What?!?! Starbuck actually raced in a flyball tournament?!?!

That's right, I said it - Starbuck actually raced in a flyball tournament. It's so crazy that of course it could only happen on a leap year! 


I never thought it would happen but it did! Good thing there was a photographer there because now I have proof: 

She did it!!! She likes those pink squishy balls with a smiley face.

There's the little Buck-Buck with her flashy pink squishy ball! She got to race in four races, each with three heats. Her fastest time was 5.8 s and that was even with my crappy passing times! She fumbled once (ball went way outside the jumps) but she picked that ball right up and found the jumps and saved the run! What a good girlie! 

Here she is, looking kind of crazy and wanting to chase the dogs racing. 

It's hard working with a high prey drive dog in flyball.

She did manage to loose her mind during the last race of the weekend and crossed over into the other lane to run with a German Shepard. But I think it was because she was so tired and overstimulated - have any of you ever been to a flyball tournament before? Those things are madness - constant barking and yelling. Even my brain was fried by Sunday afternoon. 

 And here she is posing for the photographer looking all pretty

 in her racing harness.

Starbuck was definitely the star of the tournament. No one had seen an AKK before so she had everyone coming up to her to pet her. And the photographer took that beautiful picture above of her and gave me a print for free. Starbuck always manages to get some freebies :) I bought a CD of the tournament photos so hopefully I'll have more racing pictures to post in a couple of weeks. 

And here is Starbuck with her very first flyball title buttons. She earned her Flyball Dog (FD) and Flyball Dog Excellent (FDX) titles - making her the very first AKK to earn a flyball title. 


It feels like it has taken us forever to get to the point of racing but Starbuck definitely had a blast and was so happy to be out there running. We are so lucky to have all of our teammates on the Big Orange Blast to help us out and the flyball goddess, Kate, in Chattanooga. Kate was the one who finally solved the puzzle and taught Starbuck how to catch the ball!