Who Here Competes In Both Agility And Flyball?

[rustyredbc]

was just wondering what peoples views were on competing in both of these sports. i have been talking to a friend who thinks that in her OPINION it creates behavioural issues or stuffs up jump style for agility??

anyone here seen this?

i ask because i would really like to train in both these sports

[Jumabaar]

I dont compete in agility yet although have trained a kelpie that also does flyball.

Flyball training is about training the dog to jump low and long which often means that when you get to agility they are more likely to knock bars. I have also seen a few that just barge right through the jumps that have never done flyball LOL

If you take the time to do hind leg awearness exercises and teach your dog to jump properly at agility then it is quite possible to be successful in both! My girl does not knock jumps ever at agility but has been known to wipe out a few flyball jumps because she has a different style for each sport- just the way I trained her!!

I know there are plenty of dogs that do both- a dog at my flyball club came first in one of the agility games yesterday at Sydney royal!!

[Kavik]

Lots of dogs in my agility club do both agility and flyball.

I have heard that the low jumps and flat jumping style needed for flyball can create a flat jumping style and knocking bar issue in agility, and some of the dogs that do both do exhibit these. A couple also are extremely fast in agility but want to make up their own course (same ones that drop bars actually). Not sure whether this is to do with minimal handler direction in flyball or simply personality of the dog and the way they were trained though.

There are some very successful dogs that do both as well.

[Blitz]

My dog does both. I would agree it depends how you train if it creates a problem or not.

If you train your dog how to jump, in both collection and extension the dog should be able to handle both sports.

You will also need to train your dog to pay attention to you so it listens on course, but you need to do this anyway, I have seen lots of dogs pick there own course that never had anything to do with flyball.

[poodlefan]

I don't think there is any overlap at all between the agiliteers and the flyballers at our club.

I think the dogs handle both sports. I think sometimes its handlers that have difficulty switching between the two.

[CP*]

I have two dogs trialling in agility and competing in flyball. One started flyball first and then picked up agility about 6mths later and the other started agility then did flyball. The dog that started agility first did pick up flyball much quicker. There were some initial confusions between the two sports - esp around jumps in agility, but we ironed that all out before we started trialling in agility (we started competing in flyball first).

The only big confusion now is the dogs think its alright to bark their heads off at agility!

I think the main thing is for the handler to be clear with their instructions and signals for each sport. Then the dog knows what is expected of them and what is coming up. I dont use the same command to mark the start for each sport ('get the ball' in flyball and 'ok' with a hand drop in agility), and there are only two commands I use in both (go and over) and even then I use them differently.

[Agility Dogs]

My two compete in both and we've never had a problem that we can track back to being caused by the other. Both of them were trained at the same time in both games, but picked up flyball much more quickly as it is 'just' a patterened behaviour. IMO there is a lot more understanding needed by the dogs to be successful in agility - especially past novice or starters level.

I think that the jumping thing is a bit of a urban myth. For dogs jumping is not a natural activity and like someone else said, if you teach your dog to jump properly first it should not matter what height the jumps are - they will pick the height and jump accordingly. If anything the patterned jumping in flyball can help with agility - as long as you make sure you do enough variable grids to go with it.

Flyball also gives them the confidence to work away from you - you just have to harness it and make it work for agility. I don't really have many commands in either sport so confusion there is not a problem.

I also think that it is good for their socialisation to be involved in a number of activities and find that the more we do with them the more confident they become and the more they can generalise what I am asking.