Flyball looks fun...

[Root Beer]

Kristine I will check into those crates. They sound great.

 

They are! Speedy didn't think so here, but this is a nice example of how these crates keep the dog contained, but still allow them to him to interact if you want him to!

 

 

I came up with a good plan. Today I bought a cheap fabric crate from Target. They were $20. So it's not a big deal if it gets ripped up, although I don't want Seek to think it's okay to rip, but if worse comes to worse it was cheap. I am going to buy a metal crate this upcoming week. I am going to start Seek on the crate training.

 

That's not a bad idea. The one in the picture above was victim of Dean being left in it too soon! He tore his way out the door! I was able to sew it and you really can't tell, but it would have been nice if he had not done it.

 

We were on vacation (not the one pictured above) and didn't feel like taking metal crates. We had Speedy and Dean with us and we had the two Port-a-Crates. Dean was not yet uncrated at home when we were out and about, so we zipped him into his when we left and left the door of Speedy's open. We came back to find Dean, pretty as you please, on the bed, having torn his way out the door (one nice neat slit!), and Speedy having crated himself in his!

 

That was before I did the Premack stuff with Dean with the crate. Now he would be as likely to crate himself as Speedy was on that occasion.

 

Anyway, your plan sounds good. Once Seek loves the crate and knows how to settle in it, you can invest in something more sturdy without having to worry so much about it being torn.

[sixx]

That was the cutest story! Made me laugh. I'm going to start on Seek tonight with the crate. Hope all goes well. She usually understands when I want her to do something and tries to make me happy. Fingers crossed

[sixx]

okay, so good news... no, great news! Seek loves her crate.

 

1. I threw treats in the crate and she was more than happy to go and get them.

2. Then after she figured out what she was getting rewarded for, I added the phrase "crate" "yes, good crate"

3. She got so excited when I would say crate that she would run as fast as she could into the crate and turn around and wait while wagging her tail. She was smiling!

4. I was watching a movie and Seek went and laid in her crate.

 

SHE LOVES IT

 

So now comes the next part, besides keep feeding her in it, but by the end of the week we will start the closed door while I sit by her.

 

 

Thanks to everyone who responded, it was very helpful. I would have ended up with a plastic crate that is akward to care and store. Ha. Maybe I'll get one of each kind for different purposes

[angel09]

I am glad that you are interested in such a great sport. I have 3 dogs at the moment my boxer and maltese compete. My BC is in trainning. We have been in flyball for about 3 years, and we have loved it ever since. Your pup sounds like a quick learner, can't wait until she is ready to run in tournament. That may take some time though. It took our Boxer 8 months to learn Flyball, but every dog is different.

 

As far as the crates, I use the soft crates while we are at practice and the wire kennels at home and at tournaments. At night if I can't find my dogs they are in their crates sleeping, they love them. They like the den feel of it. I am glad that Seek likes her kennel, that is always a good thing.

 

Good Luck with Flyball and crate training. Take a look at the flyball forum, you can get all your questions answered there. Here is the website Flyball Forum

[sixx]

I will check out that forum. I can't wait until Seek is ready to compete in flyball and agility. She is so fast! It's hard for me to keep up. I should say I can't wait until "we" are ready. Ha!

 

 

I am going to start closing the door. I wanted plenty of time for her to get used to being in it. Now that she loves it, I think it is time to start that training.

[BorderingOnInsanity]

I train flyball dogs for my mom's team, if anyone needs any pointers or helpful hints, shoot me a message and I'll help you out as best i can!

[PSmitty]

Alex loves flyball! I'm sure Seek will, too.

 

I don't know if this is anything to consider right now, but we use a collapsible metal crate at flyball tournaments. I used to use the canvas kind, but crating areas at our tournaments are usually tight, and our team went to using metal crates so we could stack them if necessary. Sounds like you're making nice progress on the crate training!

 

Videos? Did someone say video? Here are a couple that teammates have taken. Alex runs anchor on our team. (ETA: I know my passing sucks! )

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DTbydjPrKk

 

 

Ditto to those who said to fully train a good turn on the box. You'll see some of our dogs lose their box turns when they're racing. If Alex did that, he wouldn't BE racing. Luckily, he always has a really nice turn.

 

You and Seek have fun!

[sixx]

Videos? Did someone say video? Here are a couple that teammates have taken. Alex runs anchor on our team. (ETA: I know my passing sucks! )

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DTbydjPrKk

 

 

Ditto to those who said to fully train a good turn on the box. You'll see some of our dogs lose their box turns when they're racing. If Alex did that, he wouldn't BE racing. Luckily, he always has a really nice turn.

 

You and Seek have fun!

 

Seek loves flyball! She has been 4 times and already figured it out! It's amazing how fast she learned. We even starte incorporating the swimmers turn by putting a cone in front of the box, and she does it perfectly!! She gets very excited when we go to practice, it's so rewarding. Our team has a demo coming up in april, and Seek will be there to have some fun and run. It will be interesting to see how she does in a new environment. Good practice though.

 

p.s. Your Alex is incredibly fast! Reminds me of Seek.