I’ve been running the “start dog” on our team for some time now and I have consistently decent starts. Starts are important because heats can be won or lost on how well you do at the start. I’ve started against the NAFA lights and the U-FLI lights. For this particular post I’m going to speak in terms of the current NAFA light system with a promise of a future post on the U-FLI light system.
First Things First
First of all, you need a dog that has good stamina to be your start dog. When you consider a race of three heats with a maximum of two false starts per heat, your start dog could run nine times to the box in one race. Multiply that over a day of racing and you have one tired start dog.
Now that you have established you have a physically fit and high stamina dog to be your start dog you are ready to learn how to get a good placement at the line.
What to Look For
When the judge starts the lights the first thing they do is flash up from the bottom and then start their decent. Yellow. Yellow. Yellow. Green. The top light is red, and comes on if you have false started. So, the lights are flashing up: READY! The first yellow light comes on: SET! The second yellow light comes on: GO! This all happens very quickly. You can say it out loud or think it in your mind. READY! SET! GO! I’ve found this cadence is essential to getting a nice start. I’ve also found that if that second yellow light is on for more then .001 of a second and I haven’t released my dog my start won’t be very good. At the very first glimpse of the second yellow light you should have released your dog. You’ll know if you are late or early by the “feel” of your release. It will take some practice to have a good release.
Where to Stand
Where to stand on the floor for your start all depends on your dog. If you have a 5 second dog I would start at 45 feet. If you have a 4 second dog, start at 52 feet. If you start at 52 feet and you false start by -.100 back up about 3 to 6 inches. Inches on the floor are feet at the start line. If your false start is -.010 or less, don’t back up any. Just try again.
If your start is consistently late .100 or more, consider moving up a foot on the floor. Dial in by moving inches forward or back to get that .050 or less start time.
How to Hold Your Dog
I have seen people holding their dogs in front of them while in a kneeling position. I’ve seen people start their dogs from a standing position, with their dog in front of them or on their left side. I’ve seen good and bad starts from all of these stances. I think it is how you are most comfortable. My 50 + year old arthritic knees can’t hop up from the floor quickly enough to get a good run up to the start line to give my dog a good chase in the run back, so I start with my dog standing in front of me. I think the chase is part of the fun for my dog.
Wrapping it up
Find the best dog for the job. Find your mark on the floor. Set your cadence. Ready! Set! Go!
I hope this is helpful to those of you who are just getting started in the lanes. Remember the most important thing about Flyball is having fun with your dog. I’ll be out there with you chasing that frustratingly elusive, wonderfully satisfying .000 start!
Fay
By far the hardest thing for me has been finding the right Flyball team. I, like most people starting in the sport, just want their dog to play. There is very little thought about team goals, team philosophy, or even what your own goals are other than to get your dog playing. It’s only after you know more about the sport that you find that you are on the right or wrong team. Being on the wrong team, can and sometimes does, lead to team breakups, lost friends, and hard feelings. Many times people don’t even know they are on the wrong team until there are disagreements or a breakup, maybe the team’s philosophy changed, or the team owner has let the power go to his/her head. I will try to explore some team problems with this post so that you can be better prepared to find the right team and maybe some of you can share your own thoughts on this subject.
Let me say that I’m using the word team in the place of club. There are Flyball teams and Flyball clubs and there are teams that are part of clubs. So rather than switch between the two I just decided to use team but you can replace team with club if you would like.
Team philosophies and goals
In my opinion, each team should have clearly stated goals and/or philosophies and they should be explained to every new person before they join a team. The philosophies and goals that team’s have are almost too numerous to list but I will try to list the ones that I know of:
Philosophies
- Training each dog to be the best they can be
- Getting the dog up and running as soon as possible
- No green dog can run before they are completely trained
- It’s okay to let green dogs run if it’s the only way they can gain experience
- Running all teams under 24 seconds to gain the most points for each dog
- Run the fastest dogs together and work down from there
Goals
- Points and titles
- Being number 1 in the region
- Division placement
- Being the fastest team
- Just having fun with your dog no matter how you place or how many points are earned
You can probably do combinations of these goals and philosophies for every team out there. The new person arriving for Flyball training with their dog doesn’t have a clue about any of this, but each potential new team member should understand the philosophies and goals of the team before they join.
No rules just right
I don’t think there are any children out there that own teams but I know that some teams have a bunch of rules and you would think that adults wouldn’t need that many. Some teams have rule books, team officers, and formal meetings while others do without these formalities. There are teams with just one rule, like if you are not happy, leave. I’ve been on one of these teams and eventually left. I would venture to say that most democratically run teams have the most rules but there’s probably no way to know that for sure. For me there is really no right or wrong way but just be aware and know what is expected of you.
Democracy, Dictator, or In-between
Everyone should know how their team is run. Does the owner call the shots or does everyone vote on how the team is run. There may even be an in-between area where the team owners allows members to vote on some things but not others. In this case, the team owner may have set up the team with certain goals and philosophies in place and doesn’t want them to change. Everything else like demos, new members, tournaments attended, or tournaments put on by the team are all open for vote. I can see advantages and disadvantages in all of these but just know before you join.
Paying by the Heat
How everyone pays is a very important consideration. It’s fine if you divide the total dogs per team by the tournament entry fee for that team if all of the dogs have an equal share in the racing, but if you pay for your dog to run and he sits in his crate all weekend you are not going to be happy. Especially, if you had to travel a good distance and then spend the night in a motel.
There are some teams that are able to pay the tournament entry fees and then collect the money from each member based on the number heats the dog ran. This seems like an equitable solution on the outside but what if you did have to travel and spend the night in a motel and your dog didn’t run or ran very little. What seems like a fair idea may not be so fair.
Questions for the Newbie’s
So for all of you newbie’s out there I hope that this has you thinking. If this does nothing else, at least you should have some idea of what questions to ask. In areas with not many teams you may just have to join the team that will take you just to get in the game. But you should know that there are others who may want to make a switch, after all, that is why Flyball is the fastest growing dog sport.
Happy Racing!
Larry
