Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Flyball Is In The Air Again (2)


This photo is from the summer of 2005, taken in my backyard in Austin. Clockwise, that's Iz out front as always, Harry, Jack, my neighbor's annoying dachshund, and Jen on my old pause table. It was a hot summer, but I was so excited to have Jen with us. Everyone was healthy and happy.

The Reliant Cluster of Dog Shows is this weekend. It's a big flyball weekend--three days instead of the usual two. Plus lots of clubs from far-flung places come to this show. In the past, we've seen teams from California, Mexico, even Canada. This year, Spring Loaded is running a team. They are the current world record holders: 15.22 seconds for four dogs to run down to the box and back. That's pretty amazing!

Harry lives for flyball. From the very first day (in 2000) that he saw this game, he knew he had found his calling. Since then, we've been with four different clubs in two states and seen a lot of different dogs and handlers.

Dogz Rule! is without any doubt the best club ever.

I wasn't going to run Harry in Reliant. He is ever so close to his Onyx, could possibly get that title this year, and it's a pretty big deal, but I am so worried about money. Traveling to Houston for flyball seems totally frivolous when I am probably going to lose my house.

But with the support of my friends and teammates, Harry and I (and the other five dogs--I save a lot of money by not boarding them) are heading to Houston on Thursday for three fabulous days of flyball fun.

The car is going to be jammed with crates and bedding and food, and of course, six dogs. I'll have to pack and unpack and exercise dogs and potty dogs constantly for three days. But it will be worth it to see my little old man doing what he loves best.

2 comments:

WestMeade said...

Hi D, how late is too late to call on Tues nite, JW in BNA

BC Insanity said...

Go Harry Go!!! That's so awesome for his ONYX. Is it like a freakin' amazing 20,000 points????
Harry is going to be so happy playing flyball again.


But guess what? As far as Spring Loaded's world record - HA HA HA, so passee!!!
The time itself has been broken since that (2005) at least three times (15.21, 15.15, 15.096)
The current world record is 14.963 sec accomplished by Touch 'N Go on May 16, 2009 - and I was there to witness it ... line judging nonetheless.

Check out the world rankings:
http://www.flyball.org.uk/wr/wrank.php


Your old team, the UTB are ranked #274 out of 1036 teams.