[KBLover]

After watching a couple days of the NFL Combine, I was wondering if there was a way to "caninify" some of the drills/tests.

Plus, it would be cool to keep some data and see how he's getting stronger/faster with some objective data and not just my eyeball estimations, so to speak.

Do you think this would be good for the both of us? (doing all that running and stuff will probably give us both a workout! LOL) Do you think it would be possible to eventually put eash activity on a cue? (The 40 is easy, just put him in a down-stay, walk 120 feet away and have him recall while I time it - hardest part is measuring 40 yards lol).

Vertical Jump is easy since he already likes to hop when on his back paws only.

But the more agility type drills like the 3-cone and the route running drills are a challenge. It would be totally awesome to call out a route and he'd run it and then I could throw a ball to him.

 

[Amaryllis]

That sounds like some pretty standard agility stuff to me. I don't see why you couldn't eventually, with enough patience, train him to run a particular route and catch a ball at the end . . . actually, isn't that called flyball? I think it is.

 

[+two]

I believe you and Wally would make a wonderful team! I say go for it, and take lots of pictures/videos.

 

[KBLover]

Flyball, eh? Will have to look into this and get back to training some treiball too. Once we get back home (no freaking flat grass around here to run on and no room - stupid new developments) - can't wait to start this kind of stuff and Wally will love it - running is one of his few pure joys.

Hmm...I think I've seen this one time it was on TV. Dogs flying down a track hitting a box-like object that spit out a ball to them and then they came back. I remember this vividly because one team took a dog out after one of the races and brought one in off the bench! LOL Poor dog, he got taken out of the game heheheh

I'll have to look this up and I've always wanted to introduce Wally to some agility (my cheap *** poor self still trying to find decent equipment to get even a piece at a time heh)

Meanwhile, I'll just settle for working on getting his recall speed even higher. He already charges at me, going to see if I can find a way to get it even faster, and some kind of way to measure out distance if I have to measure my foot and use the old trick kids use to measure first downs in sandlot football games, counting off "steps".

 

[Amaryllis]

Hmm...I think I've seen this one time it was on TV. Dogs flying down a track hitting a box-like object that spit out a ball to them and then they came back. I remember this vividly because one team took a dog out after one of the races and brought one in off the bench! LOL Poor dog, he got taken out of the game heheheh

I'll have to look this up and I've always wanted to introduce Wally to some agility (my cheap *** poor self still trying to find decent equipment to get even a piece at a time heh)

Yup, that's flyball. And I admire that dog's initiative. It's smart when you think about it.

I'll get to building some agility equipment when it gets warm out. I could try doing it in the garage, but eh, he can wait a month or two. Plus, I'm not sure I'd want him jumping around on frozen ground anyway.

 

[hanksimon]

Another thing you could do is let him pull stuff Not sure if he's really built for it.

One friend has a Golden that likes to run and she was running uphill with the Golden on leash. He started pulling her up... and his thighs really grew.
Other friends have a Pit that pulls, and he's built like a body builder!

 

[KBLover]

I probably have him try pulling some light stuff, just to get the feel of it and also to get an idea of what might be too easy/too hard. I'm already making him stand his front paws on a medicine ball and "walk" it to me (using highly tempting food). He has to stay on, or I eat the food. I'm bad, I know LOL

I ran a couple trials with him recalling (he charges at me full speed). The estimated 40yd times, though, are very different.

I measured my foot: 10.5"

I counted how many "KB Feet" from one landmark to another. I used some trees. One run was 49 "KB Feet" and another was 69 "KB Feet"

I estimated this to be a distance of 514.5" for the first run and 724.5" for the second. This works out to about 14.3 yds and 20 yds, respectively.

He did the first run in 4.2 seconds. The second was 8.2 seconds. Vagaries in the second run was that he ran curved (probably the terrain, freaking "mini hill" even on that patch of grass) and that ate into his time. The first run was flat and he ran straight at me accordingly.

Projecting a 40 time, the first run checks in at 11.74s 40 yd time. The second at 16.4s! A staggering 5 second difference! If I split the difference and average, it's 14.1 seconds.

No idea if that's fast or slow, but I was glad just to try it and he loved it (and came to a perfect "front" from speed each time - no slowing down as he got to me! LOL)

Edit: Using the 14.1 time, it works out to a run speed of 5.8 MPH. Using the 11.74 time, it's 6.97 MPH. At 16.4, it's 4.98 MPH.

Sounds "slow" compared to what some of those players were running (one HB was clocked at 24 MPH!)

 

[KBLover]

Yay! Convinced mom to get some weave polls for Wally. She's was all like "you do a lot to keep him alert and entertained while I'm at work, so I'll get them so you two can have something else to do".

Sweet. There's $70 saved...