Flyball Update

Ok, so you were right, I am NOT going to get the barking whining, screaming and pulling out of Magic’s game. Last night he was so excited/nervous/worked up he was leaving wet doggie footprints from the sweat on his feet. Its only week 3 and although we have along way to go, he is sort of a natural for this game.


K-Koira asked how we are learning the turn. Last week we were asked to teach our dogs to go around the cone either left or right depending on the dogs natural turn form. Magic is a righty, always. The homework for the week was to get them to turn around the cones without luring, preferably with speed. This is the one thing so far he is doing without speed. I don’t think he sees the need to race around a cone so my work this week is to try to get speed to the cone as well as back. This next 2 weeks we have homework to work the turns with more distance and adding the cues.

Then this week we added bounce jump work which will also be homework. For this we are to lure the dog to jump/bounce over a small low jump and immediately bounce them back the other side I am thinking that this is to teach them to quickly change direction and to understand what the back end has to do, and how to curve the body into a position to quickly make the change. For Magic with his long body, I find he is a little slower on this than some of the more proportioned dogs. I am guessing that eventually there will be a board to bank off of on the bounce side of the little jump, but that is just a guess.

We also did some dead ball retrieves. Magic is good at this but doesn’t understand why I don’t just throw the one he brought why should he look down there for another one when I have the one he just brought. So the first one out there is retrieves at max speed, but after that he will turn back and look at me for the one he knows I have. I need to figure out how to get him to see the new one on the floor out there and not worry that I might throw the one I have. I am thinking for right now we will not be doing any moving ball retrieves at home. Frisbee or rope toy ok, but not ball. I don’t want him thinking I will throw, I want him focused ahead.

The last thing we did was to start working jump chutes with the narrow flyball jumps. Magic had no problem with this, but most of the other dogs did. So last night we only worked up to 2 jumps. This he does well, he barely skims the tops of the jumps at a dead run, no wasted time jumping big that is for sure.

No class next week. 2 weeks to practice.

EDIT: I ordered him a flyball harness. He is just way to intense to have a collar and leash.  Also, Magic is the worst dog in class for the leaping, screaming and jealousy when others are working. Very intense and eager. Several times I took him behind a barrier to try to calm him down.  Balls are just HIS FAVORITE!