Mr Fuzzy Butt!

The Zio pup got a bath yesterday, so he's puffed out to twice his normal size! We did run a few short sessions and he only had one turn that was not good (three legs up). The rest of the evening was rest time for him and getting things organized to head to Grove!!!

I think he knows something is up! ;)

Moving Back

Zio has been doing really, really well on relearning his box turn. I put the jump in that is 15 ft from the box and he didn't miss a beat. Later, we started lining up about 20' back from the jump and he continued to "hit it" with all four paws up on the box like that's all he's ever known. Then I tried moving back as far as a could (about 55 ft total from the box) and he punched the box instead of doing his turn! I moved 15 ft closer to the box and he only got three legs on the box. Phfffft! :P

From 10' away, he was back to all four on the box. Back to 35' and all is great. At 55', three feet on the box. ugh! We ended the evening with all good ones from 35'. If I didn't have tournament in 2 days, I'd practice without the ball at distance until he realized that getting the ball has nothing to do with reward right now. With the weekend looming though, I guess I'll mix in a few more turns without the ball and see if I can eventually back him up to 55-60' with the ball.

I made a 10" practice jump board, but I think he has enough on his plate to learn right now. After this weekend, it's back to doing more without the ball.

Hopeful

Zio continued to do really well on the box turn with the ball Monday evening. He is giving me hope that he'll actually do a good turn in the tournament this weekend! He seems to have learned the "line up" command now too!

One Step Backwards, Two Steps Forward!

Practice yesterday was a mixed bag of eventual progress. In warm up, he had great recalls and fantastic tug play. Later, Zio did well in the practiced passing with almost all of the other racing dogs. Even with Wisp, who I thought might present an issue for my little man.

His retraining on the box had not progressed to putting a ball in the box, so I was very reluctant to practice full runs with the team. The team felt it was necessary, so we gave it a shot anyway. As suspected, Zio immediately revert to punching the box to get the ball. After watching him do it twice, I pulled him from doing any more full runs until I could reintroduce the ball into his retraining. With the Grove tournament in 5 days, I was mentally kicking myself for not holding him out of this tournament.

During a break, I took Zio to one of the boxes and did a few dry (no ball) "hit it" turns with him on the box just like we've been practicing. I put a ball in the box and after a couple of tries, he started doing a pretty good turn. I used this method a few more times during practice... practicing "dry" turns without a ball and mixing in a few with the ball.

At home, Zio really seemed to get the idea and hasn't punched the box once with a ball in place. Most of his turns are now with the ball and I'll mix in an occasional dry turn to reinforce it. I'm cautiously optimistic that we may get enough practice in before Saturday to have it sink it for the tournament. Then we'll have to wait and see if he reverts back in the excitement of the race.

Moving to the Box

As the next tournament looms in less than two weeks, I'm beginning to have concerns about him being really ready for it. We began the transition from the wall to the box a few days ago, but I seem to be balancing going slow enough to teach him right and getting him ready to be able to run the tournament on May 1st.

The bad news was that he seemed to have completely forgotten turning on the box. The good news is that he seemed to have completely forgotten about turning on the box. Ironic. On one hand, I'm glad he forgot the bad turn he was developing. On the other hand, he has a tournament in 10 days and it sure would be helpful if he could actually make a full run. My fear is that I'll throw him in the tournament and he'll revert back to stabbing the box to get the ball. He hasn't seen a ball in training for a month now, so I'll need to work that back in at some point soon. In hindsight, I should have held him out of this tournament to get the focus on the turn.

Hit It!

Zio has moved right along in his re-training. He now will go to the wall and turn on command. Sometimes he doesn't want to leave me with the tug in his hand, but he eventually will do it to come back for the tug.

The next step is going to be getting him to "hit it" on the box. Saturday is the Woofstock demonstration, but I pulled Zio from actually doing a run with the other dogs. I don't want him to revert to punching the box while we're in the middle of training him to do a correct turn.

The final step will be to put the ball back in, but that is going to wait until the last minute before heading to Grove.

Slow Transition

Zio is pretty good now about knowing he has to hit the wall without me holding the tug up there... especially if I get him excited first. He's even hit the wall on his own without prompting while I get him revved up. I want him to understand that what I have my hand on is what he needs to turn off of. We have some spirited tug play when he does it right, so we only do four or five turns during a session... two or three sessions an evening.

Rumor has it that there might be another opportunity to practice with Hyper Flight before the tournament May 1-2.

Wall to Wall

We continue to train the wall turn method. I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to transition him from the wall to the box, but for now I'll work on sending him to the wall by command, without holding the lure up to the wall. Once he has that down, it should be fairly easy to command to the box. (famous last words)

He had an abrasion on one of his hocks, so he took a day off from practice. I don't think it was anything to do with training.

A couple of wall turns from his YouTube channel...

Walls!

We are still working on wall turning. I have set up different areas, with a PVC pipe as a "hurdle", around the yard. So right now, he will turn off of the brick wall or three areas of the fence.

It's almost time to start expecting him to do it on command. He keeps doing better with tug play too! I was a little disappointed that only one team gets to qualify for the championship tournament this fall. Oh well... maybe by next year we can be on the faster team.

Sounds like Sunday practice may not happen. I'm not sure what is going on there.