Flyball Practice and New Dog

Well, we had practice this week. It seemed to go reasonably well. Some of the puppies and newer dogs made some progress. There is a little red and white aussie that is so desperate to please her owner she pretty much can't do anything but appeasement behaviours. I think her confidence will really improve once she understands what he wants of her, and learns the concept of learning. It would be fun to try shaping with her, just to help draw her out and have her offer behaviours. It's painful and frustrating to hear him call her and see her run back to her crate and hide. She's a rescue, and I would kind of like to do painful things to whoever had her before.

Never never never call a dog to you to scold it. I don't know for certain, of course, that is what the previous owner did, but I am really suspicious that it is. It sets up an unfortunate dynamic, because, of course, when the current owner calls her, and she hesitates or starts to slink, he can't help being frustrated and even if you try to hide that frustration, a lot of dogs will pick up on your frustration and become even more distressed. She's doing better, though. He was taking her over jumps on leash, and she went from being unable to take her eyes off him enough to make it over the jump and submissively flattening herself to the ground to looking forward and going over the jumps and then sitting in anticipation of praise.

There was another new dog, named "Nacho" that I think will have a lot of fun. He did very well playing with the other dogs. He's a cute little yellow mixed breed dog that seems like he has a terrier body and and a malanois head. I'm prejudiced towards him because Z-dog and he were playing together and it was cute. It's nice to have dogs that play something other than "chase me" games.

I was kind of bad though and didn't really work my dogs. Z-dog did run in a line up being passed both ways and was fine. He still is very leery of Captain, but, he ran after him in line up fine. I should have whined and insisted on using props when my dogs ran, but I didn't. So, even though their boxturns were good during boxwork with the props, they degenerated during actual runs. It's probably the worst thing I could do in their training at this point, and I am frustrated with myself about it.

Weasel consistently dunked her frisbee in the water bowl after every run. Z-dog still overleaps the timer beam so we can't get a time on him, the blasted boinging bunny rabbit. We still need a practice space and I still want an RV.

Life goes on.

http://www/weaselpuppy.com

Practice, Again, FINALLY

We've been rained out of practice for a while, and the dogs have been going stir crazy. I consoled myself by buying a 10 gallon aquarium. It takes for freakin' ever to get it cycled so I can add fishies. Enough bacteria have to grow to process the fish pee (don't get an aquarium if you like seafood). I tried a couple of things to jump start it, but, well, I just confused things. So, now, I wait. And wait. And wait. Stupid fishless aquarium.

Anyway, I have also been practicing boxwork with the dogs. I believe it's paid off some. At practice today Spoiled One turned backwards, the same way he does at home! It's been driving me nuts that at home, he does a four-footed turn over an obstical, but turns what I think of as counter-clockwise, and at practice he consistantly turned clockwise. I believe it's part of his conspiracy to drive me batty. What he doesn't factor into the equation is that I am already quite batty. . .

Anyway, as I said, at practice he turned counter-clockwise and all of his feet hit the box, over an obstical. I believe using the ball as a lure really motivates him to push off and book a bit more coming back, which is something a tug will never do, for him. Also, I believe it's less intimidating for people at flyball matches to see him running after tennis balls rather than growling at the end of tug. They know he's in the playful, not killer, mode. Now, if he would just do that consistantly without a prop. . .

Weasel also did well on her boxwork. I used the sticks laying on the ground and she took the appropriate number of strides to the box. It was nice. Also, I whined and so we used the props for full runs.

One of our teammates had a radar gun and a homemade timer and we timed the various dogs. Weasel went 33 miles an hour, according to the radar gun! Also, she was doing 4.1 runs pretty consistantly. Spoiled One was 4.9 ish and I forget how fast. It's geeky, but I like all the high-tech stuff. Spoiled One did have a little problem of fairly frequently launching so far ahead of the first jump that he overflew the beam and never triggered the timer. What can I say? He's my special boy.

I believe the best thing I can do for them over the week is to keep up with the boxwork at home, and maybe improvise a less substantial hurdle for in front of the box so I can begin to wean them off of the prop.

Blurry Photographs of Mythical Events

"Okay, now what's that supposed to be?" you are asking. It is PROOF, documented, incontrovertable, PROOF that Z-dog, my Spoiled one is perfectly capable of doing a box turn with all four feet on the box. He just chooses not to.

"Yeah, right," you say, "it's just some dude in a gorilla suit pretending to be sasquatch."

No, it's true, I tell you! Look closely, you can see his ear flying up and if you squint, you can kinda see. . .

"Somebody just stuck two pie plates together and tossed it up in the air and photographed it. It's probably grainy so that you can't see the tape and string."

NO! It's TRUE. It's REAL. He REALLY does it, at home.

"Yeah, right."

Well you try to aim a cell phone camera while juggling a dog, a tug, a very soggy tennis ball and besides, the light in the hallway has burned out and I haven't replaced the bulbs and cell phones take awful pictures and. . .

"Sure, whatever"

But, really. He really does it. at home, anyway. really.

Anyway, have a good Easter!

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.