Last night, we tried the outdoor Flyball session. It worked beautifully! Duncan had so much room to run and was very eager to hit the box. When I had Thane as a box loader, I was able to leave balls around our starting point. Duncan got a bit ball crazy and would run back, holding one, and then drop it and bring me three balls before I could really catch him. It was really cute. After the initial 8 ball round, Thane pulled Abigail out to play fetch. She is really doing well at that. Another few weeks and I think we'll be where we can start some flyball work. I worked with Dunc again, doing some more specific box work with the board. It worked nicely to force all four feet onto the box.

No triggering this time!

Total time: 30 minutes including all the fetch breaks and equipment set-ups and such

Tonight, we tried it again. The sequence was: taunt Duncan with the ball (well, rev him up), load ball onto velcro, grab him and carry him away from box, set-up him up, reeeaddddyyy, seeettt, GO, repeat. We did this over and over again (his reward was me tossing the ball and him bringing it back... he is truly ball CRAZY). Duncan was bursting from my hands, flying to the box, then either barking at it or gingerly grabbing the ball, and then loping back. He was reliable with his recall and got some nice speed both ways. I figure, when he is slamming the box, then we'll trigger. Until then, let's build that confidence. I think I'm having a patient day. Give me a few more and I'll lament why we aren't already done with the box training!

Duncan's box turn is not good at the moment. Re-training the direction has really thrown it off. I don't like using the shelf because it is thick wood. I will see if I can borrow a jump. I don't want an accidental injury! It is pretty cool to see his confidence blooming with this home practice.

Total time for today: about 20 minutes

After our two great practices and a loooong week at work, we took Friday off. Most times, when we take a break, we do great at our next practice. Not so this time.

This evening Duncan was balky and my patience was thin. We lasted in our very warm (may have had something to do with it) garage for almost 10 minutes. It wasn't fun. Tomorrow, I want to take the box outside. More room to run and I can always chuck the ball for a few minutes of fetch to break up the practice. I need to come up with a way to make hitting the box SO fun that he is eager at the sight of it.

Sigh.

EDIT:

So later this evening and Duncan is feeling playful. I had watched some videos of Flyball training and remembered our brief stint with the jump (Hup-Back method). First I took Abbie into the garage (which had cooled down a bit) and played fetch. She isn't great, has no speed, but is building confidence. One day I hope we can start Flyball with her. Duncan was jealous.

I switched pups and set up the board away from the box. Hup-Back! Over the jump, hop back in the same motion. It mimics the box turn I'd like him to have very well. He did that a few times nicely, gaining interest. I dropped the ball on the other side and told him to get the ball. He got it hopped back. Okay, awesome.

The board was moved to the box and I had to experiment with how far out it went. The goal was for Duncan to hop over the jump, grab the ball, turn around and jump over in the same motion. It turns out that the jump has to be about seven inches away from the box. Any closer and he puts only his front paws over, grabs the ball, and comes back without putting all four paws on the box.

Without his harness on, he was happier and more ready to go. He was definitely obsessed with the ball again. It felt nice to be working as a team and working with the ball. I triggered the box once during the session. It took two runs to go off. Duncan didn't freak out and he brought me the ball. I set it up again and he hesitated toward the box. I re-built his confidence and called it quits while we were ahead.

I think tonight's lesson is to find something that works for us and adjust as necessary. The harness got Duncan over the cusp of his trigger fear, but it is still there and needs other methods, too. The harness is not helping his ball drive or either of our enjoyment of the sport so much. We can go back to having fun and being patient. I need to be reminded every now and then.

Total time for session two: 14 minutes

Another day, another practice.

This time, Duncan went for the door once. I don't think he understood it was practice time because as soon as he caught a whiff of the turkey dog, he was all in! Harness and training leash were attached.

I had the box set to trigger from the beginning. We worked the turn over and over until finally it popped! Did Duncan react? Not a single bit. I set it again and we triggered it once more tonight. That is our record in a day. Two box triggers! Go Duncan! He is definitely building his confidence. You can tell because his speed and excitement escalate through the practice. This has taught me to really rev him up before I release him to run.

Total practice time: 12 minutes

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.

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!