Last Practice Before the Texas Tournament

Today was the last practice before the Texas Tournament. The dogs did well. Spoiled One and Weasel were consistant at the box with the prop. They both did well at the full runs. The new Jack is a little firecracker of enthusiasm. There were some handler issues, though. I forgot to insist on a prop for Spoiled One for his last full runs. I still need to refine the way I hold Weasel so that I can actually get my fat little tushy moving to run after her up to the line. The worst problem, though, was people weren't keeping track of their dogs.

We practice in a fenced, grassy field. It's so easy to get in the habit of letting the dog out of the crate, letting it zing all over the field and bounce around the flyball lanes and take a potty break while we decide the running order, set the camera, chatter, get a drink, then meander over and call them to us to line up. It's a bad habit, though. The dogs are obsessed with the flyball lanes and wander back and forth in the ten to twenty foot runback, or gallup up for a trial run over the jumps to see if there might be a tennis ball in the box. They also play games with each other, like keep away with the flyball lane. Today, when Weasel was released for a recall, one of the other dogs decided to meander across the lane and got clocked in the head by Weasel going full speed.

Weasel seems unfazed by the incident, but the other dog was visibly stunned, then erratic. I was concerned that she was concussed or maybe even going to have a seizure. She seemed fine after a few moments of panic, but what a horrible thing to potentially happen to one of our pets! A little while later, we were running the other team, and one of the owners was distracted and walked across the lane in front of Spoiled One in his recall. Spoiled One managed to miss him, but 60lbs of dog colliding with you at top speed could do a lot of damage.

Honestly, even without the potential for injury, it is simply frustrating to have someone's dog dancing around and deliberately getting in the way for recalls and warmups. The owner usually has no idea because they are distracted, and then, when they are ready to go, the dog zips right over to them.

Grumble, grumble, grumble.

I'm just as bad, though. I need to be more aware.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the tournament. I hope Weasel does well and earns a new best time in singles, and I hope Spoiled One does well on the pick-up and earns lots of points. I also really hope I don't screw up and make a complete idiot of myself.

New People at Flyball

It's always difficult to organize practices efficiently when we have new people coming out for the first time. There is paperwork, and explanations, and we have to run the full team first thing so that they can see what it is that we're working at. But, still, I am glad whenever we have new people, because we need more live bodies and dogs. Plus, it's fun to see people stretching out of there comfort zone to explore something new. For example, you see middle-aged people with their chunky, untrained dogs and its fun to see their relationship with the dog and understanding of it blossom and grow as they work on training.

Today, there were deaf people who came out. None of the team knows sign language and only one of the deaf people lip read. It meant that conversations were mostly wave, smile, shrug. If they decide to continue coming to practice, I think we'll get more fluent in gesture and shrug, and email for the more detailed stuff. Some of the signing two of them were using looked like ASL, so maybe I will try to l google or look up some kind of chart for some of the words we might need to use that are hard to say or too abstract for point and nod.

There was a very enthusiastic little Jack Russell. We so need a height dog. He seemed very nice and tolerated well being held by a complete stranger for restrained recalls. There were two border collies that were terribly pretty and they were typical enthusiastic all over the place border collies. There was a chow cross whose owners indicated she may have some over-protective issues, but she seemed okay when we had them take her over the jumps on leash with the other dogs. The retriever is a nice, freindly dog who seemed to want to play with the other dogs, but she needs to loose weight.

Weasel was sloppy with her box turns, and the first set of runs, she didn't have the prop. I hope the bouncing off the wall is having a good effect, but I couldn't see. Z dog practiced a bit of passing, and he seemed to do okay, but the other dog was intimidated and slowed way down coming back when she was passing into him. For some reason, he was exploring crossing over when we were doing box work, but I believe that's because of the prop we use. It's the hinged jump we were arranging in a v in front of the box, and now I've moved to using just one side as a more standard jump, but I believe he feels he's supposed to jump over that second side and that aims him right at the other box.

One more practice until the tournament. Hope it goes well!

A Dangerous Lie

Sigh.

There is more breed specific legislation wending its way through the New Mexico State Legislature. It defines Rotties and Pits as dangerous. Having been around rottie and pitt therapy dogs, that's balderdash.

Yes, I am frustrated that this bill will make pitts and rotties pariahs in the state and frustrated that the many, many owners of good dogs are being penalized because of the few irresponsible ones.

Yes, I am frustrated that this bill is a death sentence for the endless supply of pitts and, to a lesser extent, rotties that end up in our shelter system.

Yes, I am frustrated because this bill will be utterly and wretchedly ineffective in reducing dog attacks or making the public safer.

Mostly, though, I am frightened. This bill promotes a dangerous lie. The lie is that it's the breed of the dog that's the problem. It isn't. It's the owner. To ban all of this breed or that breed and define them as "dangerous" implies the other breeds of dogs are "safe." They aren't. I know of chihuahuas who have bitten young children in the face. Repeatedly. If you investigate or if you work around dogs, you come across horror stories with all different kinds of breeds. There was a Golden Retiever who was stalking and pinning other dogs in the park. Do you remember the story of the woman in France who had the first face transplant? Her face was ripped off of her by her own dog while she was napping. The dog was a laborador. All dogs require training and awareness to be "safe" All dogs need to be watched around children. All dogs will chase you down and eat you if neglected and left to roam in packs. ALL DOGS ARE DANGEROUS.

Are there aggressive pitts? Yep. There are aggressive dogs of all breeds. However, I have been around a lot of pitt-types and staffies when I do flyball. It is a chaotic, exciting environment. Dogs bark and howl and do the bark-scream thing really really excited dogs do. There are all sorts of little teensy dogs and big dogs, male dogs and female dogs, and human children all over - some of them handling the dogs. If there were a magic "switch" that would cause a dog to turn, it would find it there. But, you know what? Staffies are one of the most popular breeds. They race in the same lanes with the poodles and toys and little dogs and big dogs and kids and people in all that excitement, and they don't "turn." Because there is no magic "switch" No black mass is said when a pitt puppy is born. The moon doesn't fall from the sky. They are just dogs. Just like all the other dogs. There is this myth out there that there is something different about pitt bulls because they were originally bred to fight. So were many, many other breeds - including the boston terrier.

But this stupid, stupid House Bill 667 promotes the ignorant, magical thinking lie that it's just this breed or that breed that's dangerous. It isn't the breed, it's the individual dogs. Any BSL promotes a dangerous, dangerous lie.

Saturday Flyball Practice

We had a good practice, I think. Not a lot of downtime. Weasel seems to be responding well to the flying squirrel frisbee/tug. Z-dog didn't inspire any swerving out of the lane or other reactions in dogs passing him. No injuries were reported, unlike last week, but, then, everyone was wearing gloves and there were no children around.

Weasel's box turn is still very iffy, though, and I was a bad dog handler and forgot to insist on the jump in front. I will do box work with her this week. Also, I was soliciting suggestions to speed her up and the suggestion was made that I bounce her off the wall, so I will do that a bit. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to chime in. I believe the weakness is her inconsistant boxturn. Also, I believe I need to be more consistent in my "rrrreaaaady, rrrreeeeaaady, RRREADY? GO!" cueing. She was jumping out of my hold and taking off early, rather than digging in and getting a good start.

This weekend I should work on the designs for the team shirts. I want to get them ready in time to order for the Texas tournament. Also, maybe I should have some unofficial flyball award keychains and car window decals made up to take down there.

Dropping like Flies

This flyball stuff is hard on people. Everyone kept getting injured.

First, someone apparently wrenched something chasing after a puppy while they were getting ready to come out to practice. A big young smooth tri border collie missed the tug and got his owner. Then he and another dog with resource guarding issues had an "incident" with a young girl in the middle. The girl was nipped or clawed, though she handled it well. After that, someone got their fingers wrenched and a nail torn to the quick holding a dog for a recall.

They were all preventable things. Hindsight is cool that way. So, with this inspiration, some suggested safety rules for practice.

1. Keep your dog under control. Don't let it run around and possibly have an "incident" with another dog.

2. Resource guarding is bad. It isn't "protectiveness" Don't allow it, and if you know your dog has that issue, resource guard it to keep a zone of safety.

3. Watch out for children. Lots of dogs guard them. Other dogs are afraid of them. Still others with high prey/chase drive (like herding dogs and flyball dogs) think they make wonderful sheep substitutes.

4. Use flyball collars, harnesses, tabs or body holds when doing restrained recalls - especially with hyper or nervous dogs. They spin and get hands and fingers caught in flat collars, then panic and spin more.

5. Gloves.

Tugging techniques: Try to make the end of the tug away from you hand move more and draw the dog's attention away from the end in your hand. Hold the tug with both hands for large dogs. Encourage dogs to grab and hold on, rather than continually regripping on the tug. Wear gloves. Encourage an aversion to teeth on skin. Whenever doggie toofies make skin contact, draw back, make a sharp noise like "ow" and stop interacting with the dog for a few minutes - even if it was obviously accidental.