Wednesday April 25th 2007 - practice

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

While at the agility field today I recalled and sent her (treat/bait bag as target) over 4 jumps 10 feet apart at 16". She seemed to be more comfortable with it there than at flyball practice and her bounces were midway between the jumps which is good.

Saturday April 21st 2007: U-Fli Tournament, singles and pairs (Carp Curling Hall)

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

It was Lucy's and my first ever official flyball tournament as well as the first ever U-Fli tournament held in Canada and she did fantastic, no issues at all. She seemed really comfortable at this venue, bringing the ball back every time despite bobbles of varying degrees. It probably helped that the hall was really quite for singles and pairs. She raced 16 heats: 2x4 in singles and 2x4 in pairs, no crossing, no being crossed on, no hesitating, no worries :-) A best time of 5.500 (including the start) over 9". It was a great day. And now the details...

The first race was singles. For the first 15 seconds of warm-up she was a little scattered, but once she realized what was going on she got the idea and did some turns with ball, ending with a recall. All 4 heats were fumble-free and clean! She started her runs from 25-30 feet. We didn't take stats for this race but from what I noticed on the time clock my best start was 0.2, and her times (including the start) were as follows over 9" jumps: 6.017 - 5.629 - 5.500 - 5.885

Next was pairs with Sammy. I was a little too ambitious with the pass in the first heat so Lucy said "nope" and went around the first jump but immediately got back on track. Jumps were at 7" (no time to raise them to 9").


(1) Start: 0.253 Sammy: 5.726 Lucy: 7.722 (bobble) Total: 13.448 but it was NF due to Lucy missing the first jump
(2) Start: 0.116 Sammy: 5.842 Lucy: 6.855 (bobble) Total: 12.697
(3) Start: 0.746 Sammy: 6.178 Lucy: 6.544 Total: 12.722
(4) Start: 0.083 Sammy: 5.412 Lucy: 6.471 Total: 11.883 (this would be our best pairs time of the day)
Then our last singles race of the day, jumps at 7" (again, no time to raise them to 9"). Started her at 10-15 feet this time to see how it would go.

(1) Start: 0.717 Lucy: 8.583 (big bobble, rolled behind the box)
(2) Start: 0.236 Lucy: 6.063 (bobble)
(3) Start: 0.110 Lucy: 5.705
(4) Start: unknown Lucy 6.633

And finally our last pairs race of the day, jumps back at 9":

stats to follow
Here are Sammy and Lucy after the very last race of the day, which was Sammy and Lucy from Best Friends' Flyball Fanatics vs. Sammy and Lucy from Hot Diggity Dogs!

And here's Lucy with her certificates. Every dog racing in singles and pairs gets one:


The weather was sunny and warm, 9 degrees early AM up to 23 degrees in PM.

Saturday April 14th 2007 - Team practice

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

Thanks to a video camera and the frame by frame feature of my vcr, something peculiar surfaced about the way Lucy jumps: she's taking off so far from the jumps that her landing hand barely clears the jump wing, a far cry from the ideal where the dog's bounce is midway between the jumps. This is worthy of more close observation and see if some stride regulation exercises are called for. The following series illustrate (yes, I have WAY too much time on my hands!):

Sunday April 1st 2007 - House League #5

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

Today was the the last house league of the 2006/7 season! Here's the summary of the day:

- How suitable for April Fool's Day, I suppose: On the very first heat of Lucy's very first race, she got crossed over on when the green dog in the other lane decided it would be more fun to chase Lucy than to go to their own box. In the dog park, Lucy absolutely loves being chased, but it's "a whole different ball game" when she's playing flyball as she seems to feel a bit stressed/vulnerable. Fortunately it wasn't a high-drive-type of dog and didn't nip at her or anything; it doesn't seem to have unsettled her as no new issues cropped up over the course of the day. It was the only time she was crossed on today so with all the interference-free runs that followed I think she's forgotten all about it.
- In preparation for racing with BackDraft in May we ran 3 or 4 races with them, Lucy always running last, with the jumps at full height which she's never done before. I think she had a little bit of a crush on their cute male BC, Skip...
- She handled BackDraft's box well as her fumble rate was about the same as normal.
- Lucy was timed in her third race of the day with the jumps at full height (these times don't include passing time):

6.41 - fumble
5.97 - clean
6.09 - clean
5.90 - clean

Boy if I thought she deer-hopped over minimum height jumps, does she ever do it on the max height jumps!! She looks so hoppy going to the box but I can't tell if she's equally hoppy on the way back so I'll videotape her at the next practice to see what's going on. The good news is she can run fast when she wants to, so if we can only figure out how to get her to bring that speed onto the flyball lane then her times can only improve. Of course we'll keep working on tightening her turn too.

- For one race I had someone else hold her and I was standing up close near the box to get her running faster but we didn't time it.

In summary, it was a good way to end the house league season as there were no "issues" today and she ran pretty consistently. House league was a very valuable experience that allowed me to learn a lot about my dog. It will be so much more fun when the rest of our team is doing full runs and joining us in the racing lanes next time!

Saturday March 31st 2007 - Team practice

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

Timed Lucy on a couple of solo runs using no slats: her first was 5.5something and her second was 5.4something. She does this terrifically time-wasting deer-hop thing on the way to the box, so there's definitely room for improvement! Then we did a few lineup runs with Sammy, and Lucy's pass into Sammy is going really well, with Lucy doing only a slight arc. Also a few head to head runs against Sammy which went fine.

Saturday March 24th 2007 - Team practice

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

Started Lucy's remedial return pass training today, doing a two-jump recall with someone crouching down a few meters back from the timers as if their invisible dog was next in the line-up. At first she gave a leery look at the person, but after a few goes she was nice and straight. Also tried full runs with Jenn holding Sammy in the lineup but with Sammy to the left of Jenn, which went ok too. In anticipation of the upcoming U-Fli pairs event, we worked on passes with Lucy passing into Sammy which went really well. Last but not least, Jenn ran Lucy for a couple of solo runs while I boxloaded. After a couple of tries, she got the idea. For most of her runs today we left the box unsprung.

Friday March 16th 2007 - Team practice

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

Since TTH isn't available this weekend, we practiced at our old flyball stomping grounds, Best Friends. Focused on no-jump boxwork with unsprung box and I video recorded her so I could later watch to see exactly what she's doing at the box.

Sunday March 11th 2007 - guests at another team's practice

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

First we did head-to-head lineups with Lucy running after a big handsome chocolate lab. Well, aside from treats, tall male dogs are Lucy's favourite thing and the first time he ran past her on his way back from the box, she had to go flirt with him instead of go down the lane. After that she got back on track but still she had some trouble peeling her eyes off of him. Then we did a speed drill using two jumps: someone else holds her and I'm up close to the box facing her, I start running and call her name as soon as she passes me. The boxloader said she was definitely picking up the pace, particularly on the way back. We ended with more head-to-head lineups, this time with two different dogs in our lineup, Lucy running second, and in the left lane with a different box. She fumbled the ball without picking it up several times and I imagine it's the combination of different box, being in the left lane with nothing to block the view of the other box, and running with two new dogs. But also the captain noticed that Lucy catches the ball in the air several inches in front of the box rather than putting her mouth over the hole, which increases the chance of bobbles. So, I'll be doing some work with her with an unsprung box to get her to better position herself.

Sunday March 4th 2007 - House League #4

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

A great day! Here's the summary:

- This is the first house league for which they removed the gate down the middle, leaving a section between the boxes.
- A familiar teammate boxloaded for every race and did a fantastic job of putting the right type of ball in the right hole despite the different line-up for every race.
- No one crossed over on Lucy.
- Lucy didn't cross over, but I had no worries that she would.
- Started her from 30 feet back for the first 4 races, which seemed to be a good distance. Started her closer at the end because she was getting pooped.
- She had a lot fewer fumbles than in the past, and when she did fumble she always brought it back except for the last race.
- She seems to be getting more relaxed with the whole thing (passing aside). No more worries that she'll run out the doors in avoidance, yay!
- Passing into Sammy went great. I didn't attempt any running passes into the guest dogs.


And here's the play-by-play:


Race 1 - left lane - Lucy, Sammy, guest, guest
- 1st heat: Clean
- 2nd/3rd heats: Dropped the ball after the third jump on one and went around the last jump on the other
- 4th heat: Clean

Race 2 - right lane - Lucy, Sammy, guest, guest
- All heats: Clean! (no running passes though)

Race 3 - left lane - guest, guest, Sammy, Lucy
- Put Lucy in anchor since she did well at being "passed" into for the second race and didn't want to push it
- All heats: Clean! Some good running passes with Sammy too.

Race 4 - left lane - Sammy, guest, Lucy
- All heats: Clean!

Race 5 - right lane - Sammy, guest, Lucy
- All heats: Clean! She's getting tired though.

Race 6 - left lane - Sammy, guest, Lucy
- 1st heat: Fumbled ball and didn't pick it up
- 2nd heat: Clean
- 3rd heat: Fumbled ball and was attempting to pick it up but I called her off because it was rolling into the other lane.
- 4th heat: Clean!

Two pooped out pooches at the end of a long but fun day!

Saturday March 3rd 2007 - Team practice

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

Did some head-to-head with a guest. For a couple of runs we started behind Sammy since Lucy usually never has to run past anyone on her way to the box. She got confused and didn't know where to go, but that's probably partially because we were starting from way far back which she's not used to. Also, did a couple of runs with someone else holding her and me up close to the box; it would be interesting to time it to see if it makes any difference.