Wags for Wishes Flyball (Arizona)

Well, we survived the tournament!

Actually, it was fun. Cold. But fun. Weasel did surprisingly well for her very first tournament. She ran perfectly, but still slow, in singles. We'll have to work on squeezing a bit more speed on her and setting her box turn better. I believe it's time for me to stop working that on a practice box at home and keep it for team practice. She did show some competitiveness, digging her toes in and looking over at the dog in the other lane. She seemed to really be racing him (or trying - he was a fast dog). So, now, I need to teach her to pass and condition her to stretch out and run. She's such a funny looking little thing. . .

The Spoiled One had a naughty moment or five. It involved crossing over into the other lane and stealing the other dog's ball, and then trying to chase the other dog down for the contested ball. He got yelled at for that one. I can put up with a little running outside the jumps or slowing down or other mischief in his own lane, but crossing over is too dangerous. Plus, I was scared the other dog would be threatened or alarmed and take a piece out of him, or frightened or injured by a collision. My Spoiled One may look like a big bad shepherd cross, but he has the fighting skills of a tribble. He just doesn't seem to get that the other dog may not be playing.

Anyway, he stayed in his own lane after that. In his defense, he had been innocently dozing in his crate when someone other than me (I'm the only one who handles him) ran up, snatched him out of the crate and off to the flyball lane mid race, on the other side from his other races that day. He didn't get a recall or a chance to get his bearings before I sent him down the lane. So it was really my fault for letting the situation develop that way.

FWIW - fake grass isn't the best running surface. It's slicker than real grass, burns the dog's feet, heats in the sun, and is enough like the real stuff to tempt dogs to pee on it, but fake enough to require cleaning. As in all the outdoor tournaments we have attended, the sun caused the start sensors to malfunction. There was also a problem of not being able to see the start light or the time displays due to the glare. I avoided volunteering as a line judge because of this. None of this was under the host club's control, however.

The elements that were under their control went very well. I loved seeing all of the horses and getting glimpses of the herding. There seemed to be a very reasonable schedule of races to get through. It was nice having such a large, varied area to walk the dogs in and the fair food and booths were great! One of our team members was on crutches, and being able to park adjacent to the crating area was a real life-saver. Also, crating right next to the lanes made it easy to watch and track the racing. There were even real bathrooms! The host club worked through a lot of last minute changes and pulled it together into a fun weekend of racing. Thank you! I hope you made a lot of money for the Wags for Wishes.

To all the teams we raced with - Thank You and Great Racing!

Passing and Improving Speed on the Run Back

Gratuitous "Inflatodog" design from my store -------->

We pushed The Spoiled One (aka Magic Inflatodog and The One Who Will Not Be Passed) and he actually let another dog pass him - WhooHoo! There had been several practices where he ran last, with no opportunities to practice blocking the other dog. The passing dog was a tough little cattle dog and I threw a ball and screamed at him to help entice Spoiled One to continue past the finish line. Next weekend's tournament should be interesting. . .

Weasel Puppy is doing the down and back, hitting the box properly, getting the ball, bringing it all the way back. She's not being distracted by people playing with tennis balls or excited puppies on the sidelines. The issue is she is lollygagging. Not on the way down - she speeds down to the box, but sort of hangs onto the box, watching the other dog, then sort of cantering back. I only got a 5.1 out of her, and I think she's a lot faster than that. She's ignoring the tug, or treats, and she just wants to go again and again and again. I am hoping a fast dog in the other lane at the tournament will spark her up a bit. We'll practice recalls and tug games this week to help with drive. Maybe I should make her a new tug, just for the tournament?

We had someone drop from the team. They were running a dog for someone else, so we still have the dog, just not the handler. I may be running that dog, which is a fast one, so I may not get to run Spoiled One much. I'll probably be completely worn out stressing over Weasel's first tournament, though. Maybe I'll pack energy drinks, chocolate, and wine. That way, I can boost my energy, console my spirit and drown my sorrows! Too bad they all have calories. Oh, well. It was a thought. Why do we do this again? Oh, yeah. We're hoping to win a stuffed toy the dogs will destroy in under a minute.

http://www.cafepress.com/weaselpuppy

http://www.squidoo.com/flyballfever

Designer Dog Breeding and Why I Object To It

Every once in while, someone will come up to me and ask what breed my Spoiled One is. I usually say "pound puppy special" Some people, though, really persist. They want to know what exactly he is. Hey, if they want to play guess the breed, I'm game. Then there are the ones who talking about trying to breed the 'perfect dog' or about designer dogs.

Designer dogs are deliberately bred mixes of poodles (usually) and something else and given a cutsie name - golden doodle, labradoodle, snoodle, puggle, ad nauseum. Now I have a mixed breed dog. I think he is a wonderful dog, but I really hate this little trend, for several reasons.

1.) It's just a marketing ploy

Basic marketing - create a need that only your product will fill, then fill it. So what? Well, if people need a dog, there are a hundred and something being euthanized at the shelter tomorrow. Big ones, small ones, mixed ones, pedigreed ones, even doodle variations. The market is glutted with dogs. That's one city. And most of them are being euthanized because there are no homes. Why produce more dogs to take up more potential homes, when there aren't enough homes in the first place?

Another problem with creating an imaginary need for designer dogs is what happens when people realize that they have been flim flammed and really don't need the dog. They can't really take it back and return it for store credit.

2.) It's poor genetics

You sometimes hear the rationalization that there is nothing wrong with it - lots of dog breeds were created by crossing existing breeds. This is true. Lots of breeds were created this way. But it takes many, many generations to evenly distribute and set the desired characteristics. You don't just mate two different breeds and call the puppies a new breed. The puppies that result from a first generation cross vary greatly in type and characteristics. And if you breed the cross-bred puppies, you get even more variation. You see, each puppy gets half its genes from the sire and half from the dam, but when the parents are labradoodles, the genes the puppies get can be almost all Labrador, almost all poodle or anywhere on the continuum of Labrador to poodle. Maybe it will shed, maybe it won't. No way to tell. What happens to the puppies that don't happen to have gotten the trendy characteristic?

Another genetic problem is that the breeders who have the best lines and have honed them over generation of dogs are not going to want to throw that effort away to produce cutsey puppies who won't reflect that effort. Designer dogs don't breed true. They can't be shown. The characteristics that the breeders have been honing for generations will be muddied or not apparent in the mix. So, you get your breeding stock for designer dogs from people who don't care about the future of the dogs or have any investment in improving their lines.

(Just to remind you all, I have a mixed breed dog. I think he's a wonderful dog. But I don't believe in deliberately breeding mixed breed dogs!)

Yet another problem I have with the creating new breeds idea is we already have way too many breeds. We have breeds for every task or preference. Every time a new breed is developed, it creates a small inbred subset of dogs. We already have registries full of small subsets of inbred dogs. We don't need any more.

3.) There is no need to do this

There is no unique need that designer breeds fulfill. Most of the justifications I hear are either that people want a dog that doesn't shed due to allergies (get a poodle, shots, or a fish tank) or that the puppies are soooo cute. All puppies are soooo cute. Even the ones they are euthanizing.