oowie oowie

Weasel missed the tug and got my hand at practice today. Hurts. I enjoyed a few hypochondriac moments wondering if it were broken, but all the fingers still work. Stiff, swollen and changing colors, though. Kind of interesting to watch.

The good part about it was that she was going for the tug. I think I am making real progress with her. I'm working her going straight back from the box now, instead of over-rotating her, and it seems to be going well. Spoiled One was going all the way over the prop sometimes. He didn't pull the "miss the first jump" thing he was doing at previous practices, either. He is tending to jump over the jump to the box, then bound off the box wide, instead of heading back down the lane. I was starting to make some progress by screaming for him just before he hit the box, while standing on the opposite side of which he turns toward. He was tiring, though, by the time I discovered that.

On the whine and grumble list: We ran a line up first thing, and the dogs were bobbling because they weren't used to the prop, so they took it out :( How will they get used to the prop if it isn't there? How will the dogs progress if they aren't challenged? Frustrating. Alas, the world doesn't revolve around me and my opinions. However, I did get boxtraining sessions in with both of them with the prop on their own. And, I've bought some gutter which I am going to use during the week with the practice box.

I'd really like it if we could somehow do a skill training/boxwork session midweek. I'd be willing to plan it if I could be sure of at least one other person showing up and if I knew of an indoor place with lighting where we could work. There are no lights in the field, and by the time I get off of work, it's dark. I live in a residential area, so I can't just set something up in the garage and do it due to the barking. grumble.

Anyway, nothing earth shattering. Pretty typical practice.

A Small Saturday Practice

Well, it snowed and nearly everyone bailed out of practice. It is the holidays, though, so it's only the truly sick who come out to shiver in the cold with their dogs. I was there, of course. I thought it would be a time to let the dogs romp in the fenced practice field all by their lonesomes (kinda hard to do boxwork without a boxloader) but, shockingly, someone else showed!

We did boxwork. Both Weasel and Spoiled One did well at going for the tug, and Spoiled One aka Smash and Grab was actually hitting the box with all his tootsies. Of course, he was only doing it when the prop was there, but instead of having to use the elaborate V in front, it was just a jump! However, he was going way to wide. In retrospect, I believe it's because we were using the V prop, but opened at a right angle, with one side parallel to the box in front of it, like a jump, and the other half folded back alongside the box. I believe he thought he still needed to jump both sides, which explains why he was hitting the box with his back feet and why he was going wide. I still think I can figure out a way to use this, though.

Weasel's box turn was beautiful, of course. We experimented with me boxloading and the other person running her and she did fine, no hesitation. The only problem was she occassionally spaced actually getting the ball. That was easy to remedy by having the handler remind her about it before releasing her. I was bad, however, and gave them the honking pheasent, rather than the tug, because I had no faith that she would continue to respond to the tug. The handler, though, was getting her to tug a bit on the honking pheasent. Again, possibilities are there.

Sky, the other dog has issues with not paying any attention whatsoever to the ball, and being highly distractable and inclined to play keepaway rather than flyball. He was, with a lot of encouragement, actually watching the ball and picking it up. Granted, it involved tapping on the box, chanting "ball ball ball ball ball" and such, but it was an improvement. The small practice with few distractions was very good for him. He also did some nice recalls, back and forth over the jumps, between me and his handler.

So, all in all, a good practice. I will be glad when it gets lighter sooner and we will be able to have more of these small, highly focused, practices.

Building Tug Drive

It's down time, no tournaments for awhile. Time for bruises and oopsies to heal and work on stuff for next season.

One of my big frustrations with my two dogs is neither of them have really boffo tug drive. They're both ball crazy. While that means I don't deal with dropped balls, they loose speed on the run back because nothing really draws them.

Don't get me wrong, I run and scream and wave things. But, Spoiled One comes back and still has to be told "drop it" to drop the ball and then "get it" to get the tug. Once he grabs the tug, he enjoys it. The blasted dog wears me out. Flyball is a wonderful work out program. Crouch down. Hold quivering, bouncing dog, scream "go" and run from a crouch to the start line, scream the dog's name, run back like zombies are chasing you and then swing a 60lb weight around while play growling 20 or 30 times and, well, I get a smidgy winded.

But, I want him to drive back for the tug. I've experimented with a lot of things. Running, tugging, switching back and forth between tug and ball, treating for tugging, letting him win, giving up and using a ball. I still want him to want the tug more. So, each evening we're doing the tugging game. It makes me wish I had a Papillion, or at least a 30lb border collie instead of a 60lb shepherd mix.

Weasel is even more of a problem. The little muffin loves the tug at home. I swing her around, and she growls and snarls and has a ball. Last night, she was trying to switch. She started dropping the tug and looking up at the feathers on a stick cat toy on top of the tv stand. So, being the loving, patient owner I am, I put her out and played with Spoiled One. She stayed focused on the tug tonight, even did a little bit of picking it back up after I let her win and inviting more play. You could just see her carefully ignoring the cat toy.

So, that's this week's regimen. Tug, tug, tug. All games are tug. Tug is the source of all fun. We'll see.

Update on Building Tug Drive

Forgot to report on the success or failure of my tug drive building efforts.

Actually, at flyball practice this weekend, I was surprised in a good way. Spoiled One actually showed interest and could be lured into dropping the ball and grabbing the tug after practice. Weasel, unfortunately, wasn't as cooperative. Part of the problem was that we were running her on the same team as her idol dog, and so she was very distracted. However, Weasel will have to learn to run with that dog. My teammates suspect that Weasel is focusing on the frisbee the idol dog handler uses. I believe she is focusing on the frisbee the idol dog uses.

I think I need to run Weasel by herself, using the tug, next practice. Also, I will continue working on fetch and tug exercises this week, and I will try to not let her play ball before the practice when we are setting up. She needs to work on meeting people skills anyway.

All in all, good. I have hope. I feel like I am making progress with this tug thingy.