gooster

Believe it or not, the team I run with is probably your closest team! There is no size limit - there are several rotties running in the sport at the moment, and I personally run my GSD and she does fine!! We train near Hale/Ashley which is quite near Altrincham (I think) at a place called Ryecroft Farm

Hi Jacky! Of course they wouldn't mind!! I'll PM you their number If there is netting along the side of the run he should be fine and go over the jumps If he is a mummy's boy then he should be quite fast as he'll want to do the run as fast as possible and get back to you

I'm in the Cheshire Set Charliegoo is one of the UK's top dogs

:Group_Hug_Emoticon: :Group_Hug_Emoticon: So sorry Sarah Run free Millie

Well, the main criteria is that he'll fetch a tennis ball. He doesn't have to do a present or anything, just bring it somewhere near you The fact he is interested in you will play to your advantage to begin with (if the PODS - Anglesey team) train like us. To start off with, we do what we call runbacks, where you leave the dog with someone and then recall over the jumps (starting with one jump and progressing to all 4). You run away from them and then when you get out of the flyball lane, the dog holder lets go and you call them and roll a ball along the ground. If Sid is anything like Eddie though, he'll just completely ignore the ball and bounce all over you. It may be an idea to practice restrained recalls with someone else whilst out on a walk - someone else holds him and gets him all excited and you run away from him and throw the ball this gets him focussed on you and the ball and will speed up his return (which is the bit that needs speeding up most as on the way out, they have the ball to motivate them). The next step is to actually go and try him out with a team who has all the equipment - your nearest one is the PODS, who train where I was staying over the New Year

Don't know yet - depends on what the rest of the team want to do! I wouldn't mind but everyone else may have other ideas!!

I'll let you into a secret here - Eddie hates tennis balls :o However he loves food and bouncing around everywhere With flyball, being ball mad does help, but it isn't the be all and end all - after all if you have a dog that is ball mad, you can come across a few problems - they may turn around when they hear the box being reloaded for the next dog, they may not give the ball back to you etc. To start off with in training, we do runbacks, where they just run out of the lanes over 1 jump, 2 jump, 3 jump, 4 jumps and get heavily rewarded for it. Then they go into the box area, if they have some mild interest in a ball, and can fetch, then that's all that matters. You tell him to fetch and the boxloader rolls the ball down the box - the movement is usually enough to get them to notice it and get it in their mouth. Heaps and heaps of praise is given, and they realise that it is a good thing to go near the box and fetch a ball. Over time they forget the ball and just do it anyway. Eddie spits the ball out as soon as he gets back to me and is more interested in the tasty sausage he's being fed than the ball he's just given me As long as Ash will fetch a ball, the rest can be trained into them. Shara's also dog aggressive, but at training she ran in a team of other dogs for the first time last week

The question I dread people asking me (especially non doggy folk) is 'what's flyball'. The simple answer is that it is a dog relay. There are 4 dogs in each team, and each dog has to run over 4 jumps, fetch a tennis ball from the flyball box and come back over all 4 jumps. It is the fastest, most exhilarating dog sport at the moment (in my opinion). Any breed of dog can do it, at the moment, all 3 of my dogs do flyball - Charliegoo collie x scottie, Eddie - mini schnauzer, and Shara - GSD. Training a dog to do flyball doesn't happen overnight - Charliegoo was terrified of the flyball box to begin with. At first, the dogs run in a lane of netting with the jumps and a flyball box - this means they can't really run out of the lane and round the jumps Then they progress to running with jump wings at the side of the jumps, meaning that they can run out if they want, but it's more difficult Then, they progress to running without any jump wings or netting The picture below shows Charliegoo doing a swimmers turn on the box. Believe it or not, Eddie has the best turn out of all of my dogs!! The height of the jumps changes according to the size of the smallest dog on the team, for 8" for dinky dogs, to 14" for the bigger dogs. Eddie jumps at 9" and Charliegoo jumps at 13". There are competitions every weekend throughout the summer, and teams travel for miles and miles to get to a tournament - last year we travelled all the way from Manchester to Knebworth for a tournament :o

Whereabouts in Lancashire are you? Our vets in Mossley, near Ashton Under Lyne do acupuncture. Not sure if you have to take your pets there in the first place though Could be worth a phonecall though Their number is 01457 837900 I know Dawn (Gnasher) takes Gnasher to acupuncture and it's helped him quite a lot

I taught Charliegoo how to close the living room door using a clicker. After exams, Eddie will be learning how to do it too - as he's the worst culprit now

These 3 are so true :lol: :lol: :lol:

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Used to a few years ago with Charliegoo, but he used to get all panicky when we went into the ring and stressed, so we gave up He'd probably do it now he is older and more confident though

Ahhhhhhhhh righty Thanks Dawn

This may seem like a really dumb question but on the twists and twirls, how do we get the dog to heel on the opposite side to the way they are twirling? Like a left twist is followed by heel on right... Dumb in Manchester

Never tried it, but will have a go Handler: Gooster Dog: Charliegoo Breed: Collie x scottie Age: 6 Joined Challenge: week 1 Handler: Gooster Dog: Eddie Breed: Mini Schnauzer Age: nearly 2 Joined Challenge: week 1

wood

I clicked a few times ok, about 7

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Book (remember them at school... come on children, get your topic books out *sigh* )

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Aunty Melp... I have to go to a party tomorrow - what should I wear?

Dear Aunty melps Men keep staring at me in the street and beeping their horns at me. What do I do o wise one? Goosey who always seems to fall for men wot have girlfriends