Entries from July 2007 ↓

I guess I stirred up the nest with some of my posts and now others are saying the sport of flyball is conflicted based on my articles. I realize that there are still very strong feelings on both sides of the NAFA and U-FLI debate. Its human nature to feel some allegiance to one over the other at this point in time since one is so new and the other was the first. However, I didn’t write my articles to choose sides, I wanted to point out where I saw problems.

I see a problem with measuring in NAFA so I wrote about it - nothing more, nothing less. Do I wish that NAFA would change their measuring method? Darn right I do. Measuring has been talked about for well over 3 years and nothing has been done to change it except create more rules. Would I like to see everyone measuring their dogs? Yes, but not until NAFA changes its measuring method. Not to say or accuse anyone of cheating, but having every dog measured would be much fairer in the long run and would level the playing field; U-FLI has found a way to do it. Is U-FLI’s method foolproof, probably not, but in my view its better than what NAFA is currently doing. Do I want to see both organizations succeed? Yes, it gives me more options.

I read an anonymous comment on another blog that said “I hate the fact that people that play NAFA think they are better than someone who plays UFLI.” I have to agree with this comment, but I have not witnessed this. I’m not saying it didn’t happen and I’m not discounting it; I’m just saying that I personally have not seen it. I live in the South and when U-FLI opened for business I think that most people gave it a try. I know I did. I now play flyball in both organizations and I think it would be hypocritical for me or anyone else to speak about one organization or the other without first experiencing each one first hand. I like to play flyball and if there is a tournament close by and I don’t have to travel too far I’m all for it. Do I prefer one over the other? That is a hard question, but if there are two tournaments in the same month and one is NAFA and the other is U-FLI I will probably choose NAFA, but only because most of my dogs points are with NAFA. However, I have to give one caveat to the last answer, if I have friends coming to the tournament from another area and they are coming to a U-FLI tournament I’ll probably go to the U-FLI since they offer pickup teams.

I have tried to clear up any conflict that people may feel that I have. I have answered honestly and there should be no question where I stand. I wish more people would do the same.

Larry

Before moving on to this lesson be sure that the dog is ready. Is your dog excited when they see the motivator? This is a good indication that they are ready to start this lesson. In this lesson you will play different games designed to increase the dog’s drive to you.

Games

The following games are meant to be played in succession but it’s not that critical. The Sure Shot Flyball Blog has other games and exercises that you can play with your puppy that you may want to check out. I have found that it is also a good idea to have other dogs present during some of these exercises since I have found that some Border collies with strong herding instincts, mine included, have problems working when other dogs are present. I worked my dog mostly alone and ended up with other issues that I am still trying to work out. I have found a good game to the help this and I have included it here (see game 7).

1. To increase drive and coordination, play chase games with your dog. Run away from them and then change directions and run the other way. Let them catch you and then play with them with your hands or motivator. Let them win by giving them the motivator for a few seconds.

2. Restrained recalls: Have someone hold your dog and then start running away from them calling their name. The person holding your dog should release them when you are about 20 feet away. When they catch you, play with them with the motivator. If they miss the motivator turn and run that other way until they catch you. Get excited and make a big deal of it. Let them win by giving them the motivator for a few seconds.

3. In order to prepare your dog for passing you always want to keep your motivator in your left hand. Your dog should catch you early on your left side when beginning to play this game. If the dog comes around on the right they were probably released too late or you are too far away from them when they were released. When they catch you, play with them with the motivator and then use it to return them to the holder for another run. Once your dog always catches you from the left side, have the handler start releasing them when you are further away from them.

4. Ball work: Now that your dog loves their motivator it’s time for them to start loving a ball as well. Put your motivator away. Repeat game 1 of this lesson using a ball in place of the motivator. Roll the ball away from you and have them go after it. When they are bringing the ball back to you, run away and make sure they continue to hold it. When they catch you, play tug with the ball in their mouth. If your dog doesn’t like balls you will have to build love of the ball. Look back at Lesson 1 and in place of the motivator in that lesson use the ball. Do not move on to the next game until your dog is driving back to you with the ball. The dog is solid when you cannot pull the ball out of their mouth.

For young puppies it’s a good idea to work motivator and ball games during puppyhood.

5. You are now ready for ball to motivator transition. You should now have a dog that loves their motivator and ball. Continue to play as in the previous game. Now, however, when the dog catches you, instead of tugging with the ball in the dog’s mouth, use your motivator as a reward. When running away from them don’t show them the motivator too soon. Hide it under your arm until they catch you. You should not move on to the next game until your dog is consistently bringing the ball back to you and taking the motivator as a reward.

6. This is a continuation of game 5 but now you want to increase the distance of the ball. Start by holding your dog like you would if you were starting them during a race and then throw the ball away from you and have your dog go after it. Wait a second or two until the ball stops rolling before sending them. When they are bringing the ball back to you, run away and when they catch you play with them with the motivator. Make a big deal of it. Get excited. This is one of the most important games to play with your dog because this game will build drive back to you with a ball.

7. This is a good game that is very similar to game 6 above but you play it using a second dog and handler. The first handler throws a ball out and as the first dog is returning with the ball the second handler throws a ball for the second dog. This is a great game for dogs that are a little too focused on other dogs.

Determine Natural Turn

Before starting this next step the handler should determine the natural turn of the dog. Over several sessions, throw a ball and send the dog and take note of which way the dog turns. I have found that it is good to be in an open area so that the dog has nothing on either side of them to hinder or force their turn one way or the other.

Chute Training

There are many different thoughts on using a training chute. Some trainers start with a box with a jump or other prop in front of the box. I prefer the chute because I have found with larger dogs it is easier to get them used to having their back feet on something. The idea of this is to get the whole dog on chute. If your dog cannot get all of their feet on the chute then the chute is too small or the dog is a very large breed and this may not be possible. If it’s the former try getting a larger chute.

You can find plans to build your own adjustable chute on the i-flyball.com website.

If you were unable to determine the natural turn of the dog in the previous step you may have to start chute training with the ball placed in the center of the chute. Make sure there are no obstacles on either side or in front of the chute. Over several sessions take note of which way the dog turns. After you are confident of the natural turn of the dog, place the ball on the correct side of the chute and/or box for all subsequent lessons.

When first starting chute training, the chute should be set to its lowest level if you are using an adjustable chute. Have the dog retrieve the ball from the chute with the ball in the proper position. Have the ball far enough on the chute so that all four of the dog’s paws are on the chute. A small chute jump or flyball jump should be placed in front of the chute to insure the dog is jumping on to it. Get excited when the dog retrieves the ball and use your motivator as a reward. This is also a good way to work on the ball to motivator transition. However, if it looks like the dog is dropping the ball too soon, put your motivator away and use the ball as a tug as in the previous games. Do this for a few sessions and then go back to the motivator as a reward.

If the dog is making too wide of a turn or coming off the side of the chute, you will need to put a barrier on the side to get a tighter turn and to stop the dog from bailing off the side.

Note: Use self adhesive Velcro for the ball positions on the chute. For a chute supply list and photos see links on the Flyball Training Manual page.

Additional Information

As a side note, never call your dog to you and do something to them that you know they don’t like. The best way to approach this is to physically go and get your dog. Don’t say anything to them just go get them. Any time that you call them to you, you always want it to be a positive experience for them.

Training Manual Information

This is a series of articles that I will post about Flyball training. I would ask that you please try to keep your comments to the specific topic of the each article, for there will be many others. You can see a high level outline of the topic to be covered in future post by viewing the Training Manual. Keeping the comments specific to each article will help future readers.

Please keep in mind that there are numerous methods in use but these are the ones that I use and they are some that work for me. If you have others that you would like to share, please post your comments.

I just want to thank everyone for your private and public comments about this forum. My first post was on June 1, 2007 and the blog has matured since then when I moved it from the Google blogger site to a dedicated server running WordPress.

I thought about creating a flyball blog a few months ago and I searched for other authors. For diversity sake, I wanted people with differing viewpoints because I didn’t want to dominate every discussion from my point of view. I guess my plan has somewhat failed in that regard since it looks like I’m out here all alone. However, I have been able to continue posting by feeding on your comments to create other posts, so keep writing and I’ll try to keep posting.

Thank you all for your continued support.

Larry

In many places, one being where I live, flyball is a four letter word. What does that mean you say? It means that the majority of dog people, obedience and agility, think that flyball is a bad thing. I have been battling this for the last 7 years and it hasn’t gotten any better. I think it mostly stems from a few people but when those few people are the only ones in the area that offer agility training their voices are pretty loud.

Before we even knew about flyball, my wife and I were members of an obedience club in Montgomery, AL. At the time it was the only place in the city that even offered obedience training. It is still rather well known throughout the city as the place for dog obedience and agility training. Even to this day, they are very old school, but I think now they are using clicker in their agility classes. When I started in puppy classes with my first Border collie, Casey, I used a clicker to train him at home and pretty much ignored the training material that I received in class. I told the instructor what I was doing and she pretty much thought that I was crazy (this was 1999). I was really only taking the class for one purpose, socialization. Casey and I went through Puppy, Beginner, and Novice 1 obedience classes with the club.

About same time, my wife, Fay, and her Labrador retriever, Paige, were in Novice 2 obedience and beginner agility training. In this club, your dog had to advance through Novice 1 to be enrolled in agility. Paige was never very fond of agility and really did it because Fay wanted her to. Being a young Lab and full of energy, she really needed something else to siphon some of her energy. One morning while watching Animal Planet, Fay saw flyball and as they say, the rest is history. Since there were no flyball teams in Montgomery, we had to travel to Birmingham which was about 100 miles from our home. After our dogs were playing for a while, we wanted our own team in Montgomery so we wouldn’t need to travel so far. There were 3 of us, me, Fay and Julia Markham. Julia was also a member of the obedience club.

The 3 of us went to the membership of the club and told them that we would like to put together a flyball team and asked for their help. Well, you would have thought that the world was coming to an end. There was a lot of resistance to it to say the least. After all, the club was an AKC obedience and agility club. There would be no help from the club and flyball became a bad word for most of the members. However, we were able to get the word out about our endeavor and a few people from the club were interested and wanted to try it out. Word got back to the club that some agility people were looking at flyball and all of sudden everyone quit.

A few other attempts were made but those also failed, and up until last month we were still running with people from Birmingham. It has been very frustrating getting so close and then failing. However, we are not giving up and will make one more valiant attempt. We know that there are now others, besides the club, teaching obedience in places like Pet Supplies Plus, PETCO, and PetSmart. We will again be putting flyers out in stores and Veterinary clinics and we will be meeting at Pet Supplies Plus for practice and recruiting sessions. However, the club still has a firm hold on all agility in the area, but maybe we will succeed this time. If anyone has suggestions I would love to hear them.

What is it with AKC clubs and their fear for anything associated with other organizations? Has anyone experienced this same problem?

Larry

So let’s get started. In this lesson we will start to lay the foundation that was talked about in the previous post (Laying a good Foundation). Please note that you should not move on to other lessons until you are confident your dog is performing the exercises in this lesson and giving you that 110%. There is no time limit for this lesson and it will take as long as it takes. It really depends on you and how you interact with your dog. You should know when your dog is ready to move to the next lesson.

A good motivator is made not found

A tug or Frisbee is the preferred motivator, but whatever you pick you should stay with. Play with your dog daily with it and make it a fun game for him. Much of this is teaching the dog that it is fun to play with you and the motivator. This will help the dog’s focus and keep him on task. If the dog is focused on you and the motivator he will be less likely to get in trouble.

When starting with a new motivator, a good game to play is the keep away game. You can start this game being excited about the motivator. Hold the motivator high enough so the dog can’t get it or run around with it because the dog will almost always want what they can’t have. Show your dog how much fun the motivator is. If you are starting with a puppy you may have to start having him follow your hand or food and slowly work toward transitioning to the motivator. Tugging is a natural behavior for most dogs so this should not be a problem.

Play Time

Sometimes the dog may not want to play and this is okay. If this is the case put your motivator up and don’t play. Your dog must want to play rather than being aggravated to play. Only play with the dog when the dog is giving 110%. At the first sign of fatigue or disinterest the play should end.

Keep your motivator out of sight when you are not playing with your dog. As soon as your dog sees the motivator they should react and know that this is play time. This is a good indicator that the dog is ready to move on to the next lesson.

Keep your play sessions short. I cannot stress this enough. Longer sessions are not better. Keeping your play sessions short insures that the energy level of the dog will be high. A dog that just woke from a nap may not be ready to play. If you normally feed at a certain time the best time to play may be right before feeding time.

Try to always end your play sessions with the dog wanting more.

The Way You Feel

If you are feeling depressed or stressed don’t start a play session. If you get stressed or upset during the play session, try to end on a happy note and quit the play session. It is just as important for you to be at 110% as it is for the dog.

Training Manual Information

This is a series of articles that I will post about Flyball training. I would ask that you please try to keep your comments to the specific topic of the each article, for there will be many others. You can see a high level outline of the topic to be covered in future post by viewing the Training Manual. Keeping the comments specific to each article will help future readers.

Please keep in mind that there are numerous methods in use but these are the ones that I use and they are some that work for me. If you have others that you would like to share, please post your comments.