Skyhoundz World Finals on Sunday

Colt and I competed in the Sport Division (distance/accuracy) of the Skyhoundz World finals on Sunday. The weather was overcast with periods on light rain and very little wind. Blaidden, Mya and Denise were there to root Colt on. The first two rounds were held on the secondary field with the final top twelve round being held on the main field.

Blaidden was an eager spectator to root Colt on throughout the day!!

We went 18th in our first round. We had a good round with Colt scoring a 19.5 which put us in second place. Colt had one slight miss in that round or we would have had a stellar round. Pretty good for a one year old pup in the world finals.

In our second round we went next to last due to the reverse order. It was raining lightly. I was a little concerned because Colt never even wants to go out to potty at home when its raining. I guess I should practice some in the rain :-). I went a little conservative on my throws in that round shortening them up a little because of the wet disc. Colt went five for five on his catches and we ended up with an 18 which kept us in second place.

Our final round occurred a couple of hours later on the main field. Again we went next to last. I have to admit I was feeling some pressure. I was determined to just make my throws and let Colt do his thing. I wanted to go long and wasn't going to play it conservative. We started off with two 5.5 catches, then another 5. Then Colt just barely missed a 5.5 for the fourth throw and we ended with a 3.5 for a total of 19.5. We held on to second place and Colt won a very BIG trophy!!

Colt's third round - youtube

Colt did an amazing job in the Skyhoundz World Finals at just 13 months old achieving second place at such a big event!!!!!!

A big thanks to Denise for our her help this weekend!!!!

photo of podium taken by Heather Bednar

Skyhoundz 2010 World Championships Open Freestyle

Mya and I competed in the Open Freestyle Division on Saturday. There were around 29 teams competing in the world finals. The conditons were pretty good, mostly overcast and not very windy. We were the fifth team to compete. Our routine started off with a three misses, then we had a solid streak and ended up with a couple of more toward the very end. Definately not a good enough round for the world finals and it ended us up in last place and resulted in us having the lowest freestyle score of the day. I also had an issue where I was scambling for a disc at the end that had to hurt us too.

Our D/A round was less than stellar. We had three good catches. Mya jumped early and missed one and I had one throw drift out of bounds and we ended up with a 11 which moved us up a little.

Blaidden lending some moral suport after our poor first round.

Our second round of freestyle went a lot better with only two misses that were spread out. Everything flowed really well and my disc management was very good. Mya did a great job with the routine with one miss being on her end and one being on me. We scored about 4.5 points higher in our second round and we ended up in 23rd for the day. If we had done as well in our first round and had scored higher in D/A we could have been in the middle of the pack.

I think to move up more in Skyhoundz we would need to get some more wow with more air. I did that some early in Mya's career but stopped because I just wasn't comfortable with it. I want her to be healthy and good at 14. We are more about flow and diversity of tricks and diversity of throws. Maybe we will fair better at the USDDN finals in about three weeks.

Nate, Mya and I at the awards ceremony

Open Qualifier

The open qualifier startd with us arriving at the field at 7:15am. It was sunny and hot with not much wind. There were around 150 dogs in D/A and about 50 dogs in freestyle. Mya went 13th in D/A and had a very good round and was about 3 inches from a geat round. One catch for 5.5 points was about just out. She ended up with a 19.5 which turned out to be the high score for the first round!

Colt was next up in freestyle aand went 25th. He did pretty well. He was so wound up!!! He had some misses early on but settled down toward the end of the routine. We did 2 minutes even though we only have about 60seconds of a routine put together. Toward the end of the routine, I decided to throw a skip throw. I've never thrown a skip in a competition like this and have never thrown one for Colt, but he caught it!! Afterward Denise said at first she thought I made a horrible throw into the ground!!! Colt had a blast and ended up in 44th place.

Colt then went 126th in D/A. I threw 30 yarders for him because I wanted for him to have success. He caught 4 out of 5 throws missing one early one. That caused him to miss the cut. The cut was 14 and Colt had a 14. But he did great and will be ready for the real thing on Sunday.

Mya was next in D/A and we went last in the final round because we were in the lead. We ended up with a bad round... just one of those things.  She jumped early on the first throw and missed it. She caught the second for a 3.5 points and then caught the third throw for 5 and missed the fourth (not sure why) and with the two misses we didn't have time for a fifth throw. In hindsight, I should have floated the throws a little more but I think I was being conservative with lower throws to make sure they stayed in bounds and that probably cost us. So we ended up missing the cut which was disappointing but those are the breaks and we will get after them tomorrow in freestyle.

I need to get some pictures for today.

Arrived at Chattanooga

I met Denise in Cincinnati at 7:30am and we left for Chattanooga. We made it down to the field about 2:30pm and we were able to get a good spot for our EZ-up off of the left field end of the field. By the time we left at 3:30pm there were only about two spots left next to the field. It was pretty hot down here today and should be hot again tomorrow. Looks like I gotta get up at 5:30am or so... which violates my before 6am rule :-). Mya, Colt and Blaidden are ready to go tomorrow!!! Especially Colt.... he's a little wound up. Mya's the old pro and just enjoying the trip.

Getting ready to head to Chattanooga

I'm getting the van packed. Karin's getting the dog food ready. Mya, Colt and I are getting some last minute practices in before we hit the road. We will be competing in Chattanooga on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Mya has qualified in freestyle and Colt qualified in distance/accuracy. Right now I plan to play Colt in freestyle and D/A on Friday in the open qualifier just to get experience. Mya will just do D/A on Friday to give her a little play time but not tire her for Saturday's freestyle.