Ice Storm!

Thursday brought an ice storm that turned to snow Friday morning. The snow lasted until 7:00 pm last night. Zio and I had to settle for snow frisbee with the box safely stored inside.

His new Z-Control Skid Boots came yesterday! I haven't taken pictures of him wearing them yet, but it's cool that Kathleen puts a "Z" on each boot. Now it's almost like they are customized for Zio!

Keeping it Small

The last couple of days have been about keeping it light and fun. Monday evening, he started getting sloppy on his turns and then stopped doing a swimmers turn and just grabbed the ball. I took down all of the jumps, put the cone back in. We did two turn only runs from fifteen feet and played some frisbee instead.

Last night we did a few more turn only runs and then added one jump back in toward the end since he seemed to remember what he was supposed to do at the box. We had more frisbee play at the end.

Practice at Full Speed Ahead was confusing. He completely loses focus when we get there. He ran a few recalls over the hurdles to start practice and then began running off... chasing balls, checking out other dogs, etc. Although he is making full runs at home, it was a struggle in the beginning to get him over even one jump. He had little to no interest in the tug and would run off after balls and other dogs.

Then toward the end of practice, things started calming down as a few people started wrapping up and fewer of us were out there. Suddenly, I had Zio back in focus. First over one jump, then two, then all four jumps! He ran two complete runs without the aid of a cone and I was going to call it quits when one of the other members offered to box load balls for me. I decided one more and hoped for a third good one in a row to end on a positive note. Zio ran it perfectly with a great turn and good tug play at the end. I brought a real box home and he's running great full runs here now with an actual box!

New Video!

More practice this morning and he's doing great. After taking the video footage, I removed the cone and narrowed the jumps to the standard 24 inches. He seems to have a good handle on everything to this point! Enjoy the video... the music is from the Bolt soundtrack.

Narrowed Jumps

Okay, I narrowed the jumps to about 30 inches after a few more perfect runs tonight. He did the next one perfect and then had trouble going back over the first jump coming back. After a few take him back and have him go over the jumps, it clicked again for him and he had it down. I also moved the cone about four feet from the box and he stayed on track, so he may not even need it anymore.

I may work him at this width another day and then move to 24 inches wide Saturday. I think I'll stick with the cone as a reference for now. Si said I could bring one of the working boxes home after practice Sunday, so next week will be all with the real thing!!! :)

Down Pat

Another day of great consistent practice runs. We only ran about 15 or so, but they required no additional instruction from me. Just point and say go!

I think I'll try narrowing the jumps some since U-Fli and NAFA jumps are only 24 inches wide.

Awesome!

It's hard to put into words how proud I am of Zio. He knows that when I get home in the evenings and change clothes that we're probably going outside to play. He was so excited when I grabbed the tug toy, knowing that meant we were going outside to practice. He was absolutely flawless last night. Every singe run over the two jumps and back were perfect and fast! He put it all together... running all out over the two jumps, staying to the right, getting high on the box, grabbing the ball, driving off the box, running back over the jumps, excited tug play, and ignoring the ball at his feet!

I can hardly wait to see if we can put it together at practice Sunday!

Progress!!!

This afternoon, I started releasing him to get the ball from 20 ft away. After a few ignore the cone and run straight for the ball runs, we changed the angle just a bit. After that he was remembering to go to the right of the cone and then come back. I slowly added in two jumps and he was consistently going over two jumps, turning correctly on the box, grabbing the ball, and returning over both jumps!!! Zio is the man!!!!

The other thing I needed to correct is his desire to pay more attention to the ball on the ground than the tug in my hand. This afternoon, I wouldn't let him pick up the ball, but instead redirected him to do a sit and earn a treat. Very good progress on this too! All in all a super afternoon of practice.

Counting Down

Counting down the practices until the February tournament. Yesterday's practice saw some progress (I removed the cone) and he's still doing good on the turn. We still haven't gone back to add hurdles in again and Zio tends to only want to do the swimmer's turn if he has a slight angle to the box.

I've stapled a piece of velcro to the practice box so that I can "stick" a tennis ball to it here at home. I can tell he's expecting the ball to shoot out, so he's clumsy on the turn. Now I'm debating whether I should go back to the way I was doing it so that he doesn't accidently learn to stop in the middle of his turn.

Warmer Days

The days have been warmer (finally!) and we've run a little practice every night this week. My desktop at home has crashed though and it has cut into our practice. To be honest, it's not the same with the practice box knowing that he can do turns on a real box with a ball. I want to continue building the muscle memory though, so we'll get some practice in every night.

Awesome Practice!

Zio was extremely hyped up about being back at practice today. We were there early and had to wait for the puppy session to finish. He was literally shaking with excitement and frustration because the puppies were running and he wasn't. Si helped us do turns on a real box with a short barrier and the cone. He did so well that Si started releasing him while I stood back on the return.

After five or six turns, I tried putting the ball in the box and it didn't take him long to get the hang of that! Si would release him toward the box and Zio would grab the ball and follow me back over all the jumps!

After taking a break, we went back at it with Susan Owen's help and he continued to do great! By the end, I was releasing him from about twenty feet away from the box, he would swimmer's turn the box, grab the ball, and chase me back to get the tug. I feel a lot more comfortable that he'll be ready for the tournament next month.

Practice Today!

We ran a number of practice rounds yesterday. He's still getting sloppy if I move the cone out too far, so we will keep working on it. Today will be the first time in three weeks that Full Speed Ahead has been able to get together to practice. I'm excited to see how he does with everyone else there. Hopefully, we'll get some tips and try some new stuff to add to what he already knows. Maybe with different props, but I still don't think it's time to add the ball yet... we'll see what the others think.

The new tug was just too big, so I remade it yesterday. I think this one will do just fine.

Cold!

Below zero with windchill this morning and even colder tonight! I still plan on running a few turn sessions with Zio tonight though. Full Speed Ahead is practicing indoors Sunday and it will be good to see if we can move to the next level. After Saturday night, they are predicting highs about 40 degrees for a while.

The master plan is to have Zio ready to run singles in the first tournament of the season, Feb 20-21. That gives us about 5 weeks to finish molding the turn, transition to a real box, add hurdles, add the ball into the turn, and do it all without the cone. We've got our work cut out for us!

Before the Cold Front

I ran a few sessions of turns with Zio as the cold front was coming through last night. I did edge the cone closer to the box when his first few attempts were a little sloppy. By the end of the second session, he was back to the cone being a foot from the box. He continues to go to the box well from a greater distance.

Tonight is another day of rest, but we will probably brave the cold Friday night to run a few more sessions. Full Speed Ahead is having an indoor practice Sunday, so it will be good to get back together after the last few weeks of weather cancelled practices.

A Little Practice and a Day of Rest

We ran a couple of sessions tonight on the practice box with vet wrap on. He's doing very good on his turns with the cone about a foot from the box (instead of the original 4 inches). I noticed tonight that I was able to send him from a little further away too. He also seemed to like his new and improved tug too. Good progress all around from the Zio man!

His right dew claw had a little blood when I removed the vet wrap, so he's officially on a day of rest tomorrow.

Vet Wrap

We went to PetsMart and bought some vet wrap yesterday afternoon. We practiced about 20 turns and it worked like a champ, although it did show me how hard he's stopping. Zio wore a hole through the first layer or two covering his stops. I'm still hoping to hear from the lady in Missouri that makes the neoprene wraps.

Practice was good and Zio was really excited to be out running again. I eased the cone back a little and will keep following that pattern for a while and see if he maintains his turn.

We made him a new and bigger tug yesterday using 4 inch wide strips of flannel. Three braided tugs braided together to make one big one. It came out about five feet in length. We played a little bit with it, but I put it away until we can practice tonight.

Dew Claws

Practice was cut short yesterday when I noticed that both dew claws were bloody. Upon closer examination, they both appear to have abrasions. They look sore, so he's on the sidelines until they look better. The only thing I can think of is that he scraped them skidding to a stop in the icy snow chasing the ball.

I'm looking at the Z-Control Skid Boots made by a lady in Missouri. I've sent her an email with his wrist measurements, but I'm not sure if she is still making them.

The practice time we had was a mixed bag. As long as the cone is there, he turns great. If I go to the short cone, he stops getting all four paws on the box. I even tried it with no cone and a blocker in front, but things still went to hell. I put the big cone back and he turns great again. I think I'll try easing the cone further and further away and see if I can keep his turn good... as soon as we can practice again.

New Year's Practice

Zio is starting to build consistency on his turns. He's so quick on the box that I have to keep asking myself, "what exactly happened on that turn?". I eventually resort to setting the camera up... the one that seems like it eats four AA batteries every five minutes.

Every one I reviewed yesterday looked darn good to me! I was amazed, in watching the video in slo-mo, that he's not waiting for his rear paws to get planted on the box before starting to push off with his front paws. I'm no expert, but I would think that it has to be faster and more fluid to take the box "in stride" like that. Most of the better box turns I've watched seem to be that way anyway. You can watch yesterday's collection of turns here

High of only 30 degrees today and I'm out of batteries. The four legged, furry one won't care though...heh.

Happy New Year!