A fun and motivational game for nice dogs.

So when we practice, after practice comes the best game. Insane Frisbee for a Treat.


The rules are, Otterpop is the great and powerful ruler of all frisbees. Anyone who can get the frisbee who is not Otterpop will get treats.

Much barking and running and frisbee theft and slamming into other dogs is encouraged. I yell. It is a loud game. Nuns maybe would not allow this game at church.

This is not a good game for dogs who are not Team Small Dog to play with Team Small Dog. Dog feelings get hurt. We have tried. It just doesn't work the same. Big dogs, other small dogs, it just changes the dynamic. There is snarkiness and there could be border collies and SOMEONE just laying on top of the frisbee until border collies go elsewhere.

Everyone looks forward to Insane Frisbee. Mostly we play it after practicing when we practice by our lonesome because it is a game of yelling and barking and attacking things. And the whole feelings getting hurt issue. If you could see my dogs practice by themselves, anyone who has ever seen them be less than speedy, or downright slow, would be aghast. They are the fastest small dogs in town. They never miss a contact. Or a pole entry. They have mad distance skillz and are nuts. When goats are the only ones watching.

Practice with a couple other people, they're pretty fast.

Practice in class, they're ok fast.

Practice at a fun match, ok fast.

Go to the dog show? Maybe fast. Maybe slow. It depends on 47 different factors including weather, what articles of clothing judges are wearing that day, who else is in line with them to go in the ring and the train schedule.

We are hoping Gustavo breaks the cycle of madness that is our downfall in the dog show ring. Today we practiced doing actual little courses, running as damn fast as we could. Me and him. It was the first time really doing that. We have done so many little drills at slower speeds it was cool to see he knows a front cross and a rear cross and go ons and outs. Just like how it works on tv! So that's going to be how we all practice for a while, just bringing the speed back into things and some of the Insane Frisbee Madness onto the course. There was no Buck Owens today. I wish I had a boombox out there and it would have been classic rock day, if your classic rock is the Sex Pistols and Dead Kennedys.


View from the table cam.

The glamour of it all.

Does this happen to you?

Any time someone EVEN THINKS there might be actual practicing happening, it is Team mayhem. Like I look at a table and MAYHEM! they are all up on the table. Any table! Even the one with the ipod plugs on it! Don't run over Timmy when you all go running for toys on the And Go! Really there is never genuine agility practicing at my house, but I guess it is the funny little pretend parts that sort of SEEM like agility. And Gustavo has his own personal weave poles (channels with wires, agility fans amongst you) in the driveway (mock me neighbors, but no stone throwing from people who hang toasters in their trees and still have the easter eggs scattered about their trash heap) and I am liable to stick his little contact board any old place for a target. Which to the rest of the Team, SEEMS enough like agility to cause mayhem of Excitement!

Non agility fans amongst you, this driveway business is sort of like the canvas priming, hard drive digging, brush cleaning, hammering and programming part of agility. Like you just have to keep doing it and repeating it when you are training the skills, before you can get to the totally RAD part of running around out there like a bat out of hell.

Like, I am not a rockstar, but I play one in my mind, and I think rockstaredness is like this. You have to practice and practice and practice and no one sees this or knows about it. Everyone sees the fun and glamorous part with the leather pants and on the stage and you're drunk and it is so FABULOUS, but most of the time it is the practicing and practicing and practicing. And making sure you practice right so you don't screw up later. Like Johnny Depp practicing to be a Keith Richards pirate. How many times did he have to apply that eyeliner and do the british mumbling to get it right?

At the art opening, no one knew about soldering the 50 gazillion LED's or the hand cramps from the tiny brushes or stabbing wounds of 10 million sharp pieces of fake Christmas tree branches. You just have the super cool outfit (ha!) and you are waving your arms about with the fame of it all. And you are probably drunk again. No one knows how many times you had to rip out ALL the stitches and start all over or the projector was crooked and you had to reprime the wall and start all over. No one knows you had to invest all the money for REAL then have the stock market Actually Crash!

Yes, the fame and the glamour of the Steeplechase Finals comes and how many of you know how many damn times we had to run through those weave poles and be so very patient and keep the wires on and stand so still for the entry and throw the frisbee and figure out why is the popping happening at pole 10 and rethink and refix. How many times on that table and making sure when the judge says And Go and the dog waits til then and is not leaping off that table so let's just use the patio table again, all of you together and sit there for a nice count of 5. And then maybe if we win big enough, Johnny Depp is there at the finish line to hand over that icy mojito. The glamour of it all.