• Dylan simply cannot flyball in ankle deep mud. He doesn’t go anywhere and falls over a lot.
• Mollie firmly believes that Jet drops her ball, even though Jet doesn’t.
• Jet cannot understand why Mollie is following her.
• You can’t throw balls past Dylan’s head on the runback and expect him to keep facing forwards.
• Kim remains sparkly white and clean despite flyballing in ankle deep mud.
• Mollie does not.
• Bailey likes to make Emma walk backwards and forward in the mud (possibly in the hope she will fall over) by dancing around everyone when she’s supposed to be in the car.
• When Dylan is facing the wrong way, you cannot let him go and expect a good changeover like you can with Kim.
• Bailey is fairly easy to pin to the floor, but it’s really hard to make her stand back up again.
• The whole of Dylan’s team are useless in ankle deep mud, except for Skye, who runs faster.
• There is a possibility Skye told the rest of her team to make her look good.
• Mollie is adorably fluffy after a bath.
• Our shower is more powerful when spraying cold water only, and changing from warm water to cold whilst Dylan is in the bath will make him leap 4 foot in the air and land on the other side of the bathroom, whipping you with his dirty fur as he passes.
• I must return my postal vote this weekend, because we would all like to see the height dogs catch a break.

I am so excited to see that the BFA is sending out postal votes to see if members are happy and willing to change the current ruling to fall in with the rule change NAFA made earlier in the summer regarding the height that smallest dog in the team runs at. Currently it’s 4″ below the withers, but NAFA changed it to 5″ below after an overwhelming 94% vote for the motion. As NAFA is the largest and foremost flyball association in the world, other countries normally try to keep abreast of their decisions and follow suit accordingly (if it sits well with their members) so that flyball is kept to a general world standard. (Very unlike agility!)

If this goes ahead my lovely little Kim would run 12″ and Mollie would run 13″, (and Bailey would run 11″). It sounds ridiculous to argue that 1 inch can make a difference, but I know that when Kim or Mollie have run with smaller height dogs, they’ve both stayed fresher and less prone to aches and stiffness on the evening or following day. It’s that little bit less effort that means they can run for longer and with less stress to joints and legs.

If this rule does go ahead, it would mean a huge difference for our older girls. We’ve currently been cutting back on the number of runs per day that they both do unless they’re running with height dogs. Mollie really feels it after running at 14″ all day, and although Kim doesn’t struggle, she almost always runs as our 13″ height dog and it is naturally a lot harder for her to be running that kind of height when other, taller dogs are running it too.

The only dog this won’t affect is Dylan, because he loves 14″ jumps and hates anything below 12″, but I’m sure he won’t complain too much.

It will also mean that teams in this country will be running faster times. No advantages or disadvantages in my opinion, because the change will affect every team, not just one or two. Yes, our team will be running at 12″ instead of 13″, but your team might be running at 11″ instead of 12″, or 13″ instead of 14″. The only teams who don’t directly benefit are the teams who have no smaller dogs, but in that case, there’s no change — and if your dogs are that tall, like Dylan, they’re probably better jumping 14″ anyway.

Also lovely for the sub-20 teams, but I’m mainly thinking about the slower teams that run around 23/24 seconds. There are some incredibly consistent dogs running on those teams who have been competing for years, running around 5.5s, but they just miss out on the sub-22s cut off for 25pts per team run. Should one of their dogs become a height dog from this vote, they’ll be running that little bit faster and will get their rewards by earning those awards that they really deserve. Yes, there is an argument that dogs don’t care about points and awards (I know mine don’t!) but it still means an awful lot to get those certificates.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, if you’re a BFA member, send back your postal vote and vote! (Even if you vote no, please vote anyway, although I think you should all be voting yes-yes-yes please!)

The Kennel Club has just announced that they’re making a change from the “traditional” foot-pedal “Crufts Box” to the flat-fronted style used by the BFA.

A bit of history first, I think. The British Flyball Association was formed in 1994 after a group proposed a change to the Kennel Club rules, for the introduction of a new regulated style of box that was considered safer for dogs (and faster, incidentally). The Kennel Club rejected their proposal and although they brought in a regulated style of box, it was not the suggested flat-front style as they thought it would detract from the entertainment of the sport. Those flyballers who had made the proposal were dissatisfied and went away to create the BFA where the safety of the dog was put first. The BFA went on to develop the use of electronic timing and Formula 1 style starting lights, and introduced height cards for height dogs and teams rather than the fixed 12″ height the Kennel Club offered, which also meant smaller dogs could now be included without asking them to jump over-large hurdles. Rules also stipulate the size of the runback area to ensure dogs and handlers have enough room to race safely.

This announcement has a lot of flyballers happy. A few have commented about the risky design to dogs of the old box, and a few have equally expressed some concern that the BFA will lose its independence by becoming affiliated or answerable to the Kennel Club as the Kennel Club have approached the BFA for their input (there’s always a first time!). Rumours on that front have been quashed already, thankfully, but I thought I’d add in a bit on my personal experience of the Crufts flyball box.

Video: Kim doing Crufts Flyball

Kim and Mollie have both trained to do Crufts flyball on the foot-pedal box. Both dogs were trained not to jump forward into the air for the ball, which would mean they landed on the box itself. Sometimes Mollie got a bit overexcited and went over the top but she was always corrected. Kim was brilliant at it, even if I do say so myself. She was fast, accurate and I had no qualms about running her. When she competed at Crufts she made no mistakes all day and was never at any more risk of injury than when she competes at BFA competitions — other than the ridiculously short runback. When you’re trying to fit 6 dogs and handlers into a 12ft x 12ft space, you can’t hear anything due to the noise, and the dogs are all wildly excited and running at relatively high speeds, it is not safe.

Anyway, the Crufts box is definitely not for all dogs. Some dogs don’t have the catch reflexes, some dogs don’t have the self-control not to leap for the ball. Some dogs can do it perfectly at home but when it gets to the excitement of a competition, the self-control goes. So yes, it can and probably does cause more injuries that the flat-front box (I’ve already discussed Slammer’s vs Swimmer’s Turns and the safety of the flat-fronted box for dogs). So way to go KC! Making the right choice for once.

What I’d really like to see them do now is throw out the fixed 12″ jumps so that it’s open to smaller dogs, get a bigger runback and introduce electronic timing. Please!

Agility Forum Discussion: http://agilityforum.agilityaddicts.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5203
BFA Forum Discussion: http://www.flyball.org.uk/webboard/messages/119/12172.html?1226072679

‘Owlers have withdrawn from Newark in 2 weeks for various reasons, which I’m a bit sad about because it means Kim won’t have a chance to run “properly” indoors this winter season. Kim loves running indoors, perferably in the loudest, most echo-ing hall with the hardest surface, and she always throws up her fastest singles times in those circumstances. Having said that, most of our dogs (like most “normal” flyball dogs over here in the UK) don’t really like running on rubber matting and it’s hard on our veteran gang, so it’s probably for the best. Our next flyball will be at Doncaster, which is run on turf and the ring is in such a huge arena it always feels to be outdoors. The cars and caravans parked indoors don’t help! And then in the new year we’ll have Rotherham in the marquee, which is pretty fab and does feel like an indoor tournament as Kim proved by running her little socks off at the last one. (As soon as we start talking about pulling her back next season and swapping teams so she can ease into retirement next year, she blows off to run sub-5s times all day over 13″ jumps and looks comfortable in Div 1 company. I can see she’s not going down without a fight — that’s my girl!)

November is looking pretty dull now though! I have EMDAC on the 29th but that’s a whole 4 weeks away. For some reason, every year I have a mental blank when it comes to November and I just never enter anything, and every year I’m bored stupid every weekend! Luckily we still have training every week for agility and flyball so hopefully that will keep me entertained, and I’m going to try and get some of the weaves at home again so I can really sort Dylan’s weave entries out. I’m really wishing I’d entered Newton Heath though, Kim could have had her first Grade 4 classes — just 2 runs but both Graded, and Dylan would have had 3 Graded runs. But I thought 4 weeks in a row (Newark, NH, EMDAC, Wyre/Donny) would have been a bit much so I skipped it. Remind me not to do that again!

Huge congrats to Vicki with Diesel for qualifying for Crufts today, and he’s still only 6 months old!