Flyball at the Fair

This past weekend, we had our local flyball tournament take place in Salem, OR at the Marion County Fair. This is always one of my favorite tournaments each year, both because it is close (yay!) and because it is always a fantastic tournament, well run, and tons of fun.

Our team ran fantastic all weekend, with tons of clean runs, and lots of title points.

The fantastic Rio ran with us on Saturday, because one of our regular dog handlers had to work. Having Rio run with us was great, her and her handler fit in with the team great, and Rio is an awesome flyball dog, stepping in when needed to run in the pack and run in start.

We also had our team boxer, Asti, running in the first heat of each race on Saturday to gain some experience without too much pressure. She did great, especially in the cooler first part of the day, and earned her second flyball title by the end of the day. Especially for a dog who is so heat sensitive, she did amazing, and we were totally thrilled with her.

The rest of the team is the always-awesome Ptera, of course.

Photo by an awesome photographer, and friend of mine, from a couple tournaments ago

And the large black duo, Riley and Angus, who ran pretty much full time both days, and totally rocked it.

Riley!

Angus!

The photos of Asti, Angus, and Riley are all from the fun match we went to last month, where it was also stupidly hot, and where the dogs also did awesome.

Stella stepped in for Rio on Sunday, when her handler was able to come join us, and did her normal awesomeness (but which I have no recent pictures of, as she ran with Ptera at the fun match).

We were also joined on Sunday by the super awesome Lava, owned by pretty much the awesomest NAFA judge ever, Lea. Lava just wanted to get out and play, and I think they had fun, and I know we had fun having them join us for the day.

Basically, it was flyball as it should be, with plenty of chatting with teammates, running of dogs, and socializing. With a side helping of fair food and a strange lunch time entertainment of llama classes at the fair.

Rio looking adorable for cookies

WW: Crating Space

Our crating space this past weekend at the Muddy Paws tournament. Our new banner (yay! we look like a real team now!), our white board with team lineups and race numbers (waiting to get filled out for the next race of the day), and our dogs, waiting patiently and not-so-patiently in the crates, with all of our random crap piled on top. Cleaning up at the end of a tournament always involves me wondering where all of this damn crap came from, and why do I need all of it at every tournament.

Our crating space

Another Flyball Weekend

We just got home from another great flyball weekend.

My little girly

There really is so much to tell I don't know where to start.

Starting. She is intense

Apupalyptic took first place in our division for the first time on Sunday, after missing first on Saturday by a single tournament point. The second place placement on Saturday was the best we had ever done, and it literally came down to the last race of the day it was so close. We were ecstatic. To follow that up with a first place the next day, a super solid first place where it was decided even before our last two races, was amazing. I've never been super hung up on tournament placements, but when we realized that it was possible that we could place so well on Saturday, it was a great feeling.

I have to say, though, regardless of placement, this was just a great weekend. It really felt like everything was coming together. We have an awesome person dedicated to boxloading for the team while his wife runs their dogs, and the consistency of having one person reliably do that job is awesome. The dogs are all really getting in the rhythm of flyball. They are running consistently, they are getting great at passing each other reliably, and we are able to just assume that they will go out there and do their job, and they do it. With so many new dogs and new handlers over the past year and a half, it is great to see the team coming together into something solid, and something successful. Winning our division was at least partly random chance, by being seeded as the fastest team in that division, rather than the slowest team in the next one. But I feel that even had we come in dead last in a faster division, we would have ended the weekend feeling just as thrilled because of the sense of teamwork and things coming together properly. We had a few titles earned this weekend too- Angus is brand new, and earned his FD and FDX (he just started flyball at the very end of January this year), Addie earned her FDCh-G, and Stella got her FDCh-S. We're well on our way to having all of our dogs titled and working towards the big ones- FM and beyond.

She almost looks brindle here- but really she is just sunbleached from laying in the yard

Ptera ran like a rock star, earning something like a thousand points for the weekend. Koira ran okay- she was slower than at past tournaments by about half a second, and she bobbled her ball a few times. Once, her ball split in half when she squished it right out of the box, and she dropped it there without bringing it back. A few times she bobbled- I always prefer if she comes back to me rather than chase those stupid racquetballs all over the place, as it is safer and less chance of collision that way. Unfortunately her entire team was doing much the same thing- running a bit slower than normal and having more silly mistakes than any of them normally did. We didn't get many points for the weekend. But, Koira had a great time, as did Ptera. As did I.

This is my favorite way to spend a summer weekend. Or really, a weekend any time of the year. I wish there was a way to make this my job, and make this my life.

Fit Friday

I wear a FitBit daily, and I love the feedback it gives me. I enjoy doing challenges with friends to see who can get the most steps in a day, a weekend, or during the workweek. I also find some of my own trends pretty funny. (I paid for my own FitBit, and get absolutely nothing by talking about it on my blog.)

This past weekend, one of the flyball clubs I belong to (I am a member of two clubs) hosted a tournament. My other club ran two teams on Saturday, and one on Sunday. I helped with set up on Friday, ran Koira and Ptera both on Saturday on two different teams, and then worked a tournament job on Sunday. This is my FitBit chart for Fri-Mon.

Can you guess what I did on Monday?

I will just say that I hurt a lot by Sunday evening. I was actually in two Weekend Warrior challenges. I won one of them, came in third on the other. Had Friday counted, I would have won both of them hands down. Had Monday counted, I would have crashed and burned on both!

I took Monday as a total rest day, and was back at it on Tuesday for my weekly flyball class that I teach, as well as working my regular job. It has been a busy week, and feels all the busier for how much I did over the weekend.

Are you a total "weekend warrior" or do you manage to balance your exercise out better than this? Most of my weeks aren't quite this bad, but I do tend to do a lot on my days off, and not much on days I have to work.

Veteran Flyball

I put together a Vets team for Saturday at the tournament. Vets is a division specifically for dogs 7 or older, and there are a few allowances that make the game easier, such as jumping 7 inches regardless of having a height dog or not, and not rerunning false starts. I wanted to have a chance to run Koira and she how she would do. She ended up having a great time, and running in the low 5s the entire time.

Flyball Ho!

We're off for a flyball tournament in Salem this weekend. All week we have been getting ready, yesterday set up lasted 12 hours, and this morning, we are headed in to start racing bright and early. Everyone have a great weekend!

WW: Another Tournament, Another Title

This past weekend, I headed up to the Canadian border once again for flyball, though this time, I stayed on the US side of the border.



Once again, Ptera ran awesome, and I couldn't possibly be more proud of her.



Once again, Ptera came home with another 500+ points, and raked in a new title.




She is now Paleoterrorist No Fly List FDCh-S, RATI

Photos are by Squirrel Patrol Photography, who was one of three photographers at the tournament this past weekend (I was also one of those three). I am so happy he got some awesome pictures of Ptera running.

Ptera's Flyball Debut

Two weeks ago, I made a last minute trip to Canada. I didn't think I'd be able to go originally, due to work schedules and lack of money. But my work schedule made it possible, and a super generous friend let me ride up with her and stay in her camper van for the weekend, even though it meant she had to leave later in the day than she had planned. And another friend generously let Ptera take a spot on her club's team, giving her a spot to run.

Crazy little dog

Koira stayed with my mom for the weekend. The friend I rode up with has dogs that Koira doesn't like, and that don't like Koira, so it was just easier that way. And it gave me a chance to really concentrate on Ptera for her debut weekend.

She is super intense

I have to say, Ptera exceeded any and all expectations I had for her. I went up there figuring I would run her in one or two races a day, and she would maybe get her first title (20 points), or, at a stretch, her second title (100 pts). On Saturday, she ran in two races of five heats each, and she ran perfect. She didn't have a single error. One dog had an error on one heat with a dropped ball. And the team was running times in the 18-19 second range, which was crazy for my tiny dog's debut. At the end of the day, Ptera had picked up 126 points and her first two titles, Flyball Dog (FD) and Flyball Dog Excellent (FDX).

At Koira's first tournament, she earned 7 points. At Pallo's, he earned 17 points. In a single day, Ptera had exceeded all of my expectations.

Loving the game

Unfortunately, the team we were running with ended up with a number of dogs needing to be pulled on Sunday. One was sick (I think it was an IBS flare up, or something along those lines), and one started limping after the first race. Ptera was moved onto a different team to cover for the sick dog, and the team with the dog who started limping ended up having to pull the team because that was their only height dog. It was a bummer, even if it didn't impact my own dog.

Super intense and focused for a runaway over jumps back to me

I don't remember how many races Ptera ran on Sunday, but it was more than on Saturday. She ran like she was an experienced pro, getting some great passes, and with only two errors on Sunday from fumbled balls. At the end of Sunday, she had earned 376 points, bringing her up to 502 total for the weekend, and earning her third title, FDCh. I never imagined she would earn that her first weekend out.

I don't think I can even express how crazy proud of this tiny terror of a dog I am. Pallo debuted as a solid dog, but with a team who didn't achieve much. Koira debuted with the same team, and did better than most of the dogs, but had her own issues, mainly her box turn, that have held her back from really achieving the points. And my own lack of money for travel hasn't made our flyball career as lucrative as others, as we have to sit out many tournaments each year. But I am so incredibly proud of this tiny dog, and so thankful for all of the people that helped us out and made it possible, with carpooling, camping, putting Ptera in a lineup, risking having an unknown green dog from another team debut with them, and all of the people who asked how she was doing, who took videos of her, and encouraged us all weekend.

So that is my super wordy wordless Wednesday.
The video is of Ptera's real first race. The pictures, though, are from a practice back in July, when we did a team photoshoot.

Tournament Weekend

We are off to a flyball tournament in Salem, OR. It is part of the Marion County Fair at the State Fairgrounds, and flyball is just one of the many attractions. Stop by if you want to check out flyball in person.

While we head off to flyball, enjoy a lure coursing poodle in show coat.

And a corgi at full stretch.

Lots of lure coursing fun was had last weekend.

Veteran Flyball

Running Veterans at this past weekend's flyball tournament.

Who says "old" dogs have to act old?

Fit Friday: Tournament Wrap-Up and Glycoflex Plus Giveaway

Koira in her Back on Track jacket, chilling out after running.

The tournament this past weekend was great. We headed up to Ridgefield, WA for the weekend, staying at a Motel 6 (yay to no pet limits or pet fees) a little bit north in a cute little town. I shared a hotel room with a teammate, which was fun and saved us both some money, which is always great.

My team, Animal House, has a sort of reciprocal relationship with the host club for this weekend, Stumptown. Basically, they own mats for about one ring of the tournament, and we own mats for one ring, so we borrow the mats from the other club in order to have a two ring tournament, and we also send people to help them set up, and they send people to help us set up at our tournament. It is a great arrangement, as it makes things that much easier for both clubs. I went up on Friday (leaving late due to Pallo's seizure the night before, arranging vet visit for this week, picking up meds for Koira, and having a flat tire on the car) to help with set up. You have no idea how much work goes into a tournament until you are part of it.

It was all worth it, though. The tournament, as I said, was pretty great. One of the things I am the most happy with is Koira's performance.

I made sure that Koira got a nice long warm up and a bit of active stretching before every single race. She got to go out to potty, giving her a bit of trotting and movement. We did stretches to each side, bows, sit pretties, waves, and some low tugging, all of which helps get her limber and warm and ready to go. We also made sure to use her Back on Track jacket, which is basically a ceramic infused fabric that is supposed to help keep muscles warm and prevent cramping. Race horses use these jackets, and a lot of the top sport dogs do as well. I don't know that it is any more effective than any other lightweight jacket with the same coverage would be, but since I have it, I use it. I do like how well it covers, with it really getting down to the elbows, down over the hips and butt, and up the neck and down over the chest and belly. This jacket went on as soon as we finished our cool down walk after a race when Koira went back into her crate, and came off right before we went into the ring.

No pictures of my own dogs since I am the one with the camera, but here is a fun one of another dog crossing the finish line.

For our warm ups in the ring, I did the drill I've been doing with Koira, where someone else releases her and I reward her right after her box turn up close. The whole point is to increase her confidence and drive to the box. I couldn't have done it without the help of my own team and the help of other teams as well, especially Stumptown and Fierce Flyers, whose people stepped in when asked and helped out with releasing Koira when my own team didn't have extra people. There is something awesome about a team sport where not only does your own team help support you, but where every person on every team in the region will step up and help when needed. It is something I love about this sport for sure.

But, long story short, Koira rocked it this weekend. She started in all of her races (4 races on Saturday, 5 on Sunday, 4/4 heats both days). My start times weren't amazing, but with the exception of one absurdly early start, we did pretty good. My best start was 0.009 in the first heat of the first race on Sunday. Koira's times back in June and July weren't great- 6.0-6.5 seconds for almost every run. So imagine my happy surprise when she was putting in her previous times of 5.0-5.3 on average, with only a few heats slower, even on Sunday afternoon. She was double striding on the way to the box most of the time, but doing it fast. I hope with more work and longer on the Glycoflex Plus she will go back to single striding the jumps.

Wyatt, an Aussie who has been with Animal House from the beginning (and on two teams before that) crossing the finish line of his final title earning heat.

Something else that just helped keep the mood up and the energy there all weekend was having Wyatt, one of the founding dogs on Animal House, get his 30k point title, FDGCh, in the first race on Sunday morning. He is such a great dog, and his owner Patty is the "fearless leader" (as I call her to her amusement sometimes) of Animal House. So being part of Wyatt getting such a high title and high achievement really put some jazz into everyone on the team this weekend.

Team celebration and congratulations after the title heat was completed correcting and in time. It had to be a quick celebration so they could get back to the race, but it was joyous all the same.

So all in all, it was a really great weekend for everyone.

Now, for the giveaway part of this!

As I've posted about before, I signed Koira up for the Glycoflex Plus Challenge by Vetriscience (which you can still sign up for!). Basically, Koira is taking Glycoflex Plus for free for a month. I posted a "before" video of her before we started the supplement. I still need to get an "after" video because I forgot to have someone video at the tournament or at practice last night. But given that her times at this most recent tournament improved 1-1.5 whole seconds (which for those not involved in the sport, this is HUGE, teams often win by the fraction of the second!), I think it is safe to say that the Glycoflex Plus is helping. I plan on keeping Koira on it for the foreseeable future. And sure, some of the improvement is probably from training and drills that we've done in the meantime. But a supplement is just that- it supplements whatever else you are doing. If your dog has hind end weakness, you don't just give a supplement, you also do exercises and activity that will maintain or boost hind end strength. But I am pretty sold on this supplement being a big help.

And, thanks to the generosity of Vetriscience, the makers of Glycoflex, I am able to give away a bag of Glycoflex Plus to one of my readers! This means that if you sign up for the Glycoflex Challenge and get your free bag, you can win a bag that would give you a second month (or more depending on how much your dog needs) of product. Or, if you haven't done the challenge, you can enter this giveaway and win a bag to try, no strings.

For this giveaway, I decided to skip the gadgets and tech used for tracking entries. Instead, I'll track it with comments. Leave a comment here on this blog post. If you don't know what to comment, just tell me why you think your dog would benefit from Glycoflex Plus. But you can comment anything you like. You get one entry for commenting on the blog. If you want to stop over at the Vetriscience website and check it out, stop back by here and leave a comment telling me what other product you are interested in from their lines of human, canine, and feline products and why. Each comment is an entry, up to the total of two per person (one general comment, and one after visiting Vetrisceince). Unfortunately, I do have to restrict this to US shipping addresses only. Winner will be announced next Friday, October 9th.

Disclosure: I was given GlycoFlex Plus product for free in exchange for an honest review and promotion of the Glycoflex Challenge. I was provided with a free product to give away to a reader. The opinions expressed here are entirely our own honest experience with this product.

Flyball Oh My

Two weeks ago, I headed up to Lynden, WA with the dogs for a U-Fli flyball tournament. This is our first U-Fli tournament that wasn't in Gridley, CA. Unfortunately the Gridley tournament was cancelled, so we headed to this first-time tournament in Lynden instead to get our once yearly U-Fli tournament in.

It marked the very first time Koira ran U-Fli. Pallo has run in four U-Fli tournament now, but Koira has always either been not ready (reworking her turn, mostly) or injured (that neck injury last spring) when it comes to U-Fli, so it was fun to finally get to play it with her. Not that U-Fli is much different from running NAFA. The jump heights are lower and the timing/lighting equipment is a bit different, but otherwise, team racing is the same. A new change to the rules even makes the start light sequence the same. NAFA has always had a 1 second light sequence, while U-Fli in the past had a 1.2 second sequence. U-Fli has now changed to 1 second, making starting easier when switching between organizations.

The start lights still took a bit of getting used to though. I'm used to, on NAFA lights, saying READY (as the yellow lights flash upwards), SET (on the first yellow light), and GO (on the second yellow light), my dog is running during the third yellow light, and crosses the line as soon after the green light flashes on as possible. I release my dog immediately when that second yellow light comes on. And I'm normally a really decent starter, consistently getting starts in the .0xx range, and often putting in at least one .00x start at each tournament, sometimes with each dog. But the U-Fli lights don't have the yellow lights flash upwards before the lights start counting down, so my rhythm was all messed up at first. About halfway through the first day, I figured out that the little green lights at the bottom of the starting light tree went off as soon as the judge hit the button, and a second later the first yellow flashed on. So I did my READY when the green lights went off and more or less got my rhythm back.

It was pretty hot all weekend, though Sunday was better than Saturday and even delivered a little bit of light rain. Koira was running slow all morning on Saturday, and a couple times I thought I saw a limp. But when I trotted her out, not only could I not see a limp, but no one else (and I asked about five different people to watch her trot) saw anything either. The most anyone commented is that she is just a little tight on the front right, where her old elbow and shoulder injuries were. We figured it was just a bit of arthritis (she is seven and a half now, after all, which while not old certainly isn't young either). So I kept running her, making sure to give her plenty of a warm up before each run. Her times actually got better as the day went on, making me think that our longer warm up routine was helping get some stiffness out. Her last race of the day actually looked pretty great and she threw down some 5.2s, which were the best times of the weekend.

And then I took her out of her crate to potty one last time and she was limping. Bad. Barely weight bearing on the right left leg. Luckily, there is a pretty awesome vet on one of the other teams who agreed to take a look at Koira. The vet gave her a chiropractic adjustment and a massage, said Koira was super sore and probably as tight as she had ever felt on a dog. By the end of getting worked over, Koira's limp was almost completely gone. But for the safety and wellbeing of my dog, I let my team and the doubles team I was going to run with on Sunday know that I was pulling her. Koira would just get some vetprofen and rest for Sunday. She did earn her first U-Fli title on Saturday, Top Flight. So I was very proud of her despite the slower times.

Pallo on Saturday did pretty good. He wasn't running with our team. He was just set to run doubles with a super cute corgi from another team- the doubles team was named Short Stacks, and they were pretty much just adorable as can be. Pallo did do his stop and spin two out of the eight heats the doubles team ran, but otherwise ran great.

When I pulled Koira for Sunday, our regular team became short a height dog. In U-Fli, the jump heights are measured very different than in NAFA, and Koira set 9" jumps. Neena, a little cattle dog type mix, was our other height dog, and while she was perfectly fine, it's always nice to have an extra height dog. All the rest of our team was made up of large, leggy dogs. So I offered that I could put Pallo in Koira's place in order to provide Neena a bit of a rest from providing height. Pallo jumps 6" in U-Fli, so dropped the jumps quite a bit.

Sunday was cooler, which was really nice. Pallo ended up running great. I think he was in three or four races, and he only did the stop and spin thing a couple times. Keeping him crated and calm for as long as possible before going to the ring helps a lot with him not spinning. Koira of course wasn't limping at all on Sunday and would have been happy to run, I'm sure. But the long term health of my dogs is more important than any tournament, so she stayed on crate rest for the day. Our team ended up doing decent despite the swap-out. Pallo's issues didn't cost us more than a second here or there. And everyone had fun, which is ultimately the important part.

And while I know that that is a huge block of text to read with no photos, I can't take pictures of my own dogs. It is sad, but true.

Today, I am getting us packed and ready for a tournament this weekend. Saturday and Sunday at the Marion County Fair, in case anyone wants to come check it out.

Koira went to the vet yesterday for another issue, but was cleared as sound and ready to race by our vet. So she'll be running and hopefully it won't be a repeat of the last tournament!

Pallo will be running on Saturday only. He is retiring at this tournament. His long term health is more important than flyball, and every time he stops and gets confused at flyball, I am pretty sure it is a tiny seizure happening. And every seizure makes the next one more likely. So we are doing one last hurrah this weekend.

Fit Friday: Flyball gear

I'm off to a flyball tournament this weekend with the dogs. I thought I would share some of the things I make sure to bring in our flyball gear bag today.

Gear all laid out

Some of the essentials for us include crates (of course!), tug toys, vet wrap, skid boots, treats for during the day, an extra bowl, the gear bag, and the poop bags that are attached to the gear bag.The thing in the bag on the left side of the photo is Koira's Back on Track jacket, which helps keep dogs from getting stiff when they are exercising. She gets it put on before racing, taken off during the race, then back on between races to help keep her limber. The vet wrap and skid boots are also for Koira, who has delicate feet. Pallo has feet like steel.

All of it fits together into the pink bag (which was actually a prize at a previous flyball tournament).

All packed together

Not pictured here are the crate mats (or in Koira's case, bed for in her crate), or any of the basic essentials for overnight stays, such as food. This is really just the stuff that I keep in a bag at our crating area, so that all the essentials are in one place. 

What stuff do you pack for your weekends, be they flyball, agility, hunting, hiking, or any other activity?

Also don't forget to visit our Tasty Tuesday post this week for a chance to win a $25 gift card to Paw Street Barkery.

Flyball Tournament Wrap-up

First, the big news- Koira got her FM, the Flyball Master title. Basically, it is 5,000 points and is considered either the last of the small titles or the first of the big titles. The next title is FMX at 10,000 points, and the gaps between titles just get bigger and bigger from there.

Starting at the beginning though, me and Pallo had an awesome time at Friday Night Racing. The tournament was NAFA sanctioned (which means only full four dog teams compete). On Friday night, the tournament hosts put on a non-sanctioned singles and doubles racing, with all proceeds going to the local humane society. Pallo ran along with one of our green dogs, Dancer, to give her an experienced dog to practice with. We rocked! Our starts were super consistent, in the .0 range pretty much every time, and even one .001 start. Pallo also was rocking, running very fast, 5.0-5.2 mostly, and even got a new best time ever with a 4.9xx, breaking five seconds for the first time ever. I was very proud of my little man. Out of eight heats, he balked and spun on one, but it was a minor spin and he refocused quickly and did his job.

Here is a video of Pallo and Dancer at Friday Night Racing. You'll notice that Dancer is about the cutest ball of fluff ever.




I was able to haul all of our stuff in on Friday as well, so that I just needed to bring in the dogs on Saturday morning to be ready to go.

Saturday was a hot, humid day. The air conditioning was on in the tournament building, but it was pretty much only noticeable when you went outside and then came back in. I know it was way better than not having it at all, but man, it was still hot. That said, we still had a total blast.

Koira was running start and ended up running every heat on her team, both days. Our starts were pretty consistent in the .0xx range for the most part, but we are still trying to get some solid consistency. Her times were awesome though. In the past, she has run mostly in the 5.2-5.5 range, with a few faster times in the 4.8 ish range. This weekend, almost every single heat was 4.5-4.7. I knew she had more speed in her, and I am glad that she is feeling confident and competitive enough to really start bringing on the heat. Her turn stayed decent at the beginning of the day, but did degenerate over the weekend to a mostly 3-footed turn. Her times stayed fast though, which makes me wonder if we can get her turn to stick higher if she will pull in some even faster times.

We were only a few points away from her FM at the end of Saturday. Since I don't know if we will make it to the FMX, I wanted to keep her ball from her title heat (it becomes the trophy, sort of like the bar from the last jump does for agility MACH titles). Sunday morning, one of our team dogs started having some ball dropping issues, but everything came together just long enough for us to get the FM in the third heat of our first race. Everything from then on was gravy.

The only video I have of Koira at the tournament is from Sunday afternoon. The dog who was ball dropping ended up being pulled, and we ran one of our green dogs who had only been planning on a warm up spot on the team. In the video, the very last dog, Dash, is the super green dog. He did amazing though! He didn't hit any titles due to slow team times while he was running, but he did really awesome for being thrown in there, and did officially get his first NAFA points!



My start with Koira was a full second late, as you can see, but her time was still 4.6 even with that somewhat sad turn. This was Sunday afternoon, though, so I am very happy that she had any resemblance of a turn left, and that she was still pulling in some really good times.

The other big news is that one of our height dogs was really off on Saturday for some reason, so was pulled on Sunday. Which meant that Pallo was placed on one of our teams part time. He ran start for half of the races on that team and did amazing! That team was 3/3 format (meaning only 3 heats per race, rather than 4 or 5 heats), which I think helped keep him from spinning. He didn't stop and spin at all the entire time! He also kept his nice times, running in the 5.0-5.2 range for the most part. Very proud of my boy.

Koira's team came in dead last both days, 6th out of 6 teams in the division. We didn't really care, honestly. Most of the dogs ran great. Koira got her title. Dash debuted very nicely. The other two teams Animal House was running placed better, but neither of them won their divisions either. But while winning tournament placements would be nice, we are very much about going out there and just having fun with our dogs.

Between the nice starts I was getting, the great times my dogs were running, how nice most of our team dogs were doing (including all FOUR green dogs that debuted that weekend!), and Koira's new titles, I basically had a huge smile on my face all weekend.

Fit Friday: Flyball Tournament!

We have a flyball tournament! It feels like it has been forever since I was at a tournament.

Pallo will be running in doubles with one of our green dogs tonight in Friday Night Racing. It isn't officially sanctioned racing, so is just for fun, but it is a great chance to give the newer dogs some practice in a tournament setting. Also, the proceeds from entries all go directly to the local humane society.

Koira is running on our Animal House team on Saturday and Sunday. Fingers crossed that her box turn holds up marginally well over the course of the weekend. I'm hopeful at least, though!

If you want to stop by and see flyball, or say hi to me or the dogs, come on by the fair. Once you pay for admission to the Marion County Fair, flyball is a free attraction. Just follow the sounds of the barking! To find me, once you find the flyball group, just look for the red shirts with the Animal House logo. Do make sure to pay attention to the "competitor only" signs in some areas, though.

The State Fairgrounds is a pretty awesome place to come to a fair, and of course, there are a ton of other things going on in addition to the flyball tournament. Adult fair tickets are just $8.00, and there are concerts each night as well. For more information on the fair, check out their website.



Also, here is a video of Pallo from one of our practices in June. This is basically what this weekend will look like, but with more dogs and more excitement. Hope to see lots of people there!

Wordless Wednesday: Flyball Photos

Okay, not totally wordless. I officially started my professional photography business at the beginning of this year. Right now, I'm swamped with editing flyball tournament photos from the past two weekends. Not to mention that two flyball tournament weekends in a row can be exhausting even if you just run a dog and box load, even without photographing it thrown in!

Old School

I was looking back through some old emails looking for something when I ran across these photos.

These pictures are from Pallo's first-ever flyball tournament. It was in Seattle, Washington, and we only competed on one day.

I remember being really proud of his box turn at this tournament. I'm not sure if these photos just caught the box turns that weren't great that day, or if my standards and expectations have changed this much.

And this is our team photo at that same tournament. Pallo is all sprawled out on his back. If you can't tell by the color we are all wearing, this is from before I joined Animal House (my current team). I started flyball with Thundermutts. This was my last tournament competing with them.

Tournament Wrap Up

On Friday after work, the dogs and I drove up to Canada for a flyball tournament. I didn't get off work until 8:30 pm, so I had the car packed and the dogs loaded up so we could all just get in the car and go (and hopefully miss the college football game traffic that would be hitting at about 9-9:30). It was a genius and stupid idea all at once. My initial plan was to drive at least to Seattle, then possibly stop to sleep for a few hours before continuing on to Surrey. When we were in Seattle, though, I decided to just continue on and get across the border in the middle of the night. I figured the border crossing would be easier and quicker at night than in the morning with lines.

Jumping with enthusiasm 

Well, it might have been if we hadn't been detained for an hour. I hit the border crossing at 2:30 and was looking forward to being only about 15 minutes away from our final destination and sleep. But apparently, the border guards had never heard of flyball and thought it was suspicious that I didn't know the address of where I was going. The fairgrounds was just up the road, on the road the crossing was on, so I had no need for the address- I just drive up the road until I see the fairgrounds! After almost an hour of sitting around at the border, they finally let me go once they confirmed that there was, indeed, a flyball tournament happening that weekend at the fairgrounds. I have no idea why it took them that long to decide that.

In any case, we did finally make it to the fairgrounds and get some sleep.

One of her warm up turns. The purple/pink wraps on her feet are skid boots, to keep her carpal pads from being damaged

Koira was running on an Open team both Saturday and Sunday. Since no one else from our club was able to go to this tournament, we crated with the team we were running with. It was new and different to be at a tournament without my team, and while I missed my team mates, it was a lot of fun to run open. Our Open team ran into some difficulties on Saturday with running clean, but did much better on Sunday.

Another turn during warm ups.

As predicted, Koira's turn reverted to her bad turn at the tournament. Our great success last Thursday at practice was exhilarating, but I did know at the time that running a tournament so soon in that success would destroy what progress we had made. That said, I do think the majority of her turns this past weekend were better than the majority of her turns at the previous tournament. Her turns during warm ups were actually decent, and I have high hopes that we will get some good solid turns that will stick, now that the tournament season for us has ended for at least a few months.

A two-footed turn during actual racing. Unfortunate, but not unexpected. This was taken on Sunday, and is as bad as her turns got for the weekend.

The drive home after the tournament was unremarkable. We were across the border with less than a 5 minute delay. I had debated staying Sunday night in Canada and seeing some of southern BC for the first time (I've only ever gone to the tournament and home), but my camera battery was dead, which made the idea of sightseeing less appealing. I ended up just heading home immediately. And, thanks to the time change, we made it home just after 11 pm.

Wordless Wednesday: Tug Crazy

Savage grabbing his tug in the run back

Savage tugging

Danger hitting his tug. You can see the shredded balls on the tug from previous runs.

This is how a ball can end up inside another ball

Flying high

With a goal in mind.

Off to Flyball

Once again, me and the dogs are off to a flyball tournament. I seriously love the summer and fall when we have so many tournaments. There isn't an official "off season" for flyball like there is in football or that kind of sport. But it does seem like there is a big dry spell with no or very few tournaments for months on end every winter and spring.



While we're off running our tails off in Washington this weekend, I want you to enjoy a few fall photos of the dogs. I know I've shared about a million pictures of my dogs with the fall colors this year so far, but I can't resist. The colors this year are amazing, the weather is gorgeous, and I have always, in previous years, regretted putting off taking the fall pictures.



It might even be a bit counterintuitive to someone who doesn't live in Oregon, but I am also enjoying the return of the green. Over the summer, Oregon tends to dry out and get brown. When the fall rains come, but before the hard freezes, everything gets plenty of water and sun, and greens up again. So it is very typical for us to have orange and red fall foliage with a background of brilliant green grass. It is just another thing to love about living in Oregon.