Entries from July 2008 ↓

The Flyball list has been a staple of the Flyball community since 1995 according to the Flyball Home Page.  I, like most other flyball enthusiasts, have subscribed to the list for many years.   In my case, I am no longer a subscriber because I grew tired of all the email.  Moreover, with no record of prior topics, the same topics are rehashed over and over again.  I know that many people use the Flyball List to stay informed about happenings in the Flyball world but the organizational website do a pretty good job of that now.

The Flyball Forum

Over a year ago, my wife suggested that someone create a Flyball forum but I didn’t think anyone would be interested because of the Flyball List, and now even U-FLI has their own list.  After some more thought, I think she is right and the Flyball community needs a forum.  So please check out the Flyball Forum.  Please keep in mind that I just created it and I’m sure it will go through some growing pains and my learning curve. Please let me know what you think and if I can do anything to make it better.

Larry

If you look up the meaning of ringer in the dictionary, you may see these meanings: (1) a contestant entered dishonestly into a competition or (2) a contestant entered in a competition under false pretenses. Although, neither one of these definitions is completely accurate for the case I want to discuss, I’m going to use the word, ringer in the sense that a dog is brought over from another team and no one on the team actually owns the dog. Ownership of the dog may or may not be transferred. This practice, although not against the rules, seems unfair to me in a number of ways.

The Scenario

The team owner or a member of a team becomes friends with someone on a faster team. The friendship may or may not be a valid friendship, i.e. a ruse to acquire a fast dog, usually a height dog, from the faster team. The fast team may be pumping out height dogs just so that they can set records and a 4-second height dog may not be fast enough for them. So instead of the fast team having an over abundance of height dogs, they give a slower team in another region one of their fast height dogs. After all, a 4-second height dog is a real commodity to a slower team. It can mean the difference between being 2 or 3 in the region to taking the number 1 position.

As I said, it is not against any rule, and may I add that I don’t think a rule could even be created to lessen this activity, but it does seem somewhat underhanded or unfair to me. It’s especially unfair to the dogs and people on the team that own and trained their dog(s). After all, this ringer is now taking a spot on the team in place of one of the team dogs.

The Fast Teams

Who hasn’t sat in awe and watched these fast teams compete against each other. However, when you think of the dogs that may have been tossed aside for the sake of speed…it makes you wonder. I’m not saying that all fast teams do this but I know that one sub 16-second team does and I can’t help but think that more do.

I would like to know what you all think about this practice. Is it good for the sport or if more people knew about this would it give the sport a bad name? Is Flyball going the way of the conformation breeder, i.e. over breed to find the best? What are your thoughts?

Larry

While watching at last weekend’s tournament I noticed teams running their height dogs in the start position. I’m not talking about the 4 to sub 4 second Border Staffies. I’m talking about the 11 or 12 inch Rat Terrier or Jack Russell that has to take 2 or 3 steps between the jumps. I think it almost borders on abuse. By the end of the day on Sunday, anyone could see that these little guys are visibly spent.

I can see no good reason for running these little dogs in the start position. It seems obvious to me that all of the discussions we’ve been having about the U-FLI measuring method, NAFA and U-FLI jump heights and now NAFA talking about subtracting 5 vs. 4 all have the most impact on our height dogs. All of these issues are like a mantra for “Saving Our Height Dogs.” Yet all of this is for naught if people continue to run their little height dogs in the start position.

Wake up people; I don’t care how good at starting you are, your dog is running more than any other dog on the team.

Larry