Little dog loves the 'fly' but not the ball!!

Hi all.

Been to flyball training for thr first time ever today and little Bryan absolutely loved the jumping but was not interested in the balls! Any advice on getting him keen on balls!

Er yes, it is pointless taking a dog to flyball if you have failed to determine whether or not he is interested in balls.................

What breed is your dog? The breed can determine the best way to generate interest.

Hi.

He is a Pug x JRT. He is a very lively little chap and the flyball was being held very close to my house so thought i would have a go. He picked up the idea of the jumping very quickly and ran up and down them no problem but was just not interested in the balls!!

Never mind, he has had great fun and is exhausted and snoring now!! The trainer suggested buying some sqeaky balls to play with to get him interested.

My other dog is ball obsessed but has arthritis in both elbows so can't do it unfortunately.

http://www.learningaboutdogs.com/aca...hippitdvd.html

Terriers need their prey drive awakening and often the best way to do this is to put something on the end of a whip and make it "alive", when the dog is getting the idea you change the item at the end of the whip and then gradually transfer this prey drive onto a ball.

Kong do squeaky tennis balls too which may be more interesting to him at first before you go on to "normal" tennis balls. Just need to make sure you get the right size as don't get ones which are too small which may get stuck in his throat.

I did flyball once with my Cairn terrier Angus. We went to an agility club and they bought flyball boxes out to see if the dogs were interested.There was a very posh lady there with 2 Collies and she was most annoyed that my terrier picked the idea up faster than her Collies did!

Do agility instead? Lots of jumping there

Agility would be a good idea but his recall is a little dodgy- he might just run away!!!

However I'm sure that can be worked on!! He's a gorgeous little boy who learns really quickly so I am sure it will improve.

I will have a look around and see if there are any local agility training classes.

I was gonna say agility too

it is possible to awaken ball drive - i have finally managed with my boy

we did try flyball with him - just for fun, but he just let the ball bounce of his head - if it aint food hes not catching it!

My young BC has doesn't do balls, I'm backchaining a retrieve, so far she touches the ball with her nose for a c/t, the next step is to get her mouth the ball. Her mother came with a retrieve and loves balls, she just competed in her 1st open flyball comp last weekend.