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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!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

That's awesome Jeff!

You know in the past Tali used to win or place in freestyle on occasion on the strength of her D&A. This year though her D&A has suffered some. She still isn't bad at it or anything but while she used to put up rounds of 15-18 pretty regularly she's dropped to 11-15 (or lower) this year. Yet now when she wins/places it is often on her freestyle score with a good/average but not great D&A score. Funny how it works that way isn't it? Guess it's like agility... just when you get one problem obstacle fixed a new one pops up! :) Tali's weaves are pretty good now but now we have teeter issues on occasion! LOL

Again - great job and good luck! Look forward to see the video.