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Thursday, October 29, 2009

Mental Management

So I've determined that I need to brush up on my mental management. Going for the invitational has put me in a state of mind where I'm too worried about whether or not enzo Q's in each run and I've psyched myself out in standard runs with him for no good reason. He's been good on his contacts and I should trust him and focus on what I need to do to get him through the courses and stop worrying about the results. I also need to stop rushing and make sure that I stay in contact with him. I'm re-listening to my Lanny Basham CD's now and hopefully I've be able to get it together by USDAA nationals! Oddly enough I actually feel a lot less pressure about that than a local AKC trial at this point. I guess that's a good thing but that might change as it gets closer. Mentally I need to focus stop thinking and talking about what we did wrong and focus on how to do things right. So as part of that I'm only going to write about the good things here.

Tooney did really well at the 4 day trial in Northern CA. She got one double Q and 1 Q each of the other 3 days, she placed 1st in all of the runs that she Q'd in except 1. Enzo had one really awesome JWW run where he got 1st and 46 points which is definitely the most he's ever gotten for a jumpers run. I haven't gotten around to posting most of the video but I put that one up.



Last weekend Enzo got first in JWW on Saturday on a really tough course and Tooney Q'd in JWW on Sunday. Oh and Enzo hit all of his contacts :-)

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Enzo is 2009 D2iSC Champion!

Enzo has just been named the 2009 D2iSC (Disc Dogs in Southern California) Champion! It's an annual award given to the disc dog team that earns the most points based on your finishes in your best 3 out of the 4 major competitions hosted here in southern California. Enzo and I beat out over 80 other teams to get this award! It will be presented at our holiday get-together.

Enzo also finished in 5th place with Jenn due to their great toss and fetch finishes this year. That's impressive considering they don't do freestyle. Freestyle teams earn more points.

Tooney and I finished in 12th place!

Here's a couple pics from this year of my bestest buddy in the whole world. And yes, I love him so much, I bring myself to say "bestest". I can't help it:

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Friday, October 9, 2009

UFO Major / Crusty Classic Weekend part 1!!!

What a fun but exhausting weekend. It was the windiest competition of the year, so some of the rounds weren't as good as maybe they could have been. Jenn was also recovering from the flu. It was the biggest UFO and Crusty Classic in California history! Both days ran really late. This was the last disc competition for a long time for me, so I had to make the best of it!

Saturday was the UFO major. In intermediate division, Jenn got 3rd with Enzo with I think only 6 points. Yeah... the wind was THAT bad. There were probably more scores of 0 than not. Tooney didn't compete with Jenn because she's at the age we need to start resting her a bit. For my first round of freestyle with Enzo, the wind was really, really, really strong. He did great and after the 1st round, he ended up in 5th place. His toss/fetch was very solid at 7.5, but I only got 3 throws off - it was my fault, sorry Ebby! He missed the t/f top 10 cut by only 0.5 point. For the 2nd round of freestyle, Enzo was AWESOME! I knew since he had a solid t/f score that our placement should move up. They announced the awards for the top 3 freestyle - I figured we had a REALLY good chance of being in the top 3 - no mention of Enzo. Wow, that's odd..... Then, announcing the open overall top 4 (t/f + both rounds freestyle) and Enzo was also nowhere to be found... I thought that was strange, but that's the way it goes sometimes. No big deal!

SCORING ERROR!?!?! Yes, on Sunday, they found 2 major errors in the scoring calculations on the spreadsheet. After the new calculations, Enzo was 2nd in freestyle and 4th in the overall! Then, after yet ANOTHER mistake, Enzo moved to 3rd in the freestyle... whatever the placements are, he did good!

Enzo's 1st round freestyle UFO Major. Notice at the beginning, the disc almost blew off my finger and I started laughing since I recovered! That's a very risky and difficult move to do, especially with the wind, but I don't back down from a challenge. After my round, friends surprised me by running out and throwing stuffed bananas at me because I dress up in yellow. We didn't get it on video, though.



Enzo kicking butt for his 2nd round:



Little Tooney had 2 decent rounds in freestyle. It was really windy and she struggles more than Enzo in the wind. She doesn't have the quick reactions that he does to recover when the disc moves with the wind. As expected, she didn't make the cut. However, in toss/fetch, nothing can stop her, even with the brutal wind... at least I thought... In the 1st round of t/f, she was great. She ended up in 1st place overall with 12 points. I was stoked, and I figured we'd probably win it because she's so good. For our 2nd round of t/f, the event was running really late and I was the last person to go since she was in first place (they run last to first). I had my sun glasses on because I didn't think I'd need to bring my regular glasses with me. I couldn't see a thing and as each competitor went, it was darker and darker out. Unfortunately, for our second round, we were only average, and yes, I blame it on the fact it was nearly pitch black out. I don't normally make excuses, but it was a huge disadvantage. She got 9 points in the second round. It caused me more of a problem than her probably. I couldn't see the lines on the field at all. I think we ended up in 5th place in t/f. I think she ended up 13th overall in the open division, which is actually really good considering how big the competition was!!!

Tooney's round of freestyle:

UFO Major / Crusty Classic Weekend part 2!!!

On Sunday, the wind was still blowing hard and it was COLD! Jenn and I were freezing with lots of layers on. Jenn didn't feel all that great and couldn't finish her rounds, but had a really good toss/fetch with Enzo considering the wind (12 points). The Crusty classic is in memory of Steve "Crusty" Walsh who passed away 9 years ago. It's also a celebration and show of appreciation to all the disc doggers and their k9 athletes not with us anymore. Since it's a special occasion and Halloween is coming up, I felt I should do something special. I did - and everybody loved it!!!

For Enzo's freestyle, we went out as Skeletor and Mr. Bones. I think you'll like this. I visually lost Enzo on a couple of moves/throws, but it was still worth it! My absolute favorite part is when we're walking onto the field, Enzo is herding me... SO CUTE!



Tooney and I went out as Hannibal and Officer Tooney. For the first half of the routine, she was on fire. I noticed a lot of blood coming out of her mouth and knew she cut her mouth. This isn't unusual for her, and I knew she'd be ok to play through it. If she stopped running around or anything, I would have stopped. Unfortunately, she was hesitant when catching discs for a while after that. She didn't even open her mouth on some of them, but she still did great. She had fun and we looked very cool I must say. The song choice is a classic, so turn it up!



The next round was bullseye, which is a toss and fetch type of event with 2 discs. I always do really well with both Enzo and Tooney, so I was excited about this. It requires a lot of running around for both the dog and handler. Since I'm in good shape, it always works out well for me. I was testing out an idea with Enzo off to the side before my round and OUCH! WTF??? Something popped in my leg, just above my knee. It was horrible pain and couldn't stand at all. Well, to make a long story short, when I went out with Enzo, I could only barely walk. I usually get 8-9 throws off with him, but I only got 5 off. He caught all 5 for the maximum # of points, so we still had a good round. Because of the wind, most people were getting really low scores, so I think he had one of the best of the day.

When Tooney went, I was feeling somewhat better and I got the usual 8-9 throws off with her. Unfortunately, when I was throwing discs the 1 direction, she kept missing them and she NEVER MISSES! My throws were perfect and she'd tip them. We figured out later it was probably because she was going from a sunny area to shade. Oh well, she still did pretty good by catching about 5 or 6 I think.

Jenn was sick so we had to leave early and we didn't get to hear the placements. It turns out Enzo ended up in 3rd overall! If I knew that we scored that good in freestyle, I could have pushed myself during our bullseye round and we could have placed higher. It doesn't really matter, I was just happy to put on a good show.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

from the vegas competition. one of my favorite pics ever!



I must say... I look GOOD. Wow, Jenn's a lucky girl.