Flipsi - Dog frisbee

USDDN qualifier in Poznan, Poland

2011-07-25T07:57:00.000-07:00

posted by Jean

On June 18-19, 2011 I attended the USDDN qualifier in Poznan, Poland. It was a long way to travel, and Polish roads are, shall we say, not as pleasant to drive along as, for instance, the German autobahn, and moreover I couldn't persuade anyone else from Slovenia to come with me. I didn't know until a day or two before departure whether I would even be able to go: only some express payments from understanding clients for work I'd done but normally would have been paid for the following week made it possible. The dogs and I lived more or less out of our car for 5 days, including sleeping in it at night, it took me days to recover physically from the rigors of the journey once I got back home, and I couldn't go to another competition for some time afterwards due to the dent the trip made in my finances.

So I must have been nuts to do it, right? Absolutely not. It was worth every cent/zloty/kilometer on the road/hour behind the wheel (some of the last spent unmoving, in traffic). The Polish DCDC competitions, sponsored by Purina and organized by Dariusz Radomski of Latajace psy, are truly something special. Every discdogger should go to one at least once in their lifetime.

They're typically held in large public parks located in the middle of big cities, with multiple events and activities on offer over the two days, and attract a huge field of competitors, including some of the best in the sport. As a result, the events also draw huge crowds of spectators, especially if the weather is good, and the atmosphere is that of a big, fun weekend festival.

While the events attract thousands of onlookers and a lot of media attention, it is the competitors who are at the center of it. The organizers and sponsors go to great lengths and expense to ensure that the experience is positive and enjoyable for all participants, whatever their level or final ranking. The entry fee is only 5€ per dog, for the entire weekend, however many events you choose to compete in. On registration each competitor receives various practical gifts: at this last one, I was given a folding chair, treat bag, windbreaker, kerchief and various other items; in the past I've received a fleece jacket, disc bag, dog water bottle, cup, etc. You're made to feel like a winner before you even take the field to compete. :) And then when you do compete, you're judged by some of the best in the business: head judge at Poznan, for example, was Melissa Heeter from the USA.

For a taste of what it was like, have a look at these videos:

Dock diving was offered for the first time, and was popular with competitors and spectators alike. We all wanted to try it. Lyra was a pioneer once again and became, to my knowledge, the first dog from Slovenia to "compete" in dock diving. I thought she would take to it like, well, a duck (or a dog?) to water, since she loves swimming and usually leaps into water bodies after a stick with no hesitation whatsoever, but she, like many of the dogs, was reluctant to leap off this platform into this water. Perhaps it was too artificial and unfamiliar. She did make it through the qualifying round (basically, any dog that was willing to slip into the water from the dock without excessive balking advanced), but in the next round (just one attempt each) she decided to use the stairs instead of jumping, and we were out of contention. With training and practice I think she would learn to love it, but given the lack of training facilities, for now we'll stick with our swimming in lakes, rivers, and the sea in Slovenia.

You can see some of the better dock divers in the videos above; however, the reaction filmed in the one below was also not uncommon:

There was also human diving. That is, if you lost a bet with Jakub Štybr, like Lucka and Bartek did. Since Jakub had the highest score of the three in the second round of minidistance, he got to throw the frisbee while the losers swam for it.

Video here:
https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=162566933810939

Another attraction at the Poznan competition was a long distance event according to new rules devised by Darek. Called Chase & Catch, it differs from the Quadruped event we're more familiar with in several respects: you can use any USDDN-approved disc, and even change them within the same round of throwing, you are not limited to three throws per round but can throw as many times as you like within a certain time period, and the final ranking depends on each competitor's longest catch. I enjoyed it, and hope it will be offered again at future competitions.

Some photos of the Flipsi team in action:

And our results? Here we are, waiting for them to be announced...

Having already qualified at an earlier competition for the USDDN World Finals, I wasn't really concerned about where we finished. I was just there to see friends, enjoy the atmosphere, and have fun. I decided not to do freestyle with Bamm Bamm (who is already qualified and who, if we can raise the funds, will compete in the USA in October) since he competed in the long distance event, and I didn't want to overwork him by doing too much in one day. It was also more relaxing for me to compete with just two dogs rather than three in freestyle, leaving more time for socializing and watching others perform.

But in fact we did pretty well. Bamm Bamm was third in the Chase & Catch:

In Super Pro Toss & Fetch, Bamm Bamm had a respectable first round but only got three catches in the second one, slipping to 16th place (of 59 competitors). There was a strong tailwind during the second round that caused problems for many competitors, with the disc dropping before the dog could get to it, or taking funny unpredictable hops and bounces, making it difficult to track. But Lyra, despite the wind, turned in a simply amazing second round performance. I managed to get off 8 throws, and she caught every one of them, many in the fourth zone and/or in the air. As a result, she moved from 21st place to finish in 5th place, thereby also earning a qualifying berth at both the Polish DCDC Finals and the USDDN World Finals in this event. Oli moved from 5th place to a tie for 2nd place after the second round, and managed to retain it after winning the tie-breaker (one throw).

But it was Oli's performance in the Open Freestyle that was probably the highlight of our weekend. Thanks in part to perfect execution during her first round of freestyle (something I've never before achieved, and probably never will again), she was in first place (of 41 teams in the Open class) after the first round of freestyle and minidistance. Here's a video:

This was the third competition in a row in which she had led in the intermediate results. In each of the previous cases she dropped after the second round: from 1st to 5th at the Kirican qualifier (though still good enough to qualify), and from 1st to 2nd at Fun Factory in Blšany. At Poznan, however, she managed to hang onto the lead, and won. :)

All in all, a memorable weekend. I just wish Poland was closer to Slovenia. :)

FunFactoryForFrisbee

2011-06-30T05:52:00.000-07:00

posted by Jean

On June 4-5 there was the first of what we all hope will become an annual tradition: the FunFactoryforFrisbee tournament. :) Held at the football fields in Blšany, Czech Republic, it featured competitions in ultimate frisbee, dogfrisbee, and disc golf.

The Flipsi team competed in Open Freestyle

Super Pro Toss & Fetch

as well as the funnest event of all, the Beer Race:

Mark your calendars now for next year!

Flipsi Freestylers perform at Poskokčev dan in Sežana

2011-06-28T05:38:00.000-07:00

posted by Jean

On Friday June 10 Veronika and Brie, Sara and Riva, Blaž and Pupa, and Jean and Lyra, Oli and Bamm Bamm took part in "Poskokčev dan" (Poskokec Day) at the athletics stadium in Sežana, organized by the sports club Poskokec.

The weather that day was perfect, after a week of rain. There were all kinds of fun activities and events for kids and their families to take part in, and exciting performances by a variety of clubs and groups.

Including ours. :) We did some dogfrisbee demonstrations and performances at regular intervals throughout the evening. Conditions were perfect: a large area of soft, level grass, little wind (even in this land of the "burja"), and an appreciative audience.

In between shows we were available to talk with visitors about the sport, the club, and our dogs, some of whom were kept quite busy in the "petting zoo":

We also loaned some of our frisbees for the kids to throw, but due to the size of the crowd (about 1500 people) we kept it pretty limited, so that no stray frisbees would hit some poor little kid in the head.

Here's a video:

For more about the event and the organization behind it, as well as a photo gallery, see here.

We had a lot of fun and were proud to be part of this great event. Already looking forward to next year!

Dogfrisbee course, spring 2011

2011-04-05T08:15:00.000-07:00

We started with our trainings few weeks ago. This Sunday it was our 3rd training and we have great fun! Thanks to our great photographer Blayo here are some great photos:

Learning new frisbee throws:

Overhand wrist flip:

Backhand under the leg:

Forehand under the leg:

Backhand skip throw:

We work on accuracy of our throws:

And let me intruduce you my GREAT dogfrisbee team!

Uroš and Emily, learning some vaults:

Maruša and Kaili, doing learning overs:

Katja and Lava, tugging and making frisbee FUN! :)

Ingrid and Dixie, young but very promising couple!

Irma and Lona, doing some round the world and passings. :)

Anja and Fly, flying whippet - making frisbee the most exciting way of playing!

Mirjam and Ara, totally new at frisbee, but better with every course!

Lea and Kal, great team, preparing for their 1st competition in Ptuj! :)

Martina and Archie, frisbee has been in their life for a long time, now they want to upgrade it with different elements, throws and lots of fun!

Tjaša and Inti, who is one little crazy frisbee freak! :) Learning overs and some frisbee tricks...

And my little squirrel, waiting on her turn. :)

Frisbee is FUN! :)

Frisbee seminar v Burji

2010-12-19T00:25:00.000-08:00

posted by Veronika Valentin; see also the report from a seminar participant here.

11. in 12.12. smo v Društvu za reševalne pse Burja gostili Flipsijev seminar o frisbeeju s psom, ki ga je vodila Jean McCollister. Potekal je na poligonu v Vanganelu pri Kopru. Po skoraj treh tednih dežja nam je bilo vreme zelo naklonjeno in smo oba dneva uživali v soncu. Seminar je bil namenjen začetnikom in vodnikom z nekaj več izkušnjami in psom vseh starosti in pasem. V soboto se nas je zbralo 9 vodnikov in nekaj partnerjev za vadbo metov, v nedeljo pa nas je bilo 8.

Ob 9.30 smo se zbrali Pri Emilu, kjer smo spili jutranjo kavico, se spoznali in dobili od Jean napotke, kako igrati frisbee, da bo zabaven in varen za naše štirinožce. Nato smo dopoldne preživeli na poligonu, kjer smo si podajali frizbije, se pri tem veliko naučili in nasmejali. Sledilo je kosilo pri Emilu, nato pa individualno delo s psi. Zanimivo je bilo gledati različne pse, kako se odzivajo na frisbee, za večino je bila to prva tovrstna izkušnja. Začetniki so se učili motivacije psa za frisbee in osnovnih elementov freestyla, tisti, ki imamo že nekaj izkušenj, pa smo poskušali nadgraditi svoje znanje in v naše freestyle rutine dodati zahtevnejše elemente.

Mislim, da si je ta atraktiven pasji šport pridobil kar nekaj novih privržencev. Večina se z njim namerava ukvarjati rekreativno, mislim pa, da jih bomo kar nekaj videli tudi na kakšni tekmi. Vsi smo se krasno zabavali in upam, da nam spomladi uspe tak seminar ponoviti.

World animal day and Children`s week

2010-11-11T04:45:00.000-08:00

posted by Sara Kalin

On october 9th really nice event took place in Renče (near Nova Gorica). Društvo prijateljev živali Severne Primorske and some local people decide to celebrate world animal day and childrens week with one morning event. They invited several different clubs to help create that nice event. There were therapy dogs (from tačke pomagačke ), club which helps abused and homeless horses (društvo za pomoč konjem) and one, which helps abused sighthounds from England, Ireland and Spain and trying to find them better owners in Slovenia (društvo hrtji svet), SAR group from Nova Gorica, police, there are some animal shelters, children also had a chance to ride a horse, and also our Flipsi team was there.

The main goal was collecting things (food, toys, beds, blankets..) for animal shelters (Vitovlje and sv. Anton) and kids were great, they collected a lot :)

Each club had his own place, where visitors could ask whatever they wanted to know about their activity, so goal was not just fun but also to educate people about how to treat animals and which activities can you and dog do together.

Later on, each club had an opportunity to tell and show what is their activity. Children really enjoyed freestyle and agility and were happy when there was a chance to play a bit of frisbee and throw some throws.

It was great day, events like those are a chance how on fun way educate children how to treat animals and we`re looking forward to participate on that kind of events in the future.

Children collecting things for animal shelters ((C) dan živali)

Flipsi dogs ((c) Mojca Furlan)

Amadea, Bora in Asta ((c) Dan živali)

Tomaž in Zipi ((c) Mojca Furlan)

Sky and Mojca ((c) Mojca Furlan)

Katarina in Val ((c) Mojca Furlan)

Flipsi seminar, 23.10.2010

2010-10-26T15:01:00.000-07:00

posted by Maja Rokavec

We had Flipsi seminar with Jean McCollister this weekend! All I hoped for was good weather, at least no rain, and someone up there listened to me and we had great weather. I attended the seminar only one day - on Saturday. The weather on Saturday was better, while on Sunday it was a little windy, but what's important - no rain at all! :)

There we were on Saturday morning:

* Andreja and Ruby:

* Blaž and Pupa:

* Nuša and Lin:

* Mateja and Don:

* Mojca and Dama:

*Sandi and Buddy:

* Barbara and Kala:

* Urša and Spidi:

* Rudolf and Niksi:

* and Phoebe and me. :)

No photo here. I was standing behind the camera all the time. :)

And of course there was our Aleš Horvat who was selling frisbees [www.canin-sport.si]!
And Jean, who done a great introduction in dogfrisbee, explained and showed the elements at the beginning of the day:

Then we were practicing different throws. We seperate in two groups - total beginners and advanced group. Jean showed us different throws and then we make practice. :) We had a lot of laugh while practicing.

About noon, we ordered some pizzas and had lunch break, take our dogs for a little walk, because after the break we had practicing with the dogs. Every body got his turn twice time in the afternoon.

We had a lovely day. The dogs had fun! We had fun! :)
Because I am not such good writer as I am photographer, here are quite a lot of photos from the seminar! :) Hope you like them. More photos in the gallery on Flipsi's site SOON! :)

Maja

*****

KEEP IT FUN, KEEP IT SAFE!

"Frisbees on my mind - all the time." :)

In Memoriam: Jindra Pecháček

2010-08-04T04:58:00.000-07:00

Jindra has left us.

He died Friday July 30, of cancer, at the age of 43. Many of us learned the sad news at Trmice on Saturday morning, just before the start of the competition, and were utterly shocked by it. Diagnosed in January, Jindra knew he wouldn't live much longer but had kept the information from most people, because he didn't want to ruin anyone's enjoyment of life, even as his own was coming to an end.

He was an unforgettable person. I met him for the first time at my first ever dogfrisbee competition, at Stromovka Park in Prague in July 2007, and saw him at just about every one I went to since. Frisbee for me will always be associated with his presence and now, his spirit. And what spirit! He and his dog Ro always stood out, they were real characters, highly expressive and wonderful and amusing to watch.

I can't claim to have ever had a real conversation with him, since I don't speak Czech and he didn't know English. But it didn't seem to matter. We shared a podium at Stromovka, and the next time I saw him, at the EC 2007 in Wroclaw, Poland, he greeted me like an old friend, with a big smile, a twinkling eye, and a hug. That warmth, friendliness, and general craziness surrounded him wherever he went, all you had to do was get near him and it infected you in the best possible way.

He was one of nine Czechs who came to Slovenia at our invitation in April of 2008, to help teach us the game and hold Slovenia's first dogfrisbee competition. I had asked each person to write a little background about themselves; here's what he wrote about himself and his partner Ro:

Ro is four years old. I got him when he was two. His parentage is unknown, and he was born in an animal shelter. His background is quite sad: he was mistreated and passed from one owner to another. Ever since choosing me as his partner, he has been living as though he were on holiday, but he has a frisbee in his head instead of a brain.

One of Ro's trademarks was the way he would fold a Jawz frisbee in half like a pancake, or maybe a calzone, while retrieving.

Jindra and Ro were a great team, who played the game for the best of reasons, for pure joy and fun. Jindra's friend Michal Roman wrote a moving tribute to him, posted in Czech at the Czech discdog site, and can say it better than me. Here is an English translation, thanks to Zuzana Ouředníková:

IN MEMORY OF JINDRICH PECHACEK, BY MICHAL ROMAN

Jindrich Pechacek... a friend, an uncontrollable element, a showman, but also a great dogfrisbee player. Every competitor in Trmice was shocked by Jindra´s death. Czech dogfrisbee lost one of its best personalities. Jindra may not have been the best player, but he could entertain the audience and his "opponents" as well. In fact he never competed. Dogfrisbee was fun and play for him, something he did mainly because of his dog. He used to say his dog had a disc instead of a brain. And when he entered the field unprepared, he would say: "Let's just throw." He was a showman and thanks to this he became unforgettable. Even people who didn't know him and were just standing with him in a queue at a stall won't forget him. Although he knew his life was coming to an end, he kept it secret. He continued entertaining the people around him and he was very happy when he was successful at it. It's a pity that he never organized any competition, because he was a great organizer and host, too. The best competition I have ever attended was at "Mytinka" (a training ground built by Jindra). In the morning before the start of all events he let the people draw lots from boxes. After reading the cards we realized that we had been assigned an opponent's dog. It was quite difficult for some, but everyone had a great time that day. Competitions won't be the same without Jindra, something has changed. But I know that he wouldn't want us to grieve. Always when I remember him I cheer up thanks to the sentence: "Hey dude, don't worry, let's go and have fun!" And we should continue like this because of Jindra. And remember the nice time we spent with him.

Here is a video that Michal put together, a composite of several performances over the years:

Jindra sometimes went by the nickname of "Létající Krakonoš". "Létající" means "flying" (and is commonly used to describe frisbee dogs) and "Krakonoš" is a mythical character, the patron of the Krkonoše mountain range. Jindra acquired the name I guess in part because he was living in the town of Trutnov, in the Krkonoše mountains (and also home to the Krakonoš brewery) and in part because he bears some resemblance to Krakonoš:

The training field he was working on was called "Mýtinka u Létájící Krakonoš"--Flying Krakonoš's clearing.

More photos of Létájící Krakonoš can be seen at Pavel Humpolec's site.

Jindra's farewell party will be this Friday, August 6, in the town of Lanškroun, where he was born:

Jindra, we miss you and we hate to see you go. You left too soon. But we hope that wherever you are, you are having fun and putting on a good show, just as you did when you were here with us.

Jean McCollister

Frisbee whorefest in Maribor

2010-05-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

posted by Jean McCollister

Here's hoping I won't get crucified for this title. Let me explain where it comes from. In my younger days I used to be a rugby whore. A rugby whore is someone who shows up at rugby tournaments ready to play any position with any team. They don't come with a team of their own, so they "whore on" to other teams that need players. In fact, some tournaments are organized specifically as "whorefests" (or "harlotfests" if you prefer a more genteel term), like this one, to be held June 19 in Rockford, Illinois. People simply show up, and are assigned more or less randomly to a team.

Anyway, our dogfrisbee competition in Maribor on June 6th features a team event called Medley Relay. It was originally conceived as a four-member team event, but we've changed to three-member teams in response to concerns from potential competitors about being able to make forty-yard throws and catches. And we're giving people several options when it comes to entering a team:

- you can put together a team of your own (friends, club members, particular breed, etc.) and enter that team (just give it a name and tell us who's on it);
- you can let us (me) know that you want to enter, tell us the distances you're willing to throw, and we'll put you in touch with others looking to form a team;
- or you can simply show up on the day and whore, possibly with perfect strangers.

Up to you. :)

As I mentioned in my description of the event, Medley Relay is a combination of time trial and minidistance. There are different zones as in minidistance, but what counts is time, not points, as in time trial. There is one important difference compared to time trial, however: your team will be scored even if two catches are not made in the allotted time (60 s for the first and second zones, 90 s for the third and fourth zones). So all teams will have a finishing time, whether or not each member is successful in making two catches. So in that sense the concern about the fourth leg of the relay was misplaced, but even so we've decided to try it first with three on a team.

I thought it would be fun to have a team event, since everything else in dogfrisbee is individual. It's fun to play together as a team, and it can be even more fun doing it with random strangers--it's a great way to create camaraderie and forge new friendships. I wanted, too, to have an event in which slower, smaller dogs would be able to compete on an equal footing with the better known breeds who tend to excel in the sport (border collie, Australian shepherd, Belgian shepherds etc.). So a Medley Relay team could be made up of, say, a small mixed breed dog for the first leg, a lab or toller for the middle leg(s), and one of the better known breeds for the anchor leg. It's a timed event, sure, but it rewards accurate placement by the thrower and good catching by the dog as much as or more than speed: a slower dog which makes two catches in succession is going to have a better time than a speedy dog that misses.

There's always some risk involved in doing something new. It could turn out to be a huge hit, or it could turn out to be a total flop. But no big deal, if people don't like it, we won't do it anymore. But let's try it and see. So come play, come whore, and above all, come have fun!

Oh, and if anyone objects to the name whorefest medley relay, we can call it potluck medley relay or something.

Amadea and Bora--video

2010-02-04T10:13:00.000-08:00

Here's a video of Amadea and Bora's performance at the audition for "Slovenija ima talent." Not easy doing a freestyle routine on carpet in such a small space!

Slovenia's got talent!

2010-02-01T20:35:00.001-08:00

posted by Jean McCollister

Flipsi members Amadea and Bora showed off some their freestyle moves this past Saturday in an unusual venue: at an audition for the show "Slovenija ima talent" (Slovenia's got talent) at the Lev Hotel in Ljubljana.

We'll know February 7 whether the pair is selected to advance to the next round. Keep your fingers and paws crossed!

Here's Bora, charming fellow contestants:

And featured in the newspaper Žurnal24:

As well as on Pop TV, here.

16-year-old Amadea first took up the sport of discdog in January 2008, when she enrolled in a course with then 7-month-old Bora taught by me (Jean McCollister) at Ajdovščina Kennel Club. That season the pair competed successfully in the Young Dogs category, placing high in several competitions in the Czech Republic and winning the Young Dogs Freestyle class at the 2008 European Championship held in September near Prague. The following year they did well enough in the Open Freestyle class as well as in Super Pro Toss & Fetch at the 2009 European Championship in Verden, Germany, to qualify for the USDDN Nationals/Internationals Finals held in the USA. In 2009 they also participated in a series of fun competitions held in Slovenia (toss & fetch events) and won the cup for the series.

In addition to attending several courses in Ajdovščina with me, Amadea's development as a player has benefited from coaching from leading Czech players (Jakub Štybr, Lucka Schonova, and Veronika Urbaskova, among others), seminars with visiting Americans Bryan Lamky and Peter Bloeme, and an intensive 5-day course with European champions Sabine Bruns and Marcus Wolff.

The whole family have been active in the establishment and continuing development of Flipsi. Mother Alenka played a leading role in founding the club, and father Aleš is a qualified judge who has helped at many of Slovenia's dogfrisbee competitions this past year. Both Amadea and Aleš are instructors in the sport.

More about the Coljas and their fantastic frisbee dog Bora can be found on our members page here.

UFO Winter Cup, Hungary

2010-01-31T00:14:00.000-08:00

posted by Jean McCollister

Several of us from Flipsi traveled to Gyuro, Hungary for a discdog competition on Sunday January 17, organized under UFO rules. The competition took place at a place called Tordas Zoo Animal Farm with a nice indoor facility. This was my first time competing under UFO rules so I was worried about disc management issues (only seven frisbees allowed rather than the ten that I am used to under USDDN) as well as unsure of the judging criteria, but we must have done something right because Lyra won the freestyle event (of 16 competitors) and even with a relatively poor toss & fetch performance (21st place of 51 competitors) came third overall. Having a break from training the week before a competition is evidently good for her: she spent the time playing in the snow with her friends Jana and Dean and didn't see a frisbee again until the morning of the event.

Amadea and Bora were first in Toss & Catch, third in Freestyle, and second overall. Their second round of freestyle was practically flawless, and Amadea's throwing in the T &C was amazingly accurate, especially in the second round: Bora caught disc after disc in the bonus zone.

Olivia and I were fifth in Freestyle, fifth in Toss & Catch, and fourth overall. Relative novices Tamara and Žak turned in two very nice freestyle performances and finished in seventh place.

Bamm Bamm is not yet ready for freestyle but enjoyed doing the Toss & Catch and finished in 8th place. Full results are available here.

The UFO Winter Cup was an enjoyable experience in all respects, but especially for the opportunity it provided to see discdog friends from Hungary and Austria. Thank you to the organizers for putting together such a nice event! Hope to see you again soon!

Videos:

Predstavitev frizbija na Ljubljanski razstavi

2010-01-21T08:22:00.000-08:00

posted by Tomaž Šubic

V soboto 16. januarja ter v nedeljo 17. januarja sva imela frizbi nastop na CACIB Ljubljana 2010 oz. CACIB Tromostovje 2010. Gledalci so bili zelo navdušeni. Sam nastop me je zelo skrbel, ker že nekaj mesecev nisva zaradi zime nič vadila, poleg tega je bil sam teren zelo drseč... ampak nama je kljub temu uspelo pokazat nekaj atraktivnih elementov. Do mene in Mirjane-Blažke je prišlo veliko radovednežev, ki jih je marsikaj zanimalo o frizbiju. Vsem smo na hitro razložili, kako sva sploh začela z tem športom, kako danes deluje društvo in vsem smo seveda dali tudi letake društva.

Posnetek:

4fun competition in Selca

2009-10-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

On Sunday October 11, there was a 4fun frisbee competition, the last in a series of six, at the Škoja Loka-Železniki Kennel Club. The grounds of the club are located in an idyllic setting, part of an expansive area of parks, sports fields, and meadows at the outskirts of the village of Selca, along the Selca branch of the Sora River. A footpath parallels the river, with several access points where dogs can go splash in it. Which my dogs happily did, during a pre-competition walk, even though the temperatures have dropped considerably in the last week or two.

Idyllic or not, one drawback of being so close to a river is the danger of flooding: in September 2007, heavy flooding caused extensive damage in the Sora Valley and elsewhere, and pretty much demolished the kennel club facilities, as you can see in the photos here.

But two years later the place has been fully renovated. True, after some rains earlier in the week, and due to slow-draining soils and a predominantly shady aspect, the ground was soggier than what we're used to in my part of Slovenia (the Karst, where any rain quickly percolates through the limestone surface and the rivers run underground), but apart from a puddle or two the field was not bad to play on. The weather stayed dry and we even caught glimpses of sun.

The dogs had a great time. They like the cooler temperatures even if their owners don't. ;) Mine do, at any rate, they were happier and friskier than I've seen them all season. Lyra in particular was in great form, catching almost all of my minidistance throws, and winning that event with two solid rounds and a total of 36 points. One of the very few times she's beaten Oli (who was fourth this time).

Full results can be seen here; below are photos of the awards for the top three finishers in each event.

Mindistance:

1. Jean and Lyra (obscured by Oli, who is in the picture only because I didn't want to leave her unattended), with 36 points

2. Maja and Nelly, with 33 points

3. Aleš and Ayya, with 32.5 points

Time trial:

1. Jean and Oli, with a winning time of 18.05 seconds. Not bad, but still not as good as Petra and Veni at an earlier competition in the season: 17.39 seconds, which is the fastest time so far for this event in Slovenia. :)

2. Petra and Gia, with 18.83 seconds

3. Maja and Bri, with 18.93 seconds

Men's Quadruped without dogs:

1. Aleš Sušnik, 51.05 meters

2. Roman Žitnik, 50.7 meters

3. Tomaž Šubic, 44.7 meters

Women's Quadruped without dogs:

1. Jean McCollister, 47.8 meters

2. Maja Kokalj, 47.35 meters

3. Daša Zakotnik, 35.5 meters

Quadruped with dogs:

1. Maja and Bri, 47.35 meters

2. Jean and Oli, 45.65 meters

3. Tomaž and Casper, 43.6 meters

And winners of the cup (cumulative results from best four competitions of six in the series):

1. Amadea and Bora

2. Petra and Gia

3. Petra and Buffy

It was a very nice conclusion to the season. Thanks to all who made these events possible. Although I was only able to attend two of them this season, I hope to be a regular in future, and I would encourage more players from Slovenia as well as neighboring countries to take part. It's a great way to gain competition experience in a friendly, supportive, and fun atmosphere. Rumor has it that there just may be a winter cup in the offing...

Last Slovenian 4fun competition of the season

2009-10-08T05:23:00.000-07:00

Dogfrisbee 4 Fun tekma se bo odvijala v nedeljo, 11.10.2009 v ŠKD Škofja Loka - Selca pri Železnikih (Športni park Rovn).

Kako do vadbišča: http://kd-skofjaloka-zelezniki.net/zemljevid_kd.html

Tekmovalo se bo v naslednjih disciplinah:
- mini distance (2 rundi)
- time trial (2 rundi)
- quadruped s psom
- quadruped brez psa - moški
- quadruped brez psa - ženske

Štartnina je 5 EUR za nastop v eni disciplini ali 10 EUR za vse discipline skupaj in se jo plača na kraju dogodka.

Zbor tekmovalcev je ob 11.30 uri.
Prijave na mail: ales@wtf.si, prosim, če v prijavi navedete:
- ime in priimek
- ime psa
- gsm

ali kar na forum.

Tekma je zadnja, ki šteje za pokal Slovenije v dogfrisbee-ju.
Po končani tekmi bomo razglasili zmagovalce pokala in razdelili denar zmagovalcem.

Vljudno vabljeni!

Frisbee show in Nova Vas

2009-10-05T11:22:00.000-07:00

On Sunday September 27 Nadja and I went to Bloke Ranch in Nova Vas to do a halftime frisbee show at their horse event, "Spretnost je umetnost." The organizers set up a very innovative obstacle course that horses and their handlers had to negotiate calmly and skillfully. The emphasis was on negotiating the course without resorting to whips, spurs, and other forms of force.

For the first round, handlers led their horses through the series of obstacles.

There was a gate...

a bridge, where the horse had to stand quietly and wait while the owner rang a bell three times...

a water obstacle (not pictured) followed by this weird-looking thing...

then a tunnel (not pictured), then you had to go with your horse into a sort of three-sided improvised chute (hay bales on two sides and the tunnel wall at the end, not pictured) and stand there for five seconds, then back out, then go and collect a wooden club and use it to tip the scary-looking creature pictured below into a bow.

During the second round competitors repeated the course, this time on horseback:

In between rounds the arena was taken over by our dogs. As a warmup I ran the obstacle course with Lyra:

She did a great job, but I was disappointed when the judges didn't give us a score so we could see how we compared with the horses' results. ;) I was also quite surprised when Lyra balked at the water obstacle, running alongside it instead of through it; I thought for sure that would be her favorite, but I guess she didn't want to get her dainty feet dirty.

After warming up Lyra (and the crowd), I launched into our frisbee routine. Somewhat adjusted for the smaller space available. And my first experience performing on sand. Interesting. Lyra got a mouthful whenever she tried to scoop up a missed frisbee from the ground, and I got generous amounts in my hair, shoes, pants, etc. But it wasn't too bad. Makes for nice soft landings anyway. :)

After I finished with Lyra, Nadja took over. Unfortunately I didn't get to see or hear much because I was busy changing dogs. She was fitted with a microphone, which confused Ginny a bit because when Nadja called her she ran in the direction of the speakers instead of towards the caller. ;) Nadja told the audience a bit more about the sport (and also about aussies) and demonstrated some freestyle moves, like weaving...

flips...

leg vault...

and flying...

Then it was Oli's turn to get sand in her mouth (and all over me):

(note water obstacle in background here...)

It was a very nice event, thanks to Maja and Jure at Bloke Ranch for inviting us! Next time I hope to come with a horse as well as a dog.

Poročilo iz obiska v osnovni šoli

2009-10-01T10:56:00.001-07:00

posted by Tamara Gregorčič

Z Žakom sva se v ponedeljek, 28.9.2009, odzvala na povabilo in obiskala učence od 1. do 5. razreda podružnične osnovne šole Jevnica. Povabili so naju predvsem zato, da pokaževa kako izgleda dogfrisbee.

Še preden smo se z učenci srečali, so naju poznali, saj jim je učiteljica pokazala najine slike in posnetke na you tubu. Na šoli sva prejela lep sprejem, potem pa smo se skupaj odpravili na bližnje nogometno igrišče. Najprej sem jim razložila kaj bova pokazala, lahko so si pogledali frizbije in ščitnike, potem pa sva pokazala najin freestyle program.

Učenci so bili navdušeni, zato so se še sami preizkusili v metanju frizbijev. Nekaterim je šlo prav dobro. Žak pa se je med tem zabaval s pobiranjem frizbijev in jih nosil na kup. Tako nam je tudi prihranil nekaj dela s pospravljanjem. Dve deklici sta v tem času poskušali izvesti najin freestyle program - ena je oponašala Žaka, druga pa mene.

Žak se je med tem časom že malo spočil, zato sva pokazala še malo trikcev, nato pa so mu otroci metali še žogice. Žak se je imel super, saj še ni doživel, da bi se toliko otrok z njim igralo. Žogice jim je kar sam prinašal v roke. Nekaj se jih je opogumilo in mu dalo tudi nekaj pasjih priboljškov. Za konec sva pokazala še nekaj frisbee trikcev, ki so bili otrokom najbolj všeč.

Žak je bil na koncu že kar utrujen in sledilo je božanje z vseh strani...

Žak je bil ta dan dober cirkuški in mečkalni pes, zato so mu otroci podarili super pasjo igračko, nad katero je bil navdušen. Otroci pa mu pravijo: Žak, po priimku junak :)

Maribor competition

2009-10-01T00:49:00.000-07:00

What a great day! Perfect weather, superb premises, and a terrific international atmosphere. There were about 60 teams who came to Maribor from six different countries: the Netherlands, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Croatia, and of course Slovenia. Organizationally there were a few hitches, but nothing too terrible, and considering it was our first time carrying out such an ambitious project, we did all right. AND we raised 250€ for the Horjul animal shelter through the Quadruped for Horjul fundraiser. Big thanks to everyone who participated, helped, competed, watched, cheered...I hope you all had an enjoyable time! And most of all that your dogs had a fun day out.

Full results and a photo gallery can be seen on the Flipsi website. Here's a taste:

The Dutch players in particular proved to be great showmen...

In addition to border collies ...

there was a nice variety of other breeds...

Our Flipsi registration team and official photographer, working hard all day in exchange for a few cookies...

Manca was kept so busy announcing she didn't even get a cookie...

Aleš, accurately predicting his final ranking in Time trial...

Peter, jumping for joy (I think)...

A truly international finish in Mindistance (Netherlands, Slovenia, Czech Republic)...

A slightly less international finish in Open freestyle...

And a group photo...we are all winners!

Thanks again to all of you!

Maribor here we come

2009-09-25T00:20:00.000-07:00

Schedule:

Registration: 7:30 – 8:30
Players’ meeting: 8:45
FS and MD round 1 (field #1): 9:00 – 12:00
Quadruped for Horjul (field #1): 12:00 - 13:00
FS and MD round 2 (field #1): 13:00 – 16:00
Time trial round 1 (field #2): 10:00 – 12:00
Time trial round 2 (field #2): 14:00 – 16:00
Quadruped for Horjul (field #1): 16:00 - 17:00
Awards: 17:00
PICK-UP GAME OF ULTIMATE!

We'll try to keep to the schedule, but given the number of entries it's possible things will take a bit longer...hopefully we won't be playing into the night (apart from ultimate), but fortunately we have lights at the field just in case. ;)

We're expecting a total of 56 teams from six countries (Slovenia, Poland, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Croatia). We have six teams in Freestyle Young Dogs, eight teams in Freestyle Beginners, and 12 teams in Freestyle Open. 40 teams are entered in minidistance, and 37 in Time Trial.

The start list (showing the order in which competitors will go) is accessible at the website of Maribor Kennel Club.

Entries updated

2009-09-17T23:12:00.001-07:00

Here is a list of the entries received so far, according to category and discipline. Please let us know of any corrections or changes. Entries close 23/9.

FREESTYLE YOUNG DOGS

Pavel and Aura
Marcel and Ollie
Veronika and Lajka
Ladka and Berry

FREESTYLE STARTERS

Urša and Ula
Ludmila and Chester
Jure and Thor
Krizstian and Luca

FREESTYLE OPEN

Marcel and Moos
Tamara and Žak
Tomaž and Casper
Dennis and Blitz
Amadea and Bora
Peter and Csoki
Frans and Eros
Marcel and Sam
Pavel and Sara
Anika and Phoebe

MINIDISTANCE

Aleš and Ayya
Frans and C'est la Vie
Petra and Gia
Gal and Indy
Urška and Buci
Jasna and Grom
Alenka and Siva
Jozsef and Blacky
Tomas and Ginger
Borut and Ajka
Norbert and Zizi
Petra and Buffy
Gal and Bosco
Urša and Ula
Jure and Thor
Tomaž and Casper
Dennis and Blitz
Lucka and Dixi
Amadea and Bora
Peter and Csoki
Norbert and Zizi
Krizstian and Luca
Petra and Veni
Jure and Yar
Lucka and Darri
Jean and Lyra
Jean and Oli

TIME TRIAL

Alenka and Siva
Aleš and Ayya
Aleš and Maxi
Amadea and Bora
Borut and Ajka
Jasna and Grom
Jean and Lyra
Jean and Oli
Jure and Thor
Krizstian and Luca
Lucka and Dixi
Norbert and Zizi
Olga and Yar
Peter and Csoki
Petra H and Buffy
Petra H and Gia
Petra P and Veni
Tomaž and Casper
Urša and Ula
Urška and Buci

frisbees, frisbees, frisbees...

2009-09-16T04:21:00.000-07:00

Thanks to our sponsor Canidae, each competitor will get one of these frisbees upon registering.

I don't think the black paw comes with it. ;)

Entries for the Maribor competition 26/9

2009-09-15T23:17:00.001-07:00

Currently we have 35 teams entered from four countries. Entries accepted until 23/9.

More information about the competition here.

Handler	Dog	Breed	Ctry	FS YD	FS Beg	FS Open	Mini-distance	Time trial
Aleš Sušnik	Ayya	White Swiss shepherd	SLO				x	x
Gaja Pöschl	Lum	Border collie	SLO				x	x
Ludmila Urbaskova	Chester	NSDTR	CZ		x
Marcel Koning	Moos	Border collie	NL			x
Marcel Koning	Sam	Border collie	NL			x
Lucka Schönova	Dixi	Border setter mix	CZ				x	x
Lucka Schönova	Darri – Stamo Bud	Chodsky pes	CZ				x
Ladka Skopalova	Berry from Valachian Highland	Border collie	CZ	x
Tamara Gregorčič	Žak	Australian shepherd	SLO			x
Jure Klobučar	Thor	mix	SLO		x		x	x
Jean McCollister	Lyra	Border mix	SLO				x	x
Jean McCollister	Olivia	Australian shepherd	SLO				x	x
Tomaž Šubic	Casper	PRT	SLO			x	x	x
Aleš Horvat	Maxi	Labrador	SLO					x
Urška Kramar	Buci	mix	SLO				x	x
Dennis Damen	Blitz	Australian shepherd	NL			x	x
Jasna Šen	Mawlch Grom	Croatian sheepdog	SLO				x	x
Amadea Colja	Bora	Border collie	SLO			x	x	x
Alenka Šen	Mawlch Siva	Croatian sheepdog	SLO				x	x
Peter Sefstik	Csoki	Kelpie	H			x	x	x
Urša Lukančič	Ula	Border collie	SLO		x		x	x
Frans von Roij	Eros	Australian shepherd	NL			x
Frans von Roij	C'est la Vie	Australian shepherd	NL				x
Jozsef Zsiros	Blacky	Border collie	H				x
Tomas Hoffman	Ginger	German shepherd	H				x
Borut Jeraj	Ajka	Croatian sheepdog	SLO				x	x
Norbert de Jonge	Zizi	Tervueren	H				x	x
Marloes When	Ollie	Border collie	NL	x
Petra Hladnik	Buffy	Border collie	SLO				x	x
Petra Hladnik	Gia	Border collie	SLO				x	x
Pavel Ryttnauer	Sara	Boxer	CZ			x
Pavel Ryttnauer	Aura	Boxer	CZ	x
Veronika Provazkova	Lajka	Border Collie	CZ	x
Krizstian Bencze	Luca	mix	HU		x		x	x
Anika Horvath	Phoebe	malinois	HU			x	x	x

2009 European Championship, Verden 29-30 August

2009-09-14T04:34:00.000-07:00

With the club's generous assistance, several of us from Flipsi traveled the 1200 km from Slovenia to Verden, Germany at the end of August to compete in this year's European Championship.

It was the first time at the EC for Tamara and Žak (and only their second competition), and they did extraordinarily well: 2nd place (of 23 teams) in the Starters category, only 2/10 of a point behind the winners.

Their freestyle was really nice, despite difficult windy conditions on both days. After the first round of freestyle and minidistance, they were in fourth place, then moved up to 2nd after a very good second round of freestyle. Video available here.

It was the second EC for Tomaž and Casper. Last year they competed in the Starters category, this year Tomaž opted for Bonsai, and became the European Vice-Champion in this category (7 teams), finishing just 1/10 of a point behind the champion Marcus Wolff and Bounty.

You can see their impressive performance here.

For Amadea and Bora, too, it was their second season of competition, and second time competing at the European Championship. Last year they won the Young Dogs category, this year they finished 9th of 55 teams in the Open category, and qualified as second alternate for the USDDN National Finals and International Finals in Cartersville, Georgia. Despite the urging of her coaches and others who have seen her play, Amadea had long resisted moving from the Starters to the Open category, but with these results there should no longer be any doubt that she and Bora can hold their own among the best teams in Europe.

Video of their second freestyle round here; Amadea and Bora also qualified for the USDDN National Finals and International Finals in Super Pro Toss & Fetch with a 7th-place finish (45 teams) in that event.

As for me, this was my third time competing at the European Championship. At Wroclaw, Poland, in 2007, I was the only competitor from Slovenia, and finished with Lyra in third place in the Advanced freestyle category, an intermediate category between Starters and Open. I've only ever seen it at that competition, lucky for me they offered it, because at that stage I wouldn't have stood a chance in Open. That year I also finished fourth in Super Pro T & F with Lyra, qualifying for the USSDN National/International Finals. With Oli I was eighth in Super Pro, and in addition I had the longest catch of the competition with her in Women's Quadruped (54.7 m). In 2008, I qualified with Oli in Super Pro with a 4th-place finish, and with Lyra in Freestyle with a sixth-place finish in Open. This time it was Lyra's turn to make the longest catch in Women's Quadruped: 55 m, setting a new and still standing Slovenian record.

This year I very nearly didn't go. It was a long way to travel, money has been tight, and my freestyle training and competing this season has been limited by injuries as well as financial constraints. But my daughter generously offered to let me do freestyle with Oli, who is her dog, and Flipsi provided financial assistance. And Tamara, who doesn't have a car, was depending on me for transportation. So I thought, okay, I'll go. And the dogs and I didn't too badly, all things considered. The wind was strong on both days of the competition, with intermittent bursts of heavy showers and occasional rumbling thunder. For this reason I decided not to compete with Lyra in freestyle. She hates rain, she's scared of thunder, and the wind increases the risk of contortions and bad landings. She's had some bouts of lameness this year related to ehrlichiosis and I didn't want to take any chances. So I did just Super Pro T & F with her, gave her pretty good throws but her catching was inconsistent, and Quadruped, where we were knocked out in the first round due to my subpar throwing.

Oli excelled in Super Pro; she was tied for first place after the first round but dropped a few places to fourth after the second round due to a couple of bad throws on my part. Still high enough to qualify for the National/International Finals, for the second year running.

But where she really surprised me was in Open freestyle. Normally I don't do freestyle with her, only Toss & Fetch. I had just a couple of weeks to put together a routine, and we only performed it for the first time from start to finish at the EC itself. She had a very good minidistance (19 points) but even so I was astounded to find myself and her in 10th place after the first round of freestyle and minidistance. In the middle of our second round of freestyle a massive storm broke out, with strong winds blowing the rain (and frisbees ;)) sideways; you can see people scurrying for cover in the video of our performance. Somehow we managed to keep it together (just barely) till the end, and our final ranking was 12th place of 55 teams, not bad for our first ever freestyle competition.

A few more photos:

Slovenian fans, waving the Slovenian flag...

but with the Czech flag painted on their faces (dual loyalties? ;))...

and Žak, doing his part to break camp on the morning of departure by smooshing the air out of Tamara's mattress...

Congratulations to all on the impressive results! Thanks again to Flipsi for financial support, and thanks, too, to Sabine Bruns and Marcus Wolff, who have taught many of Slovenia's active competitors much of what we know about the sport, thereby contributing significantly to the success of the Slovenian team.

Our official competition frisbee

2009-09-10T05:52:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Aleš Horvat at canis.si. There will be limited numbers of this frisbee available for purchase at the competition. Or you may win one as a prize if you finish in the top three. ;)

Seminar in Novo mesto

2009-09-09T01:20:00.000-07:00

There will be a full-day dogfrisbee seminar with Jean McCollister at Novo mesto Kennel Club this Saturday, September 12, from 9 a.m. to approximately 4 p.m. The price is 20€ for participants with dogs and 10€ for participants without dogs. The seminar will consist of an introductory lecture on the history, current status, and rules of the sport, followed by group throwing sessions without dogs and individual training sessions with dogs. There will also be a demonstration of freestyle elements and routines.

If you are interested in attending please contact Vesna at 031 668 469 or jvesna.j@gmail.com.

Competition in Maribor September 26

2009-09-08T22:59:00.000-07:00

On Saturday 26 September Maribor Kennel Club will be hosting Slovenia's first national dogfrisbee competition with international participation. The event begins at 9 a.m.

Head judge will be Jean McCollister, assistant judges will be Aleš Colja, Tamara Gregorčič, Nadja Žlender, Urša Lukančič, Veronika Urbaskova, Marketa Urbaskova, Lucka Schonova, Pavel Ryttnauer, and others.

The following events and categories will be offered:

Freestyle (USDDN rules) (entry fee 10€)

Young Dogs (10 - 18 months)
Starters
Open

The freestyle round will last 90 seconds for Young Dogs and Starters, and 2 minutes for Open.

Minidistance (USDDN rules but without the central bonus zone) (entry fee 5€)
Time Trial (Skyhoundz) (entry fee 5€)

Competitors entered in both freestyle and minidistance events will do two rounds of minidistance total; the first one will count both towards the final freestyle score and the final minidistance score.

Time trial (two rounds) will be held on a separate field on a walk-up basis. Competitors report to the judges there and do their round when they are ready.

In addition to these events, there will be a special event, Quadruped without dogs, at the conclusion of the competition to raise money for the Horjul Animal Shelter. Competitors pay 1€ to make three longdistance throws. The top three finishers will receive a symbolic prize. All proceeds will go to the animal shelter.

Please send entries by 23.9. to prijave@flipsi.net , or use the online form here.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

SOME USEFUL INFORMATION:

Location of Maribor Kennel Club here.

Camping on the grounds of the club will not be possible, but there is a campground a few kilometers distant:

Camp Pohorje

57 Pot k Mlinu

Maribor 200

+ 386 (0)2 614 0950

Map here.

OTHER ACCOMMODATION:

A list of hotels in the area can be found here.

The following hotels in the directory linked to above allow dogs, usually for an extra fee (check with the hotel when you book on the amount of the fee):

- Pizzeria Črni baron

- Gostilna in motel Pri Lešniku

- Mladinski hotel Vetrnica

- Penzion Martin

- Gostišče Kuzner

- Bračko Tourist Farm

Currently (as of September 9), there are 24 teams from 4 countries entered. We will post a regularly updated list of the entries on the Flipsi website soon.

Zaključek frizbi tečaja

2009-06-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

Danes smo imeli še zadnji dve urifrizbi tečaja, ki ga je organiziralol športno društvo Flipsi. Zbrali smo se prav vsi in za začetek, kot vedno, povadili mete brez psov, nato pa smo se pomerili v metanju frizbijev skozi gumo. Sledilo je delo s psi in tokrat smo začeli z dvemi krogi minidistance-a, na koncu pa je vsak pokazal in povadil še freestyle elemente.

Za uspešen zaključek tečaja smo vsi tečajniki dobili tudi diplomo!

Hvala Manci za vodenje in ves trud.

Nadja

Interview in Czech magazine "Pes přítel člověka"

2009-06-04T02:46:00.000-07:00

An interview with Flipsi's president Jean McCollister appeared in the May issue of "Pes přítel člověka". Jean was interviewed by Michaela Androva. Below is the text in English:

I would like to introduce Jean McCollister and at the same time the beginning of dogfrisbee in Slovenia. Jean comes from America, but with her daughter Monika and three dogs she has lived in Slovenia for a long time now. Dogfrisbee started in America, and that is where there are the most and the best teams. Thus we might assume that Jean is a dogfrisbee expert, too. But while it is true that Jean has done much to develop and popularize dogfrisbee in Slovenia, she is herself relatively new to the sport, and her first encounter with it was in Europe. Slovenia is also very successful in other dog sports. They started up dogfrisbee a bit later than we did, but now it is clear that they are good rivals. Jean McCollister is a case in point.

Could you say a few words to introduce yourself?

Hmm, I've lived a long life, hard to put it in just a few words.  ;)  I grew up in the United States, where I also learned to play frisbee (without dogs), as well as a lot of other sports, with my older brother. This was during a time in America when girls weren't supposed to be athletic or enjoy sports, so there weren't many opportunities for us to play. But my brother Doug really encouraged me, and it was with his help that I developed a very good throwing arm, in baseball, American football, and frisbee.

As for how I ended up in Slovenia, I first came here on a visit in the summer of 1985, by way of England, where I was studying at the time. I met my first husband (Monika's father) on that first visit, and was completely charmed by the natural beauty of the country, especially the Alpine region. I've always loved mountains and enjoyed hiking and climbing in them, yet my childhood was spent largely in flat places. As an adult I have more than made up for that deficiency, especially living in Slovenia for most of the past 25 years. I did spend a few years during that period in the United States again; in fact our border collie mix Lyra comes from there (Indiana--also very flat!), but Monika and I brought her to Slovenia with us when we moved back here in 2004. Where we live now is perfect for keeping dogs, because it's in the country and there are lots of places to go walking. Including in the mountains (though you have to drive a bit first).

You are the founder of dogfrisbee in Slovenia, how did it start? What was the first step? Where did you meet dogfrisbee for the first time?

Dogfrisbee in Slovenia started first in the agility community. Agility is very developed here, there are outdoor competitions almost every weekend from April-October, as well as some indoor ones in winter, and so the people who do agility see each other regularly and it's a very friendly community. A number of us threw frisbees that you can get in pet supply stores for our dogs for fun and exercise, then in January of 2007 we got together and ordered some special frisbees for dogs (fastbacks, competition standard, Jawz, Eurablend etc.) from a shop in Germany. The first group order was organized by Andraž Cerar, one of the administrators of the Slovenian agility portal (http://agility-slo.net/ ). Later orders were organized by Petra Hladnik and Manca Mikec (and now we get most of them from Jakub Stybr's shop). As people acquired frisbees and started playing more and more, interest grew in taking up the sport as a competitive discipline. I was probably among the most enthusiastic, and so I started looking for seminars to attend. Thanks to a link supplied by the mother of an agility acquaintance, I found some listed at Hundesporthotel Wolf in Oberammergau, Germany, and signed up for one in early July, 2007, with Karin Actun, who competes in the UFO organization. That was my first formal introduction to the sport, apart from a Skyhoundz DVD that I had purchased, and of course watching various films of frisbee dogs on YouTube. I also joined the European Discdog list, and through that heard about the competition in Stromovka at the end of July. I decided what the hell, why not go. And so I did. 

That was my very first competition. I had been playing about 3 weeks. With Lyra I won beginners' freestyle and superminidistance, which I found a little embarrassing. By then I was hooked on the sport, and so in August I went again to Oberammergau for a seminar with Sabine Bruns and Marcus Wolff, who had judged at Stromovka. Their seminar was fantastic, I learned a tremendous amount from them. In fact most of the players in Slovenia learned what they know from Sabine and Marcus, even though I am the only one so far to attend a seminar with them. Because everything I learned I tried to pass on to people here.

Dogfrisbee in your country starts to find great teams on a good level. Do you think there will be big changes in the future?

Big changes? I don't know about that, but I hope it will continue to develop, in a positive way. Those of us who have been informally involved in the sport for some time, either competitively or recreationally, founded a dogfrisbee club, Flipsi (http://www.flipsi.net/) this year, and through the club we are now offering regular frisbee lessons at several different kennel clubs around the country (Ljubljana, Koper, Ajdovščina) as well as one-day seminars by request. We also hope to organize a couple of competitions this year, and more the following year. And of course encourage our members to take part in competitions in other countries in the region. The first year I was all alone at competitions, the only competitor from Slovenia, the next year (2008) there were as many as six of us, this year I think there will be even more.

You are very successful at competitions, especially in Quadruped. Which discipline do you prefer and why?

Hmm, hard to say. Quadruped definitely has a special place; I wish more competitions had the Quadruped event. When I went to the European Championship in 2007, I figured the only event I had a chance of doing well in was Quadruped. Yet that was my worst placing of the three events I entered (advanced freestyle, minidistance, quadruped). 5th place, though I did have the longest catch (with Oli, 54.3 m). Something similar happened at the 2008 EC. Once again, I had the longest catch (55 m, this time with Lyra), and I threw really well in the final--I wasn't nervous at all--but Lyra didn't make any catches and so we were fourth. Whereas in Open freestyle, where I didn't have any great expectations, I was simply astounded to finish high enough to qualify for the World Finals. I've always found freestyle a little intimidating; there are so many things that can go wrong, and it moves so quickly. And the different kinds of throws are new to me, before taking up dogfrisbee (at the age of nearly 50!) I only ever knew backhand throws. But I've become more confident in freestyle as I've gained more experience, and had some satisfying results at competitions. It's certainly the most exciting to watch. I like all the disciplines, really, equally well. I don't have a favorite, and at competitions I like the variety and versatility when you have a number of different events.

Your daughter plays dogfrisbee also. Do you sometimes train together? What are the negatives and positives of that?

Monika and I have a very good relationship, but she is not the kind of person who enjoys doing activities together with her mother, and she also doesn't enjoy competing...she finds it stressful and not fun. We attended a seminar with Sabine Bruns and Marcus Wolff together in the summer of 2007, and that was very enjoyable (we were in different groups) but we don't train together and she does not have much interest in going to competitions so I usually go without her. It works for some families to participate in a sport together--you and your mother, for example, and Darek Radomski and his daughter Anna in Poland--but not for us. She has her own life, her own friends, and her own interests, apart from mine. I would be happy for her to be more involved, but it is entirely her choice and I don't put pressure on her. She has enough to worry about with school and other things.

Would you like to send any particular message to Czech dogfrisbee players?

Tell them that I love them.  ;)  Really. I have some fantastic memories of time spent with Czech dogfrisbee players. Starting with the 2007 EC, when I was pretty much all alone and the Czechs "adopted" me, cheering when I went onto the field to play and welcoming me warmly. Then there was the weekend in April 2008, when nine of you came to Slovenia and helped us tremendously in developing our skills, helped us organize the first ever dogfrisbee competition here. And the competitions I went to in the Czech Republic later in the year were all wonderful experiences. And spending time with some of you in Schwarme at Sabine and Marcus's seminar. One of my biggest regrets in traveling to the USA in October for the World Finals was that I had to miss the last Czech competition of the season. Of course going to the USA was a wonderful and beneficial experience, but frankly, I think going to yours would have been more fun.  ;)

2009 European Championship

2009-06-01T12:24:00.001-07:00

The website for the 2009 European Championship in Dog Frisbee is online!

This promises to be a truly memorable event. It will be held in Verden, Germany, in conjunction with the Verdiana Horse Show, attracting many spectators as well as the top discdoggers in Europe.

Events and categories are as follows:

Open Freestyle (USDDN Qualifier)
Winner of this event will gain the title of European Champion in Dog Frisbee 2009 (USDDN rules). The best teams will be invited to compete in the USDDN World Finals in Cartersville, Georgia, in October.

Super Pro Toss & Fetch (USDDN Qualifier)

The winner of this division will gain the title European Champion in Super Pro Toss & Fetch 2009 (USDDN rules).

EuroQuad (Women's and Men's divisions)

Winner will gain the title of European Champion in Quadruped 2009 (Quadruped rules)

Bonsai

If there is sufficient interest (a minimum of ten teams entered) there will be a Small dogs/Bonsai class (under 38 cm).

Beginners Freestyle

You can register online until the deadline of August 2oth. Anyone from Slovenia interested in competing is invited to contact us at Flipsi (info@flipsi.net): we will be running some joint training sessions before the competition and working to attract sponsorship so that we can send a really strong Slovenian team to this event, probably the most important and prominent dogfrisbee competition of the year in Europe. Since there is a beginners' class you can compete even if you don't have a lot of experience in the sport yet. Flipsi instructors are available to help you and your dog develop the skills to play and compete successfully.

Some photos of the location below.

Main field (white fence will be removed):

Judges' box:

Warmup area:

Camping area:

Nymburk competition, day 2 (Sunday May 17)

2009-05-26T02:42:00.000-07:00

Perfect conditions for frisbee. Sunny, only a very light wind, this time coming off the river. Today's events were DogDartbee and Super Minidistance. I have yet to win a cup in DogDartbee and this time was no exception. Because of the huge number of competitors, we were divided into two groups, and the event ran simultaneously on two fields for the qualifier. Only the top eight teams go to the semifinal, and I didn't quite make the cut: with Bamm Bamm I had 170 points and finished in a three-way tie for 10th place, with Oli I had 140 points for a six-way tie for 15th place. Since I wasn't competing, I watched the judging of the semifinal (as I did for Men's Quad the previous day) so I'll know how to do it when we organize competitions in Slovenia:

The famous Jindra and Ro were once again an unbeatable team in this event:

Full results here.

I was a bit more successful in Super Minidistance. Had a good first round with Oli, 21 points, which put me in a tie for third place with Kevin Harrison and Wizzard, after Lucka and Dixi and Kuba and Punt'a (22 points each). Kevin hadn't planned on competing with Wizzard, a working sheepdog, because he thought he was too young at 14 months to be eligible. He'd just brought him along to keep Toggle, their lurcher, company and only entered him on Sunday morning after I mentioned on Saturday afternoon that for Toss & Fetch events the minimum age is one year, not 18 months as for regular freestyle (there is a modifed freestyle for young dogs, 10-18 months, in which certain moves like flips and vaults are not allowed). I confess I had a very fleeting moment of regret that I had shared this information because they came very close to getting that third place trophy instead of me. ;) In the end I managed to hang onto it, with a decent, though not outstanding, 18 points with Oli in the second round (both Kuba and Lucka had even higher scores in the second round than in the first, 23 and 22.5, respectively), whereas Wizzard had 16, missing one throw.

I had quite a good second round with Bamm Bamm (21.5), which when added to the 17 from the first round was enough to boost him into 4th place. Jana Malinska and her very fast and talented border collie Chelsay were fifth, and Kevin and Wizzard ended up in sixth place. He and Toggle were eighth, just after Peter and Choki from Hungary. But Kevin didn't go home empty-handed: at this competition they had special awards for the best novices (first season of competition) in each event, and Kevin and Wizzard were tops in Super Minidistance:

Complete results here; novices are marked in yellow.

All in all a very enjoyable competition. It was nice to see such a huge turnout, with a wide variety of breeds (and mixes). Of course the usual collection of border collies (including mine)...

and quite a few "Chodsky pes" (also known as the Bohemian Shepherd or sometimes, thanks to Sabine, the "Chodsky crash" dog), a native breed with a fascinating history recognized in the Czech Republic but not by the FCI...

Kevin and Judith's lurcher, a type of dog I had not seen or heard of previously...

and many many others...

It was a pity that no one else from Slovenia could attend, especially some of our novices. The Nymburk competition is a particularly good opportunity to gain competition experience for those not yet doing freestyle. Looking forward to next year!

Nymburk competition, day 1 (Saturday May 16)

2009-05-22T05:21:00.000-07:00

Posted by Jean McCollister

Last year's competition in Nymburk, Czech Republic, was among my fondest memories from the season, and this year's competition (May 16-17) more than met my expectations. Nymburk is a lovely town in Central Bohemia on the Elbe River; the competition site is right next to the northern bank of the river (in which dogs can happily swim between frisbee rounds). There's a walking/cycling path along the river that I'm told extends 10 km or so; I've never had the chance to explore its full length but used it on many occasions, this year and last, for shorter walks with the dogs. There is an ice hockey arena adjacent to the playing field and a hostel associated with it, where you can stay in quite a nice room at minimal cost--I paid about 13€ per night, dogs were free of charge.

Last year I competed with Oli and Lyra (who took home three cups between them); this year Lyra stayed home due to health problems (she tested positive for ehrlichiosis earlier this year and is having some joint/muscle problems, so she's no longer in active training) but I had the new addition to the family, Bamm Bamm. Last year there were a little under forty competitors, this year there were about 70--so many that the organizers set up two playing fields, with events running concurrently on Sunday, otherwise we would have been there till midnight. One fellow, Kevin Harrison, traveled all the way from England to compete: dogfrisbee is not yet well developed there, and Nymburk, though far, is a particularly attractive competition because there are four Toss & Fetch events over two days, whereas most others that would be closer generally offer just superministance in addition to freestyle (which Kevin is not yet doing with his dogs). Competitors also came from Austria and Hungary. And Slovenia, of course, though there was unfortunately only one of us. Well, three, if you count the dogs. Tamara and Žak had planned to come but in the end couldn't make it due to illness. Nobody from Poland this year, which was a little disappointing, I was looking forward to seeing some acquaintances from last year. Lots of lots of Czechs, including quite a number of newcomers. Dogfrisbee is really taking off in that country.

I arrived Friday night about 6 p.m. after a full day of driving, woke up Saturday morning to drizzle. The rain stopped before the competition started at 9, but the wind picked up. Terrible for frisbee, especially if you're as bad at throwing in windy conditions as I am. Saturday's events were Quadruped and Time Trial, and the wind was a problem for me (and many others) in both events. The start line for Quadruped and Time Trial is designated by the organizers; you can't choose which end to throw from like you can for minidistance. And it so happened that they positioned it so that we were throwing into the wind. :(

Normally Quadruped is one of my strongest events (PB is currently 55 m, hope to improve on that this season) but I threw so badly in the qualifying round that I barely cleared 30 m. Disgraceful. For those of you who may not be familiar with how it works, for the qualifying round you get one throw, without the dog, and this is used to place people in four groups. My throw was only fifth longest, which meant I was in the same group as the person who made the longest throw (43 m) in the qualifying round. That was Lucka, who was competing with her beautiful "Chodsky crash" dog Darri. I was not exactly happy about being in the same group with her, since only one of us would advance to the final. And I neither wanted to be beaten by her, nor beat her at that stage of the game. I had hoped we would be in different groups and then meet in the final.

Watching her practice, as one frisbee of hers after another sailed straight, level, and a very long ways down the field, notwithstanding the strong headwind and crosswinds, while my own throws were slanting sideways and falling well short of her distances despite my best efforts, I thought to myself, ok, fifth place and second longest catch of the day will be just fine, under the circumstances. But in fact I got extraordinarily lucky, since when it was time for our group the wind had died down a bit. Still had to throw into it, but it wasn't as bad as earlier (and later) in the day. My very first throw in that series was a good long one that Olivia caught easily, and that steadied my nerves somewhat and gave me the confidence I lacked. One by one the other three competitors in the group were eliminated, and then it was just between me and Lucka.

In Quadruped you get three chances to make a catch in each round. Oli missed the first two throws; the first one was not a good one, the second was quite respectable but she didn't want to run to the frisbee, whether because she was tired and hot or because she was bothered by photographer Pavel Humpolec sitting on the ground at the end of the field, I'm not sure. In the meantime Lucka had made a very nice completion with Darri, 45.6 meters distant. So before my third and final throw I frantically tried to cool Oli off with a wet towel, and I shooed Pavel back a bit, as you can see here ;):

And miraculously, my third throw was a success. Oli ran fast and far (yelling encouragement to her helps), the throw was right down the center, level, and, critically important, a few meters farther than Lucka's, as you can see here--the frisbee on the ground marks the spot of Darri's best catch:

Lucka had one more throw left to try to beat my throw of 49.5 m, but Darri failed to catch it. And so Oli and I advanced. Naturally I was thrilled to make it to the final, amazed and also quite proud of myself because I had managed to perform well even under intense pressure (headwind, competing against a superb player, only one final chance to make a winning throw), which I don't always handle well. But I was also sorry that Lucka and Darri were eliminated. Though I am certain that at some future competition the outcome will be reversed. This just happened to be my day.

Not, however, my day to win. In the final (four competitors) I easily advanced to the point where it was just between me and one another competitor, Oli had the longest catch each time. But then in the very last round I made three poor throws and she didn't catch any. They all went sideways, wind was a factor, she was tired by this time, but those are just excuses really, the plain fact is that I just didn't throw well. So we finished in second place.

But it didn't really matter, 2nd place and longest catch of the day (longer even than all of the men's throws except for winner of men's Quad Jakub) was just fine with me. Had no room for a big bag of dog food anyway. And the winner, Jana Vadasova, was very happy. ;)

Quadruped results here.

But if I was pleased with the way I had handled Quadruped (apart from the very last round), I was disappointed in my performance in Time Trial. This year, because of the large number of competitors, we only had two chances to do Time Trial rather than three, and throwing into the wind I didn't manage to make two consecutive catches with either dog. I had no great expectations for Bamm Bamm; even if we'd gotten two in a row we would not have had a winning time because he is slow to turn around and he doesn't deliver the frisbee to my hand (like Lyra) or drop it at my feet (like Oli), he drops it a distance and then circles round, wasting valuable time. But Oli is exceptional. She has terrifc acceleration and speed over the ground, she turns on a dime (kind of like a Quarter Horse), drops the frisbee right at my feet, and is instantly ready to take off again. If I had just managed to give her two consecutive throws that were catchable, she would have finished in the top three for sure, and quite possibly have won: her winning time last year of 17.52 seconds is still faster than the new Czech record of 17.72, set by the winning dog on Saturday. But she wasn't able to show her stuff because my throws weren't good enough. Oh well, better luck next time.

Time trial results here.

Saturday evening we played the usual pickup game of ultimate, terrific fun. Nobody keeps score and nobody cares who wins, we just run around, if you have the frisbee you try to find someone who is open to throw it to, if a team member of yours has it, you try to get open and catch it, if the other team has the frisbee, you try to prevent them from completing a throw and above all from scoring. Simple!

Article in "Delo in dom" and some more photos from Earth Day

2009-05-13T04:57:00.000-07:00

Readers in Slovenia can see an article about Flipsi and dogfrisbee in Slovenia in today's Delo, in the supplement Delo in dom.

And Tina forwarded some more photos from the Earth Day visit that she and Chica and Tamara and Žak made to a local elementary school:

Frisbee seminar in Maribor

2009-05-08T03:02:00.001-07:00

When:

Sunday May 31, 2009

Where:

Maribor Kennel Club

Price:
20 EUR/team (handler + dog)
10 EUR for participants without dogs

Payment due by May 23 (information on how to pay will be provided by e-mail upon receipt of registration)

Registration:

Register by May 22 by e-mail: jasna.sen@gmail.com
Number of participants is limited to 20 teams and 20 participants without dogs.

PROGRAM:
9.00-9.30: Introduction
9.30-11.00: Training without dogs: demonstration and practice of different throwing techniques
11.00-12.30: Individual training of teams
12.30-13.00: Lunch break
13.00-15.00: Individual training of teams
15.00-17.00: Fun competition (various events)

Instructors: Jean McCollister and Manca Mikec

Instructors will have their frisbee dogs with them and on request can demonstrate frisbee freestyle and other events.

Frisbee shows

2009-04-30T00:39:00.000-07:00

posted by Jean, with the assistance of field reporters Alenka, Nadja, Tamara, and Tomaž

This past weekend (April 25-26) was a busy one for Flipsi members, who put on three shows in two days. In preparation, Manca and Maja put together a flyer about our club and its activities, for distribution at these and other public events:

Then on Saturday April 25 Tomaž and Casper traveled to Bled, where they took part in Dogging Bled 2009, a charity run around the lake for dogs and their owners.

Turnout for the event was quite high; all the money from entry fees was donated to an animal shelter in Jesenice. Tomaž and Casper did not do the run around the lake, but were invited by the organizers to do a dogfrisbee freestyle demonstration, somewhat adapted to the smaller size of the playing area, right next to the lake.

Since Tomaž is a very accurate thrower, no frisbees ended up in the water...

...though if they had I am sure Casper would have happily retrieved them.

Tomaž reports that spectators were very impressed with the show, and the organizers invited them to do it again next year. Hopefully next year more of us will be able to participate.

This year only Tomaž was free to go. But that same day, Amadea and I had the opportunity to do a show in Ajdovščina, where our home kennel club, ŠKD Ajdovščina, was hosting an agility competition. Amadea and Bora went first:

www.agility-slo.net

I followed their performance with one of my own, using two dogs, in a continuous performance to a song called N'taka by the Slovenian band Terrafolk.

www.agility-slo.net

This is the music I've been using for Lyra's freestyle routines since the 2008 EC; I really like it for freestyle but usually have to stop two minutes into the song. This time, when I got to the usual stopping point, I simply switched dogs and continued to the end (another minute and a half or so) with Bamm Bamm.

www.agility-slo.net

Bamm Bamm and I don't have a set routine worked out yet, so we mostly improvised together.

www.agility-slo.net

Then the next day, Sunday April 26, Amadea (obviously working overtime this weekend),

Nadja

and Tamara

traveled to Bled to do a show in conjunction with the rowing regatta there, which attracts lots of spectators. Just to make things more exciting, Nadja had some car problems the day before. She and Ginny were returning from a day of SAR field exercises in Tržič when her car gave up the ghost shortly before reaching Ljubljana. Fortunately she managed to make it as far as the exit off the highway, where with the help of SAR colleagues Laura and Vid, who were driving behind her, she got the car safely out of the way and waited for the tow truck. In the meantime she called Tamara and Alenka to let them know that the frisbee plans for the next day were off, since Tamara was to travel to Bled with Nadja. :(

However, with a strong dose of determination, they managed to pull off the plan after all, with everyone piling into the Coljas' car for the trip to Bled. If I'm counting right, that was three dogs and six people in one car.

Once there they had a look around and selected a small grassy area as a location for their shows. Many a passerby stopped to watch with admiration and amazement. Two little girls were so delighted that they wanted to try throwing these flying plastic wonders themselves.

At the end they took a group photo in front of the lake

and made a stop at Aleš's parents' place for a bite to eat and a viewing of photos and videos from the recent competition in the Czech Republic, arriving in Ljubljana just in time to get Tamara and Žak on the train for home.

Earth Day visit to Tone Okrogar Elementary School

2009-04-24T04:16:00.000-07:00

posted by Tamara Gregorčič

On Wednesday April 22 Žak and I were invited through the Šnoflja society for the protection of animals to make a visit to Tone Okrogar Elementary School in Zagorje. Pupils there had a different kind of lesson organized in honor of Earth Day: they cleaned up the area around the school and inside it, they painted a little house for collecting contributions to help homeless animals, and a part of the day was devoted to learning about Šnoflja's work. Two representatives from the society talked about its activities and explained what to do if you find or lose a pet, how to approach a strange dog, and so on. Žak and Tina's Chica (Žak's half-sister) added some variety to the program. First Žak and I put on a frisbee show:

We did some passing, vaults, overs, blind catches and some other moves. The children were most impressed with flips and the dog catch. I tried to present frisbee as an interesting and varied dog sport, and the kids seemed to really like it.

After that Chica and Žak showed off some of their tricks, Chica demonstrated searching and Žak did some obedience. The children were really amazed at how much these two dogs knew. We did the presentation three times, since all nine grades watched it, divided into three groups. The last group was the largest, since some of the kids came to see it again. After a successful morning's work, our dogs were pleasantly tired from being patted by so many hands. The teachers were really pleased with our presentation and invited us to do it again at an affiliated school.

The teachers will send us some of the photos they took after the holidays, we'll post some more here when we get them.

Kirican seminar and competition, Olomouc

2009-04-16T00:04:00.000-07:00

posted by Jean McCollister

Several of us from Flipsi are leaving tomorrow for a weekend of frisbee fun in the Czech Republic. On Saturday we'll be attending a full day seminar with Bryan Lamky from the United States. We met Bryan last year at the European Championship, where he was the canine judge for the Open freestyle category. (For the uninitiated, there are four judges for freestyle events under the USDDN system: one each for player, canine, team, and execution.) Looking forward to seeing him again. The seminar will be in Olomouc, then on Sunday we move to a little town called Tovačov, about 25 km south of Olomouc, for the competition. Amadea and Bora will be competing in superminidistance and in the Starters category in freestyle (and dad Aleš will also try his hand at superminidistance), Manca and Bode in superminidistance, and Tomaž and Casper in superminidistance and Open freestyle.

As for me, I'm entered in superminidistance and Open freestyle with Lyra and with Bamm Bamm (who is the dog doing the flip in the previous post). I'm not sure yet whether I'll compete with Bamm Bamm; we stopped training a week ago because I was concerned about his mouth: when he catches discs, he starts to get a big blister in one corner, which can swell, crack, and bleed, and I want that to heal completely before we start training again regularly. It's much better now, so we'll almost certainly do minidistance, and maybe an improvised freestyle routine. And I may be the team judge for Young Dogs, but it's hard to combine judging and competing because the minidistance rounds will be interlarded with the freestyle rounds. It will be good experience if I can manage it. I went to a judging seminar last fall with Melissa Heeter, International Judging Director at USDDN, and passed exams for minidistance and freestyle (Level II) judging, but this would be my first time judging freestyle at a competition.

Really forward to reconnecting with our Czech friends, whom we haven't seen since the EC last September. Look for a full report on the event next week some time, after we get back, and in the meantime wish us luck!

Why Flipsi?

2009-04-14T00:34:00.000-07:00

posted by Jean McCollister

This is actually two questions. Why start up a dogfrisbee club in Slovenia? And where did we get the name "Flipsi" for it?

As for the first, a bit of history is in order. There has been an informal, and steadily growing, community of dogfrisbee enthusiasts in Slovenia at least since January of 2007. It started up first mainly within the agility community, a canine sport which is already highly developed in this country. Through the agility and PeSjanar internet forums, as well as in person when we saw one another at agility competitions, we organized group purchases of canine frisbees and shared training tips and ideas. A little later I ordered a Skyhoundz DVD, watched it myself, and loaned it to others who were interested. Of course YouTube was also a source of ideas and inspiration for all of us learning the sport. Then in the spring of 2007, following a link posted by a member of the agility forum, I learned of a five-day seminar in Germany at Hundesporthotel Wolf with Karin Actun in late June, and signed up.

At that point I was hooked: together with my daughter, I went to another seminar at the same place in August with Sabine Bruns and Marcus Wolff, and learned even more. In between I went to my first competition in Stromovka Park, Prague, at which Sabine and Marcus were judges, and first met people in the Czech Republic involved in the sport, with whom we Slovenian players have close cooperation to this day.

The Czechs have played a major role in teaching us the sport. Nine of them, under the leadership of Jakub Stybr, came to Slovenia at our invitation in April 2008 to give a two-day seminar hosted by Ajdovščina Kennel Club, and help us organize and judge the first ever dogfrisbee competition in Slovenia a day later, in Vipava. The seminar was a huge hit and the number of active and skilled Slovenian players grew still further.

Several of these players competed successfully at competitions in the Czech Republic, including the USDDN European Championship, during the 2008 season, and at that point it was a logical step to establish a sports club, to bring us all together under one organization, and through the organization to promote the visibility of the sport, to teach basic skills and rules of the game to newcomers through classes and seminars, to organize competitions and purchases of frisbee equipment, raise funds for the further development of the sport and the participation of our members at competitions and seminars abroad, and so on. Much of this had been taking place already informally, but we felt we could do it more effectively as a club.

And why "Flipsi" the name? The suggestion came from one of our members, Tomaž Šubic. Actually he had a couple of suggestions, both inspired by an Ultimate Frisbee club in Slovenia called Frizmi. "Frizmi" is a combination of "frizbi" (the slovenized form of "frisbee") and "mi", which means "we" in Slovene. Now "psi" means "dogs" in Slovene, so Tomaž suggested "Fripsi" for FRIzbi PSI(frisbee dogs). An alternative suggestion was FLIPSI, since one of the elements of frisbee freestyle is the flip, when the dog goes up into the air and twists to one side (some even perform a near somersault) to catch a short, high throw pitched slightly to one side. It looks like this:

So "Flipsi" could be seen as a composite of "flip" + "si" (country abbreviation for Slovenia), and it also has the word "psi" contained within it.

Another suggestion put forth, which I personally liked a lot, was "Leteče tačke", which means "flying paws" in Slovene. (By law the names of Slovenian-based organizations have to be in the Slovene language, so an English name such as those used by many clubs elsewhere in Europe was not an option for us.) But most people preferred Flipsi, because it's short and snappy and easier for non-Slovenes to pronounce.

And so here we are. A Slovenian dogfrisbee club called Flipsi.