WW: Whoops

A little bit of a fumble.

In the Background

In the background of the flyball tournament, there is a space where everyone keeps their boxes, ball hoppers, props, and other gear that their team needs for racing or warm ups.

When getting ready for each race, first, you have to find all your gear in this constantly shifting, crowded area where a ton of the boxes look exactly the same except for tiny variables like a piece of tape on top.

I can spot our box in both of the pictures above. Can you?

Here is a photo from the weekend of Addie (getting an awesome start) that shows our box.

Black and White Sunday: Box Turns

My new flyball team did a photoshoot with all of our dogs for some promotional material. Awesome side effect- I ended up with new and awesome photos of my dogs doing flyball.

A teammate ran Koira while I took pictures. I love that she is solid when run by someone else, and that all our hard work on her box turn over the years has paid off. Her turn isn't awesome, but it is so, so, so much better than it was!

A teammate took Ptera's pictures with my camera while I ran her. There is a prop in front of the box (you can see it in the lower right corner just barely), but Ptera now has a box turn! We're working on cleaning it up so it is fast and snappy now.

Flyball Turns

Last night at practice, and at practice last week, I spent time concentrating on Koira's turn. I have a feeling I will have to spend time working on her turn regularly for the rest of her life.

The last tournament we were at was two weeks ago, and by the end of the weekend, Koira's turn was back to being almost non-existent. I think a big factor in that is that we had been missing a number of practices and running in line ups at the practices we did make it to, often with no prop due to not having enough people available to place a prop. Combined, all of that caused Koira's turn to degrade before we even made it to the tournament, and the tournament just crushed her turn the rest of the way.

I have no photos of Koira doing box work recently, or of her at the recent tournament. But this is a photo I took at our last tournament.

Last week, I tried out a new prop in front of the box. It is a clear plexiglass prop that fits right up close to the box really nicely, and is really hard to see even knowing it is there. I combined that one with another plexiglass prop that is set next to the box on the side she turns toward, to help keep her turn fast and tight. I worked her up close quite a bit, doing snap-offs without the props, then with the props. Then I moved back one jump at a time, giving her more speed going into the box, this time with the prop in place the entire time.

Again, a photo of a dog at our last tournament. This one is Shadow, and this run gave her the points needed to complete her Iron Dog, meaning she has been successfully running flyball for ten consecutive years.

This week, I started off the same, doing snap-offs with no props. Then I added the props and had someone else hold Koira back behind the first jump and release, so I could still reward right after the box turn. That worked well, so I had them hold Koira back before the start line and release her. I didn't have time to get to the other side to reward like I do for snap-offs, but while standing on the side toward which Koira turns, I tossed her tug down and over for her if her turn was reward worthy. It seemed to work out well. One of her turns was horrible and exploded the props, but the next two were nice, so I had them take the prop out from in front of the box (leaving in the one to the side) and her turn was nice. We put the prop back in, did one run with a really nice turn, then took the prop back out for the next repeat. We ended on that next one, which was an absolutely gorgeous, fast turn.

I am hoping that by doing some heavy box work in the next few weeks that Koira's turn will hold up at least somewhat during the tournament in the middle of next month. If only we were allowed to run with props, her turn would be awesome! Of course, that is the challenge.

WW: The Crazy Trix

I've been trying for years to get a good photo of Trix on the box. She is one of the border collies on our team, and is officially our fastest dog. Her turn isn't always high, but it is always fast and tight. All of this makes getting a focused photo of her on the box really difficult. But I think I managed some good ones.

For more photos from my team's flyball demo and Fun Match at the Oregon State Fair this past weekend, check out this post. 

Fit Friday: High and Tight

I am so proud of my Koira girl!

Her turns last night at practice were amazing. Her first five were all high, snappy, tight turns, with a fast go out and fast return. All four feet were not only on the box, but well placed. And only one of the first five had any double hitting at all, the rest were all solid. 

Our second set of five, she had two really nice turns and three low-but-four-footed ones. but still a fast go out and fast return on all of them. I think she was just getting lower as she got tired, but since even her absolute worst turn of the night was better than her best turn at our last tournament, I am over the moon. Oh, and yes, all of these turns with with absolutely NO props of any kind in front of the box, just like we will see at a tournament.

I will say that my teammates were all very impressed. There was a bit of ribbing about the fact that Koira's turn improved so much right before I head off to run in Open, at a tournament that no one else from my team is going to. I did put some extra time and effort into training her turn, I'll admit. But, its not like I haven't been putting time and effort into it before now! I think something just finally clicked for her. Of course I have no pictures or video or anything to prove this, but that doesn't make me any less thrilled!

Lets hope she stays solid this weekend in Canada!

After practice, we set up a power jumping grid, which is six flyball jumps all set up ten feet apart. I brought Pallo in for this, and he had a blast. I had him run it four times (Koira came in and ran twice, but she is always a rock star with jumping grids). He has been off flyball completely for a full two months now. He was jumping smoothly, single striding every one, and going for his tug with wild abandon. He'll be doing some full runs at practice next week, so we'll see if some time off is the solution to our previous issues or not. Fingers crossed!

FitDog Friday: Flyball box turns and striding

Here is a striding video of Koira this week. She is still moving pretty smoothly.



And then here is a box turn video from this week. We were losing the light, so the video is a bit dark. But, her turn is very nice, tight, and fast. We used a simple PVC prop in front of the box for it. You can see another PVC prop closer to the camera- that is one of our striding props, and is 5 feet from the box. We were starting from just behind that prop.

FitDog Friday: Flyball Striding

Last Friday, I linked to a post about training striding in flyball. This week, I thought I would share a video of Koira running at practice. The video shows her from the fourth jump, to the box, on the box, then back to the jump again. You can see that she takes three strides between the jump and the box, and then three strides again from the box to the jump.

Her box turn is very sloppy. She is double hitting (repositioning her feet on the box before pushing off). I think her box turn is never going to be something to be proud of. But I seriously love this dog. She has taught me so much, and been so patient with all of my mistakes. Because of her, I will be a much better trainer when I get my next flyball dog.

Flyball Boxloading

An incredibly important part of a successful flyball team is a box loader. With the dogs and handlers all at one end of the course, someone has to stand on the box at the other end and load the right ball into the right hole for each dog. This past weekend was my first time boxloading for one of our teams full time at a tournament. Previously, I've only filled in for a race or two, or boxloaded during practice.

A sample ball bucket from "Flying Underdogs"- included here are regular tennis balls, rubber chuck-it balls, half bounce balls, and small squishy balls. These buckets get set behind the barricades behind the box so the boxloader can grab more balls between heats to reload the box.

For some teams, boxloading is super easy. For others, it can be horribly complicated. I got off pretty easy with three of the six dogs on the team I was loading for all taking a normal size tennis ball and all in the same hole on the box. Most flyball boxes have four holes, two on the right and two on the left, and it is essential to put the ball in the right hole so that the dog can smoothly grab it while doing its trained turn. Also of key importance is getting the right kind of ball into that hole, and doing it in the right order during a lineup of 4 dogs.

A relatively easy lineup for this boxloader still requires holding onto four tennis balls at once and remembering which hole to put the ball in for each dog. It is generally a good idea to keep a ball in the box for the start dog, hold onto the balls for the other three dogs, and have at least one extra ball in your hand in case of a rerun. Aprons and pockets can be used to stash extra balls as well, but can take longer to get into.

For instance, Koira takes a racquetball in the far left hole- which is to the boxloader's right when standing on the box. Pallo's ball goes in that same hole, but is a small size tennis ball. The ball options I know of people using include regular tennis balls, small tennis balls, half bounce tennis balls, racquetballs, squishy balls, small squishy balls, fuzzy chuck-it balls, rubber chuck-it balls, black tennis balls, and foam balls. There is certainly a possibility that other people are using other balls as well! And while some dogs will still run okay if the wrong ball is loaded for them (Pallo will carry a full size tennis ball most of the time just fine), others will completely ignore the ball or spit it out if it is the wrong one (such as the Jack Russel on our team who uses fuzzy chuck-it balls).

Another method of organizing all of the different types of balls used by a team. You can see this team mostly uses standard tennis balls and small size balls.

So the boxloader of a team might get off easy (like I did) and just have to chant to themselves: right tennis, right tennis, right tennis, left small squishy. Or, they might get a more complicated line up like: right big hole tennis ball, left small hole small tennis, left big hole rubber chuck-it ball, left big hole racquetball. And, keep in mind, while only four dogs run at once, you are allowed to change the order of those dogs during the race, or switch out any of those four for an alternate dog listed on the team (each team can list up to 6 dogs). So the boxloader has to have really good communication during the race from their team in order to keep up with any changes in the lineup.

Another sample ball bucket, with tennis balls, small balls, half bounce balls, and small squishy balls

In addition to loading the box for the team during the race, the boxloader has some other responsibilities. The most important one is to know which side of which ring their team is going to be in for the next race and get the box into the ring and set up, get the ball buckets set behind the barricades where they can be reached to restock balls between heats, and help with the warm ups. Extra people sometimes will help with these tasks as well, especially if the warm ups use a lot of props.

A "prop castle" being used during warm ups. The jump helps remind the dogs to get all four feet on the box while the striped gutters on either side help keep the dogs turning tightly back into the racing lane. Different teams have different warm up routines that require different props and numbers of props. Warm up time is 1 minute (2 minutes for the first race of the day) so all of this has to be set up quickly to warm up and then removed from the ring before the race starts.

In our region, it is also customary for the team who was just in the ring to leave someone to fill the seat of box judge. On our team, that generally is the box loader. So after the race is done, the box loader removes the box from the ring, moves all the ball buckets and props (if they were used) back away from the racing lanes so that other teams can get ready to set up, and then goes and sits in the box judging seat for the next race. I actually really enjoy box judging, but am embarrassed to admit I forgot that I was supposed to do it a few times this past weekend.

Boxloading can be a lot of fun. You are right in there as part of the action, and you are absolutely essential for the success of your team. 

Some Flyball Pictures

I just bought some of the pictures of my dogs from the past three tournaments. I've been meaning to get some for a while, and I finally took the plunge and bought them. Two of the tournaments were on dirt and one was on mats, so you'll see some of both. Flyball is such a big part of our lives, and yet I almost never have pictures of my dogs doing it. I am always too busy running them and not able to take pictures. It is awesome when other people get great pictures of my dogs!

*Oh, and I didn't mention on Monday in my tournament recap (because I didn't know yet at the time) that Koira achieved her next title at the tournament last weekend. She now officially has the Flyball Dog Champion Gold (FDCh-G) title. Next up, Flyball Master!*

And now, the flyball pictures!

This one is Pallo tugging like a maniac. The tug in flyball is used as a reward at the end of each run. (Check out the tug making tutorial I posted yesterday.) Some people use food or a ball or other toy instead, but I prefer to tug with my dogs. The tug also acts as a way to control where the dog is- if the dog is on the end of the tug, they aren't rerunning themselves, chasing balls in the run back, or otherwise getting in the way of other people or dogs.

And then this one is of me and Pallo as I am releasing him to run. I used to launch him off of my lap, with me kneeling and his back legs up on my hips. But I decided he was tripping too much from that position, and went to releasing him from a standing position. You can see that he crouches down, almost laying down, and then gets very amped before being released.

For comparison, here is Koira being release by the same method, where I just stand over them holding their collar until I release them. While Pallo crouches down and gets amped, Koira tends to rear up and look straight up into my face, then almost bounce forward. Unfortunately, it makes for very irregular start times since the amount of bounce changes each time. Because of that, I am working on finding a different, more effective starting method for the two of us.

Koira really flattens out when jumping, but certainly clears the jumps with room to spare. Our agility instructor (did I mention that we took an agility class?) said that Koira jumps too flat. I think it is probably because of our flyball practice. And I like her flat jumping style, it makes for a faster flyball dog!

With ten feet between each jump, Koira can easily single stride (only touch the ground once between each jump). She does great with extending those back legs out to keep from hitting the jumps with her feet. And I just love the front foot partially tucked in, because it is adorable.

And then, a box turn picture of Koira. Unfortunately, she doesn't really have much of a box turn in this picture... Neither of her back feet ever actually touched the box during this turn, which I am not too fond of. But, if this is what her turn is going to be like, at least I get to play with my dog, and at least she gets to have fun.

In any case, I'm super thrilled with all these pictures. Memories are so much better when you have pictures to look at to bring them to mind. It also makes me want to take pictures at the tournament next week. I've been really holding back on taking pictures at flyball tournaments for a while, both because I've been busy and because I just wasn't enjoying it that much. So many people take advantage and just assume someone will take great pictures of their dog and give them to them for free, and it was getting on my nerves (especially after I spent a lot of money on a new camera and a new lens this past spring). But, I enjoy taking pictures, and I think I'll try to get some more of them at this next tournament.

All photos shown in this post were taken by David Eastman, and were shared on this blog with his permission after I purchased digital copies for personal use.

Awesome Weekend

Well, we are home from our awesome weekend of flyball. Koira totally rocked it, running in 6 races on Saturday and 4 races on Sunday, and starting 6/10 of the races. Koira's turns were low and none of them were four footed, but she had a lot of fun and was running her heart out. Her times were mostly in the 5.2-5.4 range, which is slower than I know she is capable of, but likely a result of her poor box turns. I think our best start of the weekend was a 0.015, which I thought was really good, considering that I have almost no experience with starting. Most of our starts were 0.1xx, so I just need to make sure we are consistent in whatever we are getting, then start changing things up a little at a time to see if we can't improve. We didn't get any false starts or early passes all weekend though. I think Koira only even got flagged once, for dropping her ball. She dropped it again on her rerun, but carried it fine the rest of the day, so I'm not sure what was up in that heat.

Pallo didn't run any flyball over the weekend, so spent a lot of time just chilling in his kennel. He did come out to play some fetch and frisbee on Friday and Saturday night though. We were car camping on site along with some fellow flyballers, so he had a whole field to play in and other dogs to play with.

Pallo did also have his own special event- the Low Rider race (which is basically a short recall on the flat, racing corgis, bassets, bulldogs, and mixes thereof). Last year, he won the Low Rider race after a preliminary heat and a final run off between him and fellow flyball low rider Tater (a dachshund/poodle mix). This year, Pallo was back to defend his title. He won his first preliminary heat easily, then beat out Henry the flyball corgi in the finals to hold onto his title for the second year in a row. We'll be back next year to keep the streak going!

I didn't take any pictures of any of the fun stuff, sorry!

Tournaments Galore

We had a great time at the tournament this past weekend. Pallo was on the schedule to run in a 3/4 time slot. Koira originally was not going to run, but there ended up being another team with a team member who couldn't come due to a last minute family emergency, so I signed Koira up to run with them.

Which brings me to the point that, while I will always continue working Koira's box turn at practice, I will be running her in tournaments with whatever turn it is that she has. The whole hemangioma lump scare made me seriously evaluate what will bring me and my dog more pleasure, and running in tournaments is it.

Pallo ended up running like a rockstar- until he didn't. It seemed like every race or two races, he would have a heat where he would run part way up, come to an abrupt stop, and stare around like he had no idea where he was or what he was supposed to be doing. He always ran well on the rerun though. I honestly don't have much of an idea of what is going on with him. He doesn't appear to be in pain when he does it (head and tail stay up, he sometimes does it before even going over a jump). Chasing flies, lights flashing on the ring, hot weather, and him being bored are all on the table for reasons. We'll have to figure it out if we can.

Koira ran really well. Her turn pretty well fell apart into a somewhat sideways smash into the box. But I don't think the turn itself is super dangerous (though I doubt it is good for her body long term). Part of the problem was that since we were running Open, we were running on a box that had holes MUCH closer to the center of the box, which made her not have room for the turn we've been practicing for so long. I ended up having a really awesome person go grab my team's other box (we were only about 3 minutes away from our regular practice facility), which we ran on for the rest of the weekend, but the damage was pretty well done by the first few races on that box. Other than the box turns, though, Koira was running great. I am happy with how she did, and don't regret putting her in at all.

The tournament was really fun, like always. It was nice enough to be close to home and be able to sleep in my own bed each night. It was a bit farther of a drive than I would pick for a hotel if I was staying at an event- 45 minutes- but close enough to make it reasonable to stay at home. Our club was so busy running three teams that our crating area was almost always empty or close to empty. We had our usual spread of food (which is always the most impressive at a tournament), but no time to stand around snacking and chatting. But everyone knew where they were supposed to be and did a great job getting there, even when they were being rushed from one ring/team to the next. We did have a retirement party on Saturday for Raff, one of our team dogs who had to be retired due to a non-flyball related injury. Normally, we hold retirement parties for dogs at the last tournament they run in, but since we didn't know Raff was going to be seriously injured, we decided to do the retirement party at the tournament nearest to home, so that he could attend.

We are off to another flyball tournament this weekend. My team is hosting it as a one day tournament, and it is even closer to home for me (only 20 minutes!). So there will be yet more excitement on Saturday. 

If you happen to be in the area, come on by the Linn County Fair tomorrow and stop by to check out the flyball!

PS. The box turn photos here are not from the tournament (which was indoors on mats). They are from a training session at the park on Wednesday.

Fit Dog Friday: Box Turn Training

Once again, I am working on retraining Koira's box turn. You may recall the series of pictures I posted last Friday of Koira's box turns at practice. Well, I posted only the good ones.

What I didn't show was the series of Koira's less-than-stellar box turn.










The prop (the rain gutters taped together) in front of the box is there to remind Koira to jump up onto the box with all four feet. Without it, she tends to just slam the box with her front feet, grab the ball, and run. For a lot of reasons, this isn't a good thing. At least one out of every set of five runs, Koira flubs her turn, even with the prop. I have been trying for, quite literally, years, to fix her turn.

This week, I think I may have made a breakthrough. Of course, I have thought that before, and things have improved, but this time, I think it may really be the key to getting Koira tournament ready. I'll share all the details if it continues to work. But let's just say, I am hopeful.

Fit Friday: Flyball Practice

With life settling back down a bit, and the kennel cough outbreak now a thing of the past, we are back to doing flyball practice on Thursday nights. Last night, I was lucky enough to get one of our team members to take some pictures of Koira on the box.





She is doing really well with her box turns. You'll notice we still have a prop in front of the box (in this case, a totally white stack of rain gutters). Unfortunately, she seems to need the prop to keep a good turn. Fading the prop is proving very, very difficult.

Here is a whole series of the same turn. First, she jumps onto the box



Then lands on the box solidly with all four feet, catching the ball



Then she pushes off, hard, ball in mouth, to come back down the lane of jumps to return to me and her tug.



Very proud of my girl. And, she has a great time playing flyball, even if her box turn gives me a training headache sometimes.

Wordless Wednesday: Feet

Puppy Love

We had a great weekend in California. Pallo was awesome all weekend, running clean every time. Even I didn't mess up at all, and we had no ball dropping, jump skipping, or early passes at all. His times were good for the most part, in the 5.2-5.3 range, even on Sunday afternoon. My passes made him get some times more in the 5.6 range a few times, but overall, we both did really good.

Warm up with the prop, nice high box turn

Koira was entered in singles. It is basically the same as regular racing, only there is one dog in each lane instead of a team of four. Singles is offered only in U-Fli, which we don't compete in often (NAFA is much more common in our region). During our warm up time, I had Koira do both close up box work with the prop, and a few full runs with the prop. Her turn was okay for a few runs once the race started, but I pulled her from the last few heats in both races on Saturday, and didn't race her at all on Sunday, we just used our warm up time. Her turn still has a long way to go.

Running without the prop. Koira's rear is low, one foot not even up on the box. We have some work to do!

I spent a lot of time taking pictures of the other dogs running (and major, huge thanks to the people who used my camera to get some pictures of Koira running!). This mastiff was about the most adorable thing ever at flyball. He was hilarious to watch. His first run of the day, he went over one jump, then casually veered to the side to try to get some pets from the spectators. The rest of the weekend, he was much more solid on his jumps, but hilarious at the box. He would either jump up, put his feet on top of the box, and lick the box loader, or else would stand in front of the box for a moment before grabbing the ball, without ever touching or triggering the box. Very cute, but the rules require the dog triggers the box with the ball still in it, so he got a lot of flags for this. He did get his first points ever though because of interference from the other team. And really, he was a crowd favorite every time he ran!

Cutest dog ever doing flyball

We ended up packing up and leaving before the end of the racing day on Sunday. I had 8 hours of driving ahead of me and wanted to be home before midnight. We skipped Koira's last singles run and left shortly after Pallo's last run with his team. I like to stay for the end of racing and awards, and have never skipped it before, but that drive was motivating for getting out of there. 

Before taking off, I had to load the car back up with everything from the weekend, plus a pair of flyball boxes that my team purchased and that I needed to bring north from me. Flyball people are awesome, and one of the people Pallo was running pick-up with brought the boxes over from Las Vegas, where they were made. Everyone was worried about me being able to fit them both in my rather small car, but it didn't turn out to be an issue at all.

All packed up for the drive home

Koira's Box Turns

Here is a video of Koira's box turns at flyball practice this week.





ETA:

I wanted to reply to the first comment here, so others would be able to see my response.

First, yes, this is a big improvement over her turn this time last year. In fact, this upcoming tournament next weekend is the last tournament Koira ran in, afterwhich I pulled her from competition to retrain her box turn. At this point, there are things I would like to see better about her turn (her rear higher, no double hitting with her front feet). However, I would be perfectly happy if she kept this turn for the rest of her career in flyball, as long as it stuck once we start fading the props. The problem is, I don't think it will. Her rear is already pretty low, and I think that once we start fading the props, her rear is going to drop even more, and she will try to go back to a slam-and-grab where her back feet never come close to the box.

For the striding, its a little different. Generally, for most dogs in flyball, you want them to have three strides in and three strides out (between jump and box and jump). Dogs are faster on the ground than in the air, so when a dog takes two strides instead of three, they are losing time. Additionally, if a dog takes only two strides off the box, they often are launching themselves for the jump early, causing stretched out jumping, and increasing the risk of them slamming into one of the jumps. That said, it isn't something I am too worried about with Koira. I may see if a stride bump gives us three strides, and if that will stick, but to be honest, my main focus will be on getting her turn to remain high and tight, even when we start fading the props.

This entire year is one of the many reasons you should always be careful to train your dog right the first way, in anything. It takes way more time to retrain a proper behavior than it does to train the right behavior in the first place. Many people would probably have given up on changing Koira's turn and just let her run with it. I think she hits the box way too hard to make that a safe choice (though for a dog who doesn't run as fast or hit as hard, it would be something I would consider).

Lure coursing and flyball

Don't forget to check out my Happy Tails Canine Spa review and enter the giveaway. And of course participate in the blog hop for a chance to read about more products reviewed and enter some more awesome giveaways.

This week we lucked out and had practice in two sports, both lure coursing and flyball. We headed out for a very small group lure coursing practice on Tuesday evening, with a total of six dogs there to run the lure.

I ran each of my dogs by themselves twice, then, just for kicks, ran them together for the last one.

I had someone else release my dogs for me, so that I had a chance to get some pictures of them. My conclusion is that I need a longer lens to get seriously good lure coursing pictures. And that Koira is WAY faster than Pallo (at least in lure coursing, since their times are about the same in flyball). I did also act as catcher for the two whippets who came out to practice (the other two dogs were a miniature Poodle and a shepherd mix puppy).



Watching those whippets run is always pretty amazing.



Then, on Thursday, we headed off to our regular team flyball practice. Since I learned a lot about my camera's settings while at the flyball tournament last weekend, I decided to try for some new pictures of the dogs using my new knowledge. I think there is a lot of room for improvement still, but that these are way better than the ones I took last time I pulled out the camera at practice.

Team dog Joy, still learning her box turn

And, of course, the highlights of practice are some basic achievements. Pallo ran steady. It is basically just expected of him now.

Tank, a solid team dog

Koira, on the other hand, had some awesome work (which for her is worth remarking on). After racing on Saturday at the tournament, I got some great advice from a couple of very experienced flyball trainers about how to work on Koira's box turn. I tried it out for the first time at practice, and I have to say, it looks like this may be the method we needed to find.

Zip, a slightly crazy but ultimately loving and adorable team dog, who has become way more reliable than anyone would have thought possible a year ago. 

Basically, Koira didn't have a single double hitting issue. She wasn't super solidly amazing every time, but her turns looked good, she snapped off the box quickly, straight to her tug, and she had NO double hitting or readjusting of her feet. Hopefully with steady training sessions she will be able to relearn a proper box turn this time. One that sticks!


PS: You may have noticed a slight change in the sidebar, if you are observant. Yes, Pallo earned three new titles this past weekend, his first U-Fli titles. Way to go little man!

Flyball Practice, Box turns

I took three dogs to practice yesterday- Koira, Pallo, and Chester, who is a corgi on our flyball team, but staying with us for the holidays. All the dogs ran really great. I got a chance to have team mates record Koira's turns, and I think we may have *fingers crossed* figured out a set up that keeps her high on the box, no double hitting, no bobbling, and nice and snappy.






In addition to the prop changes noted in the video between the clips, I also started calling Koira earlier, when she hit the box instead of when she got the ball, to encourage her to push off faster back to me. I did this change about the same time we put in the extra height in the box jump, so the improvement could be due to either, but I am thinking both.

Flyball and obedience

Every time I hear people say flyball dogs are out of control, it makes me want to put obedience titles on my dogs.

In any case, we had flyball practice tonight, then a few of us stayed late after flyball to work some obedience with our dogs.

First off, flyball. We are still on the quest to fix Koira's turns. You can see in the video of her first session of practice that we were trying different props a few times trying to fix her double hitting. But, a low single bump was making her drop her butt too low, so we put in the triple. The next time we came out and practiced with her, which I didn't get video of, we used the triple with an additional PVC jump over it, about another 2 inches taller. I'm not really sure if it's helping or not.




For the obedience afterwards, I decided to just take out one dog, and picked Pallo for no particular reason. We worked a bit on attention, since he was still in flyball mode a bit. It took some rewarding for looking at me a few times before he started paying attention to me, but then we did some decent practice with heeling for a step, doing fronts, sits/downs/stands, etc.

 Then the group did some group down stays and sit stays. I've never really done a lot of stay practice with my dogs (they "wait" much more often). Pallo did awesome though. He snapped into position immediately when I told him to, didn't budge an inch as I walked away from him, stared intently at me the whole time until I returned (I think we did about 20 seconds or so). He did both the sit stay and and down stay awesome like.

Then, for kicks and giggles, we decided to practice stand for exam with a friend. She showed me what to do first (I've never taken an actual obedience class, so am super new to all of this). I practiced with Pallo, having him stand, stay, walking away, then walking back, feeling along his back, returning to position, and releasing him. He took a single step while I did the touching his back part. Then my friend helped out and I had Pallo stand, stay, then I walked about five feet away while my friend approached him, felt his back, walked around behind him, came back over to me, then I walked to him, around him, and released. He took one step, when I returned and walked behind him. Pretty darn good, I thought, for his first ever time practicing it.

I'm thinking the key to obedience is to play a few hours of flyball first...