Entries from October 2007 ↓

Sorry, I must have been asleep at the helm, it finally sunk in, or I just woke up. I was driving home from my daughter’s house and listening to loud Hard Rock on my XM radio, I know, I know, I’m 53 and that stuff rots your brain and gives you hearing loss, and it hit me. Did I read somewhere that one single BOD member prevented the Open Class from being run with the other divisions like in U-FLI? I did, and I must have glanced right over it. Here is a quote from a comment I received on my post, Open Class Pros and Cons, which were all Cons by the way:

My understanding (from a BOD member) is that basically a single BOD member prevented the Open Class from being more open based on the opinion that NAFA should not be too much like U-FLI.

This sucks with a capital S. I am just a little upset by this, can you tell? Is this in the best interest of Flyball? I don’t think so not in any way, shape, or form. I would like to know why, how can this be, is this true? If every Flyballer out there is not just a little ticked off by this, there is something wrong.

This is from another comment by Eli that says it much better than I could:

Instituting an Open class, instead of adopting a model that appears to be working, created a number of issues.

Pickup teams definitely should be entered along side Regular teams, if for no other reason than to keep the competition fun and to help fill Regular divisions. Right?

This goes right back to what I first said in my post, Open Class and Performance Teams after reading about how they screwed up the Open Class. Now I find that it came down to one person.

If anyone knows something out there, can you explain it to me, or disprove this so I can go back to sleep.

Larry

Chris Van Wert has written an excellent post on the Pros and Cons of NAFA’s new Open Class. I think that even though some people have some problems with this new class, and Chris does a good job in bring them to light, in the long run it will be good for NAFA and good for the sport.

Chris also makes some other points, which are worth quoting here…

It’s possible that “Open Class” will actually help clubs to stay together. That the reasons for leaving a team will be less important if you can enter a tournament and run on another club without having to leave your club to do so. It will also give us the opportunity to become flyball ambassadors if we can enter tournaments on long distance trips. We would be able to meet and get to know flyball enthusiasts in places far removed from our home regions. Let’s give the Open Class a fair chance to win your approval. Flyball is changing — NAFA is changing — we are only afraid of change because of the “unknown”.

You can read the compete post on Chris’ blog here.

Larry

I would like everyone to meet a very special dog, who goes by the name SnapDragon. She has a multitude of titles behind her name, CD, CDX, NAP, NIP, NA, NAJ, ONYX, TF-III, and NAFA Region 14 MVP, and I have a feeling there are even more. These were taken from her website here. There is more than meets the eye about this very busy Border Collie.

When I first met SnapDragon and her owner, Jenny McRoy, Jenny sounded like a soccer mom. “Well, she has obedience on Monday, Agility on Tuesday, flyball on Wednesday, we have Thursday off, Herding on Friday, and a flyball/agility/obedience/herding trial over the weekend.” It was a common thing to hear her say, and there were challenges to all of this. Jenny was a florist and owned her own shop. She was often unable to accompany SnapDragon to her many trials and tournaments. Jenny and SnapDragon had some very good dog friends who were always happy to make room in their vehicle for SnapDragon.

One day, while returning from the agility field, Jenny was involved in a head on collision with a drunk driver and she was seriously injured. Jenny’s worst injuries were to her legs and she spent the next two years recovering. If she said it once, she said it a hundred times, “I only have to be able to run for two minutes. The amount of time it takes to run an Agility course.” So, Jenny and SnapDragon worked and worked until they were, back in the obedience ring, back on the Agility field, back on the herding field, and back in the Flyball ring.

SnapDragon is getting close to retirement age, but I think everyone will join me in giving a hand to a very special Border Collie, SnapDragon, or as her friends call her, Snap!

Fay

If you have or know of a special dog, and would like to have him or her recognized, please contact us using the Contact form.

Have you read this story about Ellen DeGeneres and her once dog Iggy? It seems that Ellen received a dog from the Mutts and Moms dog rescue agency and gave the dog to her hairdresser when it didn’t get along with her cats.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ellen DeGeneres’ doggy drama intensified Tuesday when the agency that took the talk show host’s adopted dog back said they were keeping it.

The dog adopted by DeGeneres and later given to her hairstylist’s family in violation of an animal rescue agency’s rules will not be going back to the family, a spokesman said, amid threats of violence against the agency.

DeGeneres made a tearful plea on her talk show that aired Tuesday for the owners of Mutts and Moms to give Iggy, a Brussels Griffon mix terrier, back to her hairstylist’s family.

The dog was removed from the hairstylist’s home Sunday. The owners of Mutts and Moms claimed that DeGeneres violated the adoption agreement by not informing them that she was giving the dog away.

Read the full story here.

She signed a standard contract that everyone receiving a dog from a recue group is required to sign stating that if the dog did not work out for whatever reason it has to be returned to the rescue group.

Now the people that run the recue group are receiving “…voice- and e-mail threats of death and arson, and their Paws Boutique store in Pasadena was besieged by media Tuesday, disrupting business.”

This is just crazy and one more case of the media gone wild fueled by a “Celebrity.”

Larry

Each year over 4 million dogs are euthanized in shelters across the country. For a nation of dog lovers, this is a very sad statement. It is not that shelter workers want to do this but with so many dogs, there is little else to do. There are many rescue organizations helping and I will highlight two of them here.

• DogsInDanger - DogsInDanger is an Internet-based national shelter outreach program dedicated to helping shelters save the millions of dogs that they are forced to euthanize. Dogs are listed with a photo and a profile similar to what you’ve seen, and perhaps had posted, on other pet adoption sites. The big difference with DogsInDanger is that this site is only for urgent shelter dogs. The date each dog is scheduled to be euthanized is displayed along with the dogs’ pictures and names. They also list the reason (medical, breed, age, behavior, or space) why euthanasia is scheduled. See their website at http://DogsInDanger.com.

• For the Love of Dogs™ - For the Love of Dogs was created with one purpose in mind – to assist rescue groups with the vet bills of dogs rescued from puppy mills, shelters, and the street. For the Love of Dogs sells items such as hats, tote bags, and shirts to raise money and 100% of the profit from every item sold goes directly toward the veterinary bills of rescued dogs. Please visit their website at http://www.fortherescues.com.

I am sure there are many other worthy organizations that do this work and if you know of some please use the comment form to post them.

Larry