As the tournament drew
nearer the concerns about the weather began to dissipate and it became
evident that we were going to have good racing conditions.
Now all we need to
worry about is how will Rodeo do (will he get flagged for trapping the
ball or will he run around the jump), What about Rally, is he going to
take another run for the hills as he did last year or maybe he will
decide to just lay down and take a nap.
And what about the 3 dogs we have never meet, will they get along
with our dogs and will we have problems passing/running with them and
what about their handlers, will they be nice or not?
As morning broke on
Saturday and we started setting up camp for the weekend. We were 1st
joined by Janet and her dogs Marcus and Annie. Janet seems very nice and
knowledgeable about flyball and Marcus who will be running with us is a
great Schnauzer with an awesome temperament and seems to get along with
everyone.
Soon afterward we were
joined by
Crystal
and her dog Pallo and again another good fit for our club as
Crystal
was wonderful to sit around with all weekend and talk dogs. Pallo is a
super height dog, even if he does change heights as often as a chameleon
changes colors 9 inches worked great for the dogs.
Then came Karen and Taz
and with them came the rest of Bay Racers and they were all wonderful
dog people and a great help.
So now we were set, the
dogs (Savvy, Rally, Rodeo, Marcus, Pallo and Taz) were all ready to get
racing. We started off with
a lineup of Rally, Taz, Pallo and Rodeo and all the dogs and handlers
ran well, Rodeo completing clean runs even though the judge had to check
the box to verify he actually triggered it before getting his ball.
He had very clean runs. Rally was so excited to be the start dog
that he couldn't wait to take off. A couple of times he pulled out a bit
early just from excitement.
As the day wore on the
dogs just seemed to get better and while we were not without error, we
had a lot of clean runs from all the dogs and some excellent racing.
The team came in 5th
place on Saturday and we were all very excited.
Sunday proved to be
another good day, Pallo ran his fastest time ever of 5.0. Rodeo had the
save of the day when his ball got away from him and he ran about 3 feet
to the side to get it then ran back to make it over all 4 of his jumps.
Savvy, Marcus and Taz were the rocks of the team being very consistent
both days and Rally starting 2 races on Saturday, then starting 3 races
on Sunday, including the final race of the day with trying to run away
and still very excited to be out there racing.
All the dogs performed above and beyond all our expectations and
everyone is very proud of our team as we took 4th place on Sunday.
In addition to the dogs
we had a lot of other things to brag about:
Nancy
box loading both days and teaching other members how to box load, Peter
out there every race ball shagging and doing whatever was needed to help
out, including box loading for Bay Racers. P.S.
Peter is the only member of The Usual Suspects to receive an award which
he got for being the box loader for Bay Racers.
We can't forget Jeff
who was keeping stats all day, along with learning how to do pass
calling, John and Ed for making sure the box was in on time for all the
races and of course taking pictures and videos, Sara, Judy, Karen and
Kim who were out there helping out where ever they could be to help,
Marjie helping with handling the dogs and pass calling and of course we
cannot forget her debut with running Savvy on Sunday.
Other
"people" highlights, Kim winning the “guess the # of
balls” game, our club will not be worrying about having tennis balls
for a long time to come. The chili that Marjie made for Saturday's pot
luck was outstanding and everything that everyone brought to go with the
chili especially the beans and ribs that Judy brought, not to mention
her booze soaked cake, the salad from Peter and Debbie, all the snacks
for the table, of which there was more than enough to go around.
