Practice Finally!!!

I just cleared some snow from the grass and we now have a practice lane in the backyard again! Enough to do box turns any way. Zio took a few visual clues with his manly, green Chuck-it to remind him what to do on the turn (he tried twice to go behind the chute barriers). Once he remembered, he was doing even better than before! Zio was very excited to be running after balls, playing tug, and just having fun again. I'm going to try and get video to watch his feet placement and drive later.

Waiting...

Too much ice and snow! The white Christmas was okay, but we're itching to get out and have some practice time! I snapped Zio's Chuck-it in the cold by tapping it on a hard surface to get the snow out of the cup. The original orange color had faded to a girly pink anyway, so now he has a manly lime green model!

More snow predicted this afternoon, so I may have to eventually shovel a practice lane for him in the back yard.

A White Christmas!

Catching frisbees in the snow and getting new chew toys! Someone must have been a good boy!

Blizzard!

No practice for us in the snow. Zio seemed to have a blast playing in it! He was so excited to be jumping through the drifts! Too bad it was dark by the time I could get out there with him.

Day 5 of Cone Training

Again managed to get in about 20-25 repetitions as we work on building muscle memory. At some point, I'm going to switch to one of my little 12" cones. He keeps knocking the big 18" cone down driving off the box, so he's not really caring about going around it. He would prefer to just go through it to get to the ball quicker, which is better for a nice tight turn. Maybe a few more days of the big cone before the transition. Raining this morning though and changing to snow later. I'm not sure how much, if any practice we'll get today.

Day 4 of Cone Training

We managed to get in 20-25 repetitions in yesterday. He was a little sloppy at first, so I used the visual cue again a few times. This got him back on track hitting the box higher and toward the center. The big progress for him was continuing to go to the box on command. Toward the end of the last session, he watched me pick up the ball with the Chuck-it and ran to the box and did a turn before I said anything!

Day 3 of Cone Training

We managed to get in 40 to 50 repetitions yesterday. He's still doing great in getting all four paws on the box, but I did notice that he was hitting the box to the right of center (he's a lefty). I moved the cone out slightly to give him more room to turn and it seemed to help. The big progress was that he's starting to get the hang of going to the box on command rather than needing the visual cue of the ball on the Chuck-it.

Zio's YouTube Debut

Sometimes it's hard for me to see exactly where Zio is placing his feet on the box, so I had my mother-in-law use my camera to video a couple of turns. I have to say he's looking pretty good for just the second day of cone training! This is also my first effort at using Windows Movie Maker.

The YouTube version is here

Cone Practice for Swimmer's Turns

I've been practicing swimmer's turns with Zio for flyball. I'm attempting to use the cone method to teach him to hit the box. The basic theory is to place the cone on a flat open surface and practice sending the dog away from you, around the cone, and then throw the reward back away from the cone so that the dog learns to turn sharp and drive around the turn. Once you've mastered that step, you place a turn box behind the cone so there is still room to go around the cone without interference from the box. Once that is mastered, you keep inching the cone toward the box until the dog starts getting a paw or two on the box during the turn. (Loads of excitement and praise here). Eventually, the dog has no choice but to get all four paws on the box during the turn and then keep repeating this until it's ingrained.

Yesterday was our first day trying this method and I initially used Zio's frisbee as the chase toy. He's used to being sent around "me" during disc practice, so it was a matter of teaching him to go around the cone instead. After some progress, I changed to using the Chuck-it with a tennis ball. His tug is the reward when he brings the ball back to me. He did great at first, but when I tried backing away from the cone, he would try to go around "me" again instead of the cone. I used one of my agility jumps between the cone and I to block him until he got the hang of going around the cone.

At today's Full Speed Ahead team practice, Shannon helped me add the practice box to the mix with a make shift chute on either side of the box. It really didn't take him too many times to have the cone close enough to the box so that he was driving off the box. He did so well, that I brought the practice box home to mimic the setup here.

I would really like to get him ready for the February tournament. I'm hoping to have him ready for some singles or doubles runs.

Zio and I

Zio was one of a litter of nine puppies picked up by animal control in a small Texas town in early July, 2008. We drove to Dallas and picked him up from a rescue when he was about 12 weeks old. Border Collies are my favorite breed for all of the reasons that get too many of them into trouble with owners that aren't prepared for living life with this breed. Not everyone is cut out to provide the activities, exercise, and mental stimulation needed for the majority of BC's.

I try to help with rescuing abandoned border collies from kill shelters when I can, but it's a heartbreaking issue at times. At any one time, there are at least a dozen that I'm following across the country that I'd adopt myself if I could. Instead, I do what I can to help and try and get them out of a bad situation. If you're ready for a border collie, please be open to the idea of rescuing one from a shelter.