Flyball Is In The Air Again

I'm heading to Austin tomorrow for my first flyball practice since late December. Our tournament is in two weeks. I'm anxious about both events.

Harry has had to sit out the last two tournaments and it has been really difficult on lots of levels. I miss hanging out with my flyball club. I miss the excitement and drama of tournaments. I miss Harry becoming tight as a violin string, barking and flinging spit in all directions as I line him up for the box. I know Harry misses all of these things too.

Since the dermatologist vet gave me the go-ahead to ramp up his training, I've been increasing the vigor of our tug games, the length of our walks, and started throwing the ball for him.

I have an old flyball box borrowed from my club. Yesterday, I let Harry work on his turns. I had to pick him up so I could get the ball in the box--I could barely hold on to him because he was barking and lunging for the box and in general working himself into a fine frenzy. His first turns were a bit weak so I released him off to the side to help him get his approach angle like you do when training new dogs. He quickly got into the familiar rhythms and was looking pretty good when we finished.

Tomorrow will give us a much better idea of how he will perform when he has a full lane to run in and other dogs to run with.

I'm still a bit concerned about his toenails--he did tear the tip of one yesterday--but they are looking so much better than they did three months ago.

There's one other thing that I've missed about flyball--the club often asks me to coach our C/D team. Our club creates teams based on speed and error rate. Our C/D team usually is made up of a mix of dogs who may not need to run a full tournament, green dogs who are just getting started with the whole competition thing, and dogs who love to play flyball but just aren't quite fast enough to make it onto the B or A teams. (This is something that I love about Dogz Rule!--they believe that flyball shouldn't be reserved for only the fastest dogs. It's a game lots of different types of dogs can play and enjoy. This is also the philosophy that Gosia and I had when we started Utah Tail Blazers.)

It is the most amazing honor for me when the club asks me to coach that team. I think I'm kind of a hard ass when it comes to coaching but I always try to look at each dog and handler on that team and try to figure out what is going to make them and the team successful. Even the tiniest things can be cause for celebration.

Harry runs on the B team for now. This is a nicely competitive team that almost always places well in its division. I love to win and I love to win with Harry. Believe me, I get emotionally consumed about doing our best as a team when I run with Harry.

But often when I leave a tournament, it is the successes of our C/D team that make the most vivid memories for me.

I'm hoping the club asks me to coach that team again in March because I have really missed being out there in the ring helping my friends run their dogs.