Nikon upgraded two flyball titles this past weekend (TF to TF-I and TF-II). He is now the 18th ranked GSD after only three days of competition. We worked really hard on start times since Nikon ran lead-off (which also meant that for several races he ran twice as many heats as the rest of the dogs since the lead-off dogs re-run false starts). We had a .002 start and several .0xx starts. Aside from earning his individual points and being Mr. Consistent all weekend, Nikon has several additional brags. First, while we were out on a potty walk a man approached me to compliment Nikon’s temperament. He said he’s always been afraid of GSDs but after seeing the three GSDs on our team (Nikon, Pan, and Kastle) he’s totally come around. We chatted for a few minutes and he pet Nikon. Second, we had probably half a dozen strangers walk over to say “Now that is a NICE shepherd!” or “THAT is how a shepherd should work!” And thirdly, even though Nikon is my first flyball dog I had several people approach me to ask about how I trained such a technically correct box turn with such large, fast dogs. Flyball is after all a race so the goal is time and points, but if your turn is not correct not only does your time suffer but your dog will break down and get injured. It’s really cool being a newbie and having other people asking *me* how to train it. Because of other commitments this was most likely our last tournament this year.
This is Pepper the JRT. I like her a lot and sometimes run her on our team when her owner has a ring conflict but this time I was loading the box. You can also see my new blue Vibram Five Finger shoes that I got as a gift and chose the color that matches our team shirt. Excellent flyball shoes, though on the cold side when soaking wet.
This is Giovanni. He’s on another team but he’s one of my favorites. I love crazy mixed breed dogs. He has blue eyes and a true bobbed tail. He also barks on his way to the box.
We were COLD! It poured and hailed on Saturday (no indoor crating). Sunday stayed dry but was even colder. I brought my new rain coat and sure enough it is water proof.
Congratulations to you guys! Nikon looks awesome as always!
Wow! What a great weekend for your pack. Great job! Nikon looks stunning as usual.
Congrats I have loved watching Nikon grow up . He is a gorgeous dog and talented too!!
Wow congratulations! You need to explain these flyball titles to me.
Love the pictures!
I’m still learning it myself but I will try. The titles are based on points. You can only earn points when you are running on a team (so singles and pairs racing does not count toward titles or points). Points are earned based on the team’s speed, but you don’t have to win. There are brackets for speed and I don’t know what they are, but let’s just say that if your team runs under 15 seconds you get 50 points, 15-19.999 you get 30 points, 20 – 24.999 you get 25 points or something like that. So you don’t have to *win* the race to earn the points, you just have to complete the race without faults. Winning the race matters for the tournament (like if you are trying to win trophies and prizes for that particular tournament). It’s sort of like in Schutzhund you still get a title if you earn 70 points in each phase even if you do not win any podium placements. For each U-FLI award there are three additional levels, so for example Nikon has a TF award pin and then this past weekend he earned levels I and II so now he has two little bars that you attach to the pin. The awesome thing about U-FLI is that they update the records within days, so here you can see Nikon’s current record: http://u-fli.com/doghistory.php?i=6937
Nikon looks as happy as can be. It’s quite obvious that he truly enjoys this sport. He’s really an awesome all-around dog.
Gotta admit, one great thing about this sport is the “bang for the buck”. For $30 my dog gets to race all weekend! Usually you get four races a day, and typically a race is as many heats as it takes for one team to get three wins. So at minimum my dog gets 24 “turns” for $30. Plus, if I box load for another team, I’m technically on that team and get one of the prizes if they place 🙂 It’s a lot of work and often 12 hour days but it’s fun and rewarding and if you make a mistake you get so many chances to redeem yourself. We still love Schutzhund but it’s so much more nerve wracking, you train for YEARS and then pay $75 and are on the field one time for just a few minutes and that’s it. Even though flyball doesn’t seem really natural (dogs running down neat little lanes over neat little jumps and doing perfect box turns and retrieving synthetic objects…) it is a great outlet for drive. Nikon can bark and pull at his harness and run and tug on his toy all he wants. He’s getting really competitive too. When the blue light flashes he looks over to the start dog in the other lane and then kicks it in gear. The only equipment I have at home is a pushboard I made myself for $35, and a few cracked tennis balls. All you need to compete is a toy or food reward. Harness or collar are optional (Nikon wears a ComfortFlex harness that was free since someone else’s dog chewed it and we offered to fix it up with duct tape). What I love most about the sport is that it gives Nikon a great outlet for his drive, natural retrieve, and love of toys and gives me an outlet for my Type A, perfectionist, analytical personality because there are so many aspects I can nitpick as a handler. A lot of it is pure physics. It doesn’t matter one bit to the dog; he has a blast either way.
If anyone near GR is interested please contact me and come on out! I’m working on perfecting my method of training a box turn and need more large dogs to try it and test it.