Sunday Practice
Today was gorgeous out. Sunny and warm, I miss summer already. Anyway, Grandma Gray was really bummed that she was going to be unable to see the boys dock jump at any events this summer. So, we planned a trip to Hart Lake and the dock there to do an informal dock jumping event. It was an absolute blast! I am really apprehensive about using the Wubba as my throw item at the UAG because I’m not used to the feel and the weight of it, so I figured this would be a perfect time to practice.
This is my favorite photo:
Here’s an action shot:
Here’s an example of a horrendous throw…
See how his body is twisted? That is because I threw slightly too short and he tried to catch it while his body continued forward, this is bad. I can’t wait until I don’t have photos of bad throws every single time we practice/compete. *sigh* with practice I know…On the other hand Midas started to consistently catch it (if my throw was good) towards the end, showing that he remembers our land training. That was definitely exciting. I also know how to throw it so that the part he likes to catch (the tails) is towards him, making it easier and more fun for him. I was really excited to see how well he was doing with the catching 
Not so thrilled with how many bad throws I had though…
Mason has come so far in the last couple of weeks and I’m so proud of him. This was the second time he was asked to jump off of a dock and he had hardly any hesitation. The enthusiasm in his little body just makes me swell with pride. He jumps off (occasionally slides), swims back with tail wagging the entire time, and brings the Wubba right back to my hand before darting onto the dock again, no time for shaking the water off. 
It makes me smile just thinking about it. So far he does his best jumping when I run with him down the dock and then throw it. I would like to try throwing it, bringing him back and then releasing him but I think he would still hesitate. Anywho, here he is:
Waiting patiently for the word that it’s his turn
“Waiting” not-so-patiently 
He looks huge to me in this photo…
His first couple of attempts were definitely less than graceful - this looks like he banged himself against the side of the dock, but he didn’t
He finally got the hang of it - mostly
We decided to liven things up by letting them each go first and then be followed by the other one. When Mason went first he had to have at least a 15 ft head start or Midas would land on him. When Midas went first it made Mason brave enough to make an actual leap from the dock, instead of a shimmy or a slide. It was so much fun and we were all tired when we left. Grandma and Grandpa were thrilled they finally got to see what we were always talking about. Hopefully Mason will be this cooperative tomorrow and I’ll enter him in the DockDogs event.