3 strides minimizing props & box work

So our box work is coming along, as is the striding. This video is about 2 weeks old.

I've begun fading out the props for striding (as you can see towards the end of each dog's striding work), and tomorrow we have practice so I'm going to do:

1) striding over the props while minimizing props to just two small slats on the ground

2) box work focusing on coming within 3 feet off the box

3) runs from the 1st jump with the slats in to see how their 3 strides look.

Also will probably do some full runs with my friend's dog passing Baer & Flash so they get experience passing. Might just do power jumping with passing in this case, if enough people come.

What a busy few months this has been for me. 

I started teaching a Flyball Foundations class. My students have progressed really well, and the student's parents are fantastic. I've been having a lot of fun with it :)

There's been a long lag in tournaments for me, so I've been taking this time to perfect my dog's box turns. With the freezing weather our hikes have practically stopped, but on the few nice days we've had lately, I've had them out & about on the trails. 

Baer's turns are beginning to look lovely again - her back feet are up high, her snap off looks nice, and she lands in a straight line from the box. Flash is still a bit stuck to the box when he hits, but I am giving him time to build some confidence so we're just focusing on the "fun" factor of it. 

A new exercise I've been doing with Baer, is to put her in a sit/stay at the third jump, go down to the box, and release her, while I start running away from the box. This has been building her speed off the box even more. I'm excited to see how our next tournament goes, which won't be until May.

I've decided that Flashy won't debut in the racing lanes until he is two years old - which gives us plenty of time to proof his techniques. Yes, he can run over four jumps, hit the box, grab the ball, and come over four jumps. But now is where the *serious* work comes in. 

:) Excited to see what potential my family has. 

Hooray for flyball down season!

Time for training. Repetition. Skill building. Body awareness. Conditioning. Most importantly, getting ready for the next tournament!

So I am pretty happy with how their striding work is coming. One thing is that I switched the positioning of the stride regulators for Baer, because with the regulators @ 5' and 10', she looked awkward and scrunched. I moved them to 4' and 9' and she did great, the movement was fluid, I think we found our niche.


Flash was doing wonderfully @ 5' and 10' and like a dummy, I didn't switch the regulators back to the normal positioning for him. So he ended up looking scrunched. But now I know - Baer, 4' & 9', Flash, 5' & 10'.

We're going to be practicing our striding off the box (with a solid turn) a LOT, with some distraction training for Flash mixed in on Saturdays when I practice with a friend. I can't wait til the spring when we can get back to hiking all the time, and more importantly, POWER STRIDING.

My goal is to do power striding weekly, and hiking 2-3 times a week.