Tribute to Zima

The "About Me" page on this blog states that I live with 9 dogs. Recently, that number changed to 8. Zima, pictured above, left us to wait at the Rainbow Bridge. She was just one month shy of 14 years.

Zima was one of those dogs that will be memorable for the rest of our lives. Although I lived in the same household, Zima wasn't my dog. She belonged to my sister and since we share this house, I often took care of Zima, feeding her, walking her, letting her outside and playing with her. She enjoyed attention and she didn't care where attention came from. But, clearly, her heart belonged to Ruth.

Flyball Accomplishments

Zima was as accomplished in Flyball as any Border Collie should be. Her record speaks for itself:

 FD=03/04/00 FDX=03/04/00 FDCH=04/15/00 FDCH-S=05/06/00 FDCH-G=07/15/00 
       FM=11/11/00 FMX=06/30/01 FMCH=10/27/01 ONYX=05/25/02 FGDCH=08/30/03 
       FG40K=09/03/05 FG50K=10/18/08 

 In the Spring of 2009, we learned she had cancer and so we retired her at Chelsea Fairgrounds on 5/30/2009. She deserved to enjoy life and, although she loved flyball, she was soooo much more than a Flyball Dog.

As a young dog, Zima revealed she was a character. She loved the sound of ripping newspaper. At first, I thought she just liked to make messes but, her reaction when I tore a paper demonstrated to me that it was the sound that attracted her to make confetti out of newspaper. Who knew?

She liked to bark at thunderstorms, too. I thought she was scared of them but, no, she didn't act nervous or afraid. She just wanted to tell that "big dog" outside to shut up and stop barking at her!

She had herding instinct out the wazoo! Whenever I took her for a walk, she spent countless hours just circling me. Circle, circle circle. My friends would watch us at flyball tournaments and that's how they would know I was walking Zima because she would constantly circle me.

She would also herd us by jumping up and bouncing off of us and barking whenever we started dancing in the house. You know how it is. Some good song with a strong beat would start playing and you just can't help yourself, you start a moving and a groovin'. Well, Zima acted like the "fun police" telling us to stop it! Stop it! Stop it! I thought she didn't like us moving. I was half right. In her eyes, we were sheep trying to run away. She wasn't going to let that happen!

One day, my sister took her to a herding test. We thought she would be a natural with all these indicators. Zima got in the pen with real sheep. It was towards the end of the day after this group of sheep had been herded several times. The ram was fed up, took one look at Zima,  snorted and tried to head butt her. Oh-oh! Zima wanted out of that pen in a hurry! Picture this: Sheep on one side and Zima on the other.

After that, we knew that Zima's "herding" behavior was all pretend herding with pretend sheep!

Zima could "spell", too. She was extremely observant of mine and Ruth's behavior and liked to get the whole household stirred up when food was being offered. She knew all the words associated with "food": hungry, dinner, "feed the dogs", it's time, etc. We tried spelling it out to keep the peace. "I think it's time to F-E-E-D the D-O-G-S". It didn't work. She would hear us spell and she was telling everybody, "they're getting out the food!" Bark, bark, bark!

Folks wouldn't believe us. We would demonstrate by spelling the word, F-E-E-D, and getting her to bark. Still, they claimed we were "doing" something that was giving her a "que". So, one night, just to prove it to us, Ruth started to spell out feed in total darkness. Zima still alerted. She knew what those letters meant. We knew she knew.

I miss Zima. There won't be another like her in our household. Not in a million years!

Sleep tight ol' girl. We'll be reunited some day...

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