People often ask “How do you get a dog to run down a lane, jump four hurdles, take a ball from a spring loaded box and then return back down the lane and come to you with the ball still in its mouth?” Well, here’s our method. First completely enclose the training area in netting and make a gate in the netting for access, let the dog enter the area using the gate and do not encourage the dog to jump over the netting. This saves what can seem like hours trying to catch a dog that wants to play with a ball and not want to return to its handler. These sort of episodes can be both frustrating and embarrassing for someone who is new to the sport and new to the team. We don’t want to put people off, we want to encourage newcomers, it takes no more than ten minutes to net off a training area and we think it pays dividends.
Once we have the trainee dog in the training area we walk the dog over the first jump and ask the handler to call their dog back, when the dog returns the handler gives the dog lots of praise and maybe a treat. We then build on this by getting the dog to come back to the handler from behind jump two, jump three and finally jump four.
We now introduce the ball and start getting the dog to take a ball from the trainer who is positioned near the box, and return to the handler. We start with the handler behind the first jump from the box letting go of their dog, running down to the run back area, (hopefully before the dog), and praising the dog on its return. We repeat this process from jump two, three and finally four, after this we let the handler go and have a sit down as they are usually a tad weary. At the start of the second session with a new dog, we do a run back from the box followed by the dog retrieving a ball held by the trainer and returning to the handler. We can generally gauge which jump the dog needs to start the second session from, but if the dog ‘isn’t having it’ move nearer to the box. Once the basic down to the box and back has been mastered the next challenge is getting the dog to trigger the box. We’ve found this will come naturally at some point. It’s a matter of the trainer gradually giving the ball to the dog at a point nearer and nearer to the box, then putting the ball in the box when they are confident the dog will trigger the box. If this doesn’t happen at the first attempt put a ball in the box and hold a second ball in front of it, as the dog approaches the box quickly take the held ball away and momentum should finish the retrieve.
After the dog has the basics and the handler is confident they can move on we remove the netting in the run back area. From this point on the dog has realised flyball is fun and will want to get the ball, so we then concentrate on removing the side netting and using it as wings at either side of the jumps. When Stan made the training netting he made some in ten foot sections which means our side netting converts to jump wings by simply moving a pole. When a dog and handler are happy with their progress we integrate them into the main team and start doing cross overs. We also set up a second lane and have new dogs running in the second lane against existing dogs in the first lane. After that it’s on to BFA starter tournaments and finally running in division.