Boris

IT WAS LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT!  I saw him standing there, behind the gate, looking at me; he was tall, dark and handsome. Our eyes met, I could feel the chemistry between us. I said “Hello Handsome!” He promptly kissed my hand. I suggested a walk in the park. He asked me to throw him a ball. Then I tickled him, and he fell over on the ground laughing, showing me his wonderful sense of humor and his gorgeous white teeth. I told him “You will always be mine!”

That was how I met my Catahoula, Boris, at the Humane Society in the Tampa Bay area, Florida on Memorial Day weekend in 2001. He was a young adult, approximately 1 ½ years old, and had been thrown over the 6 foot tall fence surrounding the Humane Society one night with no paperwork and no name. The Humane Society told me he was a “Cattle dog” --someone suggested to me that he might be a “Catahoula” or “Catahoosie” or “Chatahoosie”. With a little internet research I was able to determine that he was a Catahoula.

After two obedience training classes where my instructor told me to “trust your dog” and hundreds of hours at the local off-leash dog park, a friend suggested that we enroll our high energy dogs in a Flyball class. Flyball races place two teams of four dogs each, racing side-by-side over a 51 foot long course. Each dog must run, in relay fashion, over 4 jumps, trigger a flyball box which releases a tennis ball, retrieve the ball, and return over the jumps. The next dog is released to run the course but can't cross the start/finish line until the previous dog has returned over all 4 jumps and reached the start/finish line. The first team to have all 4 dogs finish the course without any errors wins the heat.

We quickly saw that in order to have our dogs succeed in Flyball, we would need to set up regular home training sessions in addition to our weekly classes with the team. At first, I moved all of my furniture into two lines so that we would have one long alleyway in order to teach our dogs to run in straight line over a jump--back and forth between us. Later, we bought an old Flyball box and a mat to roll out over the floor from the back wall of the living room all the way through the house to the front door. Our dogs progressed quickly through the 40 plus behaviors they needed to learn. Finally, we ended our home training with setting up an abbreviated Flyball course in my friend’s back yard. Neighborhood children would come over to watch us play Flyball when we called our dogs and by the dog’s happy barking. Boris was ready for his first tournament in 5 months where he did well earning his first Flyball title, Flyball Dog (FD) and his Flyball Dog Excellent (FDX) title one month later.

Boris was quickly recognized by his teammates as being a focused, eager to please dog who was never a threat to another dog in the racing lanes, was a natural athlete, and was a laid-back personality. Off the racing ring, he was all Catahoula and would respond to any dog in his face. He was asked repeatedly to run with new dogs because he would always do his job to “get the ball and bring it to Momma”. On the rare occasions where one of the new, smaller dogs got in Boris’ way in the racing ring, he would just jump over them!

After 2 years of racing, Boris has earned his FDCh (Flyball Dog Champion, Flyball Dog Champion Silver, and Flyball Dog Champion Gold) titles and is working toward his Flyball Master (FM) title. He is currently listed as the North American Flyball Association (NAFA) #6 Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dog on the Dog>Gone Flyball Team. He has also earned his United Flyball League International (UFLI) Top Flight (TF) and Top Flight I (TF-I) titles on the Dependable Paws Flyball Team.

TWINKLE

I SAW HER FROM AFAR at a Flyball tournament and my first thought was “there is no way she’s a Catahoula”. She was the smallest, skinniest, sickliest puppy I had ever seen. She has just been rescued at 2 months of age. She was the runt of the litter and had been too small to push her way forward through the other puppies to get food or water. She was saved from imminent death by a Fellow Flyballer. When I was first offered her, I refused. The second time I saw her, at another Flyball tournament, she was in a little better shape but still weighed only 5 lbs. She had been with her Rescue Mom for 1 month and under constant vet care. I carefully introduced Boris to her and decided to adopt her. Her Rescue Mom kept her another week to complete her vet care--then a friend and I drove to pick her up during the final buildup stages of a Hurricane.

Bull ”Twinkle” or “Twinkle” for short was immediately enrolled in a Puppy class to work on socialization skills. She was the second smallest puppy in the class weighing in at just 6 lbs at the age of 3 months. Within 2 weeks of welcoming Twinkle into our family, my husband had told me “how well she fit into our family”. She and Boris quickly bonded and played Catahoula games together including tug-of-war with anything they could find. Boris became much more active with the addition of Twinkle and Twinkle became fit and strong. We quickly saw that she was incredibly fast as she ran through the yard after Boris, then finally caught him as she grew, then passed him. She has grown into a very intense, strong, sleek, athletic, fit Catahoula with cracked glass eyes in the palest blue and caramel colors.

In September 2005, she entered her first North American Flyball Association (NAFA) and did well earning her Flyball Dog (FD) title. In November 2005, she entered her first United Flyball League International (UFLI) Tournament as a single racer and as part of the Dependable Paws Team. She was amazingly focused on her job to “get the ball and bring it back to Momma” and completely ignored the 3 other new dogs who crossed over into her lane to “look at her pretty eyes”. She took home her first two UFLI titles Top Flight (TF) and Top Flight I (TF-1). She has also been named by UFLI as the “2005 TOP DOG IN BREED” for Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dogs. At only 19 months old, she has a promising Flyball career ahead of her!