Paulp

Ha Ha, I was pretty wrapt when I saw Ebon had won the Unregistered large veterans and then found he was the only entry :laugh: He did beat all the labs and golden retrievers though (the breeds of which he is a cross) and most of the border collies as well (just for bragging rights in flyball)

Reggie the fastest Australian Shepherd in Australia!!!! (And slowest.. there were no other Aussies entered but don't tell her )

The result I enjoyed seeing was the Pembroke corgis taking bragging rights over the Cardigans, I reckon that would have been hotly contested!

Hastings and Frankston both do flyball

We are aiming to have a 100% Labrador team for a comp someday, LOL. Many years ago we had a black Lab team for one comp - we called ourselves Black Lightening and it was a big hoot. Not the fastest team on the block but the most colour co-ordinated!

Would have liked to have seen that. We have several promising labs in our beginners group and with the labs we already have I am hoping one day to get an all lab team in.

Yep, most common flyball dogs are kelpies and border collies. Tigerjack used to have a Ridgie cross (I think) and he was a great dog, certainly much bigger than a kelpie LOL

Only just seen this! That was my Jack. He was a ridgeback cross Malinois who was at the time the tallest dog running in Australia. Dudley the Briard with Norwest would be the biggest now I think.

Ebon ran against Dudley in the singles comp at the Nationals a couple of years ago (and beat him :) ) and I remember the spruikers commenting on the combined size of the two dogs running.

Probably the biggest dog in Vic would be Bundy with the wieners, he is a couple of kgs heavier than Ebon so I would think he is around 35kgs

No worries lisa, the lady is just getting it started so once it's a definite go I will let you know. I'll tell her you're interested though. it'll be in Coota most likely.

And thanks everyone else. My kelpie is an insane jumper, I'm taking her in the kelpie dash and high jump next year at Casterton hopefully, so I thought flyball would be right up her alley since, she jumps, has speed and likes balls. I was quite surprised when the lady said she was too big.

What dogs does this lady have then? I would be very curious to know where she got the idea that only little dogs compete? She is going to be in for a massive shock if she ever goes to a flyball comp :laugh:

There are plenty of dogs over 30 kgs in flyball, way bigger than even a large kelpie and some are very fast. My dog is a 32kg lab/golden retriever that our box loader looks like she is sitting on like a pony when holding him for a recall and can manage 4.6sec when in the mood. There is even a Briard racing in NSW.

thanks so much!!

interestingly i was explaining it to mum last night and thought a video would be easier...

so off to youtube and the first one was crufts and i thought this will be a good example, they use different boxes!

i think i like those better sending the ball over the top instead of at them... not much i can do abotu that though!

wonthaggi and berwick are diffinitely the 'closest' to me

I think the boxes they use in England cause more injuries than the style used here and the States. I am with Berwick, we train on Saturdays, would be great to have a couple of sibes. We've had one or two train with us but they haven't progressed past beginners.

I vaguely remember someone from Eastside telling me they ran a clinic for a Gippsland club that was interested in starting flyball, might have been Sale?? I don't know what the status of that is.

I have trained 2 dogs through Berwick obedience, completed the instructors course and occasionally intstruct when time allows between family and flyball commitments. You need to remember that all instructors at Berwick are volunteers (which is why it is affordable) and are trained through the in-house training course which evolves over time so different instructors have different foundations to their knowledge. I find the way instructors teach is also influenced by their own experiences in training thier own dogs. This means there will be variation between instructors and when I first started there I found it a bit confusing as well but then I came to realise that in a way it is a strength as not all dogs are the same and different dogs require different strategies so the varying and sometimes contradictory information gave me options to sort through to find the right way to train my dogs, especially the second one who was a rescue and quite challenging. This is fine for most people and their dogs but some people may need more professional help or find this environment is not right for them and will find other clubs more suitable.

The ground condtitions at the moment are a bit of a challenge, we don't get much help from the council and the years of drought have left us with issues now that mother nature is providing bountiful rain again but the committee is looking into what can be done to improve things in the future.

We also offer flyball, the best dogsport around ;-)

Visible ribs and waist doesn't mean that a lab is too skinny

Victoria is similar. Most of our comps are also in conjunction with agricultural shows, so we get heaps of spectators and there is usually someone commentating as well so the public know what the hell is going on :p

There are also several demo's held throughout the year at smaller shows and events, this includes the Royal and Pet Expo.

This year there will be a competition held at the Royal for the first time and I expect the crowd to be huge, agility usually draws a crowd but flyball has a competition aspect where people can cheer on individual dogs or the team.

As Jumabaar said, our Nationals are held with other big events. Dandenong show (for the Nationals next year) is a pretty big show and always get a massive crowd!

I know SA, do alot of demo's throughout the year to gain more interest and have increased to several teams. Same as Tasmania who got enough people involved to send across I think 2? teams last year, it was their first ever comp :D

Flyball is very popular with the Ag shows as a spectacle. Our club has been approached by several shows to put on comps or demos and the Dandy show society highly value our involvement in their show. I meet quite a few people who have seen flyball at these shows and they are always very excited about the sport.

Personally my experience with fly ballers have not been that good- I enquired with 2 clubs about starting and was

told that they were only after small, fast dogs or border collies. Perhaps unlucky and I have met other people who do fly ball who are very nice. I've never been to an agility club that discriminated by breed.... If anything they tend to really support people with more unusual breeds

I think you have been unlucky to approach the wrong two clubs. Whilst a fast height dog is gold there are always places in slower teams which are just as competitive thanks to the way teams are sorted into divisions in competitions. And you don't need collies to be fast, our team recently set a club record of 19.322 seconds with a staffordshire terrier, a labrador, a labrador X golden retriever and an ACD cross.

We have a Rottie doing beginners flyball at our club and seems to be taking to it quite well.

Obedience classes start at 1:30

Berwick is on Saturday. Think there are some smaller private clubs that might train on other days too.

Croydon had agility on Monday nights and obedience run throughs on Wednesday nights.

thanks Jules- might check Berwick out this weekend.

There are a few quite quick labs in flyball, I think you are talking about one in NSW but in our club we have a lab that can run under 4.5 and my labs pb is 4.6 and I'm hoping to improve on that after winter. It can be a bit of work but the trick with labs is finding the right motivation to get a fast return.

Yup that and a really nice box turn. I think they have far more potential than most people give them credit for as sports dogs.

I was guilty of underrating labs as sport dogs as well. When I started flyball I would have been wrapped for him to run just over 5 seconds, judging by the other labs in flyball (except Jade, the superfast lab, who seemed to be just a freak) that seemed to be a pretty respectable pace. I never dreamed he could be a 4.5 second dog. My second lab is proving much harder to train up for flyball but I have persevered (three years ago when we started she would not even look at a tennis ball let alone fetch one) and I think she has the potential to be quite fast as well. All the really fast labs are also lean, my boy is 5-6 kgs lighter than before he started flyball and he never looked fat.

[Case and point- in Flyball there is a Lab running under 4.5 seconds (I think it has run a 4.3) and regularly competes in division 1 and 2 with the kelpies and border collies (fastest in australia is 3.8, but most run 4.0-4.4 seconds for those not familiar with the sport in those divisions)..... They do obedience successfully too. So nope their next competition dog wont be a border collie or Kelpie because their training, and the lines they have chosen make them very competitive with their current breed. But if they hadnt given their dog a chance then they would have missed that.

ETA- they have just found an agility club they are happy with so I am expecting they will also have some agility titles to add to their dogs names.

There are a few quite quick labs in flyball, I think you are talking about one in NSW but in our club we have a lab that can run under 4.5 and my labs pb is 4.6 and I'm hoping to improve on that after winter. It can be a bit of work but the trick with labs is finding the right motivation to get a fast return.

Proud new owner of my first staffy, looking into getting her into obedience classes, can anyone recommend me a good club in south east melbourne?

Cranbourne, berwick, frankston areas.

Southern Cross Animal Stars train at WoofPurNay vet centre at Narre Warren North - huge indoor area. Evening classes as well as Saturdays and Sundays. Berwick Obedience Club, also at Narre Warren. You could look at all their websites for more info.

I joined Berwick Obedience Club when I lived in Menzies Creek - I found their training methods VERY strange - they also seemed to be an unfriendly, cliquey bunch Useless training your dog there if you are considering trialling at all.

Can you elaborate on 'VERY strange'. I've never been a member of Berwick but I've been debating whether to join the club for some time, not for basic training but to do trial ring practices and maybe a bit of agility.

Looking at it from the point of view of someone who had been an Instructor & was possibly interested in trialling again, the training was useless - no check chains, dogs not taught to heel etc. Also, there was a LOT of standing around doing nothing while the Instructor was schmoozing with her favourite students and dogs . She didn't like Poodles (hey, not everyone does, I know) and seemed to make up her mind from the start that Harrison wouldn't be any good.

Not sure why you think that, check chains are fine at Berwick, we even sell them in the shop but we do encourage handlers to try training on a flat collar using positive methods. Heeling is a core part of training although it is not trialling standards in lower classes as we focus on teaching people who just want well behaved dogs to start with before going to tighter heeling and more advanced obedience in the higher classes and off lead in the highest class.

I don't know if it is in Perth or not but a WA club called "Cuby K9 club" has expressed interest to the AFA in starting flyball

What does anyone use as a hand signal for stand (say, from a sit or drop), when you're at a distance?

I didn't read your post right . I use the same command as I do when healing to stand from a distance and can't remember what I was advised for trialling so can't help you out.

yes Princess is a very impressive little dog! I really enjoyed the singles, pairs and veterans comp... Something different.

Would have liked the handicap comp for division winners - that is SO much fun to watch - just not enough time to do it all!

The Sydney host clubs did a tremendously awesome job!!

I wish we had a 8" height dog that can run 4.9 seconds! The singles was fun, it would have been nice to have a double round robin so Ebon could have had another crack at beating Princess although it probably wouldn't have made a difference, he was off his pace all weekend, I don't think he likes travelling. It would be good to get some more opportunities to do it.

Thanks for that!

But, what about the Singles and Pairs results??

I see the Veterans results are up and that was a lot of fun to watch the older dogs run much easier on low heights!

I can tell you the result from singles division 3. My lab Ebon came second beaten by a JRT called Princess :D Dudley the Briard was 3rd and a Staffordshire Terrier called Sly was fourth.

Shoemonsters dog, Eddie the nutter, you should have seen what he did to Shaun in the pairs on Sunday. The spruikers were calling him the flying brick.

Eddie was awesome!!!

He did make it easier for his team mates by knocking the board on at the jumps down though

But awesome photos Nik

Eddie is such a cool dog, a real crowd pleaser, but the flying 1" sintra boards freaked out our height dog so we had to run Eddies height Saturday arvo (doesn't bother my dog, the big black lab in the team, we've calculated his full jump height would be 21" )

You must have taken thousands of photos! I love seeing the little dogs that people might generally think of as lap dogs competing. We all know and expect working dogs and staffy types to do well but when I see little papillons and mini poodles competing I love it. I also loved seeing an oldster in there, and of course the whippet.

Gotta love the little dogs but small definately does not necessarily mean slow, my quite rapid lab was beaten in the singles by a JRT

Some shots from Day 2

.....

Go Jenni and Spike

.....

Shoemonsters dog, Eddie the nutter, you should have seen what he did to Shaun in the pairs on Sunday. The spruikers were calling him the flying brick.

Congrats Ptolomy!!!!!!!!

Well done Mason!

I could not be happier with the last two days of flyball racing at the nationals...

Jedi and Ahsoka's team WON Division 5!!!!!!

On top of that...

Jedi got a 0.000 start yesterday and today he did a MASSIVE PB of 5.90 seconds, breaking the 6-second barrier for the first time!!!!!! (His previous PB was 6.3)

Ahsoka got an awesome PB of 5.683 (her previous PB was roughly 5.9-6.0)!

Well done, I think a handler can claim some credit for themselves for a 0.000 start, I can attest it is not easy to do!

you did so well getting so many great pics, it was flat out!

Well both Berwick teams came 2nd in their divs (3&5) and ed's pairs team Boofheads Inc came last cos they broke out by over a second when Ed decided to do 4.9-5.1's over 11inches! I think he was trying to get away from his scary handler (my hubby & Josh were dressed to impress ) He got a new PB on the 2nd day - 4.654. PaulP's Ebon came 2nd in singles too

They are great photos! There is a photo of Ebon in the day1 photos and he looks like a goofball with his paws crossed, ears flying and tongue wagging, no wonder he was off pace all weekend and dropping the ball to boot!