My blog has moved!

You should be automatically redirected in 5 seconds. If not, visit
http://furrariaussies.com/blog/
and update your bookmarks.

Friday, December 31, 2010

More Dogwalk Practice

My camera's still acting up so I just got the beginning and end of our session. He started out missing again but then settled down. He started getting some good hits that I didn't get on video so I decided to try a couple without the box and he did good!

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Today's Dogwalk Session

Today's dogwalk session started out not so good but ended well. After watching the video, I think he was focusing on the toy I was holding and not the box or the jump standard that he was supposed to wrap at the end of the dogwalk. I should have put the toy on the ground. I also tried taking off the 3-way connectors on the end so maybe that was too soon for that. I think next time I'll also put my tunnel at the opposite end so he has something to drive to going that way.

I got a few good dogwalks at the end of our session but my video cut off again so I set it up again and had him do one good one for the camera. I really like that last one!

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Running (jumping?) dogwalk training

More video of our dogwalk training with the box. The top bar is off of the box and he doesn't seem to notice. He's more consistantly dong two strides instead of three into the box but that last stride is pretty big. I'm hoping his strides will even out like they did on the aframe and then this may actually work! Keeping my fingers crossed. Either way this is an interesting experiment. I'm quite amazed how similar he looks on the dogwalk and the aframe.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Running Dogwalk Experiment

Enzo's understanding of getting in the box seemed to work so well on the aframe so I am trying it on the dogwalk too. He definitely understands getting in the box on the dogwalk but I don't know if it will hold up without the box.



My video camera was also acting up and stopped recording on it's own both sessions today. Hopefully it just needed to be charged but it was showing half battery...

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Enzo's X-mas present to me!

A real running aframe!



He pretty much has this down! I think I pretty much just have to work on handling it and independence now. I don't feel like he is relying on my body position very much so hopefully that will come easily too. I had no idea it would come this easily this time or I would have tried it a lot sooner. I was afraid to try before the Invitational.

I'm leaning towards not trying to work up to the 5'11" aframe for USDAA and just entering him in Perf. from now on. I think this aframe is too good for me to mess with and I don't think he will ever be a consistent 22" jumper anyways. 20" he does pretty good at but 22" is a stretch.

I'm also playing around with the box on the dogwalk but not sure about how that is going to work yet. He understands getting in it when it's on, but without it on, I'm not sure it will be consistent because his striding is not consistent yet. I tried to record that too but apparently didn't hit record!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

First Trial with Running Aframe

So far so good! We've only been working the box on the aframe for a week but I was entered in a trial this weekend. I had no idea what he was going to do on the aframe but figured there was really no harm in trying. Saturday he was high but in. Pretty much just right below the line. Forgot my camera on Saturday but got video from Sunday. His aframe on Sunday was perfect! I'm excited that this is going so well so quickly. I plan to keep working with the box on the aframe with him. Neverending rain right now though.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Trying a running aframe again...

When Enzo started agility we tried a running aframe. I tried all kinds of things, stride regulators, foot target, putting jumps close to the end of the aframe. He would always either jump too long over the top and one stride or do two shorter strides and jump off in almost the exact same place as the one stride. We never got much better than 50% success rate so I switched him to 2on/2off.

Earlier in the year I did the groundwork for the box but never put it on the aframe. I didn't really want to change anything before the invitational. I started doing quick releases on the Aframe and Dogwalk and over time lost his stop completely. I can manage his contacts by handling but there is no independence at all so I am now re-evaluating. I've been working the box on the aframe for about a week now and I am excited because it might actually work!

Here's the video from our practice sessions. I didn't record our very first session where I was introducing him to the box on the aframe but all the rest are here.





At Sarah's suggestion I moved the box up since he was stepping on it and it seemed to help a lot. He seems to be evening out his strides and ending up deeper. Thanks Sarah!




He also did really well with the box on the aframe in class last night in full sequences. He probably did better there than at home but I don't have video to check.

So hopefully this will all hold up once the box comes off! Keeping fingers crossed.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Our AKC Invitational Experience

Here's a compilation of all of Enzo's runs for the weekend.



On Friday, we ran the FAST class which was for warmup only and didn't count for anything. They pretty much told us we could use our time to do whatever we wanted so I worked his contacts. He flew off the teeter the first time so I had him do it again and he was good the 2nd time. Then his aframe was close so I decided to keep going and then his dogwalk wasn't so great so I made him do that again too. I was hoping that would all sink in for him for the next days but really had no idea what he would do.

Saturday started out with standard. Luckily they were all turns off the contact so I didn't have to drive ahead on them. Enzo normally does better with me hanging back a little. He was quite amped for his run but his contacts ended up all being awesome. Unfortunately I called "come!" right over the panel before the weaves and that ended up coming down. I was kicking myself for that for a while but I'm over it now :-) Enzo was really fast and had some tight turns. He ended up having the fastest time of the 16" dogs but had the fault.

Round 2 was JWW, pretty tough course with some box work which used to be a huge weakness of ours but I finally figured out how to handle him through boxes. He was flying through this run and I almost lost him to a couple off courses but we made it and ended up winning! The andrenaline was really pumping after this run and my hands were shaking so much that I had trouble buckling his harness!

Sunday was a horribly early day. We had to be there by 5:45 for the general walkthrough and our ring started running at 7. I was not really awake for my runs. First run was JWW. Not a horrible course. Everyone's biggest concern was the turn over the broadjump. Funny thing is that I never saw any dogs have issues with it. I lost enzo right at the beginning to the weave poles. I should have held up there for a moment but I never thought the weaves would have been that much of a draw. Watching the video, I'd say that my motion getting around that winged jump pushed him out there. The we had a bar down where I got in his way on the serpentine and I pulled him off the jump in the corner which you can't see in the video.

Then our last run was the Hybrid round. He didn't hold his startline for as on as I wanted and I was late on the front cross and ended up flinging him out towards the weaves again! I should have rear crossed there. So after that I just thought oh well lets just run fast! He nailed his aframe contact but flew off the teeter and took an off course jump.

I was really happy with how Enzo was running all weekend. He found some extra speed that I wasn't totally prepared for but he was really fun to run. Having to line up in the chute for 5 or 6 dogs ahead was a little tough since he focused on the course so early but he was really good about the dogs being close to him. He's such a good boy and tries really hard. I really hope that we can make it to AKC Nationals next year but we'll see.

Here's our 1st place JWW run again just because:

Monday, December 6, 2010

AKC Invitationals and Tooney

First off, Jenn will surely do a better post on AKC Invitationals including videos, but I thought I'd do a quick post. She and Enzo were awesome. On Saturday, they had the fastest times in both standard and jumpers. Enzo dropped a bar in the standard run but was clean in the jumpers. That means Jenn and Enzo both got their first ever 1st place finish at a national championship! Congrats to both! On Sunday they had a few mistakes so weren't able to finish at the top in either run.

Tooney is also doing really well after several months of recovering from her mysterious left leg injury (still not known exactly what it was). After lots of rehab and love, she is starting to play frisbee again, so that is really exciting. We're taking it super slow with her. It's been about 5 months since we started resting and rehab. She is free to run around with Enzo and isn't wearing a brace anymore. She is currently running down about 7-10 throws in the 10-15 yard range. I've got a good feeling that she will be able to make the 1st frisbee competition of the year in March.

Jenn and I are talking about what to do for agility. Jenn thinks that if Tooney is able to do agility, maybe bring her back just for her last AKC finals (in Virginia). She is already qualified, so she could just do some warm up and practice leading to the competition. It would be a good way to retire her from agility. The thought is that maybe if she retires from agility, she could play frisbee longer. We believe the frisbee play will be less demanding on her body. Maybe she could move down to the 12" jump division in AKC and continue to do some jumpers or fast courses there. We are mostly worried about her A-frame. It's awesome to watch how she lands half way down the down side, but we think it is probably too rough on the front of her body.

To say the least, I'm excited about Tooney's progress. I have a feeling that she is going to be back 100% playing frisbee in a couple of months. It's a big turn around from when we saw no progress for weeks and weeks at a time.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Jenn and Enzo AKC Agility Invitationals!!!

Jenn and Enzo are going to compete at the AKC Agility Invitationals. They competed a whole year earning points towards the Invitational. Their hard work paid off and they are going into the finals as the #3 ranked Australian Shepherd team. I am super proud of them and can't wait to see them compete this weekend.

Jenny - I want you to think about it this way. The year you spent competing and qualifying for the Invitational was the real journey. You've already reached the goal. This weekend is just bonus and you guys have earned it. Enzo will surely go out and have pure fun and do what he does best. Following your lead, run fast and jump a lot. I am sure you will have fun watching your little multitalented gifted atheletic intense superstar rock the joint, whether he wins or not. Was that enough adjectives to describe Enzo? Not really... fantastic, exciting and jumpy-mcjumpenstein are a few more. Oh yeah - you're not too shabby yourself.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Last Trial before Invitational!

I entered Enzo in two days of the 3 day Thanksgiving weekend trial. Last weekend to practice before the invitational. The first run on Friday was standard and it was a train wreck! He was totally wild and kind of doing his own thing. My main concern was him blowing his dogwalk contact off the start but his teeter was good and aframe kind of borderline but he got it. His JWW was good though and he got first place. He was still pretty amped up and I felt like I was just barely holding on. Probably a side effect of not getting worked enough lately by either me or Jeff. It's hard when it gets dark so early.

Sunday's Standard went much better. His contacts were all solid and he was paying attention. He had a blazing fast run and got first place. There were a couple wraps and he turned tight on them. I think he had the fastest time of all the heights too. He did break his startline right before I released him which should have been a hint to me in JWW.

So in JWW I was planning on leading out to tthe 3rd jump and doing a lead out pivot but enzo went when I was halfway between the 2nd and 3rd jump. I tried to do a running front cross and he knocked the triple (2nd jump) and then pulled into the wrong end of the tunnel which I was too far behind for. I was happy with the rest of the run though. I just need to be aware that I may not have a long leadout at the invitational. At Nationals they usually try to design courses that don't allow for long leadouts because it makes the day go faster so hopefully that's the case for Invitational too!

Well the rest of the week is going to be contact practice, some stay practice and maybe some lateral weave practice!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Videos from 11/13-11/14/2010

Here's Enzo's JWW run from Saturday. This was our only clean run from the weekend. Enzo got 1st place.



Enzo's standard run from Saturday. I crowded him on the dogwalk and made him come off the side away from me. Then he knocked the panel. I'm pretty sure it was because I was looking at the dogwalk trying to get around it. He tends to knock bars when I take my eyes off of him completely.


This is Enzo's JWW run from Sunday. Just the weave pole pop out at pole 10. It's not really typical for him so I'm not worried.



And his Sunday standard run. I thought this was clean but he called called on the teeter, a good run anyways.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

UFO World Cup Finals!!!

San Diego hosted the 2010 UFO World Cup Finals and we were well prepared and super excited to compete in this event. We had competitors from Germany and Netherlands as well as all over the U.S. It ran from Friday into Sunday and there seemed to be round after round after round of competition. I think about 10 total rounds. Enzo and I were both exhausted at the end of the day Sunday. There were ups and downs for Enzo and I as a team, but my best buddy managed to pull out a solid round every time he needed to.

Friday was an open qualifier that Enzo needed to do well to get points for the season championship. Enzo was AWESOME! I was so proud of him. He did great in both freestyle and toss/fetch. Our best freestyle round is the first video below with one of the top scores for the day. His toss/fetch round was the 6th best out of over 50 teams! So much for toss/fetch being his weakeness! That is long behind us. Now he's solid on both. He finished 5th overall and gained lots of points. He moved from #25 in the world to #12 after the day was over.

Saturday and Sunday were the World Cup Finals. Only competitors who qualified with a minimum number of points from the entire season can compete. About 50 teams qualified in the world and a total of 21 showed up. Most of the people in the top 20 came to compete. Scores from Saturday carry over into Sunday and after 1 round Sunday, the top 10 move on to the last rounds as the finalists. I felt it was going to be very difficult to make the top 10, but that was our goal. We would have to beat half of the best competitors around. Our placement moved around a lot during the rounds. Our placement from the 1st round to last (before the top 10) went as follows: 11 (yes, we are in it) 19 (uh oh) 12 (back in it) 10 (JUST made it!!!). We made 10th place by 0.1 points. With total score on the order of 100+, it was as close as it gets! After we made the cut, it felt good to be a finalist. In the top 10 round, we had a good freestyle and toss/fetch round and moved up 2 more places and finished in 8th!!!

The scores from the weekend are added to our point total for the entire season and we finished at #8 in the UFO World Cup standings! Click here to see our name in the final rankings!!!

Videos can be watched HD up to 1080p!

Here's videos of our two best rounds. 2nd video has us in our Halloween attire.





Here are the remaining freestyle rounds:





Monday, October 18, 2010

MACH2 Enzo - 10/16/2010- plus some other musings.

Enzo got his 40th double Q this past Saturday for his MACH2. He's such an awesome little boy. Unfortunately I didn't think to bring my video camera. He had a fast and smooth jumpers run where we had to go through some scary boxes (our old weakness) and a nice standard run with a small bobble when I had to call him off of the off course aframe.

Last weekend we went to one day of an ASCA trial. He needed one more Regular leg for his Open title. At our last ASCA trial I entered him in Open and we didn't Q in either of our regular runs so I decided to just enter him in Elite for this trial. We didn't Q in Elite Gamblers but he Q'd in both Elite Regular runs with the fastest time of all heights and also Q'd and got 1st in Elite Jumpers. So he finished his RS-O and got an Elite Regular and Elite Jumpers leg. Now we're ready to try for the 2012 ASCA Agility finals in Bakersfield. Hopefully they'll have some more ASCA trials than they normally do around here.

Then there are my frustrations with USDAA. We did a USDAA trial a couple weeks, 9 runs and only two Q's. He had a bar in almost every run and was also having problems making his contacts with the higher aframe and the shorter dogwalk contact. His only Q's were in Masters Pairs and Snookers. He could have gotten a Super Q if not for the knocked #6 jump in Snoookers. Not sure if I should do performance with him instead. That would at least take care of the bars and the higher aframe but the dogwalk would still be an issue. I really would like him to run in championship for a little while though since i think he's actually fast enough to be competitive if we could just be consistent.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Tooney 8

Tooney turned 8!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Wolfman and Weredog + Skeletor and Mr. Bones

Enzo and I had some fun this past weekend. I must say, this is the best costume combination we've done. Videos coming before too long.








Thursday, September 2, 2010

More Videos

Some vids of Enzo's standard runs from last weekend. He double Q'd on Saturday, got 2nd in JWW and 3rd in standard. Sunday he Q'd in JWW and got 1st but knocked the 2nd bar in standard. I think I didn't rotate all the way through on the front cross and looks like I bent in towards him in the video. The rest of the run, I focused on making sure he did his contacts well but messed up a couple of other things. I wish they recorded the JWW runs too since those were really our better runs for the weeknd.

Oh and can I just say I'm really looking forward to the positionless table this weekend!!



Saturday, August 28, 2010

Video from 8/14/10

Enzo's 37th double Q from a couple weeks ago. He got first place in both runs! I like running without the pressure of getting points for the invitational! I love how he's been running since we finished going for it. I must have really been holding him back.



Sunday, August 8, 2010

Friday, July 23, 2010

Skyhoundz Regional and USDDN Qualifier Videos

I was a little behind on videos so here's the vids from our Skyhoundz Southwest Regional and USDDN West Coast Qualifier.

Enzo Skyhoundz Round 1:


Tooney Skyhoundz Round 1:


Enzo Skyhoundz Round 2:


Enzo USDDN:
(Notice new hip vaults which is still a bit of a work in progress)

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Enzo Agility Videos

Bought some videos from 4 Legged Flix. I love their overhead view and HD quality!

Here's Enzo's JWW from Sunday. I was going to front cross between the two jumps after the aframe but chickened out and pulled. Caused a wide turn at the 180 turn but he still got first place! I was quite suprised since both Dash and Rogue were clean.



Here's Saturday's Standard. Also 1st place!



Sunday's JWW and another 1st.


Sunday's Standard. I didn't cue the turn after the aframe much at all and then he also blasted straight off the dogwalk which messed up our line to the teeter so he hit the panel jump.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Enzo's in the Invitational!

The official results were posted!

1 MACH4 Barjh Batteries Not Included REG 5,329
2 MACH3 Gulfstream's Tnt-Take No Tail MXF TQX REG 4,264
3 MACH Windsor's Enzo Ferrari OF REG 3,326
4 MACH6 Los Suenos Gravity Games MXF REG 3,089
5 MACH2 Toprock's La Femme Ewe-Nika NF REG 3,074
6 NAC MACH14 Blue Moon Shine On Willow MXF TQX REG 2,679
7 MACH2 Kandlelite's Icyhot CD RE MXF REG 2,583
8 MACH7 Add It Up OF REG 2,122
9 MACH8 Roanoak Reinflame Red Hot Chai MXF TQX REG 1,993
10 MACH2 Katch 22 Animation XF REG 1,837
11 MACH Hardins Dust Up Rinse Repeat XF REG 1,610
12 MACH5 Schiml's Denim Blue Dylin OF REG 1,583
13 MACH2 Sunnybrook Hang Ten REG 1,533
14 Granite's Fly Like The Wind VCD2 RE TDX MX MXJ MXF REG 1,450
15 MACH8 Imagineer's Rely On Me REG 1,438
16 MACH3 Renfield Rave-On MXF REG 1,392
17 MACH Heiland's Jackie D Pessoa REG 1,354
18 MACH Boedekers To Hot To Touch NF REG 1,349
19 MACH3 Windy Farms Shoo Fly RE NJP OF REG 1,349
20 MACH6 Katch Grand Cherokee XF REG 1,300
21 MACH3 Old Oaks Capt Rocky Yr Socks CD XF REG 1,272
22 MACH Catalina Pitsch Black Knight OF REG 1,257
23 MACH4 Staarry Heavens To Bessie UDX RAE MXF REG 1,248
24 CH MACH3 Agile Collinswood Razzmatazz CD XF REG 1,246
25 MACH2 Mychanceto Scoot MXF REG 1,208

We took the 4th of July weekend off. Then I went to an USDAA trial the day after the USDDN frisbee competition. Enzo got a Q in Masters Gamblers but no other Q's. He was running good but had some bar issues. He really likes to jump flat and extended at 22".

Last weekend was our first AKC trial since the qualifying period ended and Enzo. He was running great and ended getting Q's in 3 out of 4 and placed first in all 3! Now that I don't have to worry about our Q rate, I can work on handling more aggressivly and staying out in front of him which is not an easy thing to do! Should be fun for both of us!

Tooney unfortunately is still lame. She is better since she's been on the Metacam but who knows if she is actually getting better or if it's just that the drug is helping with the pain.

I'm a little behind on videos, I still have the Skyhoundz regional and the USDDN regional to post.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

USDDN 2010

Our USDDN 2010 this year was the first time it was not part of Wags for Wishes, which has since closed its operations for California, leaving us running a normal dog competition instead of part of a big festival. 3 years ago, the competition was 3 days. Last year it was cut to 2 days, this year just 1 day. We had to get a lot of competing done in a short time. USDDN is my favorite organization because I like the 1.5 minute toss/fetch. It's innovated and heck it's another 30 seconds I get to play with my best buddy!

This is the first time I have had to compete without Tooney, and it was depressing. She hurt something in her front left but we're not sure what. We are concerned she may be out a long time.

For our freestyle round, Enzo did great. Few drops and had some big air. In our toss/fetch round (that went with the freestyle), we did good for the average competitor, but Enzo isn't average. He should have had a score around 20, but ended up around 15-16 probably. We finished 5th overall, qualified for nationals.

In the toss / fetch only division, Enzo rocked the joint. I went into the competition trying to win the toss/fetch. Last year he finished 2nd. This year there was much stiffer competition with at least 5-6 more top tier teams, but still felt we had a chance to win. First round was good, but turned out that I only got 5 throws out and he missed 1. He got 18.5, which is quite good, but my target is 20 per round. 2nd round was the top score of the day (or close), which was 23.0. He finished with a total score of 41.5. He ended up in 2nd place. Last year I think we had 38.5 points, so he did improve and with more wind this year. I only threw 1 disc short of 40 yards out of 11 total throws and Enzo only missed 1 out of the 11, which is very good for both of us. He is qualified for nationals in this division, too.

The bulk of our frisbee season is over now. This event always signifies that we're well past the half-way point and just a few more left. 1 small competition, a regional competition and a championship competition are all that we have left. I just wish Tooney was feeling better even if she still couldn't play. I hate to see her limp.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Let's Try an Actual Blog Post!

It's been a while since I've posted anything. Going for the invitational has been a long, grueling but also rewarding journey. I think posting after every weekend about every AKC trial I just did would have put me over the edge for agility burnout so I just didn't post at all! We're down to the last weekend and Enzo was in 3rd place though June 3 with a pretty good lead on 5th and 6th places. I don't think it's mathmatically possible for us to get knocked out of the top 5 now even if we don't get any points this weekend. I'll refrain from celebrating until I see the final results though! But now that we're down to the end, I think it's a good time to post about our journey.

I've learned a lot in the past year. I feel a lot more confident about my handling now, I have a pretty good idea of what things I have to worry about and the things that I don't. Going through boxes has been a big problem for me and Enzo but we're getting better. I learned that it works better to decelerate and turn my shoulders in the correct direction instead of trying to run ahead and pull him towards me that way. First choice is to do a front cross to straighten him out though. I've also gotten a lot better at adjusting my strategies for Tooney and Enzo. Not having done as much trialing as I did who knows if Tooney would have been a finalist at AKC Nationals!

Enzo started out in July and August really rocking it and was even in first place for a while but then lost our aframe contact completely in the middle of August. From then until Mid-December, Enzo and I only Q'd in standard twice! Quite amazing that we were able to come back from that. He was perfect in practice but horrible in competition. In December, I decided to treat practice like competition and stopped rewarding his contacts with food and also started practicing quick releases and early releases. He's only missed 1 or 2 aframes since then and 2 or 3 dogwalks. It's getting harder and harder to get him to come to a full stop in practice but so far this strategy is working. Pretty much as long as he puts in at least 3 strides on the downside of the aframe then that's an acceptable performance.

So now just one more weekend and the wait for final results...

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

5 Day Super Agility/Disc Dog Fun Day Weekend Extravaganza

Jenn has given up on blogging and all social avenues for communication to the masses. It's up to me to try making updates.

It was 5 days of crazy fun this weekend! Jenn competed Thursday, Friday and Monday with both dogs in agility. Sunday she competed just with Enzo. They got some Q's. Enzo is still in top 5 for AKC invitationals. I can't remember any other details.

Saturday we had the Skyhoundz southwest regional disc dog qualifier. They take the top 6 out of about 40 teams to the 2nd round. Enzo made the cut and finished 4th place overall after his 2nd round (was tied for 3rd, but lost tie breaker). I am a complete idiot, though. I threw 1 disc out of the end of the field for toss/fetch with Enzo. He made a beautiful leaping catch at something over 50 yards. Normally that would have been worth 5.5 points, but instead the score was 0 since it was out of bounds! That was the difference in 2nd place with a world championship qualifier and 4th place with no qualification. Tooney did great with only 2 drops, but had a very low score overall because the judges didn't like her I guess.

Sunday was a lot of fun at the DiscDogathon. We had spot landing, distance/accuracy, bullseye and time trial competitions. Enzo was doing agility earlier in the day and was late to the event. We snuck him in and did his rounds. He didn't do so great, partly because he was rushed in, partly because he was completely insane and was just missing discs for no real reason. He didn't win any of the events. Tooney, though, was a little pimptress. I was horrible in the spot landing and she didn't get many points. We had a drop in the time trial so we didn't do good there. She won the distance / accuracy portion and she was tied for 1st place in the bullseye and got 2nd place after losing the tie-breaker. She also got 2nd place in the overall combined scores. I think there were 74 teams competing, so that was awesome!

Last year I was disappointed because Tooney got a bee sting in the 1st round at the DiscDogathon. I felt if she didn't get stung, she would have had a chance to win the whole thing or at least do pretty well. Looks like I was spot on because she did great this year with no bee stings. She rocked it all day and had a lot of fun.

If I throw a disc over 20 yards, Tooney generally won't miss. If she catches up to the disc and gets her mouth on it, she's probably 99% catch rate. She didn't miss a single disc that she came in contact with during this competition. She can miss short throws and I can outthrow her if I'm not careful, but that's about it. Any other crap I throw she catches :)

Saturday, May 8, 2010

skyhoundz local, ufo videos

We had a Skyhoundz local Saturday. I went out first with Enzo and had a decent round of freestyle. More drops than I would expect but he was in the air on everything. Tooney's round of freestyle was probably her best yet (I keep saying this, I know). She had a drop in the middle of the routine. Little would I know, that would turn out to be the ONLY drop the entire day!!!! Wow!!!! 1-drop routine! About 94% catch ratio. She beat Enzo in freestyle for I think only the 2nd time ever. I don't think Enzo was upset - he said "sometimes the sun even shines on a dog's ass" (white men can't jump reference).

For toss/fetch, I knew Enzo had some ground to make up and he put up a great score of 16 points. 2nd best of the day. 2nd best to... you guessed it, Tooney! She scored a 17. Jenn got me back in shape after she told me I lost my magic with Tooney on toss/fetch and I think we rebounded well today. Enzo missed 1 disc, Tooney didn't miss any. This is the first time she beat Enzo in toss/fetch this year for me.

At the end of the day, Enzo ended up 3rd overall and Tooney ended up 2nd! Having 2 in the top 3 was pretty exciting.

Jenn competed with both dogs in toss/fetch and got 2nd place with Tooney. She was perfect in both rounds! Tooney had 1 disc that landed on her back and she turned and grabbed it before it hit the ground. Really funny stuff. Tooney made it look like it was just business as usual.

I was also part of a parody routine. Kirby did a parody of several competitors and I was one of them. She did a good job and I felt famous for about 30 seconds.

Here's videos from the UFO major a few weeks ago:

Enzo round 1


Enzo round 2


Tooney

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

SoCal Disc Dog Challenge (UFO Major / Long Shot)

First I will start off with Sunday's long shot competition since it's quick and to the point. It's a long distance throwing competition. Enzo did agility for the day with Jenn. I offered Joel Zucker to compete with Tooney because his dog (Bailey) is out of commission right now. He agreed and did great with her. He won the A division with her!!! It was awesome and she was nearly flawless with every throw. Joel handled her perfectly and his throws were awesome. I competed in the long shot with my friend CJ's little Aussie, Sydney. Sydney isn't used to long throws, but at least she's cute as a button and has super high drive. She did great up to 35 meters, but I think she couldn't control her stride as well once she was up to that distance and speed and couldn't time the jump/catch. It was fun anyways! We made it about half way through the eliminations I think.

Tooney, Enzo and I competed in our UFO major on Saturday. This is one of the most important competitions for us this year because the UFO finals are in San Diego and we need to earn some points. Enzo is expected to earn sufficient points for the finals, so his goal is to place as high as possible (top 10 or even top 5). He was #1 before this competition, but now is #2 I think. Tooney has never qualified for the finals of any organization, but has been close. I'm really going to try my best to give her a chance to get the points to allow her to compete at the finals. Jenn didn't compete with the dogs so that they would be in tip top shape for me to earn some points!

Freestyle:
In our first round of freestyle, Enzo and Tooney both had awesome rounds. Enzo had 88% catch ratio and Tooney had 90% catch ratio. I think those are the highest catch ratio's we've had so far. A couple of people told me that Enzo doesn't seem to miss anything I throw. It's amazing how catching ability was a perceived weakness of Enzo and is now an apparent strength. That boy can catch! Tooney has always been a great catching dog as long as my throws are solid and there isn't a lot of wind. It's expected of her :) Enzo made the cut for the 2nd round and had a great 2nd round and scored a little higher than the first round. Tooney didn't make the cut, but as usual, was right on the edge. Videos will be up soon probably.

Toss & fetch:
Enzo did great and had one of the top scores for the first round and made the cut to the 2nd round. This was the first time we've made the cut in toss/fetch for UFO! In his 2nd round, he did almost as good and finished with a good score. Enzo has tied or beat Tooney every competition this year in t/f for me. He is averaging over 10 points a round so far! I threw poorly for Tooney. Even though she caught everything, I was short on most of the throws by about a yard, which made our total score very low. I was disappointed in how I threw because I knew Tooney could win that division, but I just didn't have "it" for whatever reason. One thing that makes me feel good is to look back and realize it was her FREESTYLE that bailed us out, not our toss and fetch. This has been a recurring theme lately. Jenn said I need to tighten up our toss/fetch again. It seems so strange to me that I could be struggling in t/f with Tooney, but apparently I am. We're doing average or even above average, but she should be in the top 10% every competition. She's doing fine, it's all my fault. Jenn said I need to throw an extra round of t/f with her every week. I normally just practice t/f with her about 3x/month on average.

At the end of the day, Enzo ended up 4th place overall behind 3 world champions. If he keeps this pace up, I'm going to start to expect him to win every competition! Tooney ended up 12 place, which is close to the target I was hoping for. Tooney now has 62 points, which is a record for her already. I really think she is going to make the finals!!! Enzo has well over 100 points now, so he's already qualified!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

AKC Nationals Continued





Saturday was the start of the Nationals runs which counted for getting into finals. Jeff helped a lot by bringing Enzo and Tooney back and forth from the trailer. They seem to get better rest in the trailer vs crated at the site. Standard was first. When Jeff brought Tooney, he said she pulled all the way to the barn like she knew exactly where she was going. She's such a smart girl. I could tell she was ready to go because she was actually excited about doing the practice jump and tugging. Normally she thinks the practice jump is pointless.

The standard course had some tricky spots but looked quite doable for me and my dogs.
Round 1 Standard Course Map

Tooney had the run of her life in this round! She ran her little fluffy butt off. Probably the fastest run she's ever had! She was awesome!

Enzo also had a really good run but unfortunately he crashed the double jump near the end of the run. It almost seemed like he didn't see the jump or didn't notice it was a double until the last second :( After his run I asked Jeff what his time was and Tooney actually beat his time by about .6 seconds! The fluffy girl really was fast! She's never beat Enzo by that much when he's had a smooth run. Tooney ended up placing 14th in Standard.

In round 2 JWW, there were some tricky spots. A weird push from jump 4 to 5, and then the ending had some difficult lines.
Round 2 JWW Course Map
Tooney ran clean and reasonably fast. With Enzo I was worried about getting the front cross between jumps 12 and 13 but I decided to go for it and at least try since this was his best chance at getting into challengers. Unfortunately I couldn't get there and aborted at the last second but not soon enough and he took the off course jump. Tooney placed a lot lower in this round but her cumulative score still had her in 14th place. Since they were taking 13 into the finals this was a pretty good place to be in after two rounds.

Sunday morning was the Hybrid round. It was an easier course than the previous days but it was a course that people handled in a lot of different ways which is always fun. I decided to wrap to the right on jump 3, rear crossed the triple, and then did a serp from 14-16 and wrapped around the outside of 16. I decided it would be better to let my dogs stay on the same lead instead of the shorter path of bringing them between 15 and 16. Not really sure which way is faster...
Hybrid Round 3 Course Map

Enzo ran first and was clean. He was amped up and it was a wild ride. He was really fast but was skidding out in some places and had a few wide turns. The worst was probably between jumps 2 and 3 and then going from the triple to the weave poles. He ended up placing 22nd. Placed above quite a few dogs that were in the finals. I think you can hear when he barks at me in the video too. He rarely does that.

Tooney ran towards the end and was clean. Watch her aframe in the video. Crazy, she landed way low in the yellow. After her run she was in 11th but we still had to wait for 40 or so more dogs to go. She dropped down to 13th and we just had to wait for the results to be finalized. Hung around for a while and then finally figured out where the finals running order was posted. Hooray Tooney was in!!! Couldn't believe that she actually made it. There was so much competition in the 16" class this year. She actually only beat the 14th place dog by 0.02 Seconds!

The whole getting our shirts for finals was an experience. They wanted to make sure that everyone got a shirt that they could fit into so they allocated a certain number of each size for all the jump heights. They brought each jump height into a room, lined everyone up and then told you what size you were getting and to try it on. Luckily I got a small. The whole thing was strange and elementary schoolish. and it took forever!

After getting my shirt I went back to the trailer to get something to eat. By the time I went back they were just starting the small dog walkthrough! Ack! I had already studied the course and had a plan luckily. The course was pretty straightforward and probably the easiest of the weekend. I just knew that I really had to watch Tooney in all of the front crosses to make sure she didn't run behind me to take an off course obstacle. I actually wasn't nervous and was just thrilled to make it there. Making finals at AKC nationals was the last goal that I had for Tooney that we hadn't achieved so it felt great.

Finals Course Map

She had a great run. Awesome contacts. Somewhere along the line she developed this great teeter and I never really noticed until this weekend! I did have to fight to get her in on the front crosses like I thought but we got through clean! Lost some time in the turn from 15 to 16 because she looked at the dogwalk. Probably my positioning could have been better too but I wanted to make sure I was in a place where I could get in her face. After everyone ran, we ended up in 7th place! Got a nice ribbon and a sash. Here's the picture that I had jeff take with my right right before we jumped in the truck and got on the road.


Here's her finals video:

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

AKC Nationals Day 1

Wow, where to begin...From the beginning I guess! So we made the long drive out to Tulsa. Got to the site around 8ish on Thurday. It was almost 9 by the time we got the trailer set up and then my crates and stuff. We were starving and called around until we found a BBQ place that was open. Hooray for ribs, brisket and smoked chicken!

Friday we started with the ISC classes. Tooney ran at 18" since she's small enough to make the cutoff and Enzo ran at 16". The ISC JWW course was really tough. At first glance we were all like really?? yeah right. Here's a link to the course
ISC JWW
I walked four front crosses into a rear cross/threadle or a possible 5th front cross. With Tooney I was late on the fourth front cross and she went off course. With Enzo, I had to bail on the third front cross and got through with rear crosses somehow. Both nailed the rear cross into a threadle! well Tooney had a bar down but she came through between the jumps. Then there was a long run into a send to the backside of the jump. I ran through with Tooney and front crossed which caused her to go wide. I sent Enzo to the back side, and he turned really tight but knocked the bar. Even with me not running my plan, Enzo still ended up with a really good time and would have been in 9th place if the bar didn't come down.

The ISC standard course was a lot more reasonable although it had some tight spots too.
ISC Standard
Tooney didn't read the turn over jump 16 and ended up backjumping. Enzo had another nice run but knocked the second jump. I think I said something to him while he was over the bar. His time would have put him in 10th without the bar.

CA ended up winning the state team tournament so that was cool. There was no final run off this year like they've had in the past.

To be continued in the next post... Videos will probably be posted on Friday since I have the day off. Here are the videos from Friday:

Enzo:


Tooney:

Monday, March 22, 2010

Enzo world championship qualified, Tooney almost!

This weekend we had our AWI (Ashley Whippet Invitation) qualifier. People from California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Washington and New York came. We also had appearances from Indiana's Tony Hoard and Rory (from America's Got Talent) and Alex Stein (one of the founders of disc doggin'). The event consisted of 1 round of freestyle and 1 round of toss/fetch. They combine those scores and take the top 15 to perform a 2nd round of frestyle. The top 5 get an invitation to the World Championships in Chicago. With over 40 entries, making the cut would be hard enough, let alone the top 5.

Enzo and I went out and performed our freestyle as a gangsta and pimp. I wore a flat-billed hat, baggy shorts and a giant frisbee-clock hanging from my neck (Flava Flav style). The clock was Jenn's idea - thanks home girl! Enzo wore his pimp costume that my mom made! The routine was solid and went over well with the crowd. I got a lot of good feedback on the theme. I am super happy with our routine for 2010. Flow is great and Enzo has incredible athleticism. I also have some throws that are quite difficult and impressive looking. Here's Enzo's first round:



Tooney had a great first round of freestyle and looked as cute as ever. My throws were right on target and she only had about 3 drops. After watching her routine back, I really like how it looks now. I used to just think it was cute and fun, but now I see some great athleticism out of Tooney. She never stops running and can catch almost anything I throw! She makes most of my throws look right on target because she understands how to adjust her stride really well (thanks to agility along with natural ability I'm sure). Our routine flows REALLY good and I have a wide range of throws. Here's her first round:



After Enzo's first round, I figured he just needed a solid toss and fetch and he'd make the cut to top 15. Enzo had an average round of toss/fetch with 9.5. Tooney had a below average round of t/f for her, but matched Enzo's score. They announced the cut to the top 15 and in 7th place they said Jeff Hill and... Tooney?!?!?! What!!! Tooney made the cut!!!!!!!!!!! I am so proud of her! Usually it is her toss/fetch that pushes her up in the standings, but this time it was freestyle! Then in 5th place was Enzo!

After the initial excitement, I realized I had to prepare to do 2 rounds of freestyle almost back to back and perform at a high level to keep Enzo in the top 5 and keep Tooney in the top 10. They both had awesome 2nd rounds just before it got dark out. They announced the final order and the placements stayed the same. 7th and 5th! At the event, I felt Enzo's 1st round was better, but watching the videos back, I thought the 2nd round looked better. We got slightly better scores in the 1st round. Tooney's 2nd round video didn't come out, but we got Enzo's:



Now for the big decision... are we going to Chicago? You betcha! It's not a final decision, but Jenn and I are confident that we will go. We have made a decision that if we travel far for a disc dog competition this year, it will be Chicago for the AWI finals!

I really wish I would have started Tooney in frisbee earlier. She could have accomplished great things early on. It is my fault and a silly mistake. I never had any faith she could do it and felt she didn't have the athleticism, focus or drive for it. As it turns out, these characteristics that make her great at frisbee. I was completely wrong and I will always regret it. Jenn and I are going to enjoy little Fluffasaurus and her awesome frisbee skills as long as possible and have decided we will definitely not be getting a new puppy until Tooney has decided she's had enough of frisbee, giving her the full dedication and attention she deserves! Based on her current performance, we think that won't be for a long time!!!

Monday, March 15, 2010

UFO Vegas update and another double q

Saturday was the 3rd annual UFO in Las Vegas. Enzo won the event 2 years ago and Tooney won the event last year. This year there were more people from SoCal at the event hoping to earn some points for the UFO finals in San Diego. We left Saturday morning, drove 4 hours, competed, then drove back so Jenn can compete in agility Sunday. There is 1 word to sum up this event, W-I-N-D-Y. They nearly called the event half way through as everything seemed to be blowing away. When we were leaving the event, the weather report said it was currently steady wind at 33mph. Where we were was very exposed and I would expect it was actually windier where we were. Onto the results...

The freestyle scores were all pretty low and there was little variation in scores from top to bottom due to the wind. Everybody struggled. Enzo (as a pimp) and I (as a wanna-be gangsta) went out and put on a good freestyle routine to "Pretty Fly for a White Guy". The costume/theme went over really well and people seemed to get a kick out of it. I plan to do this theme more throughout the year, including next week at the AWI qualifier. Enzo ended up having the 2nd best t/f score and got 2nd overall in the open division and earned more UFO points! Tooney did GREAT in freestyle despite having her little tootsies wrapped up to protect her pads. She posted a goose egg in toss/fetch, but I can't blame her. Out of the 18 teams in open, only 4 got points in t/f! 1 team got 3 catches, Enzo got 2 catches and 2 other teams got 1 catch each. I think Enzo is the current leader in the UFO standings. That won't last long, but take it when you can get it!

I doubled as a judged as I have done at every Vegas competition the past 3 years. The way it worked was that I judged everybody else but myself in the "sequences and flow" category. When I went up to compete, another person judged me in that category and used the scores I gave to other people as a reference to score me. He was able to compare how I perfomed to how others performed and was able to pick a fair score for me.

Next week is AWI qualifiers, so I look forward to that! Then we're off to Oklahoma for AKC nationals!

Jenn went to an AKC trial on Sunday and got a double Q with Enzo. He got 1st place in both runs. Tooney got a Q in jumpers.

(Jenn typing here) Enzo was smoking in standard, just really driving over his contacts while still collecting to hit them. He had a pretty good time even though his table was slow, probably 4-5 seconds before he sat. His JWW run was nice and smooth. The JWW run had a tough pull to the weaves and then you needed to rear cross to get to the other side because it was a sharp 180 turn to the next jump. Both Tooney and Enzo did this really well. I don't rear cross the weaves much especially when it's that severe so I'm glad they didn't hesitate. Tooney's JWW run was maybe a little slow for her but she was paying attention really well. In Standard, she was faster but we got a two off courses. The one part I probably should have planned something different for her than for Enzo. The other part I ended up doing differently when I ran Enzo. She hit her running dogwalk though which is most important for her at this point right before nationals. I feel pretty good about our preparedness for nationals right now. We're ready!!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Enzo battles addiction; frisbee and agility updates

Enzo has an addiction. And we're not talking about frisbee (more on that later). It's citrus. Yes, Enzo is addicted to citrus fruit. Enzo is not a 'food hound' like our other dogs. He likes treats, steak and chicken but isn't going bonkers for it. He's not even going to beg for it. We can be eating steak and Enzo won't beg for any. The other dogs are practically climbing on top of us trying to get the food. As soon as we start cutting some citrus fruit, he won't leave us alone. He becomes a shark, too, snapping at the fruit as we try to give it to him. He is one peculiar fella. His favorite? He loves oranges off the tree, but his absolute favorite is pummelos (like a giant grapefruit for those not familiar). He likes everything about them including the nasty white husk material just under the peel.

Now on to Enzo's 2nd favorite thing - frisbee. We had our first competition last weekend and he did great! He posted the top toss and fetch score of the day, which is so impressive for him since that is his nemesis (sort of like the A-frame for him in agility). There were 60 teams total with 27 in the open division! He ended up placing and earned some UFO points that will go a long way this year. The UFO finals are in San Diego, so Enzo just needs to do his thing to get the points required to qualify. UFO competitions are going to be crazy here in SoCal with the finals being local. Poor Tooney wore her pads down in the competition because it was wet out. It didn't impact her in the competition and she finished top 10, but she may be out for next weekend :(

We are going to Vegas for the 3rd straight year next weekend for another UFO competition. Enzo won the competition 2 years ago and Tooney won it last year (behind an insane toss/fetch score).

I'm pretty excited about the frisbee season because I'm in better physical shape than I have been in 2 years. The nerve problem in my arm seems to have mostly healed (after a year and a half!) and I'm able to compete 100%. Last year I had to throw left-handed most of the year for toss/fetch. The only problem with my arm is I can't practice very much because it starts tingling, burning, etc after too much activity. For a single competition, I can go full out. I can't do long distance, either. It messes me up bad, so 40-45 yards is all I'm trying to throw right now and I can do that with little irritation. My hip problem (again from almost 2 years ago) isn't anywhere near 100%, but I can compete and it doesn't hurt nearly as much as last year. I'm not getting much in the way of the numbness/tingling this year thankfully. It mostly just starts aching a if I do too much. It's been a long time since it's been bad enough that it was difficult for me to walk.

For agility Enzo is still in the same mode. AKC, AKC, AKC and then more AKC. When he's not at an AKC competition, more AKC. He's still in the top 5 Aussies in the country and needs to stay there for another 3 months and he'll be invited to the AKC invitationals in Long Beach!

Report Date: 03/11/2010
THE AMERICAN KENNEL CLUB

December 2010 AKC Agility Invitational
for Australian Shepherds
Qualifying Period Starting July 01, 2009 and ending June 30, 2010

Events Processed Through Friday, February 26, 2010

Rank Name Class Formula Value
1 MACH3 Barjh Batteries Not Included REG 3,351
2 MACH2 Gulfstream's Tnt-Take No Tail MXF REG 2,368
3 NAC MACH13 Blue Moon Shine On Willow MXF TQX REG 1,988
4 MACH6 Los Suenos Gravity Games MXF REG 1,961
5 MACH Windsor's Enzo Ferrari OF REG 1,956
6 MACH2 Toprock's La Femme Ewe-Nika REG 1,617
7 MACH7 Roanoak Reinflame Red Hot Chai MXF TQX REG 1,382
8 MACH6 Add It Up OF REG 1,365
9 MACH Kandlelite's Icyhot CD RE MXF REG 1,322
10 MACH2 Katch 22 Animation XF REG 1,310
11 Hardins Dust Up Rinse Repeat MX MXJ XF REG 1,118
12 Granite's Fly Like The Wind VCD2 RA TDX MX MXJ MXF REG 1,020
13 MACH8 Imagineer's Rely On Me REG 988
14 MACH2 Windy Farms Shoo Fly RE NJP OF REG 908
15 Old Oaks Katie Bar The Door VCD1 MX MXJ XF REG 898
16 MACH5 Schiml's Denim Blue Dylin OF REG 887
17 MACH11 Whimsical Whirlwind Marni XF REG 868
18 MACH3 Old Oaks Capt Rocky Yr Socks CD XF REG 850
19 MACH Catalina Pitsch Black Knight NF REG 815
20 MACH3 Renfield Rave-On MXF REG 799
21 MACH Sunnybrook Hang Ten REG 798
22 MACH Fly Away's Call The Ball XF REG 788
23 MACH2 Aussie CDX XF REG 756
24 MACH3 Staarry Heavens To Bessie UDX RAE MXF REG 745
25 MACH Simply Sydney XF REG 731

Sunday, January 31, 2010

MACH Enzo!



Today Enzo got his 20th double Q to finish his MACH! He had an awesome JWW run which he ran in 6.8 yds/s and got 2nd place. The standard course was really tough with two off course tunnel possibilities and then a long run into a tunnel dogwalk discrimination. I overhandled some parts but got through clean. Enzo's contacts were really nice too. Fast but went to the bottom. Even with the slow table he still got 2nd place. So proud of the little boy and so happy that his contacts are good now.

Here's the video


Cute that he had no idea what the victory lap was about! We got him a turkey bacon sandwich from Starbucks on the way home and then a mandarin from the tree when we got home. Enzo loves citrus fruit!

Oh and thanks to Jeff for getting up at an ungodly hour to support us and videotape!!

Friday, January 22, 2010

Blogging Slacker!

Guess I haven't been too good about updates here. Enzo's contacts are still holding up although maybe not quite as fast as I would like so I'm working on speed in practice now. Double Q's are coming a lot easier now and hopefully we're catching in the Invitational point standings. He's earned about 550 points since mid-December. Last weekend we trialed 3 days and Enzo Q'd in 5 out of 6 runs 2nd place to Dash in 4 of the runs and 1st place in one run. He got his 18th and 19th double Q's on Friday and Saturday. Went for his MACH for the first time last Sunday but he took an off course tunnel. Totally my fault for not decelerating. I ran Tooney after Enzo and at least managed to execute my plan properly for her.

This weekend our trial got rained out. The rain was done by the weekend but the fields were too wet so they wouldn't let us run on them.

Here's the videos from last weekend.

Enzo JWW (1/17/10):




Tooney JWW (1/17/10):



Enzo Standard (1/17/10):



Tooney Standard (1/17/10):



Also here's some videos from New Years weekend that I never posted on here. He was flying in JWW that day and got 1st place.

Enzo Standard (12/31/09):


Tooney Standard (12/31/09):


Enzo JWW (12/31/09):

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Crazy week of training



The New Year started with my 2nd annual Jam Camp. Every year it's 2-3 days of training with some of the best frisbee freestylers around. Intended primarily for human freestyle, but it is very helpful for disc doggers. There were loads of world champions and people who invented most of the throws and tricks we use today. Almost as many instructors as students! Some of my favorite instructors are Dave Lewis, Stork, Dave Schiller and Ron Watson.

After that long weekend I was completely worn out, but just a few days later on Wednesday I had my private lesson with Ron Watson. He went over all sorts of different concepts, throws and tricks. It was about 4 hours of instruction.

Then we had a group seminar with Ron Watson the following weekend, which was another 7 hours of instruction. I'm physically and mentally exhausted.

I can't even say specifically what I've learned because it was just an overwhelming amount of information. I will say that it was mostly just rehash of things I already knew or was at least familiar with. It was fun and probably down the road I'll pull something out that I learned.