We went to the 2013 UFO World Cup Finals and all 4 dogs were qualified in the open division. It was exciting to be able to play with 4 dogs in the finals. It was difficult, physically, as I had over 20 rounds!!! Can you believe it?!?! 3 Days of disc doggin’ at its extreme! Muse, of course, was my top performing dog.

Tooney had her retirement freestyle at this event at 11 years old. I did not throw very well for her, but she made up for it with a nice round:

Enzo and Slayte both had some nice rounds. Enzo finished 11th in the World Cup and Slayte 21st. Here are two of their rounds.

Enzo:

Slayte:

Muse was amazing at the finals and finished 5th in the World Cup. She was only 14 months old at the finals! Going into the finals, I told Jenn I really wanted to try to have a perfect round with her because I felt she had it in her. I would have probably had a couple of perfect rounds during the year, but in two of those routines, she missed a specific throw in both of those routines (the flamingo throw). I decided to modify the throw so I could throw it more consistently and the results were as good as I could have hoped. TWO perfect rounds at the finals! Having a perfect round is exceptional, but doing it 2 out of 3 rounds at the finals is truly remarkable. I feel like I’m the luckiest person in disc doggin’ to have what is probably the most consistent disc dog on the planet! The fact that catching a disc is by far her most favorite thing in the world to do and her super sweet personality, what a perfect disc dog she is!

Muse perfect rounds:

The long distance D-Tour Championships also took place at the UFO Finals. Muse qualified with Ellie in the Women’s division and with me in the Men’s division. Ellie won the Championship with her dog, Preston, and managed to get 2nd place with Muse! Ellie is going to be awesome in 2014! For me, I had 2 of my longest throws EVER in a competition. Unfortunately, Muse tipped both of them. She would have ended up very likely with at least a 2nd place finish if she caught either of them. Despite that, she still caught a pretty long throw which probably put us in 4th place, just outside of the placements. The official results are not posted yet, but it was very likely near the top.

Here are my favorite moments of the finals:

1. Tooney final freestyle round of her career!
2. Muse 2 perfect rounds!
3. Muse 5th place overall UFO World Cup!
4. Slayte having some great rounds at the Finals!
5. Enzo finishing 11th in the UFO World Cup! (Ellie and Muse 2nd in D-Tour almost made the list…)

The 2013 disc dog season is over and my 4 awesome dogs finished it off with some of their best performances of the year. I plan more blog updates to sum up some things from the season and other various disc doggin’ thoughts. Who knows, maybe Jenn will eventually post a blog update on agility. She still does it… I think….