Saturday June 24th 2006 - team practice (outside)

(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)

It wasn't the best of practices for us today! Lucy was very slow and not focused on her runs. Poor girl has an ear infection at the moment though, which I realized after is a good excuse for today's poor performance. The more beginner dogs on our team are really coming along very nicely, getting good consistent turns on the box and great recalls over all four jumps.

Saturday June 17th 2006 - team practice (outside)

(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)

Today was Lucy's first try at doing the box outside, and she did great! After a few warm-up turns we were doing the run with 3 jumps and ball, just like we had been doing indoors. However, a few times she came darn close to cheating her form but I'm pretty sure that's because I forgot to move the eavestrough a bit back from the box.

Friday June 16th 2006 - catch-up entry

(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)

Having seen a flyball demo at the spring 2005 B.A.R.K. walkathon, I was interested in seeing if Lucy had any flyball potential, so we signed up for a beginner's flyball class in the fall of 2005. She did quite well in the classes and by the end of the 6-week session was getting all four on the box. (I had set up a practice "box" at home using a carpet-covered piece of plywood leaning up against the wall, which worked wonders in getting her to understand the box concept.) The level 2 course followed in Jan-Feb 2006 and soon into level 2 she was getting the ball. By the end of level 3 (March/April 2006) I could send her from 3 jumps back and she'd hit the box with good form (although still with the eavestrough jump in front of the box), grab the ball and come back over the 3 jumps. Passing exercises went well unless the other dog came into her face which she didn't much like. Lucy is now part of the brand new Best Friends' Flyball Fanatics team and is having lots of fun at the weekly practices. The first three photos are with my second home-made practice "box" in spring 2006, a bit of an upgrade over the carpet-covered plank leaning against the wall:

May 6 2006 at the first team practice

2006 entries

Here are Lucy's 2006 flyball journal entries.