Moose Jaw Mania

We spent last weekend in Moose Jaw helping to host our "home" tournament. Even though we live 2hrs away we love our teammates and can not imagine playing with anyone else. The tournament was held in the same building as we practice and Friday night set up went smoothly and most of it was done by the time we got there from Saskatoon. We arrived in time to set up our crates and help with a few last minute details before heading off to a teammates house for the night.

Saturday morning came all too early, as it always does, but the excitement of the racing erases the fog quickly. Kiwi's team got off to a bang running in the 17s right off the bat. This is our fastest team, our Div 1 contenders, and Kiwi filled the big shoes left by her sister Cali with ease. Every time I race this little dog I am amazed. Cali works hard to do the 4.6s and 4.7s she posts but Kiwi easily ticks off 4.6s and a few in the 4.5 range. By the last race on Sunday, a little worn from the weekend, she still managed to post a new personal best of 4.5 flat meaning 4.4s and better are not too far off! Sadie was a trooper all weekend and earned her FMX (10,000 pts) which is half way to her ONYX title, a major honor in flyball. Tov was, as always now, super consistent and ran a number of 4.9s with a pass. That little girl runs her heart out every time and gives you everything she's got, I could not ask for a more honest little dogs! By the end of the weekend Kiwi had her FDCh-G, Sadie her FMX, Riley his FM (not bad for a dog who was never supposed to run!), and Tov was only 100pts off her FDCH-G too. Kiwi's team also set a new club record mid Sunday of 17.095 - 16s are just around the corner for that group! It was a great weekend, but I have to say I missed my little Cali. Flyball is her thing and it was a little weird to be playing without her. Oh well, soon enough I will have her back in the lanes with me and hopefully a new little daughter who can watch and learn from mommy.

Another Year Comes to a Close

This weekend marked the end of the fiscal flyball year for 2010. It was a year of ups and downs but on the whole I have to say a pretty good one. Cali debuted in Souris, MB in October of 2009 when Sadie came into heat a little early. Despite having absolutely no practice passing, or running with dogs in the other lane, she was wonderful and earned her first two titles, FD and FDX. The next tournament was in February and after a winter of working on her box turn Cali came out and ran in the sub 5s right off the bat. She has been solid ever since. This tournament was also Sadie's first back after having her puppies and she ran well until a border collie from her team went AWOL and went after her. This was the beginning of a grueling 5 months recovery process that, while frustrating at times, taught me a lot about bringing a dog back from being attacked and rebuilding confidence. Topher (Inseguire Christopher C) also debuted for the Lloydminster Hotdoggers this weekend and earned his FD and FDX title. By years end he and his handler Donna would earn 3700 points and set a PB of 5.2!

Shortly after that tournament came the decision to switch flyball clubs. This has always been about the dogs for us, and while we do it for them we need to consider our enjoyment as well. Flyball is our hobby,we do it to kick back, relax, and enjoy some time with our dogs and teammates a few weekends a year. We are highly competitive when we line our dogs up to race but once we walk them off the mats we leave all that behind. Finding a club that shared our outlook was not too hard and we will be forever grateful to Furry Flash for allowing us to join in their fun!

This last year with them has been awesome. Cali has held a full-time height dog position all year and earned a whopping 6200 points and a PB of 4.7. Sadie recovered to enough to run a few races and earn her FM (5000pts), and while she is not yet back up to full speed I am confident that in time she will get there. Riley even made his debut after 3 years and has been solid as a start dog posting times in the 4.2-4.5 range. None of this though could have been done with out the guidance nd support of Ken, Christine, and the entire Furry Flash club. It is going to be hard to top this year but with both Kiwi and Tovy to look forward to running in the future we just might!

Taking the Plunge - Dock Dogs 2010!

Inseguire attended the Dock Dogs competition in Prince Albert, SK. Dock Dogs is a competition where a dog runs off a 40 foot dock placed 2 feet above the water and are judged on the length of their jump. Basically it is a long jump competition for dogs. Sounds simple? Well getting your dog to actually jump off the end of the dock proves to be a real challenge. All our dogs love to swim and spend 3 days a week or more retrieving things out of a pond. They will splash and dive in without hesitation all day long, but asking them to jump 2 feet down off the dock is a completely different story.

My biggest motivation to drive down to give this a try was Sadie. She adores swimming and you never see her more excited than when she is retrieving things out of the water. She did not disappoint me as it only took a time or two and she was leaping off the end with very little hesitation. The rest of the crew, however, was a little more reluctant. I was hoping Cali's drive would overcome her hesitation to leap but with no luck. She would happily jump in off the ramp on the side of the dock but wanted nothing to do with leaping off the end of the dock it's self. After trying, unsuccessfully, to get her to jump I asked the Dock Dogs crew if I could get in the pool and try to coax her in that way. They looked at me in my nice shorts and t-shirt and laughed, saying if I wanted to hop in the cold, cold, water I was more than welcome. I had no swim wear but luckily I had an extra pair of pants in the car so into the water I went. I stayed in for both Riley and Cali and was eventually able to get them to jump in, although Cali needed to jump onto my shoulder first and then into the water. We even got the puppies, Tov and Kiwi, to jump in off the ramp and fetch up the toy.

When it came time for the competition Sadie jumped off just like she had in practice, run to the end of the dock, stop, think, leap in. With time, and some more practice, I am hoping she will learn to make a nice smooth run off the end. She was very excited each time it was her turn and really enjoyed herself. Cali was excited to chase her ball but just could not muster up the confidence to jump off the high dock solo so after her 90 seconds was up I let her get it from the ramp. It was much more important to me that she enjoy herself and have a good time then force her to jump off the dock it's self. Riley was much the same way as Cali and having had some good practice jumps with me in the water I am satisfied that with time he will learn to enjoy this sport.

Much to my surprise as we were packing up and saying good-bye I was told Sadie won her Novice division (even against the big dogs!). This was just icing on the cake as she loved every second of the time we spent in, and near, the water. All in all it was a great day, despite being overcast and raining, the dogs came home tired and happy and I came home with a lot of fun memories and maybe a new game to play with my dogs.

Home Games

We had two major accomplishments at our "home" tournament in Moose Jaw SK June 12th and 13th. Sadie earned her FM and Riley finally earned his FD! Sadie, while running with PDQ, earned her 5000 point title and the right to call herself a veteran of flyball. Riley though stole the show. After 3 years of unsuccessful training we finally had the opportunity to take over the reins on his training and with the help of Furry Flash he made his debut that weekend! He was a wonderful boy and when he ran he did everything right in the lanes. We are still keeping him in a very part-time spot so as not to overwhelm him but he was a star all weekend and made no mistakes. A HUGE thank you to Furry Flash for helping us get him over the final hump and giving him the chance to prove himself! Hopefully this is the start of many more wonderful thing to come for this sweet gentle boy!