I’m not going to list all the  events  mostly because I doubt I would remember them correctly.  There was a USDDN local with CFDDC where Lilli finished 3rd to qualify for nationals.  There was a local USDDN TF event where Lilli finished 4th (Donna Schoech bested us in a throw off) .  We would consider just doing TF at nationals if our freestyle game isn’t up to par.   We did a UFO event just this past week with Lilli finishing 2nd between the 1st and 3rd efforts of Gary Duke.  Most of these events were windy and my success with Lilli hinged mostly on our high toss and fetch scores.  Kai finished 5th and Moxie 6th at this event.  A big improvement for the rookies.  Next up is a Florida Skyhoundz event which we hear is quite competitive!

Speaking of competitive, one of the dangers of competing is losing sight of fun.  Most of March was a drag for me as I struggled with inconsistent freestyle throws.  My ratios were way down as missed trick after missed trick piled up in my head.  Finally I had enough, it was not working and I was frustrated.  When I looked at what was missing that would make the difference, I realized it was fun.  I was putting too much pressure on myself to be “good” and to compete and I was not having as much fun playing with my dogs.  So I reframed it, putting fun back where it belongs, first and foremost with my dogs. I’m not that concerned with winning or keeping score so I was surprised by how I got caught up in the competition part.    When I step back I can see and accept that I am a slow and steady learner and that my time with my dogs will be much better spent playing and having fun and the scores and wins are the stuff that happens when I finish playing.

Another breakthrough this month was getting Leila on the field for some toss and fetch.  Leila is very social and loves everyone and everything with little love for work at this point.  So we were very concerned to let her loose on a field surrounded by dogs and people.  The first event Andrea kept her on a long lead and the second event she let her off the lead and Leila stayed on the field and chased plastic.   When we move later this month we will be able to practice toss and fetch with her.

Kai is another breakthrough this month as she has struggled with staying focused and on the field her last few events.  Her first TF (Sept09)  she r-u-n-n-o-f-t each round in pursuit of whatever moved and did not want to recall.  At the CFDDC March USDDN event, during her freestyle session, she caught a long skip and proceeded to do her own thing for 15 seconds until I got her back.  At the Markham park TF she had to stop at this one spot and sniff for an extendededed period of time.   At each event she showed a lot of potential.  She is an awesome TF dog and tho her freestyle game is limited, she LOVES to vault!  So at the most recent UFO event she had a clean freestyle round and 3 clean TF rounds. No sniffing, running off, or nature breaks.  One thing that helped I think was walking her all over the place to get in her sniffing quota before the event and a potty break before every run.

Andrea and Moxie grew so much in March.   They are a good pairing.  Moxie is non stop giving 100% and so is Andrea.  The two big challenges for Andrea are having consistent TF efforts and keeping her routine grounded a bit because Moxie loves to take it as high as she can.   Andrea ironed out both of those issues by the end of the month.  Moxie’s TF efforts were excellent with no prejumping, great tracking and speedy returns.  With more experience Moxie will be really have a strong TF game.  Moxie is a big air super fast and energetic dog ACD and harnessing that into a smooth flowing freestyle session is a challenge that fits Andrea.  Andrea is developing flow and rythm and has a great feel for Moxie in just a few months.  Moxie has improved in every way from her house behavior to TF.

Moving to the new house will help us all improve our Toss and Fetch game thanks to the big yard.  I need to measure for exact distance but I estimate it is close to 50yards corner to corner.  We had to go house hunting because the local parks we had been utilizing hired an officer to police the dogs off leash rules.  And our yard is too small for TF and takes a beating from the 4 hard cutting Aussies.  We lose the pool and water view but we gain a stress free practice area and a new town to explore – Jupiter Farms.

Andrea and I would really like to host a Palm Beach disc dog club.  A group of people we could play and grow with in the sport in our own neighborhood.  We have had a half dozen people come over to play with the DragonDogs over the past few months the latest of which was Diane Ford with her 2 kids and 2 furkids Stormy and Mystic the puppy.  Diane wants to socialize her puppy and felt that our playful energetic pack was good company for her puppy. On the second visit Mystic had her first swim in the pool.

We are still learning and adjusting and training for pack dynamics.  As long as there are no new additions, I think the pack will settle in over the next 6 months.  We’ll train a bit more patience with Lilli, a bit more sense for Leila and a bit more confidence for Kai.  Moxie, well, we just need to work on her banshee screeching.    Andrea and I will put a bit more emphasis on creative throws so that means lots of passing back and forth – learning through play as our friends at Pawsitive Vybe say.

Leilani is still a bit of a puzzle for us.  She is by far the best bed snuggler in dogville.  Her love for Lilli and enthusiasm for the game of “chase me” is unparalleled.  She is a patient and steady shaping dog and has the best retrieve in the house, dropping the object confidently in your hands every time.   It is sad for us though that she seems to lack a work ethic, her drive is stuck in neutral m0st times.  Up next for LeiLa is agility training to see if that is something she might love.  Otherwise we will just teach her a ton of cool tricks.

The Kai bear has fully settled in.  She is very well behaved, soft, gentle and beautiful.  In a few months she has already progressed further than we imagined.  She doesn’t have the intensity of the Lilli or Moxie which makes for a very smooth style.  The other two are killers and Kai is just a chaser. She went from no disc drive or interest to being a disc maniac.  She loves to play and bounces to show her excitement and enthusiasm.  She looks great in the air, all four paws straight out, landing well, and sprinting for the next toss.  Kai is a missile sometimes, charging paws first to the more vulnerable areas of our guests.  She is working on butterfly tosses now.  She will be a great reverse dog if I can figure out how to train it. Ron? Apryl? Tracy? Abby?

Lilli is awesome. I mean I love that dog more every day especially since we worked out our drop issues (Lilli prefers to keep what she kills).  We have some cool new moves with Lilli, the foot vault and the bender.  She is so intense with everything she does.  Her butterfly catches have been less consistent lately, not sure why that is. And her flip (landing) doesn’t seem very healthy so I am phasing it out of my work with her.  Lilli loves to learn new stuff.   Writing a routine to do with her is very fun, since she knows so many tricks and learns new stuff so quickly. She learned the knee scoot in one session.   She is not dynamic in the air, but she is the hardest working dog I know.  She keeps her eyes on the prize be it a long toss or a butterfly leg vault.She and Andrea took first place in their division at the Quad. Not bad since Andrea had less than a week to practice with Lilli, was doing her first ever freestyle routine, and did it all on her own as I was home with a Back injury.

Andrea and I will be busy this month and for a while as disc dog season is in full swing.  We hope to travel to a few nearby states to meet new friends in the sport.  We’ll also have plenty Florida competitions to keep us busy between the Central Florida Club and the Tropicanine events John Arnett sets up. Andrea and Moxie are learning more every day and I expect them to be a very dynamic team!  I look forward to getting back on the field this week in Central Florida with Kai and Lilli.  This will be Kai’s freestyle debut.  We are grateful for our dogs and the dog sport community.

Leila as usual is absolutely adorable and quite puzzling.  At times she shows no interest in the disc and when she does, she still seems misguided or awkward.   Lilli loves to pursue and kill, Kai loves to chase, Leila loves to bring it back. For Leila, all the joy seems to be in the moment of return.  Since her very first day with us she lit up at the praise she received for fetching a  tennis ball. Her drive or work ethic is very questionable at 11 months.  She was bred as a confirmation dog, crate trained, and responds very well to any indoor training.  Take her outside and train and after 3 minutes she is eating grass.  Physically she seems like she is still growing into her body and mentally she seems unfocused though very loving and obedient.  She adores Lilli and Andrea thinks maybe therein lies an issue.

Lilli is so strong.  She is a sack of muscle, built for speed.  She doesn’t have longs legs but she makes up for it with sheer intensity and power.  She wasn’t able to compete in the last 3 weeks of Canis Major but we learned a lot in the first 2 weeks.  Lilli seems to thrive in a competitive atmosphere, she keeps her focus no matter what the environment.  She is not a dog with hops so we need to find the elements that accentuate her power and speed.  Last weekend we did a toss and fetch at Markham Park and Lilli did not place in the top 6.  She was probably in the top 3 as far as how she should have finished, but a combination of wind and bad luck and disc exchange made for a poor performance.  Lilli can read a disc as good as any ultimate player I know.  High discs at steep angles falling away from her, she still catches them.  So our work needs to go into the exchange at the line.  Ideally I would like her to drop the disc in my hand.  Lilly’s drop is erratic and I am not sure what is behind the choices.  It is possible I am putting pressure on her to drop which she interprets as tug.  When we practice she does pretty good with the drop though clearly we need work.  If Lilli and I can nail the exchange we will be a threat to win any TF competition.

Kai is an absolute firecracker.  She is bouncing as soon as she comes out of her crate.  And if you come over be careful not to bend over because she loves to vault!  She has a strong tug and her fetch usually gets the object back within 3 feet.   Kai was in the same toss and fetch this past weekend and she finished 6th in the expert division.  We were thrilled at her performance even more than the placing because Kai had run off twice in her first TF at Canis Major.  This time Kai ran twice each with Andrea and I and while she did get a little tired, she came back with the disc every time. A big breakthrough for us and the Kai Bear.  Kai doesn’t have the intensity (yet) of Lilli but she does have the love of work, play, us, and the discs.  She asks to play all the time.   She is still developing her body for safe and effective disc play and her progress is fantastic.   Outside of play, Kai is full of love and enthusiasm and has become the premier cuddler and lapdog.   Her “sit pretty” is marvelous.

For Andrea and I we are both getting a better sense of throwing the disc for maximum effect meaning the right time and place to maximize our dogs jump.   We are still very basic on our movement with very little flair or “athletic humor” as Ron called it.  So we will be working on TF basics and disc dog flatwork movement.  Also Andrea has nailed a great chest vault with Lilli so it’s my turn now. Leg vaults are coming along and reverse tricks still elude us.

Thanks so much for reading our blog and sharing your comments with us.  Thanks for the ideas and the pictures you share with us too.

When we first heard of Kai (then her name was Sketch), we were told she was a high drive Aussie with performance potential.  We weren’t really looking for another dog – Leila was only 6 months old and we still had a TON of training to do that was keeping us busy…but I couldn’t resist at least connecting with the breeder and current family and learning a bit more about her.  We had an Aussie Pool Party and invited Kai, her owners and Ami Boxer and her pack – who includes Kai’s sire.  I was pretty sure in the first few minutes that she wasn’t what we were looking for performance wise.  We enjoyed the day none-the-less and I really enjoyed connecting and talking dogs with Ami.

The owners asked that we give her another review without all the hoopla – that she’d show more drive and focus.  I had shared with Jason before we met her that I’d only want to take her if she was already catching or at least tracking the disc and had basic obedience and a nice pile of drive to play with.  She had none of the above.  We then found out that Kai shares Lilli’s grandsire – they’re cousins – so we gave her a 1 week trial. Her current owners had allergies and she was overwhelming them a bit.  We were leaving in a week to go to Ron Watson’s Pawsitive Vybe Disc Dog Camp in Michigan and really struggled with whether to take her or return her.  It really came down to guilt…if I’m to be completely honest.  I didn’t have the heart to give her back to a family that wasn’t able to really work her.  Several friends (and experts) advised us against keeping her for those reasons.  When we went to Susan Garrett’s Skills camp in Ontario after Ron’s camp, Jason reminded me of a valuable thing that Susan shared.  ANY healthy/sound dog can be a successful performance dog with the right kind of training – or at the very least – a great family pet.  I was really just looking for the easy way out – and Kai was going to be a lot of work.  During our deluxe road trip to the north-country we decided to keep her.

This really ended up being a long story…  Lots of performance trainers of all different sports pick and choose their dogs – all requiring specific criteria.  Others like Ron and Apryl often end up keeping high risk dogs – performance viable or not – just because they have nowhere else to go – hence a houseful of dogs!  We had a choice with Kai.  I’m sure that her sliding doors future would have looked very different from the dog she is today had we not made that choice.  And not necessarily good or bad – just amazingly different.

In less than 2 months of focused training, Kai has transformed from a no-to-low drive, not focused, lacking basic obedience, no retrieve and generally aloof attitude towards training to a focused, driven, tracking and retrieving, jumping, flipping machine who demands play several times a day and belly rubs at night…all night.  It really came down to Jason’s challenge – that Kai would prove whether or not I’m a good dog trainer.  We got lucky with Lilli and we know it.  Kai wasn’t being handed to us a finished dog.  I like challenges.

So with no further adieu – here is a video of Kai we shot today in the outer band winds of Hurricane Ida – practicing for her first D/A event this weekend at Canis Major.  She’s amazing.  A different dog.  We chose her as a superstar – even though she didn’t appear to be that initially.  I’m grateful for the challenge and rewards of transforming and growing with her.