Fall Fling Disc Competition 2011

This video is from the Fall Fling event in which Zio took second place in the expert division. He only dropped one throw all weekend, but spent plenty of time making some acrobatic catches to bail out his thrower! He still tends to jump too soon if it's going straight away from him. I tried to compensate by give him an extra step to get down range before I threw. There were still a few that he started to jump too soon, but was able to recover in time to catch. Next to flyball, this is his favorite sport to play.

Dog Talk Episode

The Dog Talk episode we taped in August aired this past Saturday! I thought it came out pretty good!

Busy Dog Sport Weekend!

We spent Saturday competing at the OKPaws Fall Fling Disc Dog tournament at the Norman VA Center and took second place in the Expert division! He was in the top five after the first round, but most of the other dogs didn't do as well in the second round. Zio had some amazingly acrobatic catches and did a great job controlling his urge to jump too soon. I entered Luna in the Amatuer division too and she had a lot of fun. She was a favorite with the Vets who came out to watch us.

Sunday started with flyball practice and Zio did really well maintaining his turn with just a jumpboard in place. After practice, we went to Spencer and did a demo for the Spencer Pet Cemetery folks there to commemorate National Pet Memorial Day. Luna and Zio both did some disc demos and Zio did some flyball racing. Luna was a crowd pleaser again and Zio amazed with his speed and athleticism.

Here is a picture of Zio with his second place ribbon.

New Practice Video

Now that we've been enjoying some relief from the brutal heat this summer, we've been able to get back to some backyard practice time! This is a video from yesterday with Zio working on his turn (specifically getting his rear higher on the box) and Luna beginning to learn wall turns. Luna has been really quick to pick up on what ever training we give her and the wall turns don't apprear to be any different! She is so focused it makes me look like an expert trainer!

Zio's 3.953 Second Race

I had included video of his run in a team video that Windows Live Movie Maker ate before I thought to save the project. For some reason, I didn't go back and try to rebuild it. This video is Zio's run that put him in the books under four seconds.

I think back over all the training we did, all the retraining we did after we knew a little bit more, and even more training to make it faster. Zio's drive and heart inspire me to strive to make him the best he can be. I still think he could be faster with a better turn, but I'm amazed at how far we've both come since we started training in flyball. We'll keep working on that turn!

Cooler Weather!!!

Such a nice weekend after the cool front went through! Sunday practice was great with several new dogs and people attending. We let Jeep run last on with the Speeding Sheepdogs (with Cody still recovering from his broken nail) and did really well for the first time lining up with the team. It looks like Jeep will be our backup in St. Louis at the championships.

Zio has a disc competition Saturday, so we went to a field and practiced yesterday. It was pretty windy, so my throwing suffered. He did good on the ones that were thrown decent.