Luke- Flyball Single Dog Racing

 Your music selection is great!  Go Luke!  The tail never stops wagging, ha haaa, even as he jumps the obstacles, so he is enjoying this plenty.  Well done for training!

 One of the runs (I think 3rd?) he hesitates to leave the grey (mat?) area to get the ball.  I know nothing about flyball, is he not supposed to get off that area?  And . . . are you allowed to give him guidance to find the ball?  Thanks.

Freedom

 One of the runs (I think 3rd?) he hesitates to leave the grey (mat?) area to get the ball.  I know nothing about flyball, is he not supposed to get off that area?  And . . . are you allowed to give him guidance to find the ball?  Thanks.

This is training time, so the rules are a little bit different (as in, mostly don't exist as long as they don't interfere with the other dog). The mat on the side he is on is his lane. He is allowed to leave his lane, as long as he doesn't leave his lane and cross into the other dog's lane. The Fedex box in front of the Flyball box helps him to turn correctly. In an actual race, he can't have that there either. The one before he made the good catch, you can see he loses the ball, and he can't find it for a few seconds. I actually was calling him to come back, because I thought he wouldn't be able to find it. You can't really see, but the person on the side showed him where it was, because he wasn't going to leave without the ball. During a race, the team is timed. If the dog doesn't bring back the ball, you either have to re-run him after all the dogs on the team have gone, or you get no points for the race (you might choose to do that though to save the dog's energy). I wanted him to come back with no ball and run it again. When he runs it and doesn't drop the ball, he takes about 6 seconds to complete the entire thing (time from when he crosses the white pole to start, to when he crosses it again at the end). It took him more than 6 seconds to find that ball. so if we were racing, he probably would have made better time to come all the way back and try again. But, he made his last 4-5 catches, so I think he might have figured out how to catch on this box now.

Way to go, Luke!  He's obviously having a lot of fun.  That facility is really nice.  Is it just for dog activities, or is it some kind of "human recreational building" that you guys use for flyball?  It looks like a great facility.

I've said this before when I see the videos some of you post -- it's so impressive how much training you've done with your dogs and how you direct their energy and natural abilities into something they enjoy.  The commitment to training is very clear in videos like this one!

Go Luke go!

Freedom

 One of the runs (I think 3rd?) he hesitates to leave the grey (mat?) area to get the ball.  I know nothing about flyball, is he not supposed to get off that area?  And . . . are you allowed to give him guidance to find the ball?  Thanks.

Another reason the dogs hesitate to leave the lane is that at most facilities (all the ones I've competed in) the floor is SUPER slippery.  A dog like Pan is very dangerous off the mat and sometimes we have to change up how we run him and catch him to avoid going off the mat (at some places there's not a lot of extra mat at the end of the lane). I prefer it when the dog is reluctant to leave the lane/mat because dogs my dogs' size can really get hurt going off the mat at their speed/force.

In U-fli the dog can fumble the ball and not get flagged as long as he picks it up before the first jump.  If he does any jumps without the ball, or misses jumps with the ball, that's a flag (a re-run if he's on a team, or a no time for Singles racing).  In one of Pan's races, my friend noticed at 4x slow motion that Pan drops the ball off the box and it bounces right back into his mouth without inhibiting his speed or turn.  I never noticed the "dribble" until I watched it super slow motion!

 Thanks for all the info!  So interesting. 

That's some sort of an expo center at a county fairgrounds. I think Luke was reluctant about the change of surface when he did that. Up until last night, he couldn't consistently catch from our teams box, but he can catch from the one in class. He finally figured something out there last night, and caught the last few. He does seem to do better when he has a dog to race, and I also think part of it might have been that he didn't like that transition between the floors. He was fine just walking on that floor to walk around there, it was just making that quick move from the mat to the floor that he didn't  like. He's weird about transitions between surfaces sometimes.

The rules in NAFA are that the dog must go over all 4 jumps, and must carry the ball from the box over the finish line. I believe he could drop it multiple times between jumps, though nobody would probably compete with a dog that did that, as long as he carries that ball over the jumps. If another dog drops a ball before he makes it back, your dog can't pick that ball up and carry that one back. He can also run down carrying a ball, but he has to switch it for the one in the box. The one he comes back with has to be the one that was put in the box for him.

He definitely figured something out in that video!  Nikon is the same way, he usually doesn't catch the first few (and we use the same boxes in training and at tournaments so he has no excuse!).

Liesje

He definitely figured something out in that video!  Nikon is the same way, he usually doesn't catch the first few (and we use the same boxes in training and at tournaments so he has no excuse!).

Our class has a different box than the one our team has. He has had some trouble with the one in class, and when he's just doing box work with no opponent, he's not as good about catching. He's made a few catches on the team box, which is what he's using in the video. Nothing consistent though until this. He'd catch maybe one or two one week, and none the next week. I'm not quite sure what the difference between the two boxes is, but the team box is harder to push in. If I'm boxloading for a while, it hurts my wrist, and when I did it while the lineups for this tournament were practice last week, I had some numb fingers the next day (no need for anyone to worry about this happening to them if they try Flyball, my wrist has pre-existing issues). I don't have any problems with the box in class if I have to do it a lot of times in a row.

When he started catching, he was pretty tired, which is when you'd usually expect things to start falling apart. I'll have to see if he continues to catch in practice now, and if I can get him out next month to another tournament, if he catches there. Hopefully he does and he'll start running on a team soon. 

Callie came with us, but she only just came in the building, walked around the building, and sat around the crating area for a bit. She was super stressed out with just that, so she didn't work this time, and just went back out to the car to relax. Hopefully I can get her to relax a bit so that we can get her running.