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(Ranked by total NAFA
Points earned as of 05/02/10)
"Josie"
(CRN
040459) - 2001 Black Female Mikies
Fool GRC, JOR, JC, TFE, FMX
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Josie, in typical
Greyhound style, has a personality that ranges from calm &
affectionate to spirited & silly. According to
Josie's owner,
"... Josie likes
carrying things, cooling off in the kiddy pool, and lounging on
the sofa with four feet to the sky.
She dislikes her doggie
housemates sleeping touching her during warm months and/or
touching her feet – growls and moves elsewhere in a huff
...".
Outside
of Flyball, she has participated in coursing and amateur
straight and oval track racing earning Junior
Oval Racer, Greyhound Racing Champion and Junior Courser titles.
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| Learning Flyball,
Josie didn’t have any fears to overcome – just the standard
Greyhound zoomies. Josie
usually runs anchor for her team
and is blessed to have height dogs
who set the jumps at 9 inches or lower.
Josie races wearing a standard
sight-hound collar with owner/handler, Dana Hanson, releasing her
approximately 45 feet from the start line.
Josie gets a count of Ready, Set,
Take-it. Take-it became the key command for her to
understand the expectation. She used to charge up on a BC
in the back yard and steal whatever was in his mouth. At
first, Dana was amused and started telling her to Take-it to
encourage that play. Eventually, that command was worked
into her send so she would understand to grab the toy from the
box.
Josie has been crossed on by
other dogs and usually freezes in her tracks and looks
mortified. She seems to be saying, “Excuse me, this is
not appropriate” but gets over the cross in a hurry.
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Arriving on the
Flyball scene late, Josie was six years old when she ran in her
first tournament and she now
averages 16-18 heats per tournament.
Her box turn is usually a
one-footed pedal press, grabbing the ball from the right hole
and pivoting to the left. Josie can get all four feet on
the box for close-up work but to maintain the turn and catch a
ball at the same time doesn't work . . . one of the hazards of
having long legs. She
has a very soft bite and witnesses have said the ball sloshes
around in her mouth as she runs.
Her times have gotten faster with
experience and her best tournament time to date is 4.76
seconds. She runs for
treats and doesn’t typically tug during racing but does like
to tug otherwise.
According to Dana:
"...her favorite food is grilled chicken marinated in Mojo
and likes most any homemade snack from the Three Dog Bakery
cookbook...".
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Racing Record:
FD=09/22/07
FDX=02/23/08 FDCH=03/30/08 FDCH-S=05/04/08
FDCH-G=01/11/09 FM=05/03/09 FMX=05/02/10
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"Amos"
(CRN 011337) - 1997 Red Male
Amosh Pit (NGA) FM, TD
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Amos is a big boy who
stands 28 inches at the shoulders and weighs in at 73 pounds.
According to Amos' owners,
"...Greyhounds get bored very easily and you have to be careful not to turn them off of something until they decide they really like it for
themselves...".
Coming from the race track, Amos didn't know how to interact and play.
With a lot of patience and clicker training his new family
learned to push the right buttons to get him motivated to learn
new things, including Flyball....
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| Amos runs second on
his team following a Dalmatian and meeting a German Short Haired
Pointer on his return. He is blessed to have a height dog
(Poodle Mix) who sets the jumps at 8 inches.
Amos races in a harness with his
owner/handler, Natalie Moroz-Cornell, releasing him
approximately 35 feet from the start line.
Amos is left-pawed and uses
multi-colored rubber balls,
as he never acquired a liking to the feel of a tennis ball in
his mouth. |
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Amos can do a perfect 4- footed turn on a box,
but given the length of his legs his neck is too short to get
near the ball. Therefore, he uses his standard 2-footed
push on the pedal and with his quick pivot doesn't lose much time at the box.
His tournament times are usually
in the 5.2 to 5.4 second range and he gets excited for food (beef heart, liver, etc.),
instead of a tug toy, on his return.
According to Natalie:
"...you (usually) only have to tell a Greyhound something ONCE.
They are VERY sensitive...".
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Racing Record:
FD=02/23/02
FDX=06/22/02 FDCH=01/18/03 FDCH-S=05/24/03
FDCH-G=08/02/03 FM=07/24/04
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"Sylvie Bingo"
(CRN
960472) - 1990
Black Female
Sylvie
Bingo (NGA) FM, CGC
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Being of medium small
height and about 65 pounds, Sylvie was very friendly towards
people. She always smiled (a big grin showing teeth and gums) when she met someone new.
Whenever a new person would step in to
box-load, her owner/handler, Ken Umbarger, would always have them
talk to Sylvie before the first heat. Otherwise, Sylvie would run to the box, notice the stranger
box-loading, put her paws up on top of the box, and try to lick them in the face.
Sylvie began Flyball with limited drive
but that was overcome when Ken learned to
read her mood and worked to get her pumped up with his
"staging area antics". |
| Sylvie raced in a collar
and Ken released her
approximately 25 feet from the start line. She
could jump any height but usually raced with the jumps set at 8, 9 or
10 inches.
She was left-pawed and would put her 2 front paws on the box and her right rear paw close to the edge
of the box and would pivot on her left rear paw.
Having an explosive runback that always made for an exciting
finish, Sylvie ran in the anchor position for her team. She often ran just under 5
seconds, averaged in the mid 5's and returned for a stuffed toy
(but occasionally liked a treat).
According to Ken:
"...Greyhounds in
Flyball are definitely a special breed and have special needs...". |
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Racing Record:
FD=01/19/97
FDX=01/19/97 FDCH=02/21/98 FDCH-S=06/28/98
FDCH-G=01/08/00 FM=12/09/00
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"Roland"
(CRN
990409) - 1998 Red Brindle Male
DC Gerico's Wild Goose
Chase SC, NA, OAJ, NAC, OJC, NGC, FDCH-S, VC
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Roland (a/k/a Rollie) is an AKC
Greyhound from very fancy show lines on both sides and a finished show champion with a specialty award of merit and a group placement.
(He is very happy to be done with that!)
Roland is a champion lure courser, with best in fields and specialty wins. |
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Roland also competes in agility in open
standard and excellent jumpers. He
is hard to beat in jumpers when he is on.
Being of average size for a male show dog,
Roland is rather big for a Flyball dog, standing 30.5 inches tall and
weighing in at about 93 pounds.
According to Roland's
owner Costa Colbert,
"...he was clicker trained from the time we got him at 12 weeks old, but no one can actually remember teaching him the pattern. He just grew up playing
Flyball. Consistent Flyball practice has been his secret to keeping in shape for all his activities...".
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Wearing
a collar, Roland is released approximately 37 feet from the
start line and usually races in the anchor position for his team.
He is right-pawed with a smooth
2-footed box turn and has a jump-to-box-to-jump time of about
1.75 seconds. He returns for a food treat - cheddar cheese
is his favorite - or for the thrill of chasing his
handler. When he really gets wound up, he runs just for
the sake of releasing energy.
In his prime,
Roland ran consistently between 4.25 and 4.35 line-to-line over
12-inch jumps, and would hit 25 mph at the finish line. A line judge once said he looked like a 747 going by!
In 2003, he was featured on
Animal Planet doing Flyball at the Houston Eukanuba Champions
show.
According to Costa:
"...Roland is very powerful, very fast, and very driven, especially for cheddar cheese...". |
Racing Record:
FD=07/24/99 FDX=07/24/99 FDCH=07/22/00
FDCH-S=02/17/01
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"Kachina Doll"
(CRN
970209) - 1991 Black Female
Deb's
Chic (NGA & AKC ILP) NA, NAJ, FDCH-S, CGC
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As a retired racing
greyhound (who never raced), Kachina found a loving home with
Diana Lyons. She came to Diana catching and retrieving
balls, and a love to run and jump, which is why she wasn't a
working racer!
Kachina would do
anything asked of her and would do it over and over. She
worked diligently at the Flyball pattern and once it seemed
automatic, she was entered for her first Flyball tournament at
Astro Hall (Reliant) on the Delta Omega Gamma team. During
her first runs, she was
curious about a Welsh Corgi (definitely not a bunny rabbit) but
quickly refocused after being called. |
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Kachina enjoyed
Flyball so much that for her first run, she would get the ball and
starting running the outside perimeter as though she was on the
race track, but came quickly when called. After “cutting loose” for the first race, she would do
her job like a “trooper.”
Kachina
made a great "passing-dog" trainer. She would
focus on her job and others learned to pass because of her neutral
vibes towards other dogs. Also, other dogs loved her!
They would come up and lick her on the face.
Kachina
did her best and never complained through to her last tournament
in May of 2003. For the morning runs Kachina was “on” at 11
years and 9 months, but for the afternoon, she wasn’t completing
the pattern. She retired herself…
According to
Diana:
"...A Kachina Doll
is a Hopi Indian Spirit Doll, and she was that for me for nine and
a half years until she went to Rainbow Bridge, October 3, 2003....".
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Racing Record:
FD=07/19/98 FDX=02/20/99
FDCH=02/19/00 FDCH-S=07/22/02
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"Heartaway's Crimson 'N' Clover"
(CRN
950591)
Racing Record:
FD=05/10/97
FDX=07/18/97 FDCH=02/21/98
Flyball Team:
Delta Omega Gamma back to
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NAFA
Greyhounds Racers
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