How To Train Your Dog For Flyball: Part 2 TUG TIME

Alright everyone! So your dog can catch the ball about 80%-90% of the time. Which is fantastic. The next step will be a little tricky to explain and teach, but it's a very important piece in the training of Flyball. So let's see if we can get through this with the least amount of confusion.

Now that your dog can catch the ball, you would think its time to move onto the jumps. Nope. Not yet. The next step is to train your dog to come running back to you at full force without wondering off and here's how we do this.

It takes two people, you and your helper. Your helper is going to take your dog and stand holding him back (like the picture above) right behind the start line. Now you should be standing about 1/2 way the run track holding a tug, Frisbee, treat, or ball, etc. or whatever else your dog may like. Your dog should be facing away from the jumps and box and looking straight at you.

Now that you guys are in position, you call your dog's name and take off running full force, holding the reward in your left hand and down at the dogs level while you running at a slight angle to the right. DO NOT LOOK BACK AT YOUR DOG! That last part is very important. When you look back, you slow down which in turn can make your dog slow down or you could trip.Below is a picture of how this should work.

See how the person is running away from the dog while calling his name and holding the reward down. Do not stop running till your dog reaches you. Once he does, reward him a lot. Let him know how happy you are and get him hyped up to go again and again and again. I was able to run Rascal 13 times with only a 5 minute break between half of those. That's how excited he needs to be. You need to pump him up a lot and then charge!

After this, if he continues to do everything right, move him back a foot at a time till he's behind the first jump (your jump should be set at the lowest height for now). Then you train him like you have been without the jumps and slowly keep moving him back. Some dogs grasp this concept really fast and others take longer. Take your time and train him right. It's worth not having to go back and retrain. Old habits are extremely hard to break.

Here's another picture. If you have more questions then please comment below. I will be glad to answer any questions. Have a great day everyone!!!

P.S. The dog should not be carrying the ball back over the jumps at this time. The only time you need a ball is when working on ball work or as a reward.

NEXT:  How To Train Your Dog For Flyball: Part 3 BOX WORK

How To Train Your Dog For Flyball: Part 1 BALL WORK

Before  we get into anything to do with balls, I want to explain the method of training I'm using.

The method we use in flyball is called backwards chaining, and this is where you start at the end and work your way to the front or in this case we start with the dog running back to you and work our way to where you send the dog for the ball.  Now, you may be somewhat confused by what I just said, but don't worry, you will begin to understand as I take you step-by-step through this process.

Now, I know I said that we work backwards which means, like I said, I should be showing you how to work your dog on running back to you, but think about it for a second.  When the dog is running back to you, what does he have?  A ball! Your dog is bringing the ball to you, so we need to make sure that your dog can do this before we work on anything else.

Okay.  So let's get started.  The first thing we start with is your dog and a couple of tennis balls or racket balls, or whatever ball works the best with your dog (squeaky balls are not allowed in competition).  I would recommend doing this activity outside, so you don't break anything.

The next thing we are going to do is get our dog into a sit and make sure to get his attention.  Gently toss the ball at his mouth. The goal, of course, is for the dog to catch the ball.  If he does then praise him, even if he catches it and immediately drops it. I would treat him too even if your dog normally just accepts praise. Try this for about 5-10 times and if he continues to catch it then it's time to move him on to the next step.

No the next step is not doing jumps.  Be patient.  Flyball takes a lot of time and patience in order to train a dog to exceed.  The next step is to start throwing the ball higher over his head and watch him jump to get it.  Even if he still sits there, that's ok too, just make sure he catches it.  Once your dog is doing this about 100% of the time, you can start the next step which is bouncing the ball.

Now you may wonder, "Why are we teaching them to catch a bouncing ball?"  It's because, sometimes when a dog hits the box and the ball comes out, it will, at times, hit the dog's mouth and bounce off.  The ball might roll away or bounce somewhere.  If this happens, you want your dog to be able to get the ball back the fastest way possible.  If it's rolling, then your dog will probably just chase it down and grab it.  To me, that is probably the fastest way, but if it's bouncing, the fastest way for him to get it and get it back to you is for him to catch it on a bounce.  You might also be thinking, "Well, my dog can do that?"  But you need to ask yourself, "Can he do it 100% of the time, without the ball hitting his teeth and bouncing even farther away?". Yes, I expect my dogs to be able to do this, but I train them for it and practice with them on it.  I'm not saying they can preform this task 100% of the time, but they don't get rewarded if they don't. So here's how to do this.

Start with your dog in a sit and bounce the ball lightly so it comes up about eye level on him. If he catches it, then reward him and repeat again about 5 times.  Gradually work to where you're bouncing it about 10 feet high.  Don't reward him unless he catches it without it bounces off his teeth.  Once your dog can do this, start bouncing the ball away from him.  Let him chase it but only praise him if he catches it on a bounce.

After your dog can perform this task fairly well, then you can move on, but make sure to practice this every once in awhile to make sure he doesn't get rusty.

I certainly hope you enjoyed learning how to do this.  I hope to one day have videos of me training my dogs to do this so you will have something more to go on. But if you have any questions or need help with a problem your dog is having then just post a comment and I'll try to help you out.

Hope you all have a wonderful day and remember, training is meant to be fun.  Train Away!!!


NEXT:  How To Train Your Dog For Flyball: Part 2 TUG TIME

The Fantastic 4

Well, now that it has finally cooled off some, we have been able to get back to training the dogs for flyball. We have had two meetings so far and in that time, we have worked on box turns, fallen jumps, and have picked our team/group name. As you guys probably know, we were once called Puppy Play Group and then Canines For Christ, but since we have decided to just do flyball, we needed a name that would reflect on what we were as a flyball team. So after a discussion, thinking of names, and drawing from a hat, we picked "The Fantastic 4".

Now that I'm leading things up, I'm hoping things will get done and hopefully Rascal and Millie Mae will be ready to compete at the Raleigh tournament in January with the Fayetteville Freedom Flyers.

We also have the four dogs that we need in order to have a full team. We have Rascal, Millie Mae, Amber, and Peppe, but it will be sometime next year before Amber and Peppe are ready to compete and we sill need two more dogs as back ups.

Hopefully, sometime soon, we will have business cards, fliers, a website, and money to buy a new box and a set of new jumps. So, right now things are running smoothly.

I should have pirctures and info next week to post, so you will be able to meet everyone on the team. I will also be posting training videos and starting up the "How to Train Your Dog for Flyball" post series again.

I hope you guys enjoy hearing about our adventures on the track. Please let me know how your training is going and give me any kind of feedback on my post or blog. We would love to hear from you all.

Have a great day!

Rascal's Training

OK! So, to follow up my "What's up?" post, I'm going to talk about Rascal's training. It's kinda funny. I really don't have a lot to say. LOL.

Jessica and I have been working the dogs pretty hard when we have time to get to together. Rascal and Millie Mae should be ready to compete at the Raliegh tournament in September.

We have gotten them both to do the jumps and box up and back, but we still are having to work on their passing.

I think we are going to try and go to Fayetteville to work the dogs with the team this Sunday. Wish us luck!!!

"Flyball has helped fulfill my life and it can help you, too."

BYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!