K9 Camp Wk 3: Tugging makes the world go round

K9 Camp Wk 3: TUGGING!

Again I had to do a slight twist on the challenge so we could it it into our weekend.

A good game of tug makes Sophie a happy pup. We use tugging as a reward for a clean run in flyball and sometimes in agility. Tugging with a 68lb lab is hard in my opinion. Add that said lab is usually flying full speed at you over 60+ feet to get the tug...eep!

Our normal flyball routine is Sophie goes to the box, as she hits the box I yell her name and then I run while dangling the tug at my side. The tug is to her what my coffee is to me every morning, that extra shot of energy she needs. She comes flying back and I have about two seconds to brace myself as she catches the tug and swings. She then plops all four on the ground and begins tugging with all her might. Which for a big dog is a whole lot. I eventually let go of the tug to grab her harness. When I do she swings the thing from side to side.

We used to use this tug: Notice it has a tennis ball attached to it. Now remember how I said she swung it around....yeah, I ended up with a whole lot of bruises. The tug had to go!!

Tug and image from Crash Test Toys

 So now we use this tug. She still loves it and I am not bruised at the end of the run.

Tug and image from Crash Test Toys!

 I couldn't do the lunging part of the challenge. I swear if I did she would have had me toppling into a face plant. Our tugging session lasts a little less than a minute per heat and we ran 20 heats each day. So we did fall short of the required time but since we were also running a lot (her more than me) I figured it was ok :)

Very old and blurry picture of Sophie tugging (at our first tournament in 2010 right before she was about to enter the ring for the first time to be a warm up dog!)

Looking forward to our next challenge!

Weee we are behind

Life has been hectic. Sophie spent the weekend with my parents while I flew out to MA for a friend's wedding. Finally getting caught up with work and life in general after a long weekend away.

So quick update on us:

I have been working with Sophie on the wobble board. Some progress, she really loves cheese so that has helped a lot! I will be bringing some cheese with us to class on Saturday.

We missed signing up for the rally fun match since I could not find my checkbook. We are on the waiting list, fingers crossed we get to do a run through.

Next flyball tournament is in 3 weeks. Hoping Sophie gets her FDCH-G title, she only needs 250 points.

And now, a picture of Sophie at daycare, doing what she does best :-D

So Lyndsey's comment in my previous post made me think about how and why we got into flyball.

I needed an outlet for Sophie's immense energy. I had seen a few flyball demos and was amazed at the speed and training of the dogs.

Sophie has been a retriever from day 1 (this is a few hours after we brought her home from the shelter)

She could retrieve all day if you let her. I figured what better way to tire her out and combine her love of retrieving. After our first day of class, I realized there is more to it than a dog who loves tennis balls. Your dog has to have great recall since you want them to return to you as fast as possible.

There are a few dogs on our team that our ball obsessed, so they race to the box and then dawdle back to their owner because they do not want to give up their ball.

I spent the first few weeks of classes working on Sophie's drive back to me since she already had drive to her ball. I experimented with different treats, holding another tennis ball and different tugs. During class I never did find something that made her fly back to me. She would come back but with much less speed.

After a short 4-5 month hiatus from class, Sophie and I joined a team. Someone handed me a tug with fuzz on it. I showed it to Sophie, who leapt on to it and proceeded to tug like I have never seen her tug before.

She flies back down the lane for that tug. She ignores other dogs running at her so long as she can see that tug in front of her. That poor tug is on its last leg and will need to be replaced soon.

My team and many people I have met in the flyball world feel any dog can be a flyball dog if they have some drive and stamina. We have a wide variety of dogs on our team, rescues, purebreds, small, big, young and old. I love seeing the different types of dogs all excited and happy to be playing!

Of course it also depends on your team. Some teams are very competitive and run some very fast times. Sophie is not the fastest on our team by any means. Normal time is 5.1, our fast dogs run 4.3 secs. I am fairly confident with some conditioning Sophie can run a consistent 4.8/4.9. But for our team it is more important to have fun! We do try to keep our times under 25 seconds so we can get points on our dogs but we aren't out there hoping to beat the world record.

So for anyone interested in flyball, I say get out there and give it a chance. Find a team willing to train you or a class. It is a lot of fun and addictive. We have no tournament until June and I am already counting down the days! :-)

Then of course there is Sophie’s view of flyball

courtesy of Cafe Press