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Friday, November 16, 2012

New web site furrariaussies.com and trying to catch up

First, Jenn and I have a new web site.  It's about 50% complete but we add to it almost every day.  It will include information on our dogs, breeding plans, training information from us and a lot more.  We may try to incorporate this blog into the site some kind of way.  Check it out: http://www.furrariaussies.com.

We had the Crusty Classic (California State disc dog championships) around Halloween.  It's a 2-day event and the dogs did awesome.  Little muse got to introduce herself to everybody and was a star in her own right!  The dogs got some great placements and recorded some of the highest scores during the weekend.  Here's Enzo's round with the bones costume!



Muse also caught her first disc at just 13 weeks old.  We are working mostly on very basic foundation skills including a lot of tug work.  She's doing really well and most importantly, she's having fun and Slayte and her are the absolute best of friends!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

2012 Ashley Whippet Invitational World Championship

Enzo and Slayte both qualified for the AWI finals this year. Jenn had plans of going to the USDAA Nationals the same weekend in Denver, but told me we should do AWI. The way she said it, she was hinting that it was because she thought we were going to have a good shot at placing high.

We left Wednesday night and I started feeling a cold come on and on Saturday it was at its worst. I was friggin' sick. Saturday was the AWI Championship. You have a round of freestyle and a round of toss/fetch. The top 15 combined scores make it to the finals for another round of freestyle. There were 45 teams and they were all awesome. You need a great round of freestyle and a great round of toss/fetch to have any hope at all of making it.

Enzo was virtually flawless. Our first round of freestyle was great and we had a very solid score. I knew it all came down to the toss/fetch round and if he caught all my throws, we'd make it to the finals. For toss/fetch we had another perfect round! He nearly got 5 throws off, which has never happened before. Our score was high. High enough for 7th place going to the finals!

In the final round, Enzo was EVEN BETTER with one of the best rounds we've ever had. The final scores came out and as they counted off the top 10, we were in 6th place! I can't be more happy with the result and love my Enzo beyond belief.


Here are his two freestyle rounds:




Little Slayte was very concerned during his freestyle round. He had a really hard time focusing or putting much effort into it. He still managed to catch 81%, which is really high, even at the championship level. However, his lack of interest resulted in very low scores. His toss/fetch round was significantly better and ended up putting him at 30th out of about 45 teams. I am still proud of how he did, especially coming back strong in toss/fetch.



Sunday was another competition with several games. Toss/fetch, 4-20 freestyle and timed course. For toss/fetch, they took the top 15 to the finals. Enzo, Slayte and Tooney all made it to the finals and had great rounds in the finals, too! They all finished very high with Tooney the highest, then Slayte, then Enzo. Jenn played toss/fetch in the intermediate division and placed 2nd and 3rd with Slayte and Enzo.

4-20 is a freestyle event with 4 discs and 20 seconds. The only rule is you can't pick discs up off the ground. The dog can give you a disc, though. It's very fast-paced and exciting. I wasn't even sure if I should enter the competition, but figured I'd try it. They took a cut for the top 10. Both Slayte and Enzo made the cut! Enzo had an awesome final round and secured the 2nd place trophy! It is the coolest trophy ever!


Timed course is 4 discs and you need to get a catch at 10 yards, 20 yards and a catch in a zone at 20 yards. Fastest time wins. All the dogs did very well both rounds for me, but not high enough to place. In the novice division, Jenn won it with Slayte and got 2nd with Enzo!

Slayte made a remarkable turnaround from his confused state of mind on Saturday to a rabid disc obsessive maniac on Sunday (ie, his normal self). He had 10 rounds of disc play on Sunday and was AWESOME all 10 rounds. We just need to give him more time and we believe the problem could be related to the first day of competition being uncomfortable by his surroundings.

One final note. I feel blessed to have these awesome dogs and a wife that supports and helps us along the way. It's awesome!

Saturday, September 15, 2012

CCC 2012, Colorado

Work has been crazy for me. It's starting to ease up. We decided to go to Colorado this year for the Colorado Canine Challenge. We haven't gone there since 2008 I think. In 2008 it was a bad experience for all kinds of reasons. This year I felt we should give it a go. This is one of the biggest disc dog competitions in the world and is very tough. I think they said something like 15 states were represented at the competition!

This is the first time I did freestyle with Tooney since she reinjured her shoulder. She did great and ended up something like 15th place. She is awesome! She also made the cut for the toss and fetch but was too tired for the final round to be able to have a chance at winning that.

Enzo and Slayte both made the cut in freestyle! I was so excited!!!! Enzo ended up taking 2nd overall. Yeah, 2nd! I am so proud of him. Slayte is already getting high freestyle scores and he has not really performed in competition like he does in practice. I think that's going to change soon and I can't wait for it. He's so good, but he usually doesn't have the energy and mental fortitude to be able to do it on competition day. I think towards the end of this year things are going to start improving for him and I can't wayt!!!

Monday, September 10, 2012

LG is in Excellent!

LG is in Excellent A in both JWW and Standard after just 6 weekends of trials. He is so awesome and so easy right now. Only thing that I don't like is his startline. I seem to be able to get to where I need to by saying Wait! but he is pretty pushy and always gets up. Actually he always lays down and then stands up and takes a couple steps. Now that we are out of open, I am going to take some pressure off of him on his dogwalk and teeter contacts and see what happens. I've been telling him to wait to make sure he stops but seems to be causing a little creepiness so I am going to try to not say anything. His running aframe has been right on the line often but I feel like he should get it eventually. He is not one striding so that is good. He already has two ExA JWW q's!

Here is his Open Standard run which finished his OA title



Here is his first time in Excellent JWW.


There are more videos on youtube but I am not going to post them all here.


It's been really hot here too. 90s-100s for the past month. I am ready for cooler weather but I am glad to see that Slayte is ok with working in the heat. When it is this hot my brain doesn't work that well. Enzo hasn't gotten a double Q in quite some time so we still need 3 more for nationals.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

LG Slayte NA, NAJ

We've been to two trials since my last post. Aug 11-12 weekend was a really solid weekend for Slayte. He Q'd in both FAST runs. The novice sends were not an issue at all. He Q'd in both novice JWW runs and one standard run. The first JWW run was completely clean and smooth and second was good too except that he missed the weave entry. Those two Q's finished his NAJ! His standard run on Saturday was really good too. Contacts were all really solid. In Sunday's standard run, I did a front cross before the aframe which shortened up his stride and he ended up missing the aframe contact. He also self released off the dogwalk because the tunnel was calling to him. Qing 5 out of 6 runs was just incredible for the baby dog! Enzo q'd in standard on Sat and just missed a double q by one bar in JWW. Grrr.

Last weekend was just horribly hot. Close to 100 every day and more humid than normal for around here. I don't function all that well in that kind of heat but the dogs did ok. I ran Enzo 3 days and Slayte two days. Enzo only q'd in one JWW run and one standard for the weeked. We missed a double q by one bar again! On Friday Slayte had a bar and would only do 10 weaves in T2B. In open JWW he did the weaves but got an off course tunnel. Then in standard he had a flying teeter flyoff. The teeter barely tipped before he came off the end. Not sure if he was too excited or thought it was the dogwalk. He did hesitate a bit at the top of the upramp of the dogwalk. I also pulled him off a jump because I overdid it on turning cues. Such a big difference between Enzo the missle and Slayte the gumby dog.

Slayte's T2B run on sunday was pretty nice so I bought the video even though we didn't Q. He was about 3 seconds behind the fastest 20" dog who is a really fast BC. I tried another front cross before the aframe and that shortened his stride up again. But hey he got his weave entrance and he did all 12! Lol. We can't really practice weave entrances at a lot of speed in our yard. He does fine in class so all that should come with experience. In open jww he did good except for blowing by the weaves and then popping out at 10, twice. Novice standard had another course that teally needed a front before the aframe. I didn't want to do that and I haven't practiced severe pushes off the aframe so I just let him come off in front of me and stepped behind him. Also missed the weave entry again and didn't stay on the table. Good enough for a Q in novice so that finished his NA! Really proud of him running so well in the heat too.
Also bought a video of Enzo's JWW run from Sunday because it was one of our better runs in a while! He got first place in this run too.


Saturday, August 11, 2012

Slayte's first time in AKC Novice

On July 29, I ran LG in AKC Novice standard and JWW and he got his first two Q's! Hooray for the baby dog! Neither run was perfect but jumpers was clean. All the mistakes were handling induced and lg did his job. It is a little strange for me to go out with my baby dog and actually have him do exactly what I would expect him to do! Enzo was a wreck in standard the first time I ran him. Enzo didn't want to lay down or sit on the table, refused the chute and I completely forgot to expose him to a panel jump. Probably didn't perform his contacts correctly either. This time I made sure to prepare lg for the things that we forget to train properly. Enzo ended up moving into Ex JWW very quickly but it was several months later before we could Q in standard.

Lg's stopped contacts are also way more solid than any other dog I've trained. I did two things differently. First I trained the behavior without a nose target. Our puppy class instructor Geri, had us teach the end position on the teeter first. No props just hop on the end into 2on/off. I did have him lay down on the end at first since he didn't want to shift his weight back before. It was much harder to teach and took longer but I think he understands better. The other thing that I did differently was to fade food rewards early on. I feel like my other dogs would get "ringwise" when they quickly realized they weren't getting a cookie in the ring. So sometimes Slayte gets rewarded with a toy and sometimes he gets to continue. Time will tell but even in these early stages I can see that the behavior is much stronger.

Here is his JWW run. I over pulled him on that first turn because I was worried about the jump to the left. That is a typical Enzo move. Hard to switch gears for me. The closing line was pretty hard. It was a very slight zig zag. I was hoping to run it as a straight line but that didn't quite work out. Not suprised. The rest was great and he nailed the weaves. I just need to remember to not rush ahead at the weaves.


Then Standard. I tried to shape his approach to the dogwalk and over did it a bit but it worked out fine. He did a great stop at the end. I probably released him a little too quick but I got excited and said Yes! as soon as his front feet hit. His aframe contact was borderline. He was doing great on the aframe and then he started one striding so when I marked that he started shortening up a little. That started just a couple weeks ago. Last night in class our instructer told me that maybe I need to stay closer and that seemed to help. He drove really nice to the table, didn't fall off, and stayed when I led out! Awesome! I didn't really handle the next part well. I ran up too far before rear crossing the chute so he didn't see it at all. In hindsight, I led out far enough that a front cross before the chute would have been easy. We still got the Q though since you can have faults in novice! Love that. I really want to get out of novice and open quickly so I don't have to wait all day! The waiting is painful.


Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Disc Dog Competitions Update

Tooney, Enzo and Slayte had their USDDN and local Skyhoundz competitions the past couple of weeks.

USDDN

USDDN consists of a Super Open (2 rounds of freestyle + 1 round toss and fetch) and a Super Pro (2 rounds of toss and fetch only).

At the USDDN, Enzo was simply awesome. He won the Super Open division and got 5th in the Super Pro and qualified for the finals in both!



Slayte had his best competition yet (up to this point)!!! We managed his resources by keeping him cool in the air conditioned RV and rested him as much as possible. He finished 3rd in Super Open, qualifying for the finals!



Jenn also got to play with Slayte in Super Pro, so she had some fun with him. She forfeited her last round so he'd have more energy with me in his last freestyle round. That was nice of her and it paid off!

This competition is too much for a dog of Tooney's age to do all the events so I entered her only in Super Pro. She was STELLAR! She came from behind and won the Super Pro division qualified for finals!

Torrance Skyhoundz

Next up was the Torrance Skyhoundz competition that consists of a toss and fetch type game, hopscotch and speed disc. These are games mostly of accuracy and control.

Slayte had his best competition yet!!! (notice a trend here??) He was so friggin' good I almost couldn't believe it. He had a 23.5 in the toss and fetch which was best in the competition. He also was the only dog to complete the hopscotch, winning that also. He did solid in the speed disc and finished 1st place overall! The best part was he had good energy the whole competition and was very consistent.

Tooney won this event last year and did good again this year. She got 2nd place in toss/fetch and 2nd place in hopscotch and got a second place overall!

Enzo, as usual, was not good at this event. He runs too fast and jumps too far. This makes it nearly impossible to hit the scoring zones that require accuracy. He doesn't care. He still got to run, jump, catch and have fun! That's all that really matters. Instead of being frustrated by it, I learned a few years ago to just go out and simply play some frisbee with my dog and not worry about how he does in terms of scoring.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

LG's First Agility Trial

I love starting the baby dogs. Never know what to expect which makes it exciting! I entered him in T2B only for his first trial. When I entered him, I didn't know if his stop on the dogwalk would be ready yet and they run T2B in the morning so I wouldn't have to wait all day for Novice. His stop on the dogwalk is actually good now so I'll do novice with him on July 29.

Here's the video from his first run. He did really awesome. He just forgot how to hit his weave entrance. I didn't help much either. Lol. Watching the video I can see that I just went flying past them like I would with Enzo and then I was too spastic trying to bring him back which just got him too wound up. He also hit higher than he normally does on the Aframe but that is kinda normal when he gets on a new aframe. Luckily he normally hits pretty low unlike Enzo who is almost always in that top 6"! I wasn't sure if he would do the tire properly since the last time we did it he kept going under it, but he did fine with that. No issues with the bouncy teeter either which is just awesome. I also exhibited self comtrol by not saying anything when he stopped a little short on the teeter until he put his front feet on the ground. Ha!



I went home and practiced weaves and of course he did fine there. Next day, Slayte did awesome again. He was pushier at the start which was not suprising. He has been having issues with stays lately in practice. Patience has never been one of his virtues! He remembered how to weave though. Yay! Also nice stop on the teeter even and nice deep hit on the aframe. There was one turn that I thought was a little wide but that was my fault. Can you figure out which one? LOL because my standards for Slayte's turns are much higher than for Enzo.


Oh and here are a couple bonus videos of Enzo.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Almost there!

Slayte is really starting to come together. I have him entered in T2B in two weeks to see how he does. I am not entering him in Novice yet since he needs some more practice on his dogwalk. I decided to switch from running to a stop about a month ago.

We did some fun runs yesterday just to get him running on different equipment and in a new environment. His first run was a little scatter-brained but the next three were all good. He didn't always stick his dogwalk contact though so we definitely need more practice and proofing. He just startes doing the full dogwalk with the stop last week so can't blame him for that. His running aframe looks really good and doing different teeters doesn't seem to bother him. He doesn't always collect for his weave entrances yet but I worked that last week and I see improvement there.

Exciting times! Hopefully he will do well in T2B and then I can enter him in Novice in August!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Purina IDC

Enzo and I were invited to the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge this year. It is an honor and privelege to be able to perform freestyle in front of that crowd in that arena. Plus a chance to make it on TV!

On Friday was the qualifier, so I entered Slayte. I wasn't expecting to have a realistic chance of him qualifying. He did really well despite being somewhat distracted, but he fought through it and caught really well in the round. I made some nice fancy throws including some skips. Here's his fun round:



I am proud of Slayte because he is already doing things in his routine I won't even attempt with Enzo. That's how good this dog is! He can catch skips, butterflies and other difficult throws that my other dogs never could catch.

On Saturday was the finals and Enzo performed well. He was super fast and wild in his routine. The wildness lead to quite a few drops, which took us out of contention for the win. He ended up in 4th place and I'm happy with how we did. I wish I would have ajusted more for the down-wind throws. They were lower than Enzo wanted so he kept jumping over the disc.



After the freestyle round is the 2 bonus throws. It's about 37 yards from center to center of the squares. It's not easy to hit the bonus throws. I am happy that we finished strong by hitting both bonus throws.


Monday, May 21, 2012

Enzo wins distance competition and Slayte all grown up

Jenn and I headed north to Dixon for a small disc dog competition. It's a total of about 7 hours and we left Friday evening with hopes to drive about 4 hours or so and then make a quick stop around 1AM for a few hours of sleep before finishing the drive early in the morning. Unfortunately luck wouldn't be with us. The traffic through the Grapevine was backed up forever due to an accident. It took us about 3 hours to get through that. We ended up with about 2 hours of sleep. That doesn't bode well for a competition!

The dogs did OK for the freestyle and toss/fetch with the exception of Slayte. He was totally wasted. He couldn't hardly do anything because of the lack of sleep. It's ok, he's still learning about all of this traveling and competing still.

After the normal competition was a long-distance event. Enzo won the men's division! We won it with a 66 yard throw. The coolest part is next year's trophy will have Enzo's picture on it. How neat is that? Jenn got 3rd place with Tooney in the women's division. Her throw was around 44 yards I think, which is awesome!

Jenn entered Slayte into his first agility competition as an exhibition and he's now officially all grown up! He did AWESOME! He was over 6yps on both runs, which is totally phat. Here's his videos:



Sunday, April 29, 2012

Redemption

Just got back from the Dixon, CA UFO and long distance competition. The last two competitions we've attended (this and the AWI) can be summarized up with the dogs redeeming themselves. At the AWI, all the dogs had problems during the day and ended up in lower than expected placements early in the competition. Then in the last round, Enzo and Slayte were awesome and both qualified for the finals.

On our way to Dixon, we got caught in nasty traffic and ended up only getting about 2 hours or so of sleep before the competition. Jenn and I both felt like we were going to pass out all day. At this competition, the dogs all pretty much performed way under par in toss and fetch, leaving us pushed down kind of far in the standings. Since we want to go to the UFO finals, this was a disappointment. Again, though, there would be redemption.

During the competition, Slayte was slow, tired and uninterested. He redeemed himself in a very odd way. After the competition, he was TOTALLY crapped out. He couldn't even hardly move. Even though he was extremely tired during the competition, he never ran off the field and never quit. At the time, it seemed like he just didn't care, but in reality, he was simply by trying to stick with it.

After the UFO competition, there was a long distance competition. I don't ever practice distance throws because of my elbow ulnar nerve entrapment problem which causes tingling, weakness and pain in my elbow to my hand. Luckily this problem is slowing improving. I have good form and understand wind really well. Enzo redeemed himself by winning the Men's division with a 65.7 yard throw. I wanted to hit a 70 yarder, but given the fact that there was no wind to help the throws, 65+ was still pretty good. Imagine if I actually worked on my distance throws and footwork. First, I know I'd be able to compete with the guys that can really throw far. Secondly, I would screw up my elbow again. Although it was fun, the long distance stuff really isn't of much interest to me. Freestyle and toss/fetch are much more fun to me. Don't get me wrong, I still like it. It involves throwing a disc to my best buddy, so it's still great! Enzo, on the other hand, LOVES distance. Not like freestyle, but he really, really, really thinks it's awesome.

Since Enzo won, next year's award will have a picture of him on it!!!

Tooney redeemed herself by getting 3rd place in the women's long distance with a throw somewhere over 40 yards. Overall, Tooney did really well, though.

Jenn and I also have come up with a new theory on how to try to train Enzo for toss/fetch. We are going to try working with him in practice where we don't call him back. Throw the disc and just let him come back when he wants to. When I do freestyle or long distance throws, he runs back to me fast. He doesn't screw around with the disc. The difference is with toss/fetch, I'm calling, yelling, etc, trying to get him to come back faster. We will see how it works out, but I have a feeling it may work.

Monday, April 23, 2012

2012 AWI Qualifier

Our 2012 Ashley Whippet World Championship qualifier was a bag of mixed emotions. Slayte had a really good first round of freestyle and Tooney had a decent round of freestyle. Enzo attacked a disc laying on the ground for no obvious reason, decided to start running circles around me during one sequence and missed a lot of discs. It wasn't his best moment.

Toss and fetch was also not very good for the dogs and they seemed to be missing discs for no obious reason and Slayte was wandering off the field. The dogs set high standards for themselves so when they don't blow it off the charts, it feels like I let them down.

They read off the list for the dogs that made the second round and Slayte and Enzo both made the cut! I was surprised but happy. I was considering cutting Slayte from the second round since his previous toss and fetch round was a disaster. Jenn and I decided to let him have another shot. The second round was much windier that the first round and I was worried about both dogs performing in the conditions. Enzo was in 11th place and Slayte was around 8th. The top 5 (minus people already qualified) make the world championships. Enzo was out of a qualifying spot and I think Slayte most likely was at this time also.

Enzo went first for me in the second round and was GREAT! I don't understand it. It was windier, yet he caught a high percentage of dissc. I expected it to score high as most people were struggling in the wind this round. I told Jenn that Enzo did good enough to jump up in the standings into a qualifying spot. She thought I was nuts, but I thought he did that good.

I am so glad I let Slayte run the second round. It was awesome! Despite the wind and the discs changing directions and being blown around, he caught almost everything. I was super proud. When I came off the field, I felt he also did better than most of the other dogs this round.

I don't know the exact placements as they didn't share that information for whatever reason, but both Slayte and Enzo qualified for the world championships! I can't believe Slayte did this at just 14 months!!!!

You will notice that Slayte had the ?'s removed from his image on this blog. I am proud to say he is now a full member of Team Furrari and earned his right to stand next to Tooney and Enzo.

Enzo round 2:



Slayte round 2:



Tooney Round 1:

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Atomic Blast Off 2012

Jenn and I headed out towards Vegas last Friday night for the 5th Annual Atomic Blast Off UFO World Cup series disc dog competition. We stopped in Primm and stayed in the parking lot of a Casino called Whiskey Pete's since they allow overnight RV parking. Speaking of RV, the new Nexus motorhome we got is awesome! We are super happy we got it and it has made our travels about as easy and comfortable as we could wish for. The dogs even like it. Slayte likes it so much he already ate the seat belt - yep, we have it into the Ford dealership to have the seat belt replaced for $300.

Tooney, Enzo and Slayte all did really well. Enzo was 2nd and Tooney 3rd in freestyle with me. Jenn got 1st with Enzo and 3rd with Slayte in the toss/fetch division! Jenn didn't play with Tooney. Poor Tooney got sick the next day and took her a few days before she started eating again. She seems mostly recovered now and she should be able to compete in the AWI this weekend.

Here's the freestyle rounds filmed from Jenn's new iPad 3!!! They came out very nice!

Enzo:


Tooney:


Slayte:

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

2012 AKC Agility Nationals

Wow what a weekend! This was my first Nationals of any venue where I was running just Enzo. It was nice to be able to focus on him. We had been struggling a bit lately. I have been having trouble keeping on course with him. Monday my instructer Stephanie Spyr gave me some good advice and it helped a lot! I also realized that it takes an extremely high level of concentration on my part to run Enzo well and most of the time I just don't get to that level. Running 5 straight runs clean just doesn't ever normally happen for us.


Friday morning was the warmup standard run. Enzo was awesome and nailed all of his contacts which gave me some more confidence for the rest of the weekend. It didn't count for anything but we placed third! Then Friday afternoon was Time to Beat. The winner of this round would get an spot in the challengers round. Enzo had a solid run and placed 6th.

Time 2 beat vid coming soon.

So it was an awesome first day for Enzo. Saturday the real Nationals runs started. Saturday morning was Round 1, Jumpers with Weaves. It was a pretty straightforward course with a few areas where I had to be careful not to lose him off course. Enzo had a really good run that was clean! He ended up in 14th place which was a solid placement. Top 10 in the 16" division would make it into the finals and there were about 140 dogs.


Round 2 was the standard course. This is where Enzo's running contacts can give him an advantage. There were 90 degrees turns off of both the dogwalk and aframe but at least there was no off course possibility after the dogwalk which judges seem to like to do lately. Enzo had a really awesome run and placed 5th in this round. That was probably good enough to at least get him into the challengers round if at least one of the dogs that placed ahead of him in this round were clean for all 3. His cumulative placement for the two rounds at this point was 8th!


Sunday morning was Round 3, the Hybrid course which is basically a jumpers course plus a teeter and an aframe. This was definitely the hardest course of the weekend. Enzo had some pretty wide turns when he was looking at all the off course choices. After the teeter, he almost took the wrong jump straight ahead but called off at the last second. Scary! I thought for sure he was going to take it. We made it clean through the course and stayed in 8th place to make it into the finals! I had looked at the challengers course in the morning and decided that I really didn't want to run that course so it gave me some extra incentive to stay clean. Otherwise, I've always thought that it would be fun to run in the Challengers round.


The finals course looked fun and didn't look as difficult on paper as it ran. I was pretty excited going into the finals and so was Enzo. I got a little too excited in the weave and left too abruptly which pulled him out of the weaves. After that I just decided to run hard and have fun with it. That of course made Enzo wild and he launched off the dog walk and teeter and made a lot of wide turns but he got to run fast. I was just really happy to make it there! Very proud of the little boy!

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Discdogathon, Norco - A Perfect Routine!

Disc Dog Empire (DDE) hosted their first competition as a club and it was a Discdogathon world championships qualifier that includes freestyle, bullseye, time trial, spot landing and pairs distance/accuracy. Yeah, 5 events in 1 day with a turnout that included close to 100 entries in certain events. DDE did a great job. The weather was beautiful in the mid 70's and sunny.

Freestyle started for me with Slayte. He did a full freestyle routine and didn't leave the field and only glanced off a couple of times. I mixed in tugging about every 20-30 seconds and finished with a roller. His focus was excellent. Not only that, he actually had a great routine and had 75% ratio. When I left the field I told Jenn that I don't care about the rest of the day - little did I know what was to come! At the end of the day, this was clearly Jenn's favorite moment.

LG preparing to tug:

Tooney was next in freestyle and what an awesome routine she put out. 1 drop! I was hitting myself because again, almost a perfect routine except for 1 throw. I can't even say I wish I had the throw back. It was just slightly low and she slowed up and didn't make a good attempt. It is hard to catch 20 straight discs.


Enzo was last to go for us and I did a "first". No routine!!! What? Yeah, normally I have a totally set routine for Enzo with every throw and motion choreographed. I just wanted to do something different. It paid off. Enzo had a perfect routine with 0 drops! I was so stoked. Enzo also won the event. Considering the big turnout, I was really impressed. I have been wanting to have a perfect routine for so long, I'm glad we managed to obtain that goal. It is very satisfying.



Bullseye was very good for Tooney and solid for Enzo. Slayte had his only lapse of the day when he ran up to another dog, but then continued the round.

For time trial, the wind was picking up but Jenn had the best time of our crew with a 23 seconds round by Slayte! It was one of the best of the day, but not sure exactly where he finished. Tooney also had a really good round with 29 seconds.

Pairs distance/accuracy is a toss and fetch event where 2 players alternate throws. I like it a lot. Jenn played with Karen and Bentley and had a nice round. I got to play with Ellie and Preston and we also had a good round. I played with Jerry and Dakota and were great with a 2nd place finish! Jenn and I had a really awesome round with Enzo and my last disc just floated out of bounds, but still was in the top 10. Tooney had a good round as did Slayte.

It then hit me after the event that I could have had 2 perfect routines in 1 day if it wasn't for a single throw being off by about 2" in height.

I'll leave the post with a learning lesson. When photographing Enzo, be careful with the zoom. It's easy for him to jump out of the frame.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

An agility post!

I'm behind on posting again of course. First I wanted to post a couple of Enzo videos from an AKC trial a couple weeks ago. I don't really remember the runs too much now but I know that Enzo is awesome! LOL.





AKC Nationals is coming up soon. We haven't been too consistent lately. No big issues, just a tiny bit off. We've been doing quite a bit more ASCA than normal and the courses are so different. I've decided not to do any more ASCA until after AKC Nationals. Maybe that will help...

Slayte's running contacts seems to be progressing well. I haven't been obsessively taking video but took this one just to get a data point. I did a lot of board running with him and this was probably after a week or two on the low dogwalk. I'm having him run to a Manners Minder. Hopefully using that won't create the crazy obstacle focus that Enzo has after the dogwalk. The first hit was a little high and there was one big leap somewhere in the middle but the rest were pretty nice. he seems to be really consistent lately and I am thinking about puttting my dogwalk back together and having him do the full height DW. I don't have any video but I also used the PVC box on the board and DW when he was having trouble hitting where I wanted him to. I am approaching this a little differently than the general thinking and am mostly rewarding for location vs splitting feet. My theory is that if they understand where you want them to hit then the gait will happen naturally when they are driving. That's how it worked for Enzo anyways and seems to be working for Slayte so far.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Slayte Turns One!

Friday was Slayte's 1 year old Birthday! Time really flies! Here is a year in pictures! Love this dog!

1 day:


5 days:


4 weeks:


6 weeks:



10 weeks:



3 months:


4 months:


5 months:


6 months:




8 months:


10 Months:



1 year!


Sunday, January 29, 2012

First Disc Dog Action of 2012

The morning started off with an AKC agility trial. Maybe Jenn will get the videos up that I recorded. Enzo looked awesome and won one run and missed an a-frame contact in the other run. Around noon, Jenn finished up with agility and we headed to a disc dog clinic.

I usually help out more with the clinics, particularly with people new to the sport, but we got there a bit late and things were already moving along. We did, however, make it in time for the mock toss/fetch competition. Tooney, Enzo and Slayte had their first taste of competition, even though it was just for fun. If we are on a big field with a bunch of people watching, they know it's game time.

I think my throwing technique is continuing to improve. I had no warmup, but my throws were still going 47-50 yards. It was crazy. I went 1st with Slayte and I got two long throws out to him and he caught both. I had about 30 seconds left when he returned and Jenn and I decided to call the round at that time. He's young and we want to keep it intense and fun. It was very warm and sunny out and he tends to run to the shade, but he didn't do that. It was a good call and his round was a huge success. For Tooney, I had a solid round with her, but she had one miss. At the end I went with Enzo and he did awesome, catching every disc in the air at nearly 50 yards. He got 18 points, enough for 3rd place and won a free toy for Slayte to destroy.

Jenn got to play with all three dogs also. She had good rounds with all the dogs and I think each dog had one miss. She stopped her round with Slayte after three throws for the same reason I stopped my round and again it was a successful round for him.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Disc Dog Goals for 2012

I have been meaning to put up a list of goals for the 2012 disc dog season. My hope is to look at this at the end of 2012 and see how well I followed through and maybe check it throughout the year to remind myself of what we are trying to do. These are new goals or things that I still need to really work on. I will go in order of seniority.

Me:

- Avoid injury by not over practicing, despite sometimes wanting to practice for long periods of time. Keep it to 1-3 times per month at the park for 30ish minutes.

- Don't throw anything short of the maximum point line in toss/fetch. Past 40 yards is normally my target.

- Work on getting a better air bounce and skip that can be used in routines confidently. I can execute the throws, but not in any conditions and with confidence.

- Be confident for the dogs and give them the best chance to excel and have fun. For them, having fun is running, jumping and catching discs. Put the disc where they have a chance to catch it every time.


Tooney:

- No injuries. She couldn't compete most of 2010 due to injury and came back big in 2011 with some great performances and wins. It took half the season for her to get her stamina back, but she's as good as ever right now.

- Continue doing her exercise ball at least every other day, preferrably 4-5 times a week to keep her strong.

- Keep it fun for her. If she is still running and happy at the end of every round, then I'm doing the right thing.

- Get Jenn some chances to compete with her. As Tooney is getting older, Jenn's opportunities to really play with her are less and less. Tooney is the dog that really gave Jenn the chance to do well in agility, so she deserves more time with Toons. Jenn will never ask to have a round with her when I could be playing with her, but I have to do my best to get Jenn some opportunities. She is at the age where competing with two people is not possible, so we need to manage her play time wisely.

- Here's a lofty goal - set a masters division record at our Skyhoundz Regional for either freestyle or toss/fetch points.


Enzo:

- Whatever Enzo does pretty much is golden to me. In my mind, he can do no wrong. (yes, this is a goal... the goal is to continue to think this way)

- Continue to put the discs in a place for him in toss/fetch that show him off and rack up big points. I feel so fortunate to have finally developed the rhythm, teamwork and skills to do this with him. Don't lose it!!! He was good in 2010 and awesome in 2011.

- Come up with more unique throws/tricks for freestyle. I don't want to make a higher % of tricks in my routine - just replace some I already have by big improvements to the trick itself or to the flow of the trick into the next sequence or from the previous sequence. Also consider replacing entire trick sequences if I am able to come up with something completely novel.

- Do more traditional types of things that people do to make their dogs look good. One thing I never did with Enzo was a distance multiple. (short, medium, long rapidly). I am doing this now. This is a skill neither he nor I had in the past. We do now. He looks great doing this. It's traditional and so many people do it, but there's a reason. Dogs look great catching lots of discs quickly and running/jumping. He does all of those in 1 sequence that lasts 5 seconds at most, but is a huge impression to everybody watching. Maybe do more things like this in the routine, but without losing my ingenuity.


Slayte:

- Stay on the field for the entire round. Keep his interest up, especially when it's hot out or he's showing that he may be distracted. Focus, fun and energy are the ingredients required.

- Improve catching ability. Hopefully he learns on his own, otherwise maybe try some softer discs that won't bounce of the teeth as easily if his timing is a bit off. He tends to either not bite the disc deep in his mouth or he closes his mouth before he gets to the disc. The result is the disc bounces off his teeth.

- Try to put up a few big scores in toss/fetch because I know he can do it.


Wow - that is a lot of stuff.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Slayte, every... single... day....

As we have said quite a few times, Slayte is non-stop. I can't imagine a dog that has more energy than him. We take him herding, practice agility, frisbee and add to that balance ball exercising, tug sessions and all the play time he has with the other dogs, all within a 4-6 hour period. He still barks at us to do something else with him. I hope I survive this dog long enough for him to mature and settle down. He keeps saying "more more more more more more more more more more more more..."

See here for example:

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Slayte Future Full Member of Team Furrari???



(the following quotes are excerpts from the back of Slayte's Disc Doggin / Agility sports card)


Windsor's Slay It! (Slayte/LG)
Born: 2/3/2011
Height: 19.25"
Weight: 34lb

Born the pup of proud parents and a family with a long lineage of champions. From a young age, this athlete has shown the athletic skills and potential to be a champion in his own right. An athletic mold of perfection from strength, blazing speed and jumping ability, the only lingering question is whether or not he has the determination to be a winner. As a first round draft pick, the expectations are high.

You aren't born into Team Furrari. You earn it. Coming up on a year old, Slayte needs to start thinking more seriously about his future. He is considering the training, skills, focus and leadership skills required to move up from the practice squad to be a full starting player.

Stats: 4 disc competitions, 14 points total.

Funny trivia: Known as LG (short for Little Guy)



The first part was Jeff and now this is Jenn typing. On a more serious note, Slayte is making a lot of progress in his training. He has tons of drive and speed. He's awesome at tracking frisbees, retrieves to hand, and loves to play. His retrieves are way faster now as long as he is not too tired. He really seems to like agility a lot too. He's doing short sequences now, low teeter, and I am working on his running dogwalk on the plank. His main issue now is sustained focus. He is easily distracted by people and dogs and he also tends to quit and run to the shade in frisbee when he gets a little hot. Hopefully these are things that maturity will take care of. He still barks at us when he's bored but at least it forces us to do stuff with him and not be lazy.


I love my LG, I've really bonded with him more than any other dog we've had. He's my constant shadow. It doesn't matter how much of a pain he is, how many things he destroys, or if never end up accomplishing anything, I just love him! I don't how a dog can be so sweet and such a butthole at the same time!!

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Tooney and Enzo Awards Through 2010

We decided to take pictures of the dogs with the major/finals awards they won. They earned many, many more than these, but we were only keeping major/finals awards, so all the local competitions got thrown out or donated back to the club right away. I didn't want to try and figure out which dog won which award, so let's just say they both won a lot of awards and we're very proud of them both. I decided not to get in on the pictures (same with Jenn) because the dogs are the ones that won the awards. They work hard, have fun and go out there and do their best. Luckly, we have two dogs (with another in training) that are at the top of the game. My part is pretty easy compared to what they have to do, so they won these awards. Everything was thrown out after the pix except for the award presented to Enzo and I by the club as the 2009 champions because that award feels personal and has our names on it.

Enjoy the pix, they worked hard for these!