Django ONYX

This past weekend, Django received his plaque for earning his ONYX award in flyball last October. The ONYX is awarded after the dogs reaches 20,000 points in his racing career. Django started flyball relatively later in life since he was adopted as an adult, and I was proud to reach that milestone with him.

Flyball was good for Django. When I got him, he was shy, not terribly interested in toys or retreiving, and dog-reactive. During my first few weeks with him, I wasn't sure that he would ever have the desire or courage to participate in a sport that involved lots of loud dogs running off leash right alongside him, and that required him to drive away from me, and to retrieve a ball. Our early retrieve sessions involved him half-heartedly walking to the ball and picking it up, then strolling back to me as I danced around and cheered like a crazy person waving a bag of chopped up hot dogs. Lowell laughed at me the first time he witnessed this, and teased me that my up-and-coming flyball dog looked real promising.

Within a year though, Django figured it out. His mild interest in the ball turned into complete obsession. Learning the rules of the game built his confidence and he could focus despite the running, barking dogs. He came out of his shell more and more outside of the ring, and his dog-reactivity was pretty much a thing of the past. He still hates Huskies and certain Tervs, and would prefer to not have strange dogs in his face when he is on leash, but he has learned in such situations to count to ten and let mom take care of it. I can walk him through crowded trials without worry now, and he does socialize nicely with other dogs regularly.

Django became a solid flyball dog, running in the low-4's. He loved to run in anchor position, and loved to race the dog in the next lane to the finish line. He wouldn't take a tug toy when he got back to me, but would instead whip around to watch the rest of the racing. Which, if he was running in the middle of the pack, occasionally made him into a bit of a road block in the lane, but I became skilled at catching his harness and pulling him to the side while he chewed on his tennis ball and stared at the racing. The ball became his true desire in life, and he never, ever dropped it or came back without it.

For Lowell and I though, things gradually began to change. In our last year and a half of racing, Django was crossed on and crashed by other dogs four times. Each time sent him tumbling and made me completely sick to my stomach, and I began to question whether I had the nerve to play this sport much longer.

We all take risks, with ourselves and with our dogs. I don't believe that we should try to exist in safe little bubbles, but rather we should live our life and enjoy it. But at some point, risks begin to outweigh rewards. There is risk in other dog sports, certainly, but in agility for instance, it felt more under my control. If I don't feel the obstacles are safe at a venue, I can choose to avoid them. If weather conditions make the course too slippery, I can scratch my dog from a run. I train my dogs to do obstacles safely, don't push them to do things before they are ready, and decide when I think conditions are suitable for running. In flyball, I realized, my dog's safety was also in the hands of seven other handlers and dogs in the ring at the time. There was nothing I could do if someone in the next lane decided to "try out" their green dog to see what it would do, and that dog decided to tear off after my trained dog. I've seen ugly crashes, and seen dogs seriously injured in just this situation. This past weekend before receiving our plaque, we sat and watched a total of six races, and watched scary interference situations occur in 50% of them, without exaggeration.

Our eight years of flyball have brought us a lot of fun with our dogs, introduced us to great friends, and taken us on fun road trips. But even beyond our safety concerns, in recent years something just wasn't there for us anymore. Agility had become our true dog-sport passion, and we wanted to spend more time training and trialing in it. We were growing more interested in other areas of dog training in general, and were longing to spend more time with some of our other pursuits, both dog and non-dog related. I was concerned that some of the physical aspects of flyball - such as jumping low and flat, and turning repeatedly in one direction - were having an affect on agility performance and the physical health of the dogs. Jade was retired after a breaking a toe on a box and then our realizing he had a mouth full of incisors loosened by the years of impact, making him no longer want to carry the ball. As much as I had loved the sport for years, as much as I valued the social aspect of the activity, and as much as I know my dogs enjoyed the racing, it felt like it was time for us to take a break this past October.

A couple months later, we realized that the break was probably going to be more than that, and sadly told the team that we were stepping back for now. I felt a little sad about retiring Django, who does love the sport. Sunday before heading up to get the plaque though, we went for a run with the dogs. Django knows when I get running clothes and shoes out what we are about to do, and starts dancing at the door with excitement. As we go out into the yard, he tears joyfully around for a few laps, then dances at the gate waiting to be leashed up. I watched him brimming with pre-run delight, and realized that what matters to them is the time we spend together, whether it is playing flyball, competing in agility, taking a run in the park, hiking through the woods, biking around the neighborhood, paddling along in a kayak, or shaping a new cute trick on a quiet evening at home. All of those are things I have been lucky enough to share with Django for years, and we will continue to do for hopefully some time to come. I don't suspect that he is sitting around longing for his flyball days. That is the wonderful thing about dogs - how much they live in and enjoy the moment.

While I miss seeing our flyball friends regularly and have fond memories of the good days of racing, we are enjoying the time we have now to devote to other things - things that we have not been able to do as much as we would have liked in recent years. We've had more long weekend-morning hikes, more runs through the park, more hanging out watching them play in the backyard, more training time, and the opportunity to try out new agility venues. Lowell and I have also re-doubled our triathlon training in preparation for several races this summer - an activity that we missed out on altogether last season with our busy schedule, and we can hardly wait for the first event.

Django's plaque represents a milestone reached, but also in some way represents the closing of a part of our life. At the same time, new adventures, opportunities, and challenges are presenting themselves, and I am feeling good about where we are going now. Maybe one day we will venture back onto the lanes, but for now we are happy with this new journey, and wish happy, safe racing to our flyball friends.

Another Milestone

Been a weird couple months around here, but life is hopefully getting back to normal and we have had a couple significant events in recent weeks.

On October 17-18, we attended Canine Express's annual flyball tournament with Django. Maebe had been signed up for an agility jumping seminar that weekend, but a lesion on her toe that kept getting irritated prevented her from going and participating, so she had a weekend off. Django entered the tournament needing about 480 points for his ONYX title, and I am happy to report that we accomplished that goal during his second-to-last race on Sunday afternoon. As I got Django as an adult, he had a pretty late start to his flyball career, so I was very pleased that he was able to accomplish this.

While most of the gang stayed at home for the weekend, we did bring Cadence up on Saturday to participate in the annual Halloween costume contest. He was the Great Pumpkin.

He looks relatively happy in these photos, but they don't capture all the wiggling and scratching and throwing his body to the ground that he was doing during the parade. I think he got off pretty easy - he should talk to Jade about when we dressed him up as the Tin Man for a Wizard of Oz theme. His suffering paid off though as he won "Cutest Costume"!

The true highlight of the weekend came as a big surprise. Every year, the Canine Express team honors a rescued flyball dog with the Brenda Bailey Inspiration award. The award has been given for the last three years, in memory of a teammate who died from cancer. Teams can nominate eligible rescue dogs for the award, and I was touched that our team captain chose to nominate Django. I was asked to write up a description of Django, so I retold his story a bit - how he was picked up as a stray on the streets of Detroit, and bounced around through shelters and rescue foster homes before he found his way to us via his wonderful foster mom, Chris. I mentioned how Django means "I awaken" and how much he has truly done that over his time with us. I always love sharing Django's story, but I did not expect for a minute that we would be chosen for this honor. I know there are a lot of great rescue dogs out there with other great stories, but I was extremely touched and honored when they read my and Django's name out on Sunday afternoon. Being recognized in this way is probably the best achievement I think I've received with one of my dogs. It really put the point- and title-chasing in perspective and reminded me that the true reward is the bond we form with these canine partners and companions.

Good old Django - I can't wait to see the photo they took for the plaque. He had no idea what the fuss was about and I'm sure he'll look terrified in the picture (any uncertainty tends to cause Django to get a really worried look in those green-yellow eyes of his - it looks much more dramatic than it actually is as far as I can tell from his behavior).

We followed up that exciting weekend with a nice day of agility this past Sunday. Django ran 5 for 5 all day, and placed in every class. He does seem to actually be speeding up even this late in his career, but I think I will move him to "Veterans" for our next trial. He clipped a bar with a toe in his last Jumpers run, which is odd, so I'll give him a little break for a while. He's been a great little athlete all year, and achieved a major title in both of the dog sports we participate in. I think he has some well-deserved pampering in store for him now as we enter in to fall and winter!

Dog Sport Weekend

Busy holiday weekend this past weekend, filled with all sorts of dog activities.


On Friday, we kicked off the long weekend with a day of CPE agility in Dexter. I was very excited about this trial, as they were offering Jackpot, which is the last class Django and I need to finish his C-ATCH title. Of course, Jackpot was the last run of the day, so we had many hours of waiting for the big moment. Since Jackpot requires speed and distance, I decided to only enter Django in one other run that day. On long days of trialing, Django sometimes will start to work pretty close to me in the last couple runs, so I have more luck with Jackpot if he is fresh and full of energy. We started the morning with a "Q" (and fourth place) in Full House, then let him rest up the rest of the day.


Meanwhile, Tristan and Maebe each got a few runs in with their dad, and had some nice performances. Tristan was well on his way towards having another beautiful Standard run, when his handler forgot the course . . . again. So, still a nice run, just not technically correct. :-) Maebe had a blazing fast Standard run (24 seconds), but demonstrated that her contacts are not, in fact, fixed as we had hoped. In fact, she showed us that she can do the A-Frame while missing the down ramp altogether - not something I hope she ever does again! Nevertheless, she continues to command attention on the course, and Lowell had hours of conversations with other trainers with ideas, suggestions, compliments, etc. The little girl can move, that's for certain.

Django's big run came at the end of the day. I was nervous stepping to the line, but tried as much as possible to relax so he wouldn't feed off my stress. His opening sequence went beautifully - he was moving fast and following me perfectly. In fact, we actually ended up ahead of where I thought we'd be when the whistle blew - rare, as I have developed a good sense of how much we can do in the opening time. When it came time to do the Jackpot (a jump, A-Frame, far end of a curved tunnel, and jump), we started off strong. He came off the A-frame nicely, but headed to the wrong end of the tunnel. I pulled him back, re-sent him, and he headed once more to the near end. Called him off again, but he decided then that clearly he was not supposed to do the tunnel at all, and cleared the last jump. I didn't care though, I was so proud of how nicely he worked for me. I knelt down, hugged and kissed him, and told him we'd just try again next time. A spectator near the exit gate said to me "You couldn't have tried any harder for that - that was a nice run and you should be proud." I agreed completely. Lots of friends patted us on the back, and though Django still can't yet add those five letters before his name, there is always next time. Looks like the Stony trial in three weeks has TWO Jackpot offerings!

After visiting with lots of friends, we packed up the dogs, went home to hook up the camper, and headed down to Sandusky, Ohio for two days of flyball racing with Django and Maebe. When we arrived, we learned that there was an empty back-up spot on a team with some green dogs, and do to various injuries, etc., the team was short. We decided to let Jade step out of retirement for a weekend, and listed him as the back-up, so ended up with three dogs on teams.

Django and Maebe got to race on the same team together, which was very fun. The team was a nice one, with very reliable, consistent dogs. Unfortunately, we were seeded towards the bottom of the division, so had to really fight. And fight we did, running some nice close races and putting in some good times. Maebe ran several 4.3's with passes (over 10-inch jumps, not her favorite), and Django ran a couple 4.4's with passes, even towards the end of Sunday. The team ended up third, but the dogs all earned a lot of points for one tournament, putting Django even closer to getting his ONYX.

Jade had a lot of fun warming up a couple times and running in a few heats, but thankfully the novice dogs held up all weekend, as my decision to retire him was confirmed to be the correct one. Of maybe a half dozen runs, he only carried his ball past the line once or twice. After earning over 40,000 points, I know he knows how to play the game, and physically he still looks great, but somehow his heart isn't in it the way it used to be. I think his stamina just isn't what it was, and he is tiring quickly. Nevertheless, it made me happy to take him into the ring a few more times, and to know that we are making the right decision for him. He has had a great flyball career, and he has earned the right to spend his days now lounging on the couch and barking at squirrels.

The Noodle (Cadence) had a nice weekend as well. He saw flyball for the first time, and handled it well. He was a little surprised by the noise at first, but relaxed quickly. When the racing started, he looked up like "Oh, running dogs, cool" then instantly turned his focus to playing with me. Which, since I was not armed with a tug toy, meant trying to rip my watch right off of my wrist, but I appreciated the sentiment - that even in the presence of high-level distractions he is choosing to play with me.

Overall, a fun weekend of playing with the dogs, camping, and visiting with friends. However, I may re-think doing a tournament on July 4th weekend again, as Saturday night was spent holding Tristan while the fireworks were being set off. He held it together pretty well though.

Lots more camping, trials and tournaments in the coming weeks. Going to have to try and rest up this week in preparation!

Flyball Fun

We had our first outdoor flyball tournament of the season this past weekend, and it was the first time we’ve played since mid-April. Flyball was the first dog sport that we became involved in, and has been a love of ours for almost eight years now. In recent months, however, I have been sad to find that I just haven’t gotten quite as much enjoyment out of it as I typically do, even though I was still having fun with our dogs and our friends. We did make the tough decision to retire our first two flyball dogs back in April, which has been hard, and I’ve also been struggling with some of the things I see occurring both on and off the ring that I am not particularly happy with (but that is another topic!). Overall though, the dogs love it, I love having a good time with them and with friends, and it usually makes for a fun-filled weekend. I really needed a good tournament to remind me of that.

This weekend happily proved to be a very pleasant and enjoyable one. The weather was perfect, we saw lots of teammates and friends that we hadn’t seen in a while, and the schedule wasn’t too grueling. We also made some important decisions this time around, which I think really impacted our experience of this tournament.

A few weeks ago, Lowell attended a Debbie Gross-Saunders seminar on conditioning the canine athlete. He came home with a lot of great information and ideas, and we have been incorporating a lot of her recommendations into our daily care, training, and exercising of the dogs. Although we’ve only been doing this for a few weeks, we believe we already saw some positive effects on Django and Maebe’s performances this weekend . . . but more on that at a later date.

One of the most important recommendations she had though was to incorporate a good warm-up and cool-down ritual before and after every race. Flyball people, us included, have been very guilty of pulling their dogs out cold after being crated for a couple hours, expecting them to perform in a very intense, high impact activity, then tossing them back into their crates after maybe a quick dip in a kiddie pool, while the handlers rush off to the next race. Not a good strategy for preventing injury and maximizing performance certainly. Plus, as I found this weekend, we miss out on a great way to connect with and enjoy our canine companions/teammates throughout the weekend.

This weekend, Lowell and I both made sure to get Django and Maebe out 15-20 minutes before each race. Django and I would spend 5-10 minutes just walking, then would lightly jog some off-leash figure-8s. I would have him switch directions, turn to each side, and weave between my legs to help stretch him out some. Django loves doing flatwork training and tricks, and so this really seemed to make him happy and pump him up pre-race.

After racing, I would cool him down mostly by having him wear his damp Cool Coat (as Debbie Gross-Saunders warned that jumping into cold pools immediately isn’t necessarily great for the system), and would walk him out for another 15 minutes or so. Afterwards, we would return to the tent, do some gentle stretching exercises, then Django would flop down contentedly while I lightly massaged him a bit. These little rituals resulted in me feeling very connected with my furry buddy, and were the best part of my weekend. After all, the reason we do this is supposed to be to have fun with the dogs that we love, not just to win little ribbons for their crates or to put titles after their names.

Django was happy and feeling good also. Django is probably 7-ish years old, and was running as start dog this weekend, which meant re-running after all the false starts. Still, he pulled several 4.2 second runs, even into the day on Sunday, which was pretty impressive given that his fastest times even as a younger dog were in the 4.1’s. His box turn was looking better than in recent months as well, and he ran without a bobble all weekend.

Maebe also did great. She ran a 4.2 with a pass, and kept up consistent speed all weekend long. Running with Lowell and doing her “Get On the Ball” exercises really seems to be boosting her endurance. Agility is her true passion in life, and she would give 100% until she dropped on the agility course. But while she loves flyball, I do think she sometimes “phones it in” a bit in later races if she starts to tire, and you will notice her times drop slightly. This weekend she kept very consistent times both days though, so we were quite proud of her.

The other guys had a great weekend also. Jade and Tristan got lots of breaks to play ball or take walks with us. This was also the new pup Cadence’s first tournament experience, and he did great. He was able to meet tons of people, lots of children, and many other friendly puppies and dogs. He quietly took everything in when we arrived Saturday morning, but before long was getting ready to take on the world. On Sunday, we brought home a very happy and exhausted guy after a long weekend of wrestling with other pups and socializing with lots of humans.

It was good to get priorities straight again, after a stretch of feeling pretty disconnected from the activity that got me into dog sports in the first place. Once again, I am looking forward to a summer full of racing!

Jade FG40K

We attended a flyball tournament over the past weekend with the crew. While a variety of issues kept me from fully enjoying myself as much as I usually do at these events, the dogs had a good time and did well, and that is what was important. Plus, Jade received his plaque for earning 40,000 points in flyball, a feat he accomplished back in September.

Jade is our first dog, and the one who started all the craziness. He was so full of energy and eager to learn, and we were having a blast finding new things to do with him. We signed up for a 6-week flyball class at a local dog training club, taught by our current team captain. At the end of 6 weeks, Jade had already learned the basics, so the instructor invited him to a team practice. After only two more practices, Jade ran in his first tournament!

Jade was 2 years old already when he started flyball, but has still been able to reach the 40K mark and is currently the 15th-highest point scoring Lab in NAFA. In his prime, Jade was running an average of 4.1 seconds, with his best times being 3.9 seconds (I think he did that twice). He has been a valuable addition to our club's Mix team over the years, and helped them be runners-up in the Multibreed Division in our NAFA Region last year.

Jade turned 9 in the fall, and it seems that his stamina just isn't quite what it used to be (though he still has more energy than many dogs half his age). On the second days of tournaments when he would start to get tired, he began dropping his ball more and more. So, we are now running him part-time and sharing spots with other dogs, which is working out well. It is keeping him happy and active, and not setting him up to make mistakes.

It is a little bittersweet putting the new plaque on the wall. I don't expect we will earn another 10K in his career, so this will probably be the last title he earns. It is an impressive one though, and I am proud of all he's accomplished and feel fortunate to still have more days ahead of us on the racing lanes together.