Furrari Aussies – Agility and Disc Dogs

I had big hopes for the SW regionals this year, with intentions of going to Tennessee with Enzo and Tooney if they were able to get qualified. Unfortunately, any hope of qualifying was gone before the competition even started. On Friday night, Enzo started limping. We think he got some sort of paw injury.

Tooney was my last hope. They take the top 6 (out of 39 competitors!) to the final round. I knew she had to do really well to make the cut. Tooney had an awesome 3-drop round. Unfortunately, 1 of those drops I wish I had back. It was a bad throw on my part. I thought it might come back to bite me – it did. They ended up taking the top 7 teams because there was a tie for 6th. Well, guess what? Tooney ended up in 8th place in freestyle. Yeah. That sucks – she missed by 1 spot. If she had 1 less drop, she would have been pushed up to about 4th place I think. That’s the way it goes.

I tried throwing right handed for the first time this year in toss/fetch. It worked out OK, but I suffered some numbness/tingling afterwards. I out-threw Tooney on my first throw and that was enough to eliminate me from possibly making the cut. I can only get 4 throws off with her, so with the 1st throw a miss, she was done. She ended up in 9th place, not good enough for the cut. Not bad, considering there were 71 entries in the t/f division.

On Sunday, we had a disc dogathon, which had 4 different games. Jenn and I both entered it with Tooney (Enzo resting at home). She should be considered a favorite to win the event because she is really good at the toss/fetch type of games. In my first round (regular toss/fetch), Tooney got stung by a bee. She limped around and was pretty upset. Well, how nice. Our day was basically done… she struggled to compete in most of the events until the end. By the time the last event rolled around, she was feeling better. It was bull’s eye, and I had a strategy going into it. Tooney ended up with 15 points with me. That was really good. Jenn went out a bit later, using the same strategy, and she scored a 19! That was enough for 3rd place in the event (winner had 21). Congrats to my girls! The good news is that Tooney was back and showed she would have done some serious damage if she was healthy the whole day!

Overall, it was mixed emotions for me. Tooney did really good and beat out some amazing freestyle teams, which is nice. She also fought through a nasty bee sting and finished Sunday with her head held high. However, the entire weekend I was extremely depressed due to Enzo’s foot problem. I was calling it the ‘saddest day in the history of Enzo’. It was unfortunate that he didn’t have a chance to qualify, but the real sadness was because we’re not used to having any of our dogs limping around and Enzo doesn’t deserve it. He seems a lot better now and I guess we have no choice but to go and win the IDC qualifier in a few weeks.

Last note – GO PENS!!!!!!!!!!!

We went to an AKC trial this weekend. Saturday went ok. Both Tooney and Enzo went off course in JWW. Same mistake in different parts of the course. I guess we need practice on long runs through jump boxes. They both went out away from me to take an off course jump. They just weren’t sure where to go. Both had really nice runs in standard. Enzo got 2nd in standard just a few tenths of a second behind 1st. He beat Dash the aussie for the first time (by 0.1 secs). Dash is a really awesome fast aussie. Of course Enzo is pretty much running all his contacts right now. Well, I’m calling it a 2on/2off self release! lol. He’s doing the striding for a stopped contact, just not stopping.

On Sunday, we were supposed to run JWW first. After I finished my walkthrough I went back to the crates and got Enzo out and there was blood all over his crate mat. Didn’t take long for me to see that his one foot was covered in blood. I carried him into the bathroom to wash his foot off. His outside toe got a deep cut on the edge. No idea how it happened, he never limped or yelped so don’t even know when it happened but I assume it was when I was walking them around in the morning. A friend located a first aid kit for me and I used the antibiotic ointment, gauze and vetwrap. My shorts were covered in blood from carrying him around but it was time to run Tooney so I ran over to the ring and we somehow ran clean and she got 2nd place. Standard didn’t go so well, I front crossed at the end of the weaves and ended up completely out of position and put her over the back side of the jump.

After we got home, I checked out Enzo’s foot and it actually doesn’t look too bad for how much it was bleeding. As long as it doesn’t get infected or anything he should be fine for our Skyhoundz Regional this weekend. We might just have to wrap it. He doesn’t seem to think there’s anything wrong with him.

Enzo actually double double Q’d last weekend and Tooney got a double Q on Sunday! Enzo’s standard run was really nice without any bobbles or really wide turns and he placed first! He beat a really fast BC and ACD. In each of his other runs we had a call off in each one but we managed to save them and get through clean. His jumpers on Sunday was also pretty smooth with just a small look at an off course tunnel and got 2nd place behind the BC. Tooney Q’d in JWW on Saturday but left the table early in standard. Also had an off course later on. Sunday Tooney had a really nice standard run and was pretty close to Enzo’s time with his almost off course to a tunnel. In JWW, she seemed tired and was over jumping a little which I’ve never really seen her do before but she got through clean and got the double. She was 3 seconds behind Enzo and she’s usually not more than 2 seconds slower.

That’s 4 double Q’s in the past 3 weeks for Enzo! He’s just doing really awesome lately.

Starting to get back into AKC mode now. Enzo doesn’t seem to run quite as hard at 16″ but that probably just feels that way since he doesn’t have to put much effort into jumping since his YPS are good. Saturday JWW, Enzo Q’d and got 4th place. He had one really wide turn where he was going towards an off course jump and he slowed down a bit when I called him off but still was 5.8 YPS. There was only a few tenths of a second between him and 2nd place and less than a second from first. Tooney went off course in the place where Enzo went wide. In standard, Enzo and Tooney both had awesome runs and placed 1st and 2nd. Enzo beat Tooney by about 1 second. Enzo was 4.2 YPS in his standard run. He stopped short on the dogwalk and I didn’t make him come all the way down. I should have. His aframe he left a little high. So that is double Q #5 for Enzo and 2nd of the year. Only need 4 more for nationals.

Sunday wasn’t as good of a day. JWW was a pretty challenging course. Tooney went off course because she didn’t hold her stay and Enzo popped out of the weaves. The ground was pretty uneven and the base was not level on the ground so I think he tripped on them and I was leaving laterally so he just came out. In standard, we had to run on the backside of a tunnel and call them towards us. Enzo didn’t quite get that. He came out of the tunnel going the wrong way and then went back in when I called him. The rest of the run was really nice and he actually stopped on the dogwalk at the bottom and not short of the bottom! He of course didn’t stop on the aframe but did come down farther. Tooney had a really nice run and placed 1st! 4.3 YPS! Her second fastest YPS in standard that I have recorded (I know there are some that are missing, I’m trying to be better at this!).

Saturday, I took Enzo to an ASCA trial. They had two gamblers and two standard or I guess regular is what they call it. Can’t really get used to that. Enzo is in open for everything. The first gamble was doable but Enzo shot out of the tunnel so fast that I couldn’t redirect him before he took the wrong jump. The second gamble had a aframe /tunnel discrimination. They were supposed to do the aframe but the tunnel was closer. Really similar to the Masters Gamblers that I had a couple weeks ago. In the first round of Open Regular, Enzo took the wrong end of a tunnel. The second round he was clean so that was his second Open Regular Q. Hoped that I could finish his title but I guess I’ll have to wait until next time. There won’t be another ASCA that I’ll be able to go to for a while.

Sunday, I went to an AKC trial. The JWW has really nice and flowing. Enzo and Tooney both Q’d and placed 2nd and 3rd respectively. Standard was was fast flowing course but pretty trappy. Tooney went off course in two places but I managed to get Enzo through it clean with a couple of call offs. So Double Q for Enzo! This was his 4th DQ but his 1st for qualifying for next year’s Nationals.

Enzo broad jump:
http://www.mgeventphotos.com/gallery/7905569_QKsqx#513238729_HDr6K-L-LB

Enzo barking at me:
http://www.mgeventphotos.com/gallery/7894956_bxyrz#512323995_8QKno-L-LB

cool sequence:
http://www.mgeventphotos.com/gallery/7914057_YphkZ#513375812_wtY5f-L-LB
http://www.mgeventphotos.com/gallery/7914057_YphkZ#513376481_3ertw-L-LB

Tooney broad jump:
http://www.mgeventphotos.com/gallery/7905595_PgbTX#513244835_8R25T-L-LB

We had an all tounament USDAA trial this weekend. Even though it was a 4-star event, it wasn’t a very big trial. About 60 championship dogs and 60 performance dogs. It was hot too! Saturday was in the high 80’s which is not that bad but Sunday was mid 90’s. Way hotter than it’s supposed to be in April here. At last weekend’s trial, I was wearing 3-4 layers in the morning!

Tooney needed her Performance Versatility Pairs Q and Enzo needed one more Grand Prix Q to be done with Nationals stuff. Enzo had his DAM team Q but one of our teammates needed a Q so we wanted to help her get it.

Tooney ran clean in both Perf Speed Jumping and Perf Natl Std on Saturday and won the second round of PSJ on Sunday! She won $28! lol. Tooney had pretty solid runs in the Team events but nothing spectacular as she had faults in most runs. Her teammate Wicket the Corgi also had really solid runs so we ended up in 4th place in PVP! Tooney needs to brush up on her weave entrances again.

In Steeplechase, Enzo knocked 2 or 3 bars so I decided to really make him stop on the second aframe. I said go spot, wait! and he stopped! amazing. Wait is not his contact command but he knows it means to stop moving.

Enzo’s Grand Prix run was a little exciting for my tastes but we somehow managed to get the Q. First his teeter was a little borderline, one of those teeters where he was leaving as it hit the ground but he didn’t get called. One of my friends told me later that the judge was looking at the teeter and thinking about it for a little while. Then after the aframe there was a jump that we had to wrap. You could wrap in either direction to make it work. I decided to wrap to the right since that didn’t require me to leave the teeter to get a front cross in before the aframe even though it was going to be harder to get the turn in that direction. Enzo ended up going straight over the jump and almost took an off course jump kind of off to the left. I had to call him off of that jump, then step over to the left side of the jump he was supposed to wrap and somehow I got him back and around that jump. I’m not even sure how I did it. So more excitement than I needed but we got lucky and got through clean.

Enzo’s team was Ready S.E.T. Go! again but with a different S dog, same T dog. This time we had Savvy the Sheltie instead of Sparks the BC. Our team had some issues. Enzo E’d jumpers, and my two teammate both had really low snookers rounds but nobody E’d standard, which was the course from hell (enzo had 3 bars and a missed aframe and I was pretty happy with that) or relay. Relay got a little exciting too as enzo ran past a jump I tried to serp and almost took an off course tunnel. He was really good and called off of it. We ended just making the cutoff as our team was 13th and 14 teams made it! I was really happy that we helped our teammate get a Q!