Iron Dog

Neither of my dogs have earned the award Iron Dog from NAFA. Neither of them are old enough for it. But I seriously love the idea.

The Iron Dog award was announced at the end of the 2011 racing year. Instead of a title based off of points, as all other awards in NAFA flyball, the Iron Dog is based off of years. A dog earns the Iron Dog award by earning at least one point per year for ten consecutive racing years.

Basically, Iron Dog is a reward for longevity and perseverance, rather than speed.

To get points in NAFA, the team your dog is on must put up decent times. Each dog on the team earns 25 points per heat under 24 seconds, 5 points for each heat 24-28 seconds, 1 point for each heat 28-32 seconds, and no points for heats above 32 seconds. Most clubs can put together teams that run consistently in the 24 second range these days, though it used to be much harder years ago.

Even with running under 24 seconds in every heat, it takes a lot of heats to earn titles. The first few titles come easily. A single heat under 24 seconds is enough for a dog to earn their first flyball title, FD. Once you get up into the higher titles, though, there are a ton of heats, races, and tournaments represented by each title. A Flyball Master (FM, which is what Pallo currently has) takes 5,000 points to achieve. It is another 5,000 points until the next title, FMX. An ONYX, which is a major achievement to be celebrated, takes 20,000 points. A good haul of points at a tournament is somewhere around 400 per day (though some dogs haul in 700 or more at some tournaments). If you figure 400 points per day, it would take 25 tournaments to achieve an ONYX. And don't even start thinking about how many it takes for a Flyball Grand Champion (30,000) or a Hobbes (100,000).

So, what does all that nonsense about points have to do with the Iron Dog award? A lot.

Because for an Iron Dog, you don't need to run a team at 24 seconds or faster. You don't need to travel to 10 tournaments per year. You don't need to run your dog full time every day of every tournament to suck up every last point possible.

To get the Iron Dog, you have to go to one tournament per year. Your dog has to run on at least one team, which runs at least one heat under 32 seconds. And you have to do that for 10 consecutive years. Iron Dog rewards those with perseverance and longevity, rather than speed and attendance.

Does this mean I don't care about what titles my dogs earn? Does this mean I won't celebrate every title as it comes? Does this mean I won't count points carefully as we approach each new title? Absolutely not. I love titling my dogs. I love adding those extra letters after their names. I love celebrating the new titles of each and every dog on my team, and the high titles achieved by some of the dogs in our region. It is part of the enjoyment of the sport.

But at the end of 10 years of flyball racing, I will be more proud of that Iron Dog than of any single title. Because it will mean that we kept at it. We showed up. We played, no matter what. It will be a celebration of all the years we have played flyball together. And ultimately, that is the goal I have for my dogs. I want them both to be around 6 years from now. I want them both to be in good enough physical condition to still play and have fun playing flyball. They might still be pulling in the same times they bring now. They may slow down as they age. But if they are still here, still having fun, and still wanting to play, that will be an award worth celebrating.

Even if it doesn't add any letters on the end of their names.

Wordless Wednesday: Shadows on the street

One more picture from our trip to the Farmer's Market this past weekend.

Me and my shadow 

Farmer's Market

First off, we got the lab report back. And, I am probably just more confused than anything else. I was told the lab report said the lumps were hemangiomas, which are benign tumors. That is good news, of course. But, the vet also said that hemangiomas need to be removed so that they don't develop into hemangiosarcoma, which is pretty much a death sentence for dogs (with a 6-8 week expected survival after diagnosis.) When I came home and started doing research, though, I didn't find any warnings about hemangiomas turning malignant, except for one reference, which states "[Hemangiosarcomas] generally arise spontaneously, but in dogs with short, often white coats, chronic solar injury has induced a change in the superficial vascular plexus, which initially appears as a hemangioma and then progresses to a malignant vascular tumor. The breeds prone to actinically induced angiosarcomas are Whippets, Italian Greyhounds, White Boxers, and Pit Bulls."

So, I am making a list of questions to ask the vet on Friday when Koira goes in to have her last stitches removed. We actually did go in today to see the vet, pick up antibiotics for Koira's foot, and have the dangling knee stitches taken out, since they aren't doing much.

I bet this booth selling sausages is where Koira would like to start shopping

Koira is very ready to get back to being more active. She especially would like to swim, I think, since it has been pretty warm and even downright hot around here for the past week or so. But she is restricted to on leash walks or non-enticed exercise (no fetch, flyball, lure coursing, etc) until the last of the stitches come out. She is just so driven that she would not stop if the stitches pulled out or the wounds caused pain, so she doesn't get to play.

We did stop by the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning though. I had decided to stay home (rather than go take pictures at a lure coursing event) to give my ear infections a chance to heal up. I thought a walk at the Farmer's Market would be just the thing for both me and Koira, though I decided to leave Pallo at home because I wasn't feeling up to wrangling two dogs.

The wide view of the market

It was another hot sunny day, but we headed out early enough in the morning that it was cool enough walking around. It started to get a bit hot right as we left.

Market goers 

I mostly went with the sole purpose of walking around, seeing the sights, exercising the dog's mind and body, and just plain being somewhere other than home. I did also want to pick up some kind of a treat for the dogs from the local farmers though. One woman who sells chicken, rabbit, eggs, and occasional other things as well has discounted meats every week, just whatever is older than she wants to sell for people, and sells them as pet food. I picked up a whole rabbit for the dogs and cats to split between them.

The place we bought the rabbit

I was excited to see that our favorite local lamb farmers were at the market too. They previously have only been at our Wednesday markets, which are sometimes harder for me to get to. I didn't pick anything up from them this time, but did stop to talk for a little bit, and made a plan to go visit their lamb processor with them sometime. I would love to have a tour of the place, since I both feed my dogs her lamb and eat it myself. I think it would be interesting to see how the entire process works.

Our favorite lamb people also produce fiber as well

We also stopped to listen to some of the performers.

A small band getting ready to play

I just liked this next picture because it kind of shows a perfect picture of what your dog is seeing when in a crowd of people. It can be hard, I think, to really understand why some dogs are timid in crowds, or scared of people. This picture really shows, to me anyway, what they are seeing. And really, no wonder some dogs are weirded out by it. And for that matter, no wonder young children sometimes grab onto the wrong person, thinking it is their parent. People pretty much all look the same from that low down, at least, if they are wearing the same kind of clothes!

A dog's-eye-view in the crowd

And, a final photo as we were leaving for the day. The sun was getting high enough to make it hot, Koira was getting tired of carrying a backpack with our purchases (I picked up some zucchini for myself and to even out the weight of the rabbit in Koira's backpack), and we were ready to head home. This picture is one of the reasons I seriously love the GoPro. I might delete 3/4 or more of the photos it takes, but every once in a while, there is a photo I totally love.