A Flaming Speedball and a House Guest

"I had a friend was a big baseball player
Back in high school
He could throw that speedball by you
Make you look like a fool boy"

Yes, but was it a FLAMING speedball? Day 2 and the new name seems to still be working. We had a nice (but short) session of practice. First up was running the board in prep for running contacts. People and dogs hoping to win National Championships and make the World Team need running contacts to be competitive. Other people have other reasons. My reason is without running contacts, FSB's time won't be very good. This will help keep our speed up. I might not be able to train them correctly or I might give up because since she is a bigger dog, her stride is long and even without jumping, it is still easy to miss the yellow. But either way, it gives me something to train.

Yesterday I used a bowl with food and she slowed down as she approached the bowl. Today I used a large ball and she zoomed (for her) all the way to it.

Then we wrapped a jump (with no bar on the jump) and did a tunnel and she had nice speed and I rewarded with the ball and she chased it in a quick manner. Good FSB!

Then we were done for today's training.

We have a houseguest- Gracie. Gracie is visiting while her owners are on a cruise. My current guess is she is an Australian Cattle Dog, German Shorthaired Pointer (that is where the coloring comes from) mix. She is a strange dog, no doubt about it. The only time she shows any happiness is when she is going back inside after being outside.



She must have been warm today because she moved her blankie out of the way. Gracie likes to stay in her crate. In the picture the door is closed so my dogs do not try to eat her kibble that she has not eaten yet. Now she is coming out of the kennel on her own and her preferred spot is under my computer desk.

It seems I should add "Cameras and/ or picture taking" to the list of "Things Gracie Does Not Like." Cameras and picture taking will follow the only other item on the list- "Everything."

She was outside during FSB's training and was so happy to come in I was going to take a picture. But as I went to get the camera, Dottie (er- Flaming Speedball) must have interfered with her happiness in some way and Gracie attacked the Speedball. No damage except FSB was sad when I yelled at Gracie to stop the attack. Everyone else has had words with FSB at one time or another, so Gracie is just trying to fit in, no doubt.

After SPB practice was over I took Pie for her 1/2 hour bike ride then came back and added FSB and Fancy. We then went out for another 15-20 mins. Usually it is 15, but we went a bit further today and it might have been closer to 20.

The plan for the rest of the night is to finish the laundry and finish reading, "Ender in Exhile" the last book of the Ender series. When I say last, I do not mean it was the last to be written or that it closes the series. It is just the only one I have not read yet. The author has several story lines with different characters who can almost time travel since near lightspeed travel keeps them young while others age. So the different story lines are interacting more in this book than the others. The copyright is 2008, so I think it might be the most current story. I hope the author writes more! After finishing the book I will think dark thoughts about working this weekend, especially because we are having a PT test, and even though we only run 1.5 miles and I can and have been doing 2, I prefer a slow pace. A slow pace at a longer distance does not mean you can do a faster pace over a short distance, I have found. Therefore, I do not expect the test to go well. Finally, after thinking dark thoughts about working over the weekend, I will cheer myself with thoughts about taking Monday off. Too bad I'm using some of that time to take Pie to the vet. (She is loosing hair.)