This past Saturday was the final disc dog event of 2010 for us - Canis Major #5. We had a great time as always and the Fahle's cleaned up quite nicely in terms of success!
Tali and I... our freestyle was not as nice as last week but it wasn't too bad. I changed some stuff around and didn't get it nailed down in my head so we kinda ended up making up crap as we went. I also have failed to successfully pull off the "KatBat"/"Katamaran" at a Canis Major - kinda bummed but we'll keep practicing - I can nail it in practice 80% of the time or so - just can't when I'm a little pumped and nervous! (The KatBat is the behind my back throw followed by a backhand brush with the other disc). I also STUNK up D&A - have no idea why but oh well. We finished 2nd. Sadly (sort of) this means I have won the Open Division for the season. I say sadly because I only competed 3 times so really winning shouldn't have been an option but that's how it goes in that division. The good news is my winning kept our director's 4 year old daughter from winning. Why is that a good thing? Cause whoever wins has to move up to the higher division in September. I don't think it's cool to make a 4 year compete against the likes of Gary, Jack, Andrea, Jason, etc. Of course me competing against them won't be much different but at least I am full grown and an adult! :)
Tali and Jack needed to place well to win the Supersport (D&A) division and they did just that even with a less than stellar showing! The less than stellar part was Jack - he wasn't throwing as long and threw some out of bounds - Tali caught every single disc though. And to that point when I was doing so horribly and threw one into the scoring tent she actually went in and got it - that is HUGE for her!
Old man Ruckus had some nice D&A in him the other night and placed 4th in Supersport with Jack! Old red dogs rule!
Jam... Jam caught 3 whole frisbees in D&A the other night. That's a record high for her! She also wowed the crowd with her high flying leaps! Maybe with another 6 months of bite work practice under her belt she'll catch 5 or 6 in one competition! LOL Luckily what she lacks in drive she makes up for in cuteness and temperament!
Groovy - Groovy got another chance to "compete" again this week. Again - she and Jack aren't competing against anyone but are going out there and jamming and getting a score. She was much better focused this week AND she played D&A and she played it very well! Jack kept her close - nothing out of the 1 point zone - but she caught all 4 tosses and they did a lot of tugging at the line for reinforcement. She looked awesome and that was with a leash attached! Here is their video... and again I'm supposed to say "this is not a real routine - it is not a finished product, etc.". He's so sensitive about that (and hence her videos aren't posted on Facebook). There is definitely hope for her being a real competition dog some day. Problem is we'll have to "start all over" this spring since our competitions aren't usually at this same park then. But we are really working to increase her disc drive even more so that the game overrides the environment. Keep your fingers crossed with us that it works!
I'd say so far so good with Groovy! That move at around 9 seconds looks familiar! lol. Good job with Tali too!
ReplyDeleteI know nothing on this subject, but i thought both dogs looked great!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteYah Jenn - she kinda forced Jack into that move - she isn't patient at all and kept crashing into him and the discs when he'd try to do some of his other dish spins so he tried that one with her instead and it worked much better! LOL
ReplyDeleteThanks Garden Girl! What you are seeing is a very novice handler (me) playing freestyle with an experienced dog and also a very novice dog (Groovy) playing freestyle with an experienced handler! It all looks much cooler when both dog and handler are experienced! :)