Team practice

Not much new to report lately. Still farrrr from drivey on the run-out. Good news today is we found something that works to get T. to keep his turn on the box: K. is to run up close to the box with him. Seems to have the same effect as the knee technique.

Oh one last thing, today we started to get Walter ready for triggering the box. The boxloader (J.) crouched down keeping a hand on the trigger. Of course this confused Walter the first time, but then he got used to it. :-D

Walter's year in summary

As far as Walter's flyball career goes, he still hasn't graduated from high school, but I'm still having fun and he's still kindly obliging me. Below is a compilation video of Walter's 2007 year in flyball (following the agility stuff).

Team practice

There's hope for Walter's flyball future yet. On one try, with someone holding him at the start and me up closer to the box then running back with him, he dropped the ball a bit early so I said "where's the ball" to make a point. Well, he looked around for a second and then went all the way up the full lane all by himself, and the boxloader had put another ball in so he grabbed it and brought it back. This is a step in the right direction because normally he doesn't have this kind of forward drive when lots of people are around. So yeah, one step back, two forward, or occasionally vice versa is the story of Walter's flyball progress. :-)

Team practice

Today's goal was to reward with the tug only, no treats for anything. Used the ball tug and it worked great; he gladly traded the ball for the tug just about every time.

His turn seems to be getting smoother, but still lots of room for improvement.

More distractions today, that being Zara, Milo, and Guinness doing boxwork in the other lane (not all at the same time obviously!). No gates at all to separate the lanes. He handled it well in that he didn't show much interest in them, but it will take some time before his drive gets up to what it is when no one but me is watching him. :-)