We promote the Disc Dog Southern Nationals by saying that it’s "Where the Nation’s Best Come to Prove It", and on Saturday they came with the Super-Open Division featuring 15 teams from 8 states including 5 World Finalist combinations. At the conclusion of their year as Disc Dog Southern Nationals Champions Lawrence Frederick & Aero watched on, as their Jacksonville Disc & Dog Club teammates Mark Miller and Boomer became the new Champions after three rounds of intense but good-spirited competition. As a reward for their efforts Mark collected $1,500 of the $5,000 prize money that was distributed in the Super-Open, Pro-Novice and Open Divisions at this year’s Southern Nationals.

The winners of the special awards were:

Best Small Dog – Mare Potts & Scout (Aurora, IL)
Crowd Pleaser – Beth McClurg & Mona (Atlanta, GA)

Sunday’s competition opened with the first Junior Novice competition at the Disc Dog Southern Nationals, for handlers aged 12 years and under. Everyone had a fun time, and congratulations to everyone who competed.

More than 30 competitors attended the Tournament Party, which was held at our Tournament Hotel, the Ramada Inn & Conference Center, on Saturday evening. Thank you everyone for contributing to a fun night full of laughs.

The Greater Atlanta Dog & Disc Club (GADDC) wants to thank everyone who contributed to the continuing success of the Disc Dog Southern Nationals, especially all our hard-working volunteers. I don’t want to name any of our Club’s volunteers in this email, because once I start I will not be able to stop. Every person who helped contribute to the organization and coordination of the Southern Nationals – THANK YOU!

We also thank all of the competitors, including those who traveled a long way to attend this year’s event. We hope you enjoyed your weekend, and we look forward to welcoming you back to future GADDC competitions.

An event of this magnitude is simply not possible without the key support of our sponsors and partners. We are very grateful to Purina Dog Chow whose financial support of this year’s event was very much appreciated, as were the Purina Dog Chow gift baskets that were given to the top three teams in every Division. We also thank our other sponsors: Pet Present (http://www.petpresent.com), Mobile Pet Grooming and Mobile Veterinary Services Inc. (http://www.mobilevets.com), NetBank (www.netbank.com), Ramada Inn & Conference Center (http://www.the.ramada.com/atlanta11325), and Papa Johns at Georgia Tech (http://www.papajohns.com).

We also invite everyone to visit the photographs captured by our Tournament’s Official Photographer and event sponsor, Reflective Images Photography. Competitors, please ensure that you visit the site to see if there are any images of you or your dog that you will want to add to your photo collection. We expect the photos to be online within the next few days at http://www.reflectiveimages.photoreflect.com.

The GADDC thanks Woof! Sports USA for their dedication and invaluable assistance in coordinating this year’s Disc Dog Southern Nationals. We are also very thankful for the hard work and expertise of our interstate judges Ron Ellis and Ed Jakubowski.

In addition to the competition divisions, the Purina Dog Chow Incredible Dog Team also entertained and dazzled the spectators at the Disc Dog Southern Nationals. We thank Lawrence Frederick and Donna Schoech and their enthusiastic partners, Aero, Coda, Happy Girl and Dylan, for their valuable contribution to a fun weekend, and for being so cooperative in working together with the competition organizers.

The next event of the Greater Atlanta Dog & Disc Club is the 9^th Annual Disc Dog Spring Championships to be held May 5 in Snellville, GA, in close proximity to Atlanta’s Stone Mountain. The GADDC is proud to announce that this year’s event has a new Championship Sponsor - Frontline Plus. There will be five divisions of competition, Argus Cup and Junior Handler of the Year points will be available, and everyone everywhere is invited to attend.