So Proud!

[Byrd]

I know a lot of you won't really know the importance of any of this, but I'll just tell ya it's good! LOL

Willow pulled off a 4.058 second run last weekend, and this weekend she did two 4.0's in a row!!! So, that's bloody fast, especially for an Aussie, in a sport where things are counted to thousandths of a second (for example we lost a race by 300ths of a second ).

This is running 50 feet down over four jumps, hitting the box and getting the ball, doing a 'swimmer's turn', and running back over the four jumps... all in four seconds.

When she first started racing she was running 4.5's, I said that all I want is a 4.2 second dog (I even have a blog entry where I mentioned it). She started running 4.2's and a couple of weeks ago pulled off a 4.137 which I was really happy with... then last weekend the 4.0 and this weekend two more!!!! In nine races (so about 40 heats) she averaged 4.15 and her slowest time all weekend was a 4.3!

On another note, I did a nearly perfect start of 0.004 seconds... perfect obviously being 0.000. Starts are calculated by when your dog's nose crosses the start line as to when the start light turns green. The race timing starts when the light turns green, not when the dog's cross the start line, so start times factor into your team time and you want to try to get as closs to 0 as you can without false starting. The timing lights are kind of like drag racing lights.

We had a good weekend, I'm pretty happy with my flyball dog who's only about 300 points away from her next title, she should get it at the next tournament.

[Kashi]

WTG Willow !

And those photos are amazing !

[ancientgirl]

Yay Willow! Wow, she's flying! I love both pictures. She looks like she's having a blast!

[Byrd]

Those pics are actually from back in April when we were in NY. She does have a blast though.

[angeldogs]

Keep up the hard work and having fun.

[kimnmark]

Wow that's really great! The photos simply rock. She looks like she is having the time of her life.

[Love4himies]

Way to go, Willow! What fantastic action shots! I love the second one, looks like she is in super concentration mode

[Lukka'sma]

OMG that is fast. I have watched fly ball on TV several times and it does look like a blast for the dogs. Congratulations Willow

[hazelrunpack]

congratulations, Willow!!! You keep makin' your mom proud!!!

[Byrd]

I'm going to get the second pic printed once I get the disc with the full sized pic on it. I just absolutely love that picture!

She does love it, and does have so much fun, I wouldn't do it otherwise.

[Spatx]

Way to go Willow!

Someday I hope I'll have a fast flyball dog, right now I think I'd be happy if Cody can manage to do 6 a second run . That really is great though, she's an amazing girl, thats for sure! I can't wait to see her do a full run someday

[Byrd]

You will. Now that you're going into level 2 we'll be playing chase games and stuff an actually using Willow with the trainees.

Don't think bad of Cody, he'll be faster than six seconds for sure.

[Byrd]

The website finally updated and it turns out that Willow already has her next title. So she's officially Willow FDCh-G (we have 2599 points). Now we are only 2401 points away from our next title. My goal is to get the Flyball Master title this year, we just might do it.

[mollywog]

Way to go! That is very exciting! Great pictures too!
I would love to get into flyball or something similar with Molly, but sadly there is nothing of the sort up here

[clm]

Congratulations Willow!.
How many competitions do you do with her in a month? Do all the competitions take place outdoors in summer? I would think heat would be an issue soon.

Cindy

[rainbow]

YAY Willow and love the pics.

[growler~GateKeeper]

WTG Willow Good Job

I've seen the Superdogs doing the timed relay runs w/jumps & the tunnel turn, they don't do the full flyball here I guess not as exciting for the large crowds So I get the excitement & pride w/4.0s

You need to pester Superdog Central to include this update on their website

The second pic is great

[angeldogs]

Congrats Willow and to you Byrd.

[Byrd]

CLM It depends on the month and what else is going on, there is pretty much a tournament every weekend in the summer. We run inside, outdoors is too hard there are different regulations for outdoor tournaments (like after every race the lanes have to be moved over so that the grass doesn't get worn, etc), it's actually cooler inside, and after the races the dogs go and lay in the kiddy pools that are stationed outside. We are very careful with them and we haven't had an issue with heat stroke yet with the dogs (we have more issues with the people because we don't think about ourselves as much as we do them).

Growler, we've done both tunnel relays and flyball in our demos, but the tunnel relays are more exciting for the audience. LOL at the SDC website thing, I'm the one that does the brags.... www.sdcbrags.blogspot.com

And thanks again to everyone else.

[growler~GateKeeper]

Originally Posted by Byrd

Growler, we've done both tunnel relays and flyball in our demos, but the tunnel relays are more exciting for the audience. LOL at the SDC website thing, I'm the one that does the brags.... www.sdcbrags.blogspot.com

Yeah I figured that's why we never get the full flyball out here Tunnel relays are always fun too

I saw the blog last night but thought the "News & Events" page on the SDC site was funny being "behind in the times" abit

[Byrd]

HAHA Willow is in the News & Events page, also our team is there too. They just don't write about everything that goes on... that's what I'm for, if people would actually send me stuff.

[growler~GateKeeper]

I saw her in there , was expecting the newest results

[Byrd]

No, I really don't think the newest accomplishment would make it into the news and events section. Sorry. But, hey, that's what the brag blog is for.

[kigndano]

thats awesome!

i hope i can some day report news that my pup has set the iwpa record for mals in weight pulling.


highly unlikely but you have to aim high right?

willow does look super "in the zone" in those pictures, its pretty amazing.

[Stacer]

Good work Willow!! I bet she'll break under 4 soon!

Do bigger dogs do well in flyball? I think it would be awesome to get Skylar into something like that.

[marko]

Congrats Byrd and Willow

and those are good shots indeed - quite a challenge to get sharp shots like that when doogers are moving so fast!

[Byrd]

kigndano, aim high, it's the only way! I used to have a saying "Dream, dream big, and don't be afraid of failure" always a good one because if you're afraid you'll fail than you just won't do.

Stacer, depends on how big. Border Collies are the best at the sport it seems. Huge dogs don't do well at all, you wouldn't see many Great Danes playing. Small dogs are a necessity as the height of your jumps are based on the height of the smallest dog on your team (therefore they are called the 'height dog'). I'm aiming to get her to a 3.9, but I think she wouldn't pull it off too often, that is awefully fast. My goal is to get to a U-Fli tournament and get her to go a good run in singles, last year we were third fastest Aussie, I would like to get her to first, unfortunately there aren't too many U-Fli tournaments.

Marko, our photographer is awesome, that's why he can charge so much for the photos. LOL We bought the CD though, so we have them all for $5 each person.

[Byrd]

I get to be proud of Willow in a different sport now... Dock Jumping.

She jumped an average of 10' 4" with a best of 11' 6". We won first place in the Junior division!

Not too shabby for a non-water breed.

[DoubleRR]

Awesome--have never seen anything but retrievers in dock jumping!

Flyball is such fun--when I was helping train a friends aussies in the early 80's we had to make our own flyball box from springs, wood and a tuna can to hold the ball--how times have changed, My lab did very well at it for a lab--she loved the attention.

[Byrd]

Actually some of our better jumpers are Border Collies and Jack Russels. The top dock jumper in Ontario is a Border Collie who jumps 25.5 feet. The JRT that was there yesterday and took first for micro dog jumped 20 feet, and the overall best dog was 23 feet, he was a Lab.

We have a Lab on our flyball team who runs 4.1 seconds! It's a sport for any breed, that's one of the things I love about it.

Times have changed, the FB box that our team is buying is costing us $1600!!!