Warning: long blog post ahead J
Big thanks to Paws on Deck for a great tournament this past weekend! We had a great time despite the heat! You guys did a great job keeping the inside as cool as possible J
We knew it was going to be an interesting weekend. Sonya and James were unable to come and Dave had to work a last minute 24 hour shift, which meant he would be missing 1, maybe 2 of our Aviators races on Saturday. Oh and did I mention that both of our teams only had 4 dogs listed?! Fingers and paws were crossed for no injuries! The pressure was on this weekend, we really wanted to take first both days to secure the Regional Championships for 2014/2015.
As soon as I knew James would not be attending, the first thing I had to do was get someone to run Maya in start. First person that came to mind was Jules and he did not disappoint! Thank you does not even begin to cover how grateful we are for him running Maya all weekend. He came in and rocked the starts, even giving the starting queen Sam a run for her money, lol! We truly appreciate your help this weekend and could not have done it without you! Major thanks also to George who box loaded for Aviators, you are the best!
Racing started on Saturday and we recruited Amanda to run Callie for Dave the first race – thanks Amanda! The first heat we raced a new personal season best of 16.268, boy was Dave going to be mad that he missed that! After that, Callie decided that she wanted to keep running even after her turn was done. She and Brooke had a scary collision, after that, we enlisted a few “Callie catchers” for the rest of that race. It was not pretty, but we squeaked out a win. Dave did make it back in time for the 2nd race, whew! So after that things went smoothly. We won all of our races and took first place – goal one complete.
Our Vets team had a tough weekend. It started on Saturday with Trout not being himself. At practice the old boy can pull out 4.9’s and usually settles in around 5.5. On Saturday he had no drive to the box and was running over 7 seconds. Once the thunder started in the afternoon, well it went from bad to worse. Daniel and I made the decision to find another Vets dogs for Sunday and Trout’s last race on Saturday would be his last as an official racing dog. Thanks to Amanda who handled him that last race. I think it is fitting that on his last day of racing he had 3 handlers: me, Daniel and Amanda, the 3 people who had handled him most over his flyball career. It was a tough race, but we are so happy with what Trout has accomplished in his 10 years of racing. He has raced with different teams, different dogs and for different handlers. He has also helped train some pretty awesome flyball dogs, which I am sure he will still continue to do. I won’t say that it was his last race forever; he might get listed if we need a 6th dog in case of injury, but that would be a last case scenario. Many thanks to everyone who watched his last race and congratulated us on Trout’s career, it meant a lot <3
Sunday we were feeling good. Dave was there to race Callie and we recruited Mav and Steve to our Vets team. Aviators did well until our last round robin race. We had a few issues in the lane…actually no, it was a complete sh*t show, lol and we lost. Going into that race, we were on a 43-0 winning streak, oh well, as they say: “all good things must come to an end” and with the amazing racing in Regular 1 to go 43 straight was pretty awesome. With the loss, that put us at 3-1, tied with FNF and ML for first. Everyone had beaten each other, so because we had the best time against both of them, we finished round robin as Seed 1. We faced FAME in our next race which we won and put us in the final against FNF. It was simple – we win, we get first and become Regional Champs, we lose, they get first and we go into Sackville needing to place. Jules started us off with some wicked starts and we were able to win the race in 4 heats. 2014 – 2015 Regional Champs, wow. Many thanks to Cy for calling passes for us in our last race. I would also like to thank all of the people who showed great sportsmanship and congratulated us on our Regional Championship, it means a lot. The only thing missing was Sonya & James, but we will get to celebrate this weekend!
This is PFT’s second Regional Championship in 3 years, but I seriously cannot put into words how special this one is. Our team works hard; we put in a lot of time at practice and at home. We make sure our dogs are in shape and we make sure we are getting the most out of our dogs, which might be 3.7’s or 5.5’s, it does not matter as long as they are giving their all. We run line ups a lot so our dogs are use to running together, so they can become a cohesive group and so we know where we need to be with our passes. But the thing that makes me the most proud of my team is that it is “Always WE never ME”, which basically means team goals first, personal goals second. Don’t get me wrong, everyone on this team has personal goals, but team goals take precedent. Everyone also knows that by achieving team goals, we will most likely achieve those personal goals. When we step out on the lanes, it is all about the “W” – we want to win the race. Would it be nice to post a personal best time – yes! Would it be nice to see a new dog personal best split time – yes! But if there is a flag, bobble, etc in the other lane, you will see everyone on the team pull back, play it safe and go for the win. Because the truth is, we know what our dogs run, we see it every time we practice, we know what our teams are capable of racing and when we have the opportunity to push it for a new personal best we will, but only if we are still in a position to win. That is what I love about my teammates, we all feel this way. It is hard to find people who understand our team concept and agree with it 100%, but I have found the best group of teammates a girl could ask for. And when everything comes together and we achieve those team goals, it feels amazing, to see all of the hard work, commitment and most importantly teamwork pay off.
I would also like to congratulate all of the people who achieved new titles, including our own Callie who earned her ONYX and everyone who posted a new personal best time, I know there were a few of them. Another congrats to Dave and Nika who did amazing at Green Dogs. This little pup is outstanding and we can’t wait to see how she turns out. Thank you to Donna & Same for running on our Vets team all weekend and Steve and Mav who joined our Vets team on Sunday. Thank you to Kyle who box loaded for our Vets team and did a lot of box judging and to Elizabeth who helped me run Raine all weekend. Major shout out to Karen who not only drove down with two kids, two dogs and a new puppy, but called passes all weekend, helped run Raine and became Callie catcher extraordinaire! You are one amazing woman and teammate!
Up next is Sackville in a few short weeks. We can’t wait to hit the lanes with our full crew for the last tournament of the NAFA season.
Until Next Time,
Holly
Big thanks to Paws on Deck for a great tournament this past weekend! We had a great time despite the heat! You guys did a great job keeping the inside as cool as possible J
We knew it was going to be an interesting weekend. Sonya and James were unable to come and Dave had to work a last minute 24 hour shift, which meant he would be missing 1, maybe 2 of our Aviators races on Saturday. Oh and did I mention that both of our teams only had 4 dogs listed?! Fingers and paws were crossed for no injuries! The pressure was on this weekend, we really wanted to take first both days to secure the Regional Championships for 2014/2015.
As soon as I knew James would not be attending, the first thing I had to do was get someone to run Maya in start. First person that came to mind was Jules and he did not disappoint! Thank you does not even begin to cover how grateful we are for him running Maya all weekend. He came in and rocked the starts, even giving the starting queen Sam a run for her money, lol! We truly appreciate your help this weekend and could not have done it without you! Major thanks also to George who box loaded for Aviators, you are the best!
Racing started on Saturday and we recruited Amanda to run Callie for Dave the first race – thanks Amanda! The first heat we raced a new personal season best of 16.268, boy was Dave going to be mad that he missed that! After that, Callie decided that she wanted to keep running even after her turn was done. She and Brooke had a scary collision, after that, we enlisted a few “Callie catchers” for the rest of that race. It was not pretty, but we squeaked out a win. Dave did make it back in time for the 2nd race, whew! So after that things went smoothly. We won all of our races and took first place – goal one complete.
Our Vets team had a tough weekend. It started on Saturday with Trout not being himself. At practice the old boy can pull out 4.9’s and usually settles in around 5.5. On Saturday he had no drive to the box and was running over 7 seconds. Once the thunder started in the afternoon, well it went from bad to worse. Daniel and I made the decision to find another Vets dogs for Sunday and Trout’s last race on Saturday would be his last as an official racing dog. Thanks to Amanda who handled him that last race. I think it is fitting that on his last day of racing he had 3 handlers: me, Daniel and Amanda, the 3 people who had handled him most over his flyball career. It was a tough race, but we are so happy with what Trout has accomplished in his 10 years of racing. He has raced with different teams, different dogs and for different handlers. He has also helped train some pretty awesome flyball dogs, which I am sure he will still continue to do. I won’t say that it was his last race forever; he might get listed if we need a 6th dog in case of injury, but that would be a last case scenario. Many thanks to everyone who watched his last race and congratulated us on Trout’s career, it meant a lot <3
Sunday we were feeling good. Dave was there to race Callie and we recruited Mav and Steve to our Vets team. Aviators did well until our last round robin race. We had a few issues in the lane…actually no, it was a complete sh*t show, lol and we lost. Going into that race, we were on a 43-0 winning streak, oh well, as they say: “all good things must come to an end” and with the amazing racing in Regular 1 to go 43 straight was pretty awesome. With the loss, that put us at 3-1, tied with FNF and ML for first. Everyone had beaten each other, so because we had the best time against both of them, we finished round robin as Seed 1. We faced FAME in our next race which we won and put us in the final against FNF. It was simple – we win, we get first and become Regional Champs, we lose, they get first and we go into Sackville needing to place. Jules started us off with some wicked starts and we were able to win the race in 4 heats. 2014 – 2015 Regional Champs, wow. Many thanks to Cy for calling passes for us in our last race. I would also like to thank all of the people who showed great sportsmanship and congratulated us on our Regional Championship, it means a lot. The only thing missing was Sonya & James, but we will get to celebrate this weekend!
This is PFT’s second Regional Championship in 3 years, but I seriously cannot put into words how special this one is. Our team works hard; we put in a lot of time at practice and at home. We make sure our dogs are in shape and we make sure we are getting the most out of our dogs, which might be 3.7’s or 5.5’s, it does not matter as long as they are giving their all. We run line ups a lot so our dogs are use to running together, so they can become a cohesive group and so we know where we need to be with our passes. But the thing that makes me the most proud of my team is that it is “Always WE never ME”, which basically means team goals first, personal goals second. Don’t get me wrong, everyone on this team has personal goals, but team goals take precedent. Everyone also knows that by achieving team goals, we will most likely achieve those personal goals. When we step out on the lanes, it is all about the “W” – we want to win the race. Would it be nice to post a personal best time – yes! Would it be nice to see a new dog personal best split time – yes! But if there is a flag, bobble, etc in the other lane, you will see everyone on the team pull back, play it safe and go for the win. Because the truth is, we know what our dogs run, we see it every time we practice, we know what our teams are capable of racing and when we have the opportunity to push it for a new personal best we will, but only if we are still in a position to win. That is what I love about my teammates, we all feel this way. It is hard to find people who understand our team concept and agree with it 100%, but I have found the best group of teammates a girl could ask for. And when everything comes together and we achieve those team goals, it feels amazing, to see all of the hard work, commitment and most importantly teamwork pay off.
I would also like to congratulate all of the people who achieved new titles, including our own Callie who earned her ONYX and everyone who posted a new personal best time, I know there were a few of them. Another congrats to Dave and Nika who did amazing at Green Dogs. This little pup is outstanding and we can’t wait to see how she turns out. Thank you to Donna & Same for running on our Vets team all weekend and Steve and Mav who joined our Vets team on Sunday. Thank you to Kyle who box loaded for our Vets team and did a lot of box judging and to Elizabeth who helped me run Raine all weekend. Major shout out to Karen who not only drove down with two kids, two dogs and a new puppy, but called passes all weekend, helped run Raine and became Callie catcher extraordinaire! You are one amazing woman and teammate!
Up next is Sackville in a few short weeks. We can’t wait to hit the lanes with our full crew for the last tournament of the NAFA season.
Until Next Time,
Holly
RSS Feed
