Lloydminister Flyball Tournament

The shelties and I went to a flyball tournament in Lloydminister this past weekend.   Both shelties had full time spots and ran 8 races each day with 3 heats per race.  It was a lot of racing and both Spryte and I gained a lot of experience at this tournament.  Spryte also earned enough points for her FDCH title.

 It was Spryte's second tournament and she improved tremendously from the last one. Our last tournament she kept stopping to watch the other dogs race and she was dropping her ball early and fumbling at the box. This time we hardly had any ball issues (mostly the last races because she was exhausted at that point) and she didn't stop once to watch the other dogs.  Her box turns were beautiful all weekend too.  Even without any props in front of the box she got up and did a four foot turn every time! 

Spryte's speed also improved tremendously at this tournament.  She was so distracted last time that she never really put out any effort to get to the box and back.  Her times were in the high 6's.  In Lloyd on Saturday morning Spryte started out very strong and fast and blew her old times out of the water.  Her fastest time this weekend was a 5.3 and we know she can be faster.  It was nice to see her really trying hard and running fast.  She was excited to play but this time she was better at dealing with her enthusiasm and showed way more self control.  She is improving so much and I'm sure next tournament she will be running consistently in the low 5's and will be catching the ball every time with very few bobbles.

Strider and I ran on an open team at this tournament.  Basically it's a team that is formed just for the one show and it can have dogs from any club on it.  I am on Go All Out and I was racing with people from Northern Power Paws and Rebel Racers.  The team was named "Go Rebel Paws" which I thought was cute and very clever :).  I didn't know any of these people and would be meeting them all for the first time this weekend.  Some people in flyball are a little "hard core" and want to have the fastest times and win all the races. I just go to have fun and put points on my dogs.  I was a little worried that my temporary teammates might take it a little too seriously for me. Well there really wasn't any reason for me to worry.  The people were all very nice and encouraging.  They loved Strider and cheered for him every race.   The team captains mentioned to me in the beginning that they are there to have fun with their dogs and at the end of the tournament they said that I am welcome to race with them anytime, they would love to have Strider and I back. It was a great experience and even though they are not my actual team, I still felt like I was apart of a team when I raced with them.

So all in all it was a very successful weekend. I had a great time playing with my dogs and seeing huge improvements in Spryte.  It was fun meeting new people and experiencing a different team.  And as always I had a great time with my teammates, racing together, chatting about dogs and life, going out for supper and witnessing some silly water slide shenanigans. It was a great weekend and I'm looking forward to Go All Out's tournament here in June.