Thursday August 10th 2006 - lesson with Claire at another outside venue Lucy had never been to before

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

I am so proud of Lucy! Today we had a flyball lesson at another place she's never been to before, in the country, outside, unfenced. As soon as she saw the box and the jumps and realized she was going to get to play flyball, she got all happy and excited. We started with some boxwork, using a slant board instead of eavestrough, did two or three turns with no jumps or ball, then quickly progressed to full runs (3 jumps, 4th as wing) with springloaded box. She was so excited to be playing flyball, leaning into my hands as I held her back before releasing, and we both had so much fun. Then we did some work towards passing with Sammy, with one dog doing a run and on the recall actually running past the next dog who was being held and then sent after the first dog finished passing. This is a great exercise to get Lucy comfortable with another dog running past her and it went well. NOT ONCE during the whole lesson did she make any false starts, go offcourse to sniff this or that, or miss any jumps. Sure she was a bit clumsy with the ball at the box sometimes, but I can live with that seeing as she did so great with everything else. Fun fun fun!

Also, recently came across a piece called "Learning to Fly" by Marisa Coppage. The second last paragraph really sums up how I feel about flyball. It is so well written that I thought I would include it here:

The heart of flyball is not about points, titles, ribbons, or even world records. It is not about breeding or training for success and it is not about playing to win. It is not about form, or method, or speed. The heart of flyball is about an entire crowd of people stopping what they are doing to cheer a dog on. It is about a little dog who does her very best to get a ball and bring it back to her person because for some odd reason that makes her person happy. It is about stopping on the way home to share a scoop of vanilla, because, win or lose, you both did your best and you both deserve it. It is about getting to spend one more day in this short lifetime with a dog who makes your world complete.

Almost enough to bring a tear to your eye, no? :^D