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.