Flyball

I've promised Sing last year that if he managed to proceed up to Grade 5 by the end of 2008, I will take him back to Flyball, the game that he truly love. He won out of Grade 4 at The Summer Agility Show in August then he went on to have two more agility wins at Prestbury Park in September. He did finish his Grade 4 in style.

We were with Ball Busters Flyball Club from December 2004 until November 2005. He started competed in Flyball on Easter 2005. He got his Flyball Dog title at his 3rd show and got his Flyball Dog Intermediate title in September 2005. To me, he was a superb born Flyballer. From the first day he started training, he hadn't made a single mistake, he never miss a jump or miss the ball throughout his flyball time. I would like to end him in a good form and continue our agility so we stop at his peak time.

I still have a great interest in Flyball eventhough I am doing agility at the moment, I really like to try all my shelties to do Flyball if that is at all possible and as you may know, not all shelties like ball let alone retrieving it! Anyway, Skye loves ball and he is a ball mad like Sing but with his health issue, we have to hold back on both Agility and Flyball, I can do very limited amount of exercise with him. Titan also likes ball but he is easily distracted so he can never concentrate on Flyball and Agility. Seagull is very much of a pet dog, he does not do anything! Emm ... Saturn? He sometimes like ball but he prefers the ball on the rope, I don't think you can fetch a ball with a rope on the box!!

Last year, I saw a notice about a new Flyball Club near where we live and I went over to get more informations about joining them. It actually took me a long while to pick up the courage to join Wimbledon Whizzers. When we were with Ball Busters, they are using the American Flat Fronted Box which I always told that they are best for the dog's joint. Wimbledon Whizzers is using a Boomerang box and I have been carefully consider if I should let my dogs use the box and of course you know the answer ... YES.

Left: this is the Canada/American

Flat Fronted Box from Alvah

Right: this is the Boomerang Box

from Alvah

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Today is our first day at Wimbledon Whizzers. This is a friendly team. I don't know the people that well yet but I am sure I will make a lot of new friends soon. I have decided to give Sizzle a go at Flyball. I don't know how he will react or response to it but he seems to like ball and have been great in catching the ball in the air. He was with the beginner's class and we did some "run back" (recall the dog from the box) to start with. I think Sizzle was great, he came to me in speed each time we did the run back. I have asked Colin to video us so I can see the stride he put in. The box loader Guy told me he wasn't sure about his footing so he put in some little strides for the first three jumps but did only one stride on the last jump. After about three runs, we decided to put the jumps a little closer (about 8' apart) to teach him to jump. He also started some small strides then finish with a long stride but then after a couple of runs, he actually did single stride on every single jump. I have also just realised it maybe a bit too much for him as he is very young still and I have never teach him how to jump yet, also he is very small, not quite 12" on the shoulder, a 7" jump is a bit much for him to take in. Hopefully he will pick up soon as they want him to compete in the Starters in Easter! After a few run back, we did send to the box to pick up the ball, Sizzle was such a clever boy, he did as told, eventhough he was slow up the box but he was fast coming back to chase me. I am hoping we will have a lot of Flyball fun together.

As Sing is an experienced Flyballer, he then joined the second group. We have some good practise with other team-mates. I have noticed from the video, Sing seems to be slow coming back after picking the ball every single time. I need to sort this out before the tournamet starts next month.

By the way, I thought Sizzle will get very tired after running up and down so many times but this little mad sheltie was so energetic the whole day and just started to collapse. I hope I will have a good lie in tomorrow? Maybe not, I have the Sheltie meeting tomorrow morning! Doh!