If you're new to flyball, or you've gone to your first tournament because you wanted to watch, are you interested in more?
A few weeks ago, a spectator came up to me at a flyball tournament, asked me about my dog and then asked how she could get started in flyball. Cool. This person was on the right track. She was curious and she was proactive. She even knew one of the flyball websites by name!
The interesting thing was the tournament she had just watched was hosted by another flyball organization. Surprise! And, does it make a difference to someone new to flyball?
This new person is lucky because she lives in an area where both U-FLI and NAFA tournaments are held. (Not all areas have both.) She has the opportunity to visit each organizations' tournaments and talk to their representatives or their participants. She can gather information first-hand and discover what might best suit her needs.
If she assumed all flyball is the same, to a degree she'd be correct. The game, itself, is pretty much the same no matter what organization it falls under. But there are differences which if you're new to the sport you may not know until after you are a long ways into your flyball hobby.
How about shortening the learning curve a little. If we explore both U-FLI and NAFA, each is vastly different in how they are operate.
Chapter One
U-FLI is a free-enterprise business organization. Its leadership is by private ownership. It does not have public voting among its participants and its customer base is its flyball participants. Just like a regular business it strives to respond to its customers needs and wants. If it does not, the company's bottom line will show it and presumably changes are made in support of an overall goal of increased customer satisfaction.
NAFA is a non-profit organization. Its leadership is by a Board of Directors, Officers and an Executive Director. It provides (limited) voting among its delegate vote holders on specifically-chosen topics and it conducts annual elections for some of its leadership positions. It has no members or customers. Its business operates similar to our government which includes politics, special interest groups and power-struggles in its decision-making. Technically speaking, the BoD, Officers and the Executive Director are able to make whatever decisions they deem appropriate without regard to its participants wants or needs.
Stay tuned for Chapter Two and more fun with flyball coming soon.
Keep smiling,
I Like Flyball!
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Flyball Attack dogs and owners who do not pick up
after their dogs beware of the underground electric fence. No visible training flags.
Flyball Can Be Fun! blog powered by K.I.S.S. (keep
it simple sweetie)
Flyball for purebred dogs is gaining momentum. Or, at least that's what some want to happen in NAFA flyball. There is currently a proposal being considered for allowing 8-dog-teams to compete in the Multibreed class in an attempt to increase entries and participation.
A normal team consists of 4 dogs, plus 2 alternates. The 8-dog proposal suggests there is a need to have additional alternates only for Multibreed and not for any of the other classes of racing. Personally, I disagree based on facts and principles and a little on experience and perception.
I have read the official posting by NAFA on their website as well as some of the comments made by participants which were posted to NAFA's facebook page.
Several things stand out for me:
1) In NAFA's official posting, they point out that commenters can remain anonymous and their name will only be used with permission. Why would anyone not want their name associated with their comments? To me this indicates some sort of fear. Fear of losing their standing politically or perhaps fear of rejection or worse fear of retribution. More importantly it is indicative of past, present and future biases and prejudices associated with NAFA flyball and personally, I believe leadership should not be promoting this type of prejudicial behavior.
2) One commenter on NAFA's facebook page said they wanted to know 'who' made the proposal...correction to this part...the person wanted to know the reasoning of who made the proposal in order to formulate their opinion or provide any feedback. This makes sense and seems reasonable; I agree, knowing 'why' something is needed helps in the analysis. My apologies for misreading the comment and I've deleted the rest of my original statement as it no longer applies.
3) Two other comments on NAFA's facebook page contain ideas worth consideration for Multibreed racing:
a) Allowing a team to convert to Performance mid-tourney; this allows replacement dogs (if needed beyond the original 6 listed on a timesheet) and also allows dogs to continue earning points. The present rule forces a team to become FEO and thus lose the ability to earn points.
b) Defining mixbreed dogs into additional categories; such as a GSD-mix, BC-mix, JRT-mix and so on. This would allow for multiple mixbreeds to run together, promote the different breeds to the public, provide for additional flexibility in composing a Multibreed team, keep all the classes of racing consistent and fair and also provide an avenue for participants to better classify/designate their dog as either a purebred or a mix breed. The current rule about breed designation is unclear and convoluted and has recently caused issues in NAFA flyball.
4) In the big picture, if NAFA adopts an 8-dog team for Multibreed, I believe it will add unnecessary complexity all the way around from managing the database, to judging (head and line judging), to timesheets, to dogs on the course and to potential cheating by teams. In fact, cheating was said to be the main reason NAFA recently adopted the Breed Challenge Process which was hotly debated among participants as unnecessary but adopted by the BoD anyway.
In order to help avert cheating by entrants of an 8-dog team, perhaps NAFA may want to consider requiring all dogs in Multibreed racing be micro chipped and verified before and after tournament racing. This process would be similar to that implemented for the Iditarod. In the Iditarod a musher starts with 16 dogs and must finish with at least 6, the caveat being the 6 dogs must be the same ones that started the race.
I can see where dishonest folks who have a propensity to cheat in flyball could easily substitute dogs of the same breed who are not even on the timesheet right in the middle of racing and no one would know the difference. This is especially so with multiple dogs of the same breed who are all related to each other; some of these dogs look so alike they could be perceived as identical.
5) Lastly, any comments made on NAFA's facebook page including the two good ones I mentioned above might be completely ignored by the BoD unless there is a 'formal' comment given to the BoD. I think the BoD should be able to simply take the comments from facebook. Requiring unnecessary and extra steps by the commenters is counterproductive.
This entire subject needs simplification. I tried, but probably failed this time.
Sincerely,
I Like Flyball
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Flyball Attack dogs and owners who do not pick up after their dogs beware of the underground electric fence. No visible training flags.
Flyball Can Be Fun! blog powered by K.I.S.S. (keep it simple sweetie)
Cheating in flyball. Sounds funny.
Not 'ha ha' funny; more like strange, weird and what's the point of it.
In a recent internet search about this topic, I came across one statement from a flyball website: "5 judges in the ring ensure that no dog is cheating, and that the races are fair."
Do the dogs cheat? They might make a mistake but I doubt they are thinking to themselves oh, I'm going around this one jump because I can get to the finish line faster than the other dog. Well, maybe that's possible, but how would we really know!
Over the years I've heard stories about people cheating in flyball. That's the past and it can stay there, thank you very much.
But, just recently I read two separate articles that contained terms that sound like cheating. I don't know for sure because in one instance, I didn't personally witness it and in the other case, I don't have all the facts about the Rules. None-the-less, the descriptions in each article make their point.
One article uses the term 'going against the spirit and intent' of some of the rules. The other article and comments describe 'intentionally' mis-running a heat and causing it to be a no-finish in order to keep the race going.
In each of these cases I am led to believe there was an attempt by a person or persons to gain an unfair advantage or a benefit over and above other flyballers. It sounds like cheating by most definitions I know, but is there a line at all between cheating and going against the spirit and intent of a rule?
Some say the Rules are only meant to keep the honest folks honest. And, how do the honest people know what the spirit and intent of a rule really is.
As far as the two articles and the people involved, I am unable to have a solid opinion other than what I read and hear and I'm just wondering outloud.
Sincerely,
I Like Flyball
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Flyball Surgeons General
Warning: Attack dogs and owners
who do not pick up after their dogs beware of the underground electric
fence. No visible training flags.
Flyball Can Be
Fun! blog powered by K.I.S.S. (keep it simple sweetie)
