I ran Enzo in an AKC trial this weekend. Tooney was entered but one of her anal glands ruptured again. This is the third time so our vet said that we should get them removed. Poor girlie.

Yesterday Enzo got second place in jww. I kind of took it easy and did all rear crosses. It felt a little slow after doing USDAA all last week but he still did it in 5.57 yds/sec so I guess it wasn’t actually slow. In standard he had a really nice run but knocked one bar. He stopped on the dogwalk but not the aframe but he was coming down all the way instead of leaping off.

Today JWW was a little rocky the whole time but he stayed on course until the very end when he ran past the last jump. It was totally my fault as I should have rear crossed the 2nd to last jump. In standard he shot out of the tunnel and took an off course jump. He also stopped in the middle of the weaves and started sniffing around. I dont think he’s ever done that before. He was fine the second time when I restarted him. Again he had nice contacts at least. He really drove down to the end of the dogwalk and stopped and the aframe he didn’t stop but came all the way down.

I’ve made the decision to move Enzo out of Performance and jump him at 22″ Championship for USDAA. We practiced at 20″ in Tuesday night’s class and 22″ in Wednesday nights class and he did great at those heights. I don’t think he knocked any bars on Tuesday and maybe 2 on Wednesday but those were kind of hard angles to begin with and I was taking off away from him. Last time that I ran him at 22″ (about a year ago other than at home) he was lacking confidence and would slow down and add strides to make sure he didn’t knock any bars but now it didn’t seem to bother him at all. He’s just under 18″ so on the smaller side for the jump height but this dog can jump up to my head level when he wants so you would think 22″ shouldn’t be a problem!

Our next USDAA trial is December 6-7 which is a Tournament only trial so we should be able to get lots of practice in at 20/22″ before that. I’d just better remember to practice triple and double jumps at home since we don’t set those up in class very often. Already have a great DAM team set up for Enzo with two of his border collie classmates and Tooney has a very solid PVP partner too for that trial.

We have 4 AKC weekends before that. Hopefully the work that I’ve been doing on his contacts this week sunk in. I brought the target back out and that seems to have revived some of his enthusiasm for the 2on/2off position.

We’re home now from Nationals. This morning I did the European jumpers course. Enzo did really well, just had one really wide turn where he actually ran out of the ring and around a post for the ring before coming back. I didn’t decelerate before the 180 turn. oops! Tooney went off course again! She definitely suffered from tunnel sucking this weekend. Don’t know what’s going on with her but I’m really happy with how Enzo was running with the exception of his contacts of course. It’s just bad timing that he decided to start blowing them the week before nationals! He was really fast and focused all weekend and paid attention on some pretty tough courses. I just need to keep working on my timing with turning cues to get him tighter. He did great for a 2.5 year old at his first nationals!

Oh and we also did a couple of private lessons with Melissa Heeter and got some interesting tips from her and some drills to work on.

I didn’t get a post out yesterday because after 6 runs in the heat, I was just wiped out, mentally and physically.

Yesterday, our first run was PNS semifinals. Enzo ran first again. He was pretty close on his dogwalk contact, completely leaped over his aframe contact, and then I pulled him off a jump for a refusal. Other than that though he had a pretty nice run. Even with the refusal, his time ended up being just .02 seconds behind the last dog to make it into the finals so without the refusal and the missed contact he could have made it in! Tooney’s run in PNS ended pretty early as she went off course after just 5 or 6 obstacles if that. Should have been an easy wrap but she just blasted off towards the aframe.

Next was Performance Speed Jumping. Enzo had a pretty nice run, with a couple wide turns but missed his aframe contact. Tooney had a clean run but a couple really wide turns so she didn’t end up with a great time. Enzo’s time was faster by 2 seconds. I checked the results this morning and Tooney ended up in 17th place and Enzo if he had been clean would have been in 13th so he still wouldn’t have made it into the finals.

Last run of the day was team standard. Enzo got his dogwalk contact this time but leapt over the aframe contact and then ran past the next jump and back jumped it. Tooney ended up missing her dogwalk contact but managed to stay on course this time.

Today was team gamblers. Both dogs did good this time but you can’t really mess up gamblers! The “gambler” this time was just after the buzzer point were doubled and you have to cross the finish jump before the closing time was over. Enzo got one of his aframe contacts but not the other. We’re really going to have to work this when we get home!

Tommorrow is our last run with European Jumpers!

First run today was Enzo in Team Jumpers. He was flying but knocked two bars. Tooney went off course. There was a broad jump and you had to pull to the opposite end of the tunnel from the one they saw and she went right into the tunnel. Right after that we had to run over to Enzo’s quarterfinal run for Performance National Standard. I took it easy on this course and we got through clean so he should be in the semis no problem. He did tick two bars but they stayed up luckily. Next was snookers. I actually had about 15-20 minutes for a break this time. Enzo went off course into the tunnel right off the bat. Tooney went off course towards the end of the opening. Ergh. Not a great day for the team events but at least enzo got into the semifinals for PNS.

Tommorow we have the Semis for PNS and Performance Speed Jumping and Team Standard.

We’ll be leaving for Scottdale on Wednesday! At the AKC trial last weekend, Enzo kept going off course and missing contacts so today and tommorrow we’re doing a lot of practice running past tunnels and some contact work.

At Nationals, they set me up so that there are only 4 dogs between Enzo and Tooney in the team runs and even less is PSJ. I’ll have to take a crate to the ring with us. No way I’ll be able to make it back to the crating area. And to top it off on Friday I have all of my runs between 9:30 and 12!

We’re back and mostly recovered from our trip to Atlanta for the US Disc Dog National/International Finals. It was a long drive out but luckily the trip both ways was pretty uneventful.

Friday was a qualifier but since Enzo and Tooney were already qualified, they played for practice. Jeff and Enzo competed in Super Open. Their first freestyle routine on Friday was awesome with only 3 or 4 drops. Tooney had two awesome rounds of Toss and Fetch and tied for 5th on Friday in the Super Pro Division.

Saturday was the National finals for Super Open and they had to place in the top 15 to compete on Sunday for the International Finals. There were two rounds of freestyle and one round of Toss and Fetch. It was windy but Jeff handled the wind really well and Jeff and Enzo ended up placing 9th in the National finals for Super Open on Saturday so they made it into the International finals on Sunday! On Saturday Jeff and Enzo had better freestyle routines but a more average Toss &Fetch. On Sunday their routines were solid but not quite as good as Saturday but they rocked Toss & Fetch with a perfect score of 22.5! That’s the maximum score that you can get in that part of it. They ended up in 8th place in the International Finals which is quite awesome considering that we didn’t even know if they would make the cut for Sunday!

Sunday started with the National Finals for the Super Pro Division which was two rounds of Toss and Fetch. Jeff and Tooney ended up scoring 23 points in their first round and 21 points in the seconds and ended up in 3rd place for the National Finals! Tooney was definitely the smallest dog competing in this division too! In the International Finals, Tooney had 21 points in the first round and 16.5 in the second round and ended up in 7th place.

Here’s some great shots taken by my friend Kat Fahle!