By now you know about Moxie. Andrea wanted a dog to be all hers and she landed a frizbeast, a cattle dog she quickly dubbed Moxie. At 30pounds Moxie is the smallest dog, but everything she does is big, from howling to leaping, Moxie lives up to her name with lots of attitude and style. In a few short weeks Andrea’s disc dog has worked her way through the disc dog handbook with flips and reverses and is currently the only dog in the house with a reverse chest vault. Thanks to Tracy Custer and Abby Cline for making Moxie a reality. They are a very happy team! Moxie took 3rd at the CFDDC AW invitational competing with Andrea. Check out their video here.
Read more on February 2010 DragonDogs Review…
Moxie: backbone: fortitude and determination.
For those of you who aren’t on FB or haven’t heard yet…there is a new member of the Dragondogs. Moxie.
Moxie is our first ACD aka Australian Cattle Dog aka Blue Heeler. Tracy Custer evaluated her and sent her info out into the disc dog network about an awesome Frisbeast. Abby knew that I was looking for a new dog, so she sent me the link with a note that said… here is your dog. It went kinda backwards from there. Some other guy wanted her too – so I made the patient and responsible choice after a really cool chat with Apryl … I’ll wait another 6 months until Leila is a bit more established. The dog would have another great disc home to go to so no worries.
Read more on Got Moxie…
The butterfly throw was one of the first tricks we learned with Lilli. I think John Arnett introduced us to the butterfly flow in our first ever lesson with him. Lilli took to them right away. Then 6 months later we went to disc dog camp at Pawsitive Vybe and learned new grips and tricks. After the Paws camp this past summer, we added the butterfly vaults and my favorite, the butterfly backflip – which was the favorite trick in Lilli’s first competitive freestyle routine at Canis Major #1!
Read more on Butterfly Grips and Throws…
We’ve shared over and over about how Leilani is developing very slowly as a disc dog…slower than we’d like. For about 6 months, she’s been eating grass in the middle of very short sessions, even right in the beginning of sessions. She still loves the disc, but the disc practice outside has been very unproductive. We’d settled in that we’d focus on her being our “trick dog” since she loved shaping so much and didn’t seem to stress at all during long shaping sessions. We were hoping that in the next 6 months or so, she’d settle in.
Read more on Finally Flippin in Puppyville…
We’ve been practicing religiously lately – at least once a day with each dog plus shaping in the evenings and posting NONE of it to the blog… Sorry folks.
Emily requested a Leilani fix today – so shall she receive.
Read more on Leilei Cuteness Caught on Tape…
I generally like to write on topics or do updates but today I just want to ramble. I have been thinking about this for a while and wanted to share it. It’s not anything new or amazing, it’s just on my mind. We all have tendencies in life and as trainers. I find that our dogs while different tend to have some similar strengths due to what I would call our confident skills. I watch some of the top disc dog teams and their routines sort of seem the same from event to event. They have their trademark moves and skill sets. It makes sense and I am not saying that there are not constant tweaks and innovations. Moreso i am wondering what skills my dogs have that i have not discovered due to habits or routines I may have formed in training and play. Flipping for example could be a place where someone else could throw the disc and get an entirely different motion from my dog. I will wrap this up with a pledge to seek out new life on new planets by forcing myself out of routine. Like closing one eye or throwing all lefty or copying someone else’s routine. Ron Watson and Apryl Lea have a cool idea to write the skills and sequences on note cards, mix them up and go. This doesn’t address skills i do not know but does change flow.
Read more on January Ramblings…