POWER JUMPING!

My dogs lives have recently changed for the better. They are living it up! I thought they had it good before, but I was very wrong.

First of all we have been going to lots of flyball tournaments. We've gone to 2 since we got here a month ago. We have another next week and then a week off and then another! With all this additional competition, I've been conditioning them more. This week we've played lots of chuck-it, went on a 7 mile hike And......

Yesterday they had a chuck-it session in the morning before it got hot and then a power jumping session right before dinner. We've been using power jumping to get the dogs, especially Pax to go for the ball full speed. I mentioned this in my last post. I love this because it's a way to get him to think less. He does do much thinking when he is running for a chuck-it ball, so incorporated it into flyball training. You need a lot of space for this drill.

Again it works like this....Someone releases them ideally from the same place you would when sending on a full run. Just as the person releases, someone is on the other end with a chuck-it and throws it away from the jumps, so the dog can see it. It's amazing to see how fast they can actually go over those jumps. This drill was helpful for all of our dogs to increase confidence and drive. We also used it for Goose to carry his ball. When Goose goes to get his ball he also has to carry it back over all the jumps.

HERE IS THE VIDEO LINK TO LAST NIGHTS SESSION


I think all this conditioning and training has been paying off because I was very happy with my dogs performance last weekend. Goose didn't spit his ball once and even started showing some signs of ball obsession (it's a fine balance!), Pax ran faster than ever before going TO the box and had some great times despite a wide box, and Indigo ran well in the pack too.

Pax ran well in singles and we were so close to a 3.6 on the clock!

The dogs are also feeling great because they have been going to the chiropractor. On Wednesday they went to their 2 of 6 weekly appointments to get them realigned. They were all really out, but I was happy that they held what she did on Week 1. This chiropractor is using Applied Kinesiology, which I don't know much about. I know it's not well accepted in traditional medicine at all, but I really just care about results, so we will see. In Applied Kinesiology they can also determine food allergies. Pax has chronic diarrhea,  or poops like 6 times a day and has the worst gas! I've started an elimination diet for him in addition to the probiotics and digestive enzymes. I decided to start with Venison instead of Lamb. According to the chiropractor, he was allergic to Lamb AND Venison! I'm going to try the Venison anyway and then put him on RAW as soon as we get our chest freezer and move into our own house!

We are off to another LOCAL flyball tournament this weekend!