This weekend, Lawrence’s Youth Sports Complex will play host to a fast-paced competition featuring flying discs and dogs running after them.

It’s the first-ever Land of Oz Disc Dog Championships, an event sponsored by a disc dog club from the Kansas City area.

Six events will test dogs and their owners on speed and accuracy. One example features four circles marked on a field, and owners must throw a disc to their dogs so they can catch it inside a circle.

Ann Wilhelm, a Lawrence resident and a club member, helped organize the event and participates with and her border collie mix, Harley Sue. Harley Sue is a trained therapy dog, but that’s just her day job, Wilhelm said.

“This is her fun job,” she said. “Playing with your dog is just a blast.”

Registration for the event begins about 8:45 a.m. Saturday at the soccer fields at Lawrence’s Youth Sports Complex, 4911 W. 27th St. The event, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 9:30 a.m.

While some seating will be available, Wilhelm suggested spectators bring lawn chairs to watch the event.

Pre-registration is not required, and the competition features a novice category for beginners, Wilhelm said. She said the club hopes to make the event an annual one.

Tony Burnett, vice president and treasurer of the Kansas City Disc Dogs club, said that the activity is growing in popularity. The Kansas City club has grown from about four members to more than 30 in the last five years.

“We seem to be doing something right,” he said. “We have lots of new members joining the club.”