Dock Diving

The USDAA nationals were in the Denver area this past week. In addition to the agility trials, they had many other dog activities. I took the girls down one afternoon to try some out. My friend Donna went with to help hold dogs and run the video camera.

First up was dock diving.
Izzy went first.  They had the beginner dogs use the ramp that is used to get out of the pool to start out.  I would toss the ball in and let them swim in to get it.  Then, they would use the ramp to get out of the pool (this way they also learned how to get out of the pool after a "dive").  After a few tries of this, we went up to the platform.  The platform is a couple feet above the water, so it's a bit scary for the dogs.  Izzy accidently just jumped right in.  (see video below, and watch the reaction of the nice man that was helping).  When Izzy came up, she had a look of terror in her eyes.  I ran down to help her find the ramp, which she didn't quite locate.  Another nice person that was taking photos of the event sacrificed his dry-ness to help grab Izzy and pull her out of the pool.  After that, Izzy really didn't have any interest in jumping in from the platform.  She did, however use the ramp to go back in.

Heidi  then took a try.  She loved the ramp.  After her tries with the ramp, she went to the platform.  I tossed in the ball, and we encouraged her to get the ball.  After thinking about it for a few seconds, she jumped in.  Heidi was able to find the ramp and get herself out of the water for a second jump in from the platform.  She didn't really get any distance, but she did jump in twice, so pretty good for her first time.

Heidi gets used to the ramp

 

Izzy jumps in

 

After the Dock Diving, we went over to give lure coursing a try.  

The course was setup with short orange flexible fencing seperated by about 3 feet to make a course then weaved around.  There was a wire that went around the course near the ground, and a furry toy was attached.  The dogs then chase the furry toy around the course to the end. 

 

Heidi went first, since she seemed the most motivated.  As we watched, Heidi became very interested in the fast moving furry toy, which we told her was a squirrel.  By the time she got to the start line, she was ready to run.  We got the "go", and released her.  She shot out like a dart and took off after the "squirrel".  She quickly ran the course and finished.  At the end, she decided she wasn't done, so instead of letting Donna get her leash back on, she jumped the fence still trying to catch the "squirrel" (OK, she actually jumped the fence a bunch of times before we caught her).

 

Izzy's turn.  Izzy didn't seem quite as interested in the toy.  I let her go, and she went out about 15 feet and turned and came back.  They moved the toy back and forth, but Izzy just wasn't into it.  We were about to swap dogs to give Heidi another shot at it, and the very nice man running the controls said we could do both dogs at the same time.  Awesome.  We put both the girls at the start line and released.  Heidi took off like a shot after the toy.  Izzy decided she would go ahead and run with Heidi.  They both made it around the course and this time we were able to grab both dogs before anyone jumped the fence. 

 

Heidi said that she would like to try both sports again.

Izzy Joins in the Fun

Izzy decided to give swimming a try.  At first, she still seemed hesitant, so I waded into the water with her and stood beside her for moral support.  As I stood there, she paddled her way over to the ball.  After that, there's been no stopping her.  If the ball is in the water, she's going in after it.  If we play ball in the yard, and she gets to hot, she takes the ball, drops it into the water, then swims in after it.  She then just stands in the water until she cools off.  I'm going to have to invest in more towels.

Izzy the swimmier

We Have a Swimmer

Well, it didn't take Heidi long to start swimming.  I think she got tired of waiting for Ken to fish out the ball, and she figured that if she didn't go get it, Izzy might.  So, in she goes.  She now seems to enjoy tooling around in the water.

Bobbing for Tennis Balls

After a couple days, the girls are getting a bit more adventurous with the pond.  They'll now go in up to their chests.  They're slowly working out how to actually get a tennis ball from the water. 

I'm not going in there

We got moved into our new house.  We were in a rental home for a month and a half, which luckily had a fenced back yard.  It was small, but at least the dogs could go outside off leash.  So, as soon as we closed on our new home, we took the dogs to their new backyard and let them off leash.  They ran and ran delighted with the amount of space (we now have an acre).  Then had much to investigate, including 2 water features that include little streams the dump into little ponds.  Ken tried to coax the girls into the pond by tossing their favorite tennis ball into the water.  The dogs wanted no part of it.

Disc Dog

Back in May, Izzy and Heidi attended their first disc dog tournament.  It was a wicked cold, windy, rainy day.  Someone was kind enough to share their tent, so at least we stayed mostly dry during the day.  When it was time for the beginners Toss and Catch competition, the wind kicked in which made throwing virtually impossible (well, at least for me).  Izzy caught a few, which placed her in the top 5 or so.  People were super nice, and despite the bad weather, we got to see a bunch of nice teams perform.  In the next field, there was a dock diving competition going on.  I watched a bit of that.  I think Heidi might like to try that someday.

Izzy's first disc dog tournament

Finally got my old computer up and running so I could download pictures and video - after searching in box after box for the keyboard, I finally just went to the store and bought a new one.

So, back in March, Heidi went to her first U-Fli flyball tournament, where she was entered in Pre-flight.  Pre-flight lets the dog run by themselves without the distractions of other dogs in the lane.  Heidi seemed to really enjoy herself, and she had some super fast times.

Heidi's first flyball tournament