At the tournament, I was completely surprised by his increased speed. I felt like he had simply cranked it up a notch, for no apparent reason. But in calmer moments after the tournament, I realized that I shouldn't have been surprised at all. There were some very specific things that contributed to his running like a bat out of hell to the box, and then returning to me, all pants-o-fire:- I ran him without a harness. I first tested this in Abbotsford in December. On day 1 of the tournament, I ran him with his harness. But after hearing about a former teammate's dog running 4 seconds that day, I asked what she'd done to improve her dog's times. Among other things, she'd starting running her w/o a harness. On day 2 of the tourney, I tried that, and Wyatt's times were as good that day as they'd been on day 1 (and usually he slows down on day 2, understandably.) I made a mental note to run him w/o a harness at our next tourney...which I did, with very happy results! Some dogs need to run in a harness--they're hard to control or hold onto, they pull on their collars and choke themselves, etc. But Wyatt is perfectly fine w/no harness, so from now on at tournaments, it's off!
- I had cranked up his conditioning. Again, this was something I'd implemented so many months ago, that I'd actually forgotten about it. But I had noticed that in our evening game of frisbee, Wyatt was more often than not getting out ahead of my throw, with enough time to turn and face me to catch the disk. I changed the timing of my throws so that he has to really haul a$$ to catch it--which has apparently improved his acceleration and his endurance. Yippy!
- We were running against faster dogs. Our team was running in Division 2, but we ended up racing Division 1 teams quite a bit. Mr. Competitive, Wyatt loves to race the dog in the other lane. And he ran as start dog for the entire tournament, so each time, he could clearly see his competitor in the other lane...and in that situation, Wy-Wy will do whatever he can to beat the other dog to the box.
- I found a better toy. I've been working constantly, since we started competing in tournaments, to find a reward toy that Wyatt is crazy for. I keep tweaking it, knowing what he likes and doesn't like, and each time I get a little closer to Wyatt's perfect reward. It's an important thing in Flyball, since you have to find something they like better than the tennis ball, but not so much that they completely lose their minds over what you have, to the point where it ruins their performance. A fellow teammate found a way to secure a Cuz dog toy to a tug, by squeezing the Cuz into a Hol-ee Roller, then tying a fleece tug onto the Hol-ee Roller. He LOVES it!
All that, plus his box turn, made him a pretty formidable opponent. It was so much fun! But believe me, I know how temporary and precious this time is...he's in his prime now, and he loves this game. That won't last, so I am feeling beyond grateful to be able to play like this now.
