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!