How to Tamedog on a Snowboard

Introduction

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What up shredder?

I try to go upside down at least once every time I go to the mountain. It doesn’t really seem like I've won the day until I do.

Part of the reason is, it’s fun to go upside down! It gets the adrenaline pumping, and fires me up.

The second reason is, flipping on a snowboard, while it may be scary, is incredibly easy. Flips don’t really require the precision involved with a technical spin or rail. It’s more about commitment than technical ability.

It’s pretty much just ride straight up to the jump, flip, and land on your feet.

Today, we’re going to cover a basic trick that, if you learn it, will make your riding a whole lot more impressive.

Even if you’re new to snowboarding, you’re going to want to check this one out.

It’s the tame dog.

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What is a Tame Dog in Snowboarding?

The wildcat, a straight backflip, was popularized by The Wildcats, an infamous snowboard crew out of Mt. Seymour and later whistler, notorious for hard partying ways, and sending it in the backcountry. The wildcats includes legends like Devin Walsh, JF Pelchat, Kale Stephens, Chris Brown, Chris Dufficy, and and many, many more.

The name wildcat, as far as I can tell, originated from Wildcat beer, and this video of techno backflips and the wildcat was born.

Now, If we take the opposite of a wildcat, what do we get…

That’s right. The opposite of a wildcat is a tame dog.

A tame dog is a frontflip over your nose, kinda like a barrel roll.

When I was a kid I always used to try and roll straight forward over my toeside edge, rather than over my nose, and I definitely ended up smashing my face and breaking a few pairs of goggles.

It’s much easier, and safer to just roll over the nose like a cartwheel.

Which brings me to my next point. If you naturally cartwheel the same way you snowboard, meaning to the left if you’re regular and to the right if you’re goofy, you’re going to have a much easier time with this trick.

If you like to cartwheel the other way, you might want to try out the wildcat first.

How to Tame Dog, or Front Flip, on a Snowboard

You should practice front flips and side flips either on a trampoline or in to a pool.

You should be able to hit jumps, ollie and grab on your snowboard.

And the weird one on this – it’s good to practice a few nollies and get comfortable popping off your nose.

That’s about it. It’s been said that this trick is 99% balls and 1% skill.

When i searched YouTube for trick tips on the tame dog, i found more trick tips than almost any other trick ever… this kind of backs up the theory of how easy it is.

I think it took me about two tries to learn this one, and they’re both on video.

Now, You’ve probably already done an involuntary tame dog variation before, when you rag doll and pop back up to your feet. It’s a natural motion, and if you get the pop right, you’re going to roll right around in the air.

The way to do this trick is, take a nice straight approach to the jump, rock on to your back foot as you’re going up the ramp, and forcefully jam your nose in to the very end of the jump, let your nose snap you into the air, and roll your front shoulder over the nose hard, after you’ve popped.

Try to come full circle back to your feet, meaning down give up halfway through the flip.

You’ll get a feel for this after a few tries.

Try to stay on the same axis, meaning no spinning or turning, so you come right around to ride out facing forward.

It can help to tuck up in the air, you can grab behind the knees to spin faster. Make sure you have enough speed to actually get this around, it’s a lot easier that way, but I’ve found that if you have a soft landing, bailing on this trick really isn’t too bad

Sometimes you can, just roll up if you don’t make it around. Just make sure to keep rolling even if you don’t make it around. Some people break the tail of their snowboard if they just stop flipping halfway through.

Now, this is a blind landing for some, although some riders have figured out how to spot it the whole way through. I’m still working on that one, I kind of just have to trust my feet when they hit the ground.

Snowboarding Tame Dog Fails and How to Avoid Them

Some people throw this straight down into the ground. You want to pop up and flip, not roll your shoulder down into the ground.

Sometimes I take off too soon, so I have to be patient and wait to pop until the very end of the jump.

Some people also pop too late, they’re still upright after they've taken off. Make sure to start the flip as soon as you leave the lip, especially if it's a small jump.

The cool thing about this trick is it can be done on the smallest of jumps, off of rails, over the knuckle of a jump and ever a roller.

You can build a small backyard jump like you see here, or find a cat track in to some powder to try this one out.

The Snowboarding Tame Dog Trick

That’s the tame dog, the opposite of a wild cat. You don’t need to be a wild drunk canadian to do one, although it certainly helps.

Roll straight over your front shoulder, tuck that shoulder, bring it the whole way around, and stomp it.

Start throwing these in random places and random times and you’ll get everyone around you psyched. If you wreck on the first jump you gotta tame dog over the knuckle of the second jump.

Go try it out and let us know how it goes.

Peace out shredder