I mentioned in my last post that I was incredibly excited about last weekend because we were traveling to York, PA for an awesome flyball tournament and that I fully expected Magnolia to receive her ONYX award there.  I am happy to report that all went exactly as planned and in the 2nd heat of the last race of the first day, we crossed the threshold of 20,000 flyball points!  I also mentioned that I explain what an ONYX award is… so read on…

In 1984 the North American Flyball Association (NAFA) was organized to act as a sanctioning agency for this relatively new dog sport.  With as little as 12 teams that began the sport, tournaments were few and far between.  It wasn’t until the late 1990s that the sport really began to catch on and tournaments started to gain popularity and become less infrequent.  Back in 1993 an event occurred that no one thought possible, a dog amassed 20,000 racing points.  To date, no dog had ever acquired that many points.  He’d completely gone out of his league.  He’d surpassed the last title by a full 5,000 points.  There was only one thing to do… name an award after him.  And that was the birth of the ONYX award.

Since that time, NAFA has added 2 more official titles and 6 intermediary titles.  After the ONYX and another 10,000 points you can earn the Flyball Grand Champion (FGDCh-30) and the 6 intermediary titles are at intervals of 10,000 points between the first FGDCh and the highest award, the Hobbes Award for 100,000 points.  Again, the Hobbes Award was named after the first dog to obtain that many racing points.  To date there have only been 5 total Hobbes Awards, and none of them have been awarded to a Dalmatian.  Maybe Magnolia will be the first!?!

The ONYX award is the first of the “big” awards that the dog receives a commemorative plaque for.  To some it marks the end of a hard earned flyball career.  To others it marks the beginning of climbing within the national ranks of your breed.  But to us it is a testament to the incredibly long hours of training, proofing, and practice that it took to get to this point in the relatively short period of time that we were able to achieve it in.  I couldn’t have been more proud to have gotten to this point in our flyball career with my heart dog.  There have been times that I wanted to quit, that I cried and though it would never happen.  But there hasn’t been a more rewarding moment in the lanes with that dog… it was music to hear the words “Go SPOTTED DOG!’ after they announced her ONYX award.

Just in case you don’t happen to follow my twitter account, here’s a blow-by-blow of the Race to the ONYX.

Race to the #ONYX: 260 pts to go, we just won all of our races for the first race of the day & we are ROCKIN!! #fb#flyball10:20 AM Jun 26th via Twittelator

Race to the #ONYX: We’re about to go in for race #2 of the day… Point update in just a bit!!! Wish us luck! #fb #flyball12:12 PM Jun 26th via Twittelator

Race to the #ONYX: 100 more points on that race… That’s just another 160 points until 20K!!! #fb #flyball12:37 PM Jun 26th via Twittelator

These are the most awesome portable fans on the face of the planet. @Rebel_Dog <3s me for finding them! #geargeek#flyball12:45 PM Jun 26th via Twittelator

There’s some awesome racing going on today! Some team just ran a 16! #flyball (@Memorial Hall)http://4sq.com/9T2Ppb12:47 PM Jun 26th via foursquare

Race to the #ONYX: Now the only thing that stands in the way of us & this ribbon is 36 pts! #fb #flyballhttp://twitgoo.com/15g1w84:48 PM Jun 26th via Twittelator

And in other #flyball milestones, @Rebel_Dog & Rebel the Dog made their very first perfect start of their career! 0.0004:50 PM Jun 26th via Twittelator

Race to the #ONYX: At just before 7:20pm Magnolia walked in a dog… And walked out an #ONYX #flyball dog!!! 20K, Mission Accomplished! #fb7:59 PM Jun 26thvia Twittelator

My #flyball friends are awesome. They got Magnolia & I an#ONYX cake to celebrate! http://twitgoo.com/15hc1w #fbJune 26, 2010 9:51:32 PM EDTvia Twittelator

And Rhonda got me this awesome #ONYX pin do I’d have bling to show off immediately! #fb #flyballhttp://twitgoo.com/15hc2tJune 26, 2010 9:52:30 PM EDT via Twittelator

Related Posts

• June 25, 2010 -- Potential for ONYX & no Hyenas
• July 8, 2010 -- Report on the “successful” camping trip
• March 19, 2010 -- Can it GET Worse?
• March 4, 2010 -- It’s all about the Malinois
• February 5, 2010 -- [Material Girl] Feet, the way God intended them

We’re headed up to York, Pennsylvania for an exciting weekend full of flyball!  But it’s not just any flyball tournament.  This is the Coconut Classic Flyball Tournament.  In my personal opinion it is the premier flyball tournament of all flyball tournaments.  This is the exact tournament where my DH became the 2009 Dream Team Box Loader.  It also happens to be our “anniversary” tournament.  We started training (and being brain-washed into loving) flyball at this very tournament five (yes, I said FIVE) years ago.  Of course it wasn’t for another two and change that our gorgeous Dalmatian, Magnolia, finally got the hang of it and debuted at the Blacksburg, Virginia tournament… but hey, everything can’t be perfect.

Well, this year should be extra special for a couple of reasons.

First, Magnolia is only 386 (short) points away from her ONYX title.  And lest I spoil it, I’ll explain why the ONYX is so coveted in a later post.  For now, just be satisfied with knowing that many dogs get to their ONYX on the brink of retirement.  Magnolia has only been racing since 2007… 3 short years to be rocketed into Dalmatian Flyball Stardom.

Second, we will be camping… in a tent… which is something that I swore I would never do again.  You see… the last time that I camped in a tent the likelihood of my being gutted and eaten by hyenas was in the 95% percentile.  And frankly, I like the percentage of being gutted and eaten by hyenas to be lower than 0.01%.  I know… I’m no fun, am I?  For the record, DH will say that I’m being overly dramatic and that the percentage  was probably only like 5% (still much higher than my ideal statistics), but I’ll bet my best friend Lauren will back me on this; Hyenas = scary + possibility of being eaten.  So, this will be my first foray into camping after the last near death experience (yes, yes, DH… more drama).  We will consider it a success if I don’t see a hyena.  One of my coworkers has said that if I do happen to run into one of those looney, slobbery, hairy beasts (actually, I don’t know that they’re slobbery, but I would imagine that they would be salivating over how delicious my entrails would be after they removed them from my thoracic cavity) she would take me to dinner where ever I want to go.

Wish us luck!  Luck to secure those last 386 points for Maggie’s ONYX… and luck that I get to keep my entrails free from the jaws of any wild Pennsylvania hyenas.

Related Posts

• July 2, 2010 -- Race to the ONYX!
• July 8, 2010 -- Report on the “successful” camping trip
• March 19, 2010 -- Can it GET Worse?
• March 4, 2010 -- It’s all about the Malinois
• February 5, 2010 -- [Material Girl] Feet, the way God intended them

I am currently sitting in a hotel. A hotel that the website made look awesome. And because it is literally within walking distance of our flyball venue for the weekend I was all over it. This place has everything… A restaurant, a fitness center, a pool & spa, and did I mention it is within walking distance of the flyball venue??

Yeah… It’s awesome all right. It’s awesome if your definition of awesome is a retro throw-back decoration style from 1973. And it’s awesome all right if your idea of a “fitness center” is two exercise bikes and a BowFlex. And it’s awesome all right if you only want WiFi to say that you could do work on the weekend… but don’t actually intend to do any. Cause after all, the WiFi doesn’t work (thank God for iPhones so that yours truly can still write a scathing review of the hotel that I’m staying in). And finally, it’s awesome if you don’t really like to eat or if your anorexic… Caude the food at Richard’s Restaurant is really only barely edible. We ate ours, but the couple next to us didn’t. And just walked out because they had no intention of paying for something so inedible as what they were served.

Oh yes… The Eisenhower Hotel & Conference Center is awesome, as long as by awesome you mean 2 stars at best!

The worst thing is that I came totally prepared to run – my shoes, my iPhone armband, my water bottle, a towel, my Nike+ sensor… everything. And I get thwarted by the sheer “awesomness” of the Eisenhower Hotel’s fitness center. It’s supposed to be nice outside this weekend, so maybe I can steal 30 minutes in the middle of the day to run outside. Keep your fingers crossed for me, otherwise, I’m going to be TWO weeks behind!!

Related Posts

• February 12, 2010 -- [C25K] Beginning of Week 2
• February 5, 2010 -- [Material Girl] Feet, the way God intended them
• July 24, 2010 -- Flying into Little Rock is always an adventure
• July 8, 2010 -- Report on the “successful” camping trip
• July 2, 2010 -- Race to the ONYX!

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?

Vibram Five Fingers – Nature’s Best Shoes…

Since August I’ve been meaning to write a blog post about Vibram Five Fingers, these relatively new, innovative barefoot running shoes. I have literally had more than one revolutionary experience while wearing them. There are a bunch of new studies coming out that say barefoot running can significantly decrease the possibility for ankle, knee, and hip injuries. The basic premise behind it is that running without all of the cushioning, padding, and extraneous stuff that are often built into running shoes forces your foot to work the way God intended it to (or nature intended it if you’re not into the spiritual stuff). Our lower body is not designed to withstand constant heel strikes while running, which is exactly what traditional running shoes cause your feet to do. Barefoot running, in theory, will allow your feet to work in the completely opposite way, with the ball of the foot striking first and then rolling back to the heel acting as a shock absorber for the rest of your leg.

Some Links…

• Shoeless Joe from Outside.com
• To Run Better, Start by Ditching Your Nikes from Wired.com
• Foot strike patterns and collision forces in habitually barefoot versus shod runners from Nature Journal of Science paid access is required to read the full study
• Barefoot Running at Harvard
• In Running, Is Barefoot Best? from Harvard Magazine
• Daniel E. Lieberman, Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University

Coming from a background in Anthropology I can completely get behind Dr. Lieberman’s theories regarding barefoot running in correlation with human evolution. I just makes sense to me.

The Plunge

I was originally unconvinced that barefoot running could even be an option for me because I have incredibly flat feet. After having been to so many orthopedics and all of them insisting that orthodics were the way to correct my problem (none felt my flat feet or my pronation was bad enough to warrant expensive and painful corrective surgery), I had just given up. I’ve been buying shoes at exorbitant amounts of money that do not in any way shape or form meet the criteria of “cute” for a twenty-something-almost-thirty-year-old-woman. Comfort has been my only objective for the last 10 years.

On a whim I decided to try these Vibram Five Fingers. Actually, I decided after having seen a guy wearing them at our County fair and he didn’t get beaten up. I figured if he can walk around the County fair in these crazy looking shoes, then I should be able to wear them in public and not have too many problems. After a single day of wearing them around I was 100% sold! After a normal day of walking around I usually had pain that was probably 7 out of 10 radiating up my legs and into my lower back and hips. After wearing the Vibrams around I can honestly say that I had ZERO pain. At first I thought that maybe it was a fluke but after continual wear I noticed that my pain had been significantly reduced, if not totally eliminated.

But… that was not one of the two revolutionary moments that I experienced. That was merely an added bonus to make me not want to ship them back despite my DH calling me “Gorilla Feet.”

Revolutionary Vibram Moment #1

I’ve talked previously about flyball, that high-adreneline dog sport that DH and I play. My first Revolutionary Moment wearing my Vibrams came during a flyball tournament. I purchased my first pair (yes, I said first… and yes, I own multiple pairs) right before a flyball tournament this summer. I wanted to test them out at top speed.

I’ve mentioned what the dogs do during flyball, but I’ve never really talked about what the people do. It’s not just a sit back and watch the dog perform it’s “trick”; there’s quite a bit more movement involved. What the human does is quite a lot like running suicides. There’s a quick sprint up the lane after your dog (who runs it quite a bit faster than you do) and then upon reaching the start/finish line there’s a really fast pivot and you run back enticing your dog to chase you back down the lane. Depending on where you release your sprint could be 50+ feet or it could be less than that. The quick pivot has been known to bring down the most agile of flyball handlers, simply because you’re also usually dodging the dog that is coming back the same time you’re running up after your dog. It’s enough to throw just about anyone off balance.

That first flyball touranment I ran in my Vibrams was a life altering experience! The first “real” heat (because you rarely really run in warm-ups) of the first race of the day something miraculous happened. When I ran up and then pivoted to turn and run back my baby toe did something it has never been able to do before… it stabilized my pivot. I was turning on a dime and I felt every single one of my toes do exactly what they were intended to do. I couldn’t believe it! I was faster, more agile, more stable, and my feet were actually working for me. Suddenly I felt sorry for people that didn’t have all of their toes because all of mine were doing something to help me make that sharp pivot turn.

I have since tried to get Vibram Five Fingers to be our official club shoe. Sadly I have not convinced everyone.

Revolutionary Moment #2

Revolutionary Moment #2 came just the other night when I started my C25K program. Of course, I’ve done tons of reading that says that when you run in barefoot technology shoes that you naturally revert to the rolling motion that your foot should do, rather than striking on your heel. But I’ve been running (or trying to run since I’ve never really succeeded before) for nearly 30 years now. Heel-Toe is just the way it’s done, right?

Wrong.

Not in the Vibrams. Suddenly, I was running in a natural gait that felt wonderful. It wasn’t jarring, it didn’t feel like I was going to shake my head loose and my feet felt awesome! I truly never want to run in any other shoes ever again. Never never never again.

So… you want a pair now, don’t you?

There’s lots of places on the internet that carry Vibram Five Fingers. Among them, I’ve ordered pairs from REI and Kayak Shed. If you’re in the Washington, D.C. metro area and you want to try a pair ON, you can head over to downtown Frederick, MD to The Trail House. A woman in my yoga class purchased hers from there and was very pleased with her experience; I have yet to go up there but I plan to in the next couple of weeks.

A little note about the sizing. A lot of online sites try to “make” the Vibram Five Finger sizing fit to US or Euro sizes. And frankly, it just doesn’t translate. They use a modified version of the sizing based on how long your foot is, measured from heel to your longest toe. I highly recommend you checking out their sizing instructions on their site before you order a pair.

Click the pictures below to see them full size

At the moment I own a pair of Classics, Sprints, and Peformas (which I kind of wish I had ordered in something other than black). To be quite honest, I’m not enamoured of the Classics. They have a drawstring elastic that runs through the shoe and tightens at the back on your Achilles tendon. To me, it pinches and digs in no matter how I adjust it. Just not comfortable. Surprisingly, I haven’t noticed the Performas doing this, even though they’re the same shoe basically, just in leather. But right now, my very favorite pair are my Sprints. They’re not a lot to look at, but they’re the most comfortable and I’m able to get the best fit because of the different velcro straps across the arch and at the heel. If I had to recommend a pair, I’d say get the Sprints. I’m hoping to get a pair of either KSOs or Flows to wear this summer when we go canoeing. But what I’d really love is for Vibrams to come out with a pair of KSO Treks for women.

I was very disappointed that their new line did not include a women’s version of that style. I’d love to wear them hiking because I like the idea of having the added balance with all your toes working for you, but I’m pretty sure that the soles of the regular Vibrams wouldn’t be enough to protect my feet from any pokey-outy (yes that’s a technical term) rocks that might be on the trail. I’m hoping that they’ll see how great they are and then put out a women’s version of the Treks soon!

I have not been compensated, nor will be, in any way by Vibrams or their affiliates. I was not instructed to review this product in a postive light. All observations are my own. I am not an affiliate of the Vibram company and do not receive any compensation for click-through links contained in this specific post.

Related Posts

• March 19, 2010 -- Can it GET Worse?
• March 18, 2010 -- [C25K] Slight Setback…
• February 12, 2010 -- [C25K] Beginning of Week 2
• July 2, 2010 -- Race to the ONYX!
• June 25, 2010 -- Potential for ONYX & no Hyenas

I’ve already written a couple of posts about flyball, the high-adreneline team sport for dogs that my husband and I are completely addicted to. If you’re not familiar with flyball, I would go check out my posts on “What is this thing you call flyball?” and “A Day in the Life of a Flyball Dog”. In all fairness, I probably glossed over the most important job around, that of the Box Loader.

First of all, the part where the dog jumps on the spring loaded box and a tennis ball pops out which they catch in their mouth really can’t happen without the Box Loader. I know that it’s hard for y’all to believe this, but the tennis balls do not magically appear in the spring loaded box, nor is it a contraption like the auto-pitching machines that are used in baseball training. Nope, there is a dude (or dudette, I suppose) that actually stands behind said spring loaded box and loads the tennis balls into the box. There’s quite a lot to be said about the quality of the box loader. The job isn’t for the faint of heart.

A good box loader must possess mental acuity, dexterity, the ability to remember complex series, and unwavering bravery despite the fact that a 20 – 90 pound bullet is screaming towards you. It is the box loader’s job to ensure that each dog receives the correct ball in the correct hole of the box and that should a re-run need to occur that there is a ball waiting for the dog. While this sounds easy, trust me, it’s not. I’ve had to box load on occasion, and juggling four balls behind your back in your two hands while loading the box is a particularly hard job. Especially when coupled with making sure that the right ball get loaded into the right side of the box!

There is a T-shirt that sums up the type of complex series that the box loader must keep up with:

Boxloader Flyball’s Toughest Job
OK, when the dog turns left, that’s my right…
1st dog gets a big ball on the left…
2nd dog gets a small ball on the right…
Then it’s Pink Squishy ball on the right…
and finally a big ball on the left…
Wait… when did they change the runing order?!?

Yes, box loader’s must be ready for anything.

Our very own team Box Loader just happens to be one of my favorite people in the whole wide world, my husband!  What’s more is that he’s our Box Loader full-time (at the moment).  His dog is still in training and dealing with some serious hate-issues with Border Collies.  In fact, I sometimes think that Rebel is the founding member of the world’s largest underground dog society that’s sole purpose in life is to rid the Earth of all Border Collies… but that’s really a story for another blog post.  Anyway, Steve tirelessly applies all his efforts as our full-time Box Loader.  And boy does he do a good job!  At first he had little scraps of paper that he’d stuff in his cargo shorts pockets that were his “cheat sheets” so he’d never miss a ball in the wrong side of the box.  But now he’s pretty much committed everyone’s ball/side preference to memory.  This isn’t an easy job.  Between the 19 dogs that are racing and training on our team there six different ball types!!  Luckily, we only use a two holed box, so there’s only a choice for right or left.  Except that we do have some dogs that turn left or right depending on which lane they’re currently running in!  As you can see, there are quite the amount of combinations that can exist for our team.  Steve does an excellent job.

Which brings me to the real purpose of this blog post.  Yesterday, just a week prior to my dear husband’s birthday, he was elected as the Coconut Classic Dream Team 2009 Box Loader!  A little back story…

The Coconut Classic is the summer flyball tournament hosted by the Fur Fun Flyball team.  It’s held in York, PA every year and it happens to be Beltway Bandits (and actually Steve’s & my) anniversary flyball tournament.  Last year marked 10 years of Beltway Bandits racing flyball and it marked three years for Steve and I on the team!  At the Coconut Classic there’s quite a bit of pomp and circumstance during the awards.  They encourage both a Best Dressed Costume as well as Best Decorated Crating area (where the team/dogs hang out when they’re not in the lanes).  Beltway Bandits has never really gotten into that, but we do enjoy watching how everyone else goes all out!  In addition, they always crown a King and Queen of the ‘Nut.  They give out a Spirit Award (kind of like an MVP award) to one out standing dog during the tournament.  And finally, they have nominations and choose a “Dream Team.”  The Dream Team is composed of 6 dogs, a Box Loader, and a Captain that are chosen throughout the entire tournament.  Participants are asked to make nominations but the final determination comes down to the host club. 

So, finally, Steve has been recognized for the Box Master Extraordinaire that he truly is!  What a birthday present!!

Related Posts

• July 2, 2010 -- Race to the ONYX!
• June 25, 2010 -- Potential for ONYX & no Hyenas
• March 19, 2010 -- Can it GET Worse?
• March 4, 2010 -- It’s all about the Malinois
• February 5, 2010 -- [Material Girl] Feet, the way God intended them

This is Part 2 of a multi-part series on the game of Flyball.
A good friend of mine recently wrote a blog post on the merits of training an appropriate retrieve in relation to learning flyball.  You can read about it here.

Part 1 – What is this thing you call “Flyball?”

Now that you all know a little about flyball, I’d like to give you a run-down of what a typical tournament looks like.  I should mention that our team might not be a typical flyball team.  Beltway Bandits prides themselves on our camaraderie as well as our canine talent.  I feel very lucky to call my team members friends on and off the racing lanes.

Preparing for a Tournament

Traveling with dog athletes is a lot like traveling with babies; there is endless amounts of stuff that you have to take with you.  Most of the tournaments we attend are “away” and require a bit of planning.  I have heard tale of an agility person once arriving at an agility tournament, getting out of the car, and then realizing that the one thing she had left behind was her dog.

Because organization and lists are really my thing I created a little check list for away tournaments.

Yes, I realize my handy list includes everything and the kitchen sink, except the dog.

Here’s how things usually go at our house when we’re leaving for a tournament:

1700 – I arrive home, search house frantically to find tournament attire which may or may not have been washed the previous night.  Get frustrated, throw clothes into spotted suitcase, shoo cat away. (I should take a moment to mention that the spotted suitcase is essential because my DH forgot my entire bag on the very first tournament that Magnolia was running in… forgot.)

1745 – Count cats.  (I mention this because they have been inadvertently locked into a closet during the fray of packing)

1800 – Pack car, double checking that we really have everything since DH usually gets home before me and packs most of the dog stuff.

1830 – Drive away, one of us usually asks, “Do we have the dogs?”  (I usually recount the cats in my head as we’re driving away)

Day of the Tournament

If packing for the tournament was crazy, getting to the tournament site at oh-dark-30 is usually worse.  Flyball tournaments are much like SCUBA expeditions; they start extraordinarily early in the morning for no particular reason.

0500 - iPhone alarm goes off.  If it’s been a late night I might have accidentally hit the snooze button and gone back to sleep for another 9 minutes.  Otherwise, it’s up up up and feed the dogs.

0545 – Double check that there’s nothing additional that needs to go down to the car, pack up folding crate, double check that you’re dressed since it’s possible that your jammie bottoms could be hanging out your athletic pants with the early morning that you haven’t shaken off and no coffee / tea to wake you up.

0600 – Car is packed again and ready to go to tournament site.  You beg your dog to potty (especially if it’s cold or there’s inclement weather).  Then it’s off on the adventure of finding the tournament site.  We rarely allow ourselves more than 45 minutes to navigate through unfamiliar territory and get breakfast.  Usually this backfires.

0659 – Arrive at the tournament site after much bickering with DH and threats.  (Tournament mornings are über stressful for me).

0700-0800 – Wait.  Our captain likes us to get to the site early so we can all chill, regroup, and receive any instructions that he might have gotten at the captain’s meeting.  This is also the time when we gear-up our dogs (harnesses, boots, vet-wrap, etc) and then beg them to potty again.  Now-a-days I require a bit of “gearing” myself to include a very fashionable pair of knee pads.  (I thank God every day that none of my ex-boyfriends have ever seen me in my flyball getup.  I am definitely not the picture of sexy.  And I’m very lucky that my DH is so in love with me that he can excuse my extreme lack of fashion on these tournament weekends.)

0800-lunchish time – Racing starts.  There’s a lot of up and down in racing.  You’ve got to really stay on top of the racing schedule and when you’re slated to go so that you’ll have enough time to take your dog out, make last minute gear adjustments, have a potty break (for you and the dog), do some stretching and warm-up, and then make it to the racing lane with enough time to help set jump heights and begin the warm-up run on time.

lunchish time – after lunchish time – Yes, I realize that was vague.  However, that’s kind of how we all feel about lunch during a flyball tournament.  You take it when you can get it, and where you can get it.  Sometimes if the racing schedule and racing venue allow we’ll go out to some place like Panera.  Other times, we’re grabbing junk food at the onsite vendor and shoving in our faces as we streak off to the racing lanes with our dogs in tow.

after lunchish time – 1700/1800 (if we’re lucky) – If we’ve entered an unlimited tournament chances are racing is gonna last until about dinner time.  That’s more of the up and down, up and down, up and down, potty your dog, play some “Oh, Hell!”, etc.  I think it’s very important to note that while you’re racing the adreneline is really pumping so you don’t realize exactly how tired you really are.

post racing – Our team likes to go out to dinner after racing.  Some days we’re more adventurous than others, but that also depends on the venue.  There are some venues (*cough*Franklin*cough*) that have a somewhat limited selection.  At those locations the team has found tried and true locations that we go back to over and over again.  Sometimes, going to dinner at one of these good ole stand-bys is the most exciting and looked-forward to part of the trip.  Our flyball club is steeped heavily in tradition.

post dinner – As with the “post racing” there is no time on this particular event.  When racing ends ultimately determines when you’re actually able to get into bed.  During dinner, often the effects of a full day of racing begin to take hold.  However, since you’re eating and having fun with your team mates you hardly realize it.  The fully realization comes when you return to your hotel room (or your van if you’re van-camping), and you start to unwind for the night.  Suddently every muscle in your whole body seizes up, your brain gets fuzzy, and you think, “If I have to get up and go play flyball tomorrow I might kill myself.”  All of this is further complicated by attempting sleep in a hotel room with dogs who may or may not be tired from a day of racing, depending on their energy level.

Bottom line, get the sleep because you do still have to get up and do it all over again the next day!

The Games Begin!

To be sure that my last post didn’t fall on deaf ears, I have a few videos to illustrate my points.  These were taken at the flyball tournament that our club hosted.  Unfortunately we don’t often have enough hands to film at every tournament, so we’re not always as up to date as we could be with the videos!

This first video is what can go wrong in flyball; not bad wrong, just messy.  In it you’ll see our start dog Porter go out for her ball, then turn wide and miss the jumps on the way down.  My dog, Magnolia (the Dalmatian) drops the ball on the line when returning (which you actually can’t see in this video, but the judge surely did!) because Maddie (the Cock-a-poo) has a bad pass — which means that she crossed the start finish line going out to the box before Magnolia crossed the start/finish line returning from the box. Then Sienna (the Australian Shepherd) also had a bad pass; it’s a little difficult to see.  When Porter (Australian Cattle Dog) goes out for her rerun, she misses the jumps going out.  Maddie attempts to rerun to clear the fault for her bad pass, but goes out of turn.  The heat was called a “no finish,” which means that we didn’t clear all our flags and we get no points for that heat.

What can go wrong in flyball from Whitney McKim on Vimeo.

This second video is a close up of Porter and Magnolia doing their swimmer’s turn on the box:

Swimmer’s Turn (sort of) from Whitney McKim on Vimeo.

Finally, the next two videos show a basic flyball race.  One is of Speeders our Regular Division team and the other is of Rush Hour our Multibreed team (look for the Dalmatian on this one!):

Beltway Bandits – Speeders (Feb 2009) from Whitney McKim on Vimeo.

Beltway Bandit – Rush Hour (Feb 2009) from Whitney McKim on Vimeo.

Related Posts

• July 2, 2010 -- Race to the ONYX!
• June 25, 2010 -- Potential for ONYX & no Hyenas
• March 19, 2010 -- Can it GET Worse?
• March 4, 2010 -- It’s all about the Malinois
• February 5, 2010 -- [Material Girl] Feet, the way God intended them

This is Part 1 of a multi-part series on the game of Flyball.
A good friend of mine recently wrote a blog post on the merits of training an appropriate retrieve in relation to learning flyball.  You can read about it here.

If you follow me on Twitter you may have noticed that this weekend there were quite a few posts with #flyball in them.  And if you don’t know me in “real life” you might be very confused.

Flyball has nothing to do with baseball.  Nothing to do with a ball being batted into the air.  It is a sport, though.  And it has everything to do with dogs.

Some Basics on the Game of Flyball

There are two organizations that govern flyball.  The first, and most common in our area, is the North American Flyball Association, or NAFA.  The flyball club that I belong to is affiliated with NAFA and we currently only compete in NAFA tournaments.  The second is called U-Fli.  For the purposes of this article, I will only be discussing NAFA Flyball, but I wanted to mention that U-Fli is out there and well distributed across the country.  I have no personal experience with U-Fli.

Flyball is a team sport for dogs.  And, yes, I know how crazy that sounds.  But trust me, it gets crazier.  Here’s a rundown of what happens in a flyball touranment:

Flyball is a relay race with 4 dogs on a team. The course consists of a starting line, 4 hurdles spaced 10 feet apart and a box. The first hurdle is 6 feet from the start line and the box is 15 feet from the last hurdle for a 51 foot overall length. The dogs jump the hurdles and steps on a spring loaded box that shoots out a tennis ball. The dog catches the tennis ball and then runs back over the 4 hurdles. When the dog crosses the starting line the next dog goes. The first team to have all 4 dogs run without errors wins the heat. Tournaments are usually organized in either a double elimination or round robin format. Double elimination is usually best of 3 or best of 5. Round robin is usually best 3 out of 5 and the first team to win 3 heats receives 1 point towards their standing in the tournament.

The hurdles’ height is dependent on the height of the dogs in the team — 4″ below the shoulder height of the shortest dog. 8″ is the minimum height and 16″ is the maximum height.

From Flyball FAQ – Flyball Home Page

Quick rundown of the different types of divisions there are in flyball:

• Regular Division: The team is not required to vary the breed of the dogs on the team.
• Multi-Breed Division: The dogs composing the team must be of all different breeds.
• Open Division: This is new as of the 2008 tournament season.  Dogs on an Open team can be comprised of varying breeds or the same breeds and can be from different clubs, whereas previously dogs switching clubs had a mandatory waiting period before switching.  This allows dogs to be shared if they’re unable to run with their parent club for whatever reason, and generally allows for more flexibility in the sport.
• Veterans Division: All the dogs on a Veteran’s team must be 7 years or older, and as with Open, can be composed of dogs from different clubs without completing the mandatory waiting period that is required with Multibreed or Regular.  Typically, Veteran’s teams run fewer races and heats than the other divisions.

Each division type is additionally broken up according to seed times (or the time that your team consistently runs, not exactly the average time but sort of) so that you’re not racing against teams that are simply going to blow you out of the water every time you go up against them.

The Titles and the Glory

Now that you know the what you are probably wondering the why.  I mean, you could find other more productive things to do with your time, right?

It’s for glory of course!  The magic number in flyball is 23.999.  23.999 seconds, that is.  If your team is able to complete a heat in under 24 seconds, each dog running is awarded 25 points towards titles.  Completing a heat in 24-28 seconds will result in the award of 5 points to each dog running.  Completing a heat in 28-32 seconds is worth just 1 point, and if the team takes more than 32 seconds to complete no points are awarded.

What does 23.999 seconds really mean for the team? It means that each dog on the team must complete the entire course in less than 6 seconds, or you have to have a combination of super fast dogs and a couple of slower dogs.

The current world record is held by SpringLoaded from Michigan and is 15.22 seconds for a Multibreed team and 15.32 seconds for a Regular team.  Our team was lucky enough to actually see SpringLoaded race at a tournament in 2007.  They’re amazing.  Totally amazing.

Now that you know the scoring for title points here are the potential titles:

The Joys of Teaching Flyball — A.K.A. Problems with training

So there you go, a relay race!  Is it clear as mud yet?  What this little blurb doesn’t tell you are the types of obstacles that you have to overcome.

1. Dogs will be able to return faster if they make a “swimmer’s turn” on the box. This can be particularly difficult as many dogs don’t know they have a rear end.  Know how dogs chase their tails?  Well that’s because they don’t know that it’s back there!  Teaching dogs that they have a back end is essential for the swimmer’s turn so that they able to swing their tush around and use their back feet to push off on the return back down the lane.
2. Dogs will be dogs. And this primarily means that dogs love to sniff other dog’s butts.  It’s their handshake.  Problem with that is, greeting / shaking hands with the other team during racing isn’t allowed.  That’s called a cross-over and if it happens often enough or aggressive enough a dog can get expelled from the active tournament or even from the sport all together.
3. Balls are meant to be delivered to the hand of the handler. Well, I suppose that they don’t have to be delivered all the way to the hand, but it helps.  A ball dropped too early (i.e., not completely across the finish line) is a fault (or flag) and if the team is to complete that heat, the dog will have to rerun the course and bring the ball all the way across.  Easiest way to ensure this happens is to teach the dog to bring the ball all the way back.
4. Recall, Recall, Recall, Recall, Recall. And just for good measure, I’ll say it one more time — recall.  A reliable recall is essential to this game.  Your dog simply must come tearing back to you (preferably at mach 5) no matter what is going on.  Teach that and you’ve won half the battle.
5. The quickest distance between dog and treats is not over the jumps. Sorry to break it to you, but the minute your dog realizes that you’re gonna give him treats, he’s gonna want to get to you as fast as he can.  And as fast as he can does not involve going over jumps!  “We don’t need no stinkin’ jumps!”  Except we do.  Unless we want to get flagged.  So, it’s essential that the dog learns that treats only happen when the dog goes over the jumps and brings the ball back.

The point is, flyball is complicated!  It takes a certain type of dog and a certain type of person.  If your dog loves to lie at your feet and look up at you adoringly, your dog is not built for flyball. If your dog wakes you up at the crack of dawn by depositing a truckload of tennis balls on your bed, dances around making play gestures, and then plays ball in the back yard with you in any kind of weather (rain, sleet, snow, shine) then chances are, flyball might just be the sport to run off all that energy.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more on Flyball!  I’ll be posting a typical day during a flyball tournament.

Related Posts

• July 2, 2010 -- Race to the ONYX!
• June 25, 2010 -- Potential for ONYX & no Hyenas
• March 19, 2010 -- Can it GET Worse?
• March 4, 2010 -- It’s all about the Malinois
• February 5, 2010 -- [Material Girl] Feet, the way God intended them

Flying Dalmatian #2
Originally uploaded by iCAS

Well, we’ve returned from York, PA after another exhausting weekend of flyball! I’m always happy and sad when it’s over. On Sunday afternoon when everyone is dragging and you think you can’t possibly stand for another minute without collapsing, run another second, or scream for another dog you want it to be over. But then you go to sleep and on Monday morning there’s a little place in the back of your heart that just wants to go out and start all over again.

Magnolia’s fantastic. We were so proud of her this weekend. She works against all her handicaps and surprises us every time. Poor little pooch is half deaf and epileptic so we’ve got some stuff to work through. She’s hard to get her attention when it’s loud and obnoxious so we’re going to have to start training her at home as if she really were a deaf dog. That way, she’ll be used to all the hand signals and not rely so much on vocal commands. And the epilepsy. Well that’s another story. She was chunky in the beginning (a result of being a die-hard kibble addict, too many fillers, not enough of the good stuff) and so her medication dose is really correlated to her old weight — 56 lbs! Well, she’s now 40 lbs (and we’d like to put a little bit back on her, maybe up to 43 or 45 lbs). But you can really tell a difference after she’s been medded for the day.

Saturday morning we fed her after her first race. 2nd race? She fell apart. And I mean… FELL apart. She couldn’t focus, couldn’t concentrate, and when we pulled her after it was apparent that there was no way she’d be running she returned to her crate and fell fast asleep. Poor thing. But after a good long rest and after the meds evened out, she pulled it back together and had some awesome runs in the afternoon. So Sunday, we didn’t even bother having her run in her 2nd race. The theory worked. But we’re still going to be talking to our collection of vets to see about lowering her dosing.

The club did awesome. Our regular team placed 1st in their division, our open team placed 3rd in their division, and we had 6 dogs earn new titles!

We were also lucky enough to see an awesome Jack Russell Terrier achieve their Flyball Grand Champion 70K title! The entire hall erupted with applause when the last dog of the relay crossed the finish line. It’s so great to see such fantastic camaraderie in a sport.

So… I’m glad it’s over because I probably couldn’t have stood for another minute, but I’m sad too. Until next time.

Related Posts

• July 2, 2010 -- Race to the ONYX!
• June 25, 2010 -- Potential for ONYX & no Hyenas
• March 19, 2010 -- Can it GET Worse?
• March 4, 2010 -- It’s all about the Malinois
• February 5, 2010 -- [Material Girl] Feet, the way God intended them

I seem to be having a great deal of “dog stuff” to report lately. I think Magnolia is taking over my life (much like child would I suppose). Today my mom and I went out to check out the flyball tournament that my trainer’s team was hosting. I was terribly disappointed that Steve couldn’t make it, but he was off playing football with the Unknowns (2nd practice of the new season). We had a blast! I thought we’d stay for about 15 minutes, but after nearly 2 1/2 hours we weren’t even ready to leave!

Flyball is a sport for dogs. There are, of course, rules of play, referees, and winners and losers — though the dogs wouldn’t know they were losers, they always win when tennis balls are the object of the game. So here’s how flyball is played… There’s two long tracks, a starting line that has an optical eye so the ref can tell exactly when the dogs pass it, then there are four hurtles spaced 10 feet apart and at the end of the hurtles there’s a spring loaded box with a tennis ball loged in it. There are four dogs that run the course and the object is to run down to the end, get your tennis ball and run back, with the next dog crossing the “start line” at the exact same moment as the first dog. Sounds complex? You should see it. There’s dogs and people everywhere, they’re all barking and yelling and everyone’s going crazy. There’s lots of drooling and “lemme go!!! lemme go!!! lemme go!!!!” from the dogs, and the handlers are all screaming and pumping up the dogs and making lots of ruckus. Then the dog gets to run down there and get their tennis ball, and let me tell you… they book it! The hurtle height is determined 4 inches shorter than the shortest dog’s shoulder height, so each team wants to have at least one little tiny ankle biter dog so that the bigger dogs can just kinda step over it and not even blink an eye at the height. Really this is a sport for border collies, but there are lots of dogs that play.

Mom and I couldn’t stop laughing. Printed word just doesn’t do this justice. You really have to see it to believe it. There was one huge burly guy (Tattoo-man) who had an American bulldog that was dying to get the ball out of the other team’s box — he got disqualified. So they brought out is other dog, a huge german shepherd to take his place. And that dog could move out! And then LATER Tattoo-man had another dog he was running, but this time it was a teeny-tiny little Jack Russle named “Stella.” So when he was calling his dog to him to come back after she had gotten the ball, he’d get down on his knees Marlan Brando-style and yell “STELLA!!!!!” Hilarious.

I can’t get enough of it. Maggie’s going to make a great flyball dog one day. We’re thinking of dubbing her “The Spotted Rocket” (borrowed from some random art found on Cafe Press.com)

Related Posts

• July 2, 2010 -- Race to the ONYX!
• June 25, 2010 -- Potential for ONYX & no Hyenas
• March 19, 2010 -- Can it GET Worse?
• March 4, 2010 -- It’s all about the Malinois
• February 5, 2010 -- [Material Girl] Feet, the way God intended them