Countdown

The current countdown is not the time until we leave for the trip, it is counting down the time until we pick up our rental van! We cannot wait to start packing it. If all goes well, we will have much more time to pack than we did last year! And it will even be light outside! But don't want to jinx it. More news tomorrow, hopefully with gratuitous van photos!

Blog CPR!

Yes we are going to try to bring our poor neglected blog back to life! We figured that our trip to CanAm will be full of stuff to post about, or at least stuff that might be worth reading :-) We're picking up the van tomorrow, so let the adventure begin!

Boo for flyball politics!

Flyball politics, what the heck does that even mean? Why do they exist and why can't they just go away? Politics have a way of always making their way into everything. It's such a shame! Boo for flyball politics!!

We all play flyball to have fun with our dogs, right? Most of us play flyball as our hobby, not for a living. Hobbies are supposed to be the fun part of our lives. There is so much crap going on in the world today, why bring politics and general nastiness into flyball?

As with life, you are not going to get along with everyone in flyball, that is a given. We are all adults and since we have made it this far in life, then I am sure everyone has gone through arguments and disagreements with people. Since we are adults and live in a civilized society, we learn to deal with these situations in a mature manner. We may not always agree with how we are treated, but then we no longer associate with those people anymore.

I guess all the tension arises because the flyball world is such a small one. This makes it nearly impossible to just walk away and no longer associate with a person or group that you no longer get along with. Maybe that is why flyball politics can get so ugly? Can't we still try to act like mature adults? Am I saying that I have always acted like this awesome mature adult that I talk about? No, I admit to being angry, hurt and acting unreasonable. But as time goes on, I can think about things rationally and I try my best to move on and look at the big picture: having fun with my dogs! They don't care what is going on with other people or other teams. They don't care what kind of politics or BS is going on. A good lesson to learn from the dogs!

We started X Flyball with one major goal in mind: to have a fun, positive experience with our dogs. In order to reach this goal we decided that we wanted nothing to do with the politics of flyball. We don't care what team you play for, what color your team is, where you live, how fast your team is, or what organization you play for. We are just out there to have fun and be as competitive as possible. As X approaches its first year as a team we have struggled to stay out of the politics of flyball, but we all feel that we are much happier for it. I hope that whatever the situation is, we can all can take the time to look at the bigger picture.

Fall Tournaments!

We have all decided that flyball out west is crazy with its scheduling.  We have several times each year where there are no tournaments for 2-3 months (such as the summer), and then there is a three month period where there seems to be a tournament almost every weekend (fall)!  It is excruciating to have to make the call to not go to a tournament when we all love playing with our dogs so much.

This fall our team has had to make some really tough tournament decisions based not only on cost (entry fees, travel, hotel, etc.) and time off work, but also just to not over-work our dogs and have time to fix training issues if they come up at tournaments. 

Keeping in mind the big trip that we have planned to St. Louis in November, we also had to think about balancing that with our local fall tournament schedule.  The St. Louis trip alone will mean at least a week off from work for everyone, not to mention travel expenses.  Had we decided to forgo the championships this year, we probably could have afforded to go to a few more fall tournaments!  But we are hoping that we made some good decisions this year and that our green dogs will get some valuable racing experience this fall before heading east.

We are so excited about the big trip, especially getting to see our friends on teams that we do not get to see or race against very often!  We can't wait to see everyone!

Summer of X

Everyone on X has been keeping busy this summer!  Besides our regular flyball practices, we have all been getting our dogs out to keep in condition, cross-train in other sports, and just to have fun.

This past weekend half of our team was able to help out at Lickety Splits' annual Training Days workshop.  It was a great event and a really fun way to spend the weekend.  It was wonderful to see so many green dogs and handlers make so much progress in such a short time.  Lickety Splits has helped our team so much - we were thrilled to be able to reciprocate by helping out this weekend.

All of our dogs love swimming, so they have all been doing a lot of that so far this summer. The Vegas crew is fortunate enough to have Kathy and Alex's ginormous pool, which has already hosted several mega-dog-swim-fests.  In fact, one of my favorite memories of this summer will always be driving up to race at Stampede's June tournament one day, then driving back to Vegas and swimming all of the dogs that night at Kathy and Alex's pool. When you also add Alex's killer grilled burgers and hot dogs, it was a totally perfect day and just what summer should always be about.

We have also had a blast swimming and hanging out with Rude Dogs West.  You all rock!  THANK YOU!

Here in San Diego, we have been taking our dogs to Fiesta Island pretty regularly to run and swim.  (I'm not gonna lie, Fiesta Island is a freaking awesome place to take your dogs: it is a 90 acre fenced in dog beach.)  I have also discovered a great place to take my dogs for a straight-up swimming workout.  Cutting Edge K9 Rehab is only 10 minutes from my house.  You can do physical therapy with your dog if needed, or if you have healthy dogs, you can rent pool time and do 30 minutes of nonstop water retrieves.  It is awesome exercise for my dogs, not to mention they do not run crazy around the pool and shred their feet!

Dragon and Seek at Cutting Edge K9. photo by Trish Penick

Speaking of swimming, we on X are giving our dogs electrolytes to drink prior to going into the water this summer.  Water toxicity is something that everyone with water-loving dogs should be aware of. It is a life-threatening condition that has happened to quite a few dogs that we know.  Pre-loading your dog with electrolytes can help prevent this from happening, but always be observant of your dogs in the pool (or hose, sprinkler, etc), especially if they are prone to swallowing water as they swim. 

We are all looking forward to our next practice all together as a group.  Although being geographically separated is annoying most of the time, when we do get together, it is always cool to see how much some of our dogs have improved since the last time we saw them.

Rest In Peace Cobydog

For those of us who play flyball, we will always have that one special dog who introduces us to the world of flyball. What a world it is! Anyone who plays flyball knows it's one crazy world to live in. When we play flyball with our dogs there comes a point when we all realize that it's more of a partnership than an owner and dog relationship. We spend endless hours training, travel all over and we share the love of the game with our dogs. Flyball dogs are not just pets, they are our partners in crime, companions, and above all else they are beloved family members. The dog that introduced Kathy to flyball was Coby, lovingly referred to as Cobydog.

Cobydog was a beautiful blue Australian Cattle Dog. Everyone who saw him thought he was beautiful. His full name was Ch. Castle Butte's Cobalt Blue. In his early years he was shown and earned his Championship in the show ring. Coby was always super high drive and was very hard to show because he had such high toy drive. Other competitors knew this about Coby so they would bring squeaky toys into the ring and try to distract Coby on purpose. But no one could take away from his good looks so he earned his Championship anyway!

Flyball was the perfect sport for Coby: he was able to use his high drive and the game involved a ball and barking!! Kathy and Coby quickly became hooked on flyball and the rest is history! Coby loved the game of flyball and earned his FMX in NAFA. He had to retire at the age of 9 because he was losing his vision, but even with limited sight he ran his last race with the same gusto he started with. That was what Coby was all about. He put his whole heart into everything and always knew how to have a good time. Not only was he a great flyball dog, he was also Kathy's protector. Kathy always felt safe when going on hikes alone, walking alone or just being at home alone. Coby's bond with Kathy was so strong he would protect her against anything.

Today the X family is grieving and giving our dogs extra hugs today because Kathy and Alex had to make one of the hardest decisions that anyone ever has to make. Coby will forever be in our hearts. He was the coolest ACD I ever met. He had this huge heart and just this awesome spirit. Every time I saw him he had a huge smile on his face. He always had a toy in his mouth and was game to do anything. He lost all his vision but he didn't care. He lived life to the fullest and always had fun! We should all live our lives like Coby lived his.

Somewhere out there Cobydog has his sight back and is running around with his Polly pig and of course barking up a storm and is just as happy as he ever was! We love you and will miss you Cobydog!