The most important thing in flyball training is laying a good foundation from which to build upon. Just as with building a house, this process should not be rushed because everything that comes after will use this foundation.
Many people just entering the sport want to see results too fast and when they don’t see them they get discouraged and quit. A 6 or 8 week flyball course is not enough time to have most dogs trained and running in the ring as most new people expect. Six to 8 weeks may not even be enough time to achieve a good solid foundation and this is where many trainers fail.
Training Pitfalls
New people entering the sport by taking a flyball training class should be prepared for slow results. Like agility or obedience, mastering flyball may take several classes before a dog is ready to race. There is really no point in wasting your time and theirs if they want instant results. The new people seeing this sport for the first time only see dogs running, jumping, and retrieving a tennis balls. They will tell you that their dog loves tennis balls. Any good trainer will tell their new people that it takes time and they should not rush these newcomers just so they can get new people and dogs in the ring. Trainers do their trainees and their dogs a disservice by taking this approach.
Best Approach
Take as long as it takes to train the dog to be the best they can be. Getting the dog in the ring as soon as possible is not listed as one of the training goals in the previous chapters. Use the lessons in this manual and do not bypass any of them especially the first two. They are by far the most important and ones that are frequently missed by many flyball trainers.
Motivation
Developing a good motivator for your dog is one of the most important things you can do for your dog. The traits most often displayed by the truly exceptional flyball dogs are motivation and drive. Their owners and handlers, through positive training and motivation techniques, have been able to tap into them and bring out the best and that desire to please and to give 110%. You have the power to do the same thing with your dog.
Obedience Training
Much of the things you were taught in obedience training you don’t use when training a flyball dog. Flyball training is not obedience training and some things taught in obedience training have no place in flyball training. Discard all negative training techniques and only use positive motivation. Granted, some breeds required a more forceful approach at different times, but as a general rule the positive approach will produce the best results in the long run.
Retraining
Avoid retraining at all cost and train right the first time. I know that mistakes can and will be made but don’t let bad training or unwanted behavior continue. At the first sign of unwanted behavior, backup and redouble your efforts to remove it before moving on.
Retraining is much harder than training right the first time. Dogs are creatures of habit and training out bad or unwanted behavior is much harder than training in good ones from the start. A very good example is letting a dog hit a flyball box before a proper box turn is taught. It is very difficult to retrain a good box turn after the dog has found his own way and most owners will realize this when it’s too late
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.
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8 comments ↓
Excellent! I am thourghly enjoying this site. I especially appreciate how dedicated you are to training correctly from the get go.
Thanks,
Jackie
I too, am really enjoying the articles and am encouraging other club members to read them. I do have to take exception to your comments, Larry, on obedience training. Maybe you’re remembering the old days of obedience where we learned to do a lot of jerking and corrections. Thankfully, many, if not most trainers nowdays are using more positive methods. I don’t skimp on the obedience training with my girls and they have drive to die for with flyball. I think a good recall is especially important. Granted you don’t need good heeling or good stays, but I DO need those for everyday life around my house and for general good manners when out in public, but I think as long as you are training with reward-based methods, you’re only doing you and your dog a favor. Just my 2 cents.
Beth
Thanks for the comment Beth. Yes I probably should have worded that differently, however, there are still some that don’t use positive training methods and I can think of couple just in my area. When I wrote that I was thinking of a quote that I heard from Angie Heighton (Spring Loaded) when she said, “Everything that you were taught in obedience training you throw away when training a Flyball dog, you should always let them win with their tug.”
Yes, I agree that all dogs should have some basic obedience skills and it helps if they have worked around other dogs.
Oh, I know what you mean. Most of the folks I am involved with do various dog sports and we do things that used to be no-no’s like tugging, but I’m seeing more and more motivational training, even with competitive obedience trainers. Thank goodness that things are changing for the better!
Just a box training question and I’m sure there’s different schools of thought on this. . . Do you think a dog should be introduced to props at the box from the start? The group I took lessons with lets the dogs get familiar with the box and doesn’t start using props until after they are pretty much trained. The probelm my dog and I have with this is now we are basically retraining to get a turn and it’s not going well. I think if she had never hit a box w/o props we wouldn’t have this problem, but since this is my first dog in flyball . . I don’t really have any experience to back up that belief.
Do you think a dog should be introduced to props at the box from the start?
I do and I will go into much greater detail in later lessons. I will never let any of my new dogs hit a box without proper training. The problem that you are experiencing now could have been prevented.
Back to the “old school” obediance. It is still very active. I took puppy Soc. classes with the local dog training club in Springfield, MO, since I live in the country, my dogs don’t really get that much interaction. I was SHOCKED when the trainers put a pinch collar on a 6 month old exubrant lab puppy. Now, I will use a pinch, when necessary (and have not had to for years and years), but, on a puppy - no way. Nothing clicker training would not have helped with. This club btw - does not want anything to do with flyball. They do alot of agiity - not to the standard I am used to, but aside. Flyball is loud and obnoxious to them.
As for props in box training ALWAYS - never take the prop away until you are at your first tourney. You can start training puppies the props but teaching them to jump back and forth over them - since they are so small, this will not put any stress on little joints.
I just started training obedience and flyball. And although the old style of obedience was correction based, there is no place for it with my trainer and I. I use only positives and, amazingly enough, obedience is fun for me for the first time ever.
Also, yes wanting to compete too soon is bad bad. I know this from agility. Putting the dog in the ring FAST is not good at all! Take the time to train right the first time.
Now where is the article on how to train a brand new dog on the box…
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