A few days ago, a reader commented on one of my old posts about my ball-obsessed BC, Rooster.
She was asking for help with her own ball-obsessed dog, and since the post was so old, I figure most of you didn't see it.
Here's what she asked:
"Can someone help with my ball obsessed dog? I was searching the web for tips and came across this blog.
I have a mix that can run the flyball pattern perfectly, has a good box, and great speed to/from the box (usually runs consistent 3.8's) but he cannot run in competition because he chases the balls in the run back - thus interfering with the other team. We have only been able to run him when our two division 1 teams raced against each other and even then he was in the way of our A team being able to re-run their dogs. He likely won't compete again because he chases every ball in motion. Once the ball is "dead" we can catch him - but there are no "dead" balls at tournaments.
At home in the back yard, I can take 2-3 balls out in the yard and the floppy frisbees. He ignores the balls. I can even kick one past him and he stays fixated on the frisbee. For whatever reason, this does NOT translate over to our flyball practices.
Please help - it is heartbreaking to have a dog with this much potential and not be able to run him. Just to give you an idea of how long we've been dealing with this issue - he's 3 1/2 now."
Frankly, I'm as perplexed as she is! I'm thinking there's probably some work that needs to be done between what happens in the yard and what happens in flyball practice -- where you start out in a slightly more stimulating environment than the back yard but not at flyball-practice excitement level, and work your way up to that level over time.
It would be helpful to see what the dog actually does during racing, too -- does he totally blow his handler off as long as there are balls moving around? As in, won't even look at her?
I had a BC, Vette, who was so ball obsessed that he would run around the runback area and pounce on any ball that moved, like a cat with a mouse (except he wasn't graceful like a cat, so he'd crash into the back wall or the ring gating a lot). We came up with a very reliable way to catch him and hold him in between races, but he also wasn't actively trying to evade me -- it wasn't like he was looking out of the corner of his eye to see where I was and intentionally keeping away from me. He was just following the balls around like a kid with ADHD, and he was really predictable in the way he'd run back with his ball from the box, so the trick was catching him right as he ran into the runback area then holding him down tight at the back wall till the next heat. We also ran him in start a lot, because there weren't a lot of balls rolling around in the runback after just the start dogs had run.
Anybody have any advice to add?
