Great Tournament!

We had a great tournament in Bonham!  Our main goal was to run under 18 seconds at least once to be able to qualify in division 5 at the Qualifer in Grove, OK next month.  Our very first race was a 17.981 with extremely wide passing.  Our best time Saturday was an amazing (for us) 17.286 seconds with room to improve.  Several dogs ended up running personal bests on the team including Maverick (4.212) and Luna (4.402).

Zio ran fairly good all day, although he was running much better in the morning with several runs that were under four seconds wire-to-wire.  His turn got a little lazy as the afternoon wore on, but he did pretty good considering my wide passes.  I ended up pulling him after the second to last race when he broke his dew claw to the quick.  I thought it was worse than it was, but he should be fine for Grove.  Lucy came into heat Saturday, so he ended up not racing again this tournament since we would end up racing for fun on Sunday.

We're In!!!

The U-Fli Board of Directors has approved our request for an exception to enter the Grove Qualifer next month!  Our Qualifier division will be determined by our fastest time this weekend.  We've had some fun with the team trying to predict our best time this weekend and the guesses are all ranging from the low to high 17's.  If so, we are guessing Division 5 along with Dogs Gone Wild, Full Speed Ahead, and 4 Dog Flight. 

This will be the first time since June that I'll get the chance to race Zio myself.  With injuries last year and needing to run Luna, it just hasn't worked out and I miss running him.  I'm glad he's not the start dog anymore too.  I'd rather run fewer races!

Tournament in One Week!

We had our last practice yesterday morning and things are looking good for next weekend!  I think we should be able to get under 18 seconds comfortably.  I'm predicting a weekend best of 17.6 seconds.  Zio is looking good, but I haven't removed any props from his practice routine.  Hopefully his turn will hold.

The real news is whether we will get an exemption from the U-Fli Board of Directors to enter the Grove Qualifier in March.  In double checking our eligibility for the Qualifier, I noticed that our two tournaments prior to the Qualifier also needed to be completed prior to the closing date too!  In asking for clarification, I found out that tournaments run during the 120 day waiting period do not count toward the requirement to compete in two.

I have requested an exemption based on a lack of nearby tournaments we could have competed in after the 120 day waiting period had expired 12/24.  It sounds like it is a formality, but nothing is definite yet.
 

Outdoors!

We took advantage of the nicer weather and practiced outdoors at Wild Horse Park in Mustang, OK Saturday.  We've needed the opportunity to practice team runs with a full runback to get an idea on where each dog needs to start from.  All of the dogs ran great and enjoyed running.  Although we were missing some teammates, it was a lot of fun being outside.

Teegan was the big surprise for me.  He was able to be sent to the box with good turns from 10-15 feet already!  If he keeps this up, he may be ready for pre-flight in a few months!

No Fear!

Well, it's been a long break since my last post here. A lot has happened, but we are really looking forward to a great 2013.  As I alluded to in a previous post, we left Full Speed Ahead along with a close group of friends to create the Breakin' Out Flyball Racing Team.  We now practice on Saturday mornings, which has worked out so much better.  We leave practice and have the whole weekend ahead of us!

I won't go into the details of the split, but I truly feel it was the best thing to do for both clubs.  We will miss our friends that remained with FSA, but look forward to growing our new team.  We are going to remain part of the OKPaws Canine Sports Club, which will help during the transition.  Our new logo is below.  We have t-shirts and hoodies on order, so we'll be styling the new colors in February at Hyper Flight's Barkin in Bonham 4.5 tournament.

Zio had a rough 2012 with injuries, so he and I are both hoping that is a thing of the past.  He missed three tournaments and a frisbee competition due to injury, but it's been good to see him running at practice for the last three months.  I've kept the props consistent on turns, so I'm really hoping that the muscle memory will kick in.  His turns are nearly flawless every time and I would really like to see his times if he continued do them like that in a tournament.  We simulate as best we can in practice, so I'll keep my fingers crossed!  The other good thing is that John's Lucy is going to take over the start dog spot.  I'd rather not have Zio run the extra races and John has been very consistent with good starts.  More to come, but the team lineup will be Lucy, Zio, Maverick, and Luna to start the year.

 

Pictures

Some pictures from earlier this year.  Photos by Melissa Sheehan at True Colors Photography.

Burnin' Up

Not sure if the title of this post refers to the tournament or my feelings about the drama some teammates feel the need to start the day before we set up.  I won't go into it here, but staying together as a team is likely to get tested sooner than later.

Zio man had to skip practice last weekend when I traveled for my Mom's funeral.  John let me know that Lucy had come into season, so I think Luna is going to run with Speeding Sheepdogs as the height dog.  I'll have to run her, so Katie gets to run Zio.  I hope she remembers to bring gloves!  ;)

I'll miss running Zio, but I hope he does great for Katie.  This will be his first time running as start dog since April when he had started limping.  With everything that is going on, I'm not as excited about this weekend as I should be.  Zio will have fun regardless!