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.