Hilde's becoming a disc dog

[racingiron1]

Hilde has always had a bit of interest for Frisbees, but would mostly wait until they came to the ground to pounce, and the standard plastic ones were sometimes tough for her to pick up. I started using one of the flying rings with open center and she likes that better, but sometimes will hook a front leg through when she's trying to run with it. We came across a soft disc the other day, made out of ballistic nylon, and she really seemed to like it. She's now routinely plucking it out of the air and bringing it back.

The Skyhoundz world championship is taking place here in Chattanooga this weekend, so last weekend we took a few pictures just to get in the mood to go watch the pros...

I'll start with her getting used to my bad throws. Here's a horrible throw that reversed direction on her in mid-air:

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Here she is patiently waiting for it to drop:

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OK, I started to get a bit better (more likely, she's just anticipating the poor trajectory!):

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Here are a couple that I got relatively straight and she could get a full head of steam to launch after it:

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Launch.JPG (66.37 KiB) Viewed 2244 times

Back to my bad throws... Here is a nice 4-shot sequence of her giving it her best effort:
I got it!!!

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Yup, I got this!!!

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... I think I got it... Maybe...

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Uh... Dad... that throw was pathetic!

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OK, enough of the warm ups. We finally got in a groove...

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And the finale, no air time, but a nice, big CHOMP!

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Chomp2.jpg (121.86 KiB) Viewed 2244 times

[Mobil]

Those are fantastic shots. She is beautiful and looks so happy.

[karenz]

Great pics. I love the last one the best. She looks so intense. I use to suck at taking action shots but I found the burst shot feature on my phone so I do better now. Your pics are a lot better than what I usually take.

[centrop67]

Awesome pictures.

I am so jealous of your wide open field to play in.

[racingiron1]

Well, the sunlight helped a lot on that day, plus Elizabeth took all those... I was just thrower. We're really lucky to have that field (part of a city park) right across the street from our house. I have some more to post below, but the lighting wasn't as good. We need to get a better camera than just a phone, but it's pretty good so far. Karen, the burst mode really helps, because otherwise getting the timing just right is nearly impossible. Since most of the shots below weren't as good as the others, I decided to play around with some photo editing software...

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The first of my sequence creations with the editing software:

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_Pounce.JPG (174.48 KiB) Viewed 2195 times

Here's another sequence. She missed this one as it reversed direction:

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Here's one where she jumped way too early and the frisbee stayed too high for her to get it:

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This is just a crazy close-up action shot. I would've loved to have a nice camera with fast shutter speed here.

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Catch_3.jpg (141.4 KiB) Viewed 2195 times

Now for some animated GIF files that have the burst photos put together:

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Catch_2sm.gif (486.96 KiB) Viewed 2195 times

Catch_4sm.gif (503.67 KiB) Viewed 2195 times

I have a GoPro camera I used yesterday evening, but it'll take a couple of days to pull the video off of it and edit it down. Stay tuned!

[karenz]

That is so cool. How did you post the animated gif files like that so they would play? Do I have to resize each picture and post them separately or do you post the whole file together? I have some on my phone, I select the picture and tap the play button to play them on my phone but I don't know how to post them.

[racingiron1]

OK, I'm getting really far too infatuated with this!
I'm already making plans for a big $$$ camera, just for some more of these Hilde action shots! You guys will have to have an intervention soon... Just gently nudge me if I get out of control with these picture posts.

Karen, for the animated GIFs, I used a free online GIF-maker website. There are several available, but I used http://gifmaker.me/. I already had the pictures on my computer for editing so using that web site was easy. Keep in mind that to post here the file has to be less than 500K, so I had to really lower the resolution of the GIF. If you just want to piece the burst images together on the phone, there are several iOS and Android apps that'll do the job. Here's a list (I haven't tried any of these): http://webtrends.about.com/od/prof4/tp/ ... ndroid.htm

OK, more pics to post. We had another session Sunday morning before going to watch the pros. Lighting was pretty good, if overcast, so not too blurry. Most of these were part of a burst, so I'll create some more overlays and animations soon. Rather than animated GIFs, I'll probably create videos and post to YouTube. I wish more of them had direct sun only so you could see her shadow. That really gives a sense of how high she flies.

Catch1.JPG (137.78 KiB) Viewed 2150 times

I love these shots where she's stretched out right after take-off!

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A couple of mid-air acrobatics:

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Grab3_twist.jpg (121.62 KiB) Viewed 2150 times

Love the teeth on this one...

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She missed this one (I still have some bad throws), but she was right on the nose!

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Speaking of bad throws, I nearly hit Elizabeth with this one, but she managed to get a great shot of Hilde's intense concentration.

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The finale this time: another nice stretch, but you can really see the force of impact on that poor frisbee!

Grab6_stretch.jpg (173.75 KiB) Viewed 2150 times

[racingiron1]

I told you guys I'm getting a bit out of control with this...

I made a YouTube video from the GoPro camera and some of the burst still shots. I couldn't resist adding a bunch of stoopid captions. Anyway, here's the link. If your internet connection allows it, make sure you're watching it at the full 720p resolution:
http://youtu.be/QoUGS3nYMlk

[Raven]

I don't click on links, but I couldn't resist. She's so happy-casual about that disc! (Loved the clip where she thought she had to "kill" it...just a little bit.)

I noticed she drops it just before or as she reaches you (as opposed to handing it to you). When I first brought Thor home, he didn't like to give anything up or would "tease" you with it. We worked on "I give to you, you give to me" and he got it...but perhaps too much...often, he's so concerned with giving it up as I reach for it, he lets go before I actually have it. That said, if I put my palm/palms flat out and say nothing, he understands that he needs to literally PLACE the object in my hands.

Nice job. Hilde and video!!!

[racingiron1]

I tried to embed the video here, but it looks like the forum software we're using doesn't support the YouTube tags.

I swear most of those jumps are just showing off. At first she would wait for it to hit the ground, then scoop it up and run back. Once she saw the reactions we gave as she grabbed it from the air, she started going out of her way to get airborne, especially if there's an audience. What a ham! To really get her amped up, I sometimes throw it vertically and let it run across the ground. That seems to kick in her prey drive. She'll run full out (no matter how tired/bored she is), let out a cute growl when she grabs it, then give it a few good shakes to put it out of its misery.

When returning, her first instinct is to try to play keep-away. You'll notice that when she drops it she goes straight for Elizabeth's hand in her pocket--that's where the yummy treats live! We haven't progressed to actually handing it back yet. She still sometimes drops it way too early and we have to make her go back and get it.