Some Days You're Hot and Some Days You're Not

Alas, I did not do well at flyball practice today. We were practicing a potential "B" team, with Dusty, Gizzy, Spoiled One and Spoiled One's Partner in Crime. Well, first we tried the line up with Dusty, Gizzy, Partner in Crime and Spoiled One. Gizzy is a cute little orange cattle dog sheltie mix. She probably runs about a 6 second run. Partner in Crime runs closer to 4 seconds. Partner's handler kept releasing too soon and having way early passes. So we switched Partner and Spoiled One.

I used to be good at passing with Spoiled One. Really. Not today. Spoiled One was passing Gizzy way early, when she was still on the jumps. Gizzy would end up veering completely out of the lane to avoid a potential collision, and it wasn't her fault - I kept passing way to early. And I knew it. And I tried to fix it, but I kept doing it, over and over. It was so frustrating, because Gizzy needs to keep her confidence up and being railroaded by the two biggest, most rambunctious dogs on the team isn't the way to do it.

I'm so frustrated with myself. I think I've gotten used to Spoiled One automatically slowing and adjusting for the oncoming dog. Gizzy is just so much smaller, he wasn't bothering to adjust for her. And, I just couldn't get out of the rut of making the same mistake, over and over. Hopefully, I can get back in the right zone again. Maybe, if I change my release point to the 3rd jump, instead of the first.

On the positive side, another dog, a little cattle dog/border collie (I think) was really showing some speed on recalls! She even beat Weasel a couple of times. Now, if we can get her to have the same drive to the box, she ought to be a little speed demon.

We may be going to Hurricane! I really hope so. At a U-FLI tournament, we can run the green dogs in singles and pairs and reduce the stress levels on their handlers. In a NAFA tournament, it's all or nothing, and we may not be able to field two solid teams with alternates, yet.

Practice, Toenails, and Cockroaches

So, we had practice today. Many people weren't there, but some were. Enough to run a couple of teams, anyway. The dogs did reasonably well. Spoiled One was going for the tug, and tugging very enthusiastically. I used a tennis ball as a crutch, but he's definately improved on that. Also, he did not create any passing issues. In fact, the littlest dog on the team, who is still refining her passes, whipped right by him, even when I released him way too early and they passed on the jump. His box turn wasn't, but I hadn't been working that like I should. I may have to just keep working that in homework.

Weasel was running fast, because she was running first and right before her Idol Dog, so she was in flying ferret heaven. With her running first and the Idol dog running second, they timed at 8.1 seconds, which I thought was cool. Of course you have to factor in things like the timer starts when the first dog breaks the beam, while in tournaments it starts and you have to hit it right to minimize the delay between the timer start and the dog crossing the start line, but hopefully, I'll do okay with that. Other factors weigh in the other direction: we're practicing on grass and an uneven surface, the Idol Dog was 10 - 15 feet late on her pass (because Weasel is such a spaz, she's hard to judge where to pass). It might be kind of fun to run them in pairs at the next U-FLI tournament we go to. Of course, I would also love to run Spoiled One and Weasel in pairs. There are a number of obsticals to that goal. Weasel usually runs with the team, so it might be too many heats for her to run pairs as well. I can't run two different dogs in the same race. However, someone offered to work Weasel at practice a bit, and seemed to have fun, so maybe I could sucker someone into running her and I could run Spoiled One? Hmmmm. . . .

On the way home, they each got a plain Lottaburger. As they sprawled in the living room, sated and tired, I lopped the tippy tips off of their toenails. Because I keep them in when I am at work, now, they don't get the exercise of running the fence and discussing politics with the neighbor dogs. This is probably the first time Spoiled One's nails have been long enough to trim. FWIW, the drimmel sucks, use chopper type clippers. Just my opinion.

Weasel is always bringing me little gifts to play with. She finds rubber bands and sets them on my knee and gives me the pleading, hopeful look, trying to entice me into a game of tug o war. Or she drops the unopened mail at my feet, checking to see if it's permissible to chew it up. Bottle caps and bits of scraps of things are always appearing around my feet as potential items to be tossed and caught for doggie amusement. Lately, she's been finding the cat's toy mice and offering them up. It's so cute. Well, this morning, I let her in from her morning constitutional in the yard, and she presented me with a cockroach. A LIVE cockroach.

Over and Back - TUG!

Yep, it's flyball homework time. I have an ongoing problem with Spoiled One. He's 60lbs of klutz regarding jumps. He's a GSD/Aussie mix, so he bounds over the flyball hurdles like a bunny rabbit, but when doing homework involving over and back over a hurdle, he wiped out all my jumps. "Over" crunch! Ooopsie. I've tried various things. Styrofoam gets destroyed pretty quickly. He wipes out wood. Slippery plastic wrapped toilet paper rolls go flying every which way. My latest attempt involves plastic roof gutters. I have figured out a hacksaw doesn't work well to cut gutter. Those little wire nipper things rather suck at it as well. Oh, well, eventually a section about a yard long was separated from the rest, the longer remainder was slipped behind the couch (causing a very fluffy cat to emerge from the other side) and we set to work.

First was Weasel, to bolster my faith in the potential of this to work. Besides, once I finished with Spoiled One, I would be too frustrated and discouraged to work with her. My little suck up Weasel performed as expected, happily bouncing over and back like a ping pong ball, over the gutter. I quickly moved to the practice box and she did that spiffily as well. My courage thus fortified, I put her up and brought out Spoiled One.

Sigh.

How can one dog be so klutzy? That gutter went flying every which way. It's like he's not even aware of his own feet! I tried showing it too him, and he would slap a paw on it, or try to pick it up. Anytime I tried the over and back though, he landed right on top of it, feet going everywhere, eyes fixed on the tug. I think most of it is handler issues, though. I need to be clearer in my communication, and more patient. It probably would be good to chop up the remainder of the gutter, lay them out in a random pattern, and make him walk back and forth over it, like is done with horses to teach them awareness of their feet. Or, I could do the agility ladder thing. I do own a ladder now. . .

OooooooOOOooooo The LADDER. That's an idea!

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.

Icky Flyball Practice

Well. . . this week I hadn't done hardly anything with the dogs, and it showed.

My Spoiled One was skipping the jumps running back (he knows better) and Weasel was so obsessed with her idol dog that it was hard to get her to run at all. I guess neglect doesn't lead to good flyball dogs.

So, I guess my homework this week will be to do endurance training and strength training with Spoiled One, so that he doesn't blow off the jumps. Weasel needs concentration exercises. Maybe I'll use weave poles to help get her to listen. Oh, and lots of just fun stuff. They haven't had enough fun time this week. Poor neglected puppy dogs.