Holi Flyball!

We've been busy, and have been doing a lot since our last post. The most exciting thing is probably Flight debuting in flyball, and earning his Flyball Dog title. He still has a ways to go, but I think he'll get there eventually.

One of the most fun things we've done was a photoshoot with our flyball team. Photos with Holi powder and dogs have been getting popular lately, especially for disc and agility photoshoots, and I had been wanting to do some Holi powder flyball shots- and finally talked my flyball team into getting together to have some fun with it.



The results ended up better than I hoped! For most of these photos, the result was completely captured live through the use of powder, though the shots of Flight and Angus were composited by a flyball teammate who happens to be a graphic designer. All photos were taken by me, with the exception of the one of Flight, taken by aforementioned flyball teammate.



This actually ended up being pulled off by just three of us, with five dogs between us, as our boxloader had other plans that day, one of our teammates was on a cruise, and one is still trying to survive the first year with a baby, and isn't quite back into the flyball swing of things yet.



The dogs did fabulous, even Flight. The box was actually shooting powder out (only in the thruster behind the dogs, of course, not into their faces where the ball is loaded), which could rightfully have scared any of the dogs. Especially Flight, who is weirded out by fans and heaters. But while they were all a little confused about the set up, for the most part, they were fantastic- and Flight did better than I thought possible.



I really am thrilled with how these photos all turned out. Our team may be small, but we are fierce, and this project really brings that to light, I feel.



I did have a little fun with some photos of Flight and Ptera, and composited the two of them together into one, which turned out great.



Koira is still enjoying retirement from flyball, and while she was there this day while we put the shoot together, she stayed in the house while we worked with the young dogs, so no photos of her with Holi powder doing flyball.

Introducing: Flight

As some may have noticed over the last few posts, there is a new face showing up here. A scruffy face.

I think it is time to introduce him. This is Flight.

Flight is just over a year old, and has spent just about a month here with us.

He looks huge next to Ptera, but really he is about 18 lbs or so. He has a wire coat with no undercoat, just the single layer.

Flight and Ptera get along great. Ptera loves yanking on his ruff, and he doesn't seem to mind too much. They wrestle and play every day.

Flight has come a good ways since coming home. He is still very wary of the cat (in his last home, he was harassed by a grumpy, territorial cat for a few months, his entire stay with them, which seems to have left him a little traumatized). But he appears to be cat safe, just scared.

He is still learning how to pose. He came with a fear of cameras and would duck for cover whenever he saw the camera come out or make noise. He is getting over that with the use of many cookies and fun walks and hikes.

Learning has started for flyball, though it is difficult as my club is not doing classes right now, so I haven't had anyone to help with him regularly. He does a beautiful wall turn on a wall board, and will do a dead ball retrieve and recall over jumps. But he is noise sensitive with the thrusters triggering.

So far, he has traveled to Canada once, to the beach twice, and to two hikes farther away than we can walk to. Mostly we've been working on basic manners and reminding him that house training still applies in my house.

So, here he is. Flight.