yes, I train my own dogs, I do watch comps on TV all the time though and they often have top trainers that will give you exersizes to do, I follow the guidelines from these when I train, and when I young puppy I always start with a ball, becaise before you touch a disc the dog needs to learn to bring bring the object back, from long distances, this is actually required before you begin competing here anyway, its called a retrival provisiancy test, after the ball then you can take a disc and roll it, then when the dog is old enugh to jump what I do in I stand on one leg with my other out in front of me, then I have the dog jump over my leg and grab the disc from my hand-this is one I got from a top trainer that was interviewed for TOPDOGS. I do a lot of tehse kind of exersizes for warm-ups now