Flyball people

[blackshep]

I have some questions!

What kinds of times are you posting with your GSD's and how big are they?

My girl is lean and I don't think she'll be huge, so I'm really hoping she can break the 4 second mark. She sure runs like stink over the jumps!

Also, after reading all the horror stories about GSD's choking on tennis balls, is this something I need to worry about? My pup LOVES flyball so far, but I'm worried about that.

[Liesje]

Nikon is 70-75lbs and runs 4.8 in singles and 4.4 on the team so far. I expect he will improve since we've been doing it less than a year and he's only had one tournament for singles and one tournament for the team.

Pan is also 70-75lbs and has run 3.9 in singles, his fastest official time is 4.009 or something like that. He's only run on a team once so far, in his first ever tournament and he ran about a 4.4 with a non-existent pass. Also at that point we hadn't trained passes and he's so fast we didn't want the team to break out (if your team runs faster than the seed time you are penalized) so I held him back when he was running anchor as a substitute.

[Cassidy's Mom]

Halo's times aren't that exciting yet, but since we don't do singles in NAFA (or at least none of the tournaments that I've been to so far have offered them), and she's only run 2nd, 3rd, or 4th, all her times have passes included in them. We've only been competing for 5 months, and didn't even work on passing until the weekend before her first tournament in April! We're still working on her passing into and being passed by various dogs in the club, and I'm learning where and when to send her against each, to tighten up our passes. It's definitely a work in process.

Her best recorded time was 4.8 something. I don't remember what her pass was though, and sometimes we don't have enough extra people at a tournament to even have a pass caller. So far, all of our tournaments have been either outdoors on grass, or on indoor soccer fields with artificial turf. We have our first tournament on mats next weekend, and it will be interesting to see if her times are any better. I've heard that dogs tend to be faster on mats than on grass.

Oh, and Halo is about 60 pounds.

[wolfstraum]

Fyurie (v Wolfstraum) on Buffalo Wings team has broken the 4 second mark - and he is a BIG boy! lol he leaps over the little dogs as they return and he goes out....there is some video of him at a National tournament in Indy somewhere - I think Willy posted it....

lee

[wildo]

No, unfortunately I didn't get to see Fyurie run- though I did get to meet him. I do have video of Fyurie's owner's other dog though- Errow. You can see Errow run at the end of this video:

NAFA 2011 Indianapolis - YouTube

NAFA 2011 Indianapolis - YouTube

There is some video of Fyurie though. I recall from the thread where Lee mentioned the 2011 NAFA (which is what caused me to go down there in the first place) someone from Buffalo Wings I think posted a link to some video.

[wildo]

This is not the thread I'm thinking about, but Caja's Mom is the user here who was posting updates for Fyurie and Errow. This thread has video of both: Flyball Tournament Video

[EDIT]- found it. This thread has a good bit of info on both dogs, including an awesome picture of Fyurie jumping the returning dog! National Flyball Championships - Indy

[FG167]

Kastle runs 4.2 on a team right now. He's 15 months old. They say the prime is 2-3 years old so I have hopes that he will break 4 seconds as well. He's currently 65 lbs but he is as tall as or taller than Pan.

[Liesje]

Originally Posted by Cassidy's Mom

I've heard that dogs tend to be faster on mats than on grass.

I bet this is true. Anti-fatigue matting is so nice to run on! Honestly I don't think I could run Pan on grass! He would slip and really hurt himself. Even the few times we've trained box turns at home (I have to do it outside because the solid edge of the garage is the only wall strong enough) he wears through the grass in minutes only trotting onto the box. I've always wanted to see an outdoor tournament, I can't figure out how the grass stays intact, or maybe it's because grass here is different than other parts of the country (thin and stringy).

[blackshep]

Oh thanks guys! I really hope she can get under 4 seconds.

Here's a pic that my friend took (Marian Adoranti) of her second time trying the jumps in practice. (It has her watermark, but I'm allowed to use it). You can see how much she loves it!

[wildo]

How old is that puppy? Not to be off topic, but is it safe to jump them that young? She is gorgeous!