Retired Flyball Dogs

Current Flyball Dogs                                           Class Dogs                                                  Rainbow Bridge 

 Retired Flyball Dogs

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 Hunt's Ketchup boy, better known as Ketch, is the most loveable boy you'd ever want to meet and gives lots of kisses whether you want them or not! He's also very un-terrier like and gets along with almost everyone on four legs. For those of you that own terriers you will know exactly what I mean ;0). His favorite game is flyball because he also gets to do another fun game he loves when he races and that's tug! Like lots of other members of the flyball community we chose to adopt instead of purchase a dog. We adopted Ketch at 18 months and are his 3rd and final home. He came to us from another flyball family that was unable to care for him at the time. He has been running with First In Flight since he was 18 months old and has accrued over 20,000 points racing. That's not a lot compared to some dogs, but he makes the most of every race he gets to run in, by being very reliable and as long as his human doesn't mess up he almost always gets lots of points but he plays for the love of the game and the toys! He's not the fastest, nor the tallest, nor the one with the most points, but he's just right as far as his family is concerned. He doesn't do too bad for an old man!

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 Jake is a black lab born in October, 2005.  Jake was active in flyball for about 4 years, He started a little slow, as he thought it was easier to run outside the jumps rather than over them for quit awhile.  He soon become a solid dog on our team. He is definitely ball crazy. The first thing he would do when I would drag home from a weekend tournzment is hunt up a tennis ball for me to throw for him to retrieve.  Jake retired in early 2010 due to the flare up of an old injury he got as a pup.  Although he still enjoys a good game of fetch!

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 Koda is a 5yr old male Australian Shepherd that played flyball for about 2 years. Koda had a little bit of a rough start with flyball because he would rather bark at the dogs in the other lane than carry the ball. He ended up bringing the ball back consistently, but still found a dog to bark at every now and then. If only he could figure out how to bark with a ball in his mouth. Koda enjoyed playing flyball, but enjoyed having large open spaces to run in more.  That's why his family made the difficult decision to send Koda to live on a large farm with more than enough places to play.  We love Koda, and we know this was the better decision for him.

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 Hunt’s Little Ray O’Sunshine FMX, better known as Rosie, is an Australian Shepherd. She was born March 14, 2005. Rosie was all but feral, having been raised with virtually no human interaction and scrabbling for food among at least 30 other dogs living on the property. She was our “pity purchase”. She was the only dog that would willingly come out from under the house where they were living. We just couldn’t leave her behind. In addition, Rosie was born with no vision in her left eye, further hampering her social skills. She was, at times, literally afraid of shadows. Fearful, skittish, and reactive were appropriate adjectives to describe her.

We began flyball training as a way to develop Rosie’s confidence. I had no intentions of competing with her as I never thought it a real possibility. After several months, we began to see a change in Rosie. She was becoming more confident, less skittish, and more well-adjusted. So we began to think that maybe flyball competition was a possibility after all. Rosie made her debut in August 2006 in Blacksburg. She continued to play with enthusiasm and exuberance for the next four years. Rosie always had to run as anchor dog as she ran on the wrong side of the traffic pattern, skimming the edge of the jumps on her blind left side. We think she did this as it gave her a sense of where she was in the lane, by sight on her right side and by touch on her left side. Sometimes Rosie ran flawlessly for the whole weekend. And sometimes Rosie had a grand time, inventing her own rules to the game. Perseverance and patient teammates however, contributed to Rosie’s success in achieving 10,000 points and her FMX.

Rosie was retired in Blacksburg in November 2010 when she reached her FMX. Rosie has “Tigger Syndrome”. Sitting still is not one of her virtues, nor is staying on the ground. She loves to look you in the eye when she’s barking and playing. Unfortunately, unlike Tigger, she does not have springs or shock absorbers in her legs. The constant bouncing has done damage to many of her joints over the years and arthritis and its accompanying pain was already showing up at age 5. So we made the decision to retire her early.

Rosie is a happy, happy dog who loves life. Running, jumping, and barking are her favorite activities. It doesn’t matter what order they come in. Flyball was a great outlet for her energy. The sport and the people have helped her to develop the potential she should have had to start with as a baby. And although she can still be somewhat skittish and spooks easily at times, I’ve caught her actually soliciting attention from a person or two that she has learned she can trust over the years. We plan to find her some activities that will be less stressful on her joints, and she will continue to be the bouncy, barky, happy Rosie that we all know and love.

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Vida was born in November 1999 with the ball in her blood! I believe that if she were to get hurt, she’d probably bleed tennis ball green. To say she is obsessed would be an understatement, and although the tennis ball is her favorite, she will happily retrieve any kind of ball all day long, including basketballs, (which she has learned to push and roll with her feet), footballs, baseballs, and softballs. Vida retired from flyball with 17, 748 points and her FMCH. During her flyball career, Vida was a great asset. She was consistent, reliable, could run all day long and then some, pass any dog, and run any position, although start position was by far her favorite (patience and waiting not being one of her virtues). Because of her love of the game, flyball was our main focus for Vida, although she also earned some agility titles and a herding certification. Physical conditions forced her early retirement from competition in mid-2006, but she still comes to practice on occasion to play a bit and to help with the training of green dogs, and she still plays with as much enthusiasm and love of the game as she always has.

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 Sowagla Gold Willow, better known as Willow, is a fawn and white whippet, born June 16, 2000.  She first competed in flyball in September, 2002, and achieved her Onyx in January, 2007.  Following ACL surgery in April, 2009, she returned to competition in July and received her FGDCH in September, 2009.  Willow's personal best time is 4.4 seconds, but for most of her career she has run in the 4.7 - 5.0 second range.  In addition to flyball, she loves lure chasing.  In early 2010, Willow retired from flyball to focus on being a connoisseur of all things soft and  can often be found sleeping in her human's bed, under the covers!