another flyball milestone

The last weekend in September was another flyball tournament for us, this time one in a new location hosted by a club that hasn't hosted before.  The weather was kind of rotten (high winds and heavy rain...ick), but the venue was suitable and had good RV parking, so we were happy enough.  Our A team won Division 1 on both days, and Ezri earned her Flyball Grand Champion 40k on Saturday - that's forty thousand points earned over four years and two months, and 40% of the way to my goal for her which is HOBBES, the hundred-thousand-point title.  One of my flyball friends took some great photos this weekend, which I was happy to see that he's putting up for sale now online - photography isn't cheap, after all!

I love, love, LOVE this photo of Ezri leaping off the box - she looks so strong and fast, and of course she's chomping that tennis ball flat into submission.  This is the essence of flyball, to me - athletic dogs having a ball playing the sport that they love.

As usual, there was a wait here and there for technical problems or conflicts between the rings (one club racing in one ring and on deck in the other is the usual issue), and he got a great picture of us hanging out and waiting.  Even when lying down, Ezri is not particularly relaxed when she's in the ring...she just waits...

Martok did great in both Friday and Saturday night green dog work opportunities, although we just had him do flat recalls with distractions due to his healing shoulder.  His focus is amazing and I'm super proud of him...and of course he's a giant dork as this photo shows.

I love this photo of Martok tugging, with his ears flattened out, his legs braced to pull, his tail curled up happily, and those teeth going GRRR at me.  Such a great puppy!

I'm very happy that Martok's shoulder is all healed up now, whatever was causing him to limp has gone away and he's doing just fine.  Thank goodness it was just a strain or growing pains!  I played chuckit with them in the yard on Friday, plus he did over-back jump practice on Thursday and Sunday, and he's doing really well.  We'll be starting him on wall work in November, and if his progress continues as it is now, he'll be debuting in March.  Attaboy!

Next post will be all about the Tough Mudder run that Chris ran yesterday...he succeeded and I'm so proud of him!