Tournament History

New England Trailblazers, Bennington, VT- May 22 & 23 2004:  Our first tournament was the New England Trailblazer's tournament the end of May, 2004.  Since all the dogs and handlers were new except for Sally and I, there was much chaos.  We ended up with one point from the experience.  Shrek was having problems hearing the boxloader call him with all the noise, so was doing two jumps, turning around and coming back.  He finally made it down to the box one race, got so excited that his friend was down there he did his happy aussie dance.  This intrigued his opponent so much that the dog crossed over to see what all the excitement was about (causing interference).  That gave us our first race 'win' and we got a time of 31 seconds :).  Even though we did not come away with many points or titles, we came away with experience which was invaluable for the new handlers and dogs.

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A.R.R.F., Fitchburg, MA- July 3 & 4, 2004:  We were more successful at our second tournament (ARFF's Flyball and Fireworks on the 4th of July) with the help from an old pro.  Gail D'Avolio from New England Trailblazers volunteered her 12 year old veteran Ricky to help us get started.  That was very nice of her, considering we still were not sure about Susie (she did well at practice, but you never know about tournaments).  We started out with Sally, Shrek, Eartha and Ricky on Saturday.  They were doing well and getting some one and five point runs (our first time getting points as a team, so we were very happy).  The second to last race of the day we put Susie in for a recall on the warm-up.  She did great, going right for her tug toy.  For the next race we tried a run with her in the warm-up, and again she did great.  We decided to let her have a shot in the race, and she performed each heat perfectly, even bobbling the ball at the box once but still hitting all the jumps on the way back.  For four heats, all the dogs ran clean and we had our own team running (with the three rookie dogs).  The next day we used Ricky as a sub for when the new dogs got too overwhelmed, but used our dogs for the most part.  

New Titles:

Eartha, FD

Susie, FD

Shrek, FD

New Best Time: 25.13 (Sally, Eartha, Susie and Shrek)

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All Dogs Flyball, Manchester, NH- August 7 & 8, 2004:  But it keeps getting better!  Our third tournament was the All Dog's summer tournament (beginning of August 2004).  Ricky could not make it because his mom was going with their team to Nova Scotia.  However, our little Haiku could make her debut that weekend.  We ran clean our first race of the day (another first, the great thing about a new team is you are constantly getting firsts).  For the next race, we decided to start pushing (for us) passing.  The third race of the day we got our first ever 25 point run- its amazing what a little passing can do.  Haiku had an excellent debut, with her only major problem being the ability to trigger the box every time (its hard when you are less than five pounds).  Still, she got some good experience and new fans.  

New Titles:

Eartha, FDX

Susie, FDX

Shrek, FDX

New Best Time: 23.44 ( Sally, Eartha, Susie and Shrek)

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New England Trailblazers, Littleton, MA- October 2 & 3, 2004:  For the first time we were able to send a full roster of six dogs to a tournament.  The core four were there (Sally, Eartha, Susie and Shrek).  In addition, Haiku came again and Chance made his debut.  We had a great time at this tournament.  Shrek got to learn a new position (as a start dog), and both Eartha and Susie did much better in their passing.  Sally had a great time as anchor dog, as she doesn't like to be beat.  The dogs were doing so well, that it was the humans that caused most of the errors.  We started off right, winning the first race and getting a 25 point run.  Chance had an excellent debut and earned his FD at his first tournament.  When Chance was in, it was all "new" dogs in the race (Chance took Sally's spot)- I was so proud.  We had a great time at this tournament and can't wait to run again. 

New Titles:

Chance, FD

Eartha, FDCH

Susie, FDCH

Shrek, FDcH

New Best Time: 22.26 (Shrek, Eartha, Susie and Sally)

Placed 2nd in Division 4!!