Flyball Flyball Flyball!
This weekend's tournament was amazing! Faith was just great. Yesterday she got 51 points, and today she got 13 points. 13 isn't that much, but she had a couple of bad situations today which she nevertheless handled beautifully. First, we were racing the Beltway Bandits Greenway team, which, as the name implies, had a few green dogs on it. Green dogs on both teams racing can definitely lead to disaster, and I think it will be some time before Faith no longer qualifies as "green." ;) Anyway, I've been timing Faith's release so that she's going up to the box as the dog in the other lane is coming down. But something went wrong because the cute but ditzy Dalmation in the other lane decided to chase Faith after she got her ball! I'm sure Faith's instincts were telling her to either invite the Dal to play or get after her for invading her personal space, but she just kept running to me, going over all the jumps like a pro! I was pretty much thrilled. The second bad situation was my fault, kind of. We were racing the same team (argh) and Faith had been doing so well that Katie (our captain) decided to put Faith in for all three heats. Unfortunately, I think Faith recognized the Dalmation and was a little nervous. She was much more focused on the other team that I like her to be. The first time she ran, she dropped the ball. (But I resent her and she got it, yay.) The second time, I let her go at the exact wrong instant. There was a dumb Beagle running fourth on the other team, and he refused to go. After his handler cajoled and pleaded for awhile, I let Faith go. And then, of course, he decided that he did remember how to play flyball after all. So Faith and the other dog were running side by side, which is NOT a good situation for Faith, because even if she ignores him going down, she'll turn towards him on the box, and that (I know from experience) is when she feels most inclined to give chase! This time, though, she stopped just before the box, looked at the other dog, and then came running back. Obviously it was not a clean run, but it was infinitely preferable to her chasing the other dog! I am very proud of her. AND her team came in third place, so we got another ribbon in addition to her FDX ribbon! :)