We did some practice in the backyard with turns last night and Zio is continuing to do well. We even did a few off the wall for good measure. I'm proud of the little man for how far he's progressed in the last year.
May of 2010 was his first time as a full team member on the Off and Running team in Grove when we set a best team time and won our division both days. His turns had gone to hell, but he was loving the sport.
Fast forward to today and it really takes some nit-picking to find something to improve on with him. His turns have been tight and fast, so it's just been getting repetitions during practice to re-enforce. Zio's been holding up pretty good in tournaments with the turn too. His recalls and tug drive are really good now too. It's really hard to measure accurately, but he's maybe a tenth slower coming back then going to the box, so that's what I've tried to work on during team practices. Depending on the matchups, it will be interesting to see the little man's recall times against some faster dogs at the next tournament running singles.
He's a pretty solid example for the other dogs and gets used a lot to help the others in practice. I may have to continually emphasize good turns with him, but I beginning to believe he's understanding the principle. I haven't even seen him go wide on a turn in weeks.
Tonight will probably find us using the field behind the elementary school to practice some distance throws for the disc dog competition this Saturday. One practice is better than none. :)
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