Entries from August 2007 ↓

I promised to write an article about starting your dog against the U-FLI lights when I wrote about the NAFA lighting system. It had been a while since I had raced against the U-FLI lights and I didn’t trust my memory to give an accurate description of the lighting system. So, this past weekend we had the opportunity to play in a U-FLI tourney and I think I can give everyone a little insight.

On Saturday morning I wasn’t doing too well. My starts were all over the map, so to speak. I was watching for the blue light, but my brain wasn’t quite engaged enough before the first yellow would come on. Late! Watching again for the blue light, brain anticipating, early! What is the matter with me? About an hour into the afternoon it dawned on me. There are three little green dots at the bottom of the light tree. When the judge starts the race, the three lights go out! Blue light comes on. Yellow light comes on. Release! There it was all along. My Ready, Set, Go was there all along and I just didn’t notice those three little lights before.

So, as with the NAFA lights all you need to get a great start is to set your cadence. Little green dots go out, Ready! Blue light comes on, Set! First yellow light comes on, Go! By now you already know how to find the right spot on the floor so I won’t go into all of that again. If you missed it you can look back at my previous post of “Great Starts” to find out where to be on the floor. A great start is easy to get once you know what to look for.

Have fun everyone! I’m still trying to get those perfect .000 starts.

Fay

Photo by Willie Moore, wmConsulting.

Bobbling at the box can be caused by a number of factors and some of the ball catching exercises may help with bobble problem. However, many times it is because the dog is not in the correct position to catch the ball. “Ideally, you want the dog’s front feet and shoulders over the ball when they catch. If they are too far to either side of the ball, the body has to adjust by using the box as a walk way to get to the ball.” Sonya, Sure Shots.

I have found that most of the time, if you have used the Flyball Training Manual to train your dog, you will not have a problem with this. However, if your dog is having problems being in the correct position on the box, one way to correct this is with target training.

Target Training

You can use a piece of duct tape for this or anything that will stick to the floor, chute, and box. You will need to start by training your dog to touch the target (i.e. tape). If you are familiar with Clicker training you should not have a problem with this. Once they are consistently touching or jumping on the target you will need to transfer the target to the chute and/or box. You can follow the training in the Flyball Training Manual for Lessons 4 and 5 for chute and box training. In place of the hit-it command, you should use the command “touch” or whatever command you used when training the dog to touch the target.

A Word About Retraining

If you are retraining a dog that has been playing for some time, this could be a long process. I am sure that you have heard of dog muscle memory. This is something that is rather hard to overcome. Just think of retraining in this context, if the dog has hit a flyball box 1000 times you will need to have him hit it 2000 times correctly to change his turn. This means that you will need to pull the dog from all tournaments and just work on him hitting the box the correct way. For dogs that have been playing for some time, it may not be possible to correct the dog’s turn. You may improve it but may not ever correct it completely.

I welcome your input and any other suggestions that you have for correcting ball bobbling and box problems.

Larry

Some dogs never learn or have problems catching a ball and there are exercises that you can do to help.

• Two ball catch game – Get down on the floor with the dog, just you and the dog, and have two balls and play catch. You will want to be just a couple feet away from him and toss the ball to him under handed. Just have him catch one and tell him to drop it and toss the next. Start to build speed by tossing them faster. He should start getting the hang of dropping the first ball and catching the second. This exercise is meant to improve the dog’s catching ability and may lessen bobbles at the box.

• Watch me catch game – This is something that is done in obedience but can be helpful to improve the dog’s catching ability and focus. Have the dog sit in front of you and have his favorite treat in your hand. Make sure the dog sees the treat by luring him with it to a couple feet over his head and then drop the treat. Do this until the dog consistently catches the treat.

• Outside ball catch game – Just like with the two ball catch game, have two balls but you want to throw the ball in the air and have the dog catch it. Just throw the ball 5 or 6 feet over the dog’s head and have him catch it. This will help with focus and ball drive.

The next set of games is meant to build stamina, drive, and ball to tug transition. The first game is something that you can play without help from anyone, so it is good when it’s just you and your dog.

• Hold the dog the way you would when starting a race. You may need to alter this some because you will need a free hand to throw the ball. Have your motivator ready and the dog in the correct position and throw the ball as far as you can. If you are unable to throw the ball very far from this position a good tool that I use is a Chuck-it. Once the ball is thrown and has stopped rolling, send the dog to retrieve it. Just before the dog arrives at the ball, yell his name and start running away from him. Make sure the dog brings the ball all the way back before releasing it for the motivator. If the dog drops the ball too soon, put the motivator away and use the ball as a motivator and tug on the ball. Go back to the motivator when the dog understands that he needs to bring the ball all the way back to you.

This next exercise will require two handlers and dogs.

• Follow the instructions as in the previous exercise. The only difference is the addition of a second dog and handler. Each handler will hold his or her dog sending one dog first and as the first dog returns, the second handler will throw a ball for the second dog. The second handler may need to adjust the timing of the ball throw depending on how well the dogs pass each other. Just as in the previous exercise, dogs should return with their ball and release the ball for the motivator. This exercise is meant to help with passing.

I welcome your input and any other games that can be used to help dogs catch the ball.

Larry