Anyone here do Dog Sports?

[Konotashi]

Just wondering if anyone else here is active in dog sports.

I have a Pomeranian (Ozzy) in flyball. He's a little superstar - when we go to demos, there are handlers on other teams that will go, "Hey, it's OZZY!" and I'm like, "I have no idea who that is...." LOL
I've had that happen at out of state tournaments, also. Haha.

He started training in October of 2010... or 11? (Sorry, I'm tired, haha) and competed in his first tournament (running in singles/pairs - so he wasn't racing with a full team yet) four months later. I don't think most dogs start racing until 6-12 months after they begin training, so needless to say, I was one proud, happy momma! Add that to the fact that the other dog he was racing singles against had been training for about THREE YEARS, and he was running clean, while she was going around hurdles and dropping the ball (both faults).

For those of you who don't know, flyball is the only team dog sport. It's like a relay race with two teams of four dogs that have to run over 4 hurdles, hit a box that shoots out a ball at the end, and run back. The team that finishes the fastest wins!

Here's a video I made from when he started training up to his first tournament on a full team. It also has his singles tournament. If you skip to about 2:25, you can see where the other dog messes up and Ozzy looks and is like, "What are you doin?" (But if you wanna watch the whole video, that's cool too! )
I felt bad, because at his first tournament running on a full team, he would go around some of the jumps. I couldn't figure out why, because he NEVER did that. We figured out that he TOTALLY SHREDDED his front paws. I felt SO BAD. I was still so proud of him for still trying to run! Poor guy, though. After going over some of the hurdles, he was like, "Okay. Landing hurts - going around!" We put some New Skin on his feet and wrapped them up though, and he ran perfect the rest of the tournament!


I would love to get him into agility, and there are some awesome clubs around here. There's actually one about two miles away from me in a really nice indoor facility, but I'm just holding off until I can afford to put him into classes. I think he would ROCK at agility. He got to do a little demo thing at Woofstock (big dog event they have here every year), and he rocked the tunnel, had no issues on the teeter, knows hurdles and the command 'over' already, and knows how to weave through my legs already. The trainer that let us try out the little practice field thing was very impressed with him, as some dogs will not go NEAR the tunnel or will fly off the teeter as soon as it starts to move.

Here are some pictures. I don't have many good photos of him, considering I was voted our team's photographer.

When he first started training - doing some box work.



More box work, but at a demo. (More distractions)



Box work at the demo.



From his first tournament. Can you tell he was excited??



Just so there's no confusion on why it's called 'flyball.' LOL



Little racin' dawg!
I always wrap his feet now after he shredded his feet at that tourney.



Showin' off his NAFA (North American Flyball Association) titles!
FD (Flyball Dog)
FD-Ch (Flyball Dog Champion).
He is literally ONE RACE away from his FD-ChS (Flyball Dog Champion Silver).

He also has his TF (Top Flight) title in U-FLI (United Flyball League International).



This came in the mail on his birthday! Thank you, U-FLI!



Here are some other dogs on the team.

Sometimes accidents happen - as they can in any sport.



Neo



Asta. I love her, just 'cause she's a GSD. (Dat's my next dog).



Leon - owned and handled by the same woman as Asta. He has to have a specific person box load for him because he hits the box SO HARD, all of us girls are sent flying. LOL