ten years of flyball

This weekend, specifically September 22, will mark the ten year point since I became involved in the sport of flyball.  On that day in 2003, my friend Christy and I went to the Gig Harbor "Harbor Hounds Walk the Town" event to check out this dog sport called flyball that I'd heard of, as the Jet City Jumpers flyball club was putting on a demo.  We did the walk back and forth, watched the flyball demos and talked to the club members, and even taught Jadzia the basics of the game - run over the jumps, pick up a ball, and run back over the jumps.  Christy took this photo of her, the very first one of her playing the game that would define her life.

We joined JCJ after this demo, and began Jadzia's flyball training in earnest.  After about six months of training, most to get Jadzia over her fear of the loud noise the box made, we debuted her as a 14" height dog at Cloverdale at the Kings tournament in March 2004.  She earned her FD in her first heat, her FDX in her first race, her FDCh by the end of the first day, and her FDCh-S at the end of her first weekend - over a thousand points in her debut weekend, an impressive feat.  Jadzia was the first member of JCJ to earn FMCh through FGDCh-40k, and earned up to FGDCh-60k and her Iron Dog award before retiring in May of 2013.

A few weeks after joining JCJ, one of the members helped me find a litter of border collie puppies with a male available, and in December we brought home little Curzon at just eight weeks of age.  Curzon taught himself to play flyball at the age of five months after watching Jadzia's debut, and he debuted himself in October 2004 just two days after his first birthday.  Despite time off for boxturn retraining and his rib resection surgery, Curzon raced nearly his whole life, running his last races in March 2013 before we lost him in May.  Curzon was the first dog on JCJ to break 4.0 seconds, and he earned his FGDCh-40k and had he lived a few more months, he would've earned his FGDCh-50k and his Iron Dog award.  He went with me to NAFA Can-Am Nationals twice, once in 2010 and once in 2012, and ran beautifully both times.

In March of 2008, we took Phoebe from her previous owner who was no longer able to care for her.  Phoebe was our "little tank" of a height dog, setting 7" jumps in NAFA and running savage through her thirteenth year of age until she retired in February 2013.  She was the first dog on JCJ to earn her FGDCh-50k and 60k titles, was the Region 7 MVP for 2011, and retired ranked in the top 30 of Jack Russell Terriers.  She's now living with a retired couple in eastern Oregon and enjoying her well-deserved retirement.

Later that summer, my long-awaited red merle girl Ezri was born in Chicago, and came home in September of that year.  She debuted just three days after her first birthday at a tournament in California, and soon became one of the fastest dogs in the club.  Ezri is a joy to run, takes her job very seriously, and has been on a team that broke 16 seconds in UFLI competition with her own time of 3.83 in that race.  She will be earning her FGDCh-40k next weekend, and my goal for her is to get to HOBBES before she retires (100,000 points).  I've taken her to the NAFA CanAm Nationals twice along with Curzon, and she's raced in Arizona, California, Indiana, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia so far, and we'll be adding Utah to that list in October.  Next year we plan to go to UFLI Nationals in St Louis, Missouri.  I'm looking forward to many years of racing my beloved redhead.

Last but not least is little Martok, Ezri's nephew and our also long-awaited baby boy puppy who was born on February 27 and came home just eleven days before we lost Curzon.  He's very intense, drivey, and focused, and is doing great in his flyball training.  I expect that he'll be debuting in March, the first tournament after his birthday, and we're looking forward to seeing what he can do as he grows up.

Of course, the dogs don't tell the whole story of our time in flyball, because there is so much more.  We've made many good friends over the past ten years, and have been part of two wonderful flyball clubs in that time as well.  We've traveled cross-country with teammates, gone on vacation with them, had parties and dog playdates and pool visits with them, and generally had a great time.  Our lives would be very different today if I hadn't looked into the sport of flyball ten years ago, and I'm ever so glad that I did.

a busy weekend for a young dog

I have a post planned in my head, but I need to pull photos off my home computer to do it and I haven't powered it on since the thunderstorms last week.  Hopefully tonight I'll get around to doing that, as I do have bills to pay and that's something that can't wait any longer!  We've had a busy few days, especially for the young dog, so there's plenty to post about today even without the planned post-to-be.

Last week I decided to be brave and try taking both of the merles out for my short run together.  I'm using the CanaCross belt, harnesses, and leash that Chris ordered to use for his runs, and they work really well together (although the belt is a bit big for me).  The dogs were nicely responsive, even when a couple of dudebros were ignoring their little yipdogs who raced out into the road after us, and I didn't fall, so I count this as a win.  We did about a mile and a half according to Runkeeper, which is enough for Martok at this age but not nearly enough for Ezri, so she was annoyed.

Martok also got his first sessions with the Manners Minder, which is basically a remote control treat-dispensing robot.  He wasn't scared of it at all, unlike la princessa who still thinks it's evil incarnate, and he was sold when he realized it dispensed treats.  Martok stayed quietly on his bed (or next to it, he's kind of flaily like that) for well over an hour while we played board games with friends, rewarded every couple of minutes with a treat.  It's such a great training tool!

On Saturday we joined our friends from the Jet City Jumpers to do demos at the Riverdog festival in Issaquah, and we had a great time...once we got there.  While traveling down 405 on our way there, one of the back tires on the truck blew out entirely!  I safely got us to the side of the road, and we were all set to change the tire but the wheel refused to come off - which according to the internet, is a common problem and just needs a sledgehammer to knock it loose.  Seeing as we don't keep one of those in the truck routinely, we had to wait until AAA showed up an hour later - two taps of his sledgehammer and the wheel was off and we were ready to go just moments later.

The demo was a lot of fun, although the grass was damp for the first session so only the older/slower dogs were able to race safely.  Jadzia was happy to fill that role, and Ezri ran in the second session after the grass had dried out a bit.  Our friend Paul got a great shot of her leaping into the box, I just love the concentration on her face!  Martok did training as well, including single-jump recalls on the grass without gates, and over/back training with the jump board and touchstick.  And to wrap up the event, both Ezri and Martok tested for and passed their Canine Good Citizen tests, which will add the CGC title to their names as soon as I send in the paperwork.  First title at six months - not bad for a little border collie boy!

Sunday morning brought flyball practice, of course, where Martok did very well with his training and we'll be adding more to his plate next week.  After practice was over, Gallia and I headed out together to take the ferry to Vashon to go to the herding trial. This trip involved a lot of new things for the puppies, including their first time on a boat!

Martok was a little unsure, but did pretty well and was happy to walk around outside on the deck and up and down the stairs inside.  I think he liked the breeze from the movement of the boat over the water.  And of course, a game of tug with the brother makes it all better - Gallia got this great picture of them playing!

We had a good time watching the herding at the trial, and we stayed for about three hours and enjoyed the event, luckily without getting rained on.  The boys at first were way more interested in playing and romping with each other (much to the other attendees' amusement), but eventually they both caught on that there was something else going on in the field, and then there were lots of pictures like this as they watched intently.

Both puppies did very well, and got to meet a sheep up close as well as see a horse, so it was a big day of firsts for them both!  They were passed out in the car on the way home, and were both tired the remainder of the evening, so it ended a great weekend in a nice calm manner.  Sadly, no such big plans this weekend, but soon there will be flyball tournaments again and lots of fun with friends we haven't seen in a while!

sliding into fall

After most of August off as a break, time to start posting here again!  We had a lovely month, full of all kinds of fun things, most of which I'll touch on here in a photo-heavy wrap-up post.  Hey, those are the most fun, right?

I've been working on the blackberry invasion in our side yard, trimming back and using Round-Up on the stalks once I've cut them to the ground.  I usually have Martok outside with me when I work on this project, as I think lightly supervised solo playtime outside is important for puppies as well as children, and one day he figured out how to eat blackberries off the bushes.  He'd never even HAD a blackberry before that day, which makes it more impressive to me!  Ezri eats berries off the vine as well, but I had to show her where they were the first time out - Martok just did it all on his own.

Our friends were out for a long weekend as one of them did an Ironman triathlon up in Canada, so we kept three of their dogs for them while they were away.  Martok and his favorite girl Flirt (half BC, half mini Aussie) finally stopped playing after about three days and even took a nap together!

We had a tournament in mid-August, rescheduled from April when it was pushed off due to a severe bordetella outbreak in our region. We set a new club record on Saturday of 16.018, with me running my beautiful Ezri in start and Chris running our teammate's dog Savage in second.  Nala and Sprite rounded out the lineup - we think that breaking 16 is going to happen very soon!

Our flyball teammates convinced us to join them for a group run for The Zombie Run, a 5k involving running away from zombies to try and protect your life balloons.  We had a good time, Kristie and I finished in just under 40 minutes so that was kind of exciting, and Chris did really well and finished around 26 minutes I think.  The zombie bit got kind of old near the end, as there were some injuries (I had to jump over someone who fell right in front of me) and at the end there were so many zombies it was impossible to "survive" with any of your life balloons intact.  If there's no way to make it, then that kills the fun for me.  It was a good time with friends, though, and we'll probably do other 5k races together in the future.

And of course, Labor Day Weekend means PAX Prime!  We attended for the eighth year running, with Chris an Enforcer running Unicorn Theater and me being my social self for four days this year, instead of the previous three.  I spent a lot of the weekend running around with other friends, such as my friend Pete in the picture above at the Cards Against Humanity booth, with dinner plans with different groups each night as well as stuff during the day.  I learned how to play Castellan and Zombie Dice, saw some good panels, got my PAX XP prize, and generally had a blast.

And of course, there were buttons.  This was my fourth year doing Buttoneering, and it was definitely a lot of fun.  There were no "dinner plate" buttons this year, so I was able to fit them all on a single bulletin board without hanging off the sides, which was nice!  I still need to move the boards around, as I only have space for the previous three where they are now, but I have a plan for moving them around to a different wall.

Martok continues to grow and learn, and a few weeks ago I took him (along with Ezri and Flirt) to Marymoor Park and the offleash dog area for the first time.  He needed a bit of convincing to swim in the river, but once he figured it out he was having a great time despite the photo above.

And of course, the knitting.  Last night I finished the striped portion of my Color Affection shawl, and miraculously ended up with the right number of stitches.  I have about twelve full-length rows of edging to do and then it's done!
 

I'm also working on a Wingspan shawl, which I picked after getting the most beautiful long-gradient yarn from an Etsy store.  The color made me think of dragon fire (it continues shifting all the way to red), and so a pattern that looks like dragon wings was eminently appropriate.

We are enjoying a bit of a lull here in September, between PAX and when our next batch of flyball competitions starts up again, and it's quite nice.  Chris has decided to do the Tough Mudder run and obstacle course, so he's training for that right now which makes Ezri happy because it involves 8-10 mile runs.  I'm still doing some running, but I'm keeping it short with just 1.25 mile runs or so as my legs and body acclimate to the new activity, plus that's a good distance for little Martok.  Our next tourney is in two weeks, and then we have three straight at the end of October into November - Auburn WA, Hurricane UT, Cloverdale BC.  Hopefully all this running pays off in Ezri's stamina!

big boys go to the big pool

Yesterday I got together with Martok's brother and his owner Gallia to take the dogs to the "big boy" swimming pool that we've gone to for several years.  This was the first time for the boys to swim in a pool without one of us in there with them, but after a short acclimatization period they were pretty excited to jump and swim until we made them leave.  Thanks to Gallia there were quite a few photos taken throughout the day...

Ezri always leaps enthusiastically into the water to go for her ball - she usually gets pretty good distance and is very reliable at bringing her ball back to me.

Jadzia has an adorable little "hop-splash" jump into the pool, she doesn't launch herself very far but it's very cute and she's always happy and wagging her tail.

And then we have the new baby - just LOOK at those legs with full extension, toes wrapped around the edge of the deck, leaping into the pool with intensity.  We're definitely going to have to get that boy into dock dogs!

So handsome, even when he's soaking wet and looks rather ridiculous.  I like the ear turned in response to whatever we were saying to him when the photo was taken.  He even looks relatively even in growth in this picture, which is amazing given that it seems one end or the other is always up higher in the past few weeks!

After swimming time was over, we let the boys run around in the backyard for a while to dry off and get more exercise time in.  I especially like the sideways swerve that Martok is displaying here as he focuses on a frisbee toy that was just thrown.

Such a handsome boy - love the little tongue-flick that was caught in this frame!

And then there's the bitey-face.  Oh, the bitey-face.  Now with adult teeth!

And puppy yoga.  Because why not?

Swimming at the pool was definitely a success for this little boy, and we will happily be going back again in the future!

decals and feetsies

Last weekend was our "relaxing" tournament of the year, one held up in Maple Ridge BC as part of a country fair.  It's a small tournament, typically only about 15 teams show up, and it's run outside on grass in the sunshine while we park the RV's a short walk away in a gravel lot.  This year we had five RV's in our group, so we parked them in two columns with one crossways at the "head" to form a nice private courtyard, and it was lovely.  Previous years have held everything from searing 95-100F heat to surprise thunderstorms with heavy downpours, but this year it was just about perfect with temps in the mid-upper 70F range and beautiful sunshine.  We were the only attendees from Unorthodogs, so I ran Ezri on an Open class team with friends from JCJ and Dogwood Pacesetters, and we had a great time and took home first place in Open on both days.  Ezri had a lot of fun, running a 4.001 in start and a 4.018 in third - not bad for racing on grass!

I took the opportunity to put up some of the new decals I've ordered in recent weeks.  First up are the set of customized border collie silhouettes that I ordered from Blakdogs on Etsy.  I put them up on the side of the RV right by the door, so that I can see them every time I come in or out of the rig.

In the closeup shot below you can see that each silhouette has a heart and the dog's name cut out of the center, and each one is done in the appropriate color we've assigned to each dog.  The wonderful artist even custom-made me one with wings and a halo for my gone but never forgotten Curzon.  I put them up from right to left in order of their appearance in their lives, with Jadzia first and Martok last, of course.  No JRT stickers available, so no Phoebe, but she's still represented in the pawprint stickers on the back windows.

I added the pawprint name sticker for Martok to the back window of the RV, and now it looks severely unbalanced to my eyes.  Clearly I need to get another dog sooner rather than later, purely for aesthetics reasons of course!

We caravaned home with our friends from JCJ, including one family that was on their maiden voyage with their brand new fifth wheel trailer.  We brought up the rear for most of the trip, and the photo below was taken as we were all about to cross the Golden Ears Bridge across the Fraser River to head back to the US/Canada border.

 
And of course, what flyball weekend would be complete without tired border collies?  I loved how Ezri and Martok slept snuggled, with a little pile of feetsies all squished together, so I had to take a photo.  His feet aren't quite as big as hers...yet!

Martok turned five months old on Saturday, and he's just a bouncing ball of energy, love, and play.  I pulled his last two baby molars this weekend, and after a serious chew session with a bully stick both of the adult teeth have crowned through his gums and are on their way up to join the others.  All he has left to lose are his two upper canines, and given how his gums are swollen next to those baby canines it probably won't be much longer until they come out too.  I weighed him this morning and he was 22.9lbs, which is still tracking right in between Ezri and Curzon's growth rates, so I'm still holding to my guess that he'll be 38lbs as an adult.

We shall see, of course.  Bigger surprises have happened in the past, after all!

puppy uncorked

Last weekend Chris' parents visited us for the weekend, which was a nice change for them as it's currently right around 100F and humid in their home in New Jersey, whereas we had beautiful 80F and sunny weather all weekend.  We did quite a few activities while they were here, including a boat tour of Lake Washington, some excellent dinners out, and of course two activities that included the dogs.  On Saturday afternoon we went to Kirkland Uncorked, a wine tasting, food, boat, and art festival right on the waterfront in downtown Kirkland, and we took Martok with us.  He did really well, especially given that he's only four months old, and won all kinds of fans with his good behavior and adorable puppy antics and looks.

Waiting on the bench to go to the first wine tasting tent at the beginning of our afternoon.  It was still cloudy at this point!

Here he is not sure why I put a glass of something sweet smelling (it was blackberry mead) next to him and then wouldn't let him drink it!

The sun was fully out at this point, and he was a little hot and tired by now as we went out to the dock to look at the boats.  This was a whole new experience for him, as the floating docks move around and creak and squeak, so there was a lot of hopping back and forth for dried chicken shreds to get used to it.  He didn't want to jump onto the two boats we put him on, but he was more than happy to jump OFF of them and back onto the dock!

I sat out with him while Chris and his parents got some ice cream for us, and he even put his head down on my foot and snoozed a little bit.  Even though we were only out for about three hours, it was a lot of work and stimulation for the little guy!

On Sunday we went out to the Ballard Locks for a walk in the afternoon, and this time we took Jadzia with us as she doesn't practice flyball anymore like the other two had done earlier in the morning.  She did very well with the crowds and the people, including nice greetings to children who wanted to say hi to her.

Watching a HUGE yacht go through the small lock from the lake to the sound, it filled up the whole thing all by itself!  Jadzia was not terribly impressed, however.

She much preferred the twenty minutes we spent sitting on the grass in the shade while the others went inside the visitors center to learn more about the locks.  The last time Chris and I were here, Curzon was a puppy, so it's been at least nine years since we were here...ah, memories.

And the other big thing this week is that I got a hammock for the back deck.  It's a simple thing, just a fabric sling with a stand, but it's comfortable and it's a hammock, so I'm pretty happy with it.  This is my view if I'm in it when the dogs are outside, however...

Ezri is not much for relaxing, you see.

summer vacation at the beach!

Last week was the summer shutdown for my place of work, and so we took off for the Oregon beach as we have done for several years now.  This year we went almost to California and spent the week in Gold Beach, OR at the Turtle Rock RV Resort which is on Hunter Creek.  It was a nice place, with an easy walk under the 101 out to the beach, and the "creek" is more like a small river that's more than wide and deep (and calm!) enough for swimming, even when it was windy and the waves in the ocean were crazy.  Lots of pictures were taken as you might imagine...here is a selection in no particular order.

I always have to have a posed photo, and the large rockpile between the creek and the beach worked out nicely for that purpose this year.

Our friends who have Martok's littermate Sirius came to join us for our last day/night, and the little boys had a great time wrestling and playing biteyface for hours.  I particularly like this lucky shot I got of them chewing on each others faces!

On July 4 we went for a long (5.5 mile) hike up Humbug Mountain, as it was so windy that going to the beach was not fun for anyone.  Martok did really well, although he was definitely tired by the time we were done!  I managed to get this shot of all three of them while we were on our way back down - I didn't move them into this pose or anything, just caught their attention and took a few frames quickly.

While we were on the hike up the mountain, we passed by a small stream which Jadzia promptly used as a cooling bath for her hot self.

Jadzia swimming in the creek by the beach.

Martok running about to fetch his ball right on the edge of the waves.  He didn't have any problem with them, and almost swam a bit during the first day or two, but after the wind picked up on our third day and the waves got bigger he wasn't too interested.  That's fine, he's still rather little after all!

Cold, wet, and freshly bathed puppies are awfully pathetic unless you turn them into a burrito with a towel and snuggle them.  The girls weren't pleased at being left out, though, as you can see in the background of the photo.

We took a great jetboat trip up the Rogue River one day, where we saw all kinds of birds (cormorants, vultures, bald eagles, and more!) and had a lot of fun swirling in the rapids.  I took one of my spindles with me to spin while waiting to reboard after a bathroom break.

Very windy...you can see Ezri's coat blowing in the wind!  Martok's short little puppy coat is pretty much unaffected, though.

As always, Ezri loved swimming in the ocean and had a great time even when she had to fight the waves.  Such a strong and smart girl!

~~~~~~~~~~

Of course, there was a small thread of sadness throughout the week as we took our first vacation without Curzon.  Going to the beach was one of his very favorite things, and he would stick his head out the window as soon as he smelled the salt air and would start dancing around in the backseat until we were there and he could race into the ocean.  I couldn't quite bear to leave him behind, so we took the small cherry box that holds his cremains along with his collar and brought them with us, where they rested in the niche in the wall for the duration of our trip.  I considered taking them out to the beach to take a photo, but ultimately decided against doing so as I don't really want photos of that, I'd rather remember him as he was on the beach himself last year - full of life and cheer after healing from that surgery.  One of my favorite photos of him from the beach last year is below to round off this entry on a happy note.

Such a happy boy to be playing in the cold ocean!  The temperature and waves never bothered him, he was more than willing to fling himself into the ocean after a ball or the suggestion of one...at the slightest provocation (or excuse), really!