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.
