So Close, I can Taste It!

No agility practice again this week due to astronomical temperatures.

Flyball practice yesterday went really well.  I didn't have nearly enough time to work with my dogs like I wanted to.  I think I've reached my limit of number of dogs I can train: 4.  4 is my limit of dogs in flyball.  I'm so thankful that I'm 100% happy with how Trophy's boxturn was retrained and I'm fine with Pan's 3 footed turn, so I don't feel the need to work with them nearly as much and infact I have been using them more with training Demo than running lineups with the team.  And I'm ok with that!

Yesterday at Practice we worked on Demo's focus on his lane while other dogs ran in the other lane.  There were gates up down the middle, but I had several large open gaps for him to watch the action.  He never crossed over once.  I went from running him dead last (when the last dog in the other lane was just about back to his handler all the way up to sending him down seconds after their start dog left the line.  He is definitely watching the other lane on the way back (which is slowing him way down) BUT he refocuses on me instantaneously as I talk to him.  SO *I* need to remember to call him more on the way back and I think we'll be ok.

Today I brought in the jump board and worked on his boxturn.  I was able to send him from 20 feet away down to the practice board and call him back for his tug.  Adjusted the props until I liked where his feet were hitting, then I took a leap of faith and duct taped a ball on the board.

Two feet on the box, retreived ball, lots of tugging reward (before he wouldn't even touch the board for the ball).  same result a second time.

Then, we had 3 feet on the board,  and then we had 4 feet in a perfect little turn and he retrieved the ball!!!

PARTY!!

I'm so excited this is coming together!!  Next U-FLI tournament is in September followed closely by CanAm in October.  If we just do singles and pairs in September I'll be ok with that, but I *NEEEEED* him to be ready by CanAm!!! :)