MINOT, N.D. (KMOT) – Disc Connected K9′s trainer Jodi Frederick is a 58-time world finalist in Frisbee Dog competitions. All of her dogs are rescues. We had the chance to talk with her about what she does with these competitions.

JOHN: So, Jodi, tell me about what you do here with the frisbee dogs. I understand you’ve been to a lot of world championships in this competitive arena. Just tell me how you got into this and you know how you do it.

JODI: So, Disc Connected K9s, basically we have dogs of all different makes and breeds, mixed breeds, purebred breeds, but all of our dogs are rescue dogs, and we train them and we compete with them. But our love is doing shows in front of people like here at the North Dakota State Fair. What we do is called freestyle frisbee. That’s tricks with the dogs where they’re jumping off our backs, our bodies. Our bodies are catapults for the dogs so they can get 10, 12, 14 feet up in the air to catch a frisbee. We have dogs that do backflips and just amazing tricks and people say, “How do you teach your dog to do that?” And we just say, “Consistency is the key.” And our dogs, I mean, you see them when as soon as they see that frisbee, their ears perk up, their personality changes. All of our dogs love frisbee, that is not a job to them. That’s playtime.

JOHN: Talk about the reception you received from the fans here at the North Dakota State Fair: first, is this your first time at the North Dakota State Fair? And, what’s the what’s the reception been like from all the fans at all these shows?

JODI: It’s been amazing. And this is the fourth time we’ve been here. And it’s very heartwarming to see people come back year after year to see us. And they don’t know our names, they know our dogs. They just come back and go, “Well is so-and-so still in the show, and you still have this dog? Well, we were here before and who was it? Let me see, it was started with an R… oh Romeo!” Yes. Well, Romeo performed yesterday. He’s now 12 and a half years old, but he only performs it every other day because he is so old. But you know, it’s like they just know us and they know our dogs and they love the story and people say, “Your dogs do great tricks, but we love hearing the stories of where they came from.”

JOHN: Yeah, so going along with that, you mentioned that all the dogs are rescues. Talk about how important that is and how you guys support rescue initiatives.

JODI: So, there are so many dogs out there that need homes, and people look at us and we have brought dogs from being homeless to being world champions. So, what we try and tell people is it’s all in what you put into the dog. We just have a special place in our heart for rescue dogs, and we foster and rescue dogs from all over the country. And our rescue program, we basically train dogs, give them obedience, train them on basic frisbee, and then we adopt them out free of charge. We don’t charge anything for our rescue program. It’s all through the donations after our shows. People can’t believe that we can do that. But we have a lot of generous people and a lot of people help us foster when we’re on the road doing shows. But it’s what we’re about.

JOHN: Amazing story. Well, thank you for joining me, Jodi. Thanks for joining the program at the North Dakota State Fair.

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