[doggies4life04]

This may sound dumb, but what helped me was right-clicking the flash window and making sure the memory being stored onto my computer was at max.

I went through a few months where the game was unplayable even with the standalone.
It wasn't my computer either, but I think the way it was processing the data. Internet connection was solid.

Another thing to try is making your internet browser higher priority on your task list.