Moorea, 9 1/2 year old Boxer

Moorea is a 9 1/2 Boxer, who suffers from Degenerative Myelopathy, and has just received the gift of mobility in the form of a Ruff Rollin’ Dog Wheelchair. When Moorea was younger, her owners knew they needed to do something with her, as she had boundless energy.

They took her to a flyball class that was being taught near their home. A 6 week beginner course turned into a lifetime of accomplishments and Flyball Titles. Here are a few of Moorea’s titles in Flyball.

Flyball Titles:

FASTEST TIME: 4.1 SECONDS

U-FLI: TF, TF-I, TF-II, TF-III, TFE, TFE-I

NAFA: FD, FDX, FDCH, FDCH-S

ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

U-FLI BEST IN BREED- FASTEST BOXER FOR 2007-2011

 

However, two years ago, Moorea was forced to retire due to the onset of a painless, but progressive disease called Degenerative Myelopathy. We are so honored to have been chosen to put Moorea in a Ruff Rollin’ Wheelchair. Here is a little testimony of the first few emails we received from her mom. “Thank you again for your amazing service! I can’t say enough about your company to my clients! I haven’t seen her this happy in so long!! She is at work with me today and she refused to come back inside the hospital after her walk! The entire hospital stopped clients included to see her take her first walk.”

In addition, this is another testimony on the importance of getting your dog in a wheelchair before they are completely immobile. Moorea is still in the walking stage of DM, but loses balance and tires easily. With the help of this wheelchair, she will be able to keep us her muscle mass and continue to be a happy, active dog.

 

What is Flyball?

Flyball is a dog sport in which teams of dogs race against each other from a start/finish line, over a line of hurdles, to a box that releases a tennis ball to be caught when the dog presses the spring loaded pad, then back to their handlers while carrying the ball.Flyball is run in teams of four dogs, as a relay. The course consists of four hurdles placed 10 feet (3 m) apart from each other, with the starting line six feet (1.8 m) from the first hurdle, and the flyball box 15 feet (4.5 m) after the last one, making for a 51-foot (15.5 m) length. The hurdle height is determined by the shoulder height of the smallest dog in the team. Under current North American Flyball Association (NAFA) rules this should be 4 inches (10 cm) below the withers height of the smallest dog, to a height of no less than 7 inches (20.3 cm) and no greater than 14 inches (40.6 cm). Each dog must return its ball all the way across the start line before the next dog crosses. Ideal running is nose-to-nose at the start line. The first team to have all four dogs cross the finish line error free wins the heat. Penalties are applied to teams if the ball is dropped or if the next relay dog is released early. If you are interested here are the flyball organizations. www.flyball.org and www.u-fli.com.