Dogs flip for new sport
There’s a new Okanagan group that’s taking the fun of playing fetch to new heights for local canines and their owners.
One day last year, Kelowna’s Roni Bedard was in the backyard with her dog Eros and tossed an ice-cream bucket lid to see what he would do.
“I couldn’t believe it: With all fours he jumped in the air and caught it, it was incredible!” she said. “I sent the video of Eros to a friend and she said you’ve got to get him into discs.”
Not knowing anything about the sport, she decided to jump in with all six feet and headed to an UpDog Challenge in Nanaimo.
“I packed up my stuff and me and my dog went and I was hooked,” said Bedard. “I showed up for my first day and I didn’t know what the games were and I didn’t have any discs, (but) they showed me how to do it, answered my questions and away we went.
“It was so fun and I was brand new and they welcomed me; it’s so beginner friendly and I just had to get this in Kelowna and the Okanagan.”
When she got home, the first thing Bedard did was form the Kelowna Disc Dog Club and the membership has continued to grow ever since, now sporting over 50 teams (one dog and owner per team) from all over the Okanagan, including Penticton and Vernon.
Members of the club did demonstrations recently at a Pet-Friendly Penticton event in Gryo Park.
“What I like about this sport is you don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars or a put in a lot of time,” said Bedard. “You can make it what you want if you only have an hour a week, or if you’re like me and kind of crazy, you can do that too.”
There is no fee to join and the only requirement is a dog who likes to have fun chasing things. All the instruction is included.
Everything is done to prevent injuries to the dogs and the club has even had a fitness trainer in to show them which movements are safe for their pets.
The club is affiliated with two international groups, UpDog and K-9 Frisbee Toss & Fetch Worldwide League, and has regular competition against teams from around the globe. The events are held in the home cities and results sent to the headquarters.
In a recent world championship, the Kelowna Disc Dog Club finished 21st out of 200 groups and second among Canadian teams.
One of the most important things to Bedard is the bonding between owner and dog as part of the sport.
“It’s just such a positive thing for them to do together and both of them just get so much more together afterwards,” she said. “It’s also about socialization, and socialization for dogs is so much more than just dogs playing with each other.”
For more information, check out Kelowna Disc Dog Club on Facebook.