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Flirt Pole

JamieHalverson

Well-Known Member
It's been a looooonnnggg time since I posted, but I have a question. Lillie, my Bullmastiff, just turned two and I'm looking for ways to really start working on her conditioning and also build some drive and work on our working relationship. Anyway, long story short, I recently made a flirt pole and she loves it! But it's physically a bit taxing for me (yes, I need to work on my conditioning, too) and I'm a bit worried about the turns and jumping around for such a big, heavy dog.

Any suggestions to make it easier for me and/or videos that show proper technique with a really big dog? Most of what I see are smaller dogs like APBTs and the owners are just flipping those poles around like cat toys. Not quite what I'm experiencing, lol.
 

marke

Well-Known Member
a spring pole is safer ....... a flirtpole is walking the line of a cruciate surgery ......... trotting your dog either with you jogging or biking along with it , from my experiences , is superior to , and safer than any exercise other than swimming ........ drag pulling , or a treadmill , even walking hills is superior and safer to any results I've seen from a flirt or springpole ........ jmo
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DennasMom

Well-Known Member
For using the flirt-pole, I basically let Denna catch the 'skunk' on the end and carry it as we did circles... looks very similar to how you would 'lunge' a horse. She LOVES just carrying the prey in her mouth trotting around me... I also did not like making her corner hard in the yard - it looked VERY dangerous to me, too.

As it turned out, she DID tear her CCL, but during a leisurely hike in the hills, not on any tight cornering operation... <sigh>
We're 6 months out from the injury doing a non-surgical approach, which is so far, doing well... but a slow recovery path.

For us, part of what led to the CCL injury (in my non-expert opinion) was our "weekend warrior" approach to exercise. SO... to do it over again, I would work more on a 3x or 4x a week basis, increasing duration and exertion levels gradually, and keep the frequency and duration of the weekend activities more in the "normal" versus "special" category.
 

maryl

Well-Known Member
  • When ever I needed to condition my newfs prior to showing, I jogged with them while they pulled a drag. I used a tire and started slow and for a short time and gradually built up to 2-3mi.
 

I3rendanG

Well-Known Member
If he has any ball drive we do serious games of fetch with a lacrosse ball.

Sprint sessions into heels and fetch up grassy hills.

That hill work works well.