Flyball

posting here in the general chat as I'm really proud of Ledger who after a few months of intro classes has been invited to join a flyball team for training and the possibility of competing in the starter level team next year

Sadly my shift work may conspire against us when it comes to actually competing but will do my best as he absolutely loves it and it is doing so much for his socialisation and especially his recall when there are other dogs in an excited state close to him 

Like agility there is definitely a collie bias to the sport but from the few months of training such a wide range of breeds have been and watching some of them develop is amazing 4 weeks ago an Italian greyhound started coming she was petrified of everything and wouldn't leave her owners side or pick up a ball, today she did a full run away across the jumps picked the ball and took it back past the other 6 dogs in the hall. 

I initially went expecting Ledger to just run off into the corner and destroy the tennis balls and you could tell some other owners were clearly wary of a staffy but he proved us all wrong and it has actually worked wonders with his fetch and recall in the park and tennis balls survive longer in the house, it was a long old process finding the right reward toy (when they have brought the ball back to you) as the standard fleecy tugs were destroyed instantly with a single tuggy game then I spotted some of the Julius k9 tugs that police dog handlers use figuring they were resilient I ordered one and jackpot. 

The power of a staffy is great for this sprinting event and I wholly recommend everyone to find a local club who host intro classes

one of my friends used to do very well in flyball with her staffies, so much so she had teams fighting to get her dogs on the team.
Its amazing the difference in a dog when they are working for you, out goes the "i'll do that if i feel like it" attitude and in comes the "oh this is fun this is fun what do you want me to do next"
Staffies have lightning fast acceleration and can turn on a penny which makes them ideal flyball dogs. Glad your enjoing it and videos please! love to see dogs enjoying themselves

Great to hear it is going so well

Great stuff Jules. Am thinking of looking for a local group here as I'm sure that Nathan is right, there is a tendency for them just to confirm and become "lazy". Wonder if my older girl could do it !

well done to you both,you must be so proud of him,i love watching it, the dogs always look like their having so much fun

Well done Ledger! Sounds like it is doing wonders for him Can't wait to find somewhere! I think Bane would love it!