Need a bit of Help with Ozzy regarding his Box (Flyball)

[Konotashi]

During practice, Ozzy's pretty good on the box. Slow, but he has a good box turn, overall.

At the tournament, he was so wonky on the box it wasn't even funny. Without a gutter or some type of prop in front of the box, he doesn't jump like he should to do a proper box turn. He ran up, hit the box, waited for it to spit out at him, would catch the ball in the air, turn (the wrong way) and run back.
I've been putting the ball in the couch cushions to get him used to putting his mouth RIGHT where the ball is (instead of catching it in the air), but I would love to hear some other ideas.

For the crafty people, how could I make a ramp like a makeshift box so I could put velcro on it and stick the ball on there? If I can fix his box turns, I'm almost positive he could be a whole second faster (if not more). On several of his runs, he'd be ahead of the other dog, but they would totally smoke him after they hit the box.

Don't get me wrong, I'm SUPER proud of him and how he performed at the tournament. I just don't want him getting into such a bad habit at the box that can cost so much valuable time.

Any ideas would be GREATLY appreciated!

[Tiffseagles]

Originally Posted by Konotashi

For the crafty people, how could I make a ramp like a makeshift box

Sorry that I am of no help but I have the same question!

[Konotashi]

I think I came up with an idea. Once I build it (I'll post pics of it and how to build it), and if it works I'll let everyone know.

[Cassidy's Mom]

Our club has two of these, they call them push boards - this is the fancier of the two:



Note the ginormous props! When we were taking classes, before we graduated to actually working on the box, they let me take the push board home and I practiced with it several days a week, using a variety of props. We were working on building muscle memory for the turn, before the ball was even added into the picture. Once Halo had a nice turn without the ball, we put a ball on the velcro for her to take off. Only when she was consistently maintaining a good turn on the board while retrieving the ball did we graduate to the box, and again, without the ball at first. The flyball box is a little steeper than the push board and smaller too, so we had to get her used to that before changing the picture further. When she first triggered the ball she had some difficulty catching it as it flew out, so we worked at home between classes tossing a ball for her to catch to improve her coordination. And until she could trigger and catch the ball while maintaining her turn on the box, we kept the jumps completely separate, doing restrained recalls over them without the box.

The great thing about having a small dog is it's a lot easier to teach the box turn because the box is much bigger than they are. But moving too fast can be a problem too, as you've seen with his turn starting to fall apart. I HAD to move a lot slower with Halo's training because she's got to contort herself to a certain extent to get all four feet on the box at the same time. But the good thing about moving slowly is that we spent plenty of time at each step before we progressed to the next step, breaking everything down into increments.

If his turn is good with props and not so good without props, I'd wouldn't be in a hurry to get rid of the props. If triggering and catching the ball slows him down and he sometimes fumbles the ball, take the ball out of the picture for awhile and work on his turn without it some more. We also use another low gutter between the box and the first jump as a stride regulator to control where she takes off from and where she lands, and a prop on the right to keep her turn tight. You can see them in this picture:



I'm a newbie to the sport too, so I don't know how everyone else trains things, but that's what my club would do. Here's a video of one of our practice sessions at home - it's long, 6-ish minutes, but I use a variety of props to control how she approaches the board and how she pushes off it, changing them several times throughout the course of the video. I have very limited space to work with in my yard, so all this is close in, with no jumps:

Flyball Box Turn Practice 10/19/11 - YouTube

Flyball Box Turn Practice 10/19/11 - YouTube

Lies built a push board to use with Nikon and Pan, if she doesn't see this you can send her a PM and ask her to post some videos. It's much simpler than the one I was using, and you could probably make a similar one yourself. Since Ozzy is small and doesn't weigh that much it won't need to be as sturdy as with a GSD.

[Cassidy's Mom]

Here you go, she posted on another thread:

Flyball - swimmer's turn - don't have a box

[Liesje]

This is what I've been building loosely based on the dimensions Debbie gave me and based on watched her videos. I couldn't think of a cheap, easy way to work the angle and also have some "give" to the board (I'm more concerned with this having big dogs) so I ended up stuffing it with dog bedding and that works great.

http://www.dutchbingo.net/personal/H...%20flyball.pdf

The materials accommodate 80+lb dogs! I sold one at our last practice to someone with a moderate sized Aussie, the push board was heavier than our real boxes! So you could use a cheaper wood. If you don't already have scrap wood, you might as well make three boxes and sell two because wood comes in standard sizes. I kept one board and sold two.

Like Debbie I always use props at home to shape the turn. I actually exaggerate it quite a bit and my instructor insists this is the correct thing for me to do. My board is sitting on an 8" platform and I use an 8-12" jump set one foot in front of it to force the dogs jumping on off. Nikon is good with always jumping but as Pan is getting more comfortable with his speed he's wanting to cheat and slide in so he *always* gets props at home. I don't freak if they knock the jump or land slightly low on my board as long as the basic mechanics are right. I often use myself as a prop. I "spot" my dogs like I use to do/have done to me in gymnastics and use my body to make sure they're doing it right and give them a tap going on. Some of the props people in my club use don't work for us b/c my dogs just plow through them. One thing that might work for your dog is you can get this black tubing like for drainage outdoors and it's like $10 for 10 feet (gutter was way more expensive where I looked). I got some of that and cut it into pieces but will probably give it away because my dogs plow through it.

These are a few of my vids working the board at home but also watch all Debbie's vids b/c she really shows the progression and different uses for props.

Pan Flyball Turns 1 16 12 - YouTube

Pan Flyball Turns 1 16 12 - YouTube

Here he is at training, you can see him start to cheat and want to slide in, even with the prop there. After watching the footage, I went back and made sure to work the turns at home with the jump prop in all week. In this vid he is running alongside the fastest singles BSD for the past 2 years (I've also been working on building Pan's anticipation at the start and my timing releasing him b/c many of my reactions are slow).

Pan Flyball 1 10 12 - YouTube

Pan Flyball 1 10 12 - YouTube

[Cassidy's Mom]

Originally Posted by Liesje

One thing that might work for your dog is you can get this black tubing like for drainage outdoors and it's like $10 for 10 feet (gutter was way more expensive where I looked). I got some of that and cut it into pieces but will probably give it away because my dogs plow through it.

The perforated white drainpipe I'm using as a side prop is actually very sturdy. (I saw the black pipe that you're referring to Lies, it's flexible, isn't it?) This stuff is 4" in diameter and completely rigid. It comes in 10 ft lengths too, I bought it at my local Ace Hardware - they cut it into thirds for me, and I just wrapped white duct tape around the pieces to hold them together.

I wanted something that would be taller and asked about 5" or 6'" diameter pipes, and the guy said you could get it in larger diameters at Home Depot, but I know they won't cut it for me, I've tried before. So rather than dealing with a 10 foot thing sticking out the sunroof of my car while I drove home, like I did with the gutters I bought previously, I just got this.