Flyball,  Mollie,  Rio

April Showers

Nothing but rain at the moment. I wanted to take the dogs out to Digley for a good walk today but I can’t face getting soaked yet again, so they’re having to make do with a chew instead.

Despite the weather, flyball training was relatively mud-free! Dylan was excellent, I’ve been making an effort to get the stride regulator in for him and it makes such a difference. We did some head-to-head singles which I love, we need to do it more often! It makes Dylan and I work harder, but also allows us to work on individual training issues as well. Not only that, but for Dyl it’s a good way to build his confidence with certain dogs; he was running against Norah, who he finds unpredicatable and scary. Because she was racing in the other lane, there was a comfortable space between them which gave Dylan some confidence, but also let us work on his tolerance for her being around, especially in the runback. His turns were excellent anyway, loads of rotation and better paw placement (his hind paws hitting higher than his front, which is always good to see!)

Kimmy is down for one race at Drax, so she came out to play too. She ran last with loose changeovers, just to get her used to running back with the team (and the team running with her!). No problems, since it’s Kim and she can do this without me, but she struggled on getting home. Stiff hips, and it does break my heart to see her hobbling, but thankfully it’s quite mild and restricted to the first minute after she gets up from a nap. She’s getting dosed up on Yumove for the week leading up to Drax anyway, and hopefully that will allow her to enjoy her brief return to the ring without a problem.

Mollie was rolling, as ever, and Rio did a few recalls off the box. She’s responding to her “ready set go” command now, and we set her on a “loaded” box for the last one, so it triggered as she pushed off. Not that she was bothered … I really need to get on and borrow a chute to start her box training over the summer, I’m not interested in getting her into Starters at 12 months (that sounds crazy to me, to be honest), but if I don’t get on with it now, she won’t be ready until she’s 5.