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I came here today to confess *sigh*...

Today I bought my Pit Bull a coat and yes I did sort of want the shiny pink one. Luckily Mark was along and put the kabosh on That idea. Sooo Miss Emma Extremewigglebottom Vainner will be sporting a much more sedate sage green quilted job with black fleece trim and lining . Darn good thing her Uncle gets her a discount too or I woulda wrapped her in a towel and let the other dogs laugh...oh that's right they are going to laugh anyway...Pit Bull needs a coat...it's just embarrassing.

I can just see the headline:

Well my house is a flyball house with an intense desire to immerse in the discdog sport.  I have a Belgian Malinois who is ranked 4th in the country, soon to be number 3 (NAFA).  I have a Mini Aussie who will soon move to number 10, a Jack Russell who suddenly after being rehomed with me a year and a half ago decided that yes, thank you, she would also like to play flyball and show all the other dogs that lil icky dogs can do it too.  That leaves me with my little shy girl.  A mini aussie who we have been training, with not much intensity, I might add, to play flyball for some time.  I haven't really poured my heart and soul into flyball with this girl because she has issues with people she doesn't know. And as we all know in flyball there are unfamiliar people everywhere close. 

Well after taking her to a few tourneys and warming her up, and seeing that she really just doesn't enjoy it like the other dogs we decided to lay off the flyball for her and let her do full time what she really loves!  CHASE PLASTIC.   So off to the Discdog boards we go to finally, once and for all, get going in something we both really love.

Sally

For those of you who were at disc camp at Apryl/Rons, we didnt do the ball with Bru. Well today Ron and I worked her on the ball. well I got too, Bru said no to Ron-sorry Ron.  Got her to get on the ball, do some sits, downs.  Sorry no video.  VBG Thanks for the sideline guiding from Ron.  And Bruja did the skateboard too.
Happy Sue, somewhat tired Bru LOL Time to go feed the doggies

well, the Bru is starting to understand where I want her to go for her frisbee.  Around, behind me, thru the legs, catch frisbee.  I could see the light click on yesterday.  Now I just have to thru better. We started the foundation for this in the studio during disc camp and I have been working on it with Bru.  First with just a toy, so she wouldnt go to fast..speed demon.   Yikes she is too fast at times for me still.  Its working Ron.  Sue and the Bru

I was lucky enough to experience one of the true joys in our sport this past weekend - the dropless freestyle routine.  It's something we all probably aspire to, something I've seen a few people achieve over the years I've been competing.  It's not that drops mean everything, it's just that usually the lack of drops in a high-level routine is indicative of a great flow and connection between the dog and handler.  Among the myriad of routines I've performed in competition, I've been lucky enough to experience 4 dropless routines;  2 with Raccoon Jack, 2 with Five.  And I recently had a competitor tell me she'd love to hear the secret as to how I do this..............so here it is:  FEEL the routine, don't THINK it.

What???  How do you feel a routine???  Years ago, when I was a competitive rider, I found a fabulous book, Centered Riding by Sally Swift.  The book taught me to ride using my right (or feeling) side of the brain, instead of the left (or thinking) side.  When you learn any new activity, the initial learning phase is a left-brained activity.  For example:  if you are learning to play the piano, your left brain must read the music, make a decision as to where to place your fingers, your fingers then receive the transmission and sometimes stumble into the proper position.  But look at a pianist who has played for 15 years............the process has moved into a right brained activity:  the pianist intrinsically knows where to place his fingers, he sees the music and transfers the movement of his fingers thru his right brain by "feeling" where to place them. 
How does this transfer to playing disc with your dog, you ask?  Consider a newbie learning to throw a disc.  The newbie's left brain is on overload, as they must work hard to remember stance, grip, arm placement/speed, hyzer, wrist snap, and then, toss in the dog to create the issue of timing and disc placement. But when you examine the top throwers in the sport, I would bet all of them no longer think about any of these aspects of the throw - they simply FEEL what is right, and their right brain creates the throw. 
Freestyle is the same.  That routine I had with Jack this weekend...........it was literally surreal;  I had a feeling of almost being out of myself - I was no longer thinking about anything (tricks, sequences, placement, where discs were on the ground, time, etc), I was FEELING it all!  It was quite an experience.  Even amid the other dropless routines I've had, I found myself thinking  through those routines............."holy crap, we haven't dropped one yet!"  But this one was different. 
So my advice to you is..............when you have that perfect throw or trick with your dog,  and you're trying to recreate it, don't think about what you DID to make it happen, think about how it FELT.  
I hope this makes sense to you.  And I hope you all will have a chance to  experience the incredible FEELING I did this past weekend with Jack on the competition field.
Tracy

Hi All-

So I am looking for feedback from the group/anyone about building speed in my current agility performance with my pup.

A little background: He is a 2.5 yr old BC, we have been training in agility for about 1.5 years (my first time training in agility as well). So we are a novice pair and unfortunately for him I learned handling along the way.....so this is part of the issue, I know, because until more recently (and of course I am still late or early on handling maneuvers at times) I have not been truly consistent for him on courses. Too counter this, once I gained confidence in my training I went back to the basics to build even more drive (i.e. foundation handling and foundation training with the obstacles with my new found skills, and his), this for sure helped and we also employed Susan Salo grids to build his understanding of jumping form... and Susan Garrett’s handing skills and drive building games….

So where we are at, we have been fairly successful in small trial situations and he is showing me more consistent runs right now, if I don't push the speed factor. So I have taken a short break from trials to go back to work on his and my consistency with speed....this is where my questions come.....

What have others done to build speed in their agility partners once they see consistency?
I know this is a broad question, and that is intentional, because I am looking for a plethora of thoughts, and methods. I have a few plans up my sleeve but I wanted to pull out ideas from more experienced folks......

So let the ideas and feedback rip, I will be grateful and I am sure my BC will love ya for it, cause he is showing me speed, but without complete understanding of his body and job when he is in "high mode".

Thanks ahead of time!

Mary - Loved by Oliver, Dabner and Bobby!

I started explaining my thoughts on the evolution of ourselves as competitors.  Remember Stage one was the “Romance Stage” where ignorance is bliss and we get extreme joy just watching our dog being able to do a sequence of 2 or 3 jumps in a row without going around one of them. Stage Two, the “Information Seeking” stage is where our drive to improve starts to shine through .

Today I follow up with my thoughts on Stages 3 and 4.

Stage Three: We Compete.  In this stage we have an awareness of other dog and handlers and their talents. We are now“competing”.  Our self esteem and enjoyment of the trial may now be linked to how well we placed at an event or if we got our “qualifying score” or “double Q” that day.

 

There was discussion this week on one of the agility lists about running agility “just for fun” rather than being competitive about it. It reminded me of a lecture I include when doing Mental Prep for Sport workshops.  It is about each of our own individual evolution as a competitor in sport. This concept was first introduced to me while competing in dressage many years ago.  I wish I could give you a source to look up, but I can’t. What I will present is my own slant on the topic. When I first heard it,  it was like someone was speaking a foreign language.

Seeing the difference in three people play a game of golf demonstrates the process so well. Three people hit the ball into the ruff, the first person announces to the group, “this is a crappy lie, I am moving my ball” and does so happily taking a penalty stroke. The next golfer will look around to see if anyone is watching before they secretly kick the ball to a better lie (without counting the stroke), while the third golfer will play the shot with the bad lie, without ever once considering moving the ball, thus learning from the experience. Those three people represent three different places in competitive sport evolution.

It has nothing to do with be