Meat, Flowers, and the Park

I posted two days ago that I went to a local agility trial in the morning. I did watch some of the runs and went around to some of the booths as well, but I was really there for two reasons. One, to meet up with some friends. Specifically, to split up some meat we had purchased as a group (warning, raw meat picture later in post). Two, to take Koira to the chiropractor, in hopes of solving her mysterious limping issues that way. We also had the added bonus of a visit to an unfamiliar park to play in.

The day was beautiful.



I left the frisbee in the car, since the footing was pretty muddy underneath all that lush green grass.



The dogs didn't seem to mind though, since I did agree to bring out the chuck-it and a racquetball.



We didn't stay too long, but the dogs did get a chance to run off some energy and enjoy some new scenery.



Pallo and Koira both went to see the chiropractor. Pallo had a funky neck thing again, which the chiro down in California commented on as well. She thought it was from being walked using a flat buckle collar but this chiro suggested it might be something about how he is hitting the flyball box. As soon as she said that, it brought to my mind the pictures of Pallo, nose totally squished against the box face when the ball doesn't pop out fast enough, followed quickly by my mental note that our boxes have too much lag time between trigger and plunger. We're fixing it soon, so hopefully that will help the neck thing.

Koira did have enough of a jam up in her mid back that the chiropractor (while not making any promises) thought it likely to be linked to the limping. Basically, what she did say was that it was certainly bad enough to have caused some lameness. So hopefully the whole mystery limping thing will go away now. Fingers crossed.

The other reason for meeting up at the agility trial and dog show was to split up some meat with two friends. Specifically, the three of us decided to try out a bulk ordering group by purchasing two calves to split three ways. Which we did in the parking lot.



I'm a bit surprised, and worried, that no one so much as commented on the fact that two women were casually sorting through a huge pile of bloody meat chunks in the parking lot. What kind of town is this, anyway?

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.

Canada, here we come

Looks like Pallo has a team to run with in Canada at the end of April. I'm really looking forward to this, since we had to miss the team trip up there last weekend. It was surprisingly hard for me to hear about all the fun times they had up there. They did great, and I'm happy for the team, but wish I could've gone along, and been a part of the whole thing.

But, we will be going up there with part of our team at the end of April, so hopefully we will have some fun times, and get a flyball fix that lasts until the local tournament in July. I'd still love to go to the two June tournaments in Alaska, but that is a goal that will likely have to wait for another year.

Flyball practice last night went pretty good. Pallo practiced with a box jump in, and his turn has gotten really high on the box again. I think we will continue to run with the prop for another few weeks, or start doing one run with, one without, to encourage him to keep his turn high.

We were going to try wall work at practice with him, but he gets so excited when we get there, I don't think it will work if there are any other dogs in the building working on the box. He just gets so amped up and confused.

He managed to reaffirm my statement that he can not run start. Part of this is because I find it rather cruel to have the height dog running start most of the time (with some exceptions) because of the possibility of reruns. Height dogs are already doing enough for the team without having to potentially run 2-3 times as many times as the other dogs due to reruns.

My other reason is Pallo specific. He likes to watch the other dogs, both on his team and the other team. As long as at least one dog is on the course or has just done the course when he is released, he runs great. In start though, he veers to the other lane badly, or just looks confused. I think I will work with him on this when we get the chance, but because of Reason One that I don't like height dogs running in start, we probably won't focus on it for long.

Koira did pretty good. She did a few full runs, and a number of partial runs, but was dropping her ball a lot, and back to not making much of an effort to catch it-- like, just not bothering to close her mouth around it even. Previously when she had this issue, the chiropractor had to do a major adjust on her upper neck and jaw, which helped fix the issue. Since the Chiro is only the next town over for the weekend, we will probably head over there on Sunday morning before I head to work to get her adjusted.

I work starting super early tomorrow morning, so may not make it to the blog hop if I sleep in. If I don't please stop by and visit, and I will make sure to do some blog hopping when I get the chance this next week. And, everyone have a good Blog Hop.