You should not proceed to this lesson until lesson 4 is complete. Your dog should know the command “hit it” and be comfortable going over the jumps. In this lesson, we will be putting it all together.
Chute to Flyball Box Transition
Start this exercise with no jumps and no ball. The handler should stand slightly in front and just off to one side of the box. Facing the box, if the dog naturally turns right off the chute, the handler should be on the right side of the box. If the dog turns left, the handler should be on the left side of the box. With a small jump in front of the box, send the dog with the command “hit it” to the box. As the dog comes off the box the handler should use the motivator to pull the dog off the box in a very fast fluid motion. This exercise should be repeated many, many times over a series of short training sessions.
With some dogs, the transition from the chute to the box can be very difficult. You may need to switch back and forth from chute to box a few times. The dog may start reaching for the ball or not jumping on the box so you may also need to add a couple jumps in front of the box or other obstacles to lengthen the distance to the box. Whatever you do, do not give up on this. With the last dog I just trained, it took me over a week with many short sessions for this transition. With other dogs that I have trained, the transition to the box was not a problem but each dog is different.
As the dog progresses, you can start placing a ball in the box but only after you see that the dog is comfortable and coming off the box in one single fluid motion. The faster the dog comes off the box the better. After you add the ball, you will probably notice that for the first dozen times or more the dog will have a hard time catching the ball. Do not stop rewarding the dog for its efforts. Even if the dog does not catch the ball, continue using your motivator as a reward for failed attempts - this is very important. However, if you see that the dog is not attempting to catch the ball, back up your training and go back to the chute and ball then repeat this process until the dog can catch the ball from the box.
During practice sessions, you should always have a jump in front of the box. You can test the dog from time to time without the jump but as a rule, you should always practice with the jump.
Adding Jumps
Continue to use baby gates as in previous lessons. Start with 1 jump closest to the box and send the dog with the “hit it” command to the box. Insure the dog comes back with the ball over the jump to you and reward your dog with the motivator. Continue doing this adding more gating and jumps until the dog is completing the complete series of jumps. Take as much time as needed to complete this training. If the dog fails at any point in the training, back up a step and repeat until solid.
Before proceeding to the next lesson, be sure that the dog is retrieving the ball, can maintain the swimmers turn with nothing in front of the box, and can jump all of the jumps. The dog will slowly build speed off the box as they become comfortable catching the ball.
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 work for me. If you have others that you would like to share, please post your comments.
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I am finding that you and I see eye to eye on many aspects of “learning” flyball (dogs and handler).
I have not trained many dogs; I have worked with two for the past 18 mo, and recently added a third. I have been “into” flyball that long. Trained with a club for a year.
I found the plans for the chute you use about a year ago and built two and things really picked up. The chute works well in all phases of training. Most chutes I see have corners sticking up and have sides and the dogs are uncomfortable getting up into the confined space. This seems detrimental to learning the free flow of a quick turn. I also see trainers place a cone or similar obstacle in the center of the pedal area, as though the dog naturally understands that he now barrel racing!
A training session for honing boxwork goes like this for me:
chute set at highest angle and staked down, low hurdle (no tall sides or “fence”, just a low jump bar) for the front of the chute, hurdle 15 feet in front of the box, and a flyball box.
Send the dog over the hurdle to the chute and back 3 times (”Hit It”).
Send the dog over the hurdle to the chute and ball and back 3 times (”Bring It”).
Send the dog over the hurdle to the flyball box and ball and back three times (”Bring It”).
Our dogs love this game, the chute seems to give them the confidence to turn with abandon and develops/maintains muscle memory. I have never set an aid such as white tape or a hurdle in front of the flyball box itself. Transferring from chute to flyball box in the same session seems to do the trick. The harder they drive back to the handler, the faster and tighter their turns get. (Read: …drive back to the handler(chase).) And I am not as obsessed as some with “perfecting” the box turn. I get all four feet on the pedal in a smooth flow with out unbalanced movement. Safe, quick, repeatable.
My ACD really gets into it…I had him on heel in an obedience class one evening, and as I approached the wall at the end of the training area I turned around with maybe three feet to spare. He was on the outside of the turn and, you guessed it, he popped a swimmer’s turn off the wall with out falling, twice! Because he could.
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