Friday, October 11, 2013

FitDog Friday

I honestly have no pictures to post today, and no awesome fitness information to share. However, one of my favorite flyball training blogs put up a new post about jumping in relation to flyball. I thought it was an enjoyable read, and very informative.

SPECTRUM DOGS: Jumping for Flyball

I agree with her point about using gates for teaching jumping in flyball. I've always thought it was a rather cop-out method. Yes, it works with some dogs. But it shouldn't be necessary if you properly train the jumping, either the way she describes it or by doing a simple back chaining.

I'm also super interested in trying out some of the jump grids she talks about. I've never liked using extra props to get dogs to do things. Adding props means you have to then wean off of props. This is true for box jumps, stride bumps, etc. The more things you add, the more things you have to wean away from. So, if using jumping grids can help with teaching proper striding, it would be one more step to not having to use, or to minimizing the use of, stride bumps, while still ending up with proper striding.

I wish I had more indoor space to practice. My house is too small to do much- even doing basic up close box work requires moving stuff to get enough room. I'll just have to take advantage of dry days as much as possible I guess!

3 comments:

  1. This is such an education for me - I never knew so much thought and planning went into these sports. Makes total sense though. I agree with what you say about the props - it's just one more thing to then have to train - if you can do it without, that's an easier route it would seem. Thanks for sharing this and for joining the Hop - always learn something new from the Flyball folks!

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  2. Hi I just wanted to let you know that I have nominated your blog for the "One Lovely Blog Award"! For more information visit foxymblog.blogspot.ca post of Oct 12, 2013. Congratulations!

    Foxy

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  3. Flyball is such amazing exercise and has so many performance components...I had one dog that did well with it, but Gizmo has no interest in balls so it's a miss for us now...I do so love watching flyball in action

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