Entries from November 2007 ↓

We all have much to be thankful for even if your life isn’t where you think it should be right now. We are all free to travel, to pursue our dreams, and express our thoughts without fear. No matter what side of the war you are on or what political position you take, be thankful for the men and women serving our great country. Give thanks to them and their families for their unquestionable devotions, service, and sacrifice.

I want to thank you all for taking the time to read, comment, and support this forum whether you agree or disagree with my ramblings.

From my family to yours, I wish you all a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Larry

“I love the feeling of standing in cold wet pee in the morning,” not! Don’t get me wrong I like all dogs but from time to time, they act like… well… dogs. I have to remind myself sometimes that they are dogs. However, it’s a very quick reminder at 4:30 in the morning when you are standing in pee in your bare feet that you live with dogs.

We have a dog door and all of the dogs know how to use it and they do most of the time. The times when they don’t like to use it, is when it is cold and wet outside. My tough little Jack Russell terriers don’t want to get there little feet wet… spoiled dogs and two males to boot.

I have a really old (about 17 years old) non-flyball Dachshund mix and she has a hard time getting out the dog door, and one of my Border collies (male also) sleeps in a crate at night near my bed (he sleeps in the crate for a peeing problem too). He wakes me almost every morning wanting to go out. This is our morning ritual… I get up every morning to let him out and make sure my old dog goes out also. At 4:30 in the morning, I don’t like to put lights on because after the dogs are out I head back to the bed for another hour of sleep except for mornings I’m standing in cold wet pee.

I would put my Jacks in crates too but they drive me nuts. One starts chirping and the other walks the crate and will start barking wanting out. I think the only answer is Bellybands for the Jacks. The dogs pictured are not my dogs but they look just like my two. They were breed by the same breeder, Margaret Byrd of Hi Cotton Kennels.

Does anyone else have this probably with there terriers?

Larry

The question is when is it time to retire your canine athlete? I guess the short answer is when they tell you it’s time.

Telling your friend that it’s time to retire is never easy. My wife’s Labrador retriever, Paige had to retire early from her Flyball career because of an eye injury from hitting the box too hard.

Paige

Meet our Paiger Black Dog. Paige was born sometime in June of 1997 and she is the sole reason both my wife and I got so involved in Flyball. Paige has always been kind of a wacky dog and sometimes we call her “Crazy Paiger.” However, she is a jewel to have around and can bring a smile to your face just to look at her. Paige was trained in Obedience, Agility, and Flyball but really only enjoyed flyball. She played with a passion unmatched by many and truly loved the game.

Paige started her Flyball career on April 1, 2000 in Charlotte, NC and earned her FMX title on August 17, 2003. She was voted Most Valuable Player of Region 14 for 2004.

When we first started training Paige for Flyball, Flyball was very new to our region and no one had any experience. Looking back now, I suppose we should have brought someone in that had experience to gain some knowledge but that is water under the bridge now. Consequently, Paige never was trained a proper box turn.

I don’t remember the exact date, but a couple of years into Paige’s Flyball career we noticed that she was hanging one of her back legs. It wasn’t very noticeable and she didn’t look like she was in any pain but we had her hips checked just the same. Our vet found that Paige had what looked like pretty advanced hip dysplasia and suggested several options for surgery. However, we wanted a second opinion and requested a referral to Auburn Veterinary Medical School so that Paige could be seen by an orthopedic specialist.

Paige was seen by both an orthopedic and the sports medicine vet for evaluation. The recommendation from both vets was that Paige should continue her Flyball career and surgery was not recommended at this time. We were told that the best thing for Paige was exercise and keeping her weight in check, which we always have. We were also told that Paige would tell us when she was ready to stop playing.

Paige continued her Flyball career for another year with no problems. However, we did notice that she was starting to hit the box harder. From watching her, we could see that she wasn’t slowing down as she did before her hip problems became so advanced. She would squat down when coming into the box kind of like putting the brakes on but now she was just smashing into the box to stop. It wasn’t long after this that we noticed a cyst in her left eye like a dark black dot about an eighth of an inch in diameter.

We took Paige back to the vet and then to Auburn to see an opthalmologist. The opthalmologist told us that the cyst was caused by blunt force trauma probably from hitting the box so hard. The decision to retire Paige from Flyball was then taken from our hands and we were told that if she continued to play she would more than likely need eye surgery. Paige’s Flyball careen was over.

When Is It Time?

Paige’s retirement was an easy decision for us because of her injury, but for those dogs that have no sign of injury when is the right time? If you’ve retired a dog, please provide your experience and explain when you knew it was time.

Larry

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.

Another championship season has come and gone and is now in the history books. Unfortunately, I’ve missed both the NAFA and U-FLI championships but from reading about both events, it sounds like everyone had a great time. It seems like I will be reading more about the events that I miss than having firsthand accounts of the ones I’ve attended, for I don’t really have a team right now. I mean I own a team but there are just three of us.

I’m sure that I’ve written about this before somewhere, I think it may have been, “Flyball, a four letter word?“

The three of us have always traveled to teams outside our area about 100 miles away, and it’s not as if we haven’t tried to start a team in our area over the last 7 years because we have, numerous times. Two of us are burned out from trying, and I am one of the two burnouts. Not only are we tired of trying, we are tired of traveling the 100 miles to play which is one of the reasons why there is just the three of us. Our teammates from the north didn’t want to travel to us and we were tired of traveling to them. Since they made up the majority of the team, they split with us to start their own team and I can’t blame them.

We split up on good terms and they agreed to help us at tournaments but I know that it’s a burden on everyone. One of my current teammates works in a hospital and has a very inflexible schedule and weekends are involved. It seems like most of the tournaments we would like to attend are held on a work weekend, which leaves just two on a team of three. Finding two people to help is bad enough but finding three is a lot more difficult. Then you run into the problem of being in the same division as the people that are helping you and this creates a bigger problem. Additionally, there is the fact that you can never get better because there is no consistency. You can’t run your own dogs and that’s no fun. It’s just a shame that Flyball is a team sport. I’ve heard it said that the best and the worse thing about Flyball is that it’s a team sport.

With that said, I sure do love running on a good team. There is nothing better where everyone is working together, making those tight passes, and the excitement of a team that is running in sync with each other. I do miss it.

The Path of Least Resistance

I could follow the path of least resistance and hang up my tug and the only thing keeping me from doing this up until this point has been my dogs because they do love the game. However, some of them are young enough and we could take up Agility, if I lost about 50 pounds. I guess I would lose some weight by just starting Agility so maybe it would be a good thing. Keeping them busy and losing weight too. On the other hand, maybe I could turn them all into Disc Dogs. Most of them like to play with the Disc and is one of the games we play to keep them in shape. Yea, this sounds even better. I can keep my 50 pounds and they can get the activity they need to keep me sane.

The Flyball Blog

I’m still looking for more contributors to keep this blog going. I’ve heard from a few people and if they could step up to the plate soon it would help. I think this is a valuable resource for the Flyball community and I would like to see it continue.

Happy Racing Everyone,

Larry

Flyball will be on Animal Planet on November 18, 2007 at 10:00 am. Flyball will be part of the Ultimate Dog Championships and the Flyball portion of the Championships will be from Las Vegas, Nevada. You can see the Animal Planet website for additional details. Planed activities for the championships and dates are as follows…

• Disc Dog Extreme Games - November 11, 10:00 am

• Flyball Las Vegas - November 18, 10:00 am
  

• Disc Dogs Southern Nationals - December 2, 10:00 am

• Lure Coursing - December 9, 10:00 am

• Agility Specials and Veterans - December 16, 10:00 am

Please pass this information on to your friends and family. As discussed in my previous post Showcasing Flyball, we need to get the word out to everyone we know. Let’s elevate Flyball as the best dog sport there is and this nationally televised event is the perfect opportunity.

Larry