# Halo von Rokanhaus-FDCh (Flyball Dog Champion)



## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Halo's second flyball tournament was last weekend, and she did great! She got her FD (Flyball Dog) and FDX (Flyball Dog Excellent) titles in her first tournament in April, she needed 13 clean heats for her 3rd flyball title, and she nailed it. :happyboogie: Marin Running Riot was running 4 teams at the tournament - Halo had 3 races on the Unleashed team on Saturday and 3 races on the Unfettered team on Sunday. Because we have such a big club and a lot of green dogs who need experience she didn't get that many races but she got to run all four heats in each of them. Well, almost - in one of the races on Saturday she pooped in the ring right before the first heat, which is an automatic forfeit of that heat (hey, it was outdoors on GRASS, how was she supposed to know the difference between the grass over _here_ and the grass over_ there_?!?!? :rofl, so she ran 11 heats on Saturday and 12 on Sunday. Not only did she get her FDCh title, she's halfway to her FDCh-Silver title, which she'll get in her next tournament, with 10 more heats.

I was very proud of her - her box turn wasn't perfect, but she maintained it all weekend, getting all four feet consistently on the box. She's still not running at full speed, Tom came by yesterday afternoon and caught her last race of the day and said she's at about 75% of what she can do in a dead run (hard to tell from my angle at the end of the lane), but she's solid and consistent. She was totally into it and focused, even though it was only her second tournament and and the first one was indoors, so this was another new environment for her. 

Our club was in 24 of the 69 races on Saturday and 28 of the 73 races on Sunday. It was two VERY long days, 6:30 AM to after 6:00 PM the first day, and 7:30 to nearly 5:30 the second day, plus I had an hour and a half round trip drive. I was exhausted, and I'm stiff today. Other than the 20 minute lunch break and a couple of 5 minute breaks we barely had time to sit down. I didn't bring my camera because I didn't think I'd even have time to use it, but I did get some pictures with my cell phone that aren't bad, and the husband of one of the women in the club took some pictures each afternoon. Unfortunately he got there after Halo's last race on Sunday, but he did get 3 great pictures of her on Saturday. 

Here are a couple of pictures of the venue, it was the soccer field at a college, and a really nice place for a tournament:

From our camp - you can see the people lining up in the left lane ready to start










From the box end of the field



















Halo hangs out in my chair before a race










I love this picture!










Her teams won their division both days, she got a pink elephant and a blue Koala bear as prizes. Here she is with Saturday's prize:










Tom brought the camera with him, but didn't check the settings (it was on video, d'oh!) so he didn't get any pictures. I gave him strict instructions that if he came to watch, he had to stay completely out of sight, so she didn't even know he was there. I told him where he could stand, and where he couldn't stand. After the race was done I waved him over, and she was SO happy to see him, jumping up and down - "Yay, Daddy! Yay, Daddy! Yay, Daddy!" :wub:

I grabbed the camera and got a couple shots of her prancing around with her Orbee tug:



















And last but not least, the pictures that Michelle's husband took:


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## Debbieg (Jun 7, 2009)

Wow that is awesome Deb! Halo has found what she was born to do! The perfect fun outlet for her intensity! She looks so happy! Congratulations Halo and Deb.:groovy::toasting::toasting::congratulations::congratulations:


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

Fantastic! She does, indeed, look very happy and right in her element. 
Love her girly harness!


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## RocketDog (Sep 25, 2011)

SHE LOOKS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I ♥ Halo.


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## LARHAGE (Jul 24, 2006)

Congratulations !! Halo is so beautiful!!!


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

Great photos, love the running shots.

Congrats on the titles!


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## Gharrissc (May 19, 2012)

It's good to see some other breeds involved in this sport besides the typical BC and Aussies.She looks great!


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## Anthony8858 (Sep 18, 2011)

Outstanding!

Nice pics too


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## wolfstraum (May 2, 2003)

Congrats!! I know there are not many GSDs in the sport....and how surprised the BC and Aussie people are to see them doing well! Caja's Mom and her fiancee with Errow and Fyurie are usually the only ones at tournaments that they go to....Halo is doing a great job as a breed ambassador out there on the WC

Lee


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## JakodaCD OA (May 14, 2000)

HUGE congrats to you and lovely Halo!!!


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## Caja's Mom (Aug 6, 2003)

Who was your judge? Our team captain is also a judge and he was out there recently and I think is going back in the next few weeks. Congratulations too the first couple of titles are the hardest. What have her times been like?


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## Tiffseagles (May 12, 2010)

Congratulations!


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## GSDBESTK9 (Mar 26, 2002)

Congratulations!


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## GatorDog (Aug 17, 2011)

Congrats to you and Halo!


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Debbie, it does seem like the perfect sport for her! It's awesome to see her having so much fun and being so into it. 



Gharrissc said:


> It's good to see some other breeds involved in this sport besides the typical BC and Aussies.She looks great!


There was one other GSD in this tournament and none in her first tournament, so they are definitely not well represented in flyball. We have a Mal and 2 Tervs in our club, and there are several others that are regulars at the tournaments I've been to, so there are other larger dogs participating. There are also several Dobermans in our division that are at all the tournaments, and I don't that's a common flyball breed either. 



wolfstraum said:


> Congrats!! I know there are not many GSDs in the sport....and how surprised the BC and Aussie people are to see them doing well! Caja's Mom and her fiancee with Errow and Fyurie are usually the only ones at tournaments that they go to....Halo is doing a great job as a breed ambassador out there on the WC
> 
> Lee


Thanks Lee, we think Halo is pretty awesome! :wub:



Caja's Mom said:


> Who was your judge? Our team captain is also a judge and he was out there recently and I think is going back in the next few weeks. Congratulations too the first couple of titles are the hardest. What have her times been like?


The judge was Randy Kenzie, I think he's from somewhere in Canada. She ran in the 4th spot in her first tournament last month since we had only started working on passes in practice the previous Sunday, and just with her passing into other dogs. We didn't do any work with other dogs passing into her. I saw the heat times for her races, but had no idea what her individual times were, it was just the totals. Plus, we were doing mile wide passes so it wouldn't have been any indication of her actual speed anyway.

In this tournament I was doing scribing for the first time, so I was able to flip through the sheets and see her heat times, but she was running in the 3rd spot, and although her passes were tighter than in the previous tournament we really haven't spent a lot of time working on tightening them up, we've been getting her used to passing into and being passed into by a variety of dogs. The times I saw were mostly in the 5 to 5.5 range, with a couple over that - 5.6, 5.8. But as you know, that's from the time the previous dog crossed the finish line, not from when Halo crossed the start line, so it's not an accurate representation of her speed. Only the starting dog shows an accurate time, but as we tighten up her passes we'll have better times, even if her speed is the same. 

It's funny, Jasmine, one of the dogs that was in the 4th spot for several of Halo's races, was apparently snarking at her every time she ran by. I didn't even know, since once she hits the box my back is turned and I'm running in the other direction. They were mentioning it afterwards, saying it wasn't cool - but also that Halo didn't care, lol! 

She's pretty solid, she definitely gets what her job is and she does it, even though her speed isn't exactly earthshaking at this point. We only did a recall in the warmup period for her first race on Saturday but she didn't seem to need it so we didn't bother for any of the other races, even when we switched sides. We tried having her do a full run by herself in the first race, starting at 25 feet, and she totally bypassed the jumps and seemed confused about what she was supposed to do and where she was supposed to go. So the club captain had me bring her up to the 10 foot line and start her from there, and she rocked it. We did her first two races from there, and were going to try to warm her up from further back in her last race, but that was the one where she pooped in the ring and we didn't get a warmup at all, so we started her at 10 feet again. 

On Sunday we had the chance to do a full run with the whole lineup in the first warmup, and she had no trouble with that, so for all her races on Sunday we started her from 20 feet. I think she'll be faster if we can start her further back and give her a chance to pick up steam before she gets to the start line, and we're gradually working up to that. But really, I'm just so happy that she ran all her heats without mistakes, and so did all the other dogs in her races.


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## FG167 (Sep 22, 2010)

Congrats again! We are putting LC GSDs on the flyball map LOL Kastle's first tourney is next weekend  I wish you were closer so 1. we could run together and 2. I could get a nifty tug like yours!


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## Shade (Feb 20, 2012)

Congratulations!


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

FG167 said:


> Congrats again! We are putting LC GSDs on the flyball map LOL Kastle's first tourney is next weekend  I wish you were closer so 1. we could run together and 2. I could get a nifty tug like yours!


Me too! Good luck with Kastle, I know he'll do great. Is he going to run on a team, or start with singles or doubles first? 

LC GSDs rule!!! :thumbup:


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## Andaka (Jun 29, 2003)

Way to go, Halo!!! And to Debbie too.


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