As we have said quite a few times, Slayte is non-stop. I can’t imagine a dog that has more energy than him. We take him herding, practice agility, frisbee and add to that balance ball exercising, tug sessions and all the play time he has with the other dogs, all within a 4-6 hour period. He still barks at us to do something else with him. I hope I survive this dog long enough for him to mature and settle down. He keeps saying “more more more more more more more more more more more more…”

See here for example:

(the following quotes are excerpts from the back of Slayte’s Disc Doggin / Agility sports card)

Windsor’s Slay It! (Slayte/LG)
Born: 2/3/2011
Height: 19.25″
Weight: 34lb

Born the pup of proud parents and a family with a long lineage of champions. From a young age, this athlete has shown the athletic skills and potential to be a champion in his own right. An athletic mold of perfection from strength, blazing speed and jumping ability, the only lingering question is whether or not he has the determination to be a winner. As a first round draft pick, the expectations are high.

You aren’t born into Team Furrari. You earn it. Coming up on a year old, Slayte needs to start thinking more seriously about his future. He is considering the training, skills, focus and leadership skills required to move up from the practice squad to be a full starting player.

Stats: 4 disc competitions, 14 points total.

Funny trivia: Known as LG (short for Little Guy)

The first part was Jeff and now this is Jenn typing. On a more serious note, Slayte is making a lot of progress in his training. He has tons of drive and speed. He’s awesome at tracking frisbees, retrieves to hand, and loves to play. His retrieves are way faster now as long as he is not too tired. He really seems to like agility a lot too. He’s doing short sequences now, low teeter, and I am working on his running dogwalk on the plank. His main issue now is sustained focus. He is easily distracted by people and dogs and he also tends to quit and run to the shade in frisbee when he gets a little hot. Hopefully these are things that maturity will take care of. He still barks at us when he’s bored but at least it forces us to do stuff with him and not be lazy.

I love my LG, I’ve really bonded with him more than any other dog we’ve had. He’s my constant shadow. It doesn’t matter how much of a pain he is, how many things he destroys, or if never end up accomplishing anything, I just love him! I don’t how a dog can be so sweet and such a butthole at the same time!!

We decided to take pictures of the dogs with the major/finals awards they won. They earned many, many more than these, but we were only keeping major/finals awards, so all the local competitions got thrown out or donated back to the club right away. I didn’t want to try and figure out which dog won which award, so let’s just say they both won a lot of awards and we’re very proud of them both. I decided not to get in on the pictures (same with Jenn) because the dogs are the ones that won the awards. They work hard, have fun and go out there and do their best. Luckly, we have two dogs (with another in training) that are at the top of the game. My part is pretty easy compared to what they have to do, so they won these awards. Everything was thrown out after the pix except for the award presented to Enzo and I by the club as the 2009 champions because that award feels personal and has our names on it.

Enjoy the pix, they worked hard for these!

I’m finding that herding is actually becoming kind of fun and addictive with Slayte. With Enzo it is frustrating and tiring and we never improved. Slayte still has tons of drive for it but is much more pliable. Funny because in life he is much more headstrong than Enzo. He pushes out and stays out. He is also willing to slow down and use his brain which also gives me time to think. Enzo thinks that going faster is the solution to all problems which makes him a great agility dog but it’s bad for herding. It also caused problems with tracking in frisbee but we figured out a way to work around that. When Enzo is in drive mode his brain shuts off. Slayte likes to mix things up when he sees an opening but a lot of that is because of my bad timing and handling since I kept getting stuck against the fence. I feel like I am actually able to learn now and that is a good feeling. I still have a bad habit of walking towards the sheep when I send him around and sometimes I still get stuck in the death spiral but at other times I feel like we are actually doing what we should be! I need to get better at watching both the sheep and my dog and I need to be more proactive about keeping the sheep off of me. It’s also nice that Slayte doesn’t mind working for someone else.

Slayte has had 6 lessons so far and this video is from our 5th lesson. Now just to figure out how to squeeze in herding lessons around my agility schedule!

We didn’t double Q but Enzo had two nice runs so I bought the videos. 🙂 So close though!

Years ago when Enzo was young I had tried taking herding lessons with him for about 6 months or so. We didn’t really get anywhere and he just got really wild and started just running in circles and refused to change directions. Tooney got interested and was much less crazy at first but somehow she ended just running in circles too so I stopped trying to herd.

Now Slayte is here so I’m trying to herd again. I’m hoping that maybe I won’t mess him up too. I think we are making some progress and I’m starting to get it. Slayte is pretty crazy about it already but he does seem to be more willing to work wider than Enzo is which seems to be making things easier on me. I’m also trying Enzo again. He is still crazy but he will lie down now if I tell him too. Didn’t have that before and don’t have that with Slayte right now.

Anyways here is video from Slayte’s second turn at his second lesson, the first one was pretty wild. This time he worked pretty nice. Enzo only gets one turn because he runs too fast and wears his pads off if he does two turns.

And here is Enzo’s turn. Sometimes I feel like I am more of a goalie than a partner with him. haha.

Jenn and I went to the 2011 AWI Championships at Purina Farms in Missouri. We drove the trailer and it turned out to be a real nice trip. We got to have St Louis style bbq, which was also a nice plus.

The event was streamed online so my family was able to watch it live, which was nice. Enzo was the first to go in freestyle and had an awesome round. We followed it up with a great toss/fetch round. Our goal was to make the cut to the finals and Enzo made it! We didn’t have a good 2nd round of freestyle, but our goal was accomplished. We had a great time.

Here’s our first round of freestyle:

I am not sure when we will travel far for another disc dog competition. This may be it for a while. I’m not opposed to it, but the only thing on the list of “to-do” for disc dog traveling is to go to the Skyhoundz finals in Tennessee. I don’t like their freestyle format very much as compared to the other organizations, so it is unlikely I will spring for it any time soon unless there are some kind of very special circumstances.

Here’s Enzo in his skeleton costume from the Crusty Classic:

Here’s Tooney in her little bee outfit from the Crusty Classic:

Thanks to Jenn for putting the videos up!!! She’s the best!