Comments on: Flyball Training – Lesson 5 http://www.flyballblog.com/lesson-5/ i-Flyball Thu, 08 Dec 2011 13:35:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: eli http://www.flyballblog.com/lesson-5/comment-page-1/#comment-239 eli Wed, 22 Aug 2007 17:33:44 +0000 http://www.flyballblog.com/lesson-4-2/#comment-239 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. 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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