Kokomo Comp

I am very proud of my dogs' behavior over the long disc dog weekend! They ride so well in the car, so no issues there. The first night in the hotel was a little rough. Someone woke me up pretty much once an hour. Elo didn't sleep much and kept barking sharply. Jun was awake and pacing in her crate, thanks to Elo. Lok was pretty much out cold but was the last one to wake me up barking shortly before the alarm went off at 5am. After the first night, the next two were MUCH better. We all slept all night.

Elo greatly impressed me all weekend. Again, it was a little rough at first. The hotel we stayed at was the hotel pretty much everyone else and their dogs stayed at, so it was kind of difficult to go out to potty dogs without seeing another dog somewhere. Elo started the weekend lunging and choking himself at the end of his leash, and ended it basically ignoring dogs at my command to "leave it." Saturday and Sunday at the comp I made sure to get him out for awhile twice each day. We practiced some loose-leash walking, some LAT with dogs, and some chilling out and just watching stuff.  This was NOT a controlled situation at all and there were dogs EVERYWHERE not to mention smells of dogs and sounds of dogs at all times. He did incredibly well!! I kept him at a pretty good distance and when I didn't push too hard we didn't have any barking. He wasn't relaxed, but that was more because of the environment in general than the other dogs. Of course in my excitement over how well he was doing, I pushed him harder than I should have. It wasn't terrible, but we need to work on just sitting and chilling more. Walking around is still too hard for him in that type of environment. He was wonderful in his (covered) crate, especially the second day! I think will continued exposure over the summer he will just get better and better!

Jun did great both days! My throwing in the quad left a bit to be desired. We started out with a 50 yard catch on our first throw and made it to the final round of our heat, but I just couldn't seem to throw anything good after that. All we needed was over 51 to take the heat, but I couldn't even get 40. Oh well. First comp of the year, and I am fine with how we did. Sunday's UFO local was awesome!! I was MUCH less nervous, not really having any plan or goal. In TC we got 4 throws and three catches. I threw well and Jun dropped the disc perfectly, rather than doing her usual circling and chomping routine from last year!! I guess all our work over the winter has paid off there! I don't know what our score was, but I am guessing about 10.5.

I went out for our freestyle round with no plan but to have fun playing with my dog! We had no routine. I just wanted her to have a good time, stay with me, and chase every disc I threw. She did AWESOME! I forgot some of the sequences we could have done, but she had fun and I was calm enough to even throw a fidget in before a toss, which is saying a ton! Normally my hands are shaking so bad I don't dare try something like that. I have no idea what our score was, but she did so well I think I might try to throw together some kind of routine for our next comp. It is so much fun to play with her when she is having fun too! Hopefully I can just keep the "fun" mindset for the rest of the year and not try to get competitive.

Lok was great too, other than ripping up my brand new jeans when I left him in the car. He spent a ton of time out with me, but was in the car for a bit as well. Lesson learned. Crate Lok when I leave him unattended.