How Long Does It Normally Take

[lucyandmeg]

Ok, meg my collie is ball mad and picked up the whole flyball thing in a very short time, only a couple of sessions. My springer and goldie are more of a challenge as although they don't mind playing fetch, their whole lives do not revolve around tennis balls! Murphy has been doing flyball since before christmas, and up until a few weeks ago he had just about got it, albeit a bit slow, but the past few weeks hes completely lost the plot and all he wants to do is sniff and eat horse poo (which has always been there, don't know whats changed.) Ellie started a few weeks ago but only does very small amounts as she gets bored and tired very easily until she gets switched on. Both dogs are great at doing recalls down the lanes and are both reasonably fast (althuogh not collie fast.) but murphy just can't wor out the going up and fetching the ball thing. He also tries to get the ball out with his paw rather than his mouth when the box is loaded, whic hwe can't seem to stop.

I'm almost at the end of my tether as we are getting nowhere fast, and another dog started last week and picked it up in one session and is now more advanced than murphy! Now i ahve read that eddie isn't ball mad, gooster, so did you train him differently, and how long did it take?

[Kimbas_mum]

I'm sure Jayne will be around soon but I thought I would let you know my experiences with flyball. I only started recently with my lot and have had varying levels of success with them!!

 

Kimba (doberman) picked it all up pretty quickly, except the box bit, he was quite happy to run up and grab the ball from a person or off the floor but would try to suck the ball out of the hole instead of triggering the box! To fix that we spent some time with him on a lead working at the box, encouraging him with treats to walk forward until he stood on the box and then giving him loads of praise when he did, I also used a cue to start with of 'stand on it'. I then started sending him from a short distance away with no jumps still and shouting the cue words. This took a couple of short sessions with him, we then moved onto going from part way up the lane and using the cue word to sending him all the way up and the box loader using the cue words, by this point it had got to be pretty much a habit for him so we could drop the cue. Kimba is not that bothered about tennis balls although he does know how to do a good retreive anyway.

 

My others are totally different, Jasper (GSP) has only had 2 sessions so far cos he was too young to start earlier. He has got as far as running up for a ball thrown up by a the ball loader and running back with it and I'm sure will progress pretty quickly cos he is far more interested in balls than the other 2.

We are having less success with Maddie (Saluki), she is not remotely interested in balls or food and would much rather roll on her back infront of any boy dogs in the area!!! We are improving though cos she will now do a proper run back from a handler at the box over the jumps and back to me rather than straight past to the nearest other dog or back to the car!!

 

Hope you get there in the end with your lot cos it is so much fun. Which club do you train with?

Edited March 27, 2006 by Kimbas_mum

[Gnasher]

All dogs pick things up at different rates depending on how motivated they are by the particular bit - I would say as long as your dogs are enjoying themselves and making some small progress over time don't worry

 

Lady took ages to get the hang on flyball, runs backs were fine, the box was fine (eventually ) but running away from me for a ball she had not seen thrown - nope - no way. There was also the small matter of the ball not smelling right if the other dogs had touched it We did a good few weeks of me bringing our own ball and having to throw it down to the box loader each time She did eventually get the idea enough to be able to enter a fair few competitions but was always a bit too concerned with the other people and dogs around so we just continued for fun

[gooster]

Have you tried rolling the ball down the front of the box for Murphy? Tthat way he doesn't paw it, and gets into the hang of the fact that he gets it with his mouth instead of his paws. That's what we do with all of our new dogs, and then progress to holding the ball over the hole in the box, again so they don't paw it, and then loading the ball in the box.

 

It takes different dogs different lengths of time to pick up the idea of flyball - I've been lucky in that mine have all picked it up quite quickly and easily, it's all about knowing what motivates your dog.

 

With Eddie, it was food. He's such a greedy little pig, he'll do anything for food. When we first started training him, I used to throw the ball when he came out of the lanes on his recall, and he'd just sit at my feet and wait for his treat (and still does ) Eddie is a bright little dog when he puts his mind to it, and he soon learned that the little yellow ball in the hole meant sweeties. I was lucky enough to have the flyball box at my house at the time when he was learning flyball, so we just had lots of mini sessions throughout the week with both him and Charliegoo, so that he learned by watching Charliegoo do it as well Once he picked up the fact that fetching his ball meant he'd get fooooooooood, he was hooked. At first the temptation of other dogs got the better of him though, and in his first few shows, he ran over to the other side and chased the other dogs back down the lane

 

Don't overdo it with Ellie , I know this is really difficult to judge, but try and quit before she gets bored - don't keep trying for 'just one more run', as she will tire and start making mistakes - it's always best to stop early and leave them on a high, than let them run for too long and then spend ages trying to get them to do it right again - the dogs get frustrated, the humans get frustrated and all the fun disappears

 

I wouldn't get hung up about how quickly other dogs learn things, we all take different amounts of time to learn things, I'm sure that when you were at school, there was always one person in the class that could conjugate french verbs without much effort - it sounds like the dog that started last week is the canine equivalent of that person

 

Which club do you train with?

[lucyandmeg]

The hampshire harriers, we are a fairly new team, only really set up last year.

I think where i have been going wrong is that i have been trying to train them like my collie, but shes a totally different kettle of fish. I've been trying to reward him with a ball instead of food, he likes his ball, but is far more obsessed by food. I'll borrow a box next week and work on clicker training it with food.

Thanks for all your help!!

[gooster]

Yep, definitely try food. You can have food in the ring at shows, so it's no big deal (so long as you don't drop it all over the floor ). There is no way Ed would do flyball without his food reward - for Charliegoo now, the flyball itself is self rewarding, and unless I grab his harness, he'd go again and again. I do reward him with food though, just to get hold of him, although I don't think he chews it, just inhales it

 

 

 

[JUDGE HAT ON]Plus, don't forget that at shows, you aren't actually allowed to throw the ball in the back of the ring in case it puts the opposing dogs off [/JUDGE HAT]