Wednesday, May 11, 2011

tRicky T-Day!

I know I haven't posted a tricky t-day video in a few weeks. We have made some videos trying to get some tricks to show you and the videos have not turned out good enough. Today's is not fantastic but it will give you an idea of what I am doing.

Remember awhile ago I mentioned that I was going to learn treibball? Well I know the very beginnings of it. I read stuff on the internet and a friend gave us some information on it and mom and I have been learning. The first things you have to know are go around and go to mat and lie down. I already knew those. So we could then add the ball and I go around the ball and lie down. We have faded the use of a mat. The other main thing you have to do is to push the ball with your nose. You can use your shoulders but never your feet or your mouth. So I had to line up on the opposite side of the ball from mom and touch a small piece of tape low on the ball with my nose. (We practiced touching the tape on other objects first but I got that fast because I knew nose touch already too).

The video shows my progress so far. The hallway is helpful because it channels the movement of the ball a little bit. My favorite part is pushing the ball so I often want to skip the "down" part. So mom rewards me for the down too (I know how to work her for treats!). We are working on the herding cues of go bye and away for my movement to the right or the left side of the ball (although from agility if I am on mom's right, I will head for the right side of the ball, etc) and transferring what I know so far to out in our yard. Yesterday I did pretty well out there but I still prefer to treibball in the house - LOL!


The foundational moves are so important - just like in agility. Everything hinges on the foundation. Eventually I should be able to move the ball straight toward a goal (like a soccer goal net) and also be sent out to multiple balls, get one that mom designates and then herd it into the goal.

It's pretty fun and I highly recommend that you try this game with your own dogs! Here are a couple of links to helpful information:




Gotta zoom!


Ricky

PS. In yesterday's WW photo, I was on top of that little white aframe they had at the dog park. The photo was taken on the same day as the video of me doing agility there (and the video of crazy mom on the slide). We haven't been back there yet.

13 comments:

Amber-Mae said...

OOOH that looks like fun!

Unknown said...

Clever boy! You know how to get treats from your mom!!!

Diana said...

Very interestng. Lots of rules, even in the begining. I wonder if that effects the dogs excitment level. How do you keep the excitment for the game up?

Cowspotdog said...

that does look like fun but gosh that is a big ball for a little dog. You are pawesome so far little dude

Chris and Ricky said...

Diana - I think pushing the ball (herding) is very rewarding for the dog - Ricky can't wait for that part. So he seems excited to play. But there is also the food and that is very motivating, of course - LOL!

Sara said...

Seems like a fun game, especially for herding dogs. Ricky does great pushing that BIG ball.

Sheltie Times said...

Ricky you are very talented.

Sophie said...

It looks like Ricky's having a blast! What sort of ball are you using for it, and how much roughly was it?

I've previously heard of using 'gym balls' for people here in the UK, but they can be pretty costly. I'm curious about trying this with Lola, as she tends to loose her mind around anything ball-shaped and it'd be very helpful with her self-control.

Chris and Ricky said...

Sophie - It is an exercise ball I bought for $10. I got one that is a little taller than Ricky at his shoulder. You're really supposed to start with smaller balls and work up but hey...LOL!

You can use any ball really though - Ricky had one smaller that he was used to pushing around the yard for fun so that's why I went with a completely different ball (so he would maybe think of it differently). So you could just get a kid's play ball (as long as Lola doesn't bite it).

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

You are really doing well with teh treiball-very impressive!

Marie said...

Hey, I can finally leave a comment!!! I've been dying for days to tell you how good you like you are doing with Treiball. I think it looks like a lot of fun! Maybe it's something I should look into more.

Sagira said...

Way to go Ricky. You're going to be awesome at this I can just feel it. :)

Amy Wood said...

Great job Ricky! Looks like it is a lot of fun. Thanks for the websites, I'll have to check them out.