I do not believe in the law of averages. It isn't a thing. Duncan disagrees. Therefore, our wonderful day yesterday was followed by an awful day today.

He wouldn't get the ball off the box. The trigger noise scared the crap out of him. He was barky and a little crazy, more interested in every thing else in the world. It was horrible. I tried to remain positive, but it was so, so hard.

That's the bad. The good is that my dog loves me, so his recalls are awesome. AND he beelined over the jumps without gates up. We did put up chairs on the last jump, but that was expected.

I am seriously wondering whether or not he will be ready for the tournament in October, but I must let him progress at his own pace. I've also got to find a way to make this more exciting and rewarding for him.

Sigh.

Tonight's agility class went really, really well.

The first run was tire, jump, rear cross, jump, double jump, dogwalk, tunnel. We did a few variations, mostly with which side of the tunnel to enter and sometimes came all of the way back. The instructor droned about menial things for about 10 minutes while the half of the class with her got increasingly frustrated at her blabbing. I get it, she is experienced. However, I am hands-on with this and really just wanted to try it and then get comments. During our run, which was really good up to this point, she interrupted us to chastise me for not feeding on the ground. I was frustrated and got a bit defensive and even offended when she grumbled about wasting money on trials. Ugh. Oh well, I was having fun with my dog! And Duncan was AWESOME.

Move on to the other half of the club with the other instructor, who I adore. A-frame, teeter? No problem! A-frame, wrap tunnel? Fine! Table, triple jump, tunnel, A-frame? Wonderful! Table, triple jump, tunnel, teeter? Great! When we did A-frame starts I had to hold onto my Dunc after I took off his lead, or he would zoom to them! Smart little guy heard her call the order and took off after it. Sigh. I can't exactly be mad though. I just learned to have a firmer hold of my slippery pup.

We did good, but I didn't even attempt the weaves. We beat the tire, the double jump, and the triple jump. What more could I ask for?

Small brag, our "Go" and "Out" are really good. Thank you, Flyball!

So this past Sunday, I carted Duncan and Thane to a flyball tournament. My team was awesome. I mean, not just the running, but everyone was helpful and so sweet. We had a few frustrating moments. However, even then people showed that they were compassionate people. It felt like the team bonded and really solidified its commitment to good, clean runs.

I hope to have Duncan ready for the next tournament, which is October 2 and 3. He will be a much needed height dog. This means that my focus has to switch from agility to flyball for the next month and a few weeks. I know this might set him back in agility. We won't give it up completely as it teaches focus, how to think through excitement, and is great conditioning. Still, now that I borrowed a box from my team, we can practice much more.

Currently, Duncan will run the whole lane back and forth most of the time, but still has frustrated moments where he doesn't understand what I want. Also, he still hasn't triggered the box. We've triggered it a few times for him and I wasn't sure whether the noise bothered him or he was like "I don't need any help." I think this will solve itself with more speed. Once he has the box down (hopefully with his beautiful box-turn he is learning), adding in the full lane shouldn't be a problem.

It's the other dogs. Duncan can either be very non-reactive to dogs or he can be in a playful mood and just want to herd everything in sight.

So, lots of change in his training routine. Wish us luck.

In The Zone:


In The Open: (I'm box-loading!)

This week was interesting. We didn't have the magic we did last week, but we did a decent job.

Duncan would get really focused on the ball one run, then get distracted on the next. His recalls were blazing, though. Yay!

The box... we didn't load it like we had wanted to because Duncan hadn't retained last week well. Poor guy, he tried. He also can't be to blame because it's not like we could practice! I got him to do nice box turns, without grabbing the ball. Then we added the ball, just to confuse the heck out of him. We ended on a positive note - good box turn with a ball grab. Then more perfect recalls.

Good news - we got to borrow box! It is one of the older ones, but at least we can work at home. And I might be able to get some video. We will also be working with a T (picture soon) to get the box turn motion. Duncan is little, so he's really going to have to smack the box to trigger it. We aren't there yet.

Goals are nice!

Also, there is a tournament this weekend that I may go to. If so, I will link to all the pictures and videos.

My agility Duncan did great! Well, you know, two months of practice great. He was a little wild, barky, and spastic. I tripped, forgot the jumpers course, and made thousands of other mistakes.

I don't have any video of the Standard runs. We did two jaunts through the course. The obstacles were a little dirty and Duncan was very interested in something dumped in the overgrown grass. We did good contacts! Tunnels were a bust until I just took the time to really reinforce one.

The Jumpers course was awesome. There was only one tunnel and one set of weaves. I thought it best to just skip the weaves entirely. So we replaced it with a jump. The second run-through was more fun than the second. I got away with some difficult crosses in some places and not others. Oh, Duncan... must we be velcro-ed?



Overall, we had fun - which is what is important. People told me varying things. The most overwhelming response was that Duncan loves agility and that he is going to be awesome. I agree. The other comment was that I am too hard on myself. Probably true.

Enjoy! Oh, and no agility class this week.

Really quickly, as I didn't have time to post until now.

Flyball class went very well. We got Duncan on the box (without the trigger) and he did the full run from the start line (not on the trigger box, though).

Duncan was so very smart when I put him to the box! At first, he was like, HUH?!?! Then I did some shaping sort of work to get him on the box. In just a few minutes, he was doing a great swimmer's turn. Yay!

Anyway, I need to work on getting the drive to go away from me when I shout "GO!"

Ugh... I need to post right after a practice!