Flyball

Clodagh

Clodagh

Playing chess with pigeons
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My neice competes at Flyball with Tawny's sister, a lab. I pick up out shooting with Tawny.
Chatting to neice last night and she was saying how they rev to dogs up, using a tug, prior to their run. She said Bella then got very keen and hard to hold, and asked how I held Tawny when we were out shooting.
Why do they need revving? Is it because the run time is so short and setting off adrenalined up makes them faster? I really admire it as a sport and am really impressed at the drive and commitment of the dogs - and how much they love it - but thinking how fast Tawny sets off on a retrieve I don't understand the ragging before hand.
 
I don't use a tug to get Mrs Spaniel going, we use our voice, "Ready! Ready! Readyreadyready! rrrrrrrREADY!" It is exactly as you say, I want her hyped up and full of adrenaline, I tend to let her go from 30-40ft so there's only a short time for her to build up to full speed before she enters the lane.

There is a definite speed change when I wind her up to me just letting her go and those milli-seconds may make all the difference in a race!
I've never even seen a shoot so I can't comment on the differences there.
 
Karran said:
There is a definite speed change when I wind her up to me just letting her go and those milli-seconds may make all the difference in a race!
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So it is worthwhile then! Thank you for the reply. Speed is pretty irrelevant on a shoot, except Tawny (probably like Mrs S) has to do everything at 500mph anyway. I think flyball is amazing, and the steps of training are really good.
 
If it helps your niece I use a K9 Harness to hold Mrs S - she can also be hard to hold back, would throw herself onto her back legs and lash out with paws and teeth in her eagerness to get going.

I also pin her between my legs and only let her out when we are about to move into position but that might not be as easy with a larger dog!
 
I only need one ‘readyyyyyy’ for Fizz and she knows exactly what’s coming! She has a pretty fast accelerator but there is a difference when she’s amped up by me. I couldn’t hold her without her webmaster harness!
 
A good time is sub 4 seconds, a bad time is 4.3/4.4, the margins are very close! My sister has a collie and a min schnauzer- the schnauzer just does it for fun for obvious reasons but to get his times anywhere close he needs to be right at the top of his adrenaline peak. The collie is super consistent, she goes from the furthest away mark and is at full speed as she crosses the line.

She's the second dog on the closest team- you can see how tight the margins are- the whole race is over in about 17s!

https://www.facebook.com/SolarFlyball/videos/1832019327088574/
 
Haha! We dream of 4 seconds! A great time for Mrs S is 5.2. A bad day is 5.6.

I'll have seen your sister at some point rara007. Solar often do same comps as us but I'm in a slower team - 20.21.

We have a mini schnauzer on our bottom team as height dog! He's awesome. Really gets hyped up and often looks like he's in start blocks for 100m Olympic finals! If his legs were longer he'd be unstoppable!
 
rara007 said:
A good time is sub 4 seconds, a bad time is 4.3/4.4, the margins are very close! My sister has a collie and a min schnauzer- the schnauzer just does it for fun for obvious reasons but to get his times anywhere close he needs to be right at the top of his adrenaline peak. The collie is super consistent, she goes from the furthest away mark and is at full speed as she crosses the line.

She's the second dog on the closest team- you can see how tight the margins are- the whole race is over in about 17s!

https://www.facebook.com/SolarFlyball/videos/1832019327088574/
Click to expand...

That looks like super fun, and your sister's collie was just a flash of lightning.
 
My daughter did flyball with her Lancashire Heeler, all he needed was ready, ready , ready. He hasn't raced for probably 3 year now but he still reacts to the words. Very useful to get a quick start in agility!
 
I think Bella's best time is 4.2 or similar, have messaged neice to ask. Not bad for a lab then. I the other three dogs in her team are collies.
 
Yes all collies- and other than her purpose ‘sport’ bred- she’s genuine working lines. They take it as seriously as I do the horses! Every other weekend away it seems. They tried my springer at it once and he disgraced himself by bogging off across the park where they train so that was the end of his career :p . They have other breeds in the starters teams but as far as I can tell they very much train to win. Mia is only rising 2 so now got to keep her sane and sound! Her obedience is competitive but they dropped agility once she got good at flyball due to the different jumping styles (apparently!). She’s still better at agility than my spaniel Im concentrating on that with though... I don’t have time to do mine at it but if I didn’t do the horses I’d be sorely tempted.
 
I exaggerated by 4.2, her best is 4.95.

I think it is great that there is such a growth in sports for working dogs - not everyone wants to keep a flock of sheep (or runner ducks!) but still would like a collie. Collies as pure pets always seem sad and dysfunctional to me, but things like agility and flyball give them a mission.
 
And they become so much more than 'just a pet'. Give me a fit (they're obsessive about their weights!) active working breed over endless brachys going to pug parades any day! (Nothing against pugs and Frenchies either...)
 
Pickle's best times were around 5.1 (not bad for a little un measuring only 11" at the shoulder). When I started doing agility with him there was some concern it would affect his flyball jumping but he seemed to adjust. Flyball jumps were 7" and agility nearly 14" so quite a difference which was maybe why he had different jumping styles.
 
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