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January 28, 2011

We’re suffering a long, cold, windy start to the year here at Chez Champion of My Heart. Thanks to strategies we learned at a recent American Treibball Association event, however, we’ve been playing with the sport of ball herding.

Most nights, we work at home in the basement with a clicker and high value treats, but we also gave it a try outside in the “middle pasture” this week. This Remedial Treibball Video below shows our results.

(I upgraded our WordPress installation recently. It looks like YouTube has changed its embed code as well, and the two are NOT playing nicely together, so if you cannot see the video below … click this video link instead.)

Distracted from all the bundling-up required, I forgot to bring the clicker, so it isn’t our best effort. As you will see, Lilly:

  • Treats it more like a trick
  • Isn’t jazzed about it (yet) the way she is about livestock herding
  • Was more interested in the fact that I had her favorite ball in my pocket

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQT-BJ1g_gs

About the Author Roxanne Hawn

Trained as a traditional journalist and based in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA, I'm a full-time freelance writer for magazines, websites, and private clients. My areas of specialty include everything in the lifestyles arena, including health and home, personal finance and other consumer interests, relationships and trends, people and business profiles ... and, of course, all things pet related.

I don't just love dogs. I need them in my life. Seriously.

  1. Ha – forgetting the clicker is something I would do! This looks like so much fun. When we settle down again I really want to try this with Buster. Right now, there’s just not room in the RV for those big exercise balls. =)

  2. Great first try! As Aly says, it takes awhile to get the lightbulb and interest, because now the dogs aren’t sure what they’re supposed to do. Kristine mentioned that. And we do amp the dogs in between if necessary. In Treibball lessons, the first thing wouldn’t be pushing the ball, but the basics: touch, watch me, learning directionals, impulse control, etc. The ball doesn’t come into play right away, as we don’t want the dogs just to push the balls randomly in different directions (as everyone wants to do in the first class!) Good job, Roxanne, and thanks for mentioning The American Treibball Association!

  3. Still very good for a first Treibball session! When you think of it, it makes Lilly session two weeks ago with the real lifestock even more impressive and fascinating.

  4. Yea, it is definitely taught differently from other dog sports. I think its hard for dogs to find the drive with this until they’ve been doing it a while. What I like about it, is that its great for teaching focus and control at a distance with less dog-sport craziness.

    In Flyball and Agility, we work a lot on revving the dogs up and pushing for speed.. but Treibball doesn’t focus on that. It’s more about control (at least in the beginning) because otherwise the dogs just go too nuts.

    TeeVee is really drivey and he starts just pushing the balls all over the place and not listening to what ball and WHERE.

    Lilly looks great! What a natural she is..

  5. Maybe she wasn’t as jazzed as you expected but she wasn’t uninterested either. Like they say in agility, you have to build the value for the obstacle or activity. Which is exactly what you were doing. I think it looked like fun!

    1. Thanks, Kristine. It’s also that we were outside with it for the first time and that I didn’t have the clicker with me. This is all still very new to her.

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