My New Chimerical Kit

It’s been awhile since I wrote about flyball. And I’ve probably never mentioned flyball and our Belgian Malinois, Rebel, in the same sentence before… and with good reason.

Rebel’s Story

In 2006 it became rapidly apparent that we were going to have to adopt another dog to save our marriage. It was originally DH’s idea to get a dog, and he found it devastating that our dog had become my dog. Because we’re not a great multi-tasking family, we needed to find a dog that was going to be able to do the same sport that Magnolia already did. That meant we were in the market for a flyball dog.

But not just any flyball dog. We needed a big manly flyball dog. Between me and our trainer, we eventually came up with a Malinois as the breed of choice. With that out of the way, we immediately went to the ABMC Belgian Malinois Rescue, knowing full well that neither DH nor I could handle trying to potty train a pup with our crazy schedules. After scrolling through the available for adoption dogs we came across “Oscar.” Oscar seemed completely perfect… ball drive and all!

Applications were filled out, home visits were made, and when we went to go meet Oscar he actually jumped in the car and “chose” us. We didn’t even know we were going to be taking a dog home with us that evening! And then Oscar became Rebel.

Rebel hasn’t had it easy. He’s the product of two backyard breeders thinking they could make a ton of money breeding their two Mals together. Rebel had been one of the guy’s favorites and he tried to “keep” him when all the other dogs got packed up to the shelter. Rebel lived in that guy’s basement for the first five months of his life and never saw another dog. Poor guy!! Sadly, that’s the time when dogs need other dogs around to teach them the ropes of what it means to be a dog. As a result, Rebel doesn’t interpret dog language very well… and he thinks that most dogs are out to get him.

This fear aggression coupled with his intense prey drive made training flyball interesting to say the least. It took two long years to get him able to even practice with another dog in the other lane. Slowly we had to work him up to passing another dog, starting with easy (his Dalmatian “sister”) and then moving up to harder and harder dogs. The biggest obstacle that he’s had to overcome were Border Collies.

Necessity Breeds Opportunity

Rebel has been doing really really well in his training sessions. So well that we had slated him to debut at the Clean Break Flyball, March Madness Tournament next month.

Last weekend we headed up to Philly one team member short. Unfortunately, she was in a car accident (pretty serious, but she’s on the mend) and was unable to attend. In light of that, our captain decided to go ahead and roster Rebel on the team with the intention that we’d just put him in during the warm-ups so that he’d get a little taste of what it was like to be at a tournament without the stress of actually having to compete. Near the end of the day on Saturday the conditions were finally right to be able to put him in for warm-ups… and he did beautifully.

Sunday morning came around and after the first race of the day the super awesome Boston Terrier on our team came up with a worn down pad. Not a major injury, but he was uncomfortable enough to not want to put his foot down. We had a few options, but based on the excellent warm-up performance we all agreed that it was the sink or swim moment for the Malinois! Rebel was going in!!

It was simply amazing. That dog was so focused that he didn’t even know there was another dog in the other lane! He ran down there, got his ball, BOOKED it back and got his duck and was ready to go on for more!! What’s even more impressive is that he ran the whole circuit in 4.4 seconds!!! That’s a ball-breaking speed for a dog that’s never run in a tournament ever before… and it’s close to the speed of the fastest dog on our team.

Rebel continued to run lightning fast with only one tiny little bobble and a mistake for the final 3 races of the day (9 heats all together) and earned himself a whopping 200 points for his first tournament ever. He was awarded the Flyball Dog (FD) and Flyball Dog Excellent (FDX) titles… and he’s just a mere 300 points shy of his third title!! Way to go MALINOIS!

We’re all so proud we can hardly believe it. Only problem is… Beltway Bandits just lost their full time box-loader! Congrats to Steve & Rebel for a job well done.

Related Posts

• July 8, 2010 -- Report on the “successful” camping trip
• July 2, 2010 -- Race to the ONYX!
• June 25, 2010 -- Potential for ONYX & no Hyenas
• April 19, 2010 -- Our dog is a Klepto & Other Running News
• March 19, 2010 -- Can it GET Worse?