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)

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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 thanks Jules- might check Berwick out this weekend.

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.

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.