Holi Flyball!

We've been busy, and have been doing a lot since our last post. The most exciting thing is probably Flight debuting in flyball, and earning his Flyball Dog title. He still has a ways to go, but I think he'll get there eventually.

One of the most fun things we've done was a photoshoot with our flyball team. Photos with Holi powder and dogs have been getting popular lately, especially for disc and agility photoshoots, and I had been wanting to do some Holi powder flyball shots- and finally talked my flyball team into getting together to have some fun with it.



The results ended up better than I hoped! For most of these photos, the result was completely captured live through the use of powder, though the shots of Flight and Angus were composited by a flyball teammate who happens to be a graphic designer. All photos were taken by me, with the exception of the one of Flight, taken by aforementioned flyball teammate.



This actually ended up being pulled off by just three of us, with five dogs between us, as our boxloader had other plans that day, one of our teammates was on a cruise, and one is still trying to survive the first year with a baby, and isn't quite back into the flyball swing of things yet.



The dogs did fabulous, even Flight. The box was actually shooting powder out (only in the thruster behind the dogs, of course, not into their faces where the ball is loaded), which could rightfully have scared any of the dogs. Especially Flight, who is weirded out by fans and heaters. But while they were all a little confused about the set up, for the most part, they were fantastic- and Flight did better than I thought possible.



I really am thrilled with how these photos all turned out. Our team may be small, but we are fierce, and this project really brings that to light, I feel.



I did have a little fun with some photos of Flight and Ptera, and composited the two of them together into one, which turned out great.



Koira is still enjoying retirement from flyball, and while she was there this day while we put the shoot together, she stayed in the house while we worked with the young dogs, so no photos of her with Holi powder doing flyball.

Wordless Wednesday: Flyball Teammates

On Sunday, my flyball club hosted a Fun Match at the Oregon State Fair. While there, I played around with my camera some, and wanted to get pictures of some of the new up-and-coming members of our flyball team.

Little Sophie, the shorted Jack Russel I've ever met, and a total sweetheart

Blitz, a Schipperke, and a little ball of crazy energy

Ziva, from DZDogs fame, who was a bit nervous about being at the fair, but did very well anyway

And Trix isn't new, she is a veteran, but could YOU have resisted this face?

Wordless Wednesday: Teams

My flyball team decided to update our team picture at the tournament on Saturday, since we have gained a lot of new members since our last official photo.

Flyball Tournament Food

The biggest difference between flyball and other dog sports is that flyball is a team sport. You certainly have friends and people who you train with in other sports. You have people you look forward to seeing at trials. But in flyball, you practice with your team every week, you crate with your team, you run with your team. And, if you are on my team anyway, you eat with your team!

I'm not in the least bit ashamed to admit that in our region, my team is known for the most impressive lunch buffets in our crating area. To a lot of us, the food spread is just another part of the tournament. It isn't a requirement for a team to bring food, of course. Some teams just let each individual bring something or plan on purchasing something for lunch when they are hungry, in an every-man-for-themselves sort of way. Not on our team!

Of course, putting together elaborate food spreads isn't exactly effortless. It is also a lot easier than you would think, though.

A week or two before the tournament, an email is sent out. The email looks something like this:

Breakfast stuff:
Coffee/Tea:
Sweet snacks:
Salty snacks:
Veggies and/or Fruit:
Lunch Saturday:
Lunch Sunday:
Bottled Water:
Plates, napkins, plastic ware:
Table:
Cooler w/Ice:

If we have people running with our team on Open, we often include them in the email as well as all of the team members who are traveling to the tournament. What happens then is that everyone signs up for what they are willing and able to bring. You end up with an email inbox that looks like this:

Actual screen shot of my email inbox when planning for the Stumptown tournament potluck

The most important part is to remember to hit "Reply All" rather than just "Reply" so that everyone gets to see all of the latest updates. Sometimes, someone needs to compile multiple lists together as some contributions mysteriously disappear in the email chain. For the most part, though, it works well. Since most venues have electricity available in the crating area, we often have at least the lunch dishes as hot items warmed up in crock pots. For those tournaments that don't have electricity, all of the dishes are things that can be served cold or room temperature.

The final potluck email for the Stumptown tournament

The final potluck email from the X-Fidos tournament

As you can see from the screen shots of the final potluck emails from the past two tournaments, the food can vary a lot. As the weather gets colder, chili and soups in crock pots tend to get more popular than things like sandwiches. 

You may not know it based on these emails, we do have a couple of people with dietary restrictions. Two of our team members are vegan. For the most part, we count on them reading packaging to know if they can eat the food that is brought along. A lot of us will make sure to bring something that works for them (such as hummus as an alternative sandwich spread) or simply choose the vegan friendly version of a food when out shopping. With the meal plans laid out like this, it makes it easy for people with any dietary restrictions (vegan, gluten free, etc) to plan what they can eat with the group and what they should bring for themselves.

Of course, this email list also ensures that we have enough tables to put the food on, coolers to keep it edible in, plates/napkins/forks/spoons/knives to not have to eat like heathens, etc. And water. Always make sure there is plenty of water at the tournament, and drink a ton of it. I also highly recommend bottles of tea (especially sweetened with honey), as they seem to help the sore throat that comes with flyball tournaments.

I think this method works great. It keeps anyone from having to put too much effort into planning the potluck. People can sign up to bring what they can afford to bring (short on cash that month? sign up to bring bottled water and a cooler with ice!). Our group is generally really good about rotating who brings what so that the same people aren't always providing lunch (though the tables and coolers are often brought by the same people over and over). A good group of people is essential to making this work. But a successful potluck spread makes a flyball tournament so much more fun!

A dog named Mellie

Something I often say about flyball is how awesome the team aspect is. Having people by your side during training and at tournaments, to share in your defeats as well as the wins, and to really share every aspect of the experience, is something pretty amazing. I don't think I've ever really mentioned before, though, how much this goes beyond your immediate team.



In the flyball world, we often become close to members of other teams by interacting at tournaments, running in Open together, talking training details, or just seeing each other at every flyball event, be it a tournament or a local fun match. Flyball becomes a community that is much larger than just the individual or even the individual teams.

Recently, my local flyball community took a blow when a border collie named Mellie was injured playing disc at a local park. Mellie belongs to Greta Kaplan, who leads and trains the Portland Tailblazer's flyball team. Greta also does training work with reactive dogs or those with behavioral issues.

Mellie is a six year old border collie who is active not only in flyball and disc, but also in herding, obedience, rally, nosework, and other dog sports. Mellie always gives 110% in everything she does. She is a handful on the starting line in flyball, but she knows her job and gives every single heat everything she has, even at the end of the day on Sunday when even the most reliable dogs are getting tired and making mistakes.

Mellie helps her mom out around the house by picking up dropped objects (and greatly enjoys doing her work!), and also helps out the reactive dogs Greta works with on a daily basis by being the decoy dog, distraction dog, and meet and greet dog. Mellie loves going to work with her mom, and happily jumps into the car every time.

Mellie is Greta's heart dog- Greta, who gives her heart to every dog she puts so much time and effort into training and rehabilitating. Mellie always gets along with everyone, and is always there. She loves to rest her chin on Greta's shoulder in bed, and will give a little hop to help her mom pick her up.

But now, Mellie has a full cruciate ligament rupture as well as an unstable knee joint. She had surgery to repair both of these problems, including an older surgical method used to stabilize the knee joint with, basically, fishing line strung through. Mellie is doing good post surgery, doing regular rehab exercises including twice-a-week under water treadmill (thanks to the very generous support of a sports rehab vet who is also a part of our flyball community).

Greta has set up a Chip-In, which you may have noticed displayed on the side bar of my blog for the past couple of weeks. Many very generous people have donated to help pay for Mellie's surgery, but the full amount has not yet been raised. If you don't have the ability to donate, I hope you have been able to just read this post about an incredible dog, and that it helps you appreciate not only those incredible dogs in your own household, but those owned by your community as well, be they family, friends, or dog sports competitors that you see most every weekend.

Mellie in action on the big screen at a Portland Trailblazer's half time show 

 If you do have the means and desire to donate, you can do so either on the sidebar or using the link below. And know that you are not only helping out Mellie and her mom Greta, but an entire community of dog lovers who would have been much worse off without this amazing team in action.

Flyball in Canada

Well, despite a lack of pictures from the weekend, I can no longer hold off on posting about our awesome trip to Canada for flyball. Instead, I will include pictures of Pallo from today, doing tricks.



Koira and Pallo both came along this time. Previously, Pallo has always been a bad eater when we travel, but I had the theory that he missed Koira rather than not liking traveling. This trip proved me right, as I had no need of the smelling canned dog food or any other tricks to get Pallo to eat his food. Of course, since his breakfast was a tender grass fed beef roast and lunch was whole flash frozen sardines, it might have just been the awesomeness of the food. Koira was her normal campaigning self, happy to eat, sleep, hand out, and be calm.



Saturday started out pretty rocky for us. Our first race went fine, but with a false start on every single heat and each person on the team taking turns doing early passes, it certainly could have been better. The second race of the day, Pallo's brain melted down. He started running down over two jumps, then stopping, looking confused, and running back to me. When I sent him again, he would do fine. This has long been a trick of Koira's, but Pallo has never once done it before, even in the early months of practicing.



After our five heats were over in the second race, I set to thinking about why he might be doing this and how to fix it. Then, I realized that the Open team we were running with is quiet. The dogs don't bark. And they aren't fluffy. Our team at home is loud, barky, and fluffy, and so was our Open team in California. I brought this up with the person in charge of lineups, who promised to put the two loudest and fluffiest dogs on the team in for the next heat, and also moved Pallo to anchor position (racing last, as opposed to third, where he was for the first two races). I also decided to pull out the big guns, switching from Pallo's little toy to the 5 foot fluffy tug. He is more likely to drop his ball when the tug is in play, but at that point, I just wanted a happy dog willing to do his job, and figured I could work with the ball dropping so long as he was happy.



Seems like that combination amped him up, and though he wasn't running the best in the world, he did run clean on the next race (except for my early pass, bad human). He also got his new fastest rerun time ever of 5.9 seconds, which is pretty good considering it includes his turnaround time.



The rest of the weekend went smoothly. My dog's brain came back, and he settled down and did his job, loving every minute of it. No new best times were set this weekend, though he did pull in plenty of times in the 5.1-5.3 second range over 9" jumps (his Personal Best of 5.0 was set over 8" jumps).



Saturday, Pallo raked in 499 points for the day, putting him over the 2,500 mark and earning him his Flyball Dog Champion Gold title. Sunday was an additional 475 points (roughly, I didn't count exactly on it) so he is over 3,000 total points at the one year mark for competing. From this point on, each title will take more and more points to achieve, meaning it may be awhile before a new title post comes about. For Pallo at least.



Green dog practice on Saturday afternoon did give me a bit of hope that Koira may be competing soon, though I am trying not to get my hopes up too much for the July tournament with her.



On the note of the pictures, Pallo is doing pretty good at a lot of his tricks, such as shake and other paw (for feet or hands), and roll over. He needs to learn spin, circle, and backup better. I am trying to talk my cousin into doing freestyle with him. I think he would be great at it.

My take on agility

First off, I will start by saying I don't run agility. I have never taken a class, and have watched precious few classes. And, I realize that for some people, it is everything they want in a dog sport, and they love it.

For me, flyball is the sport of choice. I love participating in it, watching it, training it, and just generally being around and helping out with the sport.

I spent the morning at an agility trial, which underlined for me some of the main things that makes me prefer flyball to agility. Now, keep in mind, this is my take on comparing the sports, and is totally based on my limited and admittedly biased experience with the two.

First and foremost, flyball is a team sport, while agility is an individual event. Yes, by individual I mean one dog one handler. Sure, you make a lot of friends, have people you hang out with at trials, people you train with, etc., but at the end of the day in agility, it is you and your dog, alone, who determine the outcome of the day. In flyball, it is the combined work of your four handlers, their four dogs, and your box loader. Often tons of help comes from a team captain, a pass caller, ball shagger, and your backup dogs and handlers. Sure, it is disappointing sometimes when your dog runs great and you lose the heat, or no finish, because of a mistake by someone else. That is something you don't experience in agility. But, in flyball, when you achieve something as a team, be it a new best time for the team, a new title for a dog, initiating a new dog, handler, or box loader, etc, it is something the whole team celebrates and goes through together. You don't just have friends or training buddies at a flyball tournament, you have teammates. And to me, that makes a huge difference.





At the agility trials I have attended, both with friends competing and just to watch, there is a lot of down time. Lets face it, watching people walk a course or rearrange equipment between classes is not all that exciting. Then, if competing, you spend most of the day sitting around waiting for your next run, generally (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) only getting out there and running 2-4 times total in a day, for about 30 second to a minute. At a flyball tournament, sure, we often get started a bit late. But, once the racing for the day begins, it keeps going steadily all day, with the exception of the very occasional conflict and generally a single lunch break. You get to get out there with your team and race normally 5-8 times in a day, and each race takes 5 minutes or longer. In between races, you can always watch the constant action, or else hang out with your team, talk strategy to people who it will effect directly, and eat from the potluck of great food most teams bring along. All in all, flyball days seem to move much faster, and have more packed into them, than agility days. Then again, I've never competed in agility.

The third thing is how much easier flyball is to understand by the casual observer. Break it down, and it is a race. The first team with four dogs to cross the finish line wins. The winner is indicated by the judge after each heat. You don't have to know much about the rules to get excited over who is going to win. Agility, while a lot of fun to watch, is much more precision oriented. Many things can go wrong on a course that someone unfamiliar with the specifics of agility will not understand, or even notice. At the end of a course, they may not have any idea if the dog did good, bad, or just okay. And, since it is individual format, not run head-to-head like flyball, there is nothing for the casual observer to grab onto and cheer for.

This photo, which I am using from Surf City Flyball Club's website (listed below), shows what I mean about a head-to-head race. An obvious winner, and something an audience can clap for even without knowing anything about the sport.

http://www.surfcityflyball.com/

Being the sport that I have immersed myself in (as we say, flyball is not just a sport, it's an addiction), there are a ton of other things I love about this sport. These are just the top three that going to the agility trial this morning brought into solid view for me. Those of you who do agility, please feel free to comment, correct, or generally brag about your sport being better. I just wanted to share why I think this sport is best for me, and would love to hear from some people as to why you love the sport you participate in.