sidoney Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 (edited) I've not done flyball before, I've only done obedience and agility and dabbled in tracking and herding. Anyway we have just started flyball at Norwest. My foster, Darcie, looks like she's got real potential. Last night we did a few restrained recalls over hurdles, among other things like turns around the peg and so on. There were various comments about her speed. She really does tear it up when she gets going. And being light and agile, she should have fast turns if trained right. Our other "foster", Pickle, that is looking like staying and being my daughter Ellie's dog, also did very well, although Darcie has the edge on her for speed. Xia, my Kelpie, is going OK but I don't think she'd make a division one dog, at this rate. Darcie DEFINITELY would if she keeps going the way she is. Edited October 25, 2006 by sidoney Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavik Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 Yay for Darcie! I love her colour too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mooper Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 Gee, Darcie is stunning And talented, too, by the sounds of it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidoney Posted October 25, 2006 Author Share Posted October 25, 2006 And an affectionate sweetie pie. She does everything with such enthusiasm. When she sits, she doesn't just sit, she SITS. When she gives you attention, it's ATTENTION, FOCUSED. She is a little worried by strange things but gets over it quite fast. Last week she wasn't too sure about being held by a stranger for the restrained recalls, this week she was much better and by the later recalls was running back into start position and lining up for the next go. That is her all over. "Hey, that was fun, let's do it AGAIN!!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoemonster Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 How exciting! Well done I am just starting to teach my 2 "around" for flyball and when OH is home a restrained recall, its lots of fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbirdette Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 WTG Darcie. My two dogs Kelsy and Dodger (Kelpies) have been training for the last few months learning Flyball and they absolutely luv it. Maybe we might see you some time when it comes to competition time or at a flyball demo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Clover Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 That is wonderful, keep up the great work :D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vickie Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 Awesome! Sounds like both you & the dogs are having a ball. I'll have to come & watch one of these days, sounds like a heap of fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidoney Posted October 26, 2006 Author Share Posted October 26, 2006 (edited) Ellie is enjoying it too (she's 12). It's nice to have a mother-daughter thing to do. Flyball is possibly more young-person-friendly as an introduction to dog sports than agility? Maybe. There is less involved and she doesn't need to be as precise with her own body movements, so she has less to focus on at once. Although she does enjoy our agility training which we do at home. Last night in the kitchen, we practiced turns around the peg - peg was a paper towel holder. :D Edited October 26, 2006 by sidoney Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverick Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 Sounds great! Congrats to both you and your daughter My out command is my washing line :D We started in Flyball earlier in the year and Maverick was showing great promise, I just haven't got round to going back. Too many other things on my plate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caro Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 Do you get the feeling that Sid's foster might be staying permanently with her?!! Yes, flyball much easier to learn than agility. Also less physical for handler so good for aging agility people who can't keep up with their dogs. Downside it is a team sport and takes a long time to get five or six dogs up to competition standard in a new area (as I am trying to do on NSW Central Coast). See you Tuesday night, Sid. Vickie, you'd be most welcome to come along and have a look. Trim would pick it up in no time. Caro Norwest Thunderdogs/Central Coast Flyball/BCRA foster mum Ellie is enjoying it too (she's 12). It's nice to have a mother-daughter thing to do. Flyball is possibly more young-person-friendly as an introduction to dog sports than agility? Maybe. There is less involved and she doesn't need to be as precise with her own body movements, so she has less to focus on at once. Although she does enjoy our agility training which we do at home.Last night in the kitchen, we practiced turns around the peg - peg was a paper towel holder. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vickie Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 I will come & have a look, the first time I ever saw it was at the CC Expo & it loked like great fun. To be honest I am a little hesitant to start Trim in Flyball, even if I had the time. I know she would be good, she certainly has the speed and drive, but I am a little concerned about how it will effect her agility. She is only very young & currently has a fantastic jumping style & I am worried that she may flatten out after doing flyball. I know there are plenty of people who do both, but to be absolutely honest, most of the competitive flyball dogs I know knock bars in agility fairly consistently and tend to be a little out of control in agility. I have always thought Flyball would be a great things for dogs lacking a little in speed/motivation in agility...LOL this certainly doesn't apply to us. I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this Caro. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sas Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 I love seeing foster dogs get the chance to do things like this! Good on ya, I hope his training continues in leaps and bounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdayz Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 Great for Darcy, and Pickles looking a stayer :D Agree with SAS its great to see the fosters taking part, i think it benefits the handlers as well, I know from my own fosters it great experience to handle a range of dogs and i always try to have my fosters out training with my own dogs (though we have yet to try flyball). Though the downside is i sometimes look and think I'm sending the better dog off to a new home Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caro Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 Hi Vickie, Umm. I think the ones generally I know that have that problem are pretty full-on dogs regardless --sort of bull-at-a-gate-type dogs. Dusty in our number one team is pretty full on but does do agility. I'll ask the owner what her experience is. Personally, if you have a top agility dog I wouldn't do it unless I was thinking seriously about concentrating on it largely because of the time involved in addition to encouraging the dog to think speed is where it's at. I was training a dog in agility and made it to one trial, but doing both was just too much. Horses, which have a fraction of a dog's brain capacilty, manage to do cross country with fixed jumps they brush freqeutnly and then do showjumping and they learn to differentiate between what is required so an intelligent dog should be able to too if you are very clear about your criteria for reinforcement. Obviously if the flyball is revving them up too much you would have to rethink doing both with the same dog. Regardless, flyball is definitely a great alternative and just as much fun and worth having as a backup as one gets older and backs and bones start playing up. Will PM you what Dusty's owner says. Cheers, Caro I will come & have a look, the first time I ever saw it was at the CC Expo & it loked like great fun.To be honest I am a little hesitant to start Trim in Flyball, even if I had the time. I know she would be good, she certainly has the speed and drive, but I am a little concerned about how it will effect her agility. She is only very young & currently has a fantastic jumping style & I am worried that she may flatten out after doing flyball. I know there are plenty of people who do both, but to be absolutely honest, most of the competitive flyball dogs I know knock bars in agility fairly consistently and tend to be a little out of control in agility. I have always thought Flyball would be a great things for dogs lacking a little in speed/motivation in agility...LOL this certainly doesn't apply to us. I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this Caro. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidoney Posted October 26, 2006 Author Share Posted October 26, 2006 (edited) Darcie is definitely NOT staying! We will be keeping a Vizsla puppy most likely next year (fourth generation for me), and six dogs would be too much! Not only that, but I would be wasting her to keep her in terms of a competition dog, as I have a PhD to complete over the next couple of years, and would not be going to comps and so on. However I am enjoying training her and am learning a lot from her, and I hope that her training helps her to find her forever home. I know Dusty quite well, at least did until a year or so ago. He is or was handled in agility by the sister of the girl who handles him in flyball. I don't THINK he had any out-of-the-average bar knocking issues when I saw him work regularly, the main issue was his handler managing such a fast dog. In fact Dusty was the main reason that I first went to one of Deb Kelly's workshops (I was instructing agility at the time and needed to know how to handle the rocket dogs). And it was largely because of that, that I got to know Vickie. Funny how things work, eh? IMO if you did flyball with a dog you would have to work more on jumping style and regularly do gridwork to remind a dog that it can round over jumps as well as jump them flat, and also wrap ... mind you at a Susan Garrett workshop she said she always does that between agility comps anyway, since they get flatter over the duration of the competition. I am hoping flyball gives Xia a bit more oomph. Our tug is coming along, we've been doing more work on that. See how we go. Caro, I know what you mean about backup. I've recently had a health issue which meant I could not run agility. So figured flyball would be a good thing to do with my dogs. Otherwise I'd probably still be doing agility ... I love it and have spent thousands of dollars over the years on workshops, equipment, etc. Hopefully I'll be able to get back into it ... in the meantime we'll do flyball. Who knows? Maybe I'll love that even more. Am looking at auditing Susan Garrett in Canberra next year, both agility and flyball ... anyone else looking at going? Edited October 26, 2006 by sidoney Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caro Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 Yes, Sid, used to do a lot of gridwork with horses to for style. Hopefully someone reading this might like the sound of Darcie and want to take her on? I'm going to SG depending on finances. Went to one by her in Sydney a coupel of years ago and very impressed. Regarding Vickie's query about doing both here is what Trent Shepherd, AFA judge and agility/flyball competitior says: I think that Jem does well at both Agility and Flyball, Did he knock bars? yes there is a very different style of jumping between the two disciplines. In Flyball I trained him to jump long and flat, when we started agility we had a few problems with bar knocking. To resolve this I learnt first of all to become a better handler, and with the help of Vanessa from the South Coast club did a program devised by Susan Clothier to train him to jump up and arch his back with the use of a chute. Lookup the Clothier Natural Jumping Method: by Suzanne Clothier. There are other techniques for bar knocking that I also used such as letting him know it is an unacceptable behavior by stopping everything in training when it occurs. Being a dog of high drive this really upsets him. Before he would knock say 3-4 bars in one run nowadays he knocks the bar because he has dumb handler! kind regards trent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mooper Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 If that's the same Trent and Jem who also do sheepherding (and Kylie with Possum) then, yes, Jem is a high-drive dog! He's a cheeky monkey but great fun, and a great test of patience I dare say :D So for the non-agility, non-flyball types with an older dog (eg me ) would the Susan Garrett sessions be worthwhile? I'm thinking her three-day obedience sessions would be awesome ... would be great if I could get Jack in there, too, but I bet they're full for doggies already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caro Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 yes, I think Trent's wife is called Kylie. They moved to ACT last year. The two-day SG obed I went too more like a seminar than a training group and you really don't do that much with a dog except try a few of the lower-level exercises out so don't be put off if cannot take a dog. She is absolutely brilliant at clicker training and targetting. If you haven't seen a top clicker trainer at work, you will be transported to another world. Very much worthwhile. It has totally turned the way I train upside down. I feel so sorry for my older dog as to what I put him through when I didn't clicker train and make everythign FUN rather than hard work and boring. Caro. If that's the same Trent and Jem who also do sheepherding (and Kylie with Possum) then, yes, Jem is a high-drive dog! He's a cheeky monkey but great fun, and a great test of patience I dare say :DSo for the non-agility, non-flyball types with an older dog (eg me ) would the Susan Garrett sessions be worthwhile? I'm thinking her three-day obedience sessions would be awesome ... would be great if I could get Jack in there, too, but I bet they're full for doggies already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mooper Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 Hmm ... I'm tempted! I think it's $80/day for non-club members to audit. I have never been to any such seminars and haven't seen any clicker trainers at work. I use a clicker myself, but everything I know is from reading or trial and error. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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