In December 2012, I wrote a blog post with my goals for the upcoming 2013 season.  Here are the goals I set and the results:

Goals for Myself

* Master the forehand throw to a point where it is nearly as reliable as my backhand, especially in wind. A change in grip may be in order.
Accomplished! I made a modification to the grip and practiced it several times a week. It became a go-to throw in my freestyle routines.

* Develop another difficult move / throw such as a type of back roll, kick or something similar.
Accomplished! Initially I was going to say I failed at this goal, but then I realized I took an existing throw, added a lot of color and magic to it and it became my signature throw for Muse.

* Ability to throw consistently over 65 yards.
Accomplished! In four distance competitions I competed in, I was throwing near 70 yards in all of them. Pretty good for no distance practice. I improve my distance throws by working on my 40-50 yard throws and getting the technique better at the shorter distances. It translates to the longer distances.

Goals for Tooney

* My goal is for her to be able to compete the whole year or at least most of the year.
Accomplished! Tooney was awesome this year and managed a perfect freestyle round, made the UFO finals and performed the final freestyle routine of her career at 11 years old.

Goals for Enzo

* My only goal for Enzo is to remain healthy so that he can have a long career.
Accomplished! Enzo got pancreatitis and was very sick for a while, but recovered and never missed a competition. He also got attacked/stung by a bunch of yellow jackets at a competition and he still went out and performed the same day (once we determined he was going to be OK and no reaction). He was solid all year and had some of his best rounds ever.

Goals for Slayte

* Unlike last year when I had big plans for Slayte, this year I have one simple goal. By the end of the year, Slayte is putting 100% effort at competitions.
Failed. The only reason this is a failure is because I wanted 100% effort. He’s not quite there, but he did great this year and had two freestyle rounds with only a single drop! I no longer have worries about him. He doesn’t have the problems he did in the past.

Goals for Muse

* She has shown some distractibility in public. By the end of the season, reduce the distraction level to near zero.
Accomplished! This was not an issue at all, but early on we weren’t sure!

* Get 5 throws at 30+ yards in a 1 minute toss and fetch round by the end of the season (even if not recorded at a competition).
Accomplished! She usually gets 5 at 40 yards, so she easily achieved this.

* Score 17+ in a toss and fetch round.
Accomplished! Again she easily beat this. She had a lot of scores over 20.

* Develop a full 2 minute freestyle routine.
Accomplished! Sounding like a broken record… she not only developed a freestyle routine, but was consistently one of the highest scoring teams.

* In competition, have an 85% catch ratio freestyle round. Honestly I don’t think this is realistic to expect for a young puppy, but it makes for a nice challenge for me to be able to throw discs good enough for her to catch that successfully!
Accomplished! She had two perfect rounds at the UFO finals. ‘Nuff said 🙂

* Develop the ability to catch highly complex and difficult throws that the other dogs are unable to catch. I think she has the ability to do it. My goal is to put 5 of these throws into her routine.
Accomplished! I incorporated all of my toughest throws that other dogs were unable to grasp and she does it with ease. I completely exhausted my repertoire of advanced throws with her.

* Consistently catch butterfly throws. Currently she is 50% at best. 90% is the target.
Failed. WHAT? Muse failed at something? Yep, she’s not good at them. I work on them every day with her and she’s still at 50%. I’ve given up hope she’ll ever be good at them, but I will still keep doing them with her in practice.

* Place top 3 at a local competition or top 5 at a major. Again, this is unrealistic but makes for a fun goal. Her best shot is at a Skyhoundz event.
Accomplished! She placed in the top 3 in most competitions shortly after she started doing freestyle and won several of those competitions.

Well, there it is. 2013 is in the books and it was a great year for us, especially the spectacular Muse. I managed to get 12/14 for 86% success. Quite honestly I felt we would end up much lower than that because I put a lot of lofty goals in there for Muse. She was successful on nearly all of them.

Soon I will put together and post my goals for 2014!