Flyball

[Dakotah]

I am hopefully to get a Chocolate Lab puppy soon and I want to do advanced obedience and hopefully move into Flyball.
Can anyone tell me about Flyball? Like how old they have to be before doing it, how old they need to be to start training, and anything else.
Its really hard for me to unserstand Flyball by reading stuff on websites or out of books. So if anyone can tell me about Flyball from their personal experience or what they know will be greatly welcome.
TIA :)

[lizzybeth727]

Did you check out the website, www.flyball.org? There are videos of dogs running flyball, that might be useful for you.

I have never done flyball with my dog, agiliy appealed much more to me personally. So the only bit of advice I can give you is that you probably won't want to start training for flyball until your dog is at least 6-12 months old, because otherwise you could damage a larger dog's joints.

[Dakotah]

Did you check out the website, www.flyball.org? There are videos of dogs running flyball, that might be useful for you.

I have never done flyball with my dog, agiliy appealed much more to me personally. So the only bit of advice I can give you is that you probably won't want to start training for flyball until your dog is at least 6-12 months old, because otherwise you could damage a larger dog's joints.

thank you :D
I will look at that website asap.

[Maxy24]

Yeah don't start with the flyball right away but build the skills needed to do flyball. work on building a high "ball drive" in the pup and teach a retrieve with lots of praise and happiness when she brings it to you. You can probably teach her to jump over really tiny jumps (like 2 inches to start) you make yourself just so she's comfortable jumping over stuff without hesitation. Just roll a ball down the hallway while holding her back then let her go once it's going at a nice pace so she'll chase it down, then have her bring it back. I also read that you need to find out if she's a "lefty" or "righty" by seeing which way she usually turns to bring the ball back after she gets it rolling down the hall. i don't know why you need to know i just read you did :p

[Dakotah]

Yeah don't start with the flyball right away but build the skills needed to do flyball. work on building a high "ball drive" in the pup and teach a retrieve with lots of praise and happiness when she brings it to you. You can probably teach her to jump over really tiny jumps (like 2 inches to start) you make yourself just so she's comfortable jumping over stuff without hesitation. Just roll a ball down the hallway while holding her back then let her go once it's going at a nice pace so she'll chase it down, then have her bring it back. I also read that you need to find out if she's a "lefty" or "righty" by seeing which way she usually turns to bring the ball back after she gets it rolling down the hall. i don't know why you need to know i just read you did :p

thank you!
I will be doing those training tips you gave me. If she turns out not be good at Flyball then i'll do competitive obedience with her.
I plan on taking her to puppy classes once I get her and get her use to everything around my house and my rountine.

[Dekka]

The most important thing IMO is to really evaluate the structure of the dog. Flyball can be a very physically demanding sport on a dog. Esp the 'heavy' dogs. So if this is a conformation bred lab, she (or he) will need really good structure to stay sound. You will also want to join a club with a good box. All the training in the world to teach a great turn matters not if the box is bad. (ok well a bad turn on a bad box is worse ..but you get where I am going)

Personally I am an agility person through and through (I like to train) lol, but I do have friends that are really into flyball.

[Maxy24]

yeah what do the pups parents look like? Are they the stocky type or working, lean looking type?

[Dakotah]

yeah what do the pups parents look like? Are they the stocky type or working, lean looking type?

I have not seen the parents yet. I am going, with my dad, next week to look at the parents and the pups. The pups are not even a month old yet so IF I decide to get one i want get her til about the end of Feb. or beginning of March.
I will take pictures of the parents and the pups so yall can see them.