Usually, I can get about 3 good repetitions on my sighthound before he quits, looses interest, or gives into the stress and shuts down. The first night I gave him Melatonin, he came prancing in, dancing and leaping all about. He was estatic! I set him up for a quick “send to target” review. To my surprise, we worked on the target for about 10 reps. Then, because he was still thrilled and excited, I sent him over some jumps to the target. He did that about 5 times before I got the willies and called an end to the practice.

Next time out, I got in target work with and without jumps, box turns, send aways to the box, and even dead ball retrieves. When I ended, my dog was still happily wagging his tail and dancing all around. It has only gotten better since. The Melatonin seems to have allowed him to focus more on me and the training than on everything else. Since I first began training him in Flyball, I have never seen him learn and perfect things so quickly.

I didn’t know beforehand if noise really had anything to do with his fear, but after seeing the change in him, I betting the noise and echo was a big deal-breaker for him. I can’t wait to get him back in the lanes and racing again… this time while on Melatonin!

I have a collie from a hoarder… she is young, though afraid of new things. Her youth, I think, will help her. And she loves other dogs. So we go to tournaments and practice and she gets to play with lots of other friendly dogs so she knows it is a good happy place to be. I hope she will do flyball eventually, I will believe she will be fine. I also plan on doing obedience and agility with her.

Then there is Muffit, a new little border collie. Five years old, about. Taking him to practice, he looses his mind and cannot think. So… I’m going to be working on that, first. He’s smart as a whip and not afraid, just undersocialized.

It has been a frustrating experience, that’s for sure and every time we get a dandruffing, freaked out ChiWeenie out there, I contemplate if we’re doing the right thing.

We’re overcome a lot with Pete since June 2007 when he was pulled from the shelter – we worked hard just to get down and back recalls over the jumps. We worked hard on bringing back objects. We worked hard on not submissive urinating and trying to bite when being handled.

Right now he comes out to do fun, fun, fun! recalls back and forth with the box there. We play with what ever toy he wants and we put him up before he wants to stop.

Now we’re working on that horrid box. Now that we’re started competing for the season we’re taking him by the ring all the time. This dog is insanly food-motivated so I literally let him chew on a string cheese stick the whole time the box is triggering. We’re moving closer and closer to the box. I’m also only taking him out when the teams competing also have similar sized dogs so there isn’t this “giant” thing hitting the box next to him.

We’ve also started bringing him out to watch his big dog siblings run and we’re going to start doing chase recalls with his lab brother.

He’ll now run down to the box, take a ball from a hand and come back. Now we just need to get him up ON the box and then triggering the box.

It’s totally been a lesson for us in patience and changing up our training to fit with him. I feel that at this point we just need to get over this with him – he loves running, fetch, chasing his brother around the yard, etc. He’s only a year and a bit so we’ll give him some more time.

It’s an ad-hoc medication, meaning I only use it when I think there will be an issue or when there is an issue. It works pretty fast, probably less than 30 minutes after dosing, in many cases you might find that it works much quicker.

For my 30-50 pound dogs it seems to be effective for 2+ hours, so I don’t dose them the night before, just the day of.

It’s not an anti-depressant or anything where you have to have sustained levels in the blood stream and it doesn’t work for a few days.

Because it works so fast, I don’t dose until right before an event or at the first signs of a storm.

There’s a product called “Calm Pet” by NutraBest/Natural Pet Nutrition which contains valerian, chamomile, kava kava, St. John’s wort and melatonin.

I haven’t used it and don’t know if the cocktail is more or less effective than melatonin alone, but it might be worth reading up on since it is marketed specifically to dogs.

Do read up on dosing amounts since the liquid/pill forms vary greatly in the actual concentration of melatonin. While I don’t think you’ll do a lot of harm if you overdose, there’s no reason to be needlessly reckless or wasteful.

Thanks

It has taken him over a year to even get in the lane and run. He has had to overcome “velcro” issues, dog fear issues, lack of ball interest, loud noises and quick movement. However, he still loves me and wants to please me and so he has stuck it through and learned the game. In December, he was performing at his best – running 4 times in a row, with strange people and dogs, and quite quickly.

And then, in January, I tripped over him as we entered the ring and though unhurt, he has since decided Flyball is horrible and dangerous. He won’t even walk into the ring without heavy panting, drooling, and shaking.

So, I have pulled him from competition. At tournaments, we work on just entering the building happily – outside, I ignore him; inside, lots of treats and praise. It is slowly paying off. He is back to dragging me into the building, although we only get about 10 feet before he starts panicking again. At home and practice, I’ve reverted to training the skills again. We work on box turns with and without a ball, jumps, and target work to rebuild his confidence in leaving my side.

I don’t work him around other dogs or even “on a lane” so as not to add or increase his fear. When he shows me he feels comfortable in the building again, I’ll go back to putting the entire course together at practices and then at a tournament.

I don’t plan on ever giving up unless he shows me that progress is no longer happening, until then, I’ll go as slowly as needed. Who knows, maybe one day he’ll be the fastest dog out there – he’s got the genes, all he needs is the patience…

Keep running her, but only put her in for 1 or two heats. Pull her, make her want more. You will know when you walk her to the ring, what dog you have. If she is being freaky, crate her ringside. Have her watch what is going on. Always crate her ringside when you pull her. Don’t coddle her being afraid. If she starts freaking, just put her in the crate and focus on the team. Sometimes the more attention we put on trying to calm them, creates more neurotic behavior.

Needless to say she can be freaked by who knows what at times. Sometimes she is good for 3-4 races and then all of a sudden is aware of what is going on…

Tempe was 2 in Oct hence why I pulled her from competition until I can either build her confidence or until I retire her. I would hope by the time she is 3 yrs old she is showing her want or not of wanting to compete. The sad thing is – even with Loping to the box – hauling but back to me – she can run 4.6-4.7 – I can only imagine what she would do if she was more comfortable going to the box…