Awesome Flyball Weekend

Just a quick post to share a little about the weekend. I spent all day Friday cleaning the car, packing up, and then driving down to Gridley, CA for the flyball tournament. We arrived a little after 7pm, and ended up heading to dinner with one of the teams down there who were all camping at the tournament site. It was plenty warm for tent camping.

I set my alarm for 6:15 the first morning. With check in at 7, followed by measuring, then racing at 8, I wanted to give myself plenty of time to shower, walk the dogs, and eat. The jack russel alarm from the next camp site over, however, was set for 5:30, so I ended up with an even earlier start (the JRT alarm held off until 5:45 on Sunday morning).

I know most of my readers don't run flyball, so I try not to do play-by-plays of the weekend that most people don't end up understanding. So, here is the quick version.



Pallo measured in U-Fli for the first time, and sets 6 inch jumps. U-Fli has a different measuring system, using the length of the bone in the foreleg to determine jump height, instead of the dog's height at the withers. We ran 3/3 on Saturday and 5/5 on Sunday (meaning each race is made up of 3 or 5 heats). Pallo ran like a rock star. His best time for the weekend was a 5.1, and he pulled off plenty of 5.2 and 5.3s for the weekend. He held his ball solid, and ran perfect. The only error we had all weekend was mine, an early pass late in the day on Saturday.



Gold Coast Flyers, the team we were running with for the weekend, was hosting the tournament, and did a great job. Everyone was super helpful and friendly. I did lunch and dinner with them, and we had a good time. After dinner, I even had two awesome, very experienced flyballers take a look at Koira's box turn and got some advice about how to train it.

All the people we met were awesome. I spent a lot of time taking pictures, trying to get some of every dog and every team. I think I finally figured out how to change my camera settings to get decent pictures in the dim indoor lighting of dogs moving at lightening speed- it was a trade off between grain and blur, and I chose grain. And, a ton of people were awesome and used my camera, set on the tripod, focused, and ready to go, to take pictures of Pallo while he ran as well. For my first time taking pictures at a tournament, I think it went really well. I'm looking forward to taking pictures at our outdoor tournament in July though, for the better lighting.



We ended early on Sunday, at just after 2. Pallo was super tired, and conked out in his kennel until I packed up. I stayed to help with some of the clean up and for the awards ceremony, then headed on home. I stopped in Yreka, CA, just south of the Oregon border, for dinner and to check out the solar eclipse, which was total in that area. I ended up getting home about 11:30 last night.



More pictures from the tournament to come later!