Jipped at Snowshoe (24 hrs of..that is)

Phil, Squid-in-Training wrote:
out. Not only is it not fun, it's really hard to do, as the dogs will
speed up to try to make up for your slow releases (yes, they know it's a
race).


Flyball? Dog racing? Sledding? What is it?

It's a relay race. Four dogs run during any given heat, but there can
be up to six dogs on the roster. Each dog runs down over a series of
four hurdles, triggers a spring loaded box, which fires out a tennis
ball. The dog catches the tennis ball, returns over the hurdles, and
the next dog goes. The first team back with four clean runs wins.
At tournaments, starts are signalled with a light tree, and there are
electric eye sensors that monitor the starting line for accurate starts
and passes.
In a perfect start, the dog's nose crosses the starting line at the
exact moment the light turns green, preferably with the dog already up
to full speed. The amber, amber, green sequence takes exactly 2 seconds
to complete. I release Zane 53 feet from the starting line with the
first amber light. Our start delay is typically in the .003 to .007
second range (He crosses the starting line, already going full-tilt
boogie, no more than .007 seconds after the green light glows).
In a perfect pass, the outbound dog's nose breaks the start beam as
soon as the inbound dog's nose crosses. Too soon, and it's an early
pass, and the offending dog has to re-run. Too late, and you've cost
your team time. And as I mentioned before, the dogs don't cooperate
well with attempts to slow them down with late passes, or starting too
far back.
All in all, it's great fun for the handlers and the dogs. But, as in
any sport, there are people who take it way too seriously. Hence the
anti-sandbagging rules.

Flyball FAQ: http://www.flyballdogs.com/FAQ.html
Flyball Home Page: http://www.flyballdogs.com/

Kahtleen

"Kathleen" wrote in message
...
Phil, Squid-in-Training wrote:
out. Not only is it not fun, it's really hard to do, as the dogs will
speed up to try to make up for your slow releases (yes, they know it's a
race).


Flyball? Dog racing? Sledding? What is it?

It's a relay race. Four dogs run during any given heat, but there can
be up to six dogs on the roster. Each dog runs down over a series of
four hurdles, triggers a spring loaded box, which fires out a tennis
ball. The dog catches the tennis ball, returns over the hurdles, and
the next dog goes. The first team back with four clean runs wins.
At tournaments, starts are signalled with a light tree, and there are
electric eye sensors that monitor the starting line for accurate starts
and passes.
In a perfect start, the dog's nose crosses the starting line at the
exact moment the light turns green, preferably with the dog already up
to full speed. The amber, amber, green sequence takes exactly 2 seconds
to complete. I release Zane 53 feet from the starting line with the
first amber light. Our start delay is typically in the .003 to .007
second range (He crosses the starting line, already going full-tilt
boogie, no more than .007 seconds after the green light glows).
In a perfect pass, the outbound dog's nose breaks the start beam as
soon as the inbound dog's nose crosses. Too soon, and it's an early
pass, and the offending dog has to re-run. Too late, and you've cost
your team time. And as I mentioned before, the dogs don't cooperate
well with attempts to slow them down with late passes, or starting too
far back.
All in all, it's great fun for the handlers and the dogs. But, as in
any sport, there are people who take it way too seriously. Hence the
anti-sandbagging rules.

Flyball FAQ: http://www.flyballdogs.com/FAQ.html
Flyball Home Page: http://www.flyballdogs.com/

Kahtleen


One tactic I saw was since hurdles are set to the dog with the shortest legs
each team had one dog with really short legs. Which makes for a funny
looking border collie. It was a segment in a show on the breed.

Mike

ospam (Stephen Baker) wrote:
Team BFD says:

The term sandbagging comes from road racing.

BS - the term comes from sailing,
where a sandbag hidden under the deck gives...

I don't really care where the term was used originally.

Every sport has its slang. Sailing's "sandbagging" is an
interesting story with a lot older tradition than cyclings
"sandbagging". But having to move sand around in a boat
doesn't have a damn thing to do with mountain biking.

What, did early mountain biker racers stash sand on their
bikes, moving it to the left side when making a left turn
in order to gain an unfair advantage? Thus entitling them
to the use of the hallowed slang term taken from sailing?
--
Tom "knows BS when he sees it" Purvis
Salida, CO - http://www.arkansasvalley.net/tpurvis/

Michael Dart wrote:
"Kathleen" wrote in message
...

snip
All in all, it's great fun for the handlers and the dogs. But, as in
any sport, there are people who take it way too seriously. Hence the
anti-sandbagging rules.

Flyball FAQ: http://www.flyballdogs.com/FAQ.html
Flyball Home Page: http://www.flyballdogs.com/

Kahtleen



One tactic I saw was since hurdles are set to the dog with the shortest legs
each team had one dog with really short legs. Which makes for a funny
looking border collie. It was a segment in a show on the breed.

Yup. You measure the shortest dog on the team, at the shoulder. That
measurement, minus 4", is your jump height (down to a minimum of 8", and
up to a maximum of 16"). It's a fair tradeoff. If you choose to run a
short dog to get your jump heights down, the big dogs can blaze over
them without breaking stride, but you have to accept the speed penalty
of running a little, short-legged dog.
Most teams, including ours, prefer to run height dogs. Although the
lineups are somewhat fluid, Zane's team is typically made up of all
Border Collies, with a speedy little Jack Russell Terrier named Toast
running last. Our club is chronically short of fast height dogs, so
when I started looking for a dog for Julian to run, I decided to get a JRT.
With Scully, Zane and Cooper, in theory, I now have 75% of a flyball
team living in my home. In practice, though, Zane and Scully's
different speed and capabilities mean they don't usually wind up in the
same line up, and it's far too soon to know how Cooper will turn out.
But since our club generally runs 3 or 4 teams at any given tournament,
spread out between divisions 2 through 7, there will be a slot for him,
no matter how fast or slow he turns out.

Kathleen

ospam (Stephen Baker) wrote:
Tom Purvis says:

I don't really care where the term was used originally.

Then shut TF up about it, and stop whinging already.....

But having to move sand around in a boat
doesn't have a damn thing to do with mountain biking.

Nor does claiming the term originated with road biking.

OK, I know when I've been proven wrong. You guys clearly
know better than I do about this. The term came from either
sailing or card playing (or both!) and not road cycling.

Obviously true since the early mountain bike racers were
a bunch of sailers and card sharks, not land-lubber
ex-roadies or anything.
--
Tom "now I just feel dumb, guess I'll sail down to the casino" Purvis
Salida, CO

Tom Purvis wrote:

OK, I know when I've been proven wrong. You guys clearly
know better than I do about this. The term came from either
sailing or card playing (or both!) and not road cycling.

Obviously true since the early mountain bike racers were
a bunch of sailers and card sharks, not land-lubber
ex-roadies or anything.

Hey, I just looked it up, but it's a term that's used in other sports
and even business circles.

Tom Purvis says:

OK, I know when I've been proven wrong.

I don't know about "proven", but we're working on it. ;-)

Steve

"Kathleen" wrote in message
...
Phil, Squid-in-Training wrote:
out. Not only is it not fun, it's really hard to do, as the dogs will
speed up to try to make up for your slow releases (yes, they know it's a
race).


Flyball? Dog racing? Sledding? What is it?

It's a relay race. Four dogs run during any given heat, but there can

Hey cool - thanks for the description.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Then shut TF up about it, and stop whinging already.....

Does everyone on this NG say "whinging?" I've seen it more than 31 times
today.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Phil says:

Does everyone on this NG say "whinging?"

Yes - so stop whinging about it. ;-P

I've seen it more than 31 times
today.

Then don't keep reading the same post over and over again. ;-P~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steve