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3/4 dog 100% Border Collie

Flyball!

Kess had the opportunity to come out and play at a local flyball demo.  For those of you not familiar with the sport it consists of 4 jumps evenly spaced over a 51ft racing lane.  At the end is a spring loaded box that pops out a tennis ball when the dogs trigger the slanted portion of the box.  Flyball is a team sport with 4 dogs running in a relay fashion, racing the other team for the best time.  If a dog drops the ball, misses a jump, or crosses the start line before the incoming dog they have to re-run their heat.  The race is over when all 4 dogs on both teams have successfully jumped over all of the jumps and taken the ball past the start/finish line.

Despite a 3 year hiatus and tripawd status Kess didn’t miss a beat.  She was so happy to see everyone and play some flyball.  It was just wonderful to see Kess out there doing her thing.  She amazes me a little more every day.  I found myself pretty choked up after she ran, and just had a great time myself.  Kess used to run the flyball course at just under 4 sec, and now runs at about 5.5 sec.  Since everything went well we decided to enter the Cascade Comets South of the Boo!der tournament in the open veterans division in a couple of weeks.  The veterans division is for dogs over 7, the jumps are at the minimum height and it’s a little more laid back than standard racing.  The tournament is held by our old club, and it’s the perfect ending to Kess’s flyball career.  I had been very involved in the sport when Kess’s leg first came up lame and it always felt like an abrupt conclusion to something that had been a major part of our lives.


Suki the monkey butt made out ok as well, she took home 3rd place in the dog trick contest at the festval and brought home some dog treats and a $25 resturant gift card.



6 Comments so far

  1.   maggie on October 10th, 2011          Reply

    Kess! You rock!!!!!!!!!!! You have brought tears to my eyes!!!! GO TRIPAWDS!!!

    Tracy & Maggie

  2.   rumblesmom on October 10th, 2011          Reply

    Oh, my! I also got choked up reading this!
    I’m so happy for you and Kess. Nothing like doing what you love to do. And her photo on the banner is great. She has a lot of spunk, your Kess!
    –Rebecca (geez…I’m still sniffling)

  3.   krun15 on October 10th, 2011          Reply

    You should show this video to a bunch of people who don’t know Kess is a tripawd- I bet most would not notice she is a three legger. She looks great! The only time you could really tell was when the video slowed at the end and you could count legs 🙂

    Karen and the pugapalooza

    •   tombi on October 10th, 2011          Reply

      Kess participates in disc dog demos regularly and we always wait until the end of the show to point it out. It’s always fun to hear the surprise from the crowd.

  4.   riosmom on October 10th, 2011          Reply

    Wow, look at her go!!!! That’s amazing! My husband was watching the video with me, and I had to point out the Tripawd, cuz he didn’t even notice.

    Micki

  5.   Nicola on October 14th, 2011          Reply

    I got really choked up, but at the same time with a huge smile and I clapped for Kess. Thanks for sharing!

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