Extra Practice

I noticed I haven't posted anything in over a week, so here's an update on what we've been up to since the last post. We continue to begin practices with a few wall turns and then move to the box (without a ball). At this point, we are still using the strider to help shape the turn.

During the last week, I noticed that he'll turn wide sometimes and ignore the stride regulator on the recall. Since then, I've added some poles on the ground, parallel to the lane, to force him to come straight back. He's gone wide a few times since, but he doesn't get to tug when he does that... so he seems to do it right after that. I'm realizing, again, that I need to move closer to the box with him and not move back until he's solid with what we are doing.

We've added another team practice Friday to see if we can't work on some things together. I'm helping train Jeep, so it's exciting to see him making progress. I think he's the fast height dog we desperately need. The sooner he's running, the sooner the other dogs won't have to jump 11 inches.

Stride

In considering Zio's turns during the demo at Twister Agility, I've decided to go back to using a stride regulator rather than the jump board. This was also influenced by a video review of the past year in which I watched him do a few perfect turns in Memphis over Memorial Day weekend in May.

In reflecting on how I was training the turn prior to our Memphis trip, I had determined that he was too dependent on the prop being there as a cue. I had started training him to do his turns without the jump board so that he would realize that he needed to do a turn whether it's there or not. I think I went back to the board because it was easier to use in practice with other dogs running.

Zio can turn correctly all day long with the prop in place, but put him in a race situation without the board... he completely reverts back to punching the box. The strider has the same affect on his turns (for the most part) but is less visual than the board. The last two evenings went well with just the stride regulator, so we'll try this for a while and see how he does in practices.

I've been playing around with a new simplified team logo that will be easier to silk screen onto a red shirt and this is what I've come up with so far.

Twister Filming

We spent yesterday morning at Twister Agility. Local TV station KSBI was there to film some footage of agilty and flyball to be used during Pat Willis' new television show. Pat really goes out of her way to help promote canine sports and was a wonderful hostess. She even provided a great lunch for everyone!

We really need to work on our demos though. Although Zio wasn't one of them this time, we had some dogs crossing over almost every time until we switched the lineups around. I hope they got enough footage to help promote the sport. More passing with Cody is needed too. We can now add Wisp to the list of dogs that have gone around jumps to avoid him.

Gums

As we were practicing and tugging yesterday, I noticed that Zio wasn't clamping on to the tug like he usually does. Checking his teeth and gums, I noticed he has a small slice in the gum above one of his upper teeth that was bleeding. Earlier in the week, he was bleeding from catching a well chewed frisbee that is now in the trash. I'm guessing this is the same injury. He's going to the vet Monday to see if it should get stitched or just let it heal naturally.

I took the goofball for a walk this morning in the 24 degree, blustery weather. I normally let him go off leash when we get to the area that has a large pond. The geese were too much to take for a border collie and he took off running after them. He only got his feet wet before I stopped him. A few minutes later he took off and was neck deep, swimming after them! The water was actually freezing on his outer coat within minutes as we walked back home. After rolling in the grass and shaking numerous times, we came in to thaw out. Needless to say he smells like pond water now.

UPDATE: The vet said his gum should be healed in a few days on it's own. We'll hold off on any tugging for a few days.

More Turns

Not really doing anything new. We have continued our sessions with a few wall turns, move to the box without the ball, and then finish with one or two half runs with the ball. Some of his turns are really, really good. I know he would be running 3.9's if he did those turns and recalls in tournaments. We'll keep at it.

I've been going back and watching videos from the the 2010 tournaments and it's good to see the progress he's made since some of those early ones. His return is better now than early in the year too.

Sunday

We had a good indoor practice at Canine Sports Academy yesterday with everone seeming to make progress with their dogs. Zio was pretty rock steady and was doing good turns with the jump board in place. We did run one exercise without props when we added Cody into the Speeding Sheepdog team. Connie said that Zio's turns were good without the prop... so I'm hoping that continuing to practice turns will solidify his turns in a tournament. It's good having the practices a little more planned and organized.

We also took Zio to A1 Pet Emporium and he got a Christmas picture taken by the their tree. They had a Santa to pose with, but Zio wasn't having anything to do with the guy in the scary red suit. For one, he was wearing scary dead things on his feet (leather boots) and that is an immediate warning sign in his mind. Heck, he won't even come to me if I'm wearing dead things on my feet. Second, the guy came over to try and be friends and Zio does much better if he can check things out while the person isn't paying attention.

Box Work

After a few days off, we did some wall and box work last night in the back yard. I was sending him to the wall from about ten feet and he is really pounding off the wall fast and hard! We moved to the box and basically mimicked what we had just done on the wall and he was really punching off the box well. I considered adding a ball into the mix, but preferred to keep this success going. We are only using the box and a ten inch jump board.

Sure Shots had mentioned in conversation that we would be welcome to head to Dallas some weekend and practice with them. I would like that for Zio because he needs the practice of doing his turns while racing. It may not be fair to the others though because they may not want to travel. That might impact the quality of their training and I hesitate to do that. I guess I'll waiting to hear back from some that haven't responded to know whether we can get that done during January some time.

Vet Trip

Zio started with diarrhea Sunday morning and continued through Monday evening. I had heard that a few tablespoons of plain canned pumpkin mixed with their food will help, so I decided to give it a try. His symptoms never improved so he headed to the vet yesterday to get some meds he's used previously and to get a bordetella booster.

He ended up getting a bag of fluids pushed into him instead because of dehydration. I know many would have probably waited, but I have a hard time not worrying about him. I'm sure glad my wife took him in. The good news is that he has already firmed up again. He'll go back later for his bordetella shot once he's hydrated again.

FSA Revamp

Well, what had been hinted at came true over the weekend and our captain has decided to take a break from flyball for a while. He had a lot of changes happen during the last year and felt it would be best to step out and catch his breath. Although I am now the captain, I really expect it to be more of an administrative role going forward. Susan Owen kind of took the role of note taker. Connie, Michele, and probably Katie will be sort of like training coordinators during practices to keep track of which dogs need what training, etc. Although it's sad that we won't see Si and Tristen for a while, I think we'll come out stronger for the change, if for no other reason than it will give people more of a reason to be involved.

Next year is going to be very exciting. We'll start out competing in Division 4 and only have two tournaments to get our Speeding Sheepdogs tuned up before the qualifier in Grove during April. Of course, we have three months of winter practice before hand, but it looks like we'll run Wisp, Cody, Zio, and Jean-Luc together. Unfortunately, the Step On It team will only start out with Deuce, Scout, and Luigi and need to compete as pickup until one of the other dogs is ready to race on a team. I guess we will always have to look at shuffling a dog here or there whenever we have an odd number.

Purina Farms Pics

The Speeding Sheepdogs

Zio

Jean-Luc, Wisp, and Scout

Off and Running Team
Susan and Jean-Luc, Tristen boxloading, Michele and Cody, Katie and Luigi, Connie and Deuce

Championship Weekend!

We had a very good tournament! The Speeding Sheepdogs of Wisp, Scout, Zio, and Jean-Luc set a club best time of 18.419 seconds during the Dream Team Challenge on Friday! Zio set a personal best time of 4.108 seconds (including pass) during an earlier run and almost did it again with a 4.110 during the club best run. We had numerous runs in the 18's as the afternoon wore on. Katie did well in adjusting to passing with a fast dog the more races we ran. Officially, we took third place in our division, but we had decided beforehand that we were running for time and not points. We did not rerun any faults other than false starts.

We went undefeated during the first day of Championship racing on Saturday, going 4-0 in our matches. Burst was still having issues with passing in every match, but Meekah was able to come in and save a couple of matches that had gone down to the fifth race. (best 3 of 5)

Zio had a spectacular crash in the first match of the day Saturday that took out three jumps and knocked the fourth sideways. He still managed to do a decent turn and grab the ball. Of course there weren't any jumps to return over after the destruction. He wasn't injured and continued to race all weekend.

The Off and Running team of Cody, Deuce, Luigi, and Jean-Luc went undefeated and took 1st place in division 7 of the regular tournament Saturday. Michele and Cody recorded a perfect 0.000 start during one of the later races which I believe is the first one for Full Speed Ahead. Connie has also achieved a perfect start, but I believe it was while she competed with Dogs Gone Wild.

Sunday wasn't nearly as good for our Championship team. Burst went outside the lane again on a pass and got tangled in the timing light's cord. She injured her leg or shoulder and Meekah had to complete the remaining races. We lost the first three matches of the day before beating the eventual Division 5 champions, High Fives, in our last match (their only defeat). Our 5-3 record was good enough for second place after a tiebreaker.

Off and Running brought home another 1st place in the Sunday regular tournament and set a team best of 21.012 seconds. Cody had another perfect start with Doug running him for Michele.

Next year will have us racing in division 4 initially. I have no doubt that with some of the faster dogs coming along in training, we will be running in the 17's by summer time.

Zio's Crash is below.

Counting Down!

Just a few days left until we leave for St. Louis and the championships. Practice was good Sunday with Zio holding his turn while racing Wisp. Of course this is with the jump board in place. I'll practice a few turns tonight and tomorrow and it will be as good as it will get until after the championship.

I've noticed that he tends to have problems with his turns after a box loader mistakenly puts his ball in the wrong side. In tournaments, it can take a few warm-up sessions to just get him turning the right way after punching the box. The ball got loaded on the wrong side for him twice during the last five practice runs with the team Sunday. For my own sanity, I want to do some repetitions here in the backyard so it's as clear as can be going into Dream Team on Friday.

Our Dream Team of Wisp, Scout, Zio, and Jean-Luc have the potential to get in the low 18 second range. That would be too fast for our division in the Championships Saturday and Sunday. If we had run a sub-19 second race a month earlier, we would be racing in a faster division.

Next year, we will be racing against faster teams in division 4, so I'd expect us to look at which dogs will let us be competitive. Our fastest team would be Wisp, Cody, Zio, and Jean-Luc if we had to decide today. Sometime next year, Maverick, Fly, Jet, and Jeep could be in that mix. Burst and Meekah can still be in the mix too with continued training. At some point, we're going to have to decide as a club how our top team gets selected. Hopefully we can decide how to do that without hurting anyone's feelings.

Interesting...

Think Sgt. Shultz from Hogan's Heros if you are old enough to remember. I tried a little twist on sending Zio to the box this evening. No ball, just sent him to the box from about ten feet.

As soon as I sent him, I started running away instead of waiting on him. The second time, I put a ball in the box and did the same thing. He completely ignored the ball and drove hard off the box to catch up to me. I absolutely love the punch off the box, but I'd hate for him to "forget" that ball during championships in a week. We did it about five more times, eventually sending him from about twenty feet. He ignored the ball every time and drove to me.

I'll try it some more tomorrow, but eventually, I'll put some jumps up and do a real start and see what happens.

Turning

Zio and I practiced a little bit yesterday evening. More of the same really... doing some walls turns and then some box turns without the ball. The main difference is that I set the box up against the brick wall where we do wall turns instead of walking over to the privacy fence. My logic is that we do wall turns here and I want to do box turns the same way.

The Championship weekend is getting closer! This time next week, I'll be getting ready for my last day of work before heading to St. Louis.

Team Practice

A good team practice at the field today. I had made some two inch puppy jumps, some regular six inch jumps, and another ten inch jump board with help of Susan Owens' husband Richard.

Tug and the green dogs hit the lanes first. Tug looked good breaking in the puppy jumps. Susan hopes to have him ready to run by spring when he turns one. Jet made progress as Katie was able to send him to the box and recall over all four jumps. I think Katie hopes to have Jet ready for the February tournament, which shouldn't be a problem. Jeep did recalls next to Zio and was better toward the end about not chasing. Later Jeep worked on box turns with mixed results. Susan has decided to work on getting him to go over and back with just a jump board at home for a bit. I saw some progress with Si and Fly today as he's beginning to send her to the box by command instead of luring her. Maverick recalled over all four jumps without baby gates and Michele took one of our old boxes home to start doing box work with him. Jane's two dogs are doing great on recalls, so I think it's time to start teaching some turns. Later in the session, Connie worked with Michele on Quigli's box turn.

Jean-Luc did passing drills with Cody and did great. Burst worked on passing with Zio and did great after a few initial refusals. Luigi worked on doing his box turn while racing Deuce and was doing really well keeping his turn.

Zio and Wisp took to the lanes in a mock race setup. Zio practicing on keeping his turn intact while racing and Wisp working on turning the right way while racing a dog to his left. We tried a few things with Wisp, but it seemed to work best with Daniel up by the box on the ball side calling him. The last two in a row he turned correctly toward Daniel, so we'll call it great progress. Zio turned way wide on his first run without even going over the jumps on the return. After that miscue, he ran flawlessly every time and kept a really nice turn. More of that to come for both of them with winter homework.

Zio ended his practice by doing pairs runs with Jean-Luc. This one was passing practice for Jean-Luc and Katie at the Dream Team Challenge.

Hit It!

Zio surprised me yesterday evening while we practiced turns. I gave him Monday and Tuesday off from practice after the tournament, so this was the first time since Bonham. I went back to basics and did four or five wall turns with him and he was really doing great! We then went over to the box using the 10" jump board. I normally just set the box against the fence, but Zio was hitting it so hard and high (without the ball) that it was tipping back. I had to stop and brace the top of the box so he wasn't lifting it off the ground. No jumps, no ball... just sending him to the box from about ten feet. I was soooooo impressed with how fast he was turning. I'm talking Hyper Flight dog fast. Hit the box and springing back in one motion.

I should have stopped with that progress. I didn't though and put the ball in the box. He did three more great turns, but missed the ball each time. I should have stopped with that progress. I started envisioning him getting to the tournament and not getting his ball though, so I stopped rewarding him if he didn't get the ball. Of course he went back to his slow turn, pausing on the box to get the ball. I realized after the fact that I should have not worried about the ball as long as he was pounding the turns out perfectly. I can hear Mike Keck's words in my head...."Initially, the ball might bounce off of them, but the ball is easy to teach and they will figure it out." Maybe not verbatim, but the same thought.

I think I'll start on the wall again next time without the ball and see if I can get him to pound out the turns like that again and be ecstatic about that progress.

Quigli's Record Run!

New FSA Best Time!

We lowered the club's best time to 18.843 seconds Sunday as we took first place in our division! The team was Wisp, Scout, Zio, and Burst. Michele ran Quigli in singles and he is now the World Record holder for Cavalier King Charles Spaniels! Cody ran for the first time on the Off and Running Team and helped them run several times in the 21's along with Jean-Luc who did awesome in his team debut running the anchor position.

Zio's turn fell apart again at the tournament. I'm struggling to find an answer to make it stick. He can do practice all day long and get it right and then completely forget at a tournament. I need to find a way to duplicate a tournament at practice and correct him on the spot. I'm guessing that it won't get fixed before the championships. It's going to be more of a winter homework deal.

Team Practice Update

Sunday practice went very well! Zio did great turns with his props, although I'm fairly certain it won't hold up without the props at this point. We're just too close to our next tournament and the championships. We'll keep working this way probably until after St Louis next month and then start working on maintaining the turn without them.

Susan Owen decided that Jean-Luc needs some practice time running last on the Off and Running Team, which makes sense. There isn't any reason to rush him and cause problems after taking the time to teach him a good box turn. I'm not sure, but I think Meekah and Burst are going to swap spots and have Meekah running with Step on It with Burst as a backup in Bonham. I think that is a better choice. I just don't see being able to fix Burst's passing issue without a lot of practice time that we don't have. If Burst does run, it will probably be in the last position. That will give us Wisp, Scout, Zio, and Meekah looking to break into the 18 second range on Step On It and Cody, Deuce, Luigi, and JL running for Off and Running.

I would guess at this point, our Dream Team line up for Speeding Sheepdogs will just substitute Jean-Luc for Meekah in the last position. That way, the front three dogs will have all have experience with their running order and it won't mess them up for the championships. I have visions of the Speeding Sheepdogs team breaking 18.5 that Friday. :)

Repetitions

Zio is doing great on his "T" prop. We did a couple of practice sessions yesterday and he hasn't missed a beat. He is just an absolute tug-o-maniac too! We could do more repetitions on the box, but he is tugging like crazy and doesn't want to stop. I love the intensity of it, so I hate to cut it too short... just short enough that he still wants to tug more. We'll keep plugging away at the turns until the next team practice and we'll see if there is any progress.

Susan Owen and I have been discussing how to keep newer people interested long enough to stick with the training. I think we have a lot of good ideas that could help... like a training chute to get the new dogs doing more than just recalls, having the new trainers help with box loading or pass calling, and letting them run an experienced dog at times. We definitely need to do something different.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". - Albert Einstein

The "T"

I've seen it done with a height slat, so I've improvised with a spare jump bar from an agility jump. If you picture the stride regulator (aka: piece of gutter) across the lane as the top of a "T", the jump bar forms the vertical piece running parallel to the lane. I've placed it slightly off center (toward the ball side) to get him to stride slightly to the right to get the angle for the turn. He seems to do this automatically if there isn't a ball, so I'll try doing this with and without the ball to see if it helps.

My quick Paint depiction...

Resuming Backyard Practice

Zio and I will go back to practicing at the "local" practice facility this evening. He had some nice turns during the demo Saturday with the jump board in place, but was inconsistent at practice yesterday with just the stride regulator we've been using at home. Zio also seemed leery of close passes with Cody on Saturday. After a close pass, he bypassed all the jumps in the next race to avoid Cody. I gave him a little more room on the last run and he did fine. Jean-Luc was avoiding while passing Cody the previous week, so we'll need to do some passing drills with Cody so the other dogs gain some confidence he won't be in the middle of the lane on passes.

Si had an idea that seems to have focused Burst on staying in the lane. Basically, Tristen stands near the timing lights with a ball held in the center of the lane for Burst to see the target. It worked like a champ too! I'm not sure how close the timing can be with Jean-Luc having to wait until Tristen clears the lane, but for now, Burst is going over the jumps. Maybe next week we can work on getting every one's passing a little more comfortable for all the dogs. I have the impression that we may not need to be too close on the passes for St. Louis because our breakout will be 18.75 seconds. Bonham will give us an idea of how much we may need to slow down, if any.

The Off and Running team of Cody, Deuce, Luigi, and Scout had a shaky beginning on their first run, but got progressively better every time as the dogs became accustomed to each other. I think they will do well.

Si also made the observation that when there isn't a ball in place, Zio will angle his approach to the box to get a better turn. If there is a ball, he makes a beeline to the ball and then tries to crunch his body enough to turn around. I'll have to see what I can improvise to get him off center on his last stride.

Rusty

Pretty rusty on catching frisbees as it turns out. I think he finished near the bottom in the amateur division because he kept jumping too soon. He had two good rounds in the expert division and finished tied for fourth in that. Michele was there with Maverick and took third place in the amateur division! She's done a good job with him.

We ended up doing two flyball demos. The first one had Zio going into Cody on the pass. Cody's mass must look intimidating because even Zio bailed out of the lane wide one run to avoid Cody coming back. During the second demo, we switched lanes and Zio kept wanting to go over to the other lane. I have to assume he was confused with the set up with the lanes closer on grass, because if I moved up to a twenty foot start, he did it right. I guess we'll sort it out at practice. The Zio man did great turns with a jump board in place.


Sawsha won the amateur division...

Luke getting air on a long one...

Meekah plotting the trajectory...

Jeep getting air on a long one too...

Disc Dog'n

This weekend is the fall disc dog tournament OKPaws organizes to benefit a local rescue group. We haven't really been practicing like last year, but Zio will have fun regardless. Last year, Zio won the amateur disc dog title so I guess he's the defending amateur champion. I hear there are a lot of new up and coming dogs. We're going to do a flyball demo between the first and second rounds of the disc competition too.

About this time last year is when I started thinking about going to a flyball practice to check it out. How times change.

And Again...

The Zio man and I are still doing runs with a stride gutter in place before the box. I did add a second jump in place, but he continues to execute perfectly every time. I really won't know if it is making a difference until we can do a full run at the box. I haven't heard if we're going to Canine Sports Academy the weekend before Bonham. I hope we do so that we can practice on matting.

The other thing I've added to practice is to change from saying "Readddddddddy, Hit it!" to "Readdddddddddy, Set, Hit It!". I read an article about having a cadence with your dog on starts so they know when to tense for the start. I think it would probably help a start dog the most, but it's probably a good practice to follow regardless. It seems to help Zio know when he's going so far.

Fixing the Stride

We have continued to practice his stride to the box every night this week. I've learned so much in the last year that I wonder how much remains to be learned. Sometimes I feel bad for Zio that I have to learn things first before I can work out issues with him. It seems to be a continuous learning process for both of us. I want him to reach his potential and there is a whole lot more to work on before he gets there.

Zio is doing great with the gutter across the lane at four feet from the box. I don't think I dare remove the prop yet. I want to continue to reinforce that last stride to the box, but the true test will be when we get on matting with a full head of steam. I've also thrown in some wall turns the past few days and he still gets so high on the wall.

Making Repairs

Although we had a great time in Las Vegas. Zio's turns went straight into the toilet over the weekend. In reviewing the videos, I think the root (or at least the seed) of the problem happened during one particular match.

During warm-up box turns, Zio wasn't paying attention and missed the box completely with his rear end and fell to the ground. He didn't act any worse for wear and he's done it before, so I don't think that caused anything. Just something out of the ordinary that I noticed. We had inserted Wisp into the lineup running last and moved Zio up to third, but we didn't do a good job of communicating that to our box loader. When Zio and Wisp went to the box, the balls was on the wrong side. After that, Zio reverted back to stabbing the box and turning the wrong way the majority of the time.

During the tournament, I watched another team slide a gutter across the lane (about five feet from the box) for one particular dog and it clicked for me. When Zio is at full speed, he ends up sliding into the box to stop (much like Meekah). He usually pushes off while turning and it ends up looking like a sloppy three legged turn. The gutter across the lane reminds the dog to jump to the box instead of sliding into it. I've started using this with Zio in the backyard, but it's hard to judge the effectiveness on grass from only 55 feet. I'll hope it goes toward muscle memory until he can run full speed on matting. I may have to try starting him from shorter starting points until I can fix this.

Zio's Las Vegas Road Trip

A few pictures from our trip to the Rock the West flyball tournament hosted by Rude Dogs West in Las Vegas! We had an awesome time and met a lot of fantastic people. Oh, we also took first place in our division Saturday and Sunday!

Post Vegas

After Las Vegas, the core team for the championship will start working toward becoming a cohesive group. We had hoped to bump up a division by running a fast team in Las Vegas a few times, but that was before we realized that we had submitted a seed time based on the four original dogs heading west. I haven't seen the seeding yet for Las Vegas, but it will probably not allow a run at getting into the 18's without breaking out (aka: no official time).

Hyper Flight's October tune-up tournament will be a litmus test to see how we're doing. We had originally discussed using a core group of Burst, Zio, Jean-Luc, and Wisp (with Meekah and Scout as back-ups). Yesterday, we decided we could probably go with five dogs on the Step On It team so that our Off and Running (OaR) team would be a full team and moved Scout over.

In hindsight, we really need to test Burst at the next team practice without the baby gates to see if she will pass another border collie sized dog. If she won't pass, I think we need to think about going for consistency with Scout and move Burst to OaR. We won't have time to train Burst in the last six weeks before the championships if she hasn't gotten it all summer.

Being the new guy, it doesn't seem like it's my place to say anything. On the other hand, Si seemed to be looking to us to know which dogs were going to be on the Step on It team.

Gastric Torsion

The vet felt that Zio seemed to have a partial gastric torsion (stomach flip or bloat) earlier this week, so I've been hesitant to practice him after he eats in the evening. By the time I feel it's safe, it's getting too dark.

I'm really looking forward to practice this weekend. Wisp is going to practice for the first time in two months and we may end up trying to run a fast team in Las Vegas. With a line up of Wisp, Jean-Luc, Zio and either Burst or Scout, we should be able to easily break into the 18's. The first three can all run under 4.3 seconds and Burst or Scout would be in the 4.6 to 5.0 second range.

If we can get a sub 19 second time, we will bump a division for the championship and not have to worry about breaking out in our current division (18.75 sec). The practice Sunday will answer some unanswered questions for the team. Is Wisp okay to race now? Will Burst stay in the lane if she's followed by a larger dog? How will Jean-Luc handle passing all of the dogs? If Burst won't stay in the lane going first, could she run anchor and pass a dog coming at her?

Oh, Zio and I need to get out to the field tomorrow and throw some long distance discs. The fall tournament is coming up in October and he's the defending amateur champion!

Team Practice

Another good team practice. Eric brought Luke and Zeph again and both will be fast. Luke already has the tug drive and Zeph had excellent striding. Zio helped Jean-Luc with some passing drills and then ran some with the "On the Road Again" team. Maverick did more recalls and is doing really, really good for a new dog. Excellent striding, a tug monster, and actually goes back to line up again like a pro!

Zio finished shredding his canvas crate. This time it's beyond repair. *sigh* Eric recommended some collapsible plastic crates that aren't manufactured anymore. I'll look on ebay and see if I can find one. He gets too worked up in the crate, especially when I'm working with any dog other than him. He bloodies his nose on wire crates. Susan said she will come to a practice and work on his crate manners.

Friday Night Practice

We held a rare Friday practice tonight since the weather turn out so nice! Zio was helping Jean-Luc with some passing drills and then did the same with Jet. Zio did one sloppy turn and I stopped him and we reset. All his other turns were good and he was tugging hard! He's ready to be racing again!

Maverick did recalls over the jumps to the tug and is just a tug-o-maniac! I think it's really the first time I've seen him run all out. Katie called him Meekah fast! He also impressed me while off leash this evening (inside the fence). I could call him from quite a distance and he would come running to me. Such a sweet guy. My wife says he looks like a baby harbor seal when he lays his ears flat and looks at her with those big brown eyes.

Tweaking the Turn

The last tournament was a breakthrough for Zio with his turns. Any practice we could squeeze in during the hot summer days were spent re-teaching his turns without props. Somewhere in his thought process he had determined that it was okay to punch the box if the props weren't there (aka tournaments).

We started with touch practice to the box without a ball and gradually moved back to sending him to the box from forty feet (no ball). I started mixing in a ball once in a while and kept repeating. He finally seemed to get the concept at this last tournament which is why he lowered his best time by .2 seconds. Were his turns perfect? Nope! The general shape of the turn was there, but some were three legged attempts and many went a little wide. But the shape was there!!!

Now we get to fine tune the turns by putting a 10" jumpboard back in with another stanchion and jump board angled on the exit side to keep him from going wide. A good practice last night as he hit the 10" jumpboard with his rear end the first few times, but then started keeping his butt higher for the rest.

Repetitions to follow!

On another note, Maverick is a tug-o-maniac! We're just tugging and chasing at this point though.

Zio's New Singles Best Time

Here is the video of Susan running Zio when he set a new personal best on the clock.

Racing in Bonham

A great time racing in Bonham, TX! Zio was running hard and I saw a personal best Saturday of 4.191 seconds. He topped that one while running singles with Susan on Sunday with a 4.183 second run. In reviewing some of the video I shot, I need to tighten up my passing. In analyzing the runs, Zio is definitely capable of 4.0x second runs with better passing. We're going to go back and reintroduce the 10" jump board on the box too and tweak his turns. I also caught him checking out the other lane on his run backs. I'm actually thinking he could be a 3.9 second dog if he put it all together with a better turn and harder run back.

Other highlights...
Susan also got to be our boxloader for the weekend and did a great job, especially since we just threw her into it at the last minute! Jean-Luc made his debut for Susan Owens and is already capable of 4.3 seconds or less. A good start would put him in the 4.1 second range and he'll only get better with experience. Wisp has been healing up and sounds like he may be ready to compete in Las Vegas. Scout ran the best I've seen her run with several 4.8 and 4.9 second runs. We could easily be running sub 18 seconds in October with the right practice and health. We'll have to start working on passing with Jean-Luc. It would be nice to get him in some races in Las Vegas.

"Tank"

It was a very good practice. Eric and Lee were first timers coming to flyball practice and had a few good beginners sessions. I worked on doing turns with Zio initially without the ball and he was good from 25 ft away. We did a few more with the ball and then let him rest for a bit.

I did a few recalls with Maverick and he did very good for the first time out. He had excellent stride over the jumps and good tug play. I tried again later in the practice, but there were other dogs out and too many distractions. I decided he had enough and put him back in his crate.

Zio ran with the team later in the practice and was really tugging hard, but his turns were sloppy, three legged attempts. I took him up and had him redo turns a few times. Burst is still diving out of the lane, but did better later... so only time will tell if she is able to pass any dog bigger than a terrier. Zio had a scary moment with Scout. I let Zio go too soon and they both got to the first/last jump at the same time. Scout tried to move over a little and hit the stanchion as they sideswiped each other. Zio was knocked off stride and crashed into the third jump and broke the jump board. He earned the nickname "Tank" by continuing on, doing his turn, and coming back to tug. Both dogs were okay and were ready for another run after we replaced the broken jump. Whew!

Maverick

We had a good team practice Sunday. Zio had been stressing with a temp foster at the house. He hadn't been eating, had diarrhea, and occasional vomiting. I wasn't sure we would go to practice, but he started settling down Saturday. His turns were sloppy, so I may have to bring the box home next Sunday and try to work with him during the week before the next tournament. Excellent drive to the tug though.

The latest news is that a handsome youngster is coming to us from the Canton Animal Shelter. Maverick was stuck there for a month waiting on foster space somewhere... anywhere. I think he would make an awesome flyball dog. Based on the description of his personality, he could make a great companion for Zio... but that's a whole different can of worms. Here's his picture taken by Penny of All Border Collie Rescue after springing him!

OKC Kennel Club's AKC Canine Experience

A fun weekend doing demos at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds. Zio got a lot of complements and I think we may have inspired some people to give it a try. I thought it was interesting how the club members that have only seen Zio play frisbee were really impressed with how fast he is in flyball. The club members that have only seen him compete in flyball were impressed with how much he loves frisbee!

To top it off, the OKC Kennel Club is very interested in helping us host a flyball tournament next year at the event!

Sizzle

It's just been oppressively hot here and I limit Zio's activities in it. Other than our morning walk/jog, we go out a few times each night and toss the frisbee a little bit. We haven't done any evening flyball practices at home for the past week.

The team practiced early Sunday, but the dogs and the handlers were both ready to call it quits by 9:15 am. We're going to get together Thursday evening at the practice field and see if we can find a shady spot to help Jean-Luc prepare for his first tournament.

Down Time

I haven't been home to spend time with Zio, so he's had no practice since the 18th. I guess we have three more practices before Bonham, so we'll have to start making up some time next Sunday. We only have enough dogs for one team at the tournament. Burst, Deuce, Luigi, Scout, and Zio.

A Good Practice

We had a good team practice. Zio remains a constant and is becoming more and more dependable. He is also useful as a distraction to the up and coming dogs that aren't focused on their own lanes and turns. Zio will bark and lunge to "encourage" the dogs in the other lane to go fast and do good turns!

We tried to work with Burst on keeping her in the lane while passing Zio. I intentionally made the first pass very wide and she did fine. On the next run, she bailed out of the lane before I had even released Zio. We moved them both to the lane with the baby gates up so that she HAD to stay in the lane and worked up to reasonably close passes. We will have to keep trying this until she is confident that the big dog coming in her direction isn't going to bother her.

Wisp was limping again after last weeks practice so he's headed to the orthpedic vet Friday to see if they can determine why he keeps coming up injured since our Memphis weekend. Get better Wisp... Bonham is in a month and we're going to need you in Vegas!

Flyball Dog Wrangling

It looks like my wife Susan is going to run Zio at Rude Dog West's Flyball Tournament the last weekend of September. We had 4-5 dogs that could go, but only three handlers.... so Susan needs to learn how to wrangle a flyball dog before the tournament.

The first day of her practice was pretty funny (I might have won AFHV's if I would have had the camcorder going). Zio came running back a little faster than she expected, but she recovered to start some good tug play. While running with the tug playing "keep away", she threw a shoe and ultimately took a tumble to the grass. Zio, being the loyal, loving, caring dog that he is, seized the opportunity to grab the tug and run off with it! Susan managed to stop laughing long enough to give chase as Zio had a rousing game of his version of keep away.

Oh, the practice? Zio was doing good turns with and without the ball. He actually had one of his best days for going to the empty box without hesitation. Good boy, Zio!

Birthday Pictures!

Jumps Too! (or is it Two Jumps?)

Zio has been going to the box fairly consistently from 25-30 feet now. I put a jump in at 15' and he seemed a little confused. I moved it closer to the box and sent him from 10' and he seemed to get the idea. The next session, I moved it back to 15' and he knew what to do. I eventually put a second jump in, which puts him starting from about 30 feet. Fast forward a few sessions and he is pretty consistent going over two jumps to the box and back.

As an interesting note, he sort of lopes to the empty box, but then punches it hard and zooms back to the tug. His last stride to the box is actually a long leap... which is exactly how Susan Owen's Jean-Luc is hitting the empty box! I'd like to try a third jump, but I'll wait until Sunday's practice since I only brought the two home.

Birthday Boy!

Yesterday was the day we celebrated Zio's second birthday! The birthday boy got a piece of carrot cake (complete with a number "2" candle), some squeaker balls, a chew toy, and a big ball that looks like a giant tennis ball.

We managed to get a little play time in outside before it rained and he had a blast. I'll post pictures and a video soon.

Thirty feet!

We've slowly worked our way back to thirty feet now in going to the box without the ball. Zio doesn't go to the box on the first try everytime, but he's starting to get it. He does much better if I get him all excited first before giving him the command to "hit it". I think I'll swing by the practice field and pick up a couple of jumps to use in conjunction with what we're doing now.

Vegas in September? Just maybe....

A few teammates have suggested we head to Las Vegas for Rude Dog West's tournament the last weekend of September. It does sound like fun, but it's a pretty long drive. Of course my daughter that lives there is going to be out of town for her friends wedding... go figure.

On the practice side of things, I continue to send Zio to the box (without the ball) and have slowly increased the distance to about fifteen feet. He started turning very wide, so I had to put a barrier to the side so he punches back in a straight line. It's fairly hot in the evenings still, so we don't do a lot of repetitions. There are times when I think he's really getting the idea, followed by going halfway to the box and looking at me for direction on what I want him to do. We'll get it.

Rocket Dog!

A great practice today! I think we'll get in the 18 second range at the next tournament and will be in the 17's before the end of the year. Susan Owen's Welsh Sheepdog, Jean-Luc, is advancing by leaps and bounds (literally). Susan is planning on running him in singles at the August tournament and I think he's going to be really fast and ready for team soon after. Very, very fast return and a good turn to boot!

We ran Zio head to head against Wisp to work on Wisp's habit of turning the wrong way to watch the other lane. These two are the most competitive dogs on the team. They aren't just out there to complete a run, they're out there to race! On the practice field, the lanes are only about five feet apart, so it's side by side racing the whole time. Zio did his turns perfect, but Wisp was watching Zio and turned wrong the times I saw. Both dogs had incredible drive back to the tug and put on quite a show for everyone. Awesome fun to watch Zio running that fast AND doing his turns right!

Good boy Zio!

As the Box Turns

Okay, time to go back to basics on the turns. I've decided to try and work with sending him to the box without the ball. I started out at about five feet and it's basically just touch training to the box. He's been doing this for months, so it isn't anything new to him.

Now that we've been doing good repetitions of this, I've moved back a few feet from the box. Initially, he would move toward the box and stop to look at me for direction. It seemed to click a little last night that even though I may be further away, I still wanted him to do a touch turn. This may be a "doh" moment for some, but I've never sent him to the box from a distance greater than six feet without the ball. I think my goal is to be able to send him to a "dry" box (without the ball) from 50-60 feet.

Fun Times!

A very fun weekend at Sure Shots' tournament in Bonham, TX. For the club, it was a weekend of learning. Multiple combinations of dogs on the Step On It team required adjustments to the lineup and changes in pass timing. It started to come together Sunday afternoon as we broke the club's best ever time (twice) with a combination of Wisp, Scout, Zio, and Meekah. Unfortunately, both times will remain unofficial because they were breakout times (more than a second faster than our submitted seed time). One more breakout would have disqualified us from the tournament! I do have our 19.155 time on video though and will post it to the YouTube account today or tomorrow. We can easily get to the 18 second range with better passing. Zio ran a 4.3 and change on one of his runs, which is the fastest I've seen him run. If he would only do his turns right, he could be another tenth or two faster.

Our next tournament won't be until the end of August, when Hyper Flight hosts another tournament in Bonham. That gives me two months to practice with Zio. His turns absolutely fell apart at the tournament. He has so much speed by the time he gets to the box that I think he has a hard time getting stopped in time. He started the weekend with some hard, three legged, wide turns... regressed to crashing and turning to the right for a while, and finally was just crashing the box hard head on.

With raffles, gifts, and prizes... we ended up hauling back two tugs, one leash, one flyball pin, a really cool print of original artwork, and a handcrafted crate pad!

Oh... Full Speed Ahead went head to head against Sure Shots in the human flyball finals and lost the deciding race by a six tenths of a second. We won the prize though since the hosts weren't keeping their own prizes!

Final Refresher

Practice was great last night! He is doing everything perfect. Good turns with the jump board in place or without, driving back to the tug, and excellent tug play. He has come a long way since my Dallas visit to attend a practice session with Hyper Flight. He proved his tug drive again last evening when he missed catching the ball at the box, but drove back to get the tug. I took me a second to realize he was running back without the ball. No hesitation looking for the ball, just running back for the tug. Missed catches are easy to fix, tug drive not so much.

Good boy, Zio!

A few more...

If it doesn't rain again, the practice facility (my backyard) may be dry enough to do a few more turn sessions. We haven't practiced since Sunday's team practice, so it will be nice to get a refresher in before the tournament.

Sunday's practice went very well, but Burst still seems hesitant to come back into Zio. I was making sure the passes were super wide so Burst didn't feel pressured by the intense, big dog rushing past her. Hopefully, the excitement of the tournament will allow for some tight passing and good times.

Something New

Zio has been doing good on his turns since we've returned to having evening practice sessions, so we've just been reinforcing the turn over the ten inch jump board. I'll mix in a wall turn, a turn without a ball, and turns without props once in a while to keep him sharp.

Last night, Susan helped me try something new. She held Zio while I stood by the box. When she released him, I started running the other way. I had hoped that he would get a sense of urgency to get the ball and race back to the tug, but it didn't work out as planned. Once he would see me running the other way, he would turn around and follow me.

I'll have to change it up to try and get him to go to the box first. Not positive how to do that right now, but I'll have to work on that. I may try having Susan line him up from further back, setting up midway to the box, and waiting until he passes me to start going the other way.

Memphis Crew

Across the top: Zio, Deuce, Jean-Luc, Burst
Sitting in front: Wisp

Practice Resumes

Zio had an excellent practice with the team today. Super box work and tug play. Toward the end we practice passing with the new teammates. Zio and Scout passed without any problems what so ever, but we need to work with Burst a little more and a little slower so that she is more comfortable with the Zio man running her way.

Deuce worked on getting comfortable on the new box and did great passing with Luigi and Violet. Also good to see the puppies doing well. Jeep, Rouge, Jean-Luc, and Fly all had good practices. I think Jean-Luc could be ready soon.

Healing

We still haven't practiced so that his pads can heal up some more. He doesn't act like they bother him, but some time off is our best action. Of course, he still thinks it's time to play tug, catch frisbees, practice turns, and go on long walks.

Racing on the River

We had a wonderful weekend racing in Memphis! We won first place in division 3 on Saturday and second place on Sunday. Our best time was 20.4, but we had a ton of room to improve on our passing. Zio's turns get a mixed review. In some races, he did his turns correctly, but in others he had almost reverted back to stabbing the box. Overall, it's improvement, so we'll build on that.

He has some irritation between some of his pads on all four paws, so I'm limiting his activity until it can heal a little. Not sure what happened... hot pavement, stickers in the grass, rocky terrain, swimming... just not sure. Susan took him to the vet and had her check him, but she thinks were doing all that needs to be done. She did say that his body type (narrow, deep chest and a small waist) are prone to stomach-flip. I had never heard of the terminology before, but it sure is scary to read about it. I will be ever vigilante to the symptoms now.

Of course she said he is gorgeous and has the heart of an athlete! :D

Road Trip

We were rained out from practicing yesterday. I may do a session or two tonight to reinforce his turns one last time, but I think he has it down as good as he'll have it for the tournament.

The rest of the evening will be packing the trunk and making sure I have everything I'll need for an early a.m. start on Friday. Susan trimmed his nails and the fur between his pads yesterday, which avoided a ritual last minute item from the list.

Final Practice Before Memphis!

I can't put into words how impressed I was with Zio at practice today. He was very focused and ran recalls great, did fantastic practicing on the box, ran fourth on the Step On It team, and had great passing with the whole team. He was even fast coming back to the tug, even when tempted to look at the other lane that Wisp was running in. Super focused and running hard, I couldn't ask for more from the little man.

We celebrated later by playing soccer in the backyard. One of his new favorite activities!

Friday Night Review

We held our second informal "north practice" last night before the flyball class Susan and Katie are holding. For the second time, Zio was too distracted by the new surroundings to concentrate on what he was supposed to be doing... initially. After a few sloppy turns and general disinterest, we did a couple of simple recalls over the jumps to end on a positive note. After the rest of the team ran their dogs through their paces, I brought Zio out of his crate and he did great. We finished with a successful full run, with swimmers turn, over the 10" jump board.

Tomorrow is our last practice before next weekends tournament. With Zio running third on the Step On It team, he'll need to get plenty of practice passing Deuce and Wisp.

Hopeful

I'm very encouraged by the consistency of his box turn now. He is also doing great on the tug play too. A few times, he missed the ball when it shot out and he left it on the ground to come back to the tug! I can fix that easily enough, but the fact that the tug meant more to him than chasing the ball was awesome!

I ended up moving back to about 35 feet with no loss of focus. He is actually doing so well that I may put the 10" jump board back in to get him a little higher on the box. I just need to figure out how to do that without going backwards with his training.

We're down to four dogs running on the Memorial Day weekend tournament. Scout came into heat, so Zio will be running third with the rest of the Step on It team. This Sunday's practice will need to include some passing drills.

Moving Back

As I've discovered, you initially teach from close to the box and only move further away from the box when you have consistency. Zio is very consistent now from the 6-8 feet range, so I moved back to about 20 feet. We'll stay at this distance for a day or two and go back a little further, maybe with some jumps in. Out of ten turns from 20', he only had one that was three legs on the box turn. No reward, so he got all four on the box the next time. Good boy!

He did go wide on a few turns in the beginning yesterday, so I put some PVC pipe on the ground parallel to the lane (where he was stepping when going wide). After that, he was tight on his turns again. Eight more days until the next tournament. I'll be super excited if he'll do the turns like this in the tournament.

Exciting Progress

Zio and I made a huge leap ahead on his box turn training yesterday. I continued sending him to the box on command from about 6-8 feet, without a jump board or ball. He did so well on our first session, that I started putting a ball in the box. The first try, he went to stab the box and I corrected him and didn't give reward. The second try, he totally ignored the ball to get the tug. Every time I loaded a ball after that, he would turn correctly to get the tug and completely ignored the ball. Wow! He did make a few turns looking at the ball, but seemed to understand that the turn is what gets the tug!

During the last session, he again ignored the ball and we played tug for a bit. I asked him, "Where's the ball?" and he ran back and retrieved it to me. After that, he grabbed to ball every time while doing his turn correctly!!! I was ecstatic and very proud my little man!

Weekend Update

Zio and I entered the Oklahoma Spring Fling disc dog competition Saturday. It had rained hard Friday night and into Saturday morning, so everything was wet. Zio and I both showed how rusty we were during the first round. I did not throw very well and Zio was jumping too soon on my good throws, so we definitly proved that you can't enter a tournament cold and expect good results. My back started to spasm while waiting around, so we packed it in and didn't not throw in the second round.

Flyball practice was indoors on Sunday. Zio did great recalls against Jeep as the team worked on discouraging Jeep from coming across the lanes and chasing. Zio even did some good work on the box, doing several full runs with a jump board in place.

He didn't do so well later in the passing drill, but I'm not sure he was focused by the time we did that. I think we were too close together and Zio was tired and unfocused. I think he'll do fine on passing in the heat of competition.

Limited Practice

We haven't been able to practice at all since Tuesday due to my back. Tonight was supposed to be another "north" practice with Susan and Katie, but the field is muddy due to the overnight and all day thunderstorms we've had. I'm itching to get back to box turns, but I really need to get my back healthy first.

Tomorrow morning is the Spring Fling Disc Dog competition, so Zio and I will go down and throw amateur toss and catch. We haven't done much as far as practicing for it, since our time is spent learning flyball stuff. Zio loves catching Frisbees, so we'll go down and throw in the rain, if we have to, and have a good time. I need to remember to bring some towels for a smiling, muddy border collie.

Flyballer in Training

With my back acting up and giving me very limited mobility, my wife, Susan, pitched in to get Zio some work on the box. She took a few pointers and Zio was turning off the box for her and then it was tug party time. It was very hot, so we didn't do anything for very long and had plenty of cool water for Zio.

Since there were two of us, we tried lining him up about 6-8 feet from the box with the other giving the "hit it" command at the box. It took a few tried before he didn't try to go right for the tug, but he eventually started going to the box first.


I decided to put a ball in the box to see if he would stab it or turn correctly. The first try was a stab. The second and third were three legged turns. After a few more without the ball, I put the ball back in. Zio surprised me by ignoring the ball to turn for the tug! WOW! By then, my back was screaming in agony again and we had to call it a day.

Good Practice

We had a good practice yesterday at the club practice field. I drilled a hole in a tennis ball and added it to his tug and I think it got an approval from the handsome man. Zio ran some awesome recalls and was a tug maniac! We have a lot of dogs to work through at practice now and I can foresee some fast teams ahead for the club. Zio got to work a little on the new box near the end and was doing well with the jump board in place.

I brought the team's new box home with me, but didn't practice at home with it yet. My back is acting up and rain was threatening, so we'll see how this afternoon shapes up.

Doh!

Sometimes, I get reminded how much I have to learn. That happened last night... again! I've been struggling with Zio's turns in tournaments, because he always reverts back to punching the box. We practice at home... he'll do great swimmers turns 98% of the time. Go to tournament, he punches the box again. I've reviewed early videos of his training on youtube and he was doing great turns without the cone. I had decided that it was the excitement of the ball and the race that made him "forget" his turn. We even discussed that maybe he needs to train with the jumps and the ball all the time to get the mental connection.

Since last weekend's tournament, we've been concentrating more on doing the turn without the ball and using the new 10" jump board I made. My theory was that the ball is too much of a reward and he needed to learn that the turn gets the reward, not the ball. I decided to put the ball in a couple of times and he continues to do a good turn... at home. About that time is when I had my epiphany. I took the jump board away and put a ball in the box. Zio stabbed the box. Tried 4 or 5 more times... stab the box. DOH! No jump = stab the box! I was always under the impression that the jump board is used as a constant reminder in practice. Well... that is probably true for a dog that knows to turn, but Zio always had a prop and never learned to turn without a prop. Double DOH!

Back to touch training this morning! We bounced off the wall a number of times and then transitioned back to the box without using a jump. Great turns without a prop from six feet! Now I'm excited that he's making that connection! He'd be doing great if he had a decent trainer!

Interrupted

We've been practicing going to the box without the ball fairly well. Yesterday was a wash out because I had brought an injured BC pup from Sallisaw home to spend the night until he caught his flight to Denver this morning. The puppy was very interested in "helping" Zio, who was not very appreciative of his efforts.

We'll get back to it tonight now that he can focus. Tomorrow is going to be the first Friday where three of us hold a practice in Edmond at the Twister Agility location. I think I'll mix in some recall training by having someone else release him to the box while I start running back before he gets there. The theory is that he sees me heading the other way and hustles to get the ball and head back to where I'm running. Now if he'll actually throw a turn in there.

Groovin' in Grove

The weekend was packed full of great racing. Zio's turns reverted back to punching to box, but he seemed to finally come around to tugging as the reward. All I can do is try to keep re-enforcing the correct box turn. He actually ran faster this weekend than he ever ran in singles. In team racing, the time that displays after your dog hits the timing lights includes his time plus any pass time from when the previous dog broke the plane. Zio ran several 4.4 second races including the passing overlap! The team ran personal bests several times over, including a 21.7 and a 21.8 (previous best was 23.044 seconds).

I think everyone had some personal bests along the way. For Zio, it's back to training before Memphis. Susan Owens mentioned doing some training on the north side on Fridays and I'm all for that.

Mr Fuzzy Butt!

The Zio pup got a bath yesterday, so he's puffed out to twice his normal size! We did run a few short sessions and he only had one turn that was not good (three legs up). The rest of the evening was rest time for him and getting things organized to head to Grove!!!

I think he knows something is up! ;)

Moving Back

Zio has been doing really, really well on relearning his box turn. I put the jump in that is 15 ft from the box and he didn't miss a beat. Later, we started lining up about 20' back from the jump and he continued to "hit it" with all four paws up on the box like that's all he's ever known. Then I tried moving back as far as a could (about 55 ft total from the box) and he punched the box instead of doing his turn! I moved 15 ft closer to the box and he only got three legs on the box. Phfffft! :P

From 10' away, he was back to all four on the box. Back to 35' and all is great. At 55', three feet on the box. ugh! We ended the evening with all good ones from 35'. If I didn't have tournament in 2 days, I'd practice without the ball at distance until he realized that getting the ball has nothing to do with reward right now. With the weekend looming though, I guess I'll mix in a few more turns without the ball and see if I can eventually back him up to 55-60' with the ball.

I made a 10" practice jump board, but I think he has enough on his plate to learn right now. After this weekend, it's back to doing more without the ball.

Hopeful

Zio continued to do really well on the box turn with the ball Monday evening. He is giving me hope that he'll actually do a good turn in the tournament this weekend! He seems to have learned the "line up" command now too!

One Step Backwards, Two Steps Forward!

Practice yesterday was a mixed bag of eventual progress. In warm up, he had great recalls and fantastic tug play. Later, Zio did well in the practiced passing with almost all of the other racing dogs. Even with Wisp, who I thought might present an issue for my little man.

His retraining on the box had not progressed to putting a ball in the box, so I was very reluctant to practice full runs with the team. The team felt it was necessary, so we gave it a shot anyway. As suspected, Zio immediately revert to punching the box to get the ball. After watching him do it twice, I pulled him from doing any more full runs until I could reintroduce the ball into his retraining. With the Grove tournament in 5 days, I was mentally kicking myself for not holding him out of this tournament.

During a break, I took Zio to one of the boxes and did a few dry (no ball) "hit it" turns with him on the box just like we've been practicing. I put a ball in the box and after a couple of tries, he started doing a pretty good turn. I used this method a few more times during practice... practicing "dry" turns without a ball and mixing in a few with the ball.

At home, Zio really seemed to get the idea and hasn't punched the box once with a ball in place. Most of his turns are now with the ball and I'll mix in an occasional dry turn to reinforce it. I'm cautiously optimistic that we may get enough practice in before Saturday to have it sink it for the tournament. Then we'll have to wait and see if he reverts back in the excitement of the race.

Moving to the Box

As the next tournament looms in less than two weeks, I'm beginning to have concerns about him being really ready for it. We began the transition from the wall to the box a few days ago, but I seem to be balancing going slow enough to teach him right and getting him ready to be able to run the tournament on May 1st.

The bad news was that he seemed to have completely forgotten turning on the box. The good news is that he seemed to have completely forgotten about turning on the box. Ironic. On one hand, I'm glad he forgot the bad turn he was developing. On the other hand, he has a tournament in 10 days and it sure would be helpful if he could actually make a full run. My fear is that I'll throw him in the tournament and he'll revert back to stabbing the box to get the ball. He hasn't seen a ball in training for a month now, so I'll need to work that back in at some point soon. In hindsight, I should have held him out of this tournament to get the focus on the turn.

Hit It!

Zio has moved right along in his re-training. He now will go to the wall and turn on command. Sometimes he doesn't want to leave me with the tug in his hand, but he eventually will do it to come back for the tug.

The next step is going to be getting him to "hit it" on the box. Saturday is the Woofstock demonstration, but I pulled Zio from actually doing a run with the other dogs. I don't want him to revert to punching the box while we're in the middle of training him to do a correct turn.

The final step will be to put the ball back in, but that is going to wait until the last minute before heading to Grove.

Slow Transition

Zio is pretty good now about knowing he has to hit the wall without me holding the tug up there... especially if I get him excited first. He's even hit the wall on his own without prompting while I get him revved up. I want him to understand that what I have my hand on is what he needs to turn off of. We have some spirited tug play when he does it right, so we only do four or five turns during a session... two or three sessions an evening.

Rumor has it that there might be another opportunity to practice with Hyper Flight before the tournament May 1-2.

Wall to Wall

We continue to train the wall turn method. I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to transition him from the wall to the box, but for now I'll work on sending him to the wall by command, without holding the lure up to the wall. Once he has that down, it should be fairly easy to command to the box. (famous last words)

He had an abrasion on one of his hocks, so he took a day off from practice. I don't think it was anything to do with training.

A couple of wall turns from his YouTube channel...

Walls!

We are still working on wall turning. I have set up different areas, with a PVC pipe as a "hurdle", around the yard. So right now, he will turn off of the brick wall or three areas of the fence.

It's almost time to start expecting him to do it on command. He keeps doing better with tug play too! I was a little disappointed that only one team gets to qualify for the championship tournament this fall. Oh well... maybe by next year we can be on the faster team.

Sounds like Sunday practice may not happen. I'm not sure what is going on there.

Hyper Flight Practice Update

Zio and I headed down to Dallas and met up with Si and his daughter Tristen at the Hyper Flight practice. I'm very impressed with their organizational skills. They began the practice by putting every dog's name on a white board and organized it by what each person wanted to work on with their dog. Practicing like this focuses that particular time segment on one or two dogs which gives them the personal attention they might need. It also allows for plenty of helping eyes.

The biggest tip I picked up was that the whole team plays cheerleader for the successes of which ever dog is practicing at the moment. Such a reinforcement tool!! There were obviously other things I learned, like a different way to do passing drills, puppy training, tug training, and honing Zio's wall turns.

Zio did great showing what he can do on the wall and actually stayed focused on the tug... even with distractions going on. Well worth the trip to Dallas!

From Scratch!

I didn't realize it had been so long since I had updated this. We had TONS of fun at the Spring Fling Tournament hosted by Hyper-Flight. Zio raced on the Off and Running Team both days as well as running singles matches each day. My little man was exhausted Saturday night and again Sunday night.

He posted new best singles times both days with a 4.686 on Saturday and a 4.583 on Sunday. Racing on Sunday was more fun than I can describe. We ran Izzy, Luigi, Zio, and Violet consistently in the 23 second range. We tied for first, but lost the second tiebreaker (best head to head times) by .016 seconds! Considering that we haven't really practiced our timing on passes with a green dog, we did pretty good! Almost every race was clean Sunday.

The discouraging parts was that Zio reverted back to punching the box instead of using a swimmers turn and pretty much ignored the tug. I'm guessing that he's too distracted by everything going on around him that he loses focus.

Elizabeth, from Hyper Flight, was extremely helpful and talked to us about teaching a wall turn. In a nutshell, train the dog to jump against a vertical surface and push off from the wall (doing a swimmers turn using a wall). They have to turn around and push off very quickly or they would fall to the ground.

To be honest, I didn't really embrace the idea initially. I've spent four months teaching him to turn and he does it great here at home. My mind tried to convince me that he just needed to re-enforce home habits at the tournament. The more I thought about it though, the more I came to realize that after four months of great practices at home... he still wasn't getting better at tournaments. The time to change was now.

Without much knowledge, I started trying to get him to turn against the wall (without much success). He would get his front feet up, but his rear was planted on terra firma. I kept at it for a few days and wasn't seeing improvement. Elizabeth had mentioned that it may require getting a piece of plywood and starting with it almost flat (to get them to use all four legs) and gradually angling it until it was vertical. I didn't have plywood, so I took a chaise lounge and leaned it slightly against a wall. The first time or two, Zio would walk over it and then push off with his front legs. I decided to try a 45 degree angle and amazingly... he leaped completely over it and did a perfect swimmer's turn off the wall!!!! I'll try to get some video tomorrow, but I'm very, very encouraged by his eagerness to bounce off the wall.

I may have an opportunity to go with some teammates and practice with the Hyper Flight team in Dallas Sunday! What a great opportunity to get some training tips and soak up some expertise to share with the team!

More Progress

Zio continues to improve with tug play and I think we've settled on the game he likes to play with it... killing it and waiting for me to try and take it away from him. I guess it's not the standard tug play, but it's one that he really enjoys playing.

The other thing that has helped the most is that I can put his props up and simply command him to the box and return for a Gooberlicious treat. Now he is able to do ten turns and play tug for a bit in the same time it used to take to do two turns.

Tomorrow night we head to Bonham!!!

Team Practice 3/7

I noticed a BIG improvement in Zio's focus on the tug and ignoring the other dogs yesterday. The "Step on It" team was practicing in the left lane, so I set up the box in the right lane for Zio to practice. We would wait until the other team was between runs and then practice some turns. Although he looked at them a couple of times while we were waiting, he was focused on what he was supposed to do! Awesome!

The negative is that his box turn disappeared during practice once again. He keeps reverting to punching the box. I liked Connie's suggestion that he not be allowed to go to the box without his props... even during warm-up time at tournaments.

Better

I'm continuing to work on making the tug more fun. Zio seems to like to play "kill it" now. I let him pull it from my hands and he grabs a knot and shakes his head back and forth to kill it. I'm sure it's some instinctual thing, but he still LOVES his old floppy frisbee because he can do the same thing with it. I just need to keep my fingers out of the way though!

We've continued to use all of the props... chute, board, and cone. I've added a few pieces of PVC along the exit side of his return (parallel to the run) so that he turns tighter coming back. He stepped on them once and he's never done it again. We'll try without the cones tonight or tomorrow.

Pictures from the Barkin' in Bonham/Canton can be viewed here. There are two of him running toward the camera on page 2 (Zio is the one with the purple Z-Control Skid boots) and then he's in a few of the team pictures at the end.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Sometimes, it seems like we make real progress and develop some consistency. Other times, it seems like we're back at the beginning.

I tried removing the cone Tuesday evening and he reverted back to punching the box. I put the cone back in and he was still punching the box. I offset the starting position to the side and he did a proper turn, so we quit for the evening.

Last night, I kept the offset starting position for a while and then tried it head on again. He went back to punching the box, so I've reconstructed the "chute" with the board blocking him from punching the box and he got his form back on the turn.

I'm torn between continuing to try and develop the tug drive or switching to a frisbee as reward. The frisbee REALLY motivates him to return, but I'm afraid that he'll eventually realize that I don't actually throw it for him and I'll be back to square one.

Tug Play

We ran a handful of turns before dinner tonight and another handful after. He's got the box turn going good with the cone about six feet in front of the box and a token board to jump over. I'll probably take the cone out tomorrow and see if he still has the muscle memory going from all of the practices before the tournament.

I've been trying to find a way to make the tug more fun for him. He acts like it's the greatest thing since cheeseburgers here at home, but in practice, I might as well try to get him to play with a brick. He gets distracted by the other dogs or the balls and pretty much ignores rewards. I can eventually call him and he'll pay attention, but by then he's forgotten about a reward and ignores the tug. I used a frisbee as reward on the second day of Barkn' in Bonham and he was MUCH more interested in that, but it would be better if the tug was exciting for him.

Team Practice 2/28

Zio spent much of the practice running recalls next to the team's other dogs. He tended to stray toward the other lanes at first, but he had to keep running recalls until he had run against all of the other dogs and not thought about chasing.

We ran a few box turns with props and he was doing okay. Si let me bring one of the boxes home and we practiced this afternoon as well. I've had to put the cone back in to get him to do a turn again instead of punching the box. He seems to remember again, but I'll leave the cone about 6-8 feet from the cone until he "gets it" again.

Full Speed Ahead's two teams have been placed in the same division for the Saturday races on March 13. That may cause some logistical problems, since we have team members that run a dog on each team.

Ready to Run!

Zio and I are both ready to get out there and practice. This will be an outdoor practice at the OKPaws field, so I'm hoping the weather stays nice enough so it doesn't get canceled. It's already down to two weeks until the next tournament, so we have this weekend and next to work on passing and box turns.

It would be nice if Si could get Meekah some work on turns too so that she can get back in the mix. Several teammates earned titles in Canton, but Burst and Tristen hit 10,000 points toward their first plaque!

Barkin' in Bonham (Canton edition)

Wow! Such an awesome weekend at Zio's first flyball tournament hosted by a great group of people from Hyper Flight Flyball Club in Dallas. Flyball really is a fun, tight knit group of people. I never anticipated how much is going on in your head during runs. It was all I could do to get Zio to the right starting point, watch the timing lights, release him at the right time, run up to the start, and then call and encourage him to chase me! I could never remember to see his start times or even his finish times for that matter. I usually had to ask someone else to watch for me. LOL

Here is a quick recap of Zio's races...

Saturday Feb 20
Match 1
Races 1 - 4 were all "no finish" (NF) because he saw the other dog when he turned and missed all the jumps coming back.

Match 2
Races 1 and 4 - NF because when I ran up to the finish line to encourage him to come back over the gates, the tug swung through the timing lights and faulted him. Rookie handler!!

Races 2 and 3 - I think about a 5.3 and a 5.126, if I remember right. He's turning the wrong way now to see the dog in the right lane, but manages to get back over all four jumps!


Sunday Feb 21
Match 1
The second race he dropped the ball and came back wide of the jumps, but the other three races were good! His best time in this match was a 4.8... I think.

Match 2
All four races were good and he posted a couple of 4.7 times! He's still turning wrong, but completing the runs!

I thought he was done for the day, but one of our teammates was late coming back from lunch and Zio prepped to substitute in on our "Step on It" team's next match. Susan made it back near the end of warm-ups though and Zio was on the sideline again.

Connie did a wonderful thing and offered to let Zio run for her dog on the last race of their match, so he got to run in his very first team match. He did fantastic!!! When he ran, the ball accidently fell out of the box (which is a fault) before he got there and he picked it up off the floor and come back perfectly. Both teams were faulted though, so I was able to send him back again and he beat the other team's re-run to win the race. The best part is that he completely ignored the other dogs and the other lane!!!

Connie did one better and said that Zio could run the second and third races in the next match and all three in the last match! I have no idea what times we ran or who won, but my little man did an awesome job and I am so proud of him.

I can hardly wait until the next tournament in March! Here is some video from the last singles match.