Flyball Training: Boxwork

Towards the end of last week I thought I should really work on reminding Dylan about his box turn, especially because he hadn’t flyballed for some time.

It also occurs to me that I’ve talked about wanting Dylan to have a swimmer’s turn quite a lot on this blog, on the possibly wrong presumption that everyone knows what I’m talking about! So I have illustrated the difference.

This dog has a nice slammer’s turn. The dog hits the box straight on at full speed, absorbing all the of the high-speed impact into his shoulders and front legs. He is also slower as he has lost all momentum and now has to turn and build up speed again over the hurdles. This dog has a much greater risk of developing things like canine oesteoarthritis in his shoulders and may have a shorter flyball career. (He is also going to squish his nose on the box when he tries to catch the ball and so he has his eyes shut in preparation.)

This dog started training at the same time as the above dog, SquishyNose. SquishyNose has been running in Open tournaments for 3 months but this dog’s owner decided to teach her dog to do a proper swimmer’s turn. Now he has a nice swimmer’s turn! The dog has turned into the box on his right and the impact is considerably reduced, whilst the momentum the dog has built up isn’t lost. The dog also has brought his back feet round as a result of the turn and is able to push off from the box to bring him back faster and with a better stride pattern over the hurdles. As well as being faster, this dog will be much less likely to develop shoulder problems and will have a longer flyball career.

Here is Dylan on the box:

He is working on our old Canadian Box here, which is also the kind I have drawn in the illustrations. Dylan is much faster off the Boomerang Box but there isn’t a spare one for me to borrow so we have to make do. Our Canadian Box is a bit stiff and doesn’t fire the balls very well, which is why Dylan has fumbled it, but it’s good practise anyway.

Finally, here is Dylan’s video: http://www.undermybed.co.uk/images/boxturn.wmv

Please excuse the old swivel chair in the background, it has now gone on to chair heaven. Anyway, Dylan was a good boy!