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
I attended my first tournament over this last weekend since March 2, 2008. Having a 5-month vacation after almost 9 years was a welcome and much needed break. I was completely burned out, turned off, and somewhat bitter over my Flyball experiences on this blog, and team problems didn’t help my disposition at all. If it wasn’t for my wife and my dogs looking at me with that look in their eyes like “Are we ever going to play Flyball again?” I came very close to never returning to the sport that I once loved.
It is obvious to me that it will be some time before I’m able to get into full swing again, hell; it may never happen so I’m just taking it slow and one tournament at a time.
I guess you can never definitively say never, but I believe the dogs that I currently own will be my last Flyball dogs. I’m not interested in owning another team, running a team or even training, and I’ve turned these activities over to my wife who still wants to play and be involved. Just tell me what dog is needed on whatever team I’m running on and I’ll be there in the lane waiting with my dog. I don’t want to think about points or even winning.
I’ve put together a list of things that I didn’t miss, things I missed, and things I still miss. This is not all-inclusive, but is the things that come to mind right off the top of my head.
Things I Didn’t Miss
- Preparing for the trip
- Loading the RV
- Unloading the RV at the tournament site
- Loading the RV after the tournament
- Unloading the RV after arriving back home
- The hurt and pain after the tournament
Things I Missed
- Watching the dogs perform - what heart they have
- Seeing old friends
Things I Still Miss
- Old friends that now play on other teams
Back to the Basics
I plan to get back to the basic reason why I started playing this game and that is to have fun with my dog. For now, I want to stay away from everything that made me want to quit. Most of those things had to do with people issues. Flyball can be hard on relationships and I know of family members that no long speak to one another over this game. I believe there a many people playing Flyball today that need to get back to the basics.
I want you all to know that I’m no longer a member of the flyball list and haven’t even looked at the NAFA or U-FLI websites in over 5 months. So I may not be able to return to my old self for a while but if you shoot me some ideas on things that interest you, I’ll give it a go.
I want to thank all the people that came up to me or sent messages, saying that they missed the regular post on this blog. Thank you, your support means a lot to me.
Larry
