Flyball Practice!

[Spiritwind]

I have the opposite problem! Jersey won't spit the ball out for a tug or another ball! LOL

It sounds like need to teach Paris to "HOLD IT". Teach her to hold the ball in her mouth with the clicker. Start off with just a couple seconds, and work your way up slowly to 15 seconds. Then when she is good with that, you can add it to her runback. When she goes off the box (or picks up the ball off the ground if you're doing dead ball) and starts running back say "PARIS, HOLD IT!"

Good luck!

Thanks! Yeah... thats what we have sort of been working on... well I haven't done much with her the last couple weeks since I've had the flu... but thats what I was trying to do before I missed the last 2 weeks.... but I just got back from Flyball class... I think the 2 wk break did her good.. she did surprisingly well.... and was very excited to be back.... and she VERY much wanted to go get that ball... which is HUGE for her, as when I first started flyball training with her in March (or was it april??? dunno) she wouldn't even think about going to get that ball!!! LOL

Didn't get her to bring the ball all the way back over all 4 jumps yet... so we took away all the jumps except the last one before the box.... as today she was spitting the ball soon as she would turn off the box, to start running to me.... so we got her to bring the ball over one jump and rewarded.... did that a few times... and then put a 2nd jump up... and got her to bring the ball back over 2 jumps... stopped at that for this class... but this week I'll work with her more on the "hold it" command.... for next weeks class...

[BC_MoM]

That's awesome!!! Great work! Sounds like she'll get the hang of it pretty soon!

Jess, I'll check around and see what I can find!

[Spiritwind]

Jessika,

Just in case you hadn't seen this... here is a list of Flyball teams in Missouri.. maybe one is fairly close to you:

http://www.flyball.org/getstarted/missouri.html

Also here is another link http://flyballdogs.com/locator.html#missouri

[Spiritwind]

So our last flyball class was this past Thursday. Paris did quite well. The classes are over but the flyball team practices on Sunday afternoons, and since the classes are over they told us we could come to the practices to continue to work our dogs....

So yesterday I took Paris up to the practice. Only 4 people showed up, but WOW! Much improved! I just cannot believe her, now that it finally "clicked' she loves it! and each time I take her she just turns on and gets more and more drive.....

Yesterday was the first time we actually cocked the ball back in the box so it would trigger when she hit the box. Before yesterday we just used some velcro to hold the ball in the hole so she could just hit the box grab the ball and go.... but triggering the ball didn't bother her at all, if anything it got her more excited to run the course.

As far as her spitting the ball out, I now have her running the course start to finish with 3 jumps and her bringing the ball back to me without spitting. I think she could have probably did 4 lastnight, but we didn't want to push it... so we just left it at 3 for this time because we didn't want to set her up to mess up...

We ended the practice by running a vetran black Lab (this dog acts like a 2yr old!) owned by the lady who owns the training building and Paris like they would in a competition, only just 2 dogs and 3 jumps... we did that about 3 times I think.. by the last run though Paris was really booking it down the course and back because she got so excited running with another dog..... the lady that owns the training building asked me if I was interesting in competing with her....

Its just amazing to me. Paris is the first dog I've ever done flyball with, I've seen it before and always thought it looked fun, but until recently never really had the chance to try it.... and Paris wasn't the dog I was originally wanting to do flyball with, I was originally wanting to do flyball with Paris' sister, Kelsey (who is my ball and toy loving dog).. but Kelsey came in season right as the first class was starting and then I bred her, so I took Paris instead. At first Paris wouldn't look at a ball, she wouldn't chase a ball, she wouldn't touch a ball... she loved the running part though... but I just didn't think she had a chance of getting this down and I almost gave up because she just didn't seem like she enjoyed it or that she'd ever figure it..... After a few weeks of clicker training, first training her to just look at the ball, then touch the ball and finally pick up the ball... it clicked and she just loves it. She is not one that tugs but she is food motivated and will do anything for it!! Now when I take her to practice she is excited, tail wagging, barking and ready to go!! LOL

[Jessika]

Thanks for the help, guys -- the only problem is the ones that are close by all lead to dead links or invalid emails I'm going to see about asking someone next time I go to a pet event or maybe I will contact my local Aussie or Border Collie rescue because I'm quite positive someone from there owns the breeds and has them participate is SOME type of activity!