Flyball Work- Sept 18 2013

So this is my first practice session with Baer after this past tournament- working on the 3 main things I feel are slowing her down.

First- her box turn. I borrowed a matter prop from my captain, which *hopefully* blends in with the box. If you see the slow-motion portion of the video, she's getting VERY high on the box. Almost too high, her back legs are getting caught up on the top of the box. Normally Baer's turn is very snappy, but she's been hanging on the box with this prop (but it's much better than when she was going wide at the tournament). I'll be posting more videos once we get more practice in with the matted prop.

Second- Three strides off the box. I'll upload another video soon, which shows how I'm teaching her to respect the stride regulators- but I'm just impressed that she's doing three strides. I have one stride 5 feet from the first jump, then another 5 feet from the first regulator. I will be phasing out these regulators in hopes that as they get smaller, she won't lose that third stride. Time will tell.

Third- teaching Baer not to launch over the start line. I set up two jumps, ten feet from each other, and then a mock start line 6 feet from the first jump. I put Baer literally one foot from the start line in a sit/stay, and then I called her over them. She was only leaping from the start line, which we will be repeating over and over again to get that motion in.

Hopefully at flyball practice tomorrow I can get videos of all 3 things to see how they've improved or gotten worse since we did this practice. If you have any questions as to the methods for my madness, feel free to ask :)