Bad news about the camera. One of the pups (my bet is Duncan) chewed the charger cord. Fortunately, no singe marks on any of them. Thane got shocked when he unplugged it, though. Guess that means no visuals until I get myself to finding a new one.

Flyball class was very fun. Our intro to the class two weeks ago was eye-opening and we were given lots of homework. Duncan doesn't have an issue at all with recalls, but he wasn't comfortable with the box. We used one with velcro to hold the ball instead of the spring loaded one because we aren't there yet! You have firsthand knowledge of our homework and how we did it. The work ended up paying off, even if it looked a little helpless at the start.

At first, Duncan (and I'll admit - I) was fairly distracted by the other noises and everything else going on. We did some box work trying to get him comfortable with the surroundings. It helped me to get him interested in the ball then toss it to our instructor, who 'loaded' it in the box. After a few times of this, we went to a smaller area to work up his interest of the ball because Duncan was still a bit off. I knew he could do better because we'd done better at home. It was just keying into his "zone."

In the back area, Duncan remembered what we'd done and was going after the ball as I tossed it or rolled it. He was shy of a table in the corner. We worked on the ball drive until the next dog was done with a few runs. This little terrier is SO good and already doing full runs only a few practices into her career.

We then went back and worked on recalls. Duncan likes chasing me down the lane. Our instructor released Duncan from the box as I went over the middle jump (they only have three jumps set up due to space). I tried not to look back too much, but I couldn't help it. I ended up smacking into the wall at the end once. Very funny, but my keeping on running sped Duncan up. I REALLY want a video of his pace. We did this 5-6 times and then stopped so we didn't fully tucker him out. A curious thing happened with the running. He didn't want his tiny sliver of turkey hotdog as a treat after his run. He seemed to be self-satisfied just having run. I am thinking something like tug will be a great way to reward him for running.


We got a rest and watched the others on the team do some runs/races. There was a Papillon that Duncan couldn't keep his eyes off. He looks almost exactly like Duncan's older (smaller) Papillon brother Pierre.

After a few runs, Duncan got to do some box work again. He finally caught on and grabbed the ball off the box and came right for me!!! We even got him to grab the ball and run it down to the start line. It was very exciting to see the work paying off. We're going to keep working on this with him at home. Until we get a box, I'm thinking I could use the target plate and an amazing down/stay. (We shall see if it stays amazing!) Again, Duncan didn't want any treats.

Then I did ball loading for a bit. It was interesting to see a dog almost ready for competition. He was very interested in the other dog in the other lane. I wonder how Duncan will react to that!

We were given some felt material to braid (macrame) into a tug. Duncan already showed interest in it while I was constructing it.

Take care!