Lilli
Lilli Rigler was adopted for me (Jason) by my wife Andrea in June of 2007. She was 3 months old. She is an Australian Shepherd, the breed I wanted for their disc skills. She is a Blue Merle. I have been an avid ultimate player for 15 years and I have wanted a disc dog even before I played ultimate frisbee . Andrea got Lilli for me to help me meet one of my goals for the year to have a frisbee dog. When Andrea called me saying she found a dog and wanted to bring it home, I was very reluctant. All the expense and effort that comes with pet ownership was on my mind.
Andrea trusted her gut and brought home a cute pup from an aussie breeder. She was adorable of course.
The first 6 months Andrea spent teaching Lilli basic obedience using a clicker. We would take her to ultimate games and tournaments and she would watch us play.
We thought we should wait a year before we start playing frisbee with Lilli. We didn’t want to risk her getting scared if she got hit or having her jump and hurt herself. We did a lot of internet research on the best way to teach Lilli to be a disc dog. The first thing we did with her was roll the disc and let her chase it. We did that for a while and then pretty much stopped. We were busy working and really didn’t train or play with Lilli much for a while.
One day we had Lilli out with us when we were playing frisbee and she jumped for a disc. This sparked us to purchase some dog discs online. We then started holding the disc out and saying get it. We would reward her when she went for the disc. Then we started dropping the disc as she went for it so she would grab for it, rewarding her when she caught it. We did this for a while, still wary to play frisbee with her while she was so young.
At one practice session, I tossed Lilli’s disc towards a pile of my stuff to put it away. Lilli shot out like dart and caught it. I was instantaneously stunned and hooked on throwing Lilli discs from that day forward. For months I avoided doing anything but tossing the disc and letting her run after it. She didn’t do much jumping which worried me a little bit.
We began studying more and more about disc dogging. We weren’t really thinking about freestyle, more just toss and fetch. It was intimidating to think of teaching Lilli all those cool tricks. The more we watched and learned, the more we wanted to advance our play. The first little trick we tried was butterflies. She took that on no problem.
After a while of not doing much other than some experimenting with stuff we saw on youtube dog disc videos, we chose to contact a professional. We found John Arnett on the web, a local dog freestyle pro, and we called to arrange some training. John was cool and friendly, the first time we met he got a feel for Lilli’s abilities and ours. He showed us some throwing tips, flips, and zig zags. Within a week of practicing flips, Lilli was going after discs with explosive jumps. She loved it, every new challenge and game. She loved the zig zags, and did plenty of victory laps. We also incorporated around the world, weaving, through the legs. A month later we met with John again and he adjusted our throws, flips, and zig zags, and taught us some vaults.
During this time, Andrea has taken Lilli to obedience, advanced obedience, and agility training. Lilli took to agility quickly, loving the a frame, table and jumps.
We absolutely love Lilli. She gets 1 to 3 play sessions every day. She is disc crazy. The more we play with her the more she wants to play and the more she wants to cuddle. She likes games, training, and she is a devoted dog with no bad habits. Her abilities are limited only by our commitment to learning and training with her.
