This weekend we had our AWI (Ashley Whippet Invitation) qualifier. People from California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Washington and New York came. We also had appearances from Indiana’s Tony Hoard and Rory (from America’s Got Talent) and Alex Stein (one of the founders of disc doggin’). The event consisted of 1 round of freestyle and 1 round of toss/fetch. They combine those scores and take the top 15 to perform a 2nd round of frestyle. The top 5 get an invitation to the World Championships in Chicago. With over 40 entries, making the cut would be hard enough, let alone the top 5.

Enzo and I went out and performed our freestyle as a gangsta and pimp. I wore a flat-billed hat, baggy shorts and a giant frisbee-clock hanging from my neck (Flava Flav style). The clock was Jenn’s idea – thanks home girl! Enzo wore his pimp costume that my mom made! The routine was solid and went over well with the crowd. I got a lot of good feedback on the theme. I am super happy with our routine for 2010. Flow is great and Enzo has incredible athleticism. I also have some throws that are quite difficult and impressive looking. Here’s Enzo’s first round:

Now for the big decision… are we going to Chicago? You betcha! It’s not a final decision, but Jenn and I are confident that we will go. We have made a decision that if we travel far for a disc dog competition this year, it will be Chicago for the AWI finals!

I really wish I would have started Tooney in frisbee earlier. She could have accomplished great things early on. It is my fault and a silly mistake. I never had any faith she could do it and felt she didn’t have the athleticism, focus or drive for it. As it turns out, these characteristics that make her great at frisbee. I was completely wrong and I will always regret it. Jenn and I are going to enjoy little Fluffasaurus and her awesome frisbee skills as long as possible and have decided we will definitely not be getting a new puppy until Tooney has decided she’s had enough of frisbee, giving her the full dedication and attention she deserves! Based on her current performance, we think that won’t be for a long time!!!

Saturday was the 3rd annual UFO in Las Vegas. Enzo won the event 2 years ago and Tooney won the event last year. This year there were more people from SoCal at the event hoping to earn some points for the UFO finals in San Diego. We left Saturday morning, drove 4 hours, competed, then drove back so Jenn can compete in agility Sunday. There is 1 word to sum up this event, W-I-N-D-Y. They nearly called the event half way through as everything seemed to be blowing away. When we were leaving the event, the weather report said it was currently steady wind at 33mph. Where we were was very exposed and I would expect it was actually windier where we were. Onto the results…

The freestyle scores were all pretty low and there was little variation in scores from top to bottom due to the wind. Everybody struggled. Enzo (as a pimp) and I (as a wanna-be gangsta) went out and put on a good freestyle routine to “Pretty Fly for a White Guy”. The costume/theme went over really well and people seemed to get a kick out of it. I plan to do this theme more throughout the year, including next week at the AWI qualifier. Enzo ended up having the 2nd best t/f score and got 2nd overall in the open division and earned more UFO points! Tooney did GREAT in freestyle despite having her little tootsies wrapped up to protect her pads. She posted a goose egg in toss/fetch, but I can’t blame her. Out of the 18 teams in open, only 4 got points in t/f! 1 team got 3 catches, Enzo got 2 catches and 2 other teams got 1 catch each. I think Enzo is the current leader in the UFO standings. That won’t last long, but take it when you can get it!

I doubled as a judged as I have done at every Vegas competition the past 3 years. The way it worked was that I judged everybody else but myself in the “sequences and flow” category. When I went up to compete, another person judged me in that category and used the scores I gave to other people as a reference to score me. He was able to compare how I perfomed to how others performed and was able to pick a fair score for me.

Next week is AWI qualifiers, so I look forward to that! Then we’re off to Oklahoma for AKC nationals!

Jenn went to an AKC trial on Sunday and got a double Q with Enzo. He got 1st place in both runs. Tooney got a Q in jumpers.

(Jenn typing here) Enzo was smoking in standard, just really driving over his contacts while still collecting to hit them. He had a pretty good time even though his table was slow, probably 4-5 seconds before he sat. His JWW run was nice and smooth. The JWW run had a tough pull to the weaves and then you needed to rear cross to get to the other side because it was a sharp 180 turn to the next jump. Both Tooney and Enzo did this really well. I don’t rear cross the weaves much especially when it’s that severe so I’m glad they didn’t hesitate. Tooney’s JWW run was maybe a little slow for her but she was paying attention really well. In Standard, she was faster but we got a two off courses. The one part I probably should have planned something different for her than for Enzo. The other part I ended up doing differently when I ran Enzo. She hit her running dogwalk though which is most important for her at this point right before nationals. I feel pretty good about our preparedness for nationals right now. We’re ready!!

Enzo has an addiction. And we’re not talking about frisbee (more on that later). It’s citrus. Yes, Enzo is addicted to citrus fruit. Enzo is not a ‘food hound’ like our other dogs. He likes treats, steak and chicken but isn’t going bonkers for it. He’s not even going to beg for it. We can be eating steak and Enzo won’t beg for any. The other dogs are practically climbing on top of us trying to get the food. As soon as we start cutting some citrus fruit, he won’t leave us alone. He becomes a shark, too, snapping at the fruit as we try to give it to him. He is one peculiar fella. His favorite? He loves oranges off the tree, but his absolute favorite is pummelos (like a giant grapefruit for those not familiar). He likes everything about them including the nasty white husk material just under the peel.

Now on to Enzo’s 2nd favorite thing – frisbee. We had our first competition last weekend and he did great! He posted the top toss and fetch score of the day, which is so impressive for him since that is his nemesis (sort of like the A-frame for him in agility). There were 60 teams total with 27 in the open division! He ended up placing and earned some UFO points that will go a long way this year. The UFO finals are in San Diego, so Enzo just needs to do his thing to get the points required to qualify. UFO competitions are going to be crazy here in SoCal with the finals being local. Poor Tooney wore her pads down in the competition because it was wet out. It didn’t impact her in the competition and she finished top 10, but she may be out for next weekend 😦

We are going to Vegas for the 3rd straight year next weekend for another UFO competition. Enzo won the competition 2 years ago and Tooney won it last year (behind an insane toss/fetch score).

I’m pretty excited about the frisbee season because I’m in better physical shape than I have been in 2 years. The nerve problem in my arm seems to have mostly healed (after a year and a half!) and I’m able to compete 100%. Last year I had to throw left-handed most of the year for toss/fetch. The only problem with my arm is I can’t practice very much because it starts tingling, burning, etc after too much activity. For a single competition, I can go full out. I can’t do long distance, either. It messes me up bad, so 40-45 yards is all I’m trying to throw right now and I can do that with little irritation. My hip problem (again from almost 2 years ago) isn’t anywhere near 100%, but I can compete and it doesn’t hurt nearly as much as last year. I’m not getting much in the way of the numbness/tingling this year thankfully. It mostly just starts aching a if I do too much. It’s been a long time since it’s been bad enough that it was difficult for me to walk.

For agility Enzo is still in the same mode. AKC, AKC, AKC and then more AKC. When he’s not at an AKC competition, more AKC. He’s still in the top 5 Aussies in the country and needs to stay there for another 3 months and he’ll be invited to the AKC invitationals in Long Beach!

Report Date: 03/11/2010
THE AMERICAN KENNEL CLUB

December 2010 AKC Agility Invitational
for Australian Shepherds
Qualifying Period Starting July 01, 2009 and ending June 30, 2010

Events Processed Through Friday, February 26, 2010

Rank Name Class Formula Value
1 MACH3 Barjh Batteries Not Included REG 3,351
2 MACH2 Gulfstream’s Tnt-Take No Tail MXF REG 2,368
3 NAC MACH13 Blue Moon Shine On Willow MXF TQX REG 1,988
4 MACH6 Los Suenos Gravity Games MXF REG 1,961
5 MACH Windsor’s Enzo Ferrari OF REG 1,956
6 MACH2 Toprock’s La Femme Ewe-Nika REG 1,617
7 MACH7 Roanoak Reinflame Red Hot Chai MXF TQX REG 1,382
8 MACH6 Add It Up OF REG 1,365
9 MACH Kandlelite’s Icyhot CD RE MXF REG 1,322
10 MACH2 Katch 22 Animation XF REG 1,310
11 Hardins Dust Up Rinse Repeat MX MXJ XF REG 1,118
12 Granite’s Fly Like The Wind VCD2 RA TDX MX MXJ MXF REG 1,020
13 MACH8 Imagineer’s Rely On Me REG 988
14 MACH2 Windy Farms Shoo Fly RE NJP OF REG 908
15 Old Oaks Katie Bar The Door VCD1 MX MXJ XF REG 898
16 MACH5 Schiml’s Denim Blue Dylin OF REG 887
17 MACH11 Whimsical Whirlwind Marni XF REG 868
18 MACH3 Old Oaks Capt Rocky Yr Socks CD XF REG 850
19 MACH Catalina Pitsch Black Knight NF REG 815
20 MACH3 Renfield Rave-On MXF REG 799
21 MACH Sunnybrook Hang Ten REG 798
22 MACH Fly Away’s Call The Ball XF REG 788
23 MACH2 Aussie CDX XF REG 756
24 MACH3 Staarry Heavens To Bessie UDX RAE MXF REG 745
25 MACH Simply Sydney XF REG 731

Today Enzo got his 20th double Q to finish his MACH! He had an awesome JWW run which he ran in 6.8 yds/s and got 2nd place. The standard course was really tough with two off course tunnel possibilities and then a long run into a tunnel dogwalk discrimination. I overhandled some parts but got through clean. Enzo’s contacts were really nice too. Fast but went to the bottom. Even with the slow table he still got 2nd place. So proud of the little boy and so happy that his contacts are good now.

Here’s the video

Cute that he had no idea what the victory lap was about! We got him a turkey bacon sandwich from Starbucks on the way home and then a mandarin from the tree when we got home. Enzo loves citrus fruit!

Oh and thanks to Jeff for getting up at an ungodly hour to support us and videotape!!

Guess I haven’t been too good about updates here. Enzo’s contacts are still holding up although maybe not quite as fast as I would like so I’m working on speed in practice now. Double Q’s are coming a lot easier now and hopefully we’re catching in the Invitational point standings. He’s earned about 550 points since mid-December. Last weekend we trialed 3 days and Enzo Q’d in 5 out of 6 runs 2nd place to Dash in 4 of the runs and 1st place in one run. He got his 18th and 19th double Q’s on Friday and Saturday. Went for his MACH for the first time last Sunday but he took an off course tunnel. Totally my fault for not decelerating. I ran Tooney after Enzo and at least managed to execute my plan properly for her.

This weekend our trial got rained out. The rain was done by the weekend but the fields were too wet so they wouldn’t let us run on them.

Here’s the videos from last weekend.

Enzo JWW (1/17/10):

Tooney JWW (1/17/10):

Enzo Standard (1/17/10):

Tooney Standard (1/17/10):

Also here’s some videos from New Years weekend that I never posted on here. He was flying in JWW that day and got 1st place.

Enzo Standard (12/31/09):

Well, I read Rachael Sander’s contact article in Clean Run last month and she mentioned that one of the reasons dogs will be good in practice and then miss contacts in competition is when you reward contacts too much in practice. So the past few weeks I’ve been having Enzo practice contacts without rewarding him with food at the bottom. I had thought about doing this before but was worried it might actually degrade his contact performance. It does cause him to run off in practice on occasion now, but that gives me the opportunity to mark it and have him try again. I’m also starting to mix in some early releases in practice.

Overall it seems to be working. Saturday he ran off through dogwalk contact without any thought of stopping so I marked it with a hey and had him wait for a second. I think that got him a little worried because he ended creeping down the aframe while looking back at the judge. The judge was raising his arms for a knocked bar so that may have been part of his worries. He actually came to a full 2on/2off stop though! I praised him really excitedly. Maybe he was worried the judge was going to get him if he didn’t do what he was supposed to like he used to do with the instructor in herding.

Sunday, he was still a little slower on the contacts than normal but not anywhere near as bad as the aframe on Saturday. He didn’t quite stop but he was at least coming all the way down.

Both Tooney and Enzo were 3 for 4 this past weekend which is great. Enzo got 3rd in JWW on Saturday, 1st in JWW on Sunday, 2nd in standard. Tooney got 1st in Standard! She is really rocking standard courses lately with her running dogwalk. Enzo fell out of the top 5 for the invitational this past week so hopefully we have gotten to the point where we can start Qing in Standard consistently again. Hopefully by AKC nationals we will have figured it all out to get his speed is up to where it should be while still running clean! We were there back in June and July of this year!