First practice at new location

As of the start of this month our club now practices at a new location that's quite a bit closer for most of us. Due to agility I've missed the first two practices so this was our first time here.

This was also the first day we tried using some new stride regulator props to help get Lucy to land/takoff between jumps rather than right on top of the jumps. Today she just did recalls with the props in place.

Also we tried a new adjustable fake box today to help one of our dogs figure out how to pick up the ball and turn at the same time. Today it was on the flattest setting and she was doing just great with it.

Region 20 Co-Host NAFA tournament (Carp)

This was the first ever co-hosted tournament in Region 20 and Lucy and I were happy to be a part of it as well as helping organize it. Lucy ran on OTB's open team, running in fourth, same as in August. Again she was running slow, with times often in the 5.8 range, even with the jumps still at 7".

Oh! But the great part is she did some really great tugging on Sunday with a non-treat tug! Usually we just use her treat tug and as long as she grabs a hold of it then I'm a happy camper. Well, for some reason the thought occurred to me Saturday night "hey, why not try the new water-bottle-tug I bought at Guides Canins in August?". Then I thought "no, the sound of the crunching bottle would be too loud and be an unfair distraction to the other dogs." Then I thought, "well, flyball is so noisy as it is, and lots of people use squeaky toys as flyball motivators without causing any problems." So we gave it a go on Sunday, and she LOVED it! She ran a couple of full races with the bottle tug only, no treats in the lanes at all. After that though her enthusiasm for it started to fade so we went back to the treat tug. Still, while it lasted it was great and she was really tugging hard. Will definitely use it again at the next tournament.