Course Details
Winter is the perfect time to work on your disc freestyle routine! Oh, that snow and sleet and ice outside? No worries! In this class, we will focus on teaching new tricks that can be incorporated into any freestyle routine to add flow and style that will stand out from the rest of the competition. This class can be completed indoors in a small area with non-slick footing.
Teaching Approach
This class is taught using a combination of written lectures and short video demonstrations. While week one has a lot of content, the work load slows down as the class progresses. Gold spot students are not expected to teach every trick, but rather pick and choose tricks that they'd like to teach. Lectures are released at the beginning of the week.
Instructor: Sara BrueskeSara Brueske (she/her) has been training dogs for over 15 years, and has experienced a large variety of breeds and sports during that time. Having graduated as a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner ... (click here for full bio including Sara's upcoming courses)
Syllabus
Week One
1. Benefits of tricks
2. Transition tricks
a. Go Around
b. Scoot
3. Pick an extra trick
Week Two
1. Arm Overs
2. Leg weaves
3. Dog Catch
Week Three
1. Rebound
2. Spin/Twist
Week Four
1. Hoop
2. Back around
Week Five
1. Backstall
2. Stand
Week Six
1. Sequencing
Prerequisites & Supplies
Sample Lecture
Before we can catch our dog while they are catching a disc, we need to teach them to love to be caught. The foundation for a disc-less dog catch is the same as the foundation for teaching a rebound which we’ll cover in a future lecture. To prevent your dog from randomly offering a dog catch and flying at your face when you least expect it (generally while you are trying to have a pleasant conversation with the new neighbors that just moved in), be very conscious about what body cue you want to use, even better to add a verbal cue on top of that.
Grab a chair, some treats and your dog in an area with decent traction. Handlers with young dogs, please be aware of how they’re dismounting, do not allow them to jump from your lap as repeated jumps can lead to growth plate injuries.
With you sitting in the chair, arrange your dog on your left or right side (keep it consistent). Put treats in your far hand and encourage them to jump into our lap. You may have to reward for two paws at first, or even just teach your dog to climb into your lap while you’re sitting on the ground. Once your dog is all four paws in your lap, mark and reward in position, then toss a cookie to encourage them to jump off. Repeat. The criteria that we are looking for is that they jump rather than crawl into your lap.
Once your dog is confident leaping into your lap while you are sitting in a chair, begin to place your arms around them as you are reward, as if you are catching them. If your dog seems uncomfortable about this step, ease into it. The criteria of this step is to “catch” your dog as if you were standing up. Don’t forget to reward each repetition, we want dog catches to be AMAZING to our dogs. You can add a verbal cue when you are happy with how your dog is performing this step.
The next step is to add height and slowly remove the landing platform that is your lap. Pile pillows or other objects under you to gradually increase into a standing position. Don’t forget to be mindful of your body and verbal cue. I generally stand with my catching side leg slightly bent to give a surface for my dog’s to aim for. I also open my arms to encourage my dog to jump up while saying “hop up”.
Testimonials & Reviews
A sampling of what prior students have said about this class ...
Sara, you were awesome. Thanks for making me take time off from the other parts of our business to train my youngest dog some really cool tricks. Some are new to me, even after all these years. But please, stop saying 4 feet and say, ALL feet ;) Tripod Cha-Cha-Cha thanks you too!
Great class Sara! Good content and great feedback for gold students. I learned a lot! Thank you!
Sara did a great job with this class, had some excellent ideas and gave great feedback. Rob N I really enjoyed this class. I have not done any disc work with dogs in the past and decided this would be a good starting point with my puppy. There was a moderate amount of the class we didn't do, due to age and jumping restrictions, but I got a lot of ideas moving forward. I love your teaching style and enjoyed stalking the gold students (I was a bronze). Thanks!
Disc Dog Freestyle Tricks was my second course with Sara and she is such an incredible dog trainer and a great instructor. I usually feel anxious about getting feedback especially on things that didn't go quite right but Sara always found something I did well to build off of while also suggesting improvements for next time. She genuinely connects with the handler and the dog which is an impressive thing to do in an online class!
Sara is a fantastic instructor. She ALWAYS provided encouragement along with instructions and made daunting goals manageable and achievable. A huge thank you to her and to FDSA for continuing the disc classes - it is such an amazing resource to have access to. You guys rock :)
Piper and I learned a lot of tricks! Sara gave us good feedback that helped her figure out the tricks when we ran into problems. I especially liked that we got to pick an independent study trick. I picked crossing paws and Sara was able to pinpoint exactly what we needed to do differently so Piper can learn the trick.
I've said it to Sara, but I'm going to reiterate, the confidence my dog gained with these tricks has been amazing. We don't have our eyes on disc right now, but teaching my dog how to do these types of tricks (that were totally out of our area of experience) helped her confidence soar. She is happy to jump in, on, around, near, over me and she is happy to tell me where she is comfortable. Plus we got our unicorn - the dog catch!
Registration
There are no scheduled sessions for this class at this time. We update our schedule frequently, so please subscribe to our mailing list for notifications.
Registration opens at 10:30am Pacific Time.
DS330 Subscriptions
 Gold |
 Silver |
 Bronze |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Tuition | $ 260.00 | $ 130.00 | $ 65.00 |
| Enrollment Limits | 10 | 25 | Unlimited |
| Access all course lectures and materials | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Access to discussion and homework forums | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Read all posted questions and answers | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Watch all posted videos | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Post general questions to Discussion forum | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
| Submit written assignments | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
| Post dog specific questions | ✔ | With video only | ✖ |
| Post videos | ✔ | Up to 2 | ✖ |
| Receive instructor feedback on |
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