Author Topic: Flyball!  (Read 10567 times)

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Offline Fluff

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Flyball!
« on: March 06, 2014, 04:12:22 PM »
Daisy is off to her first ever flyball session on Saturday! I'm very excited and I'm sure she would be too if she knew  :005: They said they had a few working cockers there so at least she won't be a complete shock when she arrives like a whirling dervish!

Offline dipsydoodlenoodle

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Re: Flyball!
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2014, 07:49:57 PM »
Good luck. We are having our first one at the end of the month :)
My beautiful little boy Charlie :)


Offline Fluff

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Re: Flyball!
« Reply #2 on: March 08, 2014, 06:43:55 PM »
We had a great time!!! They said Daisy was a natural and picked it up as fast as any dog could. She was so focused on the ball and was a little star, I'm so pleased and we will be back next week for sure.

She was just doing run backs, at first watching my OH run over the jumps and then following and then with him waiting at end and calling her.

Hard to get decent pics but here are a few:







 And on way home:

Offline Millipede

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Re: Flyball!
« Reply #3 on: March 08, 2014, 07:14:35 PM »
Bless lovely pictures  :blink: Millie has been doing flyball for a few months and loves it - she gets so excited and is shattered when we get home  :005: Cockers are good in the team as they are 'height' dogs (so the jumps can be lower for the bigger dogs. Enjoy  :lol:

Offline Redked

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Re: Flyball!
« Reply #4 on: March 11, 2014, 12:44:51 AM »
Awww I have only just seen this (loads of missed posts at the minute). Looks great. Would love to get Bonnie into either flyball or agilty but we have nothing suitable locally. Daisy is gorgeous....biased I know but she is  :luv: :luv:

EmmaG82

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Re: Flyball!
« Reply #5 on: March 11, 2014, 08:21:50 AM »
Looks awesome, I can't wait to take Jack, he's like a little whippet he runs so fast so should be good at it. How old do the dogs have to be before they can start?

Offline Fluff

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Re: Flyball!
« Reply #6 on: March 11, 2014, 08:26:37 AM »
Most places say a year but we are just doing the gentle beginners stuff with Daisy and not doing too much so they were happy with her doing it a little bit younger!

Red, I think Bonnie and Daisy could be twins  :005: Both such gorgeous girls!

Offline tangy tango

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Re: Flyball!
« Reply #7 on: March 12, 2014, 10:55:23 PM »
It looks like Daisy had a lot of fun at flyball training  :D

We had a lovely young working cocker boy start recently and the owner was pleased to report he actually slept when they got home after class! He such a happy boy and wags his whole body :luv:

As a cocker owner I am always pleased to see more cockers trying flyball and enjoying themselves. The sport used to be dominated by collies but our club now probably has more non-collies, we seem to attract a lot of spaniel types  ;) It is good for multibreed competitions though as we can normally enter a few teams and as someone else pointed out cockers generally bring the jump heights down.

Offline Redked

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Re: Flyball!
« Reply #8 on: March 12, 2014, 11:51:31 PM »
Well just shows how much I know. Last time I googled fly ball nothing came up. Ive just searched again and there are 2 clubs in Mansfield! Will look into this further.

Can anyone give me some advice on the sort of experience/training needed to join?

Offline Fluff

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Re: Flyball!
« Reply #9 on: March 13, 2014, 02:03:35 AM »
The place we take her just asked for well socialised dogs with decent recall :) We have no experience  :005: but the beginner classes are for total novices :)

Offline tangy tango

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Re: Flyball!
« Reply #10 on: March 13, 2014, 09:20:52 AM »
Redked I think the regional rep for your area is Emma Foody.  If you email her - emmafoody@hotmail.com - she should be able to give you details of the flyball clubs nearest to you.  You may have seen the Mansfield Marnicks on TV as they won the flyball at Crufts this year  :D 

There is also a map with most clubs details on the British Flyball Association site: http://www.flyball.org.uk/flyball_map.php

You don't really need any experience, good basic training helps but it is new environment and a lot of dogs get distracted at first.  I just ask our new starters to bring high value treats and we do work with tuggies to see what motivates each dog.  Having a good reward normally helps focus the dog on their handler  ;)

Offline Fluff

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Re: Flyball!
« Reply #11 on: March 13, 2014, 11:25:29 AM »
We're quite lucky as Daisy is a ball fiend, nay, obsessive, so the reward for her is getting to fetch the ball and bring it back because she loves to do that! They asked me to stand away from run so OH could do some runs with her in case she was distracted, but as I expected, the minute she saw there was a ball, I didn't even exist  :005: She was quite distracted before the ball came out though as it was a new place with lots of new people and new dogs, so she was spinning around on her lead a bit but she did settle.

We have an indoor session tonight so I will report back!  :shades:

Offline Redked

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Re: Flyball!
« Reply #12 on: March 13, 2014, 06:31:35 PM »
Thats great Tangytango, thank you. I will give Emma a quick email to see if they have a beginners class nearby (might wait a month though as she was only spayed 2 weeks ago). Have wanted to do some activity with Bons since her pup classes stopped but had a couple of bad experiences with the agility classes/trainer I found  >:( When I looked at fly ball there was nothing. Hope this works out xx

Fluff, Bonnie is definitely related to Diasy; she lives for her tennis ball. Highest value treat even above raw meat  :005: So they look identical and are very much alike too. Hope that gets us a bonus point for fly ball! XxX

Offline Archie bean

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Re: Flyball!
« Reply #13 on: March 13, 2014, 08:56:17 PM »
Only just seen this too. What great pics. I would love to have tried Archie with fly ball. It of course there is NO way he would give up the ball at the end of the run!  :shades:

Offline Fluff

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Re: Flyball!
« Reply #14 on: March 13, 2014, 09:04:27 PM »
Our second session was great, three cockers there so it was chaos  :005: But Daisy did great! She doesnt like to give the ball up either!  :005: Luckily not mega important for flyball it seems!