Flyball is a Full Contact Sport

DR! returned to Huntsville August 14th & 15th for Texas Heat's Great Balls of Fire tournament.  In past years, the August tournament has been a little bit smaller since some clubs are still recovering from Reliant.  Not this year - there were something like 40 teams!

We took our regular traveling teams - 4 Dogz with Ballz and Dogz in Da Hood.  No new club bests, but a highlight of the weekend was Pooper (fka Velvet - see previous blog post) running in BOTH lanes!  Pooper is a smart dog, new to the sport and realized how much quicker it was to bypass the jumps when racing another dog.  Pooper only did this in the right lane.  With the help of Kim's agility expertise (normal handler Duwain was out braving the treacherous rapids on a river), Pooper ran pretty much error free.

Pooper did, however, need to break in her new handler.

 

It's all fun and games until somobody loses an eye

 Now the club *may* try to blame the injuries on me as I have been known for things like shoving teammates into to the ring gates (Marcy) and punching folks in the mouth (Kim), but there were very good reasons for my violence - 

1. Marcy cut in front of me when we were racing (she forgot she was not running anchor).  I had a split second decision of her or me - I chose me. 
2. During one of those "oh crap I think I am going to early pass" moments, I hesitated for a split second, threw my arms back and felt my closed fists collide with something . . . I thought "now that doesn't feel like a dog" . . . my suspicions were confirmed when I heard the scream

So despite my history, I promise you I was not involved in the recent bout of injuries.

Anyway, back to the topic of the tournament.  BOTH of our teams took FIRST place in our respective divisions (Regular II - 4 Dogz & Open II - Hoodz).  Yep, we rock.

Newer member Alissa caught the fast flyball dog bug by running the ride which we call Marz.  And if I do say so myself, she did a spectacular job!  Even got a 3.94 on the clock with him.  Awesome job Alissa!

Oh, and even though Duwain was not in attendance, we managed to get a sleeping beauty pic.  Though this one is staged, me thinks Kim did a great impersonation.  The ball cap and ever so slightly opened mouth seal the deal.

P.S. To go along with the Flyball is a Full Contact Sport topic, apparently Veronica may have a torn ACL.  How'd she get it?  My dog.  Yep, Marz is as gentle as I am with our teammates.

Mr. Bill does Reliant Nap Time

Flyball can be exhausting.  That's why it is a good idea to catch some shuteye in the down time between races.  Except when Mr. Bill's around.

Even other clubs are not safe from Mr. Bill's inquisitive nature.

However, Mr. Bill does prefer the ladies.  He's a bit of a peeping tom.

And how could we resist . . .

Mr. Bill Does Reliant . . . DR! Style

Well kiddos, sorry for the late tournament synopsis.  This weekend is the August tournament so I figured, whoops, I procrastinated a bit too long so better get cracking.

It's been a couple of weeks since DR! returned from a weekend at the biggest Texas flyball tournament held during the Reliant Series of Dogs Shows.  It was a bucket o' fun.

This year we tried a new home away from home at the La Quinta Galleria.  It was high class.  Even had an elevator.  

How many dogs can fit on an elevator?  Apparently a lot.

Misfitz ran during Friday's 1 day tournament.  I did not arrive until that evening (all by myself thank you very much Garmin) but Kim was really good about texting updates.  I especially liked the text about Pooper (the dog formerly known as Velvet).  Pooper ate a bunch of Xero's Evo dog food and pooped non-stop ALL WEEKEND.  Misfitz lost their very first heat because Pooper fouled in the ring.  Pooper fka Velvet, you may have the title of being the "Dog Most Full of Poo," but Mim still reigns as the "Only Dog able to Poop and Run Flyball at the Same Time and Still Beat the Other Dog."

Pooper fka Velvet did redeem herself and ran spectacular the rest of the day with lots of potty breaks.

After Friday night awards, we all gathered for dinner.  The Fart Machine was not in attendance this time, but we did have a special guest.  Duwain was very thoughtful and requested a booster seat so our new friend could see above the table.

Oh noooooo, Mr. Bill

The atmosphere of the restaurant was very relaxing and casual.  It did have its perks being a Mexican food restaurant - there was live entertainment.  Mr. Bill enjoys a good mariachi number.

Ooooooooollllllllleeeeeee Mr. Bill

Mr. Bill even fronted us some cash so we could put in some requests.  We picked songs that Mr. Bill was familiar with so he could sing along.

The food was pretty tasty.  There's nothing like cheesy-going-right-to-your-thighs-enchiladas  after a day of running flyball.  Some of the folks took advantage of our choice of restaurant and got themselves some of those gigantor margaritas.  Mr. Bill was one of them.  Boy is he frisky when he gets a little liquored up.

Naughty Mr. Bill sneaks a peek.

After dinner, we left the restaurant and headed back to the La Quinta so we could get a good night's rest before the Saturday / Sunday tournament.  Stay tuned for details on the weekend results . . .

Gearing Up for the Big One

Next week is the biggest Texas tournament of the year. Lone Star Ruffnecks hosts Let Freedom Run during the Reliant Series of Dog Shows.  It truly is a Texas-sized tournament with tons of doggie stuff to see and do.

Texas teams look forward to this event every summer. There's lots of good racing and more importantly, lots of good shopping.  There is every type of doggie vendor you can think of . . . plus some.  You can end up spending tons of money on things you didn't know you needed.

Also, flyball isn't the only event - there's agility, freestyle, frisbee and of course, conformation. 

This year we'll be heading to Reliant with 3 teams (yes, we finally have enough members in attendance to form 3 teams!!) and some new members.  It should be a flyballin' fun time (especially if Duwain brings along the Fart Machine).

Smells Like DR! Spirit!

After missing the May tournament, Dogz Rule! was more than ready to get back out in the rings and have some fun!  Oh, and we also played a little flyball too.

Hot Rod Hounds hosted this one and they did a fantastic job.  This time the tournament was back in Huntsville.   Did you know that Huntsville has the oldest TX prison facility (opened in 1849)?  It's a true fact - I googled it to make sure.  Check out Wikipedia if you don't believe me.   

We fielded two teams - 4 Dogz with Ballz (Division II) and Dogz in Da Hood (Open II).  Da Hoodz had it rough in their division; racing format was 3 of 3.  Once you get warmed-up after running a couple of heats, the race is over!  However, with several close races, they fought tooth and nail to snag a SECOND place win.  Pretty darn sweet!

Veronica and Boxloader Extraordinaire (aka Stephen) napping between races

Trixi was running lots of sub-6 times and even posted a 5.7 on the clock.  Perhaps she is like a fine wine?  Gets better with age?  Or perhaps it was because Kim actually got to run her some races -  I can't even remember the last time Kim got to run her own dog.  We likey when Trixi gets a fire under her bum.

The other Hoodz dogz (Nico, Eris, Sisko, Stella, Scooter) also ran really well.  Nico, the canine face of Hotel Contessa in San Antonio, pulled a new personal best of 4.67!!  Nico's trying not to let his modeling career go to his head.  But sometimes it is hard to be a celebrity.

Don't Judge.  Tis De Fame, De Pressure.  Tis hard to be bootiful. 

Our 4 Dogz with Ballz took third in Division II.  Well, we actually tied for second in tournament points, but LSR had one more heat on us.  BUT, that's not the good news!  DR! set a NEW CLUB BEST of 17.221 17.111 17.092!  Line-up was Remix, Marz, Ryp and Velvet.  Not bad for Velvet's second tournament.

Other points of interest:

• Newest member Alissa proving she knew how to party DR! style by showing up to dinner Friday night and getting pulled over by Huntsville's finest for having a headlight out.  She sweet talked him in to letting her off with a warning.  Atta girl!
• Duwain brought our newest FAVORITE toy to dinner . . . The Remote Controlled FART MACHINE.  Hilarity ensued.  We remotely activated those fart sounds throughout dinner.  It's amazing how fart sounds have the potential to bring people together.  They even enticed the nice young and impressionable children at the table behind us to start making fart noises with their hands.  The parents were none too pleased with us.

Tears of Laughter due to the Fart Machine.  It really is new and improved!

• Flyball Newbie Stephen (BLE=Boxloader Extraordinare) boxloaded for both teams and did a fantastic job!  He didn't even flinch when 3 dogs came running down the lane at the same time (more on this in a later post).
• Kim calmly stating "It smells like farts" in the lane right as the lights started going up the tree.  I do believe I was a little late on Remix's release I was laughing so hard thinking about the previous night's dinner (see Fart Machine above).

 And, what you all have been waiting for . . . 

Sleeping Beauty

The Longest Tournament in the World

Well, maybe not the longest tournament in the world.  Though fun, it was a long weekend.  It's been a week and I think I am still recovering.  It kind of reminded me of the good ole days of flyball . . . yes, kiddos, back in the day when we would travel through snow to the tournament site with crates strapped on our backs, time by hand and the judges would start the races by flailing their arms.

But, seriously, DR! thanks TX Twisters for putting on a great tournament.  It was packed full of racing and all the flyball anyone could ask for.

Marz over the jumps. Photo courtesy of Ruetz Dogz Photography

As in usual DR! fashion, the weekend started off with our regularly scheduled drama - except this time when I called Kim, I was able to say "It's not one of my dogs for once!"  This time it was our flyball running machine, Eris, the Goddess of Discord and Strife.  She suddenly came up with an intermittent limp on her front leg . . . although I think that since all my pups were healthy, Eris took it upon herself to make sure we stressed out a bit.  She takes her job as Goddess very seriously.  Even if we don't.

Photo courtesy of Ruetz Dogz Photography

With some last minute lineup changes (thank goodness it was two 1 day tournaments!), Our Hoodz team was able to secure SECOND place on both Saturday and Sunday in Division V with running dogz of: Sisko, Scooter, Pogo, Trixi AND the recipient of the first Harry Houdini award, , Velvet. Yes indeedy - our very own Velvet made her debut and did fantastic for her first time achieving her FD and FDX! With a P.B. line-to-line of a 4.18, she'll be a fantastic addition to the A team!

4 Dogz (Remix, Marz, Ryp and Stella) ran well in Division II taking THIRD on Saturday and SECOND on Sunday.  We ran multiple 17 sec runs and were oh so close to setting a new club record.  Stella was so rev'd up by Marz that she forgot she was afraid of the whistle.  And her smack talkin' got Marz going, he ran a good majority of his runs sub-4 line-to-line (thank you to Karen from TDR for sharing the secrets of video timing!  My type-A personality is in heaven!).

4 Dogz - them's fightin' words. Photo courtesy of Ruetz Dogz Photography

Even more exciting was the warm-up debut of Sena's pups - Nick and Rue. With Sena's hard work and dedication, it won't be long until we see those two in the lane!

With what little downtime we had, we spent it as we usually do - reviewing video and of course . . . causing trouble.

Be verwy, verwy, qwiet, I'm hunting wabbits . . . er, rubber chickens.
Dey like de wine - brings em out of hiding.

Thanks again to TXT for a fun weekend!

Shamrocks + Greasy Cheeseburgers = Good Fun

Dogz Rule! is home after another flyball-filled weekend in Huntsville. Top Dog Racers were our hosts at their annual Shamrock Showdown tournament and as always, they did a fantastic job.  It's the little things they do - like hand lotion and good smelling soaps in the bathroom - that make the tournament all that much more fun. 

Just a handful of DR! members were in attendance - The Ruetzes, Sena, Kathy, Duwain, myself, Veronica and her newly flyball addicted man, Steve.  Welcome to the world of flyball Steve.  Yes, we are crazy dog people.

L to R - Veronica with Nico, Ben with Ryp, Kathy with Marz, Me with Remix.  Those are Steve's legs in the background.  Yes, we put him to work.

Photo Courtesy of RuetzDogz Photography 

The day started out with the luck of the Irish behind us . . . we were able to win our first race against LSR's A team (haha! That's what you get for GOOSING us last time!).  Then things were a bit sticky. We lost one race due to ball dropping (um, Ryp, it is called flyBALL) and another due to an itchy trigger finger (if the early pass hat was there, I'd be wearing it).

After a couple of not-so-pretty races, we recovered and were able to get it together.  The Misfitz (a bunch of team dogz that normally do not race together) ended up placing SECOND in Division II.  We even ran in the 17s several times!

Some of the good times included:

• Large Greasy Cheeseburgers (no false advertising here)

• ERIS, Goddess of Discord and Strife, achieving her FMCh (15,000)

 Photo Courtesy of RuetzDogz Photography

• Ben learning not to get your appendages between a terrier and the toy 
• New-to-Dogz-Rule! but not to flyball, Nico, making his debut with the club.
• Ryp walking away with his FM (5,000) and Remix earning her FDCh (500)

*Shameless Brag Warning* 
 My little Remix did spectacular for her second tournament.  She was running mostly 4.0s and then, on Sunday, ran some 3.9s over her own jump height!!!  Now if I can only tighten that turn . . . (sigh) flyball truly is like crack.

Good Times! January 30-31 Tournament

After a long fun weekend, DR! is home and resting their flyball muscles (you know . . . the muscles you only know you have because they ache after a tournament?). It was a successful tournament in Huntsville and co-hosts Electric Dawg and Flat Out Flyers did a spectacular job. Good times were had all around.

Both 4 Dogz with Ballz and Dogz in Da Hood took 2nd place in their respective divisions.

Highlights include:

• 4 Dogz getting GOOSED by LSR. Not once but twice.
  
• Karl finishing his provisional judging hours and applying to become an APPROVED judge.

• Duwain's BC, Velvet, made up for the last Huntsville visit (where she decided playtime was not over and took a tour of the fairgrounds). She ran several full runs in warm-ups. Lookin' good Velvet, lookin' good.
• Kim boxloaded for the first time in 11 years of flyball! Though difficult to resist, she made sure not to pet the dogs as they ran by and there were no flags on our boxloader!
• Trixi ran sub-6 line-to-line the majority of the tournament. She even has a new PB of 5.5. Perhaps Kim will be boxloading more often???

• Ben ran Ryp on 4 Dogz for multiple races. After a couple of near collisions with Jenn & Hawkeye (running anchor tends to make you forget there are dogs behind you), he found his spot, got some good passes AND allowed Jenn to see for the pass.
  

You may ask why I wasn't running Ryp for these races? It is because REMIX made her debut and earned her FD & FDX! Aside from a couple of no-balls due to excitement, she did great for her first time in the lanes AND first time over her height of 9".

• Sandra - Flyball Photographer Extraordinaire - launches RuetzDogz. With a brand new camera (Sandra only got it the day before), a crazy huge zoom lens, low light settings and fast action, she was able to get the hang of it in no time and snap some great action shots! Unfortunately for her, this means we will be bugging her for photos of our dogz in action!!!

Overall it was a great tourney. The Hoodz dogz and 4 Dogz ran well and were solid. We're looking forward to March with the Misfitz team.

A Great Weekend of Flyball Indeed!

Dogz Rule! had a great weekend of flyball in Huntsville. We're all home and boy, are we pooped!

4Dogz held onto a strong second place in their division with some really tight runs, even sweeping one of Top Dog Racer's teams at the end of the day on Sunday in three clean heats. We had 10 exciting runs in the 17's!

After a scary first race where they broke out TWICE, Hoodz swept their division (they gave up a few heats but no races except for that first one all weekend) and took first place. No doubt about it, we stomped the competition into submission.

Rumz was in an Open division with a large spread in seed times. With two seconds between the first seeded team and their own seed, it would have been difficult to win on time, so our principal goal was to run clean (and thus win on consistency), give the six dogs as much mat time as possible, and have a good time. By forcing the other teams to fight for their wins and taking heats here and there in every race, we mixed up the placement order by the end of the weekend. It's great to be a spoiler!

Here are some weekend highlights:

• Harry got his ONYX title with 21 points to spare (more on the circusk9 blog).

• Ryp and Sisko got their FDCH-Gold titles.

• Lauren punched Kim in the mouth. I'll let one of them provide gory details.
  

• Marz ran a personal best of 3.88 seconds. I was honored to handle him all weekend.

• Bad dog Velvet ran away and half a dozen DR! people mobilized to look for her. She was found; it probably took longer to find all of the DR! people and get them back to the arena.

• Kim wants to be The Most Interesting Woman in the World.
  

• Duncan raced all weekend (he ran in 7 of Rumz' 8 races), had some great saves from box bobbles, looked very hard at a JRT in the other lane, and still decided to return to Jenn. We won't be able to call him a green dog for much longer!
  

• Ben box-loaded for Rumz all weekend. I think he now better understands one of the basic box-loader tenets: after the fourth dog comes through, always reload the box with a ball, any ball.

• Ivy is looking fantastic, completing several full runs in her warm up slot with Hoodz.

• Thirteen-year-old Wich ran two error-free races, both of which included four heats, with beautiful four-foot box turns. He was so excited to be racing with his buddies. Old Dogz Rule!
  

• Our prez Karl is being fast-tracked for NAFA judge certification and it seemed like he was in the ring all weekend in his black-and-white stripes. He judged quite a few DR! races and has to be commended for his professionalism and calmness. Of course, he was also tapped to judge Human Flyball on Sunday. Karl, does that count towards the certification?

• Hoodz was undefeated all weekend, except for the first race where we broke out twice, beating the other team on time although NAFA didn't quite see it that way.
  

Dogz Rule! Off To Huntsville

The club is heading off to Huntsville, Texas, for a great weekend of flyball hosted by our good buddies Texas Heat. They are trying out a new facility there and we are all excited about checking it out.

As usual, most of us are staying at the always-pet-friendly La Quinta!

Allow me to share a personal La Quinta story with you. I drove to Utah this past December with three of my dogs to spend the Christmas holiday with my good friend Gosia. The weather was threatening to become horrific--giant snow storm on its way down from the northwest. I was racing west and north as fast as I could. On our second day, I made it from Amarillo to Moab but found I just couldn't drive any farther. It was December 23 and I was worried about getting a room. Any room. As I was cruising down the main drag in Moab, I saw the familiar LQ sign. I parked, went in, and found they had rooms available! The woman at the desk was welcoming and friendly, and pulled the latest weather reports off the internet after she checked me in. The hotel had a large, clean, fenced potty area out back (with a stocked potty bag dispenser and a large trash can nearby) where the dogs could stretch their legs. As usual for LQ, the room was clean and quiet. We woke the next morning at 5am to heavily falling snow, but that's a whole 'nother story!

My red Dodge rental in the Moab LQ parking lot, December 24, 2008.

Anyway, we are certainly not expecting snow this weekend in Huntsville.

DR! is taking three teams to this small tournament. Stay tuned for results!