May DragonDogs Review

At the heart of May was the Freedom Weekend USDDN Qualifier in Greenville South Carolina.  We wanted to go to 1. Qualify Kai for Toss and Fetch and 2. Meet Tracy Custer.  and maybe that we needed a vacation from a very busy start to 2010 for WebManna.  What I came back with from the long memorial weekend trip was much different than I expected.  I learned so much that only some of it will I explain and the rest will just get bullets.

Let’s start with a  few bullets:

• Jack and Kat Fahle are very cool.
• Laura Moretz from New Charlotte has mad skillz
• Watch out for Clay Farmer – he is coming fast!
• I did not take any pictures.

This weekend we met Tracy Custer who as Andrea said” Is even cooler than I hoped.”   She was so friendly and encouraging and talented. Watching her dominate the event with grace and a smile and her maniac pack was inspiring and humbling.  You could not tell if she was working or playing because she made it all look so fun and easy.  Tracy commented on my post on routine flow and it was brought to life this weekend watching her and Mark work with their dogs.

We also met Preston Dean and Mark Muir.  Mark is a big kid with great skill and imagination with his dogs.  We were wide eyed watching his freestyle.  Preston is a whirl of elbows and knees who was so fluid and has such control of the disc. They were both a joy to watch.

Watching these and other top level players at the event helped Andrea and I get a sense of where we stand and where we want to be. We are in the middle stage where we both have talented dogs and a moderate understanding of the rules of the game.  Now with more experience and continued work we seek the mastery exhibited by the great players we saw like Mark and Tracy. This weekend was another reminder to be patient, to have fun, to keep learning, seeking, growing.

When we started discdogblog.com we wanted it to be a resource for new(er) teams just getting started in the sport. Over the weekend at least a half dozen people mentioned our blog and how they appreciated the content, learned from the videos, etc.  It was great to know we are contributing something to the sport we love.  And it inspires us to generate even more resources for teams learning and growing like us.

Speaking of learning and growing, Andrea and I noticed that the handlers who were getting coaching from top players seemed to be advancing faster than us.   True or not, it really makes us wish we had someone we could meet with regularly to develop our game.  We don’t have a plan to make it happen yet, but we are open to ideas and suggestions.

Andrea and I identified who we want to be as “dog people”.  We want to train high drive dogs to play disc.  We will rescue and/or foster high drive dogs whenever we can.   Most we will proudly re-home and occasionally we will keep a few of the maniacs.

There were competitive people and not so competitive people at the event. Some people were very intense others were relaxed.  There was a lot of rain. Personally I had a great time and was blessed and humbled.  I love my dogs, I love this life with my wife, and I really look forward to growing new skills and great friendships as a disc dogger.

The DragonDogs-

We fostered a smooth coat BC in MAY. Her name is Flyer. We expected a high drive wild dog. Turns out flyer is more of a cuddler so far.  She is certainly athletic but spends most of her time sleeping. We have not yet seen her chase anything.  Andrea is doing some shaping with Flyer and I am doing lots of loving as Flyer is tentative around men.  Flyer gets a lot of crate time as we hope to bottle up some drive and unleash it in small bursts of training.

Lilli was fixed.  A hard choice really but we feel that there are so many dogs in shelters that we would rather rescue than raise more puppies.  She recovered well and is back playing hard with me.  Lilli is so cool. She really lights up when I intriduce new games to her.

Leila has shown a lot more desire for the disc in May.  She seems to be more of a shaping and potential agility dog and remains an absolute ball of joy and play.

Moxie is the most driven and athletic dog we have.  She is non stop, fearless and has moments as a great pet too. She learned the Japanese dog catch in May.

Kai has been great in practices and training and has improved a ton at events. Her focus has increased and she looks so great in the air.

Sasha came back to us in May and after just her second week was tugging and by her third week was snagging discs out of the air.

The transition of a new dog into the pack always brings some challenges or surprises. Sasha helps balance our pack.  She is 8, much older and bigger than the other dogs.  She had a few accidents the first few weeks but then settled in nicely as she started to fall into a new pattern of work, play and feeding with us.

June will be a busy month, I’ll be posting the June preview soon.