WELCOME

I'm putting together this article during some time off between Christmas and New Year's.I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas and that everyone got all those well deserved presents that they wanted. I hope that all the puppies and kittens that were given as Christmas presents have all gone to people that will treat them well.

Having given my little talk its time to move on and talk about flyball. On Dec. 1 we attended a one day Flyball tournament sponsored by the River City Flyers and held in Bloomington, Illinois at the National Guard Armory. We were lucky because we traveled the night before to get there. When we woke up the morning of the tournament it was icy and snowing outside. We want to thank Steve & Melanie McAvoy and the rest of the River City Flyers for a wonderful tournament. Ribbons were given out for first through third place along with a giant cookie for first place and dog and ball shaped cookies for second through fifth place. Also we got to see Rude Dogs from Michigan run their Bulldog, Barge, in his first tournament. Barge is owned by Connie Croley and he really had a good time and can really move out for a Bulldog. Connie works at a Veterinary Emergency clinic where Barge was pretty much abandoned due to some relatively minor medical problems. Connie took a liking to him and adopted him; he turned out to be an absolute ball fiend. Quoting Sue Either, captain of the team, "we all laughed at her when she started training him, but in the end, she proved us wrong. We are hoping to run him some more this year (1997); he's such a fun dog to run and to watch!". Keep an eye out in 1997 for Barge, in Michigan and surrounding states tournaments.

This year the Annual meeting of NAFA was held in Las Vegas, NV. in connection with a tournament sponsored by the Touch N' Go flyball team. A fun time was had by all is my understanding since I was unable to attend. Fortunately though the following was posted on the internet for the benefit of all.

In a stunning turn of events, Bark in the Park stole a march on Animal Inn while running Winchester, their Mastiff. Winchester was seen streaking, in a relative sort of way, down the course in the lead position.Some time later he was also seen streaking back again, followed rapidly by his other team mates.The crowd cheered as this west coast team rushed headlong to victory.

Winchester also set what might be a single dog record of thirty eight seconds on his fourth heat.In his own unique lumbering style, he galumphed down to the box, and standing majestically, mashed the pedaland retrieved his ball (which was quickly lost from sight). After negotiating a careful U-turn he took two return jumps and burped, expelling the ball in the process. This seemed to short circuit some essential part of his brain and stopped him in his tracks. At this point his team mates and most of the crowd began shouting exhortations to him to finish the race. Spurred to action, and remembering to pick up his ball, he spun about (as later seen on the video while reviewed at high speed), grabbed his ball and took the next jump. This maneuver was clearly exhausting, as he came to an abrupt halt at the last jump and looked mournfully at the last 16 inch jump to be stepped over. After more cajoling he took the final step, completing 25% of the race while expending 75% of the overall team effort. The crowd cheered heartily for Winchester well before the final Bark in the Park dog had completed the race. When this reporter later asked an Animal Inn representative how they could lose even a single heat to such a line up, his one word answer was "sportsmanship". I am sure that Winchester will remember this race for some time to come.

Thanks to "Reporter" Bob Long of the Catchers on the Fly team for this report. Other information on tournaments, teams, pictures, equipment, etc. can be found on the internet at http://www.cs.umn.edu/~ianhogg/flyball/flyball.html. This page is posted by Ian Hogg and he does a very good job of keeping things current. It is a good place to find out about teams in your area. Check it out.

Also congratulations goes out to two more dogs that were elected to the Flyball Hall of Fame, Onyx, a Doberman owned by Clyde Moore, a member of Pawbusters Team. Flash, a Border Collie owned by Doug Smuck, a member of the Border Patrol Team.

Each year people are asked to submit dogs that they think are deserving of this award by using the following criteria. Longevity - A dog must have played flyball for a minimum of four years. Notoriety - How well known is this dog? Team Value - What is the worth if this dog to it's team.

Although other titles and achievements can be included with the nomination, each dog is judged on the above Flyball criteria only.

Each year all candidates are judged by NAFA's Board of Directors in order of merit. A list of five finalists are selected and put to a delegate vote. Each year two dogs gaining the most votes will be inducted into the NAFA Hall of Fame.

I have been enjoying hearing from people in different areas that are interested in getting started in flyball. I recently received an e-mail from an interested person in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Hello to you Abel. I have also been receiving a lot of questions from people wondering what age to start their dogs at. I'm not sure what age most people start at but we like to get them started at a young age and work the chase game with them and also do some retrieving exercises with them. We don't do any heavy training like jumping with puppies but we like to play games with them.

Anyone interested in learning more about FLYBALL competition (the fastest growing dog activity) needs to write to: North American FLYBALL Association, Inc., P.O. Box 8 Mt. Hope, ON L0R 1W0.

Anyone interested in sharing some of their FLYBALL experiences, titles, and upcoming tournaments please write to me at P.O. Box 171 Olin, Iowa 52320-0171 or e-mail Judy Hagan at doublejj@netins.net. To all of you that are already competing, good luck in 1996. To all of those that aren't competing yet, you don't know what your missing!

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