Kim's Ice Blue Moon

The points have gone up from Kim’s last flyball competitions and she officially has her Ice Blue Moon award.

I always wanted her to get this, and now she has, I feel comfortable saying Kim is going to be retiring from competitive flyball this winter.

She is fit, she is happy, and she still loves to flyball. She’s also 11 in December and I can see how tired she is at the end of a day, how much it takes out of her. Tiny little things that I’m sure most other people couldn’t possibly have noticed; her hind muscles tremble when she’s tired. She slipped badly at training last week, turned on the box and faceplanted immediately as her legs went from under her. She drinks out of the water bowl that’s been dribbled in.

I won’t let her do flyball until she’s injured and is forced to retire. I won’t let her run on painkillers and I won’t let her run as the height dog, as she has done for the whole of her life. I won’t let her run for the sake of one more competition, or one more Champs, or the next award. I won’t let her be one of those dogs who are crippled and tripping over the jumps when they can’t see or hear but “oh, s/he still loves it!”. Kim does still love it, and I am going to miss running her more than anything, but this is the right decision.

Her Ice Blue Moon seems as good a point as any to say, this is it.

Kim will continue training, and to be honest, she will probably make a few guest appearances next summer, as emergency reserve on the team sheet. She’s actually running at Drax whilst I’m at the seminar, teaching our Junior handler the ropes in her first competition. I’ve been hinting for a while that this retirement was looming, and have mentioned it outright in a few conversations, but I thought I’d better make an official post on the reasons, just to stall some of the questions on why.

Dylan will still be competing, as will Mollie – her retirement isn’t my decision anyway! – and hopefully Future!Pup will be around next summer too.