Power napping between races

Playing tug with the Santa Tribble toy

It's been a year...

The Irvine tournament is nearly here. Next week Zeb will begin is second year of flyball racing. His first team race was at this same tournament last year. He was start dog on our 'green' team. His first race was perfect, then we switched lanes and he kept trying to go to the box in the other lane instead of our box. I learned a lesson there. Its best to pull him and make him sit out that race and come back with a plan to get him back on track the next race. He raced flawlessly the remainder of the day and had no more problems switching lanes. His team placed first in the Variety division. After that race day, we were even more hooked on flyball than before.
We continued to race on the team and got used to running in all positions on the team (1st through 4th). My timing improved and Zeb took it all in stride. He's happy as long as he's racing.
Our last tournament of the year was the most fun. I didn't handle him at all on Saturday. He was run by a 9yr old junior handler who impressed us with his starts, especially since this was his first time running a dog in a tournament. I love running Zeb in flyball, but it was a treat to see him happily run for someone so young and obey all commands he was given.
In a week, our new race year begins. It should be even more fun than the last. =)