Flyball Update

It's been a while since I've made a post about flyball. We had a tournament over the weekend and Sadie had a lot of fun. I didn't - I ended up coming down with a stomach bug while I was there, in Canada, far away from home. Tough position to be in, wanting to be home and not spreading germs, but being stuck far away from home and Sadie was an essential cog on the team she was running on. And we soon discovered Sadie won't run for someone else. Well, she WILL run for someone else but when it comes time to return and tug, she branches away and looks for mom. But I digress.

I brought my new camera, which is a full frame Nikon D610. Paul had his nice 70-200 mm lens. We slapped that bad boy on my new camera and we shared the camera a bit which was fun. Any pics of Sadie were taken by him and I am grateful for that.

Sadie did GREAT! Her endurance is better than ever living on 4 acres. Country living is suiting her well. She normally can't do anything beyond half time as she tires quickly but she ran more than that on Sunday and I think she could have happily done more.

Sadie has a lot to say. She always has a lot to say.

I love watching her play the game. She genuinely loves being here, playing this game of jumping and bringing back the ball. She always has a smile on her face and loves squeaking and barking in the lane waiting her turn to go. She's a joy.

Her box turn lacks form. You can nitpick what we did or didn't do to fix it, but bottom line, it just hasn't been the same since she had a collision with another dog a couple years ago. This is why I've decided to retire her soon. Her shoulders are showing wear, especially the right one, which is the one she uses to shove off the box. She doesn't have a proper swimmers turn on the box so her shoulders take the brunt of the impact when she gets on the box. 

She will be retired after she hits 5000 NAFA points. She's currently at around 3500. I anticipate 2014 will probably be her last year in flyball. She will continue in agility, which she also loves, so she will still have an outlet to work and run around. This girl loves to work and I'd never take that joy away from her if I can avoid it.

That day will be a very sad day.