Entries from July 2007 ↓

Have you seen the latest Height Card Challenge Rule and Forms from NAFA? What a bureaucratic nightmare. Three complete pages and two forms all talking about Height Cards and Challenging, why am I not surprised by this? Because that’s what happens when you have a questionable or subjective rule – you leave yourself open for it and you need more rules to regulate it. Just read my other post about measuring and why the NAFA method is antiquated or maybe a better word to describe it, obsolete.

They have created this whole bureaucracy for an obsolete measuring method. The built in animosity factor for this has to be off the charts, and all of this for a dog sport that is supposed to be “FUN.” It says in Section 7.1 (d), “A height card is not subject to challenge except as provided below:” and then it goes into 5 long sub-paragraphs of how it can be challenged.

When you look at the challenge review process, it gets even better; six paragraphs and multiple sub-paragraphs covering a page and a half. The owner of the dog being challenged has x number of days to respond to the challenge and has to submit a video containing a judge measuring the dog. The funniest part of the video requirements is that the judge measuring the dog has to list the height to the nearest 1/16 of an inch. After the committee receives the video, there is a whole other process that covers actions by the Board of Directors, the Executive Director, and Judge’s Committee. All for one height card that may not be worth the paper it’s printed on or reprinted on whatever the case may be.

If you had a Club Owner from a competing team that didn’t like you and they had a $100 (cost of a challenge) they could make your life hell at least two times a year (maximum number of times a Club Owner can make a challenge per year).

I guess the worse part about all of this is that there has to be a rule for it. Let us all pray that NAFA sees the light soon and moves to a better measuring method.

Larry

Whether you are a seasoned Flyball trainer or one just starting out, your goal should be the same, take the time to train your dog to the highest degree possible. Many people take this goal the wrong way and they think I am talking about speed. Speed is a bi-product of good training but you should be training your dog to be the best they can be. This type of training takes time and patience but it is worth it in the long run.

I have several poorly trained Flyball dogs so I am speaking from experience. When I was just starting out, my main goal was to just get the dog playing as soon as possible. I wanted to start having fun and be in the ring with my dog right away. So my first dog had no box turn and she would run full speed into the box planting her face into it. I have tried to retrain her but retraining is so much more difficult after the dog has played for some time. She loved to play the game but had to retire early because of her face planting way. She developed a cyst in her eye caused by blunt trauma and had to retire from the game she loved. So please take the time, no matter how long it takes, to train to the highest level.

Secrets of Success

• Start your sessions with a well rested and hungry dog/puppy.
• Keep sessions short and fun.
• Lay foundations and don’t take shortcuts.
• Baby steps – focus on one goal at a time.
• Be solid before moving on to the next step.
• Have fun and dog/puppy always wins.

The Three Main Goals

There are three main goals that all Flyball trainers should strive to accomplish:

The Box Turn

In my opinion this should be the most important goal for any Flyball trainer. Take the time to train your dog to do a proper box turn and don’t let them play the game until this is accomplished. It is the most important aspects of the game and one that will ensure they are playing injury free for a long time.

Conditioning

Flyball is an intensely physical sport and an overweight out of shape dog will get hurt. Before you start Flyball training with your dog make sure they are physically fit. If they are overweight, put them on a diet. If they are couch potatoes, get them off the couch. Conditioning should be something that you work on with your dog year round.

Having Fun

After all, having fun with your furry friend was probably why you wanted to play Flyball. Spend the time playing and motivating your dog. Making it fun for them is within your power. If they know that you are having fun it is very likely that they will sense this and this game will be fun for them too. No matter what type of dog you have if they are having fun they will give you 110%. Speed is also a bi-product of having fun.

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 am training my Border Collie puppy, I call him a puppy but he turned 1 year old in February, and I didn’t do enough distraction training early on and now I’m paying for it. Spike is from Wayne Butler of Hope Hull, Alabama who breeds some of the best herding dogs in the southeast. So Spike has very strong herding instincts and on top of that we have 9 other dogs that he has run with just a little too much.

Spike is very fast and has a very good recall back to a tug when it’s just the two of us and a holder. However, it is a completely different story when one of our other dogs is near. He loses his mind and it’s hard for him to take his eyes off the other dog. We now only work him with another dog present and he is starting to get better but it has taken about 2 months and he is still not completely over his obsession.

I’ve found a really good article about Distraction Work with Puppies on the Sure Shot Flyball Blog (Sure Shot Flyball blog is no longer available). For those that are training young puppies, it might be worth a look and may save you some extra work in the long run. We are following Robbie’s (Sure Shot) suggestion to do recalls past another dog and we’re a starting to see some success. We also play a ball game with him and another dog.

We hold both dogs like we would in the run back area before the start of a race and each of us, my wife and I, have a ball and our tugs. We take turns throwing the ball out as far as we can and wait for it to stop rolling. We then send the dog out to retrieve it back to a tug. As the first dog starts to run past after retrieving their ball, the next dog’s ball is thrown and the dog is released. We are really starting to see some good results with this method.

If anyone knows of other games we can play to help in this situation, please post them.

Larry