Magic Inflato Dog

The Spoiled One

Breed: "International Shepherd"

Birthdate: Possibly August of 2000

Most expensive item he's destroyed: Wooden French doors with inset glass - high side of $1000. He's also eaten car seat belts, gone through closed patio doors, and inflicted the standard amount of damage to house and home one would expect of a nearly 60lb active dog.

He's been in training for flyball for about 3 years. Three looooong years. This dog has earned three NAFA titles, all in one weekend, but he's more of an entertainer than a competitor. We often get laughed at or applauded when we run and, no, it isn't that "ooooooh that was a good run" kind of applause. We've attempted to run him in three NAFA tournaments. The first tournament he didn't have a clue so was pulled almost immediately. The second, two years later, was the one where he got the three titles. The third tournament, shortly after the second, was the tournament where he developed his "magic inflato dog" trick.

It goes like this: I line him up at the start. He barks and carries on and focuses like a lazer on that tennis ball. His claws dig into the matting, every muscle tenses and the start light goes off. He takes off like a bullet. Boing, boing, boing, boing over the jumps, hit the box, get the ball boing, boing, boing, boi - ooops, what's this? He slows. His eyes fix on the next dog ready to go. He slows to a stop right before crossing the start/finish line, staring the other dog down and magically swelling to three times his normal size.

Now, he doesn't want to fight or anything. He's just playing keep away. With the flyball lane. Not real conducive to fast passes. Even the judge laughed at that one.

So, I'm guessing we'll need to work that issue in practice.

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