Entries from July 2007 ↓

We have a black Labrador retriever and I have enjoyed looking at the photos on the Labster.com web log. If you love labs or just like looking at neat dog photos checkout the site.

I bet you guys can’t do this!

The Yawn, originally uploaded by Mr.Martee.

I think that both flyball organizations know what the stakes are in this business called flyball. You can choose to bury your head in the sand and try not to believe it but it is a business now.

Just a few short years ago NAFA had a monopoly on flyball and the NAFA Board of Directors (BoD) could make or change rule(s) without much regard to consequences. Please believe that I am not suggesting in any way that the decisions they made in the past were not clearly thought out. I think that all members of the BoD, current and past, have and had the best interest of flyball in mind when all decisions were made. I maybe a little naive in that thought but I think that I’m right. I know there are many dedicated people who serve in those thankless positions and I believe that at times it is hard for them to make the right call.

Now there is U-FLI and everybody gets what they want in either NAFA or U-FLI. Everybody should be happy. …but, they’re not. Why can’t U-FLI be what it is to those who want it AND NAFA be what it is to those that want that? Why can’t both organizations have a peaceful “co-existence” instead of “competing” interests?
Comment by Chris on Bureaucracy at its best.

Things have changed and it is more important now than ever before that the NAFA BoD and the delegates make the right call. Neither organization can sit back and rest on their laurels. Now it comes down to who can win over the most fans, is the easiest to use, and provides the best customer experience.

No matter what you think or you choose to believe, these two organizations are in competition. I think that both organizations can peacefully co-exist but the one that most meets the needs of the flyball community will win out in the end. I don’t see either organization going away any time soon but it could happen. I’m sure that NAFA has already experienced a decrease in revenue now that U-FLI is on the scene. It shows by what has taken place over the last year. Jump heights have been changed and the pickup team concept is now being discussed. These things were discussed a few years ago but nothing was done until now.

It is more important now than ever before that NAFA be more responsive to its customers’ needs or risk losing its customer base.

Larry

Jump heights go hand in hand with measuring and this time I think that NAFA has this one right. Unlike measuring, I can’t sight any objective reason why I think this but to me it just feels right. I have a height dog that jumps 8” in NAFA (would probably jump 7 but why subject myself and my dog to the stress of measuring) and 6” in U-FLI. I think he may be just a fraction faster over 6” jumps but not really any big noticeable difference. I don’t have a problem with 6” jumps for the smaller dogs but I think 12” is not high enough for the larger breeds, and 14” seems like a better height.

I could only find one article on the Internet talking about the optimal jump height for most dogs. It is titled, Jump heights in Flyball and is found on the Dogs in Canada website and written by Heather Lawson. I have no idea by what authority or expert knowledge the author has in this area. It may not be anymore than I have, virtually none, but her argument is persuasive.

The best jump height for a fast and safe run is 10 inches. The height dog should be 14 inches high, large enough to easily handle the length between each jump. The ideal height dog would have most of its height in its legs to make the 10-inch jumps comfortably. A Flyball player for 12 years, Angela Stefanac from Winnipeg agrees. “By raising the jumps to 10 inches, these dogs need to push a little harder to clear the jump, putting more power into their stride, without having to arch their backs.”

I really have nothing to dispute this assessment because the last team I ran on had a 14 inch height dog and my Border collies smoothly took the jumps with no problem.

The maximum jump height in U-FLI is 12” and is probably a little low for larger dogs so I think the 14” height settled on by NAFA is a good height for larger breeds. Ideally, if NAFA changed their measuring method to something similar to U-FLI, lowered the minimum jump height to 6”, and adjusted where each dog fit into each height category they would score big within the Flyball community. This is my opinion what is yours?

Larry