I am the team captain for a small team. We offer flyball lessons to newcomers who show an interest in flyball. Unfortunately, it takes at least 6 months to get a flyball dog ready to race and sometimes a year or more. By then, most new people lose interest and drop out. Do you know of a training method that can shorten the time necessary to get a dog tournament ready?
There is a "technique" that has the potential to greatly reduce the amount of time it takes to prepare a dog for Flyball competition. Known as "Immersion" Training, it takes advantage of the fact that any creature with a "brain" is capable of learning several things simultaneously. This has been proven in scientific behavior labs all over the world. It even works with humans!
When you think of it, schools everywhere already use this. We take courses in Arithmatic, Reading, Science and Geography simultaneously. Of course, while each subject is being taught, we are not necessarily discussing all the others but, before the day is over, each subject has had a lesson to further education goals. It is not necessary to have taken ALL the lessons in Arithmatic in order to begin learning Geography and Science.
How can we apply this to Flyball Training? First, we must recognize that "flyball" is a series of seperate behaviors that are performed in an ordered sequence. We call this "chaining'. Some trainers actually teach their dogs in a sort of "reverse" chain. First, they teach a recall. Then, they introduce the box. Last, they train the dog to jump the jumps and fetch a ball. After the dog has mastered these different behaviors, these trainers will string these behaviors together in a "back-chaining" technique. You will produce a flyball dog using the back-chaining method but, the question becomes "how long will that take?" The answer is often much longer than people who are "new" to flyball or dog training are willing to invest.
Immersion Training in flyball is simply breaking down the "flyball chain" into its simplest parts and teaching them as seperate behaviors but, receiving lessons on all the behaviors on the same day. As an example: You might begin your practice session with several recall exercises. You might begin on the flat and then introduce jumps as "one jump", two jumps and so on. Then, you may give your dog a small 10-15 minute break and bring them back into the training area to do some box work. Could be on a slant board or the real flyball box. The point is that working on the swimmers turn is worked seperately from the recall exercise.
After another break of sufficient length, you again work the dog on some aspect of the retrieve. Whether you choose to work "with" jumps or no jumps is up to your choosing and depends on the dog's level of understanding. But, retrieve (or, going away from you) should definitely be worked seperately from the box and the recall.
Work these behaviors seperately until they are fully ingrained in your dog's understanding and your dog is fully "proofed" and consistent with thses behaviors before you start "chaining" the behaviors together. You will find that doing so will shorten the time necessary to prepare your dog for tournament competition.
See you at practice!
