Team Rebel

It's a bit of a swelterfest out here at Paws & Parrotheads, but at least I got lei'd!
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Happy 4th, everyone!! 🇺🇲🎆 We've been super busy & are *way* behind on event updates, but here are a few quick photos from today - you can literally SEE the heat in these! 🥵 I took Scout & Cypher up to Run Jump Splash earlier for a couple of jumps in the sweltering temps. No matter the weather, it's always a good time on the dock, though!
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Y'all...go get yourself a dog who looks at you just like Denali looks at me. 💜
📷 Credit: Pawz to Pose Photography
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So, diving at the Cluster was pretty awesome this year. I got an Advanced AR Title & pulled out 2 Regionals Invites in AR & HD. I think that pretty much made me Best In Show. Or maybe it was Best Dressed In Show. Whatevs, same thing...💅🤣
~Denali
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"If you aren't competing at the this week, what are you even doing with your life??" 😂
~Denali
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The Team Rebel crew had an *amazing* time at NADD Nationals this year! Videos will follow, but here's our recap...

💜💙¡Arriba! - This was ¡Arriba!'s first season as a Veteran Dog. She breezed through her two Qualifier days, making Finals in both of her tightly competitive disciplines (Veteran Senior HydroDash & Veteran Junior Distance). She is a fast HD dog & it tends to surprise people that an 8 y/o GSD can pull off the times that she usually gets. I was excited for her to run HD at Nationals, all up until I realized that the HD pool was set up with a right hand ramp this year. ¡Arriba! is a left turn dog, and a right ramp means that she would lose time turning in more of a circle & then swimming diagonally back to the ramp vs straight back. So, I knew that we would be about a second or so longer than usual. Still, she's fast so we managed to Q for Finals mid-pack as the 7th seed. (The Top 15 Teams advance to Finals.) When Finals came, I knew if I could try to motivate her to come back as straight as she could on the left side of the pool, we could shave some precious time off of her score. And as we ran our first run, the stars aligned & her focus on the return remained fully on me instead of the ramp location, as I screamed my head off. As a result, she didn’t turn for the ramp until she was close to the banner on the edge of the dock, which was perfect. She nailed down a 16.354, which was amazing for a right ramp dock. We finished in second, just .048 behind the Team who took 1st.

In ¡Arriba!'s Division of Distance Finals, which is another tightly competitive group, we went is as the 6th seed & finished in 8th place overall.

💜🩷 Denali - The Flying Fruit Bat (IYKYK) was super amped up heading into Nationals this year...like moreso than I've ever seen her be before. Last year, she somehow managed to break her tail in 2 places at our last event of the season before Nats, so I had to pull her. This year, she apparently had a lot of smack to talk as a result, lol. She Qualified for Nationals in Open Senior HD & Open Junior DJ this year, both of which are suoer competitive, packed Divisions. In HD, we had 2 solid Qualifier runs, winding up mid-pack, in 52nd overall. In Distance, we hit a 14'8" in the Qualifiers, which was enough to Q for Finals as the 10th seed. We upped our game in Finals, and pulled out a 7th Place overall finish.

💜🩵 Scout - After spending the last part of last season on injured reserve, I wasn’t sure if Scout would ever return to popping and tracking off the dock again, especially at 11. But, she had a hold my beer season, returning to her former flying glory, clinching the last leg needed for her Senior Excellent Title & pulling clean runs at Regionals. I kept her "bubble wrapped" in the weeks heading up to Nationals, so she was ready to go in Springfield. We competed in Veteran Senior Distance & she posted beautiful jumps - tracking and flying on every single one. Most importantly, she remained sound and happy all week throughout her Qualifiers. We finished 18th overall, just outside of the Top 15 who advanced to Finals. But, I couldn't have been happier to be there with my best girl, and have her happy and pulling out her signature solid & beautiful jumps at 11 years old.

Sooo very proud of my Team this year!!

When your 11 year old dog just finished up competing at Regionals in Iowa with some gorgeous, high-flying jumps, and her name is Scout, and her walkup song is "Danger Zone", and there happens to be *THIS* installed outside of a stadium down at the end of the street that your Air BnB is off of... You park illegally, hop a retaining wall, climb a hill, perch her on a ledge and get pictures, naturally. 😆
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