Turning on Lights

For those people out there who don’t have dogs or train the ones they have, they really have no idea what they are missing. There is nothing like spending time training an animal and watching that spark or the light in their eyes that says YES I KNOW WHAT YOU WANT. It’s amazing to watch and I never tire of seeing it.

My wife Fay and I are training a dog we got from a friend who could no longer take care of the dog because of an illness. Jess had just turned 1 year old when we got her and is a sweet lovable Border collie that had been cuddled and loved by her former owner. The one thing she lacked was a job and training. So before doing anything with her we spent a few weeks on obedience training and just getting her used to the clicker. She learned all of the obedience commands very quickly and is a very intelligent dog. Her former owner had played tug with her so she was very tug motivated when we got her which was a real plus.

The only real problem with Jess was her lack of ball drive. It was one of the worse cases of “I don’t care about balls” that I have ever seen. I tried with a clicker for two solid weeks with no success. I spent every afternoon with her and the most I could get her to do was hit it with her nose. She would not pick it up. I searched the Internet looking for solutions and I followed many suggestions with no success. So I reluctantly turned over the ball training to my wife. I say reluctantly because I really felt let down. I had trained many dogs but this one was a tough one.

So Fay set out on the ball challenge of her life. After some trial and error, she found that as soon as the clicker and treats came out Jess would just focus on the treats so she had to put the clicker and treats away. She had to put the tug away too for the same reason. So Fay started anew with just her and Jess in the bedroom watching Dancing with the Stars. They both would just dance around the bedroom and Fay would play with the ball. After a while, Jess wanted to play too. They watched a different program every night and Fay would play ball and run around with Jess in the bedroom. Fay tried to move outside to play but Jess was more interested in going back to the house than playing with a ball outside so Fay went back to the bedroom for more Dancing with the Stars. After the second week in the bedroom, Fay went back outside and started having limited success.

The problem with playing outside was that after every ball pick up Jess would run back to the house. But Fay was persistent and just kept going to get her bringing Jess back to the play area. This went on for another 4 weeks. During this time I would go out with them too, but as soon as Jess saw me she would stop playing and run back to the house. I had to watch from the window while Fay and Jess played outside, but last night the light came on for Jess.

After no tug or treats for a solid month and a half, Fay showed Jess the tug and she went nuts. Seeing this I went outside to about 30 feet away from Fay and Jess. Fay pointed Jess toward me and the ball and after one bounce I put the ball down on the ground and Fay let Jess go. Jess flew after the ball and raced back to Fay for the tug. It was joy beyond belief. Fay just gave her the tug and both of them just started jumping up and down. Jess did it a few more times with celebrations after each time. The light had finally come on for Jess.

It was truly an amazing thing to watch and there are no words to describe it. I am amazed every time I watch dogs perform. When I talk about Flyball, people will ask me, “Do they know what they are doing?” I just have to laugh to myself and tell them “Yes they know what they are doing.” I don’t think they really believe me but I know different because I have seen the lights.

- Larry

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