Chase Flyball

I have 29 agility days planned with Jet in 2012. And he’s doing really well. I want to qualify him for AKC nationals, and go to AKC invitationals next December. So in order to do all that, lots of other things have to take a back seat. Mainly flyball.

I’ll miss the team and the fun. Hopefully none of them will end up in any heroin detox rehab treatment centers while I’m gone. But I can’t afford to travel to the tournaments. I wish we had some locally but we don’t. And I can’t take the time off work to travel, either. That’s the hardest thing, is getting the time off work. Oh I can get the time off work, my coworkers are really nice, but I only have a limited amount of leave every year, and this year I went way too low. I ended up with only 10 hours of annual at one point, and I need more of a buffer than that.

So until I retire in 2013, August, I won’t be doing flyball. Maybe I’ll do some agility with Chase again, to keep him active. I dunno. I don’t enjoy agility with him that much, I just can’t keep up, he’s too fast. But he likes it, so if I can afford it, I’ll try to enter him a little bit.

This video is from practice last week. A team mate was running Chase, as we wanted to make sure the dogs had recent experience running beside another team.

The boys really do love it. Though it takes a lot of time for me to do flyball, so I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to continue with it next year. Especially since Jet is doing so well in agility, and I’ll probably be focusing on him and getting a MACH. That’s my life goal, get a MACH on a dog. Hopefully he’ll be the one!

Oh, and Levi is doing lots better, yay! He’s recovered from his latest fall and he’s walking fine, jumping off and on the bed. Hopefully he’s not going to die anytime soon.. dang I still worry.

Our teams did pretty well. Both teams placed in their divisions on Sunday. Only one team placed in their division on Saturday. But really I go because the dogs have fun, and to get points for titles. Not really for placements. Though I do like it when we do our best.

On Friday before the tournament, and Monday before we went home, I took the boys out to Lake Mead. Jet has never swam before, but he did this time! I was thrilled. Ignore my dumb yays on the video because I was just happy to see Jet swim.

Jet was cold after swimming, poor boy. I needed some hand dryers to warm him up. Maybe I should put a hair dryer in the van that can be powered by the van itself. Do they make such things? Hrm..

Anyway, Jet’s box turn was pretty good, I think. We barely had enough people to race dogs, box load, and shag balls, so I didn’t get any video. Bummer. I wish I did because I want to make sure Jet’s box turn is holding up good. From what I saw I think it was, but it’s hard to tell from way back in the lanes when Jet is up at the box.

Jet ran a singles of 4.6, which is good. I know he could run faster but I don’t train for speed. I train for accuracy and consistency in agility and that’s my primary goal. So I’m happy with how he is doing. Jet was start dog on his team, Chase was third dog. Chase is usually start dog so it was fun to have to pass him this time for a change. Even passing Chase had consistent 4.7 times. That’s what he usually gets starting too so that tells me that my passes were good and tight. I only early passed him I think 3 times the whole weekend so I was happy with my passing for the weekend too.

Next weekend is agility… I need to sleep for three days first, but I have to work instead!

Jet did awesome and I’m happy to say he had a really nice box turn. His rear end did hang once in a while but all and all he did great. The first day he got a bit over excited and crossed lanes to chase the other dog a couple of times, but he got the hang of it and the second day he was solid in his lane.

Here’s some video of the races. The first one is short, the second day is a bit longer.

Day One:

The second day has a few closeups of his box and I’m really pleased with how he’s doing. I did some slow motion of his box too.

Day Two:

I’m dead tired, as usual. And I need some blackhead removal since my skin has broken out from the hotel water. But all in all I’m doing okay, vertigo and all. LOL. I still am having some vertigo which sucks but I think it’s getting a bit better. I’m going to check out a doctor next week and see if he can help me out too.

So now it’s back to work. I’d rather be at home resting during the week, playing with the dogs during the weekends. Hopefully I can do that when I retire in a couple of years!

Back Yard

Well, tomorrow I leave for the flyball tournament. I’ve been having vertico for the last week, and accompanying nausea, and I’m not really feeling much better, so I hope I don’t just hate the whole weekend. I usually can push my discomfort to the back of my mind and body well enough to function, and possibly even enjoy myself, so I hope I can do that this weekend too. (Doc says I probably have a virus in my ear, whatever.)

We are racing three teams, two singles and a pairs this weekend, so I am going to be on my feet almost constantly for both days. Which is, actually, how I prefer a trial or tournament. I can’t stand sitting around, so I work. But then I get pretty tired the entire following week. Oh well. One bad thing is that two of our teams are in the same division. And both my dogs, Jet and Chase, are on each of those teams. Soooo… I’m going to have to ask someone to race Chase. He’ll race for just about anyone, as long as there’s a tug at the end of the game. Jet is more sensitive and he’ll probalby only race for me. Plus, it’s his first team so I want to know how he’s doing.

I hope the four to five hour drive is okay, and we don’t hit any bad weather. Supposed to rain all weekend, which sucks, though the tournament is indoors so that’s good. Hopefully I won’t need any cheap auto insurance, the stuff I have should hold me over!

I took these last weekend at practice. I still like the idea of the bar on the box, or close to the box, for him to get up and get all four feet on the box. However, his rear end behavior still isn’t solid enough without some kind of help for him.

But he’s in a tournament next weekend, so I’ll practice with him as much as possible this week, and then next week, well, we trust in our training.

Some Box Work:

Jet Racing:

So, now it’s just up to love, luck, and training.

I like how this is working so far. I see success with him pushing off with his rear when he’s getting the ball. I think I’m going to stick with this method for a while and see what we get. I did take him to training, and I’ll get that video up too. I’m not convinced this method is holding over to the training place, but maybe if I work it every day, it’ll get stronger.

The below is a continuation of my idea… this time with a ramp. We did this training on March 11, 2011.

My husband helped me build this ramp and so far, so good. Here’s more training from the following day, March 12, 2011.

The videos are rather self explanatory I think, I’ve put text on them with my thoughts about what I’m doing.

I’ve modified the method a bit and I’ll post that up next. I wish I had some outdoor lighting fixtures so that I could train outdoors. But then, the weather needs to warm up too!