This was a hard, boundary pushing class. There was a 19 obstacle course laid out with every obstacle they have. We got a chance to walk it for a few minutes and then did a cold run-through. We broke into groups and worked on pieces (with alterations from the original course), then did the course again.




Weaves, the stupid double jump, and the friggin tire. That's all I have to say. Duncan was in a very vocal mood, which didn't really help matters. Other than those three obstacles, though, we did pretty awesome. Once Duncan got off the dogwalk a little early (I think he had one paw in the yellow), but that is because I stopped and said "Am I going the right way?" or something to that effect.

2o2o is going very badly, so I've tried to teach creeping down the obstacle. He is doing well for the dogwalk and I think starting to get it a little on the A-frame.

The weaves need more practice and I need to make sure they are widely set during class. Our channel weaves at home are set pretty close, but Duncan doesn't generalize to the weave-o-matics. I would much rather have a set of those, though! When he does get them, he bounces through nicely. I also coyly moved to his right side, as that is the side where he has the most success with the weaves. We are working at getting all angles at home.

The double jump... that would require two jumps at home. I have one built, the PVC for another, and need to get jump cups for both. So that's bust for the moment.

I actually worked on the tire at Flyball this week. There just happens to be one, so after class I did some work with it and Duncan is much improved. I wouldn't like something that moved when I jumped through it either.

The heat and rain has not let up a bit, but we've still managed some practice.

Our most notable foray was with astounding amounts of distractions. My backyard is actually communal between all the neighbors and many of them have the fishing bug. So, when I set up the equipment and Thane brought out his fishing pole, there was a high level of interest. The tug was simply not enough to lure Duncan away from the people, fish smells, and bait.

Between breaks where I brought out Pierre and Abbie (Duncan's rescue Sheltie sister) for socialization where Duncan got to cool off in the A/C, we did quite a bit. We started with weaves. This is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Duncan starts to pop out if I move the poles too fast, so I am having to show major restraint and just inch those poles in sloooowly. Then, we did weaves and the plank to get Duncan re-familiar with contacts. I really wish I had an actual contact to work with, not just a plank. Then we did weaves, tunnel, plank. At first, Duncan got barky with the combo but soon had the drive to power to the end - many times ahead of me (if I remembered to ask him to!). Gosh, he loves that tunnel now!

I felt like Duncan was tiring of the weaves, so I traded them out for a jump. I worked with the jump significantly to the left and right of the tunnel and worked him through both directions. Honestly, I feel like I learned more about where I need to place myself in order for Duncan to have the most successes. I very much want to work on directionals, but I'm not exactly sure how. Wouldn't you just call the obstacle name? If Duncan were to go over the jump and the tunnel was to the left and the weave to the right, I think it would matter more that I said "tunnel" if he needed to go left. Things to ask my instructor!

Overall, we are making steady progress with the equipment we have at our disposal. If our club allowed you to come practice on the equipment between classes, I could easily see myself there 2-3 times a week other than class night.

This week has been miserable, so we haven't gotten to do much training. My house isn't that big, so we really don't have space to do it inside. I am petitioning Florida weather to pick somewhere between the 100+ temps and the pouring rain!

The following video sums things up nicely.


As you can see, Duncan is doing great at the home weave set. I like the channel weaves quite a bit. We're at just over half a turn (about 95 degree turn from original open position). As you can ALSO see, we got rained out. I barely got everything inside before the onslaught began! The tugging is working nicely for at home training if it isn't too hot.

Moving on to class. Thane took some video sporadically. We did much more than chutes, weaves, and tunnels. Duncan balked a little at the contacts. He just wasn't focused tonight, but I don't think I was either. Not sure, but we weren't clicking as well as last week. Probably due to lack of practice. Oh well!

Duncan hasn't really had an issue with chutes until today. We finally dropped the cloth all of the way and he got confused. We backed it up and I think he'll do better when we have amazing tunnels. Speaking of tunnels, the few times on the video were some of our best for the night. I think he's confused because for tunnels and weaves, he isn't right next to me. I need to work on distance with him, but I'm afraid of doing too much, too soon (especially considering we are doing two sports with him).

See that pitiful weave? Hear my strained high pitched voice? Gah. That kind of summed up the practice. Duncan found everything he wanted on the floor and only thought about me if I was a lunatic. I think I'm going to pick up my Control Unleashed book again and work on focus exercises.

Brag that isn't on the video: Duncan did the teeter three times without even a flinch! I lured him the whole time with turkey hotdogs and the teeter was smoothly dropped to a medium high wait table by an instructor. We didn't want to over do it, so we left it on a success. I was so proud of my baby.

Sad news - no Flyball tomorrow. It got moved to tonight and we had Agility. I'm going to get some practice in anyway, though!

First - Batteries charged as of this afternoon, so I've got some pictures!

At our last Flyball class, Duncan was not interested in treats. He was panting and a little hot and just too excited. We were given some felt to make a tug. Sounds easy. I haven't been on here long, but you should know I'm a little OCD about things. I tried two different types of braid and was disgusted at the results. I un-wound each time and started again. Then I remembered these key chains we would make in high school and this bracelet I made for my husband out of a ton of thread.

The result:


I tied off the one end with a hair tie because we might thread a tennis ball through. That end isn't very long, though. If we don't do that, I'm going to finish the spiral sequence. The macrame pattern is called something 'lanyard' and I alternated square and spiral for effect and because I wasn't sure Duncan would be able to latch onto an end.

I was a little worried about the use of the tug because Duncan has great bite inhibition. When we play, he might mouth me, but he never bites down and if he gets too mouthy (haha) I squeal and he stops. He tried to steal the felt fabric while I was braiding, so there was some hope!

When it came time to put it into practice, I had just finished a set of PVC channel weave poles. (Pictures to come!) Being super excited to use them, I set the poles wide open and sent Duncan through them. He trotted through just fine and looked to me for his reward (smart dog). I put down the tug and amazingly, he latched on and started pulling! I really let him get riled up with it, so he had good memories and feelings associated with the tug. Then, I said "Mine" and took it away. He barked at me in protest, but worked with me very well for that tug! We got the poles all of the way to half closed (90 degree angle from the start point). I must put the caveat that Duncan is an 11.5 lb, 13 inch (recent measurement) Sheltie, so he still didn't touch the poles or even have to twist any. One run, he bounced through small dog style, which is where the dog hops with both feet on one side of the pole and alternates. We did extra tugs for that.

We ended that portion of the training with high spirits. It was about 95 degrees F outside (not including heat index), so we took a break and headed into the air conditioning to hydrate. After a few minutes, Duncan bothered me for some more training and I thought it was a good opportunity to do jump work, as we haven't in a little while. Once back in the heat, he was less than enthused about it. Tugging wasn't paying off as well. I got him to give me a few really good jumps and then we went inside. It was just too hot!

I highly doubt that the tug will be enough to replace treats for everything. Teaching something is waaaaayyy easier with treats if it is something nearly stationary - pause table, entrances to a jump - or something very difficult - for Duncan, contacts. However, when he is hot and has just run (Flyball or Agility) a tug seems perfect.