Pre-Tournament Backyard Practices

I think if I went back and read all my blog entries preceding tournaments, they would all have the same theme relating to how improved Zio's turns are and hoping they hold up over the weekend. We've had some tournaments that he's done some decent turns, but they usually go bad before the end of racing on Sunday.

So this time isn't any different. I have high hopes that Zio might hit that elusive 3.9 second mark on the clock this weekend. He was just awesome running practice turns last night. There wasn't even a hint of a wide turn as he was turning tight and pushing straight back every single time. I really think it's clicked in his head how I want it. Now, if I can get tight passes... who knows?

Video Stuff

I've been trying to work on a compilation of video's taken from the last tournament to make one FSA video, but it's been slow going and tedious. I've got it rough editted to about 28 minutes, so I'll need to cut more than half of that to make it somewhat watchable to people outside our team. I've been using the new Live Movie Maker that comes with Windows 7, but still like some of the features of Movie Maker for XP better.

One of the things that sidetracked me is I started looking at wire to wire times. Because I record from behind and to the side of the racing lane, it's not easy to judge when a dog hits the start/finish accurately. When I was looking at some passes frame by frame, I noticed that the dog's shadow on the mats from the overhead lights gives a fairly accurate way to measure wire-to-wire times. Basically, I can view frame by frame on the video and log the time when the shadow hits the line to when it hits the line coming back. Sometimes, the shadow hits between frames, so it's not 100%... but it's darn close.

I was sending Zio on a full run during warm-ups before each match (with the gutter in place) at the last tournament. He typically does good turns like that, so I started out wanting to know what his wire times were on the practice runs. They ended up averaging just barely over the 4.0 second mark. I know he runs harder against a fast dog, so I picked out a few races that looked good and he was running wire times from 3.95 to 3.97! With a great pass, he could hit that elusive 3.9 second mark yet!

Practice

A good practice yesterday, despite many teammates helping out or competing in the agility trial. We did the DGW passing drill with three dogs (Cody, Jean-Luc, and Zio) and I thought it went well. There didn't seem to be any issues at all with dogs passing close by. We also worked on Jean-Luc's passing with Zio, trying out our new triangle method (patent pending). Once we got the correct release point, everything went smoothly. It's still very hard to judge early ball drops with such a short run back area.

Maverick tried out a new tug with a ball on it and I think he likes it. Michele also worked with a tug on Cody's new and improved box turn while she's running away. I'd like to see his times doing that turn in a tournament. Jeep was improved on working with his tug as reward on chase recalls and box work. I also ran Jet on some drills with Luigi.

Jazz and Maverick also tried out the DGW passing drill and did good for the most part. The only issue was probably handler induced. Tug is coming along with his training too, but I didn't get a chance to watch him work. It was good to have Susan back at practice and she worked with Quigli on reshaping his box turn. Tisha brought another aussie, Maggie, and I think she settled in well. A first time visitor, Greg, brought his aussie, Basher, to see what flyball is all about.

I was hoping to practice at the field next weekend to have more passing room, but I thought we had one more practice before the tournament. We'll be back at CSA next weekend for the final prep before our qualifier in Grove.

Video Reviews are in...

In reviewing the video from last weekends tournament, I would have to say that we've made significant progress on Zio's turns. He certainly wasn't 100% perfect, but I would say he did a half decent turn on about half of his runs! No wonder he ran in the 4.0's a number of times and set a personal best on the clock!

I think having him do a full run during every warmup with the gutter in place has helped reinforce the training we do at home. For the first time in a long time, he didn't get crossed up and start turning the wrong way. It really helped that Connie did a great job boxloading perfectly for him every time. His turns seem to be really fragile, so consistency will be the key to getting better. I'm proud of my little man! Good boy Zio!

Spring Fever 2011

Wow... an exciting tournament! Zio ran in the 4.0's three times while setting a personal best of 4.050 seconds. The team improved on last tournament's 18.193 with a 18.029 run! We had several runs that could have put us into the 17 second club, but a miscue here or there kept us from it... this time.

It was nice to see the club tighten up the passes over all and take up the challenge to get those "perfect" passes. Wisp had his first perfect start Saturday and Luigi set a personal best of 5.584 running as start dog on the pickup team with 4 Dog Flight.

Our biggest challenge ahead will be to work more on passing so that everyone can run in any spot. We're the only team entered in our division in our regional qualifier, so all we have to do is finish a race to get the invitation to the Championships in St. Louis again. The 17 second club is a given as long as we get one passing glitch corrected, so we'll be racing faster teams by then.

Here are some pictures from the past year of racing action...

Canton, TX - February 2010

Grove, OK - May, 2010

Bonham, TX - August, 2010

Bonham, TX - February, 2011

Really Nice Backyard Turns

Now if he will only do these in a tournament. Some of the best I've seen him do... ever. Slowing them down and checking the video clock in stop action, he's turning in less than half second from the time he touches the box until he's off it. Consistently between .43 to .46 seconds. At times I think he's too ingrained to relearn, but then I remember that he does 100 in practice correctly for every 5 he does wrong at a tournament and I have hope again.

The Continuing Saga of Zio's Turns

I am continuing to try and reshape Zio's approach to the box so that he is in a better position to do his turn. At a tournament, he is so focused on getting the ball that he makes a beeline for it. By putting a pole parallel to the lane in front of the box, Zio has been moved slightly to the right to give himself a slight angle to the box. We manage to do five or six turns each evening before he eats. So far, so good!

I've also been using a gutter to keep him from going too wide on his turn. He ignored the gutter initially, but has been doing nice, tight turns lately. Of course, only a tournament will tell if we're making any progress. I think he may have slowed a bit on his recall too, but I need more hands on deck to work on that and I'll settle for working on his turns in the meantime. Team practice time has been used to work on team passing drills and full run races against Wisp to try and simulate tournament racing.