Another Flyball Update

At SheepOfBlue's request....

With 53,033 NAFA points, Missy is currently sitting at #20 sheltie in North American Flyball Association (NAFA)! So she finally broke into the top 20!

In February 2020, she reached 50k points and we celebrated with a cake. I let her have a lick of the frosting. Then in March, we were headed to a tournament and had driven about an hour before I got the call that the tournament had been canceled due to covid. All NAFA sanctioned flyball was put on hold until further notice. We were finally able to play starting April 2021, and we have run in 3 tournaments so far. Missy turned 9 in January, so she's a bit slower these days. Not too bad. Hoping and praying for good health so she can maybe make it into the top 10, but if not, that's okay. As long as she's still having fun!

During the flyball hiatus we mostly did disc dog stuff, and even dabbled in dock diving. I thought she might like dock diving because she loves swimming at my friend's pool. Well... I don't think it's her cup of tea. She likes jumping off the ramp to get the toy, but when we moved her up to the big dock, it took a lot of convincing to get her to finally jump. Every lesson it would take her 10 minutes just to warm up and decide she wanted to jump. She will get really excited over the toy (fabric disc) and jump for it a couple times, but then she's like.. "no". In competitions there is a time limit for you to get 2 jumps in and there's no way I could have gotten her pumped up and willing to jump, so I just decided meh... it's not for her. We gave it a good go.

We also tried FastCAT, which is a timed 100yd sprint in a straight line chasing a lure. Past experiences with regular lure coursing, I knew she wasn't going to care about the lure. So I figured it would be a really really long recall. I did not realize how long 100 yds is. So.. the first 2 times she took off really fast, and stopped after about 50 yds and then looked for me. I had to scream and jump and finally she was like, "oh there you are!" and came to me. Last 2 times she did it all the way without stopping, but still kinda slowed down around the halfway point and then sped up again. Weirdo. There was a photographer there so there's photographic evidence she was not looking at the lure whatsoever. I could work on it at home and train her to chase a plastic bag with a flirt pole, but I'm not going to worry about it. Like with dock diving, can't say we didn't try it. Despite not really "getting" it, she had a good time.

 

It does go by calendar year. It's 1 point earned each NAFA fiscal year, which is October 1- September 30. She got her first points in the 2013 racing year (October 1, 2012-September 30, 2013). She will get her Iron Dog once she earns 1 point in the 2022 flyball year, which starts October 1, 2021 and ends September 30, 2022. So she'll most likely get it in November 2021, since we're not going to CanAm.

 

Yeah I always thought she was up for any game I threw at her. She loves flyball, loves disc, loves agility (we don't actually compete though). It's not like she downright refused to do them, but I could tell she didn't enjoy it as much as she does the other things. Nothing wrong with that! I still want to try herding at some point... I contacted someone a while ago but she stopped replying to my emails after my initial inquiry. I'm not sure which way she'll go with herding. She'll either take to it naturally, or she'll just bark at the livestock. TBD.... lol

 

Flyball is not for every dog. Or handler. It's very loud and chaotic, which some dogs don't tolerate well. There's at least 7 other dogs in the ring, off leash, during a race. Also running full speed into an oncoming dog can be terrifying to some dogs. Dogs are expected to stay in their lane and fight their instinct to go chase (big challenge for Missy at first). Judges use whistles, which might frighten a dog. And as far as handlers, well, it's a team sport. Some people just don't get along with others. You have people who bounce around from club to club every year or so because they just don't get along with everyone. It's a huge time commitment. Practices are once a week, except tournament weekends. They last at least a couple hours. Tournaments take up your entire weekend, not including travel.

 

Here are some pics of her from the past year or so. Sorry if I did this wrong... it's been a while!