The first time – we gave the club a couple months notice. It was a small team that had a group split off a few months before. We stayed and helped get the new dogs up and running. After we chose to leave the team (hubby and I) we had others from that club ask to join us. We agreed. Yes the club was not happy but we feel we did it the right way.

We started our own club and after a few months turned over the ownership because almost all the folks went to part time status or were not running at all for a few months. We felt if we wanted to run we had to make a switch so joined another club owned by friends. The club was pissed with us and rightly so…

Well that club went through a merge with another club and for personal reasons when the merge did not work out we chose to leave the club and we actually went back to our original club. This club was also not happy with us and we did not do it correctly but managed to maintain friendships. I still run with this club in U-Fli and the owner of that club practices with my club and runs dogs with us.

Breakups can be done correctly and maintain friendships but you have to work at it.

Tammy – if the club bought the equipment then it belongs to the club. If people want to split off that is their choice and they should purchase their own. If they knew they were going to split before now they could have ordered all they need in advance of the split.

I believe in planning ahead.

Do you have bylaws to which you can refer? For those that think bylaws are overkill, it is just this situation for which bylaws exist. You have them for when things get ugly. It takes the emotion out of the equation.

Is not splitting the equipment gonna piss off the teammates that are leaving. Yup. But I bet their going to find something to be pissed about anyway, or they wouldn’t be leaving.

Team 1 could sell some equipment to team 2 if they choose .. for a slightly discounted “used” rate.. that may help smooth ruffled feathers, but don’t count on it.

Think of it like your church… just because you have contributed your tithe, should you transfer to another church one day it doesn’t mean you get to take the candlesticks with you cause you “helped pay for them”.

Most Splits are caused because of communication gaps. Like in any relationship,it happens all the time. The split happens when one of those parties dosen’t hold another’s point of view as valid or equal. Or makes no effort to change when needed.

This isn’t an individual sport. It’s a team. All involved deserve a voice , and that can be hard to do.

the only dog sport with multiple dogs and multiple humans

trianing the dogs takes time to do it right – not complicated.
the people factor IS complicated.

After the innitial hurt and shock (by some, others were surprised it held out as long as it had) I think the split i was involved in was the best thing for both teams in the end. And that seems to be they way it is from anyone else i’ve spoken to. It was extreemely hard to leave – tears were shed

“if you’re planning on doing it is just to come out and let the others know in an honest, unemotional way that for whatever reason … that you’ve decided that what would be best for you is to break out – before you actually do it.”

the problem with the above text is that if you let the others know that you’re spliting before you split, well you just split…

I don’t think it’s possible to split without anyone being upset for some reason or another. My thoughts are – if you aren’t happy with the team you are with, and think you can be happier elsewhere, then do what you have to do, as best you can, and deal with the fallout… because flyball is our hobby – who wants to do a hobby that isn’t fun?

A person I respect a lot once told me, regarding a split, “if she is truly my friend, she will still be my friend even if we aren’t on the same team anymore”. I believe that is true of all friendships, flyball or not.

As difficult as it might be to split, I think the best thing you can do, if you’re planning on doing it is just to come out and let the others know in an honest, unemotional way that for whatever reason: training/competition philosophy, personal reasons,etc. that you’ve decided that what would be best for you is to break out – before you actually do it. You don’t have to go into great detail if it’s a personal issue, but it would only be fair to the others to let them know to avoid an even more uncomfortable situation down the road.

It would have been so much better in our situation, because we were going through a new ownership issue too, if someone had said something to the effect of: “hey guys, we just have a different philosphy about how we want the team run, so we’ve decided to form our own team”, or “our competitive goals are so different, we feel we’d be better off forming our own team”.

As it turns out, our split ended up being for the best and we’re actually glad that it happened now and we’re finding out that it’s not at all uncommon, but at first it was extremely hurtful because we were not told why or even that the split occured.
Just about every team I know of has had a split of some sort, so I think it’s important for newcomers to know ahead of time that this kind of thing does happen and may be even considered a natural evolution of a team, so that they are prepared if it does occur with their group.