Wags for Wishes Flyball (Arizona)

Well, we survived the tournament!

Actually, it was fun. Cold. But fun. Weasel did surprisingly well for her very first tournament. She ran perfectly, but still slow, in singles. We'll have to work on squeezing a bit more speed on her and setting her box turn better. I believe it's time for me to stop working that on a practice box at home and keep it for team practice. She did show some competitiveness, digging her toes in and looking over at the dog in the other lane. She seemed to really be racing him (or trying - he was a fast dog). So, now, I need to teach her to pass and condition her to stretch out and run. She's such a funny looking little thing. . .

The Spoiled One had a naughty moment or five. It involved crossing over into the other lane and stealing the other dog's ball, and then trying to chase the other dog down for the contested ball. He got yelled at for that one. I can put up with a little running outside the jumps or slowing down or other mischief in his own lane, but crossing over is too dangerous. Plus, I was scared the other dog would be threatened or alarmed and take a piece out of him, or frightened or injured by a collision. My Spoiled One may look like a big bad shepherd cross, but he has the fighting skills of a tribble. He just doesn't seem to get that the other dog may not be playing.

Anyway, he stayed in his own lane after that. In his defense, he had been innocently dozing in his crate when someone other than me (I'm the only one who handles him) ran up, snatched him out of the crate and off to the flyball lane mid race, on the other side from his other races that day. He didn't get a recall or a chance to get his bearings before I sent him down the lane. So it was really my fault for letting the situation develop that way.

FWIW - fake grass isn't the best running surface. It's slicker than real grass, burns the dog's feet, heats in the sun, and is enough like the real stuff to tempt dogs to pee on it, but fake enough to require cleaning. As in all the outdoor tournaments we have attended, the sun caused the start sensors to malfunction. There was also a problem of not being able to see the start light or the time displays due to the glare. I avoided volunteering as a line judge because of this. None of this was under the host club's control, however.

The elements that were under their control went very well. I loved seeing all of the horses and getting glimpses of the herding. There seemed to be a very reasonable schedule of races to get through. It was nice having such a large, varied area to walk the dogs in and the fair food and booths were great! One of our team members was on crutches, and being able to park adjacent to the crating area was a real life-saver. Also, crating right next to the lanes made it easy to watch and track the racing. There were even real bathrooms! The host club worked through a lot of last minute changes and pulled it together into a fun weekend of racing. Thank you! I hope you made a lot of money for the Wags for Wishes.

To all the teams we raced with - Thank You and Great Racing!