Passing In Flyball

[Reddii]

Hi all the flyballers out there,

My girl (tiny 19 month old BC) LOVES flyball (think sits in the teeming rain at the gate to the field looking longinly and you are there) and is going really well. She has done her first comp and with the exception of 1 run was 100% reliable running in the mid 5's all night.

the other week we had a bit of a setback. She crashed head on into one of the other dogs as they were passing (Xena's fault). The other dog thought she meant it and chased her across the park telling her off. Fortunately the other dog was one of the dogs who could be called off when in drive and there was no damage done. The two have since made up and are now friends again. (human talk I know, but the piont is there is no aggression or fear between them)

Next time out Xena was chased by a dog from the other lane on her first run. SOOOOOO.......as you can see she's had a couple of bad experiences. She still loves flyball and is getting quicker as she does more runs, but the problem we have is that she is very wary when it comes to passing and anything closer than an 8 foot pass will result in her missing the first hurdle. We are working on this by slowing decreasing the passing distance, but I was wondering if anyone had any ideas that might help in the process.

She is quite a soft dog and I don't want to put too much pressure on her, but at the same time if you do have any ideas I'd love to hear.

Cheers.

Tony

[DeltaCharlie]

We work on passing by putting 2 jumps next to each other (remove the vertical sides from the centre so it looks like one really big flyball jump). Try to get the dogs crossing on the jump, do it slowly at first if you need to. Gradually bring the jumps closer together so that you have both dogs crossing on a single jump.

The idea of the exercise is more for the runs where timing is out of whack and you end up with dogs crossing at the first jump. Its better to run one dog again than to be carded for aggression. It will still get your girl used to passing another dog very closely so Im sure it would help with your problem too.

[wherezaball]

Hi all the flyballers out there,

My girl (tiny 19 month old BC) LOVES flyball (think sits in the teeming rain at the gate to the field looking longinly and you are there) and is going really well. She has done her first comp and with the exception of 1 run was 100% reliable running in the mid 5's all night.

the other week we had a bit of a setback. She crashed head on into one of the other dogs as they were passing (Xena's fault). The other dog thought she meant it and chased her across the park telling her off. Fortunately the other dog was one of the dogs who could be called off when in drive and there was no damage done. The two have since made up and are now friends again. (human talk I know, but the piont is there is no aggression or fear between them)

Next time out Xena was chased by a dog from the other lane on her first run. SOOOOOO.......as you can see she's had a couple of bad experiences. She still loves flyball and is getting quicker as she does more runs, but the problem we have is that she is very wary when it comes to passing and anything closer than an 8 foot pass will result in her missing the first hurdle. We are working on this by slowing decreasing the passing distance, but I was wondering if anyone had any ideas that might help in the process.

She is quite a soft dog and I don't want to put too much pressure on her, but at the same time if you do have any ideas I'd love to hear.

Cheers.

Tony

I would even go back to playing a game of restrained recalls around the other dogs. Maybe just one dog in the beginning. Have someone hold your dog and you run away in a straight line (no jumps) then have another dog at about 15 feet apart being held by someone and its handler doing a restrained recall in the opposite direction (dogs running in opposite directions just like passing).

Let one dog go first and then the other. Depending on reactions. ideally you want the dog to know the other is there and be OK with it.

Then gradually decrease the distance between you (the distance between the 2 dogs) and do the same exercise so at some point they pass each other. Once they are comfortable do the same exercise with one jump, then 2 jumps and so on.

Sounds like a long process but you will be suprised it doesnt take that long and really helps build confidence in soft dogs by first getting the dogs used to passing other dogs then putting a jump (ie small confined space) into the equation.

The key to flyball training is breaking down each exercise as much as possible and building confidence then increasing difficulty ( by adding jumps or other dogs etc) as the dog gets better and more confident.

this also helps build the dogs drive back to you which is after all what we want our flyball dogs to do.

We do this exercise in our beginners with anything up 10 or so dogs across the feild doing restrained recalls all in opposite directions at the same time. Some "lose it" and take off after another dog but they get the hang of it pretty quickly.

[Reddii]

Thanks guys,

That's really helpful - breaking it down isn't something we do that much after the dogs can run successfully. Will suggest that and get one of the others to help me out with their dogs.

Cheers.

Tony