Big Changes

A lot has happened in the past few weeks. We left our house in Seattle on April 20th and took two vehicles across the country. Ben drove the truck and trailer (our temporary home) and I drove the little car. When we got to Reno, we traded cars with Ben's parents and ended up with a Ford Escape. It's not quite big enough for our family, but the dogs have a lot more room in the back and it's 4WD.

We stopped at dog parks and rest areas along the way to run the dogs. We had some long days, but everything went smoothly overall. We found a flyball tournament in Iowa to run with some friends and give the dogs a chance to stretch their legs. Indigo and Goose ran very well on their pick-up teams. Pax ran in singles and on a team, with the highlight being a doubles run with Indigo of 7.641. This makes them the 21st fastest doubles of all time and 6th for the year. Pax and Goose both ran singles as well. With Pax's best time being 3.820 and Goose 3.810, making them the 6th and 7th fastest singles for the year. We are planning another U-FLI tournament in June in Ontario and then the Tournament of Champions in August in Nebraska.

To continue our really crazy flyball schedule, we got to Massachusetts on May 3rd and then our new flyball team, Canine Mutiny hosted a tournament in Greenfield, MA. Indigo and Goose are on the Regular 1 team in 3rd and 4th position and Pax runs in start on the Multibreed team. The regular team had a best time of 15.8 and the Multi team ran in the mid 17 second range.  Running on consistent 4 dog teams is new for us and really nice. It was a little bit chaotic to get here and then immediately host a tournament, but it was pretty low key and it was easy to take our trailer because it was already packed with all our stuff.  It was all fun and games until a Norovirus type "stomach flu" passed around to at least 14 people including me. I showed my dedication by running Indy and then immediately going back to the trailer where the bathroom was close. Ben ran Pax for me and I may have lost my dog after that because Ben had a good time with him and was way better at getting the tug back from him!

Here is our schedule for the rest of the summer:

May 13th - ASFA lure coursing trial Granville, MA
May 19th-20th NAFA flyball Seekonk, MA
June 2-3 U-FLI Ontario
June 9-10 NAFA flyball Littleton, MA
June 23-24 Coconut Classic PA
July 21-22 NAFA flyball Foxboro, MA
August 11-12 NAFA flyball Henrietta, NY
August 24-26th U-FLI Tournament of Champions Nebraska
September 1-2 NAFA flyball Foxboro, MA
September 6-7th ASFA lure coursing Griswold, CT
September 22-23 NAFA flyball Greenfield, MA?
October 12-14th Can-Am NAFA flyball nationals

I also need to find some straight and oval track races for Pax, but our schedule is looking very full this year!

The dogs are very much enjoying their new location! We either play chuck-it or go hiking everyday. Ben has even taken them on bike rides on the rail trail!


This post has already been very long, but I just wanted to add some training thoughts about Pax in flyball. He is a never ending challenge for me. My most recent thought is that he is thinking too much on the way down to the box and in general. When we play chuck-it and he is chasing the ball he runs with reckless abandon...that's what I'm looking for. Here are my ideas to fix this problem:

1. head to head racing with the lanes close together against a fast dog and start him after so he has to catch up.
2. chase recalls where he is chasing a dog that is faster than him
3. set up flyball jumps outside and have someone release him as if he is going down to the box, but instead of having a box there, someone will be there with a chuck-it and as he starts down the jumps throw it. This way he will get used to running full speed down the jumps. Eventually we'd fade the movement...not sure exactly how that would work.
4. Power jumping with someone on both sides of the jumps sending him back and forth.

Three in Three out

We went to the NW U-FLI qualifer in Victoria this past weekend and had so much fun! Our friend Sue, from our new team in Massachusetts came out with her borderjack Stingray. We ran as a regular U-FLI team with Stingray, Pax, Indigo, Goose, Ezri and Havoc from Total Anarchy on Saturday. This is the fastest lineup we've ever put together and it was amazing how well the dogs did passing eachother. We ran many times in the high 15s, two 15.6's and even a 15.4 with a dropped ball. A 15.6 or faster is required for Division 1 at the championships. I was not expecting to run this time and was sort of hoping to be in Division 2, but I guess we are faster than I thought!

Poor Paxy wasn't in any of the record breaking lineups and didn't get any amazing times in singles. He did run a 3.79 and lots of 3.8s in start, but I know he could do a lot more. His striding still sucks. I've been spending a lot of time watching striding into the box and on the return. Pax takes two strides in and two out usually. He will take 3 out if he has a wide box turn. The nicest box turns come from dogs that take 3 strides in and 3 out. With only two strides in the dog is not set up well to have great control and power during the box turn.

Last weekend I decided to try putting gutters at 5 feet and 11 feet from the box during warmup. He is stutter stepping at first, but you can see him getting used to it after a few and it even had some effect during his runs!  HERE IS THE VIDEO. Right now his time from the line to the box is in the 1.6 range and from the box back to the line is in the 2.2 range. My goal is to get his "go out" time in the 1.5-1.6 range and his return around 2.0. The return includes the box, which is where he is losing a lot of time. You can see HERE when going head to head that Pax is ahead or even until the forth jump and then he gets behind on the box and up until the 5th jump and then he smokes Goose over the jumps on the way back. He should be beating Goose!

I'm going to try calling him earlier to help him set up for the way back. I still believe a lot of his problem is confidence. I have to find a balance between letting him get more miles of running flyball and allowing him to run with his striding the way it is! I'm going to continue full course snap offs and start box work with gutters to force 3 strides in and 3 out.

Indigo is an example of a dog that needed more confidence. She never ran faster than 3.9 for the first year of racing. She hit 3.8 after about a year and then shortly after that ran 3.7s. She ran her best time with a pass of 3.80 just this past weekend. She is now 5 years old. She takes 2 strides in and 3 out very consistently and probably would have been faster with 3 in. At this point in her career, it's impossible to fix her striding and it might be too late to fix Pax's, as it gets ingrained quickly.

For the next puppy I train, I'd like to teach striding from the beginning, so it's not a process of fixing it later, but training it and not moving on to the next step until it's right. I'll save the topic of teaching a puppy striding for my next post!

Kings Tournament

We went to our last NAFA tournament in British Columbia for awhile at least. It was very strange that we won't see most of our NW flyball friends for awhile. I'm hoping some of them come to Can-Am or U-FLI championships this year. We dragged some of our teammates all over the place looking for The Swiss Chalet so Ben could get some of their amazing chicken. It was pretty amazing.

We ran our Division 1 team in Open so that we could run with Amy & Georgia who are also leaving. We were running between 18.5-16.7 with wide passes and beating the other teams in the division as long as we ran clean. We won Open both days. One thing I'll miss is all the dog food we win at tournaments! We have quite a stash in our trailer right now.

I ran Pax in start and Indy when Pax wasn't in. Pax did better and better as the weekend went on. I think his best time was 3.83. His box turns were wide in the beginning of the day. I worked with him during warmups on the box and over-rotated him to remind him not to go wide. He's become less reliable with ball holding and was flagged twice during the weekend. I think I need to go back to wall work with him to get his body used to rotating off the box more.  Based on the video I've seen so far, his striding actually looks better. He also needs passing work, but I already knew that. Overall I'm happy with how he did and had a good time running him!

you can see in this video that Pax is going wide. I need to work my handling to get him to come off the box to the tug in the right spot

I was excited to run Indy again! I haven't run her in a very long time. Jeff does a good job with her, but I missed my girl. I found a solution to get her to hold her ball that is very reliable, but works the best when I run her.

Goose did well overall, but we have some things to work on with him as well. Over the last few tournaments, he started spitting his ball more and more frequently. If Ben doesn't give him the tug, he reruns himself, which caused one moderate crash and one almost crash.  Also I don't know if we will ever get him to take 3 strides off the box, but he definitely should.

Our plan for the next two weeks is to get some weight off the border collies and do a lot of conditioning. We dont' do enough endurance training with them and it shows. We don't live in the best situation now to make that happen, but we'll do what we can to get them in better shape.

Different Way to Teach a Box Turn

There are many ways to teach a box turn, some work better than others. I've tried several different methods over the years and am still open to trying new things. My favorite methods are either the wall to a ramp and straight to the box OR the chute, to chute with ball, to box with board, to box with ball. Either way I like to start with lots of "over and backs". The choice to do train a wall turn is usually determined by how much someone is going to be doing at home. If the handler doesn't do much training at home, I have a really hard time training the wall only once a week. Also some people are turned off by the wall because of perceived safety issues.


I wish I had video of Indy learning her box turn. I had no idea what I was doing at the time. We used a square board the size of the front of the box (training board) and taught her to hop on that (with the board on someones lap) and get a ball. Somehow she has an excellent box turn now. I later used the wall and various up close box work drills to speed her up. Some dogs are very forgiving. Here is the earliest video I have of her of her turn. 

I recently had a reader ask me this question about an 11 month old border collie in training....




We have slowly been introducing the different stages of flyball.  She has a really good box turn and will return to the handler over all 4 jumps. We introduced the ball and she did a good job 2-3 times. One time she hit the box prop and since then will not go to the box if there is a ball in it or if she does she will lean forward and try and steal the ball (won't jump on the box). So we have been having her run to the box and do her box turn then back to the handler.


This is one method that I have to say I don't think it great. I think "hit its" are okay in moderation to get the dog used to the box, but not to the point that they start to build muscle memory for a box turn with no ball. It doesn't really count as a box turn until there is a ball involved. Without a ball, the body positioning is completely different.  I also don't like the idea of building up to full runs without the introduction of a box turn with the ball. With the full run you are introducing speed and striding and it will be off if the dog is just hitting off the box without catching a ball. 

In this video you can see that Pax's head isn't going anywhere near where it should be to catch a ball. This is teaching the basic body movement, but shouldn't be done too much and especially not directly on the box. 

For the particular dog mentioned above I would probably work with a chute with a ball velcroed to get her comfortable with grabbing the ball without having to worry about it coming at her. Once she got this part, I would introduce the ball on the box, but I'd rest it on the ledge with a board leaning up on the box or jam the thrusters so the ball can't pop out. I'd also work on dead ball retrieves over the box prop and general ball catching practice.

If the issue is with the sound of the box, it would help to bring the box home and desensitize the dog to the sound by click/treat when the box is triggered.

The other methods I've seen to teach a box turn have not been successful for the most part from my observation. I especially don't like the introduction of the box before the dog has the body motion with the use of lots of a box props to get all four feet up. These are the dogs that lose their turn with no props. As I've mentioned before I'd like to try shaping a box turn with a clicker, but I'll probably have to experiment on my own dog to try that!

Lure Coursing Problems

Well I made the mistake of taking Pax lure coursing in the same field with a similar course two weeks in a row. This is pretty much asking for trouble. A whippet that is moderately smart (Pax is very smart, smarter than Goose), remembers the course and cuts corners. The judges like to see a hound stay with the lure. This particular field is especially bad because there are clear boundaries and it's pretty obvious which way the lure is going. It's ideal if they don't know because either it's a new field to them or it's so large that the course can be very different each time.

There was one other whippet at this ASFA trial, who had never coursed in this field. Pax did fairly well overall and was well matched with the other racing bred whippet, but it was inevidible that he would try to outsmart the lure. He got 2nd place of 2 whippets. Interestingly, you can course the other sighthounds (Ibizians, IW, Silken Windhounds, Basenjis, Ridgebacks, Greyhounds etc) at the same field with similar course over and over and they don't usually cut corners.

Next weekend we are taking Pax for his first NAWRA race meet. This is straight racing. No turns. The winner is very obvious. I know this type of racing will be challenging for him because he doesn't have the height advantage, but he is extremely keen. We will see how far that gets him.

photo by Amy Vandenberg

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I'm always thinking about dog I would like to get in the future that would be good for different purposes. For flyball I think about breeds that would be fun for Finley to run someday. I think a small dog would be best for her to handle. While, I am mostly set on whippets and border collies, there are certainly some little dogs that I like. Based on our recent experience with fostering an Italian Greyhound, I can safely say that this breed is not on the list. It's amazing how much they aren't like whippets. Little Santos will make a great pet for someone I'm sure, but he isn't for us!  

When we buy a house in Massachusetts, we will be looking for something that will give us the option to have some farm animals. I think it would be most useful to get a terrier that would be good at keeping rodents away as well as a good house pet and flyball dog. Perhaps a Patterdale terrier? I haven't met one yet, as they aren't common in the US. It seems that they are similar to a JRT, but more common in the UK. They are supposedly amazing working dogs and super cute.  Watch for me on the next episode of Animal Hoarders.

A Dog Centered Weekend

Last weekend we spent most of the day Saturday in Auburn at the Cascade Coursing Club hosted CAT (coursing ability test). I wanted to see how the border collies would do and although I was hesitant to run course Pax on the type of lure they use (continuous loop), I entered him too since he was there. The border collies both did well. They stayed with the lure the whole time and were fast until the end when they got tired. We didn't stay long enough to see the results, but we guessed that Pax won...which wasn't really fair because the test is supposed to be for non-sighthounds. We have to enter the border collies two more times to get the CAT title on them.

I enjoy this sport because it's really great conditioning for the dogs and requires no training. I did notice all my dogs slow down at the end, which means they need endurance work! We do something with them 6 days a week, but we need a new conditioning plan for them.

Here is what we do now:
Monday - chuck-it + free running at the field 45 minutes
Tuesday- day off
Wednesday- dog park free running 45 minutes + agility for Pax & Indigo
Thursday - dog park free running 30 minutes 
Friday - chuck-it + free running at the field 45 minutes
Saturday - usually dog park 1 hr
Sunday - herding for Goose and flyball for Indigo or Goose and Pax

We need to add more sessions and keep running them longer. We also need to add swimming and free running on the trails following the mountain bike. Some long hikes wouldn't hurt either. I usually run at the gym on the treadmill, but could start taking them with me and run outside.  I also need to get balance balls and start working on strengthening exercises. We have a swim appointment for the three of them on Thursday, so we are off to a good start on their new exercise plan!

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Last weekend was especially dog activity filled! On Sunday morning I went herding with Goose and had a really good session. His natural talent is amazing. Diane surprised us with some light trial sheep to increase the challenge for us. Goose and I went in to work them and they all scattered and it was a huge mess. I was surprised since he always does so well. These sheep were so much harder! This made me realize that I need to work on his lie down and give him more instructions to keep a good enough distance from the sheep so they stay calm. After we worked a bit on widening his outrun and an immediate lie down (rather than 3 seconds later), we had those sheep totally under control. It was a very rewarding lesson.

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The way it's been lately is that on Sunday, I rush home, grab my flyball stuff and run out to get to flyball practice in time. Last weekend was no different...I dropped Goose of and grabbed Pax and Indigo. Indigo doesn't really need practice anymore, but I do bring her to help with training and for lineup practice. Pax is getting so much better, although I need to start having other people run him because I need to see how his box turn and striding look. The work I've been doing with him has payed off. His times have come down a bit at practice. We was running all 3.7s and 3.6s at practice. We will see if that holds up at a tournament with no gutters.

Pax's passing and speed to the box Improved!



Speaking of gutters. I am proud to say that we finally fixed my most challenging gutter problem!


Georgias striding has been off for awhile, but everytime I put in the standard gutters that help most dogs, she jumps them! She needs to take three strides after hitting the box before jump 5 and to not take off so early for the box. Mission accomplished with lots of tweaking.


Georgias striding solution

Spring Fever

We have been working on planning Spring events for the dogs. Here's what we've got so far..some of the dates are tentative


Feb 18th AKC coursing ability test in Auburn, WA
March 4th AFSA lure coursing Auburn, WA
March 24-25th NAFA tournament BC
April 7-8th UFLI Victoria, BC
April 28-29th UFLI Amana, IA
May 5-6th NAFA tournament Greenfield,MA
May 19-20th NAFA Seekonk, MA
June 22-23rd NAFA Coconut Classic  PA
July 7-8th Starkville, NY ASFA lure coursing
August 11th-12th UFLI Richmond ON
August 18th-19th Rocket Relay ON
 Oct 12-14th Indianapolis, IN CanAm

Ben is taking a break from agility until he finds a new trainer in Massachusetts and will probably just focus on Indigo and less on Pax. We are mostly doing flyball and lure coursing this year.

 We will be driving across the country in April. We will drop our daughter Finley in Reno with her grandparents and then Ben and I and our three dogs will drive across the country. We plan to stop at one flyball tournament that is on the way in Iowa. It's always fun to play flyball in a new place. Indigo and Goose will run on pickup teams.

 I've been going sheep herding a lot lately with Goose and feeling bad that I haven't taken him more. He is so good at it and it's been lots of fun. Our instructor, Diane from Deltabluez Stockdogs thinks that we have the potential to enter a novice trial. If we get sheep someday I'd like to be more serious with sheep herding, but now it seems very unachievable. Either way, Goose and I have fun on Sunday mornings going out to the farm together.  It's a pretty drive and I always treat myself to coffee and a scone from Caffe Ladro, my favorite coffee. They give out biscuits so Goose doesn't mind making the stop.

Sometimes I'll take Indigo for the ride. She knows the farm and has no interest in working the sheep. She is a true performance bred border collie. She runs out of the car, past the gate that leads to the fields, finds a stick and brings it to me to throw and crouches, waiting for it. This usually involves the pond and me throwing the stick into the pond. I did bring Pax once, but quickly realized that whippets and small farm animals aren't the best combination. Lets just say I can tell he would be a good hunter!

 We finished our recallers class and I actually really enjoyed it and found it to be extremely valuable. I plan to continue to use lots of Susan Garretts games and may even take the her online puppy class. I'll keep taking her courses, but I draw the line at a certain amount of money. I certainly wouldn't pay $5000 for any training class.

This weekend we are going to attempt to go to the AKC CAT with the three dogs...even though it's kind of a joke for Pax to do this type of lure coursing. I really want to do it with the border collies and I can't just leave him at home! On Sunday we will hopefully go herding and to flyball practice.

Speaking of flyball, I have a new favorite drill! It's something I've done a lot with Pax, but I need to do it more.... I'm going to try to do it at every practice until the next tournament in March. The things he needs work on are passing into another dog, speed TO the box, tighter, more controlled turn. This drill accomplishes everything I need to work on. Here is a video of us working on it last week at practice  .  The first dog does a full run and then I have someone release Pax from where I would normally pass him, but I am standing up at the box and calling him. Because I am calling him, he is focusing less on the pass and is running faster to me/the box. As he hits the box and run into the middle of the lane and pull him off quickly, not giving him an opportunity to go wide. I can really see the difference in this video. After March, I plan to run him in singles a few times but not on a team until he gets used to his new teammates and figures out his striding.