Conditioning is the name of the game....

So the next theme of the blog is conditioning... Stories about my travels will just have to wait.

After a late night outing to the gym I got to thinking..... What is the best workout for my flyball dog? The hardest part is I live in the heart of the midwest, how do you condition when there is 18 feet of snow outside with a layer of ice on the top and subzero temps.... Grrrr for winter time! So the next best thing..... a treadmill! Here is what i would like to come up with, the best program to insure that my dog is in top physical shape in hopes this will fight off any injuries they may come from being out of shape.

I have done the On the Ball training, where they stand on the exercise ball and it helps them build there core. I think this is a huge part of conditioning... If you have a strong core you will be in pretty solid shape, but once they mastered this how do you progress? Both my dogs can stand on the ball without shaking, sit pretty one the ball, lay down, stand up, turn around... How do we go further? I recently ordered a donut shaped ball where they can do this on there own for more of a workout...

The other thing I've played with is the dogs on the treadmill... how do i achieve the best success in there endurance yet not losing the ability to burst out speed in fast sprints... That's what they need in flyball right?! So here is what I've played with...

• 45 minutes, 5.5 speed, 0% incline, 1 time a day...
• 20 minutes, 6.0 speed, 5% incline, 2 times a day...
• 45 minutes 5.0 speed, 2% incline, 1 time a day....
• 20 minutes, 6.5 speed, 0% incline, 2 times a day...

The other thing I've tried to work on it powerjumping... The tough part is, our building isn't big enough to do this in the winter time...

I have looked at sprinters workouts to see if i could do something comparable... its very tough! I would greatly appreciate anyone's input!

Rituals.... Superstitions.....

Growing up I was always an "athlete". While I knew people that were very superstitious I never considered myself a neurotic person.... times have changed! Girls I played volleyball with all through high school had certain things they would do on game days... left sock before right sock.... pb&j 33 minutes before the game.... left shoe but not tied, then right shoe and so on... I felt as though i was kinda normal, which ever shoe i grabbed first is what went on no routine, no superstition. But because my dogs can't decide things like which foot gets wrapped first and what colors they are for the weekend i can get a tad superstitious...

I always tell myself a week before a flyball weekend I'm going to have all my stuff packed and ready to go by Wednesday.... right..... I've been playing flyball for about 15 years, I can't think of a single tournament that I actually had my stuff ready to go by Wednesday night, unless we are leaving Thursday for the tournament.

Packing my dog bag has become an art. How many useless things can i fit in there, maybe i will need them but because i packed them i won't. The contents never really varies tugs, vet wrap, gloves, tape, first aid kit, crate cover, extension cords, buckets and zip ties. Here is how packing goes.... Which collar is Ninja going to wear this weekend? Well, he ran several 3.8s in the magic turtle collar his auntie Crystal made him and that's blue so we can do a light and dark blue tug that will then match the 2 colors of blue vet wrap I have... Seems easy enough.... Skye looks best in dark colors but purple and teal are her lucky colors because 2 years ago at the tournament in Kansas City she ran awesome... So maybe she should just stick with those... Easy... I need 2 rolls of vet wrap per dog per day if i cut off there wraps every race... packed! This is a little crazy right?! Ninja never wears yellow at a tournament because he doesn't look as good in yellow and out of the 93 collars i own not a single yellow one... can you believe that?! and not even that but no yellow tugs either! God forbid the tugs and the vet wrap not match.... Do you think they care? I'm pretty sure its all mental but whatever helps me sleep at night i guess... As far as i know i haven't gone as far as to wrap right foot before left and so on and so forth... but now that i bring it up... maybe they would run fast.... As if i wasn't crazy enough before... Is there a support group for things like this?

I have become a zip tie fool! I zip tie everything! My crates for the weekend don't go in the car until they are tied on both corners so there is no rattling, the cords to the fans are zip tied around the handle, after i roll my extension cords up.... zip tie... I have them in 25 different colors and they are the best! After i buy stock in powerflex vet wrap, next will be zip ties!

Sorry these are a bit random... i will get better!

Next blog will be on travel i think...

Lynds

Welcome Back....

Now that my little Rave nugget project is finished and she is back home in Oregon, it's time to start a new blog... about what else... FLYBALL! I would try to talk about something different but this kind of consumes my life.... If you play flyball.... You probably know what I'm talking about... If you don't you will be bored with this blog.

I figured I would use this blog to tell stories of my flyball travels and work through training issues and successes!

Flyball story of the day....

Flyball Addiction or obsession?

So when does it get to the side of obsession? Here is how my weekend has gone so far..... Woke up Friday morning, sicker than I've been in while.... The only thing that went through my head was.... "oh i need to feel better, we are practicing tomorrow!" ..... Friday afternoon... I leave work early so i can go take a nap to try and feel better before i drive an hour and a half to a team mates house..... Wake up after my nap feeling refreshed and ready to go.... Well, that's what i told myself anyway.... Couldn't get to sleep last night because I was too excited to sleep... Really?! I've been playing flyball for the majority of my life... I still get excited to play flyball... every time! Got up this morning to drive 3.5 hours to have a 4 state practice with friends from the flyball community! So the entire day i felt fine... Drove 4 hours home after a long day of practice and now instead of going out on a Saturday night like a normal 23 year old person I'm blogging because I'm SICK!

The thing I love most about flyball besides having fun with my dogs is the awesome memories I make with my teammates who are more than teammates... more like family! The best part of flyball is laughing.... If your not laughing with your team your not doing it right... This is a new concept for me because I'm a bit on the competitive side.... but after all this about having fun with your dogs! So on the floor if someone gets mad.... the ball shagger says... positive... positive.. positive... Whatever works for you right! We all make our mistakes and the dogs aren't machines after all.... have a shot for an early pass and laugh it off! try it!

So for some reason every tournament we have a new "poop" story... It really never gets old and if you can't laugh about shit what can you laugh at?! I'm not sure about you but besides packing the car the worst part is the first time you get out of the car after a weekend of flyball... The first step that makes you look like you've been on the back of a horse for 3 days straight... the hunched over, bull legged, owie owie owie walk you have... Everyone knows this part.... Anyway usually as a team we pull over for a team dinner on the way home from tournaments... We use these dinners to bring up all the funniest times we shared the past weekend.... by the time we get done we are all laughing so hard we are crying and we've cleared out the restaurant... Well we go to get back in the car and it turns out one of the poor puppies got sick in the kennel....
I will tell you right now.... The thought of poo on my hand makes me dry heave.... It's not for me... So poor MAMA dog owner has to haul herself in the car engulfed in that smell... I am standing outside the car dry heaving and crying from laughing... We pull the dogs out of the car and i look down and there is poo in my finger.... Well you can imagine how the rest of that goes... 3 of us holding dogs in the Arby's parking lot with napkins that may or may not have poo flying around the parking lot... Running with poo covered dogs with no leashes, dry heaving.... isn't as easy as it sounds! So we get done cleaning up the poo and the discussion turns into... Would you catch poo in your hands if you were about to win the championships?!

Hope you enjoy your team to the fullest!
Lyndsy