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Thursday, December 18, 2008

Nancy Gyes Seminar

Enzo and I went to a two day seminar with Nancy this past weekend. We definitely got a lot of good practice with a lot of tough sequences, threadles, serpentines, 270's, push throughs and the funky triangle thing where you have to push to the backside of the jump and then wrap around. Got some good practice with front crosses and tight rear crosses. Enzo was jumping 22" all weekend. He started out a little tentative but by the end of the first day he was a lot more confident. He was also turning pretty nice most of the time so either my timing and signals are getting better or he's learning when he needs to chip in with an extra stride to turn before jumping or both.

Nancy also gave me some tips on Enzo's leadout. she said to play with him then have him lay down, do this a few times then lead out. If he gets up go back and play with him and then have him down and lead out again. This way he doesn't get to go until I tell him but he doesn't get to stress out about it either.

Monday, December 8, 2008

USDAA trial recap

Stayed home sick from work today. I almost coughed up a lung this morning. I realized after the first day that it probably wasn't the greatest idea to be running this weekend but I had teammates that were counting on me. It kind of sucks running agility when I can't even talk properly.

This was a tournament only trial so we had DAM team/PVP, Grand Prix/PNS, and Steeplechase/PSJ. Enzo ran in Championship and Tooney in performance. This was Enzo's first time competing at 22" in a year. Overall he did well at the height, a few bars here and there and he was being kind of careful most of the time and not driving as hard as normal. Hopefully he's get faster after a few trials at 22". Enzo's teamates were two border collies, Spark and Trace so our team name was Ready S.E.T. Go! Tooney's teammate was a sheltie named sport so our team was Sport Fishing for Toona.

Saturday, Enzo had a nice run in Grand Prix with one knocked bar. That would have been qualifying under last year's rules but not now unfortunately. Tooney had a good run but backjumped a jump that she was supposed to wrap.

Next was Team Snookers. Tooney had a zero point snookers round! I lead out and she knocked the first red jump and then I couldn't stop her from taking the next jump. Enzo did much better, it was a pretty tough snookers course so I planned for two 5's and a 7 and we ended up getting through number 5 in the closing which was decent for that course and way better than Tooney did!

In Team Jumpers both Tooney and Enzo E'd. In Enzo's run, I got out of position and went past the jump I was planning to rear cross. I tried to cross on the flat but he got confused and back jumped. Both of his teammates did well on the course so we were just above the cutoff after that round. Tooney did something bad in her run, she ran behind me and took an off course jump when I front crossed. She's been doing that lately so I need to proof against it. Tooney's teammate also E'd so we were in last place after that!

Both dogs ran clean in Steeplechase\PSJ round 1 so they both got their first qualifiers towards next year's nationals. In round 2 on Sunday Tooney got 4th place and Enzo knocked two bars.

In team gamblers, Enzo just missed getting through the timers before the buzzer went off. His nose was just right there. He pulled off of a tunnel that I sent him to so we got a little messed up. Maybe if my voice was working he would have gone when I said go or maybe not. Tooney had a really good gamblers run and ended up with 2nd place.

Team Standard went well too. Enzo was clean and Tooney had one knocked bar. Enzo's teammates both did really well and Tooney's teammate did well too but it was enough to get her team above the line. Enzo's team was 10th going into the relay and I think the cut was around 15.

In relay, Enzo's team did well. Enzo had a bar and a refusal at the teeter (the first of the weekend so not bad after last weekend), One teammate had one refusal and I think the other one was clean. Ready S.E.T. Go! ended up in 6th place so Enzo is qualified for DAM Team! Tooney and her Teammate both E'd so no Q for her. Suprisingly that's actually the first time Tooney hasn't qualified on a team that she ran on. We had fun though and were able to laugh about it. This was actually the most fun I've had running at a team event. Since Enzo's teammates were his classmates we were really able to strategize and analyze the courses together like we do in class. They were also really nice and came and found me after I E'd team jumpers to be supportive and tell me not to feel bad about it.

So to summarize, a Steeplechase Q and DAM team Q for Enzo at his re-debut at 22" plus a PSJ Q for Tooney, not too bad!

Sunday, November 30, 2008

3 day AKC trial

Well the weekend started out really good but then didn't end so well. In JWW on Friday, both dogs ran clean. Enzo ended up with 2nd place. In standard Tooney leapt over the dogwalk contact but Enzo was clean. He wasted quite a few seconds on the table so his time wasn't great but it was a double Q!

On saturday I had only entered Enzo. He was clean in JWW even though he got a little spooked by the kid doing leash running right before he ran. He was ok after the kid turned around but Enzo definitely didn't like the way the kid was staring at him. He ended up with 3rd place on this run. In Standard, he would have Q'd except that he decided to bail on the teeter. The trial was in a covered horse arena so I think the loud echoing must of scared him the day before. I went home and had him do a lot of teeters at home with high value treats hoping that would help for the next day.

Sunday I ran both dogs again. In JWW, the hard part was the beginning and I got my dogs through that fine but then they both had weird mistakes later on. Tooney turned the wrong way on a jump and then back jumped it. Enzo took an off course jump straight ahead when he was supposed to come into me for the third jump of the pinwheel. I'm sure I was late on my rotation for the front cross. In Standard Tooney did really well except that I pulled her off of the tunnel. She was headed towards the correct end already when I called her. Enzo's run was a little bit of a mess. I tried to front cross the aframe and he missed the contact. Then he ran past the teeter. I called him back and he did it the second time although very cautiously. I said good boy after he did the teeter and he stopped dead in his tracks on the way to the table and I almost ran into him. I had to lean over and stop myself on the table. The judge asked me if I was ok. it was prety funny.

Anyways, now I'm wondering if I should avoid trials under covered arenas for a while. The last time we trialed under the other arena in the area he was fine with the teeter but he has had issues there in the past. Hopefully if I work with him a lot this week he'll be ok with the teeter for this weekend's USDAA trial.

Monday, November 24, 2008

The Elusive Double Q

I went to another AKC trial this weekend with Enzo only. We started the weekend with a kind of weird JWW course with a lot of funky lead changes. I wasn't a very fun course but we got through the parts that I thought were the hard parts but I got out of position at the very end. We were supposed to drive down a fairly straight line of jumps but I ended up behind and lateral and he pulled into an off course tunnel. Standard went much better and he ended up getting first place. His teeter performance was a little borderline but he didn't get called for it. He did his dogwalk really well and is driving better to the bottom. He still isn't stopping on the aframe in trials but he is adding an extra stride at least.

He had two nice runs on Sunday but no Q's. In Jww, he ended up knocking one bar but it was totally my fault for yelling his name when he was taking the triple. The triple jump was facing the wrong ended of the tunnel and I could see that he was locked on to it. I didn't cue him properly before he took off and panicked. In standard he knocked a bar when I was doing a front cross. I may have said something to him as he was jumping here too and the cross might have been a bit late. He ended up getting called on the teeter too. He kind of bounced off the side and somehow ended up running behind me. I lost him for a second and even though he was running towards the correct tunnel I called him back and resent him because i don't want him to think it's ok to run behind me. His dogwalk was really nice again and his aframe was a little better than the day before. The stinker did get up on the table once but he sat back down after a couple commands. In the past he would have been done with the table if that happened.

I'll have to see if still have any of the course maps because there were some interesting courses. Unfortunately, our chances of making AKC nationals are offically gone but at least now I can concentrate on improving my handling and tightening up his turns without the pressure!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

AKC trial 11/15-16

Tooney is all healed up and got to run this weekend. She was happy about that. Saturday, Tooney got 2nd in JWW and Enzo knocked the triple. Tooney actually beat Enzo's time by 0.5 seconds this run. In Standard, Tooney went into the wrong side of the weaves but Enzo was clean. Enzo ended up with 4th place but only a few tenths out of 2nd place. The first place dog was a few seconds faster. He also had his fastest YPS in standard to date with 4.3 YPS. His table is definitely a lot better. He stil hesitates a little but not too bad. He self releases on the contacts but at least he's not leaping off. On the dogwalk, he slows down the last few steps and when he reaches the last stride before his front feet would hit the ground, he just takes off and leaves me in the dust. Not exactly the behavior, I'm aiming for. But note that again Enzo missed a double Q by one bar! ergh.

When I got home on Saturday, the skies were filled with smoke. This in one problem with living in Southern CA. Our house is about 15 miles from where the fire was and we live in a pretty urban area so no danger of fire reaching our house but I defintely wonder about the long term health effect of breathing in all that smoke. The wind changed later in the afternoon and started blowing the smoke away from our house instead of directly over it.

Sunday I went back to the trial. The trial was fairly close to the other fire so the air was a little smokey there too. Both dogs ran clean in JWW. Enzo had one wide turn but still beat Tooney's time by half a second this time. He ended up with 4th place but again only a few tenths out of second and about a second out of first. His YPS was 5.8 so defintely a good time. In standard, Tooney took and off course jump. They were supposed to come out of a tunnel and turn 180 in the chute but she shot out straight in front of me and took the triple. Enzo ended up taking the wrong ended of the tunnel after the teeter so no double Q's this weekend. I think that pretty much kills my chances of getting him Q'd for AKC nationals. He only has 5 chances to get 4 double Q's so not likely at all.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

No double Q's but contacts are back

I ran Enzo in an AKC trial this weekend. Tooney was entered but one of her anal glands ruptured again. This is the third time so our vet said that we should get them removed. Poor girlie.

Yesterday Enzo got second place in jww. I kind of took it easy and did all rear crosses. It felt a little slow after doing USDAA all last week but he still did it in 5.57 yds/sec so I guess it wasn't actually slow. In standard he had a really nice run but knocked one bar. He stopped on the dogwalk but not the aframe but he was coming down all the way instead of leaping off.

Today JWW was a little rocky the whole time but he stayed on course until the very end when he ran past the last jump. It was totally my fault as I should have rear crossed the 2nd to last jump. In standard he shot out of the tunnel and took an off course jump. He also stopped in the middle of the weaves and started sniffing around. I dont think he's ever done that before. He was fine the second time when I restarted him. Again he had nice contacts at least. He really drove down to the end of the dogwalk and stopped and the aframe he didn't stop but came all the way down.

Friday, November 7, 2008

22" for Enzo

I've made the decision to move Enzo out of Performance and jump him at 22" Championship for USDAA. We practiced at 20" in Tuesday night's class and 22" in Wednesday nights class and he did great at those heights. I don't think he knocked any bars on Tuesday and maybe 2 on Wednesday but those were kind of hard angles to begin with and I was taking off away from him. Last time that I ran him at 22" (about a year ago other than at home) he was lacking confidence and would slow down and add strides to make sure he didn't knock any bars but now it didn't seem to bother him at all. He's just under 18" so on the smaller side for the jump height but this dog can jump up to my head level when he wants so you would think 22" shouldn't be a problem!

Our next USDAA trial is December 6-7 which is a Tournament only trial so we should be able to get lots of practice in at 20/22" before that. I'd just better remember to practice triple and double jumps at home since we don't set those up in class very often. Already have a great DAM team set up for Enzo with two of his border collie classmates and Tooney has a very solid PVP partner too for that trial.

We have 4 AKC weekends before that. Hopefully the work that I've been doing on his contacts this week sunk in. I brought the target back out and that seems to have revived some of his enthusiasm for the 2on/2off position.

Monday, November 3, 2008

PVP Standard





Here's Tooney's PVP Standard run. She missed the dogwalk contact and then almost took the number 9 jump instead of the number 8 jump but since it wasn't a tunnel she called off of it and I was able to fix it. Enzo leapt his aframe contact again and because of that I couldn't push him to the 14 jump and he ran past it and then backjumped it. I also think it probably would have been faster to wrap to the right instead of the left on jump 18.

Performance Speed Jumping Semifinals








Here's Tooney and Enzo's PSJ runs. I handled them a little differently. Normally I try to handle them the same. For Enzo I handled 4-6 as a serpentine and rear crossed 6. For Tooney, I left her in the weaves a little and front crossed between 4 and 5. Both ways worked fine. I didn't think I'd be able to get far enough away from the weaves to get a timely front cross in for Enzo.

The other place I handled them differently was from the 12 tunnel to the weaves. For Enzo I pulled to the 13 jump and then rear crossed jump 15. The line from 13 to 15 on the actual course was a little straighter than on the map which was why I didn't cross behind number 14. With Tooney I front crossed on the landing side of jump 13. That almost pushed her out to the off course jump. I didn't want to handle that line with her the way that I did for Enzo because I was worried that the rear cross would pull her off the weave entrance. Enzo actually has better weave entrances than Tooney does, but is not as good with me leaving him laterally in the weaves.

The ending line I should have rear crossed number 18. I thought I could be even with them for the push but I wasn't. I was a little bit worried that putting pressure on that jump would send them into the tunnel instead.

Tooney was clean but with the wide turns her time wasn't nearly good enough to make the finals. She ended up 17th and they took 10. Enzo had another missed contact but with his wide turn before the aframe and the spin at the end, his time still would have been just out of the finals. His time would have put him in 13th if he didn't miss the contact.

Performance National Standard Semifinals





Enzo missed the aframe contact for sure and I think he may have missed the dogwalk too but didn't get called. The refusal after the chute was my fault for not supporting the jump enough. I didn't think about the fact that he would be blind coming out of the chute and I was worried about him going wide after that jump. Even with the refusal his time was only 0.02 seconds behind the last dog to make it into the finals so if we had been clean he could have gotten into the finals!

Tooney ended up going off course. After the number 6 jump she touched the aframe.

PNS Quarterfinals





Here is Enzo's Quarterfinal run for Performance National Standard. Pretty straightforward course. Hardest part was the turn from 15 to the dogwalk. On the actual course the number 19 jump was a lot more in their view so I rear crossed 15 and then front crossed after it which is not necessarily a move I'm super comfortable with but it worked out well. I just had to make sure that Enzo got his contacts so I was pretty stern with him to make sure he listened. Slowed him down a lot but at least it worked. Enzo ended up in 8th place. Tooney had a bye into the Semifinals so she didn't run this course.

PVP Jumpers Run








Here is video of Enzo's PVP Jumpers run and the course map. He was really wound up and ended up knocking 2 bars. I forgot to do a couple jumps at the warmup jump at 20 or 22". That usually keeps him from jumping too flat. I was just really proud of him for not taking the wrong end of the tunnel after the broad jump. Tooney took the wrong end of the tunnel.


Sunday, November 2, 2008

Last Day of USDAA Nationals.

We're home now from Nationals. This morning I did the European jumpers course. Enzo did really well, just had one really wide turn where he actually ran out of the ring and around a post for the ring before coming back. I didn't decelerate before the 180 turn. oops! Tooney went off course again! She definitely suffered from tunnel sucking this weekend. Don't know what's going on with her but I'm really happy with how Enzo was running with the exception of his contacts of course. It's just bad timing that he decided to start blowing them the week before nationals! He was really fast and focused all weekend and paid attention on some pretty tough courses. I just need to keep working on my timing with turning cues to get him tighter. He did great for a 2.5 year old at his first nationals!

Oh and we also did a couple of private lessons with Melissa Heeter and got some interesting tips from her and some drills to work on.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

USDAA Nationals Day 2 & 3

I didn't get a post out yesterday because after 6 runs in the heat, I was just wiped out, mentally and physically.

Yesterday, our first run was PNS semifinals. Enzo ran first again. He was pretty close on his dogwalk contact, completely leaped over his aframe contact, and then I pulled him off a jump for a refusal. Other than that though he had a pretty nice run. Even with the refusal, his time ended up being just .02 seconds behind the last dog to make it into the finals so without the refusal and the missed contact he could have made it in! Tooney's run in PNS ended pretty early as she went off course after just 5 or 6 obstacles if that. Should have been an easy wrap but she just blasted off towards the aframe.

Next was Performance Speed Jumping. Enzo had a pretty nice run, with a couple wide turns but missed his aframe contact. Tooney had a clean run but a couple really wide turns so she didn't end up with a great time. Enzo's time was faster by 2 seconds. I checked the results this morning and Tooney ended up in 17th place and Enzo if he had been clean would have been in 13th so he still wouldn't have made it into the finals.

Last run of the day was team standard. Enzo got his dogwalk contact this time but leapt over the aframe contact and then ran past the next jump and back jumped it. Tooney ended up missing her dogwalk contact but managed to stay on course this time.

Today was team gamblers. Both dogs did good this time but you can't really mess up gamblers! The "gambler" this time was just after the buzzer point were doubled and you have to cross the finish jump before the closing time was over. Enzo got one of his aframe contacts but not the other. We're really going to have to work this when we get home!

Tommorrow is our last run with European Jumpers!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Day 1 (Thursday) USDAA Nationals

First run today was Enzo in Team Jumpers. He was flying but knocked two bars. Tooney went off course. There was a broad jump and you had to pull to the opposite end of the tunnel from the one they saw and she went right into the tunnel. Right after that we had to run over to Enzo's quarterfinal run for Performance National Standard. I took it easy on this course and we got through clean so he should be in the semis no problem. He did tick two bars but they stayed up luckily. Next was snookers. I actually had about 15-20 minutes for a break this time. Enzo went off course into the tunnel right off the bat. Tooney went off course towards the end of the opening. Ergh. Not a great day for the team events but at least enzo got into the semifinals for PNS.

Tommorow we have the Semis for PNS and Performance Speed Jumping and Team Standard.

Monday, October 27, 2008

2 days until USDAA Nationals!

We'll be leaving for Scottdale on Wednesday! At the AKC trial last weekend, Enzo kept going off course and missing contacts so today and tommorrow we're doing a lot of practice running past tunnels and some contact work.

At Nationals, they set me up so that there are only 4 dogs between Enzo and Tooney in the team runs and even less is PSJ. I'll have to take a crate to the ring with us. No way I'll be able to make it back to the crating area. And to top it off on Friday I have all of my runs between 9:30 and 12!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

USDDN Finals



We're back and mostly recovered from our trip to Atlanta for the US Disc Dog National/International Finals. It was a long drive out but luckily the trip both ways was pretty uneventful.

Friday was a qualifier but since Enzo and Tooney were already qualified, they played for practice. Jeff and Enzo competed in Super Open. Their first freestyle routine on Friday was awesome with only 3 or 4 drops. Tooney had two awesome rounds of Toss and Fetch and tied for 5th on Friday in the Super Pro Division.


Saturday was the National finals for Super Open and they had to place in the top 15 to compete on Sunday for the International Finals. There were two rounds of freestyle and one round of Toss and Fetch. It was windy but Jeff handled the wind really well and Jeff and Enzo ended up placing 9th in the National finals for Super Open on Saturday so they made it into the International finals on Sunday! On Saturday Jeff and Enzo had better freestyle routines but a more average Toss &Fetch. On Sunday their routines were solid but not quite as good as Saturday but they rocked Toss & Fetch with a perfect score of 22.5! That's the maximum score that you can get in that part of it. They ended up in 8th place in the International Finals which is quite awesome considering that we didn't even know if they would make the cut for Sunday!





Sunday started with the National Finals for the Super Pro Division which was two rounds of Toss and Fetch. Jeff and Tooney ended up scoring 23 points in their first round and 21 points in the seconds and ended up in 3rd place for the National Finals! Tooney was definitely the smallest dog competing in this division too! In the International Finals, Tooney had 21 points in the first round and 16.5 in the second round and ended up in 7th place.





Here's some great shots taken by my friend Kat Fahle!








Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Sydney's Retirement

The other news of the weekend is that we decided to officially retire Sydney from Frisbee competitions. He is going to be 11 next month. His body is still in really good shape but his mental focus just isn't there anymore. He keeps dropping the disc out at 40 yds and wandering off. Also, before you throw the disc he's just impossible to keep in a stay which gets really frustrating. He has just become more and more difficult to deal with in a competition setting and it's not that fun anymore for either him or us. So the last frisbee competition of the season is also the last of his career. Sydney had a good long run. It's just too bad that he didn't have a better foundation in his early training.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Vegas Weekend

We went to Vegas for a 3 day weekend. Friday and Sunday was AKC agility and Saturday was a frisbee day, Las Vegas's first UFO local.

The AKC trial was tiny, only around 50 excellent dogs. We drove out to Vegas on Friday morning since the trial didn't start until 3pm. Enzo had a really nice standard run other than a couple wide turns because of my late front crosses. He ended up getting first place. Don't know if it was the long drive or cold windy weather but Tooney was just bonkers. She ran behind me to take an off course jump and also missed both her aframe and dogwalk contacts. In JWW, Enzo ran first and had a nice run but knocked a bar so we didn't get the double Q. Tooney did much better in this run but also knocked one bar. Oh and we went to eat at the Rio Seafood Buffet afterwards which is my fav at Vegas because of the all you can eat yummy lobsters!

Saturday was the disc dog competition and had the worst weather. The coldest and windiest day of the weekend. I ended up doing catch ratio so no pictures or video of the frisbee this time. They also did rotating judging where they split the competitors into two groups and each group judged the other so Jeff got his first taste of judging now. Of course he will have to judge a lot next year since our club has the top 3 competitors judge at that competition next year.

Jeff and Enzo did pretty good in freestyle considering the conditions with a catch ratio close to 60%. They had the highest freestyle score in their group and second highest overall. Toss and Fetch actually went pretty well for them. They got two catches for 7 points which was really good in that strong cross wind and ended up winning the competition! Oh and I ended up placing 2nd in intermediate with Enzo too! The competition finished up pretty early and we headed over to the Hoover Dam just to see it and take a couple pictures but we didn't do the tours. The dam really isn't as impressive as I thought it would be but that bridge that they are building for the Hoover Dam bypass is scary!

Sunday we went back to agility. Tooney was nuts again. She blew by the table in standard to take a jump and leapt over the dogwalk contact. I was pushing on her a little so I think she couldn't take that pressure and leapt off the side. Enzo had another really nice clean run in standard and placed 1st again. In JWW Tooney went off course again. Enzo took a good hard look at the same off course tunnel but I was able to call him off of it. He had at least one more really wide turn but made it through the course clean so he got his second double Q!

Jeff took video of my runs but I probably won't get a chance to upload them before we leave for Atlanta on Wednesday!

Ok Here are some of the videos:





Sunday, October 5, 2008

A Good Frisbee and Agility Weekend!



We went to a UFO local competition in Lancaster CA on Saturday. It was really windy, 20-30 mph, so not great conditions for frisbee but at least the rain held off. I had some good T&F rounds with both Tooney and Enzo. I'm throwing a lot better than before but still not that consistent. The Hero Xtra discs help a lot.


Jeff and Enzo had a great Freestyle round especially considering the wind. They had the highest scoring Freestyle routine but unfortunately Enzo only got 3 points with Jeff in T&F. They still did well enough in freestyle to place 3rd overall though!


Tooney and Jeff had fun in their rountine but Tooney didn't catch that much. She did really well in T&F with him but missed the last throw which was a perfect throw. Tooney normally doesn't miss like that but she might have been a little tired.


Today I went to an AKC trial. In standard Tooney missed her Aframe contact which almost never happens and Enzo had an awesome run. A couple slightly wide turns but he ended up with 3rd place and only 1.4 seconds behind Driven who won at AKC Nationals this year.

Jumpers had some tricky angles in it but both Tooney and Enzo ran clean. Tooney had a nice efficient run. Enzo's run was a little on the edge. He was really fast and I ended up really late on a rear cross so he went really wide and came really close to running past the next jump. He also spun coming out of a tunnel near the end because I ran along the back side and couldn't meet him at the end. We made it though. Enzo placed 4th and Tooney 5th. This seems to happen a lot! There were only a few tenths of a second between 2nd place and 5th place. Driven came in first and was a couple seconds ahead.

Most importantly, Enzo got his first double Q!!!! Maybe there is hope to get 5 more by the end of November...

Monday, September 29, 2008

Happy Birthday Tooney!

Tooney turned 6 years old today! Hard to believe! Here's a cool pic that my friend Marci's husband Thomas took at Bay Team a few weeks ago. Plus some puppy pics from the archive!




Tooney at 10 weeks old in the snow:




Tooney at 12 weeks old:

5 months old:

7 months old and getting groomed properly (which doesn't really happen much!)




1 year old!


And today 6 years old!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Jeff and Enzo are qualified for the UFO World Cup Finals!

We went to a UFO Local competition in Flagstaff AZ this weekend. They did two rounds of freestyle. Their first round was definitely the best routine that they have had so far. Enzo's catch ratio was 83% ! His catching ability is just really improving the past few months. It was pretty windy in the second round but he still caught 70-some percent of the discs. Jeff is doing a lot better with adjusting for the wind now. Jeff and Enzo were by far the most experienced freestyle team out there so even though they didn't have a good Toss & Catch round they still ended up placing first! That gave them enough points to qualify for the UFO World Cup finals. I don't think that we will be able to go this year though.

Tooney also did really well in her routines with Jeff and they placed 3rd overall in Open.

It was a small competition and the AZ Disc Dog Club is pretty new so I ended up being one of the judges for freestyle. That was my first time judging. It was interesting but difficult! All three of us judges were first timers.

We drove back last night and then I went to an AKC trial this morning. Tooney got 2nd place in standard and had a nice jumpers run but knocked a bar. It seems like I got her dogwalk speeded back up again but I'm a little worried that she might start leaping. One issue at a time I guess. Enzo went off couse in standard. He took the wrong end of a tunnel that I could have sworn was not in his line of sight. I know at least two other fast dogs in 16" did the same thing though. In JWW, he knocked a bar early on and then had an off course later on but that was totally my fault.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Tooney's ADCH Pictures



Earned her last Masters Jumpers leg under judge Scott Chamberlain at the USDAA Southwest Regional on September 1, 2008!

First Post

I decided to try this blogging stuff out. I'll probably post about our competition results and training challenges. I compete in AKC and USDAA agility with Tooney and Enzo and my husband competes in Disc with them. Sydney our oldest still comes out for some Toss and Fetch even though he can't see that well anymore.

We are going to go to the USDDN Championships in Atlanta in October. Enzo is qualified for Freestyle and Tooney is qualified in Toss and Fetch.

At the end of October we will be going to Cynosport for USDAA Nationals. Both Enzo and Tooney are qualified for Performance National Standard, Performance Speed Jumping, and Performance Versatility Pairs jumping 16".

Until then we have a bunch of local AKC trials for agility and a few UFO local competitions for disc. Enzo just got his AX this past weekend. I figure I have a small outside chance to get him qualified for AKC nationals next year. I know getting 6 double Q's in 3 months is a longshot but it can't hurt to try and he is running pretty consistently lately and isn't even 2.5 yet. Tooney is qualified already. Jeff says that he will drive with me to North Carolina if they are both qualified.