Rio Flyball Training (Target)

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Leanne

I promised this video a few months ago, and only just got around to converting it. Rio is 14 weeks in this video (I think!) and this was our third target session. The whole session consisted of maybe 2-3 minutes with long breaks, so 3 mins of actual training over 15-20mins.

Just because a few people were asking, this is a breakdown of what you can see us doing:

0:00 – 0:18: Paw touches to the target on the floor, and then paw touches with the target held in different positions and places. Double-paw touches gets double treats. I was rewarding almost any paw interaction with the target. We did this for maybe 20s, and it was really just a recap of previous sessions.

0:18 – 0:24: Getting more specific. Double paw touches have to be on the target. This got the most cuts from the video as it wasn’t very exciting and was recapping the second session.

0:25 – 0:48: Double paw touches with the reward being given for turning back. Rio’s inclination is to turn right, hence why I have switched sides on the video. This was our first session on this step, and you can see a couple of times she dithers between focussing on the target and the food in my hand behind her. I stopped being quite so specific about the paw touches but increased criteria again on the next session.

Rio is now 5 months and is turning off the target which is taped to the wall. She only offers with her front paws as there is no momentum, although she will boxturn off bankings and doors when she’s excited anyway (not encouraged!). My position is almost exactly the same as in the final part of this video, only I am stood up and rewarding with the other hand (shoulder movement helps snap her off the target). We train maybe once every 10 days or so at the moment, and do 5-6 reps only. Chute work will begin soon!

Gap Farm December

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Leanne

Rio’s first visit to a flyball competition!

That is the most important thing that happened all day, of course. Dylan ran very well, not as well as he could have done simply because he was running with unfamiliar dogs, and so was I. Our changeovers were not consistent! He ran steady 4.8s over 11″. I have to admit this was a bit disappointing as I feel like he has been running his heart out at training, and I definitely did not have that feeling from him at Gap Farm. On the other hand, his boxturn was reasonably good, he was running into the first hurdle without flinching on his changes, and he swapped for his tuggy 95% of the time (he’s 100% at training but it tends to drop in competition; like any retrain, it doesn’t always hold up under a competitive atmosphere!).

Both the older girls stayed at home in the warm, and I sadly did not get to pick up Kim’s Ice Blue Moon as apparently they weren’t posted or something. Hmph.

I was really impressed with my crazy puppy. She took the atmosphere, the noise, the hundreds of dogs and people, the Christmas costumes/tinsel/hats into her stride. She was polite with every dog she met, and we ticked lots of boxes, meeting hairy dogs (Bearded Collies), big scary looking dogs (Dobermans), tall pointy aloof dogs (Madeleine the Saluki), noisy small dogs (JRTs), some lovely lovely Staffies (Roxy and a big brindle gentleman), plus all the collies/crossbreeds/others. She played with Lolly, who is the least likely puppy lover ever, and she also played with Diva. She and Diva are going to be a pair of troublemakers, it’s clear already! Almost all the dogs she met were polite but disinterested, barring a few over-friendly Spaniels who she said hi to and then walked away from, and grumpy Ella, who gave her very clear “go away” signals which she obeyed. Very pleased with those responses.

She met all the people without any bother, not demanding attention but happy to go say hi if they asked her to. Not bothered about the hats/costumes/reflective jackets etc etc, which I was very pleased about. She made me laugh by noticeably favouring the people who had fed her, but she does recognise Emma and Claire now anyway. Also wasn’t bothered by the people carrying boxes or other weird items, or prams/wheeled objects.

I wasn’t sure whether to let her offlead or not, but we hit the enclosed exercise area with Roxy, George, and Lolly and it was empty apart from one other dog on the other side of the arena. I’d already done some recall-rewards with her there earlier, so I let her off for a mooch around. She was very well behaved, explored confidently but knew her limits, played with Lolly and did a few mad laps, and then came back when called. I like puppies to have plenty of freedom as early as possible, otherwise being off-lead becomes a massive adrenelin rush and all the training falls out of the window. So far this is working, let’s hope it holds up!

She freaked out a bit at the very loud and static-y tannoy, but it kept making me jump as well so I don’t blame her. She also wasn’t very happy about the unpredicable 7yr old girl doing weird things, but I know we need a bit more socialisation with children. I don’t know anyone with dog-friendly kids, so that needs thinking about.

She also didn’t much care for the flyball, which is fine by me! She was relaxed and maybe a bit bored when we sat watching the rings, not interested in the noise or the action at all. She is a tugging fiend however, she stole or tried to steal every passing tuggy so I bought her one of her own and she turned into a fierce little tuggy monster. There is no doubting her tug drive, it overrides even tasty food.

Everyone we met mistook her for a Collie, I lost count.

Training & Thoughts

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Leanne

Fun training session this week. We’ve spent a lot of time this month trying to get everyone to pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses so we have things to work on over the winter. So far everyone has something different to work on! This week was our “test week” on big spacey courses, getting the dogs to drive down a long line of jumps. Everyone did well, including Dylan. We’re just having fun at the moment.

Did some contact run throughs as well, I haven’t done any full equipment with him for three weeks, just working on end-position games. We did 2 full dogwalks at the end of the class which were beautiful, I’m excited to see if they hold up in competition!

We also got to chatting about what kind of requirements clubs and training classes should have for new people wanting to join. I think the final agreement was that a solid recall is absolutely necessary, but other than that the dog should have a willingness to work and the handler should have some way of reinforcing the correct behaviour. If you’ve got those three things, you can take any dog to agility or flyball (or whatever) and start work. If you don’t, you need to go away and make sure you have those three things under your belt first!

Also, dogs shouldn’t be fat.

Rocket Relay Seminar #2

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Leanne

Thoroughly enjoyed this second seminar. Team Fever (http://www.flyballfever.com/) did another awesome job organising, and Kelly and Aaron from Rocket Relay were as good as they were last time they visited the UK in March.

Lots of new things to work on, and a lot of new insights for me personally. I know a lot more about BAT training for behaviour than I did at the start of the summer, and it was interesting to see how much of this training is linked to that idea of considering thresholds, and teaching the dog a better behaviour rather than just managing the problem.

Having been at both seminars helping, it was interesting to see how many people had progressed and how many people hadn’t. Personally, I have worked really hard to get Dylan switched to a tug. He is now at the stage where he will switch 100% of the time and is actually spitting the ball on occasion now we’ve reached that point. A lot of other people have obviously worked on the same thing as there was much less ball obsession this time around. Progress!

It was also really satisfying to see Emma run Diva in her private lesson. I’ve been boxloading for Diva in training to keep things consistent for her and so I volunteered to boxload again at the seminar, and so I got a front row seat. Emma held off starting most of Diva’s training until after the first seminar, and has worked really hard with her. It paid off because she was fantastic in her lesson, just little tweaks for Emma. I can’t wait to see her debut next year, I think she’s going to surprise a lot of people. Watch this space!

Not so good for Dylan over at Drax though, due to a team member pulling out the night before (grr), Dyl ended up in an NFC team with 2 dogs from Rotherham, plus Roi and George from our own team. My mum was handling and made the very wise decision to pull him out completely after the first race as despite racing perfectly, he was getting uncomfortable and stressed about the situation. This is such a good example of how much inconsistency and change can upset a dog; our intention was to change one thing about Dylan’s normal flyball situation by running him with a new handler (bearing in mind the intended handler was my mum, who lives in the same house and runs him at training regularly, but has never done so in competition without unfortunate consequences). Instead he ended up with a new handler, a new boxloader, a new box, and 2 new dogs on the team (plus he doesn’t particularly like Drax as a venue anyway). It was far too much change for him and I am so glad mum spotted it and pulled him out.

Of course, on the other hand is Kim. She is way more experienced and it showed. She was totally unphased and so completely kicked ass despite running with a handler she had never met before, on a new box with a new boxloader. (Um, thanks Beth for stepping in and running a strange dog!)

Kim’s Ice Blue Moon

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Leanne

The points have gone up from Kim’s last flyball competitions and she officially has her Ice Blue Moon award.

I always wanted her to get this, and now she has, I feel comfortable saying Kim is going to be retiring from competitive flyball this winter.

She is fit, she is happy, and she still loves to flyball. She’s also 11 in December and I can see how tired she is at the end of a day, how much it takes out of her. Tiny little things that I’m sure most other people couldn’t possibly have noticed; her hind muscles tremble when she’s tired. She slipped badly at training last week, turned on the box and faceplanted immediately as her legs went from under her. She drinks out of the water bowl that’s been dribbled in.

I won’t let her do flyball until she’s injured and is forced to retire. I won’t let her run on painkillers and I won’t let her run as the height dog, as she has done for the whole of her life. I won’t let her run for the sake of one more competition, or one more Champs, or the next award. I won’t let her be one of those dogs who are crippled and tripping over the jumps when they can’t see or hear but “oh, s/he still loves it!”. Kim does still love it, and I am going to miss running her more than anything, but this is the right decision.

Her Ice Blue Moon seems as good a point as any to say, this is it.

Kim will continue training, and to be honest, she will probably make a few guest appearances next summer, as emergency reserve on the team sheet. She’s actually running at Drax whilst I’m at the seminar, teaching our Junior handler the ropes in her first competition. I’ve been hinting for a while that this retirement was looming, and have mentioned it outright in a few conversations, but I thought I’d better make an official post on the reasons, just to stall some of the questions on why.

Dylan will still be competing, as will Mollie – her retirement isn’t my decision anyway! – and hopefully Future!Pup will be around next summer too.