Walter bids farewell to flyball

I hereby announce that Walter's days of training in flyball are over. He has patiently humoured me for all this time. But, after some thought I've concluded that the possibility of physical damage over the long term from doing so many boxturns given his big, top-heavy structure is too high. Walter's never been crazy about flyball so it's just not worth the risk. The two of us much prefer agility over flyball and it would be crummy if injuries sustained in flyball put an early end to our agility fun.

Walter's three years of training in flyball have been a fun and challenging journey and I'll miss his flyball training. But, I'll continue to enjoy his flyball career vicariously through watching his mom, who is a fantastic flyball dog! :)

Practice

Today and the last few practices have been better than the last one I wrote about. :) Back on track with the smooth turn and no ball dropping issues.

Crummy practice

Today's practice was a step back in time. Not picking up the ball; a slow, awkward turn; really slow to the box...

Hopefully this is just another temporary glitch :)

More progress!

Ever since Walter finally went back to his smooth, flowing turn (to which I totally credit the music stand knee and subsequent hiatus from boxwork), he has been making a lot of progress in the flyball department. Ok, still baby steps, but I'll take it! Today I could send him all the way from three jumps back, woohoo! Maybe with his smoother turn now, he knows that it will take him less time to get the ball and come back so maybe that makes him less reluctant to go all the way there? Granted, he's a heck of a lot slower on the sendout than the return, but just the fact that he's willing to go all the way out by his lonesome into the Mysterious Danger Zone is great for him.

Also, today for the first time in a long time we put the ball in the unsprung hole instead of on the ledge. Good news, he maintained the flowing turn!

Working with little B. in the other lane up close to their box was a tough distraction for him, but he worked through it, good boy. Oh and same thing with the boxloader holding the lever back - he was confused by that at first but got over it.

No problems with balldropping today except for one time.

Today's reward was his deflated soccer ball which he loves.

Practice - more progress

The lanes were set up only a couple of feet apart. Walter did head to head recalls against Z. and did just great. Then he did head to head boxwork, with Z. again. Only did one jump this time. I think he did better than last time in that he kind of looked like he was getting used to the concept of there being a dog running right next to him.

Practice

Now that his turn is nice and smooth again and he's consistently picking up and bringing the ball, today we went back to the tug instead of food reward. Of note, he brought the ball back all the way every time today with the tug whereas before with the food he was more likely to drop it early.

He did head to head for the first time, against Z., lanes pretty close and no gates. With only one or two jumps he did ok, definitely aware of Z. but he still went to his box. But then with three jumps, well that was just too scary so he turned around early and came back without going to the box. Still I was pleased with how he did today, good boy!

Ok this has nothing to do with flyball, but here's Walter relaxing after a productive evening:

First practice at new location

Although it was Walter's first time at our club's new practice location, and although he hasn't been at a flyball practice in a while due to agility events, he picked up right where he left off last time. Smooth turn with ball being sent from one jump back, pouch treat reward.

Last practice at TTH

Today was our team's last ever practice at TTH since we're moving to a new facility that's a heck of a lot closer. Hard to believe it's been two full years since we started holding our practices at TTH.

Walter did one session of boxwork. Can now send him from two jumps back, yay! Ball on ledge, turn flowy but very wide, must remember to put wings at box. Pouch reward. He dropped the ball early twice (we were running back over all four jumps), "where's the ball?" and no reward, he demotivates a bit but not too badly. Overall good with decent enthusiasm.

T, T, and Z did just fantastic racing against strange dogs, yeah!!

Practice

Whaddayaknow, another good flyball practice for Walter! Used the pouch treats again. Worked up to sending him from behind one jump. His turn was nice and smooth again today (no more of that step-by-step turn that plagued us for so long) with the ball on the ledge. His drive to the box was ok, or at least, he wasn't trotting! Haha! Some problems with him dropping the ball early so we removed all but the first jump.

Open practice in Carp

Turns out there was an impromptu open practice at the end of racing today so I figured what the hey, why not do something with Walter. Did a couple of recalls, then tried some boxwork. He was feeling pretty shy and wasn't really into it, so someone who was only trying to be helpful crouched next to the box and clapped and cheered to try to encourage Walter. Well, that did it, he put his ears back and looked at me in that way that screams "can I just go and hide under a rock now, pleeeeeeeeeease?". He had shut down so we just did one more recall and called it quits. Poor dog. It's a pretty sure thing that he'll never race in a tournament, but even if he can just do full runs in practice I'll be a happy camper.

Practice: Turn-with-ball has gotten smoother!

Could be that his recent hiatus from boxwork has helped Walter smooth out his turn. The mid-turn pause was gone today. Used pouch treat for reward. His "drive" toward the ball was actually ok today, not fantastic, but better than in a long time. Started him from behind just one jump, with the ball on the ledge and the gutter at the box. Didn't run with him at all. A good practice for Walter, yay!

Practice

For recalls, we put the lanes right next to each other. Walter ran against Sammy and wasn't thrilled about her passing him but by his third recall he was doing much better. Good boy!

On the ball front: Didn't warm him up with any tossed balls, just went straight into some dead ball retrieves (no jumps or box involved; someone would bounce the ball or I would throw it to them and they would set it at their feet) and it was totally lame. Like, *totally* lame. Well, on the bright side at least Walter's not lame and is totally fantastic on the health front! :-)

Open practice in Navan

Walter did some recalls at the open practice held Saturday evening during the open practice of FBI's "Come Fly in July" tournament. He's not bad at the running towards me part of flyball; it's the rest of the game that we're having trouble with :-D

Practice: new strategy

Trying yet another strategy for helping Walter in his flyball student career: Have decided to not do any boxwork at all for a while, but instead when it's his turn we just play fetch with the ball being thrown up the lane (no jumps though) towards where the box would be. He brings it back for a game of tug. The idea is I want to see him as excited to play fetch at practice as he is at the local field, or at least close to that level of excitement. If he's not excited about chasing a live ball at practice, how can I expect him to be excited about going after a dead one, nevermind a dead one where he has to do a weird acrobatic maneouver before taking it? Over a few practices we'll ease into the ball becoming gradually less live and more dead.

Today he was definitely into it, no problem running up the lane all by his widdle self to chase the rolling ball. I hadn't removed the jumps and they kind of got in the way (if I had perfect aim, or heck, even decent aim, it would be a different story) so next time I'll move the jumps out of the way first.

Practice

Instead of doing boxwork we worked on getting him to take a ball from someone's hand. At first he wasn't into it, so L threw the ball for him a few times. After that, he decided it was an ok game to play. For his second session, K held the ball for him.

He's dropping the ball not long after picking it up, but I'm not too worried about that at this point.

Open practice (big grassy field)

Today was Walter's first time at the open flyball practice. His degree of interest was actually surprisingly high given that it was a fairly warm day. Did a few recalls and one round of boxwork. The practice leader suggests instead of using the music stand, to have someone hand him the ball after he does his turn, but only if he does a good smooth turn. So, homework is to get him taking a ball from my hand and other people's hands.

Boxturn breakthrough!!!!!!

As I was watching Walter do his slow-mo, step-by-step turn today at home, it suddenly struck me that he goes straight up to the ball. Impossible to have a flowing turn with that kind of approach. At least, impossible for Walter. If only there were something for him to go around, like a knee, or something, to shape an arc into his boxturn.

So I tried putting the gutter at a 90 degree angle to the box, creating two separate paths, one for his approach to the box and one for his departure. Didn't work: he used the departure path for his approach as well as his departure.

Ok, back to the idea of something more knee-ish. Having no spare knees around, I grabbed the next best thing: a music stand. I put it so that one of its feet slid under the box to stabilize it so that it wouldn't get knocked over if Walter should brush against it. The gutter went in its usual place.

Well, holy moly! Instant boxturn transformation! I was amazed, thrilled, and perhaps even stunned as I watched his first try at it and saw the old, flowing turn he did once upon a time many, many moons ago. Unfortunately, with the box sprung and his new style, his mouth isn't in the right place yet so the ball was shooting out way in front of him. So, I unsprung the box. Success!! His next try, same thing! Woo hoo! Grabbed the camera to get some video of this momentous occasion. :-D

An aha moment?

Have the box at home this week. It's now being fully sprung every time, but Walter continues to do his slow-mo turn. (only when the ball is there. without a ball, it's a normal, flowy turn.) Dang.

The aha moment is that I think I might have found a way to help motivate him for going to the box.

You see, one of Walter's favourite activities, nay, perhaps his very most favouritest activity ever, is playing fetch. With a ball, tug, flying squirrel, whatever. When we play fetch, he has to earn the throw by doing a trick or three for me. (Sit, down, stand, left, right, hand touch, and bow are the extent of our current reportoire. Should really work on expanding that, but oh well.) He gets all excited while doing the tricks, knowing that the throw is coming up.

SO.... this week at home, instead of holding him and trying to rev him up and bowling him to the box, I've started to have him to do a trick or two before letting him go to the box to get the ball. It seems to be working! He gets all excited doing the tricks and then runs the whole 3 or 4 meters to the box faster than ever before. (which, for the record, isn't exactly the speed of lighting. more along the lines of the speed of rumbling thunder.) Of course, as previously mentioned, the turn is still slowmo, but hopefully this is a step in the right direction!

Team practice

Another so-so practice for Walter.

I really want to get the box sprung as soon as possible so that he breaks the habit of his step-by-step boxturn. Sent him from behind either no jumps or just one jump.

Even being sent from so close to the box, he has so little forward drive at practice. Ok, let's get real here - make that none at all! Should work more on dead balls in lots of different places. Brought the box home to work towards getting it sprung.

Here's a little video of today's practice as well as a clip of his mom in the racing lanes! I think she's the prettiest and awesomest Flyball Dog ever! :^)

Back into it

My my, Walter's flyball has been terribly neglected lately due mostly to agility and Lucy's flyball tournaments. At the Trenton tournament last weekend a lightbulb came on for me: Now that Walter knows how to settle and relax flyball-ringside, it's time to key him back up and get him tugging in the midst of all that noise and activity! So I brought out his new favourite tug and we tugged while the races were going on. He did pretty well.

Yes, his new favourite tug is one that's been kicking around buried in the car trunk for a while that we had hardly ever used. Well, a while back we drove to a park and I realized we hadn't brought his usual fetch/tug toys so why not try that one. A few outings with that toy and he's crazy for it now! It's the pocket fire hose tug from Crash Test Toys. I cut the loop handle to make a longer non-loop handle with a knot on the end. Only problem is, it's so short that he sometimes catches my hand, owwwwwwch. An order for a new longer one has been placed. :-)

This is the tug we've been using for tracking and as I said he really, really loves it. So, gonna start using it for flyball in the hopes that his enthusiasm for it will transfer to the flyball game.

Did some dead ball retrieves rewarding with this tug today. Oh yeah and he seems to prefer being held by the waist instead of the collar. Can't wait to get back into flyball practice and get this guy on track! How sad that it's two years ago June that he was first introduced to the ball with the turn. Sigh!!!

Team practice - racing against Sammy

First practice in a while due to agility activities. Tried something I don't think we've done before: racing Walter against another dog (Sammy). He was in the right lane, Sammy in the left, and someone held him for me while I stood around the fourth jump. He was very aware of Sammy's presence and kept messing up his turn, either not doing it at all or forgeting the ball, but he was starting to get the hang of it after a few runs. It was fun and I'd like to do more of it at our next practice (which won't be for a while due to other activities) so he really starts to get it.

His only reward today was the long fleece tug which he enjoyed.

Team practice

Used the ball tug today for his reward which he really liked. Gotta figure out how to get him driving to the box more. A LOT more. :-)

Team practice

Some good news today: several of his turns were actually pretty fluid. We were "sort of" springing the box today, which could be a factor.

Team practice

Brought out the secret weapon today!! Gave it to K./J. to do a reverse recall and Walter was more than happy to run away from me to get it, over all four jumps. I feel so betrayed.

Very exciting news regarding some of the other green dogs: we used the knee technique to try to help them maintain the turn while picking up the ball, and it worked! It really worked!! T., T., and Z. tried it and were really getting the hang of it.

Team practice

I forgot to bring my secret weapon to practice today, so couldn't try my new idea. But, I did have some midrange special treats to reward Walter with and he seemed to be somewhat more interested than usual. Just did one jump today.

Goals progress report

Here's what I wrote this time last year:

"My goals for Walter's 2007 flyball year are for him to do independent full runs as part of a line-up. Once he realizes that he's supposed to pick up the ball and bring it, then the rest will fall into place... Come on Wally, we've got all year, you can do it!!"

Well, he's not quite there yet. Ok, he's got a long ways to go, quite literally. He doesn't like to run on ahead of me, even if starting from only two jumps back, nevermind four. The exception to this rule is if no one else is around, in which case he's not shy and does it no problem. On the bright side though, we finally managed to convince him of the merits of picking up the ball and bringing it, so that's one hurdle overcome.

By the end of 2008 it would be great if he can (a) catch the ball from a sprung box (which we only just started to do last practice); (b) drive out ahead to do the run even if people are around; (c) smooth out his turn; and (d) do it all in head-to-head and in a lineup.

Ohh!! I just now thought of something that may just help him learn to love driving out ahead of me in a busy flyball environment. I'll try it at our next practice.