British Flyball Championships 2010

Thunderstorms and shooting stars, pouring rain and sunshine …

The girls did good. We were in a bit of a weird position, in that we had three dogs who had suddenly gone back to being sub-5s dogs, and then one slower dog who has suddenly gone from clocking 6.5s to 5.5s. However, these are all older dogs, and we knew they were going to get tired over the day. So in the morning, we spent a lot of time holding back our changeovers so we didn’t win too easily and break out, and in the afternoon, we spend a lot of time pushing changeovers to try and keep ourselves in the game. Somehow, it worked, and the Hawk Owlers won Division 32.

Mollie clocked a 4.65s as lead dog, and then ran 4.7’s and 4.8’s and eventually worked her way up to 5s at the end of the day. She’s eleven. That’s so wtf crazy I don’t even know. Kim ran her socks off, she was such a pro and she kicked ass, just like she always does.

(Sponsored by CSJ, can you tell?!)

I nearly cried when we won, everyone was so overjoyed and the whole team was dancing around on a high, even those who hadn’t run a dog. These are our old ladies, our girls, and we never know if they’re going to make it to another Champs, but every year they come back, and they don’t just race, they win. Kim and Mollie have never been to the Champs and not come home with a 1st place. I am so proud of them!

Dylan did good too. The whole team did good, but we couldn’t quite pull it off and lost to Paws8, which put us 2nd. Dylan’s team has never won their division at the Champs … fingers crossed for next year!

Congratulations to Bassetts who retained their Division One title, but hats off to Bristol Ball-istics for the most decisive, brave and calm show of sportsmanship ever seen in Ring 2. One of their dogs was running across the lanes, and they chose to sacrifice their own chances to make sure that the dog didn’t cause any problems for other teams, and to make sure she was running again by the end of the day.