Flying Squad’s Remembrance Day Tournament
Cloverdale November 5 – 6
A Barn Stormers’ team on the mainland again! Buffy, Jonas, Dancer and Ruff joined paws to run in the Open Division as the Spitfurs. Dancer was our smallest dog, but since that meant we were going to be jumping 13 inches, Coach Kathi went looking on Saturday morning, and found us a height dog!! We’re very grateful to Brian and Rocket who made it possible to lower the jump height to 9 inches for half of our races.
Due to unavoidable circumstances, the team had few opportunities to be together to practice passes; as a result, early and late passes plagued us throughout the weekend. Despite this, we achieved some respectable times in our clean runs, having an 18.761 seconds with Rocket’s help, and a best time of 20.522 seconds when jumping 13 inches.
A special highlight on Sunday was Dancer achieving his Onyx title – 20,000 points…. well done, Dancer! Both Buffy and Jonas ran well both days and earned new titles as well;
Buffy – FDCh
Jonas – FD, FDX, FDCh
For a lap dog, any lap will do! Right, Jonas?
Rocket, our "borrowed" height dog
“The Ball Is Out There” September 17 – 18, 2011
Ruff, Dancer and their Pawcific Storm buddies braved the border crossing and trekked almost 400km each way for some racing in Longview, Washington. The soggy weather didn’t dampen the competitors’ spirits, just their shoes and paws! There were a few collisions over the weekend; Dancer using his head to take out Laura at the knees, Ruffy lifting Rob off his feet while Max re-ran himself, and later on, Marg making a successful diving tackle to keep Ruffy from doing his own rerun. We had a few laughs over the craziness of flyball, as luckily, no one was really hurt. As usual, the team table had stuff to nibble on…. would you believe that this jar of Cheese Balls started off full?
The teams raced to first place in both Division 2 and 3 on Saturday, with Ruffy’s Stormrunners placing fourth in Div 1 on Sunday, and Dancer’s Fireball Shooters placing first in Div 2. The Shooters got their picture in the local newspaper, showing the locals how far away some teams came to join in the fun.
922.2 g of Cheese Balls!
The Longview Daily News.... Fireball Shooters in action
Rabid Storm
Saanich Fairgrounds … Aug 13 – 14, 2011
An island tournament at last! Barn Stormers were delighted to participate in the Rabid Storm U-Fli tournament on the weekend. Braving the heat on Saturday, the Sopwith Mutts team of Cali, Sadie, Walker, Jackson and Buster gave their all, with lots of cheering and support, to place 4th in Division 2. They might not be fast but they have spirit!
Thanks to Wendi Donaldson for the following pictures:
Cali on a mission
Buster concentrating
"Go, Jackson, go!"
Full speed for Buffy
Kona knew what to do
It's all a blur for Ruffy
The Hurrycanines team name was revived with a new crew – Dancer, Buffy, Jonas, Ruffy and Kona – who fought hard to capture 2nd place in Division 1. Well done – a team to watch.
Buffy and Jackson also represented the club in singles; as well, the Brat Pack of Dancer and Ruff completed the requirements for their pairs title – 10 separate tournaments on 10 different weekends. Well done, boys!
Sunday was a bit cooler and the Hurrycanines, with the addition of Annie who helped out part of the time, raced hard again, achieving a best time of sub 19 seconds, not once, but twice, placing 2nd in Division 2. Singles of Buffy, Jonas, Dancer and Ruff rounded out the club participation on Sunday.
As always, our awesome box loader, Tony, kept on top of all the different balls and dogs, not only for us, but for some other teams as well. He was so busy in fact, our honourary member Lorraine had to fill in with box judging numerous times.
It was a good weekend of racing with lots of laughs and teasing between clubs on the line, and increasingly good starts by handlers who hadn’t started before – they did the club proud.
Many new titles were earned on the weekend:
Saturday titles
Buffy – TF-II
Cali – TF
Jackson – TF-II
Jonas- TF, TF-I
Kona – TF
Sunday titles
Buffy – TF-III
Jonas – TF-II, TF-III
Kona – TF-I, TF-II
Our other photographer, Myrna, got lots of good shots as well, so here are a few more to enjoy.
Dancer was always ready to go
Discussing strategy for sure
Jonas made Graham proud
The Hurrycanines ready on the line
Dancer and Ruff preparing to get their title
And Jackson summed up how everyone felt at the end of the day!
Annual Dog Swim and BBQ
Barn Stormers on the beach
Brentwood Bay got wild and wet on Saturday, July 30th, when the Barn Stormers met for the annual dog swimming party and humans’ BBQ. The weather cooperated fully as did the water, being clean and good for dogs to play in. The variety of toys kept the dogs busy looking for them and bringing them back to be thrown again; well, except for Truby, who’d get them, but drop them for someone else to bring in to the beach! There were lots of races as dogs tried to outswim someone else to get there first; good manners prevailed all the time as once the toy was grabbed, the others went looking for something else. Twister did his part by herding Jonas for the most part; and Buffy showed she was capable of multi-tasking…. barking as she swam! The humans who thought they’d stay dry and clean on the beach found out differently as dogs naturally gravitated to them for rubs and happy “pet me, scatch me, pet me’s.”
After hosing down dogs who really didn’t want to leave the beach, we met on the deck for drinks and food … Rohn, Ken and Tony played chef with the burgers and of course, as typical with Barn Stormers, there were lots of salads and other foods to eat. All in all, a good time once again.
Dogs waiting for something to be thrown
Olympics have nothing on these guys!
The chefs at work
Tournament at the Fair
Maple Ridge – July 23 – 24, 2011
Dancer and Ruff and their buddies from Pawcific Storm braved the hot (and by that we mean 25C Saturday, 31C Sunday) weather in Maple Ridge on July 23/24th. Despite being seeded at the bottom of our division, the team ran clean, consistent runs almost all weekend and placed First both days, getting over 1000 points for each dog when all was done.
We were a skeleton crew of 1 box loader, 3 handlers, and 4 dogs (Ruff, Dancer, Chaos, Cindy). Ellen from Dogwood Pacesetters kindly ran Cindy for us and did a great job of it. This is the toughest team for Tony to boxload for, each dog requiring a specific type of ball. Cindy even went so far as to spit any balls that were too hard/too soft and go looking behind the backboards for one she did like! Tempermental, picky pups!
Thanks also go out to Brian from Total Anarchy for ball shagging and helping to keep Ruff occupied with his tuggy, after Marg took a bit of a tumble on the uneven ground and bruised her ribs. It was quite a team effort this weekend. Great fun, great racing, great company… that’s flyball for you!
The shade tent camp - complete with fans for the dogs
Box loader Tony, doing his box judging after our race.
The Cocktail Party
June 18th
Barn Stormers got together for a social event in Brentwood on this Saturday night. There was a good turnout of members and associates to enjoy strawberry daiquiries and other assorted liquid refreshments, as well as lots of appys. Most of the evening was spent just visiting and enjoying each other’s company, but we did take care of a little bit of business too, discussing upcoming tournaments, training for new members and the implementation of a new idea thanks to Heather, “Can for Charity”.
Dogwood’s 25th Anniversary Tournament
June 4 and 5 – Cloverdale
Much fun was had at the Dogwood Pacesetters’ 25 year anniversary tournament. Imagine that, a club that’s 25 years old! They hosted a catered dinner on Saturday and presented a slideshow of the history of the club. Pictures from many different clubs were included. Laughter was heard and tears were seen. Afterwards a large group of us rushed back out to see the Canucks win in overtime. Thanks to Tony and Marg’s satellite dish setup, we had it as good as the fans in the pubs. Great fun was had, oohing and awwing and the occasional curse.
It was a successful weekend; Ruff’s team took 1st place both days. Dancer’s team took 2nd on Saturday, 1st on Sunday. Dancer’s team presented an unique challenge – pink balls, small balls, squishy balls, squeaky balls – Tony handled it like the champ he is. Thank you, Tony.
History of boxes
Action inside the rings
And action outside on Saturday night!
Matsqui 20th Anniversary Tournament
Abbotsford …… April 30 – May 1, 2011
The Brat Pack boys packed their mobile dog houses and once again teamed up with Pawcific Storm to run in Division Two this weekend. The weather cooperated to make for great camping and outside socializing with other teams in the evenings. Racing was hot and heavy on the Saturday with the Shooters placing second, despite some crazy moments. We had the dubious honour of winning a special award…. the “Lucky Charms”…. the slowest winning time of the tournament, a full 52.52 seconds…. we don’t give up! On Sunday, while the team did run some good times, we just couldn’t catch the faster dogs, and placed fourth. Our box loader Tony again managed to keep the dogs straight and got the right balls in the correct side for us, so our thanks to him again.
Another tiring weekend, but fun as well.
The "mobile dog houses" camp
A special award, but we aren't sure if we really want it!
Run Free’s Cloverdale Tournament
April 9/10, 2011
The Brat Pack boys joined up with their Pawcific Storm buddies to run with a skeleton crew at the Run Free tournament – 2 teams, 8 dogs, 4 handlers, and an extraordinary box loader, our very own Tony. Every handler ran 2 dogs and Tony did a great job figuring out which one we were sending down at him.
Marg ran Ruff and Robbie. Congrats to her on a perfect start with Robbie.
Kathi ran Dancer and Cindy, and has the scratches to prove it (Jack Russells sure can wiggle when you hold them on your hip).
It was a very successful weekend. The teams both placed 2nd on Saturday, with Ruffy’s team 1st on Sunday, Dancer’s team 2nd again. Plus, 5 of the 8 dogs got their next NAFA titles.
Dancer FMCH 15,000 points
Ruffy ONYX 20,000 points
The team had fun surprising Marg on the line, calculating exactly which heat would get Ruffy the title and walking up to shake her hand. The surprise and then Marg’s smile were well worth the secrecy.
It was a fun and exhausting weekend, but that’s one of the joys of flyball.
The "boys" resting between races
Spring Fling Tournament
Cloverdale …. March 26 -27, 2011
Dancer and Ruffy joined their “other team” for the first mainland tournament in 2011. The two ring setup and lots of teams made for some fast moves for our faithful boxloader, Tony; we always knew where we needed to be when we saw him waiting at the box line.
Dancer’s team raced past all their competition, placing first in Division Four both Saturday and Sunday. The team Ruffy was on had a tougher go in Division Two, but edged their way to second place both days. Some very close races and good fun for the weekend.
Kathi and Dancer on the line, ready to go
Ruffy and his tug, full speed ahead
