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Slow Motion Flyball Video


ZoZo
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Hey flyball fanatics, here's a fun, slow motion flyball video from the weekend where our team put on a tournament in Irvine, California. My border collie, Zoey is running the third postion. I don't know who took this, except it was a friend of someone on our team. He was using a camera that can do 1,000 FPS! It's very different seeing it so slow and at this odd perspective. I'm letting go of Zoey at 40 feet from the start line, so you can't really tell distance in this.

 

Flyball Slow Motion

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Hey Dana, thanks so much for helping out and making the trek to OC! People really pitched in and volunteered like crazy all weekend to make everything run smoothly, it never ceases to amaze me. We were lucky with the rain too, it was a monsoon here yesterday.

 

Greg

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Quite the opposite, Zoey doesn't slide at all, she has a great turn. The problem is friction of her dew pad on the box surface (high strength rubber matting)- if I don't tape her with vet wrap or use the boots (which are much easier), she'll start wearing off the dew pads by mid morning at a tournament and start bleeding. She runs mid to low 4 seconds and is going at a pretty good clip when she gets to the box. Dogs that skid into the box (not a good thing) are usually doing so with their rear legs & paws.

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Mine (and most others I've seen) wear skid boots because they slide in the runback, not into the box, and tear their carpal pads on the mats, which is why I was curious about boots on grass, a surface I don't have to protect them on. So Zoey wears her dew claw pad on the box - interesting.

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Hmmm, in the run back? I didn't even know that was a problem. As you can tell, about all of our training and tournaments are on grass. We've only done three tournaments on mats- that's an incredible luxury in Southern California. I wonder if dogs that run on mats all the time build up a tougher carpal pad? My other dog, Jinx, has the same problem, well he has lots of problems, but it includes wearing his pads on the box as well.

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yes, we insisted on single strides if the dog could physically do it, we reinforced single striding at EVERY SINGLE practice in every dogs entire career, right from the moment they started training. dogs prone to double striding, were also reinforced to single stride during warm-ups before a race. we held it right up there with a solid swimmers turn on the box.

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Single striding is not a must have in my mind. Some dogs just don't have the want to single stride. Flyball is supposed to be fun for the humans and dogs and requiring certain things can lessen the fun in my mind. I am the trainer for my club. I don't require single striding even if I believe a dog can do it. I do work on getting the dog to single stride but don't require it. I also do not require a box turn on a dog. I teach a box turn and strongly recommend it. For high drive dogs that I believe will hurt themselves without one I will let the owner know my thoughts. In the long run, it is up to the owner to decide. I will tell the owner that once the dog is competing I will NOT retrain anything. They either learn right at the beginning or the dog will just have to run below its capabilities or possibly have injuries that could have been avoided.

 

I can talk until I am blue in the face but if the owner doesn't want to put that extra time into training for whatever reason then I don't worry about it. I keep props in front of the box at all times for the majority of the dogs even those that have been running for years. Many of the dogs were trained before I joined the club and some have horrible turns that are even dangerous. Some of these owners refuse to pull their dogs from competition to work on this so we just do what we can.

 

When it comes to single striding we have dogs that should be able to single stride but for whatever reason the dog is not motivated to do it. Most of our members are pet people first so we can only require so much from a dog and the owner before the owner decides this is no longer fun and either quit flyball or move on to another team.

 

Edited to add: I have 2 of the fastest dogs on the club. My borderjack and my acd. We have the capability to run 18 seconds as a club but that would take the fast dogs away from the slower dogs and the slower dogs wouldn't be able to get points. My club only has 5 dogs that run sub 5's and 1 that can run sub 5s (my bc who has issues). We have 2 of these dogs that run low 4s. We only have 3-4 dogs that run in the 5s and everyone else is 6 and above. Some of these slower dogs could be faster if the training was better at the beginning but the owners are happy so I am to. We do try improve the dogs and some have dropped their times drastically but we just don't get enough people with a true competitive spirit or the dogs.

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Most of our members are pet people first...

 

No, no, not the pet people!

 

Just kidding. Actually that would be me. Our small team is mostly pet people too. That description still makes me laugh because when I started flyball I used to think that all flyball people were pet people!

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yes, our club was primarily competitive, our goal was to break records. we had seperate teams.."just for fun" teams for the slower dogs, older dogs and dogs belonging to people who werent really serious about it, just for fun. however our concentration was on compitition. new dogs had to prove themselves on the "fun" teams, then move up to the "fast" teams. a majority of our dogs ran low 4 seconds or less over 13" jumps. I admit I am one of those competitive people..the thrill of high speeds and winning to ME was fun, and my dogs loved it. I was bored to death running slower dogs lol

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All dog sports are open to the ultra-competitive, the just-for-fun types, and everyone in between. Flyball is no different. Even if a team can't run fast enough to get points/titles, they can still play for fun - and they'll get lots of support. I'm not one for titles and couldn't even tell you which ones my dogs have. That's what's also great about sports, whether you want titles or want to win, there's something for all. It's just a matter of teaming up with the right group of people who have compatible goals. To me, there's nothing more exciting in flyball than running in a close, fast race (and notice I didn't say winning that race). But there's also a huge fun factor to be had hanging out with friends, helping each other & other teams out and cheering when someone accomplishes a goal. Flyball is a team sport, and success only comes with great teamwork. Rah rah! :-)

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I do realize that sports are open to all range of competitive folks, from the ubercompetitive to those who just want to have fun. I guess my larger point was that it's nice to see that there are people who are happy to play sports with *the dogs they have* vs. being so interested in winning that they need to go get a specially bred dog to do the sport. Or, as Kim noted, just being out to have fun and not insisting that their dogs perform in a particular way beyond the basics needed to actually compete. To me, it's a breath of fresh air.

 

J.

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I agree that having fun is the primary goal, and I guess my team is lucky that we also have fast dogs. I love the speed and work to get my guy doing 4s or less, but I'm not too concerned with winning the race. I run him open often with a little guy that runs 12 second runs, which is one of the highlights! Watching this little 10 year old scottie run is so much fun, all the teams cheer him on!

My girl is just starting to run full runs, and as she progresses, it's looking like she's going to take the last 2 jumps in a single stride! Now that's a jump! lol

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I guess my larger point was that it's nice to see that there are people who are happy to play sports with *the dogs they have* vs. being so interested in winning that they need to go get a specially bred dog to do the sport. Or, as Kim noted, just being out to have fun and not insisting that their dogs perform in a particular way beyond the basics needed to actually compete. To me, it's a breath of fresh air.

 

I agree. Almost everybody starts in a sport "to have fun with their dog" and sometimes it is sad to see it morph into something not so fun for the dog and often not so fun for the person, if they'd take a deep breath and think about it. Rave's comment about finding a group of people who have compatible goals with you was dead on because at least in agility, there is such a range of what people want and are willing to do. And of course, you can be at the top of the game and still both you and your dog are having great fun.

 

My first agility dog was genetically shy. I started agility because I heard it was a confidence booster and the sport was wonderful for him. He did quite well and was a partner in every sense of the word. But he had his bad days from time to time. An number of times, people commented to me sometimes in person but usually on the Internet how they wouldn't bother or waste their time doing sports with a dog who needed a lot of of encouragement. Fortunately, I fell into a group of incredibly encouraging people who kept their doubts to themselves and celebrated his successes.

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I do realize that sports are open to all range of competitive folks, from the ubercompetitive to those who just want to have fun. I guess my larger point was that it's nice to see that there are people who are happy to play sports with *the dogs they have* vs. being so interested in winning that they need to go get a specially bred dog to do the sport. Or, as Kim noted, just being out to have fun and not insisting that their dogs perform in a particular way beyond the basics needed to actually compete. To me, it's a breath of fresh air.

 

J.

 

Sigh. Most, if not all, people start sports with "the dog they have." I don't personally know, and have never heard of, one person who saw some dog sport and then decided to go get a dog to suit that sport instead of trying it with the dog they have first. It just doesn't happen that way. What typically happens is someone gets hooked on a sport and THEN looks to add on with a dog they can likely keep competing with. And then you see them out there competing with their new dog AND their first dog. Or maybe they realize their first dog just isn't cut out for whatever sport and retire it. You may see it as giving up on their first dog, but trust me, a lot of times it's best for the dog. I've seen so many dogs out there who shouldn't be, either for physical or mental reasons, and it's painful to watch. I wish those dogs could be retired from competition.

 

What's wrong with looking to get a more suitable dog when they look to add to their pack? You get dogs that suit your needs and hobbies, so do we. I know of some people who have re-homed some sport dogs because they weren't fitting in well. If a dog doesn't fit in a particular household well and fits in another better, why not make the change for the good of the dog? I'd love to find Zoe a home where she'd be the only dog and could be the center of someone's attention. I have a friend who'd love to find a home for her JRT for the same reason. To an outsider, it may look like we're "throwing away dogs" for a faster model, but that's just not the case.

 

Don't be so judgmental on sports people because it's really getting old. It's not a "breath of fresh air" to hear people compete just for fun, it's WHAT HAPPENS EVERY SINGLE DAY. If you were actually in sports competing, you'd know that was the case.

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