Million Paws Walk Sunday 16 April

Another successful comp for Canberra X-Factor at what could arguably be the most beautiful Flyball competition venue in the country, if not the world.
At Canberra's Rond Terraces directly opposite old and new Parliament Houses, with Canberra's iconic balloons hovering above a shimmering  Lake Burley Griffin, the X-Factor X-tremes took out 2nd place in a primarily relaxed comp with a few nerve-wracking moments thanks to the exuberant Max and his victory dances crossing the line.
Jasper, Humphrey, Russ, Russell and Zac loved the day's racing and did us proud.
Many thanks to: our sponsors Hills; the Canberra and Milton Ulladulla teams who travelled to be with us; our judges Rosie and Trent; Jaci and Paul for the Photos (click here); Lesley for her organisational skills; Jess for negotiating with Hills; and everyone who helped set up and dismantle the ring.  Congratulations too, to Verdelle from K9 Crusaders on her debut as a provisional judge.
Training as usual this Wednesday night and Sunday afternoon.

ANZAC DAY a rest day for Flyballers

The general consensus is that we would prefer to have a rest day on ANZAC Day, so no training on Sunday 25 April.

ABC news photo of an ANZAC dog (not one of ours) in 2008

Happy Easter Everyone - Remember no Training Easter Sunday

Demo Report - CDC
Not many spectators, but a couple of enquiries from young dogs who might join us one day.

Demo Report - Tuggeranong Dogs Day Out

A very hot afternoon - well before the end of the day the dogs and the spectators were looking for somewhere cooler to be.
From Kathleen: 'Boomer was pretty good, and the crowd apparently all went “awwwww” when he ran!  Lol!  Fletch was extremely flakey and didn’t do much right at all!  Mainly just chased the other team (regardless of how close I took him to the box) *shakes head*!  I wonder if he will ever be able to focus at comps!'   From us: 'Yes he will Kathleen, one day he'll put it all together and make you proud......hang in there and have faith in your little man.'

Logan was a standout, running flawlessly with the team – such a show-off!  The ever reliable Jenna surprised us all – she kept smelling yummy treats in the grass and preferred to go searching for those than do flyball!  Jasper, Humphrey and Mitch were all their wonderful selves.  Dougal made an appearance too.  All in all, a great day.

Remember, Sunday afternoon training goes back to 1pm on Sunday 11 April.

Changes for Sunday 28 March

This Sunday is an Obedience Competition Day at our training grounds, so there is a slight change to training for Flyball. Instead of training at 1pm we will be staging a flyball demonstration at 11.30am (setup at 11.00am).

This will be a great experience for beginners to show off their stuff in front of a crowd, and for more seasoned flyballers to get some much needed practice, with handlers proudly wearing their new uniforms!

Afterwards, some of us will be travelling to the Tuggeranong Dogs Day Out for another demo.  This time last year, this is where we first met Boomer and Fletch....both of whom are now competing for Canberra X-Factor.

Hopefully we'll meet some more potential new team mates at these events on Sunday.

Sunday training times move back to 1pm on Sunday 11 April.

Moss Vale in March

A convoy of 7 cars and 10 dogs made their way to the Moss Vale Show on Saturday 13 March, to become part of the entertainment for the day with 3 'performances' alongside showjumping, horse wrangling, watermelon skiing, polocrosse and boot throwing.

It was a fun day at a Show with a friendly spirit. Mitch, Max, Jenna, Russ, Russell, Boomer, Dougal and Fletch attracted happy crowds who loved the antics (good and bad) of all the dogs. We had Blonde dogs running against 'little dogs and Max', we had teams of two big dogs and one little dog running against each other, we had kids trying to outrun dogs, little girls learning boxloading, and ALL dogs (amazingly) ignoring the nearby horses. Dougal achieved several 'Over, Around and Over' without the stick and without losing concentration, Fletch loved the crowd, Ebbi managed to stop shaking long enough to do three or four box turns before running back to her house, and little Szuszi did two Overs to show how the beginners learn.

The Show organisers were really appreciative and sent us home with promises to come back next year. One short video showing you just a small part of the day's action - our videographer Des was too busy running Max to take much more than this.

A great start to 2010

Canberra Royal 27 & 28 February - new slideshow on the menu bar

We fielded a single team at the Canberra Royal, where we debuted our new Canberra X-Factor T-shirts: Jaci & Jasper, Claire & Humphrey, Des, Marianne & Max, Kathleen & Boomer, Catherine, Neil & Russell and Peter & Russ outperformed all expectations and finished 2nd in a big division of 7 teams.

Peter's fantastic poem sums up the weekend:

‘THE RUN THAT COUNTS’

The Canberra show and flyball was what we were about

Us dogs had put in the training for many weeks before

We all knew what we had come to the Show for,

That Us dogs being Jasper, Russell, Russ, Humphrey, Boomer, Max

Could get the job done over the next 2 days

Saturday opened bright and clear and we launched into the fray

The little dogs ran hard being without fear

Russ and Humphrey held their form

Jasper and Max did the rest with wins coming Oh so fast

Saturday racing finished, a brilliant win in race seven, we could be in first place!

A good nights sleep and plenty of fooood, what would Sunday hold?

What a start on Sunday we had! Wins coming thick and fast

3 heats to blot, time and again…did the heads begin to swell?

Then it was lunch or was it not? A time breakout occurred of 23.2.

OH No, No, I heard some humans say

We lost that race with 2 to go, could we still do it though?

Another 3 blot, a sigh of relief, the title was still within our grasp

We all held our breath for the last, would our hearts explode?

It was one heat each all, or was it two?

Time stopped still, Russ crossed the finish line

AH, the ball dropped out of that ever safe mouth to the other lane

And, as you can guess, ‘That was it!’

For it was ‘THE RUN THAT COUNTS’

And for those who are more visual, Jaci's photographic record as usual captures the spirit of the event.

Reigning Cats & Dogs in Boorowa!

As ever, Boorowa lived up to its reputation as a fun comp, despite the miserable cold and rain. Participating in the street parade that follows the running of the sheep is such a novelty, and the 'fashion parade' for Flyball teams is what makes this comp unique.

Canberra X-Factor pulled off a win this year with our theme of 'Cats and Dogs' - it certainly helped that it almost rained cats and dogs all day, and that dry inland towns like Boorowa are in a constant state of wanting it to rain cats and dogs.

As for the racing: X-Factor X-perienced (Jasper, Dharma, Lucy, Kiera and Dusty) came 2nd in Division 2, and X-Factor X-perts (Sophie, Russell, Burra, Humphrey, Max and Boomer) came 4th in Division 3, with Burra reaching his all important Onyx (1300 points) in the last race of the day.

More highlights from X-perts:

• Beginner Neil handling Russell perfectly as start dog in race 4

• Boomer overcoming his early nervous search for his dad to run like a champion for the rest of the day

• Max completing a whole comp at blistering speed without a card for crossing over (his handler has obviously perfected the technique of getting Max to come back)

• Humphrey (AKA 'Mr Reliable') becoming Flyball Dog Excellent (FDX) at 20 points

• Sophie's excellent starts no matter who was handling her

Photos from Jaci (chicken! chicken! chicken!)

More photos from Kathleen

See you at training on Wednesday night......fingers crossed that the weather improves.