Skyhoundz SW Regionals

I had big hopes for the SW regionals this year, with intentions of going to Tennessee with Enzo and Tooney if they were able to get qualified. Unfortunately, any hope of qualifying was gone before the competition even started. On Friday night, Enzo started limping. We think he got some sort of paw injury.

Tooney was my last hope. They take the top 6 (out of 39 competitors!) to the final round. I knew she had to do really well to make the cut. Tooney had an awesome 3-drop round. Unfortunately, 1 of those drops I wish I had back. It was a bad throw on my part. I thought it might come back to bite me - it did. They ended up taking the top 7 teams because there was a tie for 6th. Well, guess what? Tooney ended up in 8th place in freestyle. Yeah. That sucks - she missed by 1 spot. If she had 1 less drop, she would have been pushed up to about 4th place I think. That's the way it goes.

I tried throwing right handed for the first time this year in toss/fetch. It worked out OK, but I suffered some numbness/tingling afterwards. I out-threw Tooney on my first throw and that was enough to eliminate me from possibly making the cut. I can only get 4 throws off with her, so with the 1st throw a miss, she was done. She ended up in 9th place, not good enough for the cut. Not bad, considering there were 71 entries in the t/f division.

On Sunday, we had a disc dogathon, which had 4 different games. Jenn and I both entered it with Tooney (Enzo resting at home). She should be considered a favorite to win the event because she is really good at the toss/fetch type of games. In my first round (regular toss/fetch), Tooney got stung by a bee. She limped around and was pretty upset. Well, how nice. Our day was basically done... she struggled to compete in most of the events until the end. By the time the last event rolled around, she was feeling better. It was bull's eye, and I had a strategy going into it. Tooney ended up with 15 points with me. That was really good. Jenn went out a bit later, using the same strategy, and she scored a 19! That was enough for 3rd place in the event (winner had 21). Congrats to my girls! The good news is that Tooney was back and showed she would have done some serious damage if she was healthy the whole day!

Overall, it was mixed emotions for me. Tooney did really good and beat out some amazing freestyle teams, which is nice. She also fought through a nasty bee sting and finished Sunday with her head held high. However, the entire weekend I was extremely depressed due to Enzo's foot problem. I was calling it the 'saddest day in the history of Enzo'. It was unfortunate that he didn't have a chance to qualify, but the real sadness was because we're not used to having any of our dogs limping around and Enzo doesn't deserve it. He seems a lot better now and I guess we have no choice but to go and win the IDC qualifier in a few weeks.

Last note - GO PENS!!!!!!!!!!!