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!!!