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it was nearly a year after he joined practices before he would compete.
He debuted at Florida Air Xpress's
Heat of Summer tournament in August 2003, running only Sunday with a
green team belonging to the newly organized Double Dog Dare club (then
known as Raiders of the Lost Bark). The dogs in that lineup
earned their points 
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five at a time that day, and
Dustin earned his FD with few points to spare. His best time
that weekend was a 5.7, but mostly he ran in the 6's. Sometimes
he didn't run. At one point his handler looked on in disbelief as
someone swung open a side door to the building and the light beaming
in stopped his sighthound dead in his
tracks. Within
weeks of his debut, Dustin was injured
in a dog park accident that sidelined him for four
months. He came back more ready to play than ever. He has
contributed nicely to our team efforts since then and, generally,
runs in the low 5's. Still, he remains a puzzle.
You can switch
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the flyball box he is running on, and he won't miss a
beat. Then you can expect him to run the position he always has
and passing a dog he is familiar with and he may or may not succeed
.
. . or for some brief period of time, he will become incapable of
running in the left lane. Just as quickly as those problems
surface, they seem to go away, and not always because we've worked to
address them. At least one judge has reminded us that -- well --
he is a Whippet.
Dustin has worked very hard to become our club's second Whippet to earn his
FM, and DDD is very proud of him.
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