It's NOT magic people! (a rant)

[BG and Gavin]

Please forgive me for this rant but I am so sick of hearing some version of this story (as I did yet again today) that I could scream.  No, I could cry.  I almost did.

Lady on the street: “Your dog is beautiful, how old is he?”

Me: “Thank you, he just turned two.”

Lady: “Was he hyper as a puppy and has settled down as he aged?”

Me: “He has never been hyper, but was quite active and liked to put his mouth on everything as a pup.”

Lady: “I have a one year old labradoodle and she is sooo hyper.  I am hoping she will grow out of it.”

Me: “Have you done any training classes with her?”

Lady: “We went to one, but I don’t think it did any good. Your dog walks so nicely how do you do it?”

Me: “Lots of practice.  He gets at least two 45 min walks per day.  Which by the way really helps keep him calm.”

Lady: “We have kids, so really don’t have time to walk her.”

Me: “Oh.”

Now I am mad at myself that I did not say more (not that it would help) and again I feel worried that this will be a dog that is given up shortly.  That is the part that makes me want to cry.  No dog is perfect.  Some in fact arrive with issues that are extremely difficult to deal with.  I understand that.  But part of the joy and responsibility of having a dog is spending time with it.  Walking. Training.  Along the way they learn and so do we.  Okay, thanks for listening. 

[BG and Gavin]

Flyball sounds like a lot of fun!  I am going to have a look on youtube for a video.  Thanks explaining it for us.  I think most good athletes get hyped up before they perform.  I remember our horses would get what my dad termed "racy" on race day once we started loading the gear and preparing the trailer.

[Adina P]

I think Boca would LOVE flyball.  She's incredibly ball crazy!

[Leslie and Halas]

Ball crazy is a good start. But the most important thing is that, no matter what, your dog comes back to you, so a good recall is key. That's where the obedience thing comes in. Halas likes to play ball, but I wouldn't call him ball crazy. But he does like to run really fast, right at me, so that's what made me want to try it.

BG, we have a couple of videos on our page.  But here's a link to a world record run from last year. This is a 15 second run. Our team is lucky to hit 21 seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rSwA4jA6Z8

[BG and Gavin]

WOW!! Just incredible.  I watched this compilation.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZGD-BvbBpA&NR=1 It's like a riotous ballet!

[Leslie and Halas]

That's a great video. The judge (the guy wearing black that gives the start signal) used to run our team, but now he mostly judges. His wife and her dog sometimes still run with our team, though. That's the same race in the world record video above, I think. We were at that tournament. On Saturday, it set the world record for largest flyball tournament with over 800 dogs competing that day. You can really see the precise timing in that compilation video. The judge gives the signal, and you can see the lights at the start line. The idea is to release your start dog so he hits the start line at full speed just as the light turns green. If the dog hit the start line too soon, it's a fault, and you have to start over. Then, you want to release the next dog so that he can get to full speed and hit the start line just as the first dog is coming back over it. If dog #2 gets to the start line before dog #1, that's a fault, and you lose that race. In the slo-mo of that video, you can see some of the passes are just perfect. The noses of the 2 dogs hit the start line at the exact same time. You can also see the clock showing some of their individual split times. I saw a couple that were 3.xxx seconds. So they're running about 50 feet, catching a ball, turning around on a box, and running 50 feet back in less than 4 seconds!  I feel like I hi-jacked your discussion now, so I'll stop.

[BG and Gavin]

Not at all!  I have enjoyed learning!