Tag Archives: two lane training

Bluebells

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The gang had a good morning flyballing … in the rain. Where has my nice summer weather gone?!

Dylan was all over the place with his training. He ran terribly in the first session, really slow and bad bad box, but he ran much better in the second session. We did have two lanes up though, but Dylan wasn’t running against anyone, and I wonder if he thought he got a free pass to be lazy. Must work on that … Kim was grumpily playing stooge dog for Biba all morning, and Mollie only got one session as she came up slightly sore mid-way through.

Dylan in the light dapples

Two of my friend’s lost their dogs in this past week; both to different cancers, and both way too young. I want to tell them both they I’m thinking of them and their dogs, but find it difficult to think of anything good enough to say. What can you say? I can only hope that they know my feeble “I’m sorry”’s are heartfelt, although insufficient.

Evening Light

For Moss (2005-2010) and Mishka (2003-2010).

Training Days

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Tough day for fatman Dylan today! Flyball training in the morning and then an agility training afternoon over in York. Ideally I would have skipped flyball, but we have Drax coming up and I really want him fit and ready. We’re making an effort to do more two lane training at the moment, and it’s making Dylan work really hard. He has a habit of lazing around in training when on a single lane, so running him against the faster dogs pulls him on and makes him put some effort in. He was stretching like mad against Jet; he was going 110% and she was cruising at 80%, and she still beat him by a nose. Poor lad, no wonder he has an inferiority complex, he’s constantly getting his ass kicked by girls.

So he had a hard flyball session, and then I whisked him off to agility! I’d booked onto a training day with Dawn and Katie Long, since loads of people have recommended Dawn to me recently and when the opportunity came up I was about ready to snap Julie’s hand off! I had a great time and it was well worth it, so I can safely say I’ll be furthering the recommendations.

We did a lot of work on contacts, which was great for me and Dylan. Particularly for me! I’ve always been fairly confident in Dylan’s understanding of the 2o2o position, but I’ve never dared to truly test it. Well, I got put on the spot, and Dylan was brilliant, so I’m very very pleased. He drove to the end regardless of where I was, and only looked around for me once he’d stopped. His Aframe was especially good; I raced him to the start of the Aframe, and then stopped completely before the up-ramp and let Dylan complete by himself. He nailed it every time, and only peered around once to check where I was (and he left a toe on the bottom … cheating slightly!) Spent plenty of time getting him to really drive over the dogwalk, and some new techniques for getting him more confident on the seesaw, so very positive.

We also spent some time working on weave entries and truly independent weaves, which again was great for me and Dylan, because he was awesome! More about my handling than anything, and Dylan was pretty exhausted by this part of the session, but he’s always willing to try.

I didn’t learn anything which is going to fundamentally change the way I handle or train. But I’m viewing that a positive thing. Means we’re doing something right!