So why NOT flyball?

I know little of flyball but watching Lexi doing it brought something to my attention. Yes I could teach dog "proper way" of high jumping but it still will be a lot of pressure on the joints.
Leo the monkey is shadow chaser so he LOVES jumping up to chase shadows on the ceiling. Since he is spring loaded he jumps up about 3 feet in the air and doing flips not unlike flyball or frisbee dog tricks. I was in no way encouraging that but was not actively discouraging until my chiro vet started getting upset how his hips are feeling.... and Leo is young dog and has very good structure...
 
I would think aggression. As many have said, good training minimizes the impact. There definitely is some, even for the best turns, but no more than the drop on the teeter.

A 'good' turn is all four feet on the box. A perfect turn would be the dog jumps on the box with all four feet and pushes off without repositioning the feet.

If you can see this video:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10100455188645151
it is Duncan's turn. He does what is called a 'double tap.' He jumps a little too low and has to reposition his feet to complete his turn. We are working on fixing it. I would consider his turn as Excellent, not quite perfect.

Anyway, go visit the club and check it out. It might do you good to see older dogs who run. We have a 10 year old and two 8 year olds! Also, both have not joints issues. One is going a little blind, but we highly doubt a flyball correlation.
 
Lovely said:
If you can see this video:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10100455188645151
it is Duncan's turn. He does what is called a 'double tap.' He jumps a little too low and has to reposition his feet to complete his turn. We are working on fixing it. I would consider his turn as Excellent, not quite perfect.
Click to expand...

Nope ... can't see the link.

I'm definitely going to contact the club and go watch a training session to see if it's something I might like to do with Miko. Thanks!!
 
At practice last night, I heard the wooden boxes are harsher on a dog than metal boxes because of shock absorption and springs and tons of stuff I don't quite understand. We use the Miller Elite usually, so I'm grateful for that! Here's to a long career for flyball dogs!

And if I can, I will somehow get that video available to everyone...
 
My understanding is its the number of springs a box has, supposedly more springs means more shock absorption. We use old boxes with only one spring and there has been some talk about getting a newer box with 3 springs.
 
Interesting I never thought of that. The variables there would be interesting for a geek type... travel, spring rate, is it variable rate then of course there is some flex in the box itself for dog that are larger with more hit power.

I would question the more springs thing though since at first thought the equation is -kx with k being the spring no matter if k comes from 1 or 50, k gets to high and the dog cannot move the paddle, to low and it bottoms on a flea weight.
 
Watch this:
http://millerflyball.com/videos/Comparison.php

Now, that dog's box turn has a LOT to be desired, but the difference in shock absorption is very evident. I know that they are a biased site, trying to sell the box (same one my team uses), so they probably chose the worst clip and the best clip. I happen to know the maker of these boxes and he really believes in the difference. I've see a big one myself. Plus, a 70 lb wooden box vs a 26 lb metal box is a boon for any boxloader.

Also, one point that my team has been talking about lately is the angle of the box. Wooden boxes have a higher angle and metal boxes have a lower angle.

The metal box lower angle explanation:
40 degree angle

Optimized for maximum landing pad and generating force downward so box does not move when the dogs hit the box except for the spring compression. The higher the angle the more force generated back and less into the springs.

The higher the angle = higher impact for the dog
 
The major difference is the angle and the pivot point. The box moves on the metal one where the paddle moves on the other. One advantage you could achieve there is getting more travel for less distance (they did this with lay down shocks in the 80's on motorcycles). Not sure I totally agree with the claims but a lighter box would be nice and at worst it as good for the dog. The lower angle is good though...
 
The first box, the wooden one, has no springs, just a launching action for the ball. I have never seen one like that, except for cheaper home practice ones. We have wooden ones but the whole top of the box moves.

While some people use metal boxes here they aren't popular. Because we compete outside the metal gets really, really hot, but it would definately be nice to have something light weight - poor box loaders carrying those boxes.
 
*Caro said:
While some people use metal boxes here they aren't popular. Because we compete outside the metal gets really, really hot, but it would definately be nice to have something light weight - poor box loaders carrying those boxes.
Click to expand...

Our metal boxes are covered in thick matting that doesn't heat up well. We've left the boxes in a car at the peak of summer and never had an issue with not being able to pick them up or burning pup feet.
 
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