Saturday May 26th 2007 - team practice

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

Two-jump recalls with Jenn and Sammy off to the side went well. Participated in the "honoring the running dog" recall exercise and she did great even with 3 or 4 dogs in the lineup area (though off to the side a bit). She was quite happy with the canned food she was being rewarded with. A few full runs with some good tugging finished off her flyball day.

Saturday May 19th and Sunday May 20th 2007 - HDD tournament (Trenton hockey arena)

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

Despite a sleepless start (Friday night was Walter's first night at a motel and he thought he was supposed to sound the alarm at every single sound of 10 decibels or higher), it was another great tournament! Like last weekend, Lucy and Sammy shared a spot on BackDraft's Regular team. The hectic and noisy two-ring format didn't faze them at all and they both ran clean and consistent the whole tournament! Not a dropped ball or missed jump! They are really proving themselves to be reliable, solid flyball dogs. Both earned their FDCh titles this weekend and their consistent performance was a key factor in the team taking third place out of six teams in the Regular 4 division.

By far the biggest highlight of my weekend was that Lucy has started to tug as her reward! Until today (Sunday) I've only rewarded her with treats but her tug a-ha moment must have come to her Saturday night as she slept... because right from the get-go on Sunday she was tugging hard for all of her races and having a ball with it. The interaction of tugging provides a whole new level of fun for both Lucy and me compared to simply doling out treats and praise. I can definitely see phasing out the treats in the future (I was still giving her a treat or two after tugging, but only after she "won" the game by pulling the tug out of my hands) and hopefully even graduating to a more tuggable type of tug than the treat tug we're using now.

Another success is that she only bobbled the ball on 3 of her 20 heats which is a pretty darn good ratio for her! She still hasn't figured out that flyball is a *race* but that's ok, her a-ha moment is bound to come sooner or later and I'm really happy about the tug a-ha moment that happened!

Time-wise, from the few times that I looked she was in the low sixes. From manually timing the actual run times on the videos we took (ie not including the pass), her fastest was 5.5 on Sunday (which was also her best time at U-Fli), not bad at all considering the jumps were at 12" and she was starting from only 10 feet back due to the dog before her not being able to be passed into.

In summary I'm just so happy that she was totally confident and happy, getting into the game of it especially on Sunday. Our next tournament likely won't be for a long while but this was a good way to go on tourney-hiatus.

Temperature: Clear on Saturday, cloudy on Sunday, highs of about 17 degrees.

Here's a video of one of Lucy's heats. She's the fourth dog racing in the far lane.

Note the wagging tail while she's in the lineup!


Taking full photographic advantage of the gorgeous parkland at the tournament site; I think that's the Bay of Quinte behind the dogs. A sign on the nearby bridge calls it "The Gateway to the Trent-Severn Waterway".

Saturday May 12th 2007 - FBI tournament (Navan curling rink) - Lucy's and my first NAFA tournament!

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

Today Lucy raced in her first ever NAFA tournament! Backdraft had an opening on one of their teams so Lucy and Sammy are sharing a spot for a few tournies, this weekend being the first, until our own team has enough dogs ready to race next year. Lucy raced today and Sammy will race tomorrow. Anyway, Lucy ran great! Jumps were at full height and she ran last in the lineup. Coming in around 6.1 seconds (from the few times I glanced at the clock) she's not the fastest dog, but you know what? She ran clean each and every heat, taking all of the jumps and bringing the ball back even when she bobbled it (which wasn't very often with the exception of the fourth of five races where she bobbled 3/3), so I'm very proud of her! Her passes into Solo were very good and she was the last dog so no return passes to deal with. Of note, she did some nice treat-tug tugging after being treated after each run and it helped rev her up a bit; I'll tap into that more now that I'm reminded that she does have some tug desire (though I wouldn't call it tug drive just yet!). Warmups all day were one or two no-ball turns followed by a run with ball started from one or two jumps back. All runs started from 10-15 feet back. After earning her first title a few weeks ago (CGN) she has added a couple of more new titles under her belt after today: FD and FDX! Weather: Mostly sunny, 6 degrees in the morning up to 14 in the afternoon.

The customary after-the-last-race photo

Saturday May 5th 2007 - team practice

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

Five recalls over 12" jumps: sometimes she'd bounce, sometimes she'd sneak in an extra stride, and a couple of times she hit the jumps enough to dislodge the top 1" slat (good thing it's the special splinter-free kind). Up-close boxwork with BR box: Not a single bobbled ball out of about a dozen turns! Either she was feeling particularly unclutzy today (after getting the clutziness out of her system during the recalls) or she likes the BR box better than ours. Full runs with Sammy over 12": once or twice she dropped the ball after the first jump coming back, not sure why, could have been the 12" jumps were a little overwhelming for her today? Lucy and Sammy took turns going first for the full runs and when Lucy was first, a couple of times she deeked around the last jump but also a couple of times she didn't. One last note, last week I started to modify the release hold where instead of straddling her and holding her collar/shoulders, I kneel down and prop her back legs on mine so that she has something to push off against. Worked on sending her to treats at home this week to get her more comfortable with it which seems to be working. Needless to say I don't think I'll be trying this with 20-lbs-heavier Walter!

Saturday April 28th 2007 - team practice

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

Did some recalls and 5 runs over 12" jumps with Lucy first then Sammy. She did her usual going around the last jump thing a few times. Then we did full runs with the cutest, most unthreatening little dog, a guest from another team, Lucy being "passed" by that dog. Out of 6 or 7 runs she went around the last jump twice but I was glad that she was able to do 5 of them correctly even though there was no actual pass happening.

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.