Browsing all posts in "disc dog".
Pearls … Lessons learned by experience
I haven’t written on the blog for a while and Jason has done a fantastic job summarizing all the stuff. Between the growth of our marketing business and getting Moxie, I’ve been so busy keeping my head on mostly straight, I’ve probably missed a ton of pearls in the chaos.
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.
Disc Dog Flow
2 weeks ago I would have told you flow was linking tricks together smoothly. I have not changed my definition but I have expanded my understanding of flow. I was watching Dre and Moxie and it hit me that Moxie loops to her right on out throws. Then I started looking for other stuff in the routine they were practicing. They were linking some cool tricks together and it seemed pretty smooth. Except that there was a pretty frequent interrupt or hesitate or adjustment. Nothing wrong with that, but how easy would it be to tweak?
Settling as Pet Owners and Trainers
This post is about our dogs and why they do and do not. Why training works and “not training” does not. How easy it is to settle, to miss, skip, overlook, ignore. And what is the cost of settling as responsible pet owners and trainers. Its a lengthy post as the background and evolution is important to the points. When we started this blog we wanted it to be a resource for people just like us who were just getting started. These are some of the best lessons we have learned. (so far)
DragonDogs March Review
March flew by and caninely speaking it was wooftastic. Andrea and I took the dogs to a number of local disc dog events as the season kicked off. The focus of the month was definitely freestyle routines. We got kicked out of all our local parks so TF practice was a no go. We had some puppy play dates with the Ford family. And we found a new yard for the dogs to play in. The best part of march for me was rediscovering fun with my dogs. Now for the details.
Choice of Discs…The Dilemma
Choice of discs has been a new point of contention in the DragonDogs house. When we first started playing disc, there was only Lilli – and she has a VERY hard bite. We started with Fastbacks cause that’s what everyone used. Long story short…Lilli had a bloody mouth every time we played and she would trash a disc in 5 throws or less.
February 2010 DragonDogs Review
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.
Got Moxie
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.
Finally Flippin in Puppyville
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.
Leilei Cuteness Caught on Tape
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.
