Pallo the Viking's Historical Adventure

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There Pallo was, innocently sliding down the sand dunes on his belly on a holiday weekend afternoon.




Even eating a bit of sand, so he would have a Tasty Tuesday picture to share.




Though it didn't end up being very tasty sand. Bleh.



But what was peaking out from behind the rocks?



Wait, that can't be right. But then, it came a bit closer.



And Pallo abandoned his afternoon sand snack to investigate closer. After all, he isn't named Pallo the Viking for nothing!



"Wow, seriously Mom, do you see a huge ancient sailing ship too?" Pallo asked in wonder.



As the ship came closer, we saw that it was indeed an old-time sailing vessel. What was this? Were we catapulted back in time somehow?



When the ship sailed into the harbor, its guns firing with a loud BOOM and puffs of smoke coming from her canons, Pallo decided we had better hightail it back to our ship.



"I see her entering the harbor now! Battle stations!" Pallo yells.



Out flags were flying high and waving in the breeze.



And Pallo bravely manned the cannons to return fire.



"They're closing in on us fast! And blazing their guns as they come!"



"Maybe we'd be better off hiding back here in some rope, so they can't shoot us straight off the deck!"



But, though he was overcome by a moment of fear, Pallo bravely charged back on deck and to the station of the canon to return fire on the approaching enemy ship.



Pallo kept a firm grip on the canon, preparing to return fire.



"Umm.. Hey, Mom, can you show me how to use this canon thing? It doesn't seem like it's working."



But the enemy ship, intimidated by our mere presence in defending the harbor, took sail back out to sea, in fear of our fierce weapons.



"Don't worry guys, we defended the harbor and saved the day!"



And our faithful ship will live to sail and defend the harbor another day!



*No dogs, ships, harbors, canons, or humans were harmed in the writing of this post.

Lure coursing and flyball

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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!

Wordless Wednesday: A few flyball highlights