Saturday December 2nd 2006 - team practice (TTH)

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

Today we did some one-lane racing with Sammy and Bonnie in preparation for tomorrow's house league, with Lucy running last. She is really going wide in the passing area both on her way to and from the box, even though I'm not asking her to do a running pass. Seeing as dogs have such wonderful memories when it comes to unpleasant experiences I suspect she may be anticipating a dog "attacking" her in the passing area even though she's only ever had one negative passing experience. I'm confident that given more time and practice with her team members she will learn that they can be trusted and will overcome this little blip.

Saturday November 25th 2006 - team practice (TTH)

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

Today for the first time ever, Lucy and Sammy did head-to-head full run racing with no gates, and both dogs did great! The dogs turn in opposite directions so for the first few runs we set them up so that they were turning away from each other. We started with them running from just one jump back and quickly progressed to full runs. Then we had them swap lanes so that they'd be turning towards each other. Each dog remained in their correct lane, but both of them were like "What the!?" when doing their turns facing each other since never before had they seen another dog in the other lane with no gate separating them. Since we were short on handlers today there was no boxloader to urge them on to their proper boxes (which were set up against the wall) so we were really glad that the dogs did so well.

Saturday November 18th 2006 - team practice (TTH)

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

Did some recalls and no-ball boxwork. Today was the first ever flyball practice in which I didn't give her a single treat, instead rewarding with her new ball tug which I found out recently that she enjoys tugging. Although she tugged with some enthusiasm, I got the sense that she thought something was missing...

Wednesday November 15th 2006 - tug shaping sessions at home

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

A few days ago I started shaping sessions with Lucy to get her to fall in love with our fleece tug. I put the tug on the floor, shut my mouth and don't give any cues and she's now at the point where I can be a couple of metres away from it and she'll enthusiastically go and pick it up and tonight she's starting to bring it to me. This is the first real shaping exercise Lucy has done and I'm brand new to it too. It's a really fun process, watching the dog learn how to think for herself and figure out on her own what gets rewarded. I got a new tug tonight and used it, and she had no problem transferring her behaviour to this new one.

Saturday November 11th 2006 - flyball seminar with Theresa Rector

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

It was a long day chock full of flyball training tips! Lucy had a really tough time with the sprung box today, fumbling the ball because she wasn't getting her head where it needed to be. Something to work on with Lucy to increase her push off the box is sending her from close up to the loaded box and throwing a treat or toy out for her as she's doing the turn. I learned tons more but my brain is fried so I'll just stop here.

Sunday November 5th 2006 - House League Tournament #1

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

Today was Lucy's (and my) first ever (unofficial) flyball tournament! It was a totally casual atmosphere, props and training allowed and gates separating the lanes, and nobody kept track of who won/lost races, so it was very low-stress (for us humans at least). Our team today consisted of Lucy, Sammy, and a guest, and we didn't bother double-running to fill up the fourth spot. The venue was warm so to keep temperatures down doors were open on both sides, including one gigantic garage-size door. I was concerned that Lucy might decide that it would be more interesting to go and explore outside than play flyball (I had even seen deer a few hundred meters away when we arrived), but except for her giving one good hard look at the door as she was returning on a run towards the middle of the event, my concerns were for naught. With 6 races each with 4 heats (or is that 6 heats with 4 races? I'm not sure of the terminology), she ran a total of 24 runs which really tired her out. The most runs she had ever run in a day before is probably about a dozen at most. By the middle of it I was releasing her right up close to the start line and picking her up close to it as well so that she wouldn't have to run so far. She ran as first and last dog and did fine with both positions, provided Sammy was the one she passed. (She got intimidated by the other dog after a passing incident on her return from the box on one of her first runs.) I noticed by the end of the day Lucy's return path veered quite far to her right after clearing the pretend timers, giving the next dog (Sammy, who she's used to and comfortable with passing) a lot of clearance. I will keep an eye on this at our next practice and see if her path needs to be straightened out. The strangest thing she did all day was towards 3/4 of the way through the day: she was the first dog to run, she dropped the ball after the second jump, then completely stopped right between the pretend timers, blocking poor Sammy's way. (But she moved out of the way when I called her.) Oh yeah, and a few of the earlier times when I sent her from further back, she would run part way to the box, then get confused as to where she was supposed to go, then when she saw the boxloader urging her to the box she picked up her speed and finished the run. In summary, Lucy gave a very respectable performance today: She was fine with strangers as boxloaders (many thanks to the other teams for helping out!), and the majority of her runs were clean with the exception of a handful where she either fumbled the ball and didn't pick it up, or dropped the ball too soon, or missed a jump due to turning too wide. I will work on building up her stamina over the winter, and I will be buying a food-stuffable tug thing which I think Lucy will really enjoy. And now, I'm off to give her the best massage she's ever had!

Monday October 30th 2006 - Anniversary!

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

Happy 1st flyball anniversary, Lucy! Lucy's (and my) first ever flyball class was about a year ago, October 2005. From humble beginnings obediently complying to my strange requests for her to jump onto and off of a carpet-covered plank leaning against our living room wall, to now doing full runs and getting super-excited every time she sees a flyball lane, she has from day one been a wonderful dog to learn the sport with. It's a true joy for me to have the opportunity to witness her eager, enthusiastic enjoyment of the sport. I look forward to a future of more flyball with Lucy!

Saturday October 21st 2006 - team practice (TTH)

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

Practice went fine; nothing new to report. Due to various circumstances, Lucy's next team practice won't be until mid-November. Between now and then, we have a flyball seminar to look forward to and hopefully our first house league event as well!

Saturday October 14th 2006 - team practice (TTH)

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

Our teammates all having other commitments, today it was just Lucy and me, and today's session was all about proofing with loose balls, starting with just one and working our way up to more. She made some "mistakes" on some runs where she just went for the closest loose ball, but by the end of the practice she was doing full runs with 7 or 8 loose balls scattered on both sides of the lane at various places such as where the timers would be, right next to the box, offset from the jumps, and immediately in front of jumps. I had practiced some loose ball proofing at home this week as a warm-up to this. I think this will be a two steps forward, one step back thing, meaning the next time we try this she will likely be back to square one but hopefully won't take as long to progress to where we left off today. In any case, it was definitely a worthwhile exercise.

Saturday October 7th 2006 - team practice (TTH)

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

We started with some head-to-head racing with Sammy, and the two of them decided to play comedians. In the first run, I released Lucy a few seconds after Sammy started, and Lucy decided she wanted to run in Sammy's lane (what a good dog, she totally ignored Lucy). I wondered if she was trying to chase Sammy, but then she did it again the very next run, when Sammy hadn't been released yet. Once Lucy got it straightened out which lane she was supposed to run in, Sammy decided she wanted to play the same game so Sammy ran over to run in Lucy's lane (before Lucy had been released)! These were their first runs of the day and after those initial goofups they ran in their proper lanes the rest of the practice. Good news: Lucy and Sammy can now do running passes with each other! "Passing" has been going so well in recent practices that we decided to let the dogs do an actual running pass. Both dogs did excellently, no matter if they were the first or second dog to run! I videotaped today's session and it's fun to watch the pass in slow-mo. For some of the runs I set up the video camera for a good side shot close-up at the box at dog's-eye level. Watching it in slow-mo you can see how the dog actually catches the ball in the air so I now have a much better appreciation for the co-ordination it takes on the part of the dog! Also, from watching the slow-mo I could see that she's starting to develop a half-decent push off the box.