Is Your Dog a Potential Flyball Candidate?

ANY dog can play flyball. However, not every dog will. There are a few things to consider if you plan to join a flyball team. One of them is the response you get from your dog when you introduce certain elements of the game. Does your dog like tennis balls? A dog that goes nuts when he sees a tennis ball can be a great candidate for flyball training. Does your dog like to chase you when you play with him? The desire to race is called "prey drive" and a dog that is crazy to fetch a tennis ball or to chase and catch you is a dog with the natural talent for flyball. These are the kinds of dogs that flyball teams want to train for flyball.

Another consideration is the size of the dog. A person who has a small dog with prey drive is in high demand by flyball teams because of size. This is because the flyball course consists of a series of jumps that must be jumped by the dogs. Miss a jump and the dog must re-run the course. Jump heights are based on the height of the smallest dog on the team. So, a team that has a small dog on the team has lower jumps, making it easier for of all dogs in the team.

Another factor is the speed of the dog. Flyball is a race and the team that finishes first is the winner. If you have a small dog in the team so that the jumps are low, that helps most dogs.

Flyball Dogs should be intelligent and curious. Fast learners are the dogs most likely to succeed. Dogs who are naturally very lazy and relaxed, can learn flyball but, may not do as well. If you plan to play flyball, it might be better to play with a ball or try to get your dog to chase you and see if they can learn and is eager to learn. If you sign up for flyball classes, you can always borrow a flyball box and see if you can teach your dog the box and if it is reasonable to do so. The best dogs are dogs that love to catch the ball out of the box for fun.

Flyball is very competitive, sometimes very hard but, great fun. There are other dogs, most of them barking wildly and enthusiastically. Racing is often very close to the other teams in the competition. Teams are running at the same time, against each other and parallel to each other. The Flyball candidate must ignore the other dogs and stay motivated to maintain focus on running the race and returning to its handler.

Flyball teams usually practice at least once a week and often when there is a competition to prepare for. A flyball competitor must have the time available to engage in this activity. His fellow team members rely on his presence. A person who is unable to engage in this activity should not become a competitor.

If you and your dog can meet most of the foregoing, it is probably a safe bet that both of you will be welcome additions to any flyball team.

...chris

FlyballGeek.com

in·no·vate

[in-uh-veyt] Show IPA verb, -vat·ed, -vat·ing.

–verb (used without object)

1. to introduce something new; make changes in anything established.

–verb (used with object)

2. to introduce (something new) for or as if for the first time: to innovate a computer operating system.

3. Archaic . to alter.

From the moment that scent hurdles introduced a catapult that launched tennis balls into the air for the dogs to catch, "Flyball" has been a sport constantly evolving and changing. The latest innovation to create a "buzz" in the flyball community is "FlyballGeek.com".

Flyball Geek is the brainchild of Andy McBride of the Go-Dog-Go Flyball Club. For years, the flyball community has used various ideas and methods to provide race information to participants. Large numbers for displays set both inside and outside were most often used. The problem was that no matter how big they were, they often were not readable at great distances and other buildings often blocked their view.

Next, we tried two-way radios set to a specific channel for the tournament. These were great but, sometimes were drowned out by barking dogs at camp. Static often garbled the message. People forgot to announce races. Many did not trust their reliance on them and if they did not understand the message being broadcast or simply missed what was said, you would send a runner to ringside or risk being late to a race.

In fact, sending a runner to report where the host was in the race schedule was the only truly reliable method for keeping track of racing but, it was exhausting for the person(s) doing the running. I blame that for the reason I would need to take Monday off to "recover" from a weekend of racing.

The growing popularity of "smart" phones, tablets and laptops along with an ever improving broadband internet access made creating a web app that kept track of the racing schedule desirable. Andy McBride took up the challenge and successfully created such an application that worked so well, NAFA offered to pay him to develop a much more sophisticated program to handle the demands of the CanAm Classic.

Flyball Geek is available in limited beta. Go the website and sign up for an account which simply involves creating an ID and a password. Email Andy at Andy@FlyballGeek.com with your reasons for requesting an account and he'll finish setting you up allowing you to upload race schedules and do other administrative functions.

As Chief Correspondent for Flyball Today, I set up an account so that viewers watching the livestream of an event could access race information and know exactly who they were watching race. It was so much simpler for me to use Flyball Geek than to upload that information at Livestream.

What I want to emphasize is that Flyball Geek is simple, simple, simple to use! Do NOT let fear of all things technical keep you from exploiting this service for your event! Andy will answer all your questions and guide you through step by step. In fact, the instructions on the Flyball Geek website seem to be very clear but, if you get confused, there is plenty of help available.

Sign up at least a week in advance of your event so that you can familiarize yourself with the program and do the necessary testing to make sure it works for you and that you understand what is normal behavior for the program.

As an example, it was necessary for me to change my uploaded schedule for three small changes on Sunday. I wasn't sure that deleting the existing schedule and uploading a corrected version while the schedule was in progress wouldn't mess something up. Andy answered my question with plenty of time for me to upload my corrected schedule for Sunday's racing. AND, there were no glitches with the program!

So, rest assured that anyone can use this and you can even correct your mistakes! Help is only an email away!

Another benefit is that all of your event's participants will love you for doing this. Your tournament will move quicker, too, since there is no longer an excuse for a club showing up late for a race due to inattention. (Of course, a human will still have to look at the updater every now and then!)

Remember the name, Flyball Geek. It just might be the most important innovation in flyball since the swimmer's turn!

Good Luck and Good Racing!

Chris