October'07 - Greyhounds Queensland

Ron Ball watches over DirtyVegas, Berella Diva andWitheren's Girl on thewalking machine.RON Ball, like all top class trainers, iswell aware that they are only as good as thegreyhounds they have in their kennel.But Ball, like so many of the premiertrainers, always seems to come up with thebetter quality greyhound.While Ron’s personality can sometimesbe fiery and impatient, as a greyhound traineris exudes patience with his dogs. And theylove him. You only have to spend a few hoursat his kennels to know that.Every greyhound on the property is aseparate entity, every one of them looks infirst class order, for every one Ball has a planmapped out. He’s that meticulous.His methods are much the same as manytrainers, but vary in subtle ways to most.These are they:FEEDINGBall’s greyhounds, like most having tocope with the heat in Queensland, get plentyof fluids. Breakfast for all greyhounds inBall’s care consists of 500mls of a milkpowder (Ensure) and water. To this is added10mls of Stamezene an electrolyte madespecifically for racehorses.“It is caramel flavoured and it tempts adog to drink the fluid,” said Ball.The milk is given first and when finished,each dog is given a 4x2 biscuit.Dinner is meat and kibble with vitaminsadded, just like most other greyhounds in thecountry.Dogs are fed between 680gms and950gms of meat, bitches get between 550gmsand 580gms. Kibble is only Farrells and variesbetween 100gm and 150gms for each dog.“I have fed Farrells for as long as it hasbeen on the market and have no intention ofchanging,” said Ball.Daily vitamins are 20mls of Sprint Oil,DCP powder, a Beta K tablet and oneMethanine 90 tablet.Feramo D and Kelp are fed every secondnight and Ironcyclen is fed three times a week.“I always put one cup of boiling waterover the kibble, then add the meat andvitamins,” said Ball. “The boiling watermakes the meal warm when it is given to theFor appointmentsor InquiriesPhone Rick FallSpecialists inRearing, BreakingIn, Arm & BoxRe-Education.(For Break InsPlease book at least 2Months ahead.)Lot 13 Wotan RdAtkinson Dam 4311.Ph 07 54264338or 0427 264338Trials byappointmentonly ...Tues, Thurs,Sat, SunMornings.dogs.”Every second night he will grate carrotand apple over the dog’s dinners.“I used to chop spinach and mix it in, butwith 25 dogs in work I don’t have time forthat,” he said. “It hasn’t affected their abilitynot getting it.”WORMINGBall uses Ivomec as an all purposeworming and heartworm prevention on thefirst of every month, and then every secondmonth uses Drontal for tapeworms.PRE/POST RACEDogs racing during the day or at night allreceive their breakfast as normal.If they are racing during the day, no feedin given prior to heading to the track.But if Ball has a runner at a nighttimemeeting, he will cook up 3ozs of meat andmix it with some fluids and feed it to therunner about 2pm at virtually the same timethe rest of the kennel is receiving their mainmeal.After racing, each dog is given its normaldinner.But after that, the dogs that raced will alsobe given 500mls of full cream milk, adessertspoon full of acidophilus yoghurt, anda cube of cheese (half the size of a kennelticket) as a treat.“I heard years ago from a vet that cheeseis good for a dog’s brain,” said Ball. “I’vebeen feeding the cheese treat ever since.”Ball said he used to feed stews to his dogsafter racing but it became too time consumingwhen his dog number grew substantially.Congratulations ...To the connections of our new break-in recordholder, a Collision bitch who ran 17.85.Encounter Kennels &Breaking In ComplexBreak-in Vacancies ...With the completion of our new kennel block forracing dogs, this has given us more space in ourbreaking-in kennel block.Phone us to inquire about a booking forbreaking-in and join the many satisfiedcustomers to have used our services.Trainingcan bea BallDAILY ROUTINEThe Ball kennel is roused into action from7am in winter and earlier in summer.Ball has always built undercover emptyout yards. At his Prenzlau kennels he has fourof these.Six dogs at a time are let out into thesesmall yards. “It’s a must during wet weatherto get the dogs to empty, that’s why I havealways had undercover yards like this, as wellas a couple outside as well,” he said.Once emptied, three dogs are put on thewalking machine for 20 minutes. The dogswalk briskly for 15 minutes, then the speed isincreased to a trot for five minutes, and finallyslowed for a warm-down of two to threeminutes.“Every dog gets warmed up before theygallop,” said Ball.“I don’t have a straight track on my newproperty, but I have two competition runs thatare 130 metres long.”After the warm-up on the walkingmachine, two dogs are put into thecompetition runs.“I like to see them free gallop for 500metres,” he said. “It’s controlled galloping.We have to work out who will gallop withwhom. Some won’t run with certain dogs,some will do too much etc.“Every dog goes into the competition runsevery day.”The entire kennel is finished by 10.30 to11am.Ball is adamant that greyhounds need towork every day.The afternoon work is started at 2.30pmon race days, a little later if there are norunners that night. “We are aware of ourobligations to kennel on time, so that’s whywe start at 2.30 on race days,” said Ball.The dogs are let out to empty and thenfed.EARLY EDUCATIONRon believes this is where he differs frommost trainers.“I believe the initial education of agreyhound is crucial to its fitness and just howlong and constantly it can race,” said Ball.Ball gives his pups a month break afterbreaking in.Once they are brought into the kennels,they are educated to the daily routine and freegalloped for three weeks and taught toexperience the walking machine.Then the pups are put through a six toeight week fitness program galloping up thestraight track behind the lure.Ball starts them off at 150m before thelure every second day and then graduallyincreases the length of the straight gallop. Hewill not take a pup to the circle unless he isconfident it is striding out perfectly up theThe (October, 2007) Journal Page 16