struggle for her, but she can grab rollers like none, you know, like, like crazy.

And so for her, I tend to play that game in more of a Z shape. So I go from one corner straight across to the other corner, then we do a diagonal and then straight across the other corner. That way she's running straight towards those rollers as much as possible. And I just make sure that I'm putting those rollers in the zone as easily as I can. And because she's tiny, the chance of her catching it out of the zone is a lot more slim than my big dog that can clear that zone in one and a half strides. And so it's a lot less risky for me to throw a throw for her and get it in that zone than my other dogs.

Melissa Breau: Interesting. All right, so for people who are listening to this and going, well, that kind of sounds like fun. What's the best way to learn about local clubs? What's the best way to get involved? How do you start doing this stuff?

Sara Brueske: So updogchallenge.com has a list of different events, so you'll want to click on that, look in your area, see what events are coming up.

You can also just Google search for disc dog clubs in your area. And while they might not be offering updog, they might have play dates, they might have different competitions, and they might have just a good way to get involved, which would probably be your first step. But yeah, just go to a competition. There are a ton of updog events nowadays and just watch and just ask questions.

If you can volunteer, that's even better. There's a lot of opportunities to volunteer where you don't have to know the rules or anything like that, but it gives you that opportunity to be nice and close to the field and see what's going on and ask the judge questions.

Melissa Breau: Awesome. So we're talking about this because you have a new class. You mentioned the new class a little bit earlier. Do you want to share just a bit more about what you're covering in the class and maybe who should consider signing up?

Sara Brueske: Yeah, it's the UpDog what's up, dog? It's a strategy class. So how to kind of get the most out of your your up dog rounds. And we're going through two different games each week. So for the 11 games, including the crossover. So agility and Frisbee crossover games.

And we're just kind of breaking them down, going over the rules, general rules, and then what strategies are the best for you and your dog. And the gold spots, they. I'll be catering the strategies to them. And so if you really want that kind of more hands on, that might be a good option. I think there might be one or two gold spots left in that class, but Bronze is still great.

There's a lot of really good students in there, a big variety of students. And I will be sharing videos of Cake Vibrant and Pop Rock for all of the games and how I'm playing it with them. And so that way you can kind of see how I adapt for each dog. And I talk really in depth about what I'm doing as far as each strategy goes.

Melissa Breau: That sounds fantastic. I may have to go sign up at Bronze. I hadn't done that yet. So that's not the only thing you have in the calendar. Is there anything else you want to plug? Anything else you want to mention?

Sara Brueske: Just my oldest sports class. I'm running that one this session too. There's a lot of information in that class and it's a really good one to take. I have somebody taking it in preparation for getting a new puppy.

They know they're going to be getting a new puppy in six months to 12 months, and so they're taking it with their older dog. That way they're getting the hands on practice with their older dog and they'll be able to hit the ground running when their puppy comes along. That's awesome.

Melissa Breau: All right, any final thoughts, key points, things you want to leave listeners with?

Sara Brueske: No. If your dog loves Frisbee, play UpDog. It is great. And yeah, you'll have fun with your dog and it's really there to help you and your dog be successful. So definitely a sport for everyone as long as their dog loves Frisbees.

Melissa Breau: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Thank you so much for having me and thanks to our listeners for tuning in. We'll be back next week. Don't miss it. If you haven't already, subscribe to our podcast in itunes or the podcast app of your choice to have our next episode automatically downloaded to your phone as soon as it becomes available, today's show is brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy.

Special thanks to Denise Fenzi for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty free by Bensound.com the track featured here is called Buddy. Audio Editing provided by Chris Lang. Thanks again for tuning in and happy training.

 Credits

Today's show is brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzi for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty-free by BenSound.com; the track featured here is called "Buddy." Audio editing provided by Chris Lang.

Thanks again for tuning in -- and happy training!