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.