Iron Dog !
It takes a lot of time, effort and perseverance on the handler and the dog’s part to reach this milestone…. 10 years of racing…. IRON DOG. Our very own Buffy and Ally travelled to Monroe, WA to join with some other veterans …. Bella from Portland Tailblazers, Koira from Apupalyptic and Bree of Rip It Up. Nancy of PTB needs our special thanks… she made it possible. Congratulations to all the dogs who earned this title this weekend….there were a record number in the region all qualifying at this tournament. Well done all of you.
Buffy, you’ve earned your retirement…enjoy.
Buffy in action
Titles !
A very special cake
Visitors
Welcome to Ecko and Dana, formerly from Alberta. They’re relocating to Vancouver Island, and have joined us for some practice time….two lovely pups, with their handler, Liz. They love flyball and are bringing their enthusiasm and knowledge to our Tuesday nights.
Island Tournament 2018
Mill Bay -August 11 – 12
The one and only tournament on the island… Total Anarchy hosted again ….. small but well run and fun. Barn Stormers were unable to field a team despite our best efforts…. just couldn’t get those dogs in training ready to safely be in a tournament. Our good friends from south of the border came to our rescue once again though…. Stormy, Misty and Luke joined Portland Tailblazers as an Open team. Misty made her debut on Saturday…. she remembered what to do, and earned her first two titles. Poor little Luke just couldn’t resist the opportunity to visit on his day, Sunday, so he’ll have to wait til next time for titles. Stormy ran both days, managing to keep her speed up for the most part, and always played by the rules. Buffy, who is pretty well retired, also joined another team as well. Disappointing not to have our own team, but it was great to be in the ring again.
Christmas Party 2017
“Twas the night before Christmas
At Sid and Janet’s house……
Well, not quite the night before, but let me tell you how it went…
First and foremost a huge round of applause for our gracious hosts! Christmas lights adorned the house and inside everything was aglow with the spirit of the season! Thank you again from all of us !
As at all Barnstormer festive functions, the food and drink table was full of delicious treats from salmon to meatballs to Sam’s infamous pumpkin pie! My favorite part!
While our team numbers at the moment are down a tad and the crowd was smaller, there were guests young (Remy), old (Sid and Douglas might be tied), returning to the game team mates (Lisa), alumni (Lynn) and our favorite flyball family (Rob, Sam and Nikki). Always nice to see a smiling familiar face that was Laura. It’s always nice to see everyone outside of a barking zone and have a chance to catch up. My favorite part!
Marg and Tony were very much missed this year, but as she always does she left the team with a little something… fabulous hand crafted book marks. I always look forward and appreciate her talents every year. My favorite part!
Secret Santa was a success as always , we even managed to be civil with no body contact but there were some evil stare downs when the stealing of gifts began! My favorite part!
As you can see, my favorite thing other than the love of my dogs is to be surrounded by people who love their dogs as much as I do and love the fun and comradely that comes with it. Flyball- It’s not all about the dogs although that’s what brings us together. It’s about enjoying good company, sharing all our favourite things .
To those who couldn’t make it, we missed you and hope to see you at the next one. Until then, see you at the barn racing our favorite things!
This write up for the party was supplied by our creative writing gal, Ally. Thanks, Ally.
But now it’s time for me to put in my two bits worth. If I had been there, I would have had to say a huge thanks to Sid and Janet…Sid for taking on the training of our dogs, and the both of them for keeping everything running while Tony and I are away. To our new members, I’m so glad you’ve joined us; to our “old” members, I’m so glad you’re still with us. To all of you, my wish is for you to have a wonderful Christmas season, and the very best for the New Year.
The table was loaded…
Sid and Janet made some wonderful dog ornaments
Looks like Remy was well looked after
Chatting….
eating…
more eating….
Kings Flying Into Fall
Abbotsford October 14 – 15, 2017
Thanks to our good friends, Portland Tail Blazers, three members of the Barn Stormer gang were able to take part in a mainland tournament again. Buffy, Max and Stormy ran with Milo, Sabia, Gryffin (PTB) and Lucy from Seattle in an Open division. Despite the fact that most of these dogs had never run together before, they made a good showing of second both days. Stormy had a new personal best of 5.316, and also achieved her FM title. Max and Buffy ran true and steady…no new titles but points toward the next ones.
Some of the crew relaxing
The points sheet from Sunday’s racing
Flyball by the Bay
Mill Bay July 29/30, 2017
An island tournament again – Barn Stormers made an appearance finally. We didn’t cover ourselves in glory, but we had some fun. Max ran for Nikki and Samantha, and even Rob for one race – he was his steady dependable self – what a good boy. Pixie came with Ally and Buffy on the Saturday but unfortunately she found the excitement level just too high and was unable to play by the rules. Buffy, however, was her reliable self – her own style but consistent. The rest of our team was made up of three Jack Russells – Rizzo and Roo with Tara (Flying Underdogs) and Pterra with Crystal (Apupalyptic) all from Oregon. Miss Stormy ran with Portland Tailblazers to make room for the rest of the club dogs – she achieved a personal best time of 5.6 sec on Saturday! Yay, Stormy.
Sunday’s line up had Dixie and Honey joining Max and the Jacks. Dixie also found the excitement too much – little does she know how hard she’s going to be working at practices from now on! Valiant little Honey decided she’d had enough and retired herself – still lots of get up and go, but not over jumps or hitting a box, she says!!
As always, good to see and visit with flyball friends and enjoy quiet time with our club after racing.
Photos are courtesy of Nikki and David E from Portland.
Part of Saturday’s lineup
And a bit of Sunday’s
Janet with Roo
Christmas Party, 2016
Well, it was kinda early, Nov. 5 to be exact, but a few of us managed to get together at Laura’s house for a bit of socializing and laughs. Thanks again to Laura for allowing us to use her house..it makes such a great party place. The food was awesome as always, and the company great. When we felt we’d done justice to the table, we settled into a comfortable spot for a few presentations. While we didn’t make it to a lot of tournaments this year, when we did, there were two events that had to be acknowledged … both Nikki and Lasha achieved perfect starts – well done, gals. It wasn’t a hard decision for the Team Spirit Award this year… Janet and Sid…. they’ve made a wonderful addition to the club. Earlier this year saw our second wedding in the club… Ally and Bruce,,,, and before the year would be out, our first baby… congratulations to Erika – welcome to Remy.
Secret Santa finished off the evening… quite low key… hardly any contact or stealing! Oh, well…
As 2016 winds to a close, my wish is for you all to have a wonderful holiday season, and here’s to a great New Year.
Flyball at the Fairground
Saanichton August 13-14, 2016
Again – our very own local tournament, cohosted by Barn Stormers and Total Anarchy. With some creative planning, we were able to put together two teams to enter in the Open Division; the Tailstormers, consisting of Max, Griz, Buffy, Pixie, Honey and Pixel who placed 4th on Saturday, and 1st on Sunday, and the Barn Blazers – Robbie, Navi, Bella, Dixie, Stormy and Ruff who placed 3rd on Saturday and 2nd on Sunday. Well done all of you! It would be remiss to not especially acknowledge our faithful box loader, Tony – two teams, dogs he didn’t know and special balls – he did it all. Our sincere thanks to Nancy, who came from Portland to run with us and to Julia, who loaned us Griz. You can be Barn Stormers any time you want! Two new titles were achieved on Saturday – Navi and Stormy both reached FDCh-G (3000 points)
On Saturday, Barn Stormers were responsible for running the tournament; a special big thank you has to go to Sid and Karen D who kept that table running smoothly. Our prizes of dog toys and tugs seemed to go over well – thank you, Janet, for all your work on those. Barn Stormers also organized and hosted the potluck Saturday night – corn on the cob and lots of everything else.
Sunday we were responsible for the raffle table – Lynn and Liz did a terrific job there. Erika and Samantha managed to have the right food for the judge, table workers and our team. Good job, ladies. Sid and Laura also were kept very busy on Sunday, helping TA with their running of the scoring table.
A lot of work from everyone made our share of the tournament successful…. thank you all!
The famous dog bones and firehose tugs
Our excellent raffle table … over 40 items
Samantha perfumed the air with the delicious smell of baking cinnamon buns
Great lunch designed by Erika, with Rob on the bbq for the burgers
Stuffing Party !
Samantha and Nikki hosted a stuffing party to stuff toys for the tournament. Laura, Ally, Lynn, Janet, the girls, and Marg stuffed and sewed away til there were 150 dog bone toys stuffed and squeakered! Since it was a party, there had to be food of course… mmmm good. Sid manned the bbq and deep fryer for us when he and Tony weren’t watching the football game on the big screen tv. Fun for all. To add to the mix, 5 dogs checking out what we were doing… everytime someone tested a squeaker, they really had to investigate.
Run Free March Madness
Cloverdale, BC March 12 – 13, 2016
What a weekend! Barn Stormers travelled to the mainland, dealing with ferry waits, rain and wind. Buffy, Navi, Stormy and Ruff met up with Jonas (our satellite member) to run in the largest tournament Region 7 has seen in a long time – 30 teams and it would have been 33 but for a suspected kennel cough outbreak which caused one club to withdraw.
First race jitters on Saturday made for some crazy moments but as we settled down, we held our own, finally finishing the day with a second place. Jonas earned his new title early in the day – FMX – good boy. Our valiant little height dog, Stormy, ran true until the second to last race of the day when she showed us she was tired. Not to be stimied, we upped the jump heights to 14 inches to the amazement of many, anchored the team with Ruffy, and ran well, taking all four heats. Such good dogs !!
On Sunday, our Captain Graham, strategized and had us jumping 14 inches for the first race to again take all 4 heats. The rest of the day went well too, until Stormy decided that the little border collie, Bailey, in the other lane was more attractive than the ball in our box. Ruffy was delighted to have her pulled because he got to run again. A major highlight of this day was when Navi and Lasha pulled off a perfect start… not easy to do! Well done. Despite our good beginning, our “oops” made us finish in second place again.
Our final race was over by 2:30 so it was a dash to the ferry to try to beat the storm that was threatening – rain and strong winds. Everyone made it for the 4:00 ferry but it was held in port for 30 minutes while they decided if it would go or not. Finally they boarded us, but as the ferry backed out, the wind blew us into the pilings – made the local news and scared a lot of people as we crashed and tipped. Crossing the strait was a roller coaster ride – not fun at all. The annoucements kept coming… telling everyone to remain seated which some of us were more than happy to do. Reaching Actyive Pass and calmer waters was a welcome relief.
Despite all this, it was a great weekend. Fun times with good teammates and friends on other teams. Happy dogs and people – yay, flyball ! Thanks for the pictures, Ally and Cathy K.
On the line
Ready, ready, ready….
Focus on the ball
In dock, before the crunch
