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.

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…

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 🙂

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

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!

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:

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: