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! :^)

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 sans team

Today's team practice was cancelled, but since I was in that end of town anyway for the agility trial I figured I'd stop in for a quick practice. For the first time ever, he was doing independent full runs with the ball in the (unsprung) hole! The bad news is, he clocks in at about 7 seconds, losing tons of time with his "how not to do a boxturn" boxturn. Hopefully he'll soon figure out how to pick up the ball and do the turn in one fluid motion.

Dogzworth open practice (Guides Canins)

Several of our team members went for a shared practice with Dogzworth at their practice facility, which was the first time there for all of us and our dogs. His turn is looking better and better each time lately (i.e. not pausing mid-turn), although the ball is still just on the ledge, not in the hole yet. Here's video of his last "run" of today's practice. Kindly ignore my ridiculous arm waving.



The most exciting thing about the practice was that Zara has started to "get" how to pick up the ball while maintaining her turn! Ping-ponging between turns with a ball and without a ball was key and she did several gorgeous turns with the ball.