Practice

Put the video camera on a tripod facing the start line to get a better look at how Lucy's passing Sammy. Today, 25 feet was resulting in hot passes.

Team practice

Practiced passing into Sammy and set up the tape measure to find the ideal release point. 25 feet seems to be the sweet spot, releasing when Sammy's midair over the first jump from the box. The first few times she was hesitant going into the pass which therefore was quite wide, but after a few times she was diving into the pass.

Dogzworth open practice (Guides Canins)

Several of our team members went for a shared practice with Dogzworth at their practice facility, which was the first time there for all of us and our dogs. I was hoping that all Lucy would need before doing a full run would be a single recall, which worked at her last tournie. Ideally this will be all she'll need at our team's first tournament next year so that most of the warmup time can go to the greener dogs. Well, it didn't exactly work - she was in scatterbrain mode and took a few upclose boxturns to get into it. I think this might be because I hurried her into the building and right away put her to work without letting her get accustomed to her environment. Plus, she was slow overall tonight.

Lucy and Sammy took turns passing into each other, which went great.

Team practice

Lucy was handled first by L. and later by C. and did just great while I boxloaded. I had given them some super delicious treats to give her, so she didn't care about me at all. I've been leaving the box untriggered for a while now to pattern her into placing her mouth properly over the ball.

Saturday October 13th 2007 - team practice

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

Lucy helped the green dogs with distraction training by doing recalls (on the flat since we're down to one set of jumps at the moment) in the other lane while they were doing recalls in their own lane. She also helped them with more of the passing exercise that we did last week. At one point, I handed her to K. to try running her while I hid and watched. While she did do a run or two, I think it would have went a lot better if I had put her in a crate, then casually wandered off, then the other person would take her from her crate. I suspect she wouldn't have been looking for me as much that way, especially if she was being rewarded with some super duper treats. :-)

2007 entries to October 13th

Here are Lucy's 2007 flyball journal entries to October 13th.

Saturday October 6th 2007 - team practice

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

Today Lucy helped the green dogs learn about being passed. They would do a recall from the box, and then Lucy would pass into them on her way to do a full run. Some of the dogs looked a little surprised to see her, but she was a pro and just went and did her thing.

Saturday and Sunday September 8th and 9th 2007 - Burnin Rubber NAFA Tournament (Carp curling rink)

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

Now that the 90 days are over, Lucy got to race with another team (still waiting for our home team to be ready to race next year). She was originally supposed to have one full spot, but due to a sick dog teams were reshuffled and she ended up double running. She ran starts on Regular 3 and sometimes third, sometimes anchor on Multi 2. I was extremely pleased with how she ran as she had several successes:

Success #1: No deeked jumps while passing into or being passed into!!! Including when she was hot passed into 3 or 4 times on Saturday!!! All that remedial passing practice and running with seasoned dogs has been a tremendous help and I'm tempted to believe that she's completely overcome the passing incident of last November. :-))))
Success #2: Much improved non-bobble to bobble ratio!
Success #3: She set her new personal best time! Her best start dog time (ie not including the start) was 5.241 over 11" in her sixth race on Saturday and she was pretty consistently in the 5.2s and 5.3s with some slower times on Sunday. My best start was .062 but there was quite a range in there! Her best time on her half-spot team was 5.5 including the pass.


Here's one of her runs from Sunday where she gets her butt whooped by a border collie:

There was one "oh crap" moment on Saturday, which was when she was on her start-dog team in the lane adjacent to the head table, and someone had a grilled cheese sandwich at the head table (which is apparently a no-no), and when I released Lucy, well, she decided that that smell was too interesting to pass by uninvestigated. Fortunately she let me pull her off and send her down the lane but her start time for that heat was over 3 seconds!! Thankfully she didn't repeat that performance! Another minor "oh crap" moment was when the ball was loaded into the wrong hole once on Saturday. She wasn't able to do her turn, but she did pick up the ball and bring it back. Early oOn Sunday, she had a few NFs due to ball dropping; these were due to not picking up the ball on a couple of bobbles as well as not having a good grip once or twice (video playback is very helpful in that area!)

I've learned that for warmups even for her very first race, she doesn't need upclose pops off the box in order to situate herself as to where the box is. A recall before the first races of the day is sufficient, and the same goes for Sammy. This will be great when our team is up and running next year so that we can give the green dogs most of the warmup time.

She got a new title: FDCH-S (1000 points), and was awarded one of the couple of dozen individual dog awards: The Twist "New Blood" Award "given to a dog who has recently joined a new team and is doing great this past year". :-)

Notes to self regarding release points:
- STARTS (regular 3): I release her when the third yellow appears. 27' 9" did well at the start of Saturday including a 0.06 but also a false start. Towards the end of Saturday, 26.0' did well including a 0.1. On Sunday, 27' got some .1 starts in the morning, but by the end of Sunday I had to move her up to 25' for .1 starts.
- PASSING INTO K. (multi: on Saturday and one race on Sunday): 27' worked well at the start of Saturday. 26' 6-8" good towards the end of Saturday.
- PASSING INTO J. (multi: mostly on Sunday): mostly I just released her when told to depending on how the previous dogs had run. (due to the post-seeding lineup change, breakout was a risk.)

Thursday September 6th 2007 - guests at other team's outside practice

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

Lucy did some nice tight passes into K., and she didn't deek around any jumps when being passed by R. including one which was relatively tight.

Saturday August 25th 2007 - team practice

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

Did a bunch of no-jump up-close boxturns with the box unsprung to get her to place her mouth better. Also, did the lanes-close-together thing doing recalls with Sammy. No question, Sammy's got the racing thing down, but Lucy, well, not quite! :-)

Sunday August 19th 2007 - guests at another team's practice

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

Did a new exercise which is full runs with the lanes right up next to each other, only a few inches apart, with very low gates the whole length separating the lanes. The idea is to increase the competitiveness, getting the dogs to really notice the other dog and to want to race them. It was a very neat exercise and with a few more repetitions it may just get Lucy to clue in to the race aspect! Of note, Lucy did a lot of tugging today.

Saturday August 18th 2007 - Demo at The Ex!

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

We were guests on another team doing three demos over the course of the day at The Ex'es Pet Pavillion. I learned that Lucy can play flyball even on an overly full stomach. :-) She got a hold of one of the treat pouches while in the car waiting for me to finish setting up her crate and did a terrific job of cleaning it right out! About a cup and a half of treats downed in one fell swoop! Somehow she found room in her stomach for more treats and so happily played along in the flyball fun, which consisted of racing not only dogs but also children who volunteered to give it a go against the dogs! It was a fun experience and Lucy's brain stayed in gear despite the interesting smells of a pot-bellied pig and pony who were hanging out in stalls adjacent to the ring.

Thursday August 16th 2007 - guests at another team's outdoor practice

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

She passed tightly into K. with no jump-deeking, and didn't do any of the weird interested-in-K. stuff she did last week.

Thursday August 9th 2007 - guests at another team's outdoor practice

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

Lucy hasn't done flyball outdoors in a long, long time, but she did well and didn't go off following her nose. Practiced passing into K. -- at first, she was interested in K., but after a few runs with someone holding her and me up at the box, she was doing much better.

Wednesday August 8th 2007 - home practice

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

Having run someone else's seasoned tug-crazy flyball dog at a tournament last weekend, I'd love to get Lucy to the point of enthusiastically grabbing onto her tug as her reward before she gets treats. So, I've been having her do recalls at home for the treat tug, and also sending to the ball on the floor over/back one jump coming back for the tug. The former is going well, but for the latter she's still reluctant to let go of the ball to take the tug.

Sunday July 29th 2007 - guests at another team's practice

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

Lucy did the wide-jumps-with-gate-down-middle passing exercise well, and then for the full runs she was passed into by M., starting wide, then to 4 feet and then to 2 feet and no deeking!!! Woo hoo! Rewarded the full runs with superduper treats.

Saturday July 28th 2007 - team practice

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

Woo hoo!!!!!!!! Today was a really exciting practice because our team's novice dogs made some terrific progress! Today was only the second time (I think) for them to try a ball retrieve (no box) over a few jumps, and by the end of the exercise, Zara was sending over three jumps completely independently and back over all four, and carrying the ball the whole way back!!! And, after a few no-box retrieves for Milo, they put the ball on the ledge because just this week at home practices he's started to pick up the ball and maintain the turn. Lo and behold, he sent from two jumps back, totally independent, did a gorgeous boxturn, picked up the ball and brought it back over the jumps!!! Plus, Jasmine's and Tashtego's ball retrieves are coming along too!!! I see Sammy and Lucy having some company in the full-run department very soon! Sorry for all the exclamation points, but it was our most exciting practice since the new dogs got their boxturns.

New for Lucy today was doing full runs passing into the green dogs doing a recall from the box. She did running passes into Milo and Jasmine and we held off a bit for Zara who needs a bit more time to get used to being passed into. Finished with some full runs passing into Sammy who was racing (and I do mean *racing*!!) today's guest, malinois Emily.

Sunday July 22nd 2007 - guests at another team's practice

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

Today was a great opportunity to get Lucy some practice with passing and being passed into very experienced dogs. The lineup was N., Lucy, and wee little I.. At first my passes were way wide since I don't have a clue what I'm doing yet, but when I tightened up too much early in the practice she went around the first jump. But, that was the only time she did that all day and she was really starting to get the hang of it even with some relatively tight passes. Being passed (real passes, not run-bys!) by little I. wasn't a problem (in contrast to the practice on April 28th!) - she would look at her but never went around the jump. Lucy is still learning that when going to the box she should be on the right, the other dog on her left -- she looked a little unsure going into the pass sometimes, and poor N. must have wondered what the heck Lucy was doing. I was releasing her at 26 feet (my toes at 26) when N. was airborne over the first jump coming back from the box. We also did a neat passing exercise with recalls over wide jumps and short gates separating to create two paths. It was a great passing-focussed practice which is just what she needs.

Saturday July 14th 2007 - team practice

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

After a couple of two-jump recalls with Lucy not even looking at little Miss Fluffy in the lineup area, we did lineup full runs with Sammy, putting Lucy first for the first time in a long time. She took a look at Sammy, BUT she took all the jumps, yay! The passes were kept very wide. She was definitely jumping the duct tape startline again today - how she manages to clear the jumps with that kind of striding I really don't know!

Saturday June 30th 2007 - team practice

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

For her passing exercise, did boxwork with one jump while two dogs were lined up behind the jump - no problems.

Saturday June 23rd 2007 - team practice

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

Stepped it up in her passing exercise where two dogs were lined up pretty darn close to the middle of the lane, and only a metre or two back from the start line, and she did great with her two-jump recalls! Also, for full runs someone else ran her while I stood up close to the box and watched. Her first or second run was good, but after that she started to come to me after doing the turn so I went back and hung out in the lineup area instead.

Saturday June 16th 2007 - team practice

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

Thanks to the keen eyes of our team captain, it was discovered today that Lucy thinks the duct tape startline is there to show her where to take off for the first jump! She's jumping the tape which makes her land way short for all the rest of the jumps going to the box. When we placed a second piece of tape between the start line and the first jump she used the new tape as her guide and so took off at the proper place. In other news, her remedial passing training is coming along really well! Recalls with a couple of dogs in the lineup went well (might be time soon to push it up and put the dogs closer to the centre of the lane), and we tried something new which is using one jump and the box, putting a dog in the "lineup" after the jump so she does a turn with one jump then grabs the ball and back over the jump past the dog.

June 3rd 2007 - guests at another team's practice

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

Passing into one of their experienced dogs went well but she's not at a point where she drives forward into the pass yet.

Saturday June 2nd 2007 - team practice

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

No-jump boxwork with eavestrough "wall" to tighten turn. Her passing exercise with recalls over two jumps went very well today: started with just Milo in the lineup area, held quite close to the lane. Then we had Milo do a recall but only after Lucy passed him. Then we put Milo and Zara in the lineup area. She didn't deek around any jumps. Canned dog food was the treat-du-jour for the passing work.

Saturday May 26th 2007 - team practice

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

Two-jump recalls with Jenn and Sammy off to the side went well. Participated in the "honoring the running dog" recall exercise and she did great even with 3 or 4 dogs in the lineup area (though off to the side a bit). She was quite happy with the canned food she was being rewarded with. A few full runs with some good tugging finished off her flyball day.

Saturday May 19th and Sunday May 20th 2007 - HDD tournament (Trenton hockey arena)

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

Despite a sleepless start (Friday night was Walter's first night at a motel and he thought he was supposed to sound the alarm at every single sound of 10 decibels or higher), it was another great tournament! Like last weekend, Lucy and Sammy shared a spot on BackDraft's Regular team. The hectic and noisy two-ring format didn't faze them at all and they both ran clean and consistent the whole tournament! Not a dropped ball or missed jump! They are really proving themselves to be reliable, solid flyball dogs. Both earned their FDCh titles this weekend and their consistent performance was a key factor in the team taking third place out of six teams in the Regular 4 division.

By far the biggest highlight of my weekend was that Lucy has started to tug as her reward! Until today (Sunday) I've only rewarded her with treats but her tug a-ha moment must have come to her Saturday night as she slept... because right from the get-go on Sunday she was tugging hard for all of her races and having a ball with it. The interaction of tugging provides a whole new level of fun for both Lucy and me compared to simply doling out treats and praise. I can definitely see phasing out the treats in the future (I was still giving her a treat or two after tugging, but only after she "won" the game by pulling the tug out of my hands) and hopefully even graduating to a more tuggable type of tug than the treat tug we're using now.

Another success is that she only bobbled the ball on 3 of her 20 heats which is a pretty darn good ratio for her! She still hasn't figured out that flyball is a *race* but that's ok, her a-ha moment is bound to come sooner or later and I'm really happy about the tug a-ha moment that happened!

Time-wise, from the few times that I looked she was in the low sixes. From manually timing the actual run times on the videos we took (ie not including the pass), her fastest was 5.5 on Sunday (which was also her best time at U-Fli), not bad at all considering the jumps were at 12" and she was starting from only 10 feet back due to the dog before her not being able to be passed into.

In summary I'm just so happy that she was totally confident and happy, getting into the game of it especially on Sunday. Our next tournament likely won't be for a long while but this was a good way to go on tourney-hiatus.

Temperature: Clear on Saturday, cloudy on Sunday, highs of about 17 degrees.

Here's a video of one of Lucy's heats. She's the fourth dog racing in the far lane.

Note the wagging tail while she's in the lineup!


Taking full photographic advantage of the gorgeous parkland at the tournament site; I think that's the Bay of Quinte behind the dogs. A sign on the nearby bridge calls it "The Gateway to the Trent-Severn Waterway".

Saturday May 12th 2007 - FBI tournament (Navan curling rink) - Lucy's and my first NAFA tournament!

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

Today Lucy raced in her first ever NAFA tournament! Backdraft had an opening on one of their teams so Lucy and Sammy are sharing a spot for a few tournies, this weekend being the first, until our own team has enough dogs ready to race next year. Lucy raced today and Sammy will race tomorrow. Anyway, Lucy ran great! Jumps were at full height and she ran last in the lineup. Coming in around 6.1 seconds (from the few times I glanced at the clock) she's not the fastest dog, but you know what? She ran clean each and every heat, taking all of the jumps and bringing the ball back even when she bobbled it (which wasn't very often with the exception of the fourth of five races where she bobbled 3/3), so I'm very proud of her! Her passes into Solo were very good and she was the last dog so no return passes to deal with. Of note, she did some nice treat-tug tugging after being treated after each run and it helped rev her up a bit; I'll tap into that more now that I'm reminded that she does have some tug desire (though I wouldn't call it tug drive just yet!). Warmups all day were one or two no-ball turns followed by a run with ball started from one or two jumps back. All runs started from 10-15 feet back. After earning her first title a few weeks ago (CGN) she has added a couple of more new titles under her belt after today: FD and FDX! Weather: Mostly sunny, 6 degrees in the morning up to 14 in the afternoon.

The customary after-the-last-race photo

Saturday May 5th 2007 - team practice

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

Five recalls over 12" jumps: sometimes she'd bounce, sometimes she'd sneak in an extra stride, and a couple of times she hit the jumps enough to dislodge the top 1" slat (good thing it's the special splinter-free kind). Up-close boxwork with BR box: Not a single bobbled ball out of about a dozen turns! Either she was feeling particularly unclutzy today (after getting the clutziness out of her system during the recalls) or she likes the BR box better than ours. Full runs with Sammy over 12": once or twice she dropped the ball after the first jump coming back, not sure why, could have been the 12" jumps were a little overwhelming for her today? Lucy and Sammy took turns going first for the full runs and when Lucy was first, a couple of times she deeked around the last jump but also a couple of times she didn't. One last note, last week I started to modify the release hold where instead of straddling her and holding her collar/shoulders, I kneel down and prop her back legs on mine so that she has something to push off against. Worked on sending her to treats at home this week to get her more comfortable with it which seems to be working. Needless to say I don't think I'll be trying this with 20-lbs-heavier Walter!

Saturday April 28th 2007 - team practice

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

Did some recalls and 5 runs over 12" jumps with Lucy first then Sammy. She did her usual going around the last jump thing a few times. Then we did full runs with the cutest, most unthreatening little dog, a guest from another team, Lucy being "passed" by that dog. Out of 6 or 7 runs she went around the last jump twice but I was glad that she was able to do 5 of them correctly even though there was no actual pass happening.

Wednesday April 25th 2007 - practice

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

While at the agility field today I recalled and sent her (treat/bait bag as target) over 4 jumps 10 feet apart at 16". She seemed to be more comfortable with it there than at flyball practice and her bounces were midway between the jumps which is good.

Saturday April 21st 2007: U-Fli Tournament, singles and pairs (Carp Curling Hall)

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

It was Lucy's and my first ever official flyball tournament as well as the first ever U-Fli tournament held in Canada and she did fantastic, no issues at all. She seemed really comfortable at this venue, bringing the ball back every time despite bobbles of varying degrees. It probably helped that the hall was really quite for singles and pairs. She raced 16 heats: 2x4 in singles and 2x4 in pairs, no crossing, no being crossed on, no hesitating, no worries :-) A best time of 5.500 (including the start) over 9". It was a great day. And now the details...

The first race was singles. For the first 15 seconds of warm-up she was a little scattered, but once she realized what was going on she got the idea and did some turns with ball, ending with a recall. All 4 heats were fumble-free and clean! She started her runs from 25-30 feet. We didn't take stats for this race but from what I noticed on the time clock my best start was 0.2, and her times (including the start) were as follows over 9" jumps: 6.017 - 5.629 - 5.500 - 5.885

Next was pairs with Sammy. I was a little too ambitious with the pass in the first heat so Lucy said "nope" and went around the first jump but immediately got back on track. Jumps were at 7" (no time to raise them to 9").


(1) Start: 0.253 Sammy: 5.726 Lucy: 7.722 (bobble) Total: 13.448 but it was NF due to Lucy missing the first jump
(2) Start: 0.116 Sammy: 5.842 Lucy: 6.855 (bobble) Total: 12.697
(3) Start: 0.746 Sammy: 6.178 Lucy: 6.544 Total: 12.722
(4) Start: 0.083 Sammy: 5.412 Lucy: 6.471 Total: 11.883 (this would be our best pairs time of the day)
Then our last singles race of the day, jumps at 7" (again, no time to raise them to 9"). Started her at 10-15 feet this time to see how it would go.

(1) Start: 0.717 Lucy: 8.583 (big bobble, rolled behind the box)
(2) Start: 0.236 Lucy: 6.063 (bobble)
(3) Start: 0.110 Lucy: 5.705
(4) Start: unknown Lucy 6.633

And finally our last pairs race of the day, jumps back at 9":

stats to follow
Here are Sammy and Lucy after the very last race of the day, which was Sammy and Lucy from Best Friends' Flyball Fanatics vs. Sammy and Lucy from Hot Diggity Dogs!

And here's Lucy with her certificates. Every dog racing in singles and pairs gets one:


The weather was sunny and warm, 9 degrees early AM up to 23 degrees in PM.

Saturday April 14th 2007 - Team practice

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

Thanks to a video camera and the frame by frame feature of my vcr, something peculiar surfaced about the way Lucy jumps: she's taking off so far from the jumps that her landing hand barely clears the jump wing, a far cry from the ideal where the dog's bounce is midway between the jumps. This is worthy of more close observation and see if some stride regulation exercises are called for. The following series illustrate (yes, I have WAY too much time on my hands!):

Sunday April 1st 2007 - House League #5

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

Today was the the last house league of the 2006/7 season! Here's the summary of the day:

- How suitable for April Fool's Day, I suppose: On the very first heat of Lucy's very first race, she got crossed over on when the green dog in the other lane decided it would be more fun to chase Lucy than to go to their own box. In the dog park, Lucy absolutely loves being chased, but it's "a whole different ball game" when she's playing flyball as she seems to feel a bit stressed/vulnerable. Fortunately it wasn't a high-drive-type of dog and didn't nip at her or anything; it doesn't seem to have unsettled her as no new issues cropped up over the course of the day. It was the only time she was crossed on today so with all the interference-free runs that followed I think she's forgotten all about it.
- In preparation for racing with BackDraft in May we ran 3 or 4 races with them, Lucy always running last, with the jumps at full height which she's never done before. I think she had a little bit of a crush on their cute male BC, Skip...
- She handled BackDraft's box well as her fumble rate was about the same as normal.
- Lucy was timed in her third race of the day with the jumps at full height (these times don't include passing time):

6.41 - fumble
5.97 - clean
6.09 - clean
5.90 - clean

Boy if I thought she deer-hopped over minimum height jumps, does she ever do it on the max height jumps!! She looks so hoppy going to the box but I can't tell if she's equally hoppy on the way back so I'll videotape her at the next practice to see what's going on. The good news is she can run fast when she wants to, so if we can only figure out how to get her to bring that speed onto the flyball lane then her times can only improve. Of course we'll keep working on tightening her turn too.

- For one race I had someone else hold her and I was standing up close near the box to get her running faster but we didn't time it.

In summary, it was a good way to end the house league season as there were no "issues" today and she ran pretty consistently. House league was a very valuable experience that allowed me to learn a lot about my dog. It will be so much more fun when the rest of our team is doing full runs and joining us in the racing lanes next time!

Saturday March 31st 2007 - Team practice

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

Timed Lucy on a couple of solo runs using no slats: her first was 5.5something and her second was 5.4something. She does this terrifically time-wasting deer-hop thing on the way to the box, so there's definitely room for improvement! Then we did a few lineup runs with Sammy, and Lucy's pass into Sammy is going really well, with Lucy doing only a slight arc. Also a few head to head runs against Sammy which went fine.

Saturday March 24th 2007 - Team practice

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

Started Lucy's remedial return pass training today, doing a two-jump recall with someone crouching down a few meters back from the timers as if their invisible dog was next in the line-up. At first she gave a leery look at the person, but after a few goes she was nice and straight. Also tried full runs with Jenn holding Sammy in the lineup but with Sammy to the left of Jenn, which went ok too. In anticipation of the upcoming U-Fli pairs event, we worked on passes with Lucy passing into Sammy which went really well. Last but not least, Jenn ran Lucy for a couple of solo runs while I boxloaded. After a couple of tries, she got the idea. For most of her runs today we left the box unsprung.

Friday March 16th 2007 - Team practice

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

Since TTH isn't available this weekend, we practiced at our old flyball stomping grounds, Best Friends. Focused on no-jump boxwork with unsprung box and I video recorded her so I could later watch to see exactly what she's doing at the box.

Sunday March 11th 2007 - guests at another team's practice

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

First we did head-to-head lineups with Lucy running after a big handsome chocolate lab. Well, aside from treats, tall male dogs are Lucy's favourite thing and the first time he ran past her on his way back from the box, she had to go flirt with him instead of go down the lane. After that she got back on track but still she had some trouble peeling her eyes off of him. Then we did a speed drill using two jumps: someone else holds her and I'm up close to the box facing her, I start running and call her name as soon as she passes me. The boxloader said she was definitely picking up the pace, particularly on the way back. We ended with more head-to-head lineups, this time with two different dogs in our lineup, Lucy running second, and in the left lane with a different box. She fumbled the ball without picking it up several times and I imagine it's the combination of different box, being in the left lane with nothing to block the view of the other box, and running with two new dogs. But also the captain noticed that Lucy catches the ball in the air several inches in front of the box rather than putting her mouth over the hole, which increases the chance of bobbles. So, I'll be doing some work with her with an unsprung box to get her to better position herself.

Sunday March 4th 2007 - House League #4

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

A great day! Here's the summary:

- This is the first house league for which they removed the gate down the middle, leaving a section between the boxes.
- A familiar teammate boxloaded for every race and did a fantastic job of putting the right type of ball in the right hole despite the different line-up for every race.
- No one crossed over on Lucy.
- Lucy didn't cross over, but I had no worries that she would.
- Started her from 30 feet back for the first 4 races, which seemed to be a good distance. Started her closer at the end because she was getting pooped.
- She had a lot fewer fumbles than in the past, and when she did fumble she always brought it back except for the last race.
- She seems to be getting more relaxed with the whole thing (passing aside). No more worries that she'll run out the doors in avoidance, yay!
- Passing into Sammy went great. I didn't attempt any running passes into the guest dogs.


And here's the play-by-play:


Race 1 - left lane - Lucy, Sammy, guest, guest
- 1st heat: Clean
- 2nd/3rd heats: Dropped the ball after the third jump on one and went around the last jump on the other
- 4th heat: Clean

Race 2 - right lane - Lucy, Sammy, guest, guest
- All heats: Clean! (no running passes though)

Race 3 - left lane - guest, guest, Sammy, Lucy
- Put Lucy in anchor since she did well at being "passed" into for the second race and didn't want to push it
- All heats: Clean! Some good running passes with Sammy too.

Race 4 - left lane - Sammy, guest, Lucy
- All heats: Clean!

Race 5 - right lane - Sammy, guest, Lucy
- All heats: Clean! She's getting tired though.

Race 6 - left lane - Sammy, guest, Lucy
- 1st heat: Fumbled ball and didn't pick it up
- 2nd heat: Clean
- 3rd heat: Fumbled ball and was attempting to pick it up but I called her off because it was rolling into the other lane.
- 4th heat: Clean!

Two pooped out pooches at the end of a long but fun day!

Saturday March 3rd 2007 - Team practice

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

Did some head-to-head with a guest. For a couple of runs we started behind Sammy since Lucy usually never has to run past anyone on her way to the box. She got confused and didn't know where to go, but that's probably partially because we were starting from way far back which she's not used to. Also, did a couple of runs with someone else holding her and me up close to the box; it would be interesting to time it to see if it makes any difference.

Sunday February 25th 2007 - Guests at another team's practice

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

Today Lucy and Sammy were guests at another team's practice. We started with double recalls with Sammy, with another dog working in the other lane. Lucy did well the first few recalls but then started doing her deeking around the last jump routine, so they suggested I modify how/where I pick her up which definitely helped. Then we moved on to head-to-head racing (no gates, not even between the boxes) with our lineup being Lucy, Sammy, and one of their dogs. We happened to be racing in the right lane which was good for Lucy since it meant she was turning away from the other lane. She did really well! As far as I know she didn't deek around any jumps, and she didn't seem phased when a dog from the other lane went sniffing near her during one of her runs. We realized that we hadn't set up the slant board but the dogs maintained their turns regardless. However, Lucy's turn was becoming pretty wide so at future practices I'll do some drills to help tighten it. Anyway, I was really happy with how she did today, especially considering the busy, lots-of-activity atmosphere compared to our tame, low-key team practices. Sammy did excellently today and she was fast! Neither dog crossed over at all. It was fun being part of a practice with so many people and dogs.

Here's a great shot of one of her bobbles:

Saturday February 24thd 2007 - Team practice

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

Did some solo runs (no head-to-head, no line-up) and after the first run, for the first time we removed the slant board to see what would happen. She maintained her turn, yippee! Of course, most of the time we'll leave it in place. I don't know if it's just my imagination, but it seems Lucy is happiest (ie fastest) when she's not running head-to-head or in a line-up. Not exactly ideal for flyball eh! Anyway, later we did some lineup racing with Sammy, Lucy going first. She didn't go around any of the jumps, yay! Sammy's still being released from far back though.

Saturday February 17th 2007 - Team practice

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

(Last week's practice was cancelled because TTH was in use for an event.) Today for the first time ever Lucy raced head-to-head with dogs she never saw before and no gates between the lanes! Two dogs from another team joined our practice for some head-to-head racing as a warmup for an upcoming tournament that they're in. I'm so proud of Lucy; she did just great. She never even thought about crossing over, and she didn't seem bothered when one of the other dogs came over to her lane and sniffed the ground for crumbs while I was holding her. The only time she didn't bring the ball back was when it fell out of the hole before she got there and it was hidden behind the slant board (which was the only prop we were using). We were racing as pairs with Sammy, alternating which dog went first, and the bonus is that with the excitement of having new dogs around she seemed to forget her worries of being passed coming back from the box: she took all of the jumps and I didn't have to block her! Mind you Sammy was being held a fair bit away from the last jump and not released until after we passed, but still this is great progress! We raced 2 races with 5 heats each.

Saturday February 3rd 2007 - Team practice

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

No special guests this week so we did some lineup racing with Sammy, mostly putting Lucy first. Lucy would take all the jumps when I met her at the second last one with Sammy held back a fair bit and not released until after we ran past them. She's still decent at passing on the way to the box thank goodness! Sadly, this month's house league has been cancelled due to bad driving weather.

Saturday January 27th 2007 - Team practice

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

Today we met our new house league guest, a cute little JRT. After a few warm-up solo runs we did line-up racing with Lucy first, followed by Sammy then the JRT. Lucy is clearly still having problems being passed coming back from the box. No, correct that, because we haven't been doing any actual passing. Her problem is even more basic, which is that if when she's coming back from the box she sees dogs who are lined up, she gets worried and goes around the last jump. So I picked her up at the third jump and sort of blocked her way while running with her and holding the tug over the middle of the jumps.

Saturday January 20th 2007 - Team practice

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

More head-to-head against our house league guest, and like last time I only released her after the other dog was coming back from the box. This went fine other than I can tell due to her slowness (one time she actually *trotted* between me and the first jump) that she's worried. Once she realizes that dogs in the other lane are no threat to her, I'm sure she will be much more confident.

Tuesday January 16th 2007 - home practice

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

I have the box at home this week so I took advantage. Did some turns with the box unsprung to remind her to really put her mouth over the ball. Also, took the jump away and for the first time ever she did the turn while getting the ball with no jump. The first two were great, but after that she realized that it was just as easy to only put her hands on the box.

Saturday January 13th 2007 - Team practice

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

Started with the no-passing passing exercise over two double-wide jumps with Abby (finally back from her maternity leave, yay!), which went well. Then we did some head-to-head against our house league guest, which went well too. Also, for the first time we put two slats in the jumps. Lucy didn't cross over, but one time at the box she turned way wide and missed the first two jumps coming back. Note, today it was only quasi head-to-head since the second dog was released only after the first dog was returning from the box.

Sunday January 7th 2007 - House league #3

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

Lucy and I had a great day today! Here's the short version:
- Left Walter at home so that Lucy would have my undivided attention
- A familiar teammate boxloaded for every race
- Lucy was last in the line-up for every race, running after Sammy
- Rewarded mostly with extra-special treats that she will only ever get at house league or flyball tournaments
- She was just fine at starting back past the end of the gates
- She never once looked at the doors or stuttered on her way to or from the box, and I never got the feeling that she didn't want to be there
- She got in some running passes with Sammy but I didn't push it since her confidence is just coming back
- In the final race of the day, someone timed one of her heats and she ran in 5.83 seconds. I'm not sure if that included the pass or not but I assume it didn't. Not too bad though, given it was the end of the day!
- Out of 5 races, Lucy ran two entire races totally clean!

And here's the detailed version:

Race #1 (Left lane with small door) Warm-up: 2 turns with ball and no jumps + 1 turn with ball and two jumps then run all the way back
- Heats #1 and 2: Whereas for the first heats of the last house league Lucy was craning towards the door instead of up the lane, this time she was focused ahead, but she dropped the ball halfway back. I praised and treated her heartily anyway.
- Heat #3: Clean!
-Heat #4: She dropped the ball early again. I rewarded, but with her less-special treats.

Race #2 (Right lane with huge door) Warm-up: 1 turn with no jumps (can't remember if ball) + 1 turn with ball and two jumps then run all the way back
- Heat #1: She fumbled the ball and didn't pick it up. I rewarded anyway.
- Heat #2: Clean!
- Heats #3 and 4: Can't quite remember but I think she dropped the ball for one and did it cleanly for the other.

Race #3 (Left lane) Warm-up: none due to time shortage
- All heats: Clean! Yay!!

Race #4 (Right lane) Warm-up: two turns, no ball, no jumps
- All heats: Clean! And no fumbles either! Yay!!

Race #5 (Left lane) Warm-up: two turns, no ball, no jumps
-Heat #1: She fumbled the ball and didn't pick it up. This time I didn't reward and instead said "where's the ball" in an upbeat voice.
-Heat #2: 100% clean!
-Heat #3: 100% clean!
-Heat #4: She fumbled the ball, but this time she took the time to find it and pick it up again and brought it all the way back. Yay!

I'm so happy that Lucy's confidence is on the rebound! It will still be some time before she can again confidently pass a dog while she's returning from the box, but what she accomplished today was a huge success and certainly our best house league so far.

Saturday January 6th 2007 - Team practice

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

Started with the passing exercise over two doublewide jumps. First we tried it with Milo and let the dogs go at the same time. Milo did great but Lucy went around the second jump as soon as she saw Milo coming towards her, even though he was going straight to his human. We did it twice more but this time not releasing Milo until after Lucy was at the second jump, and she handled that fine. Then after a warm-up of a few box turns with ball, we did lineup racing with our house league guest and Sammy. It went quite well as it did last week. However, by far the most exciting thing about today's practice was that Milo can now do the swimmer's turn! He had been practicing all week at home on stairs with a cone and this transferred like magic to the box.

Monday January 1st 2007 - Goals for 2007

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

My goals for Lucy's 2007 flyball year are for her to regain her straight return pass, prove herself in head-to-head racing with strange dogs, do more tugging with her treat tug, and race if a possible opportunity materializes. Mostly I just want to keep having fun with her and watch/help our flyball team continue to develop!