Sunday February 25th 2007 - Guests at another team's practice

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

Today Lucy and Sammy were guests at another team's practice. We started with double recalls with Sammy, with another dog working in the other lane. Lucy did well the first few recalls but then started doing her deeking around the last jump routine, so they suggested I modify how/where I pick her up which definitely helped. Then we moved on to head-to-head racing (no gates, not even between the boxes) with our lineup being Lucy, Sammy, and one of their dogs. We happened to be racing in the right lane which was good for Lucy since it meant she was turning away from the other lane. She did really well! As far as I know she didn't deek around any jumps, and she didn't seem phased when a dog from the other lane went sniffing near her during one of her runs. We realized that we hadn't set up the slant board but the dogs maintained their turns regardless. However, Lucy's turn was becoming pretty wide so at future practices I'll do some drills to help tighten it. Anyway, I was really happy with how she did today, especially considering the busy, lots-of-activity atmosphere compared to our tame, low-key team practices. Sammy did excellently today and she was fast! Neither dog crossed over at all. It was fun being part of a practice with so many people and dogs.

Here's a great shot of one of her bobbles:

Saturday February 24thd 2007 - Team practice

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

Did some solo runs (no head-to-head, no line-up) and after the first run, for the first time we removed the slant board to see what would happen. She maintained her turn, yippee! Of course, most of the time we'll leave it in place. I don't know if it's just my imagination, but it seems Lucy is happiest (ie fastest) when she's not running head-to-head or in a line-up. Not exactly ideal for flyball eh! Anyway, later we did some lineup racing with Sammy, Lucy going first. She didn't go around any of the jumps, yay! Sammy's still being released from far back though.

Saturday February 17th 2007 - Team practice

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

(Last week's practice was cancelled because TTH was in use for an event.) Today for the first time ever Lucy raced head-to-head with dogs she never saw before and no gates between the lanes! Two dogs from another team joined our practice for some head-to-head racing as a warmup for an upcoming tournament that they're in. I'm so proud of Lucy; she did just great. She never even thought about crossing over, and she didn't seem bothered when one of the other dogs came over to her lane and sniffed the ground for crumbs while I was holding her. The only time she didn't bring the ball back was when it fell out of the hole before she got there and it was hidden behind the slant board (which was the only prop we were using). We were racing as pairs with Sammy, alternating which dog went first, and the bonus is that with the excitement of having new dogs around she seemed to forget her worries of being passed coming back from the box: she took all of the jumps and I didn't have to block her! Mind you Sammy was being held a fair bit away from the last jump and not released until after we passed, but still this is great progress! We raced 2 races with 5 heats each.

Saturday February 3rd 2007 - Team practice

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

No special guests this week so we did some lineup racing with Sammy, mostly putting Lucy first. Lucy would take all the jumps when I met her at the second last one with Sammy held back a fair bit and not released until after we ran past them. She's still decent at passing on the way to the box thank goodness! Sadly, this month's house league has been cancelled due to bad driving weather.