since 2020
Disc Dog
My name is Martina Bolehovská, and I’m fifteen years old. I have two amazing canine buddies, Denýsek (10 years) and Bejlinka (4.5 years), thanks to whom I’ve enjoyed a fantastic childhood full of adventures and wonderful experiences. When I was six years old and was going into the first grade, I chose Denýsek, a Welsh Corgi Pembroke. He’s a fantastic little fellow. At home I used to toss him a little rubber disc. It wasn’t until later I learned there was a sport called disc dog. We began working with a talented trainer named Lucie Schönová, who was willing to take on a small child and her dog, who by the way isn’t a typical disc dog breed. In 2015, our trainer persuaded us to enter our first competition in the city of Olomouc. I was so nervous, but everyone there was amazing and was really rooting for us. We even won the Crowd Favourite award. And that’s the competition that set everything in motion; from there on out, I was hooked on the sport.
Denýsek was and still is a tireless companion in the all the doggy tricks I came up with for him. I even appeared with him at the European Championship in the Czech Republic as well as at competitions in Poland. In Poland, we managed to come in 2nd after the first round. We won the Best Bonsai Starters award, 3rd place in Freestyle Bonsai. With Denýsek, I was nominated for the 2016 Cynologist of the Year competition, where we took the Most Congenial Cynologist Award and 1st place in the Junior Disc Dog category. They even invited us to appear on the TV morning show called Snídaně s Novou [Breakfast With Nova]. With time, the sport became too much for Denýsek, and that’s when Bejlinka came into my life. Her full name is Baileys Manthy Prague, and she’s a Border Collie. When Bejlinka was eighteen months old, I stopped competing with Denýsek, and she officially took over.
Because there aren’t many children in disc dog, I have to compete with adults. It’s not easy, and occasionally I’m sorry when something goes wrong, but as I always say: failure is a half success. It pushes us to improve and learning from our mistakes. Going up against adults and trying to match their abilities forces me to practice my throws and tricks more. Several times now we’ve proven that a little girl and her dog can beat adult competitors. It’s always a wonderful feeling to stand on the winner podium.
Our most frequent competitive appearances are in freestyle, SPTF, and quadruped. Thanks to my trainer, Lucie, I’ve learned how to throw the disc considerable distances. Last year, I increased my record to 57 metres (from a standstill). Other competitors and trainers at workshops also help me, and I thank them all for their willingness to do so.
Originally from the USA, disc dog is one of the most impressive dog sports. The handler throws a disc, and the dog jumps and catches it and brings it back to the handler. The sport comprises five disciplines: Freestyle (2 minutes with mandatory tricks set to music); SPTF (1.5 minutes where the handler throws one disc, and the dog brings it back; the five longest throws are counted); DogDartBee (something like darts; points are awarded depending on where the dog lands within a marked target); TimeTrial (the speed discipline); The Quadruped (long throws; the dog’s landings are marked and the distance measured).
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