# Halo: FDCh-S (Flyball Dog Champion-Silver)



## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Halo and I have been having a great time in flyball - her tournament debut was the first weekend in April, her second tournament was Memorial Day weekend, her third tournament was last month in Truckee (near Lake Tahoe), and her fourth was last weekend. In four months she's earned her Flyball Dog (FD), Flyball Dog Excellent (FDX), Flyball Dog Champion (FDCh), and Flyball Dog Champion-Silver (FDCh-S) titles, and last weekend put her well on the way to her 5th title, Flyball Dog Champion-Gold (FDCh-G), which she'll get in her next North American Flyball Association (NAFA) tournament. There's one other flyball organization, and we'll be at our first U-FLI tournament in a few weeks, which has their own title system.

The husband of one of my Marin Running Riot teammates is a great photographer, and he got some awesome shots of Halo at the Truckee tournament (posted by permission). Here she is running the hurdles:



















And on the flyball box - I love these because they show her in very good position, with all four feet on the box:



















I took this with my cell phone, the tournament was in a nice park with a beautiful view of the mountains:










We spend a lot of time training a "swimmers turn" on the box, which is faster, and also safer for the dogs. This is a new sport for both of us, and Halo is doing really well for being a green dog and we're both having so much fun. So far, _I've_ made some handling mistakes at tournaments, but she has run every heat clean, always nailing all the jumps, and always bringing the ball back. :thumbup:


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## Ingrid (Aug 29, 2010)

Halo, you're impressively talented as well as beautiful! Thanks for posting.


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## elisabeth_00117 (May 17, 2009)

Way to go Halo!

This is such a fun sport to watch and learn about! Any video's?


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## gsdraven (Jul 8, 2009)

Awesome! Congrats and as always, she looks amazing!


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## paulag1955 (Jun 29, 2010)

Off to search YouTube for videos...


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Elisabeth, do you want general flyball videos or Halo flyball videos?  There is one really cool one from the CanAm tournament last year that I have to go look for, but I'll post it when I get a chance.

Tom came to the tournament last weekend and was able to watch 2 of Halo's 4 races on Saturday. He did get some video with his cell phone but it's not that great because of where he had to observe from. If Halo saw him she would have gone nuts, so we employed stealth tactics to make sure she didn't know he was there! I posted them on FB, but I'll upload them to youtube so I can post them here too.

Unfortunately we don't usually have extra people to take pictures or video because we we're all so busy. That's why I was so happy that Jason was there to get some pictures.


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## HeyJude (Feb 2, 2011)

I love flyball. Halo is super at it! Was it real hard to teach her? Only place around me is over 50 miles from me. Nothing is ever close in the sticks.


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## lorihd (Nov 30, 2011)

great pictures, looks like your dog is having a blast.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Here's a great video that shows what the sport is all about:








HeyJude said:


> I love flyball. Halo is super at it! Was it real hard to teach her? Only place around me is over 50 miles from me. Nothing is ever close in the sticks.


Halo took to it really well, so it's been a lot of fun to train her, and I also hooked up with a terrific club. They are so organized (we get a 2 page schedule for each practice, with everything we're going to do with every dog detailed out), and they spend a lot of time working on perfecting the box turn which is probably the hardest and most important thing to train. 

Our practices are a 45 to 60 minute drive each way, depending on traffic, so not that close but worth it. Tournaments are often out of town, requiring overnight stays in motels.


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## RocketDog (Sep 25, 2011)

Halo is gorgeous and obviously is having a lot of fun! I would LOVE to see a video of her someday!! 

If I was close I would record for you!


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## Konotashi (Jan 11, 2010)

That. Is. AWESOME. 

Ozzy has only gone to 3 tournaments since January. I want to have more tournaments like you guys! LOL


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## Anthony8858 (Sep 18, 2011)

First time actually getting a good look at your dog. 
What a beautiful GSD.

The sport, the dog, the scenery...
Everything looks so perfect.

Thanks for sharing.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Anthony8858 said:


> First time actually getting a good look at your dog.


WHAT?!?!? You haven't been paying attention! :nono: 

Pssst: Keefer is even prettier. :wub:


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

RocketDog said:


> Halo is gorgeous and obviously is having a lot of fun! I would LOVE to see a video of her someday!!
> 
> If I was close I would record for you!


Anytime you want to visit....  



Konotashi said:


> That. Is. AWESOME.
> 
> Ozzy has only gone to 3 tournaments since January. I want to have more tournaments like you guys! LOL


Three of the 4 have been within an hours drive, which is nice. Truckee was 3-1/2 hours away, so we stayed at Lake Tahoe, and the next tournament will be around 2-1/2 hours away, so I booked a room for that one too. That might be the last tournament of the year. Still, we got a lot of tournament experience in a fairly short time period, which was nice. We got our official invitation to join Marin Running Riot at the end of March, and were racing the next weekend! :wild:


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## Bear GSD (Apr 12, 2012)

Congratulations Halo! It looks like such fun!
The pictures of Halo are awesome, what a beautiful girl:wub:


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## Anthony8858 (Sep 18, 2011)

Cassidy's Mom said:


> WHAT?!?!? You haven't been paying attention! :nono:
> 
> Pssst: Keefer is even prettier. :wub:


haha.... Show me "Pictures"


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Congratulations!!!! She looks like she's having a blast!


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Anthony8858 said:


> haha.... Show me "Pictures"


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## Konotashi (Jan 11, 2010)

I can't wait until I can get a flyball GSD! Haha. When I was out visiting the breeder, I told her I'd want a dog for flyball, and she was like, "Oh yeah. I could pick you and awesome puppy for that."
I was like YESSSS!

I just wish there were more tournaments closer to me. There's a bunch in Cali, but that gets expensive quick. :/


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

How about some bad cell phone video? Tom had to stay outside the ring so Halo wouldn't know he was there so this is as good as he could get. First race we're in the far lane (turquoise shirts), second race we're in the near lane.


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## Lakl (Jul 23, 2011)

I've been keeping an eye on her and Halo is such a natural! Congratulations!


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## holland (Jan 11, 2009)

Congrats-great pics-it does look fun


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## valb (Sep 2, 2004)

So great to see a GSD doing flyball, and Halo IS beautiful,
love the pic of that turn, first time I've ever seen that
exact shot for any dog...

What is her "reward"? I saw a couple people using tugs,
just curious.


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## Tiffseagles (May 12, 2010)

Awesome! That's a nice turn she's got there!


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

valb said:


> So great to see a GSD doing flyball, and Halo IS beautiful,
> love the pic of that turn, first time I've ever seen that
> exact shot for any dog...
> 
> ...


Val, that's a "swimmers turn", which is one of the most important (and hardest!) things to train, especially for larger dogs. Some dogs will just slam into the box with their front feet to trigger the ball, but doing that over and over throughout the course of a weekend can be hard on the dog's shoulders. Ideally, they hit and push off the box with all four feet, and getting the rear end up high on the box so the dog is almost sideways is best. Not only is it the fastest turn, the impact is absorbed more evenly, reducing the chance of injury. We spend a lot of our training time working on the box turn, and I'm lucky to have found such a great club that really emphasizes that. 

MOST people use a tug reward, often a long braided fleece one that they can drag behind them as they run away from the dog. Tugs can be plain, or have a variety of things woven into them - balls, real or fake rabbit fur, etc. Many people use food rewards too, so it's really whatever your dog is wiling to work for. With Halo there's nothing more rewarding than a tennis ball, so I initially ordered her a tennis ball tug. But the tennis balls don't hold up, and she also loves Orbee balls, so I unbraided the tug and re-braided it with Orbees:










She has a matching pink and black flyball collar with a handle on it, for restraining at the start and something to grab onto so she doesn't run off and try to grab stray tennis balls, lol!


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## wolfstraum (May 2, 2003)

Congratulations!!! Glad you are having such fun and promoting the GSD in another sport where they are rare!!

Lee


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