WOW! The tournament seems to fired Weasel up!

Wow! The tournament last weekend seems to have lit a fire under my Weasel. She did very well at practice. No screwing around. No lollygagging. She just wanted to line up and go, like a wind-up toy. It was cool! Hope it lasts. . .



Of course, the idol dog wasn't there. She's with her owner up in California playing with puppies. Things may change when she gets back.



I'm going to have to do more box turn work. Weasel's slipping a bit, but I think she's "got it," and now thinks of flyball as her job, which is great.



My Spoiled One was a good boy at practice. He jumped the jumps and did the deed. I doubt he'll every be 100% reliable, but he's loved.



I saw a little Jack Russel/Rat Terrier at Pet something (Animal Humane Society has a station there and they bring out a few cats and a dog every weekend to try to adopt them out. He was a nice little dog - responsive, friendly, non-viscious. It looked like he had good structure for jumping, nice angulation, leggy, athletic. I wanted to bring him home so we could have a height dog, but I am trying to convince myself that I have my hands full with Weasel and Spoiled One. Sigh. I never want to get a dog just for flyball. What if it poops out? What if it gets injured and can't run? What if it's scared of tennis balls? But, it was a cute little dog. And nice. And his excessive energy would be treasured, not a problem. It could be a very good match. A little height dog would make competing in NAFA much easier on the dogs. He's a year and a month, so he's the perfect age to start. . . (shut up evil tempting voices)



Anyway, the picture above is a design from my cafe press store. The design features my mother's little scottie dog, who she rescued from the SPCA in California. He went through such a dramatic change, going from a droopy, stinky ball of hair to a perky little general with a scottie skip to his step. It was neat.

We survived the Tournament!

Actually, it was a lot of fun, after a rough start. I didn't leave home for the eight hour drive until long after I had planned, and didn't get to the hotel until 3:00 am. The it was walk dogs, feed dogs, water dogs, shower, and up at 6:00 to find the tournament site. I forgot a chair and stumbled around in a zombie daze the first day. I was too spaced to put on sunscreen, had the expressiveness of a corpse, and I think people were afraid to talk to me.

However, after I got a chance to get some sleep, I felt much perkier the second day. My Weasel did very well. She ran flawlessly, over and over. Even when I pulled an evil trick and passed her off to someone else to handle, she was briefly confused and then figured it out. She believed the boxloader was a boogyman, but they were patient.

Spoiled One was a BAD BOY. He was the one we were initially trying to have handled by someone else. The other person was a great handler, and very patient, but Spoiled One was being impossible. I'm surprised she got any runs out of him. She deserves a medal for putting up with him. Honestly, he was like a 60 lb Jack Russell with issues. (Sorry, jack lovers, I know there are some nice ones, but, well, you know. . .)

Weasel was chased back down the lane by a little terrier, but no damage was done. She handled it well, kept running back to me so I could intervene and save her. The little dog left off immediately when I pushed it away and told it no. Poor Weasel. She's getting to be everydog's chew toy. She still has an owie on her nose from the incident at the last practice. It always scares me when the little ones chase down the big ones, because they're really so vulnerable to a crunch or a pick up and shake if the bigger dog takes them up on it.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun for my first open team. The dogs won tennis balls in the raffle, which is all they want anyway.

Nervous About Tournament

I'm nervous.

I hope Weasel and Spoiled One do well.

I hope I do okay.

I hope I find the venue.

I hope the new fabric crate works.

I hope no dogs or people get hurt.

I don't know why I am so freaked. I've done tournaments before. The dogs have run before. I have had dogs break out of crates at tournements, have caught other people's loose dogs. I have been through bad tournaments and good tournaments. This isn't biggie.

But it is.

I don't know why.

Maybe I just need sleep. Maybe I'm just wigging because of all of the last minute organizational things (meet someone to get the pass, driving up so late, finding the people I'm running with, not knowing if I'm starting, finding the hotel, finding the tournament, etc.) Maybe I just feel very alone. I'm the only one from my team going up there.

Anyway, just feeling scared and thought I would share.

'night.

Weasel Was Bitten

Well, Weasel was bitten yesterday at flyball practice. I believe the other dog was just resource guarding the tennisball. He had an "incident" with another dog and made snarly faces at several others.



No real harm done, though I did some quick obedience with her afterward to get her out of the defensive zone. She passed near the other dog several times afterward with no signs of aggression on her part. My poor puppy.



Other than that, practice kind of sucked because it was hot. No one really wanted to be there, but it was my last chance for team practice before Weasel's first tournament. Ironically, Weasel did well, no jump skipping or ball dropping, came back nicely. I want more speed out of her. It was too hot, though and she was a black dog on a hot day. She gave what she could, which is all I can ask of her. I'll see how she does at the tournament.



Spoiled One pulled a little skip the jumps coming back kind of stuff, but got over it. He was a good boy. It's kind of hard to believe he'll be eight.



In shop news, I did a new design. It's all environmentalisty, not flyball, however.