beckster74

I'm in Brisbane and I'd love to get her involved in herding but the problem is she's frightened of sheep I was throwing a ball with her one day at a friends place where there are cows and calves in the next door paddocks and if the ball went anywhere near the fence she refused to fetch. And that's really saying something when it comes to her and tennis balls :D

Yes....I'm sensing someone will be getting a crate for christmas

Out of curiosity how old is the dog? What are her past life experiences? Perhaps this is her first experience with excitement and maybe as her fitness levels are increasing she has more go during the day? Does this lead to more boredom potential? Just an observation I am no expert. We've had her since she was 11 weeks old and without a doubt flyball is the most exciting thing she has EVER experienced She becomes almost unrecognisable at flyball (she goes nuts) and like a said before she usually never ever barks but she is incredibly intense and needs to be exercised twice a day....we're talking about a dog who was taken to the vet because of exhaustion - she doesn't know when to stop and will chase a ball even if you chopped her legs off. She could definitely be a bit bored during the day but I'm also wondering if a bit of separation anxiety is starting to creep in too.

She's only 2 and I know she loves flyball but you're probably right about getting her to 'switch off'. And she'll never be left alone with the chooks again. I know it's no excuse but she's always been so good with them and seemed to treat them as part of the 'pack'.......we've learnt our lesson.

bump

My dog started flyball training a few months ago and has recently been 'graduated' from the beginners class and therefore spends more time actually 'racing' as opposed to 'training'. I noticed a couple of weeks ago that when she got home from training (my partner takes her) she would be all keyed up and last week she actually barked at me and scratched me when I called her over to me. This is completely out of character as she never ever barks except for when she is at flyball (she goes completely nuts) and is extremely well behaved. My partner and I have invested a lot of time training her (she's a kelpie) and ever since we got her as a puppy we have been able to leave her at home alone with our chooks who have free range of the yard. Never any problems......until I got home from work yesterday and she had killed one of them. I'm just heart broken because this has never happened before and in fact she normally lets the chooks climb all over her and seemed to enjoy just hanging out with them. My worry is that flyball has brought out a side of her that we had never seen before. The sport seems to be all about hyping the dogs up to race and I'm worried that being in such an environment has 'undone' some of the good work we'd done in training her. Anyone have any thoughts????