Scotts Valley Wrap Up....

Last tournament of the season for 2017 and we are so proud of Cody for finally pulling off this Flyball Onyx. He managed to only run in 1 tournament half time this season and after oral surgery, he recovered to complete his 20,000 points on Saturday. We are forever grateful of the dogs on the team helping push Cody to this goal. Fun times all around....

Surf City Tournament

We packed up the car and drove south to the Surf City TUG Summer Games right after recovering from Truckee. Back to back tournaments are always tough to gauge on the dogs, but Cooper seemed happy to be heading to an activity weekend. It was good to see everyone else and Cooper worked his butt off to help SoCal out after they had some dogs pulled at the last minute. A tough weekend for him, but he was a trooper and pulled out multiple back to backs in both rings... Camden worked ring side to solidify her recalls and did some free form retrieve work outside... Not a bad weekend overall, but they were definitely both worn out by the time we reached the hotel on Sunday night prior to driving home on Monday....

Truckee Patriot Games...

Both Cooper and Camden packed up and hit the road to a fantastic outdoor flyball tournament filled with sun, surrounded by beautiful evergreens and mountain views.  But before that, it was a long drive Friday night from the Bay Area up to Truckee for the Truckee Patriot Games...  Enjoying the 5,287 feet elevation, Camden did awesome with distraction work next to the noisy ring and getting herself settled in between heats and races with minimal barking.

Cooper worked his butt off for his team, formed early Saturday morning while Steve and I ran around asking for extra dogs, a ball shagger, and most important of all, a box loader for 8 races each day.  A special call out to Ball Haulers for providing us with an awesome box loader and Silver Streaks for Donna and Mike's help on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.  We could not have done it without you guys!

And of course, thanks to Greg and Janet from AAR and SoCal flyball for offering up extra dogs for our open team... Having never practiced or run together, we did well enough to come back home Sunday night with sufficient points... See everyone next year!

Cooper's Tug Work Continues...

Work continues to Cooper's tug drive.... https://youtu.be/JxRdyK1wfpE

In Between Tournaments...

Cooper and Camden takes a snooze after flyball practice in between tournaments... 

Box Work With Cooper

Cooper continues to work on his box.  Since his initial training, we've learned alot about what a flyball box turn should look like and how to get him motivated to move his rear up as high as possible while catching his ball...  Adding to this, we're working on his striding to make sure he singles on the way back between the 5th and 6th jump.

Its been a tough road since he didn't have a solid foundation at the beginning, but we're seeing lots of progress with the help of everyone over the past season from our team members to his new coach.  Here we are working with Aaron from Rocket Relay.

Camden Breaks The Glass Ceiling...

It's official that The Flyball Boys have opened their doors for full integration to include their first female member... PSF Mini Wildfire Vroom aka Camden had joined our team back in September and well on her way with her flyball foundational skills...  We're excited to see how far she goes...

Rockey Relay Seminar

Cooper and Camden headed to Las Vegas for a weekend of learning and fun.  We attended the Rocket Relay Flyball Seminar hosted by X Flyball with Cooper in a working spot on both Saturday and Sunday.  What a great opportunity to work the skills taught by Aaron and the RR team.

We learned so much about the flyball foundational components that were missing in Cooper's initial training and what can now be applied to Camden's foundational work.  Additionally, we were able to pick up lots of different tips and advice from everyone involved on training and competition readiness.  It was great watching everyone work their dogs with Aaron interjecting on what can be done to help bring them to the next level of flyball work.

Overall, what a great weekend and to come back with a solid foundation and understanding of what it takes to bring a puppy up to flyball readiness is priceless.  Along the way, we got some great advice on Cooper's continued work and basic exercises to help drive Camden's foundational work....

FFF Goes to Arizona!

We packed up the car and made our way to Mesa, AZ today.  Cooper will be racing as start dog this weekend with FastTraxx.  We're excited to see how he does in a limited run back indoors on mats.

It is hot here... Even the sidewalks are too hot to walk on, so Cooper has been exiled to the hotel room for the evening and was exiled to his crate in the car during the 12 hours drive from San Francisco.  Its making him a bit nutty and I'm worried he's not gonna be himself in the morning; we'll keep our fingers crossed...

Tournaments Update..

Both Cooper and Cody have been busy competing the past few weeks and we're so proud of them for running so well full time.  Cooper is settling down to starting and being passed by Cody.  Cody himself is doing a great job at staying consistent while we work on his box.  Its good to see them doing so well and to get some exercise in Truckee, La Mirada and Scotts Valley.  Good job kids!

Supersonic Flyball Tournament

Fun times in Santa Barbara this past weekend.  We had a nice leisurely drive down the 101 on Friday, leaving at around 2pm.  There was a slight timing issue as we were right at the tail end of the Presidential trip and traffic was bumper to bumper from Redwood City down to San Jose.  After that initial 2 hours, things moved quickly and we were within sight of the beach a few hours later.  Sure it took us until 8pm to get checked in and parked at the Warren Fairgrounds, but everyone arrived safely and Paceman finally survived a 5+ hours drive without any incidents... Way to go, buddy.

After an early morning start on Saturday, we joined everyone from Pacific Pups to run Cody and Cooper on an open team.  Even though we only practiced Cooper passing into Cody twice, we tried it and things seemed to be ok, until Cooper went up against Bay Racers.  Not sure what happened but he was insistent on going over to that box with or without a ball.  We tried moving him first, but that didn't work either so we scratched the race against BR.  BUT interestingly, we ran smoothly the rest of Saturday with Cooper in start.

On Sunday, Cooper was fine during the first race, but then he crossed again to Bay Racers but not any other team... So we put him last and he was fine once everyone ran in the other lane during races against BR.. We'll need to continue to train for this.... And figure out why its only during those races.  The good news, however, is that  Cooper measured 7" jump height officially and we're good to go for both NAFA and UFLI jumps...  Next tournament, Truckee....

Cooper's Box Rework

We're slowly making progress on reworking the bad habits Cooper learned from his initial training..  he spent the past two months reworking foundational skills and we're starting to see that pay off on his new box turn... good job Coops!

Paceman goes on the box....

So proud of little Paceman... After what seems like forever on foundational work, we finally started him on the wall with the hopes of getting his box turn down in a few weeks.  7 Days later, Paceman is now triggering the box and catching the ball... Can't wait to see how this turns out as he starts to figure his striding and runs.... Good job little guy... We love you...