Flyball Training - Lesson 4

Your dog should be comfortable and completing all lesson 3 steps before proceeding to this lesson.

Chute Training (continued)

1. Continue using the “hit it” command when sending your dog to the chute. You should be well aware of which way your dog is turning at this point and you should now move the ball position to the proper side of the chute. Over a series of short training sessions, you should start to move the ball lower on the chute. You will know when to move to step 2 (below) when your dog is parallel on the chute or is having problems staying on the chute i.e. almost going over the top. If you see your dog having problems staying on the chute, and want to spend more time in this step, go ahead and adjust the chute to the next highest level and continue until you think your dog is ready to move on.

2. Your dog should now know the “hit it” command if you have been diligent in your training in the previous step. In this step, you will want your dog to hit the chute without the ball on it. Raise the chute to its highest position and start sending your dog to the chute with the command ‘hit it.” Make sure that the small chute jump or regular Flyball jump is in front of the chute. Pull the dog off the chute using your motivator in a very fast fluid motion. This exercise should be repeated many, many times over a series of short training sessions. You cannot do this too many times. This is a very important step on the road to a good swimmers turn. Make sure the dog is launching straight off the chute and not the side. If you notice the dog coming off too wide, place gating or another barrier material on the side of the chute to insure a tight turn.

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.

Building Speed over Jumps

Requirements: For this exercise, you need 2 dog holders, a solid fast experienced Flyball dog and handler, and the dog you are training and handler.

Setup: Set up one lane with baby gates on each side of the jumps. Line two dog holders and dogs up behind one set of 4 jumps with the experienced dog in front of the one being trained. The handlers need to be in position at the end of the Flyball lane.

Exercise: Recall the dogs over the jumps releasing them one after the other so that the dog being trained is no more than a jump behind of the other dog. This exercise takes advantage of the dog’s natural urge to chase. Each handler needs to call their dog to them using each dog’s motivator.

Problems: If the training dog does not break off to its own handler, a 5^th person may be needed to assist the handler. Continue this exercise until the dog returns to the handler.

Running Dogs in the other Lane

Requirements: For this exercise you need 2 dog holders, a solid fast experienced Flyball dog and handler, and the dog you are training and handler

Setup: Line the two dog holders and dogs behind two sets of jumps with baby gates between the jumps - one dog and handler for each set of jumps.

Exercise: Recall the dogs over the jumps releasing them at different times. Try releasing the experienced dog first then the training dog and vise versa.

Problems: If the training dog jumps out of the lane, i.e. goes around the jumps or tries to jump the gating, move the lanes closer together. You can also station people between the lanes to stop the dog from crossing. Continue this exercise until the training dog stays in its own lane.

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.

Related Post: