Thoughts and Rambles

I thought we might be a little zealous holding a practice on Easter morning, but then I read on Facebook that Sure Shots held one too! Only flyball people!

I'm really starting to look forward to running singles with Zio at the May tournament. He is usually super amped up the very first time he gets to run and I would love to capture that in his singles run that Saturday. Unfortunately, I'll be taking an educated guess on where to start. Hopefully, I'll be in the ballpark and he nails a good time with a good turn.

Practice was good yesteday and Zio was hitting the tug hard on his box work/recalls opposite Wisp. Other than that, he was the "veteran" dog for side-by-side recalls against Maverick and then passing drills with Jean-Luc and Wisp.

What I really was impressed with was after practice. Katie tossed a tennis ball over Zio's head while trying to throw it to Wisp. Zio leaped and caught it while doing a flip. The expression on Katie's face was priceless... Air Zio strikes again.

Working and Improving

We continue to work on fast, tight turns most evenings after I get home from work. Usually, just four or five to keep him sharp and keep re-enforcing the correct turns. I'd really like him to get an official singles time in the 3.9's now that he's done one on the clock. My thought is that he did the 3.987 over 11" jumps... who knows what he'll do over 6" jumps.

I also have no idea where to start him from. When he was the start dog while pairs racing with Jean-Luc in Las Vegas, I had a hard time figuring out where to line up. I think we only got two offical times in eight races because I was early on almost every race no matter how far back I moved. I think I ended up at 61 feet, so I'll probably start there and adjust as needed.

Windy Practice

It was a gorgeous day, but a very strong wind blowing dirt in my eyes made it a challenge to hold our practice outdoors. I had to come home and remove my contacts, flush my eyes, and spend the rest of the day letting my eyes rest.

The practice itself went well. Most of the dogs made progress, but I was especially encouraged by Jean-Luc holding the ball three times while running into a waiting Zio. It was good to see Ace at a practice having fun running for Stephanie. It's odd how the newer dogs handle the DGW passing drill so much better than our more experienced dogs in training. I guess we need to get them doing that early on so it's not such a shock to suddenly have to worry about other dogs while running over jumps.

I tried to get some flyball pictures of the newer dogs and managed to get a few decent ones. I still need to get Logan, Ace, and a few others probably.

Jasmine

Maverick

Samson

Practice

For Zio, I'd call it a so-so practice. He was still doing his turns, but not like I want him to. I used a piece of PVC from an agility jump as the divider to guide him to the right side of the box initially, but he was straddling it going to the box. Later, I used a bigger gutter to push him right, but he looked a little wide coming back. I'll have to work on it at home and get him doing it tight again.

Luna did awesome with her recalls to the tug going over four puppy height jumps without baby gates. She was pulling at the start anticipating the "GO!", tugged very well, and was very proud of herself. Now to work on that ball drive.

FSA Time History

Being an analytical type of person, I've charted Full Speed Ahead's tournament times beginning with their first tournament in April 2008. The team consisted of Burst, Meekah, Scout, and Roxy. Deuce joined the team at the next tournament that year. I've added labels for when new dogs have joined the team.

Awesome Flyball Weekend!

That's about as good as it gets! Everyone worked on tightening things up and we finally broke into the 17's during Saturday's first race with a 17.899 second run! Wisp was solid on start, giving us the lead on almost every match. He even showed off his ambidextrous turns by turning left on the right lane and then right on the left lane! Michele and Cody had several 4.5 second runs with some close passing and some box turns too! Zio even joined the 3.9 second club by posting a 3.987 while we lowered our team best time to 17.804 on Sunday. We started Jean-Luc out with wide passes Saturday to let him get comfortable passing again, but he was starting to lean into the lane to make room for himself by the end of Sunday's racing. I even won the chili cook-off some how!

Someone asked how low we can we go, since we keep posting best times every tournament. In watching the videos, we still have room to improve on our consistency. We still haven't really pushed the passing with Jean-Luc either. I think we could realistically run mid-17's with just improved consistency. We are getting better at it all the time. We ran two 17.8 races Saturday and four sub-18 second races Sunday. A few tweaks here and there and we'll be in good shape.

Training projects until the next tournament are
1) See what we can try to get Wisp in the 3.9 club (tougher for him at 11 inches)
2) Keep working on Cody's box work and try for some 4.4's
3) Consistency on the box for Zio...still
4) Jean-Luc passing