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Hi all,

 

I am just wondering what are some views on allowing Patch (13 months) to begin flyball training with a nearby club professional.

 

He certainly has the speed and ability to catch the ball, is it worth while allowing this training to begin or do I continue solely with the agility training first that we are currently doing?

 

Thanks.

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This isn't advice specific to which sport to train, but I just wanted to caution you to be careful with how much agility OR flyball (whichever you decide to pursue) training you do with him at this age. Remember he's still growing at 13 months old and you may want to limit repetitive, high impact (jumping obstacles, launching off the flyball box) activity at his age. It's not to say you can't do foundation work with him and start prepping him for these activities, just be careful not to overdue the hard stuff until your certain he's finished growing. Have fun and happy training in whichever sport you decide to go after.. or both!! :)

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I have competed in both agility and flyball with multiple dogs. We have always started our dogs in agility first. They seem to pick up the flyball part pretty quickly as they already know how to jump and focus on their "job".

 

None of our dogs have ever had a problem with jumping or dropping bars in agility. I don't know if that's just because they were naturally good jumpers or if starting with agility made the difference. I personally think that dogs that drop bars either have a jumping problem or it's in their mental make-up to jump flat. If it's mental playing flyball would certainly encourage it.

 

My current dog was a little over 2 years old when she started flyball training. She already had a year of agility training, including 6 months of foundation agility. Since we've started competing I take her to a veterinarian that specializes in sports and rehab about 4 times a year just to make sure we aren't doing any physical harm and to identify areas that might need strengthening.

 

Gina and Abbey

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Hi all,

 

I am just wondering what are some views on allowing Patch (13 months) to begin flyball training with a nearby club professional.

 

He certainly has the speed and ability to catch the ball, is it worth while allowing this training to begin or do I continue solely with the agility training first that we are currently doing?

 

Thanks.

Don't rush to do too much so early or you risk doing neither sport particularly well. Get one under your belt first then move on to the other.

 

Plenty of dogs do both without detriment to performance. Dogs aren't stupid and easily learn to recognise the different demands of each sport.

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You'll get lots of different opinions on this. The jumping styles for the two sports are different, but the jumps heights are also usually quite different. My dogs have never had any problem going back and forth. On of my dogs was a 10 inch height dog in flyball. She started in flyball and didn't do agility until she was almost 4. She jumps 16 inches in agility and it's extremely rare that she hits a bar. So, if you want to do flyball, I wouldn't worry about it affecting agility.

 

As long as you are training with a club who is teaching safe box turns, you shouldn't have any problem starting a dog 13 months old. I start foundation work long before that.

 

Good luck! I hope you and your dog like it. :)

 

Dana

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None of our dogs have ever had a problem with jumping or dropping bars in agility. I don't know if that's just because they were naturally good jumpers or if starting with agility made the difference. I personally think that dogs that drop bars either have a jumping problem or it's in their mental make-up to jump flat. If it's mental playing flyball would certainly encourage it.

 

We are also joint flyball/agility family. Our Malinois jumps 26" at agility and in flyball we're usually over the 7-9" range. He doesn't drop bars and he doesn't nick flyball jumps.

 

My opinion is that dogs that drop bars will drop bars no matter what other activities they do or don't do.

 

13 months is totally fin to start training. Just take it slow, don't do too much. We cross train regularly and also have the dogs see a Chiropractic/Massage person.

 

Our puppy is 6 months old and she is currently doing a bunch of different kinds of recalls without jumps, she's learning to exchange the ball for a tug, and started doing targeting work in preparation for learning the box once she's older. She's also doing distraction work, and just having a good time playing with her person.

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I do both with my 2 y/o border collie. I started with intro/foundational pre-agility training. Began agility and flyball training in earnest when he was 16 months. He competes very well in Flyball, fast and rock solid reliable. Still working at the agility thing. Has a couple novice Q's to his credit, but does have some issues knocking down a jump bar in agility. Part of that may be he turned on to the flat sprint/hurdle motion of flyball. Part of that is also that he does not really value the jumps yet in agility. He will rocket towards a contact or a tunnel, but can very easily get pushed or pulled by me as a handler, and go around or by a jump.

 

The consensus opinion I got from agility / flyball people was to train agility first, then later add flyball. I did not listen! Its fine, he adores flyball and we have fun together in agility.

 

Best advise, take it slow and enjoy.

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