Interesting

An interesting weekend of stuff. Zio and I took a trip to the annual rescue pet bath fundraising event and walked through all the vendor aisles. Of course he got a bath while we were there too. Don't tell me dogs are color blind either, because Zio wanted to go greet every person with a red shirt while we were there.

Susan Owen was at the Twister Agility booth and met a guy with a border collie that she said looked like Zio's twin. She invited he and Barney to flyball practice and he does have a striking resemblance to Zio. I'd have to say the body type was just about all Zio... same coat, legs, back, tail, etc.. although the facial structure tended more to Zio's littermate, Ecko. We had him do recalls with Barney (who already has a head start on tugging), but he left before we had a chance to do anything else with him. I sure hope he comes again, since I really don't have a way to contact him. I wish I had gotten a picture too. I would not be surprised if Barney was one of Zio's littermates or at least the same line.

During practice, Zio seemed to be doing something odd with his front feet on the box (folding them under?), while using the ten inch jump board. This was during full runs, so I couldn't see it from the runback area. He was also hitting the jump board with his lower back leg occasionally. Susan, Connie, and Michele tried to catch it on video, but the angle was wrong to see his front feet. We switched to a lower jump board and he stopped doing it, so I think we'll stick to the eight inch board and see how he does.

Week of Rest

At least it has been so far. I'm very proud of Zio and his new singles time set last weekend. On the other hand, his turns really weren't as good as he does in practice. His two best runs had wire to wire times of 3.910 and 3.916, which I'm not sure he has much room to improve. That doesn't mean I won't try, so I'll start with trying to get him a little higher on the box.

I ordered some pictures of Zio at the Spring Fling disc competition and will post those when I get the CD. Here is one of them...

Grove Highlights

Zio successfully recorded a singles time under four seconds with a new best time of 3.953! This makes him only the third Oklahoma dog to reach that mark in singles. The first two were Ace (Kelsey Kirkpatrick@ 3.853) and Phoenix (Marsha Ensminger@ 3.962). I think Miley (Paula Stay) has also run less than four seconds on the clock during a team race. Now I need to help Daniel and Wisp hit that mark too.

Jean-Luc also ran a personal best of 4.169 along with Luigi who had a 5.409(?). Katie also achieved her first perfect start in a match between the Speeding Sheepdogs and the Step on It team.

I'll post some video later after I've had time to edit it. Also, 61 feet was Zio's sweet spot for starts.

Last Practice

With thunderstorms coming in this afternoon, last night's backyard practice will be the final one before the tournament. The Zio man is doing really well in all facets (turns, drive, and tug), so I'm hoping I don't let him down with my timing on the starts.

Luna continues to do awesome with her practices too. She is currently going over the baby jumps to the tug. I have the jumps set nine feet apart right now and she's easily single stepping through them. I should measure and weigh her since she turned six months old four days ago.

Spring Fling 2011

As expected, we had fun, but didn't finish in the top 3 in the three events we entered. Other than being very hot, it was pretty good disc throwing conditions. I threw fairly well, but not particularly to Zio's strong suit. My best throws have some loft and settle slowly, but Zio gets too excited and jumps way too early. He tends to do better with low line drives that he has to use his speed to catch up to instead of jumping for them. I think we'll try to actually do some practice before the fall tournament and see if he can stay on the ground long enough to catch the floaters as they come down!

Disc Practice

Zio and I went to a nearby field and practiced some long distance disc throws yesterday evening. I was throwing almost directly downwind with a 10 mph breeze, so it was fairly easy to throw for distance. Zio did great on the shorter 20-25 yd throws, but I don't think he caught a single one that was 40+ yards. He's back to jumping way too soon. I guess I'll take him out again after work today and give it another go, but it's supposed to be hot and windy.

Flyball and Disc Dog

We did some practice in the backyard with turns last night and Zio is continuing to do well. We even did a few off the wall for good measure. I'm proud of the little man for how far he's progressed in the last year.

May of 2010 was his first time as a full team member on the Off and Running team in Grove when we set a best team time and won our division both days. His turns had gone to hell, but he was loving the sport.

Fast forward to today and it really takes some nit-picking to find something to improve on with him. His turns have been tight and fast, so it's just been getting repetitions during practice to re-enforce. Zio's been holding up pretty good in tournaments with the turn too. His recalls and tug drive are really good now too. It's really hard to measure accurately, but he's maybe a tenth slower coming back then going to the box, so that's what I've tried to work on during team practices. Depending on the matchups, it will be interesting to see the little man's recall times against some faster dogs at the next tournament running singles.

He's a pretty solid example for the other dogs and gets used a lot to help the others in practice. I may have to continually emphasize good turns with him, but I beginning to believe he's understanding the principle. I haven't even seen him go wide on a turn in weeks.

Tonight will probably find us using the field behind the elementary school to practice some distance throws for the disc dog competition this Saturday. One practice is better than none. :)

Saturday Disc Dog Tournament

As the weeks go flying by, this Saturday is the Oklahoma Disc Dog Championships. Of course, Zio and I haven't done much in the way of long distance practice.

We'll probably just go have fun and see how things turn out. Last fall, my back was acting up and I had to withdraw after the first round. Hopefully it will be better this year.