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Tell Isaiah WASSUP LOL. He was cracking me up – he gets an A+!! Stitch looked really comfortable coming through and pausing for you to put your hands on him. You can start tossing the reset cookie a little closer behind your leg so it will start to look more like a leg wrap. It also builds more reinforcement for being near you and hanging out with you.
HOLY COW HE IS DOING AMAZING!!! It looked like you had more time between each rep and he was terrific. He didn’t even have someone at the box clapping or calling and he still did great going past Flitwick. The one he did look…. I can’t say I blame him – Flit was basically in his lane (not the 12′ apart that they would be in real Flyball). His box turn is only getting faster and faster.
I want you to graduate to 2 jumps down, 2 jumps back (let me know if you have any questions after watching that exercise video). Keep the ball on the Velcro for a little longer (you could easily transition to the box at practice with a Velcro ball if that is an option). I want him to experience the speed + striding differences that will come with that distance as a separate exercise than the loaded ball. If that goes amazing, then we will start loading the ball on his next session and he’s going to catch just fine – I don’t see him having many issues. I’m so proud of you both – he’s looking terrific!!
Soon you can have Flitwick/helper sitting 5′ behind you when you release, and then run past and reward him behind that helper (so it simulates him taking a pass as the start dog – carry the ball past a dog). That helper doesn’t move for now, but if he sees this dog a lot now… when they start moving it will be less exciting!
Once again – another session with great information. Two more tweaks and I think you will have a higher success rate.
Measure out on your patio 10′ from the base of your hit it board. Place a bean bag or a piece of painters tape on that left side of the board (the non ball side). That is where I want Maverick’s front feet to be lined up each time you let him go.
I want a more consistent routine – it looked like when you threw something different at him he got really excited/rushed and lost his brain. If we can make the setup of flyball “normal” it will become a habit and more boring so he doesn’t get as high. So bring him up, place the ball, take him back, hands on him or have him stand where needed, line him up front feet 10′ from the board, say the same cadence (I think you say Ready Get It).
If you continue to get ball misses on the board – I want you try two things.
1 – tease with the ball a little bit before you put the ball on the board. You might have to hold his collar with one hand and bounce or shake the ball with the other. Talk about it, emphasis the important, and then drag him back to his position and let him go cleanly.
2- If it’s always consistently he misses on the last rep, I would take a cookie break after like 2-3 reps. Just walk around, handful of cookies here or there. Then walk back to the board and setup like you do normally for his first rep.Mat Platform – She’s getting a better understanding that it is the back feet that get the cookie. She was cute trying a few front foot Target tricks, but excellent job waiting her out and helping when needed. I might have you slide that blue mat so it matches the edge of your platform and then wraps and tucks under the other side. I just don’t want her to have an enthusiastic moment and expect the mat to support her, and then she trips going up the platform and is more cautious from them on.
Middle/Get Ready – Nice job on this. You could start adding in your hands on her to restrain her, toss a cookie 3-5′ in front of her, and then tell her GO to release to the cookie. This helps connect those next dots to come in the natural Flyball lineup, hands on, get set, GO.
Leads- The leg that is furthest out front (that second stride) is the leading leg. Here is what I got. She appears to be a leftie, was she turning left after she got the toy? I also have started training them to just turn both ways – so when you do your mat turn work in the next Unit, you can do both ways. It’s best to keep them balanced AND I couldn’t tell with my last dog which way she would turn so I just trained her to do both and then picked the way she decelerated better into the box. I didn’t want to get 4 months down the road and realize I picked the wrong direction.
Right,
Left (I thought it was going to start on a right but switched to Left),
Left,
strong left,
leftTwo Tug Game – if you know the one that she is going to wander off with – keep that one in your hands. It will always be in your possession (just like the tug she will get in the end of the Flyball runs). Then the focus is to make sure she can bring the other tug and keep it in her mouth until you cue her to switch to the preferred tug. Eventually that lesser tug is going to be a ball. And since she already LOVES that one tug, we need to make sure no matter what is down the lanes – she understands the concept of retrieving until you cue the out. Hopefully that helps but let me know if that doesn’t work.
Yay! I love a video that isn’t perfect because then I can give you some new tools and insights.
What I noticed was, when you took your time in the beginning and laid out more rules – he stayed calmer and focused. As you played more tug and turned him around quicker between reps he spiraled and lost a little bit of his brain. Next time try this again and take longer between each rep as you go (you can still play for a good time, I don’t want him flat and calm) because he needs to be able to balance getting a little high/excited, and then coming down into focus. Don’t be afraid to remind him the asks, sit, wait, jump, yes come play now!
When you point for the jump cue – use the hand that doesn’t have the toy. Let me know how it goes!!!
Know Me why are you so freaking CUTE!?! What an excellent control of the body though – no hopping, no slinging around like he’s Tokyo drifting onto that foam pad. Very excellent foundation behavior – love this and I know you won’t have trouble adding distance when he’s ready. I loved best when he picked his feet up high in anticipation of that mat.
You have a nice foundation and some nice turns and I love that you want to keep striving for even better! I noticed that the front feet are hitting too far from the ball (see 0:36 where Yumbi’s front feet are landing under the opposite hole versus more towards the center). It could have been the runner or that gutter prop adding some new pressure to push her over away from the ball. I would be curious if you took away that upright on the rear side and moved that gutter over/removed it altogether what do you get while keeping the runner.
Her commitment to the box/ball is great, even with you running in the opposite direction. She is sometimes on the wrong lead (her left front, then right front landing is the wrong lead), but it’s caused because she’s leaning. I think if the releaser made sure her front feet were side by side (might even have to slightly pick up and put back down to square up) then she will have a cleaner approach. That will get rid of that front foot resets.
I typically train with the goal of minimal props in mind. The more you toss in front, the more you have to fade. And if the props are setup this way to tweak an issue… maybe there is another root cause that I can help fix versus the symptom. Hence why I was curious what it would look like with less. The height on that side angle looked great too – you might could go down to something that is the height of 2 gutter props stacked together. Nice job having that prop right up against the box!
How many holes does your box have? What types of balls are you allowed to use in competition?
Hello Emily!! I’m so glad to have you training with me online – and hopefully you can use some of these techniques with your club! I have a goal of making it to Australia to teach – so hopefully I will get to see in you person too!
Retrieving the ball – He is so freaking pumped about this game!! I would say that he is starting to pattern land over the jump with his front feet and spit the ball. So I would either start adding in some ball to hand targeting (he brings it to your hand, you say “YES” and give a treat or start the tug game). Or you can try to start making it clear that he can’t out until you say “YES”. Right now the yes is coming when he is already outing the ball, so he might think that spitting is delivering the reward. It might be a few sessions of confusion on his part as you try to make it clearer that he can’t spit till you tell him to OUT or YES. I often think the hand targeting is a clear visual and it helps them focus on driving back to that target (the quicker I target to the hand the quicker I get to play the game or eat the treat). I start the basics for the ball touch with a nose touch, and then I’ll play grabby tug ball and slap them around and then have them “accidentally” run the mouth full of ball into my open hand (I do try to make it be their movement forward, not your hand moving towards their face). Once that hand and ball touch – magic party happens. Then I’ll take a little calm 60-90 second break… make it seem like we are done and they end up wanting more!! Let me know if you have anymore questions on that one!
Slant Board – he for sure seems happier to the right so let’s focus on training to the right. I am so happy that you are taking it slow and really waiting on him to target those rear feet. You can go back to standing on the right side and pointing with your right hand to ask him to get up. I’m fine if you keep using some with the prop, and some without the prop!
Once it clicks in his head – it’s going to be smooth sailing to start to ask for more speed. When you get to the speed, he might respond well to a slingshot approach. You standing on his right side near the blue mat further back, place your left hand on his chest and press him backwards slightly as you move forward towards the hit it board. Then you stop about 2-3′ from the board and point forward with your right hand to ask him to target or “hit-it” and his momentum should carry him forward. Basically you get a one step head start on him LOL.A lot of my bigger dogs excel when we add some speed/distance, the up close is physically harder because that’s a lot of body to move.
Transitioned to the box height AND focused with distractions – huge wins indeed!!!
You could lower your velcro on your at home board to be closer to your box hole height and he can keep practicing that lower position.
I like that you are using the same concept of rewarding getting close to the jump, and then taking off for it. I would add in a little bit of work of getting him closer to the jump bar, putting him in a sit, and then asking him to jump over. He should be close enough that he cannot take a step forward with his front legs. If you stopped this motion in time, it would look like a sit pretty before jumping over. He used his front to pull through all of these obstacles and I want to see more push from the rear as he goes over. In slow mo you can see the front extends fully and pulls and his rear is there for the ride. It’s fitness building feedback but it will serve him well transitioning that training to Flyball!
Yay Cat! I’m super excited for you with Stitch – and you know I’m with you on the hopes and plans for having boys to run their own Flyball dogs. I feel like you are ahead of me LOL.
I LOVE LOVE LOVED that jump session. I’m so impressed how clearly he knows his job is to jump that hurdle. And the few at the end where he really drove ahead for the toy!! He’s going to LOVE Flyball. He clearly likes motion – so we will keep that in our pocket to know that he might love a clapper/running when we add in more distance between you and the ball/board or box. It might also mean that the other dog’s motion is going to be really hard for him, so we will keep an eye out. But you have a great relationship with him and used that knowledge to give him a breather when he needed, and then engage him again with toy play/motion. Do you have a longer tug that has a toy on the end – with the sighthound in him he might like that prey drive of chasing off the ground to play with you!
The first turns on the ground and slant board were perfection. After it rocked and was unstable he lost some trust/confidence and had to test it out – you can actually see him looking down at it to see if it was going to slip out or try to kill him. I can tell he has more self preservation than those breeds that throw themselves at boards like you mentioned. You actually did some really nice “over and back” motions in the yard jump video where you sent him ahead to do the turn versus luring him – so that snap is in there! I don’t think you need to worry as much on the speed – like you said let him understand what you are asking, build confidence, and then we can ask for the speed! Some dogs move to a 70-80 degree slant board in 3-4 sessions, some take a little longer. I will also take the slant back down when I add the ball for a session, and then build it back up to being steep. Then he can put together okay retrieve this ball, and do it super fast so gravity doesn’t make me fall – but he doesn’t have to do both of those at the same time.
Question for you – how did you determine he is a right turner? I had originally thought he was going to be a leftie because all but 1 of his hallway reps was a turn to the left.Could have just been where the ball or toy was landing – but I thought I would ask. Does he spin on his own in excitement in a certain direction?
Restrained Recalls – you have two behaviors it looks like to start targeting. She’s never going to bail on you when you are running away – she is targeted on you. She’s starting to learn that approaching the box and the out is going to be a harness snatch. I would start asking for the out, and doing a cookie scatter. As she eats the scatter you pet her and gently grab her harness. (Collar grabs at home will also pay out – my dogs learn young to put their necks in my hand for cookies).
She’s also most likely to cross to visit the other dog between outing the tug and lining up. Or when you were walking down the first time. I’d make it a bigger deal to focus at the box. She’s doing the recall and getting a cookie or tug game. But then we get back down to the box and you ask for some tricks/engagement. Do 1-2 easy tricks that are fun and start tugging again or give a jackpot. She will think it really pays well to stay focused.
