Saturdays  events for team-bandit were to be confined to the Distance and Accuracy rounds. We were hoping to get Bandit into the world finals and this was to be our last chance before the last chance qualifiers in September. We were also hopeful in getting Kota our newest team member a little more experience on the field in the competition environment.  Kota is showing great improvement and with some work may prove to be quite the competitor to the team-bandit compliment of canine team members.

We set up at one end of the D/A field so we could watch the competition and luckily this proved to be a pretty good location for filming freestyle rounds which I will post as they come available on Team-Bandit TV . It was a little cool in the morning but the day warmed up nicely and we could not have asked for better weather or nicer Event hosts for that matter.

Kota drew the 14^th position out of 80 teams so as soon as they announced the roster I grabbed her and headed back to an open field and let her run off a little steam. She still has no idea of the “game” other than she loves to run and catch the Frisbee. It’s a good thing I did take her back there as well because as soon as I let her off leash she took off … straight to the entire opposite end of the field. I couldn’t see them till she scattered them but she saw some birds and was trying to snag one, the fact that they all got away didn’t deter her from making 3 complete circles around the huge field (about the size of a football field) at a full on, ears back, low to the ground sprint before she even noticed I had a pretty orange disk in my hands and came over and sat without being asked … looking up and ready to go. What a good dog J I threw about 5 medium distance 25 - 30 yarders and she caught 4 of them. She seems to get bored quickly of just running and catching and tends to want to stop and chew on the Frisbee rather than continue so I stopped there and walked her around for a little bit.

As our position got near I asked Gary Duke then Tracy Farmer if they wouldn’t mind holding disks behind their back and making themselves a barrier between the D/A field and the Freestyle field. I was scared she would see not only a disc but a dog on the other field straight in front of us and bolt mid round. Thanks a BUNCH guys for helping out. As it turns out she held her focus just fine on the task at hand and they weren’t needed at all. The first throw was a little low but she snagged it without any trouble just past the 30. Second throw she over ran and at the last second tuned around and snagged it in the 30 zone as well. On her return from that catch she first wouldn’t release the disc then wouldn’t go around as she had been doing so well … I panicked really when I shouldn’t have but at any rate I threw when I thought she was going and she turned back only to watch the disc whip past her. Had I thrown it a little higher she may have had a chance but I keep them low for her because she hasn’t learned her timing just yet. At any rate that disc hit the ground which she dutifully retrieved and brought back. Time was running out so I made sure she went around, which she did without issue and this throw was a little high so I was scared she would over run as she tends to do on the high ones but she tracked this one just fine and as it was dropping she performed a wonderful back flip catch at the 30 which awed the crowd and drew a nice smattering of applause. So for her second official outing in a competition she made 9.5 points, didn’t break from her routine and put on a stellar show. Nice job girl !

Kota and I walked around for a bit as a cool down but she was really only interested in chewing something up. I went and did a few overs with her after grabbing some water then she went back to the crate where she could bark nice and loud because even through she couldn’t see us she could hear Chuck and I talking as we watch other competitors and Chuck started to prepare for his round. To let chuck have some peace I took the opportunity to go over and meet Jeff Perry and Peter Bloeme who had set up shop at the far end of the Freestyle field. I had a nice chat with both of them.

As my time for Bandit was coming up Tracy and I strategized a little bit about wind and field conditions as we always do on gameday. I really enjoy this little ritual as I think it helps both of us focus on the job at hand and maybe gain a little insight from something one of may have missed. Tracy seems to be capitalizing on what we speak about because he continually beats my ass on the field … but my day will come!!!!

After what seemed like an eternity and 48 rounds of 20 points or more it was finally bandit’s turn. I was nervous because he had  such a terrible fall last weekend and even though the vet had given him the green light for competition and he was doing fine in competition I was still afraid he had hurt himself. I would find out on Sunday he was not only fine but able to take another “hit” as he dove for a poorly thrown disc …. But those are two completely separate stories.

I stepped up and started off with my new method of just throwing a 30 yarder and not going for 40. I was tending to throw the first one into the ground every time and this seemed to be helping as I have now been completing the first throw almost every time, and today was no different. Bandit got under it and leapt for the 3.5 points. Another problem we have been having is we can only get 4 and sometime only even 3 catches as he likes to continue running forward before he makes the turn to come back and kills a bunch of time. I decided some time in the middle of the week to go for 4 30’s and try for a 5^th throw which I could then go for the 40. My thought was if I could loft them just a bit he wouldn’t  run out so far and I would be able to squeeze another toss in. The next three throws were pretty descent and all was going according to plan except I threw one just a tad low and he had to bust ass to catch it causing him to run out far. He got back and handed me the disc just as time was called and we were only able to snag 14 points which wasn’t bad, had we gotten the 5^th throw off I’d have been much more confident and considering today’s field was so large I was pretty sure we wouldn’t make the cut … so we waited it out.

Just before posting the scores they announced that since the large turnout from people all over the country they were going to extend the bubble to top 10. This gave me a glimmer of hope. As it turned out the cut was 15 and we missed it by a full point. That’s fine because we had a fantastic day and I have a plan now to get that extra second back we need in order to get that other throw in and get him back even quicker for each throw …. How will I do it ? Guess you’ll just have to come to the next competition and watch or wait for me to post here.

Bandit placed 16th (unofficially)

Kota placed 35th (unofficially)

We'll have to wait for official results to be posted to find out for sure if that was their placement.

Last note …. I've been doing overs with Kota (I kneel down and stick a leg out and have her jump over the leg and catch the disc) for about three weeks now. Saturday late in the day she still needed to burn off some energy so I took her over to another field to work with. I got on my knees and leaned back .... tapped on my chest and told her to "get it" while I tossed the disc back over my head and she did a perfect chest vault. I didn't even have to "train" her. Two people standing nearby asked how I had gotten her to do it and when I told them that was our first attempt they didn't believe me till I told them her story and that I have just had her for about a month now. This dog is gonna rock !!!!