Harry Houdini ONYX

We did it! Harry ended what may be his last flyball tournament with 20,021 points, earning his ONYX title in nearly the last race on Sunday with just 21 points to spare.

Harry started flyball in Salt Lake City in 2000. He's run with four different clubs and dozens of different dogs. He's raced in Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and Texas. But these are just details. Harry lives for flyball. For him, there is no other game worth playing.

He needed 611 points for the title. His team, Dogz in da Hood, has been running incredibly well, but that's a lot of points for a two-day tournament. So many things could happen. I kept telling myself the titles are for the people, that Harry didn't care about how many points he had, that he just wanted to run fast and bark loudly. I figured that he probably would not get the title and while that was tremendously disappointing I had already moved past that. I wanted to have a good time with my flyball friends and let Harry play the game that he loves more than anything else.


Perhaps the entire weekend was charmed.

It started when I showed up at the La Quinta in Huntsville to discover that my room had already been paid for. Really? I couldn't recall giving a credit card number for the La Quinta. A bit tired and road buzzed from the long drive, it took me about an hour to figure things out. While I still don't know all of the details, it seems that various sneaky members of Dogz Rule! and Utah Tail Blazers schemed and planned and emailed and got my room paid for. Duwain from DR!, who runs the lovely red BC Eris on Harry's team, got to the hotel around noon to make absolutely sure he would be there before me and get everything taken care of. When I called my friend Gosia from the Tail Blazers, she kept saying, we want you to race and have a good time without having to worry about anything.

It is simply impossible for me to thank all of you for what you did. Any words I can offer are inadequate, I think. Your generosity is amazing and I am blessed to have friends like all of you.

So what else happened during this charmed weekend? There are some highlights on the club blog but this post is all about Harry.


Hoodz' first race was a bit scary. We had an error in the first heat and lost, then broke out not once, but twice, losing the entire race and jeopardizing our team's ability to stay in the tournament. The dogs were on fire, passing was great, and, well, they were simply running too fast.

After some serious strategizing, we pulled it together and Hoodz proceeded to sweep their division, giving up only a handful of heats while winning all of their remaining eight races over the weekend. We stomped the competition early, easily winning on consistency and time again and again.

Of course, it would not do to make it too easy. We had a bit of a flutter in the first race on Sunday when we pulled in a time that was only 0.02 seconds over breakout. Still, it was technically over breakout. Whew!

At the end of racing on Saturday, Harry had earned 305 points, half of what he needed for his title. It was clearly going to a very tough go with only four races on Sunday.

By the fourth race on Sunday, which was nearly the last race of the tournament, Harry only needed 34 points for his title. We needed to run clean twice to achieve this--didn't even have to win, just run clean twice. I was worried. People and dogs were getting tired. It was late in the day and we had a very long day of racing on Saturday. A single early pass or dropped ball would be enough to prevent us from getting those 34 points.

I was trying not to be nervous. I knew the team had been running like a well oiled machine for two days and I trusted my teammates. Harry, Eris, Sisko, and Trixi are dogs that race to win. Duwain, Karl, and Ben are excellent handlers. It is an honor to be in the ring with such a tight team. Since Harry runs in start position, I get to see the entire team lined up to my left, and after I complete my runback with Harry, I turn and watch them complete their runs while I tug with him and tell him how awesome he is.


So we go in the ring for that fourth race, get lined up, and we're off. We won the first heat with a time that got us 25 title points. I started to cry because we were so close. He was so close. Could we do it? Flyball is serious business for Harry so I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, then nodded to the judge that we were ready to run again.

The entire run happened in slow motion for me. I released Harry. He had a good start and his usual solid race time and when he came back to me, I dropped to my knees with his tug at the back of the ring and watched as Eris and Sisko passed and Eris and Duwain came racing back beside us, then Ben released Trixi while Karl and Sisko came running back, then Trixi with her perfect turn and race back to Ben right down the middle of the lane. Then I held my breath because the race isn't over until the judge calls it. It's not very sporting to celebrate even when you know you've won because the other team may still be running. It was only when Lawrence pushed the button and the timer displayed our total time that I could get up, Harry in my arms, for our celebration.

Lots of hugging and tears. Even our boxloader Lauren came running all the way down the ring to join in!


But the race wasn't over! With a 3 out of 5 format, we had to run at least one more heat. Mike Smith from Texas Twisters, the team we were racing, said, you are going to let us win one now, right? And after all that, I looked at him and said, hell no!

Harry and I got into position but I must have looked a bit shellshocked because Kim, our coach, came over and asked me if I was okay. I said, yes, yes, I am okay. I can do this. And I proceeded to release Harry early and get our first and only false start of the entire weekend! It was pretty funny and helped release a lot of tension for me.

We started that third and final heat again. It was going smooth until Trixi had an awkward bobble at the box and ended up going entirely around the box chasing the ball rolling on the ground, but like the professional that she is, she managed to get in the lane and return over the jumps. Even with the bobble, even with a time over 24 seconds, we still beat the other team!

We cut it very close with only 21 points over the 20,000 that Harry needed for his title. But we sure went out with a bang!

Harry Houdini turned 11 years old this month. He ran several 4.8 second runs on Saturday, mostly 4.9 second runs. On Sunday, he slowed to consistent 5.0's with a few 5.1's thrown in. I was able to keep his starts between 0.1-0.2 seconds. Not super tight but perfectly respectable.

While he may be slowing down just a little, his enthusiasm and love of the game have never waned. Harry is so deserving of this title and I am so proud that I could accomplish it with my friends from Dogz Rule!


We could not have done it without you! It was not just a team but a club effort, a multi-club effort. Your support and love and encouragement and yes, even your money, have helped me so much during this particularly crummy time in my life. I wanted this tournament to be a time of celebration, and so it was. Thank you many many times over!