Ballistic's "2012 River Run" Flyball Tournament in Vassar, MI

The "River Run" is a flyball tradition in Region 1. Held every Labor Day weekend for almost 15 years, it is so well known and popular that all you have to say is "Vassar" and everyone knows what tournament you are talking about.   ..and when.

"Flyball Today" has Livestreamed the event at least twice and is experiencing a growth spurt in its audience. As a way to remind and promote this flyball extravaganza, I am happy to embed a promotional video on this blog and I invite and encourage all who read this and those who are already in the audience at home to tune in to Flyball Today September 1 & 2.

Flyball Today Livestream Channel can be accessed at:

http://www.livestream.com/flyballtoday/

Additionally, Flyball Today will update their fans through their Facebook page at:

http://facebook.com/flyballtoday

and through Twitter at

http://twitter.com/flyballtoday/





Good Luck and see you on Labor Day at Flyball Today!

.....Chris

Words to Live by...

Dalai Lama

5:39 AM  May 7 - 2012  - Public

The quality of everything we do: our physical actions, our verbal actions, and even our mental actions, depends on our motivation. That's why it's important for us to examine our motivation in our day to day life. If we cultivate respect for others and our motivation is sincere, if we develop a genuine concern for others’ well-being, then all our actions will be positive.

Court Ruling Could End #Flyball Sanctioning in Maryland

On April 26, 2012, the Maryland Court of Appeals (highest court in the state) delivered a finding that held a landlord liable for a 2007 incident in which his tenant’s dog, an American Pitbull Terrier, escaped from a pen and mauled a child. The Court also declared that “a pit bull or any dog with pit bull ancestry shall be deemed hence forth vicious and inherently dangerous as a matter of law.”

The Court’s ruling is particulary chilling since now owners of dogs who appear to have “pit bull ancestry” may be forced to abandon or kill their dogs since it can be presumed that landlords will not accept the “strict liability” for allowing such dogs on their property.

The ruling is far-reaching since such liability may also extend to Animal Shelters, Veterinary Clinics, even grooming shops and boarding kennels. If you “know” that a certain canine is a pit bull or even looks like it might have a little bit of “pit” in his/her pedigree, then you could be held strictly liable if that animal bites someone and you are within the State of Maryland.

What does this ruling mean for Flyball in the State of Maryland? What happens if liability insurance underwriters specificly deny coverage for a flyball event if they allow bully breeds and pit bulls to compete? Liability insurance that specificly names NAFA as a “Co-insured” party is necessary for NAFA sanctioned events. It is a valid question not easily answered.

Flyball venues within the State of Maryland also have been handed a huge headache. Assuming that a flyball hosting club can still obtain the insurance necessary for sanctioning their event, Venues may decide that there is too much liability and deny use of their facilities if bullies and pitties are allowed as part of the Flyball Tournament. Loss of a venue is the most common reason for hosting clubs to stop hosting. It is unlikely that a hosting club would be able to go outside of Maryland if that is where they normally host a flyball event.

Other states are looking closely at the Maryland Court Ruling. I hope it is more along the lines of, “We should not do this in our state” than a “How can we do this in our state?”

I am not a lawyer and this ruling has many twists and turns. Groups that fight against BSL laws being passed in the legislatures were caught “off guard” since this ruling amounts to creating law from the bench. I am including several links for more information on this disturbing development in the State of Maryland.

Whole Dog Journal article: Tracey v. Solesky ; Society v. Pitbulls – Maryland, 4/26/12

STOP BSL article: Maryland court ruling imposes strict liability on “pit bull” owners and landlords

The actual opinion.

Maryland Renters Rights, HSUS

As always, comments are welcome and encouraged!

Good Luck and Good Racing!

.....Chris

The NEW Pre-Flight #Flyball Class

{The following article was published previously on "The Flyball Blog" 02/27/2012. It is reprinted here with the author's permission. The Flyball Blog is scheduled for shut down in June, 2012.}

Effective as of November 1, 2011, version 2.2 of the U-FLI Rules and Regulations went into effect. You will find among the changes the addition of a new class of competition: Pre-Flight Singles Class is intended for dogs that are not yet ‘race ready’.

Pre-Flight was created to address the concerns of competitors who wanted a more competitive singles class. Too often, dogs were entered in singles who were not ‘race-ready’ and unable to race head-to-head against an opponent in the opposite lane.

Here is a summary of the rules and conditions governing Pre-Flight Singles:

• Dogs entered in this class will be in two races, four heats each.
• False starts will not be re-run.
• Times will not be recorded.
• No judges are required, however the participant may provide their own ‘judges’ if they desire.
• Gating and or props, of any kind will not be allowed.
• Participant with the competing dog, has the option of allowing another dog in the ring with its’ own handler.
• The warm-up time allowed will be the same as allowed for Singles and Pairs at the event.
• An overall time limit of 10 minutes, to run the 4 heats, for each race will apply.
• Both dogs must have a RUN and be of racing age.
• Handlers can release at any time.
• During a race, the dogs entered in this class may use one or both lanes as the participants choose.
• The competing dog may not be entered in any other class.
• Dogs entered in this class will not earn U-FLI points.
• This class of racing can be offered by the Host club before, during or after regular racing.
• Host club fees paid to U-FLI are based on Singles.
• All other racing rules apply.

My team took advantage of this new class at a tournament held in Michigan last month. None of us knew what to expect but, it turned out to be a very productive learning experience for both dogs and handlers. First, it helped tremendously to work with dogs who have “crossing over” issues. We had the opportunity to set up distractions in the true hyped up environment of a tournament in progress.

Second, dogs that we thought were not “race-ready” demonstrated to us that they could focus on their training and handler even with the distractions. It was delightful to have evidence that we could “up the ante” during training sessions with these dogs. Without Pre-Flight, these dogs would have continued to be held back during training. We also felt that certain dogs would’ve advanced much faster during training if Pre-Flight had been available during their earlier flyball training.

One final thought that we had as a result of trying out this new class is this: Pre-Flight offers a potentially effective tool to prevent dogs from “crossing over” by providing an opportunity for better proofing dogs in training. I think proofing dogs that cross for whatever reason (herding, chasing prey or just want to say “hi”) will create a safer flyball racing environment for everybody.

To review all of the rules, please download a copy of version 2.2 of the
“U-FLI Rules and Regulations” and the companion document “Summary of Changes” available here.

..........Chris

COMMENTS from the original post:

Linda,

I think this new class of racing is also good for dogs who may have competed already but perhaps had never been exposed to a really large tournament or who may have never traveled out of their own area to compete.
For example, one of our dogs (Sam) had already competed successfully in a team at a few tourneys in our home area. However, he had never raced in Singles which also happened to be a tourney we traveled to and it was much larger; literally by 10-fold. Lots more dogs, noise, distractions, etc. Needless to say, he was very distracted at this huge tourney and he did not do well in Singles that time.
The pre-flight scenario would have helped tremendously and made that outting successful.

Mike Keck,

At our (Hyper Flight) February tournament, we offered Pre-Flight. It was a big success. It’s good for the dogs (for all the reasons Chris mentioned), but it’s also good for new handlers. New handlers often lose interest before their dog is ever able to compete, but Pre-Flight allows them to get out in the lanes sooner but in a safe environment. We had people travel to our tournament that probably would not have attended if there was no Pre-Flight class.

Chris,

Thank you, Mike! I hadn’t thought about the “train new handlers” aspect.
I would also like to point out that all fees collected by the host club for offering Pre-Flight, stay with the host club. U-Fli does not benefit financially by offering the class at tournaments. The creation of the class simply allowed host clubs the ability to offer the class while a tournament was ongoing and permission to use the U-Fli lights under tournament conditions.
Seems there is a lot of benefit to the new class. Does anybody see any drawbacks?

Santa Paws 2011 Flyball Tournament

A video is worth a million words!

Flyball is a sport for dogs (and their people). It's a race over jumps for a ball.

It is also described as addictive. Watch this video and you be the judge.

2012: A New Beginning

Hello!

It is a NEW year and I want a new beginning for myself and for this blog.

I know that readers have found this blog because they are searching for information on flyball. (The dog sport that is a race over jumps for a ball!) That passion will not go away but, I have found the topic to be somewhat limiting if the only purpose for posting to my blog was to say something about flyball or my love for MY dogs or, just my love for any and all dogs. Recently, I have been reminded that there is much more to life.


This post is an introduction to the many topics in which I have an opinion. Let's face it, in life, nearly everything is a matter of 'opinion'. The food we eat, the cloths we wear, the stuff that entertains us.

I came across an idea in a self-help book which sums it up pretty nicely: "Facts are facts. Everything else is everything else." ..meaning, unless you are dealing with facts, everything else is someone's opinion. This blog just happens to be MY opinion.

I think that opinions are good to have so long as we recognize that they ARE 'just opinions'. Everyone  has one and nobody has an opinion that is worth more than anyone else's. Unless you get paid to have one and then, I guess you can be considered to be an expert on a topic in which people will pay you to listen to your opinion. Just remember, even if you get paid to have an opinion, that doesn't mean people will actually do what you advise them to do. (Based on your opinion, of course!)

So, expect the 'unexpected' on this blog. Be willing to be surprised and be open to the idea that we can disagree with each and still be appreciative of our 'uniqueness'. You just might find yourself in a bigger world. I know that I am looking to expand my world and my understanding of it.

What kinds of topics might you read about on this blog? Well, for starters, I will be commenting on ABC's new TV series, "Pan Am". I'm an avid fan and I won't apologize for that. I would like more people to watch the show so that ABC wouldn't be sitting on the fence while they decide if the show is worth a second season. I think that fence-sitting by TV execs as to the future of programming is exactly the reason many people will not invest their time watching new shows only to have the rug pulled out from underneath when their new show is CANCELLED.

Another thing to watch out for is a completely new design and makeover for this blog. I'm even toying with the idea to move it over to Wordpress. There is a way to migrate a blog to Wordpress and, because I have other blogs that I write for on Wordpress, it would be so much easier to work from one platform, one 'dashboard' for all of my blogging.

At any rate, I'm starting out with this announcement so that readers are not wondering how this blog goes from being about how to teach my dog flyball to diatribes about the latest episode of Pan Am, some new recipe I am trying out, or maybe a sprinkle here and there of what kind of weather is happening outside. (Right now, the first serious snowfall for this winter season is occurring and the temperatures are falling like a rock!)

This blog will become about what matters most in life: Finding out what our dreams are and doing something to help them become true. My new heroine is a fictional character on Pan Am. Colette Valois convinced her Captain to let her fly the plane. That scene's symbolism was apparent from the first time I watched it unfold. Identify what your dreams are and then take action to make them come true. Colette did simply by saying something.

One of my dreams is to become a writer. Perhaps, one of those people who get 'paid' to have an opinion. First step is to practice writing. It doesn't matter if anyone reads this or not. What matters is to write, Write, WRITE!   ...and then write some more. Some days, I won't feel like writing and that's when it will become the most important thing to do. We all have to work when we don't feel like it.

...but, my readers have an important job to do and that is to comment. I'm not just looking for complements but,also if I have holes in my logic or simply, an uninteresting topic. If you have a topic you want to read about, I want to know about it. This blog should be entertaining as well as useful. Then again, anything that appears here is "Just an Opinion".

I hope that anyone who made a New Year's resolution has been successful keeping it. Until my next topic, I wish you a Good Day!.

Chris