The Seaside Sprinters add another team!
Congratulations to the Seaside Sprinters Fyball Club!! This
new club began competing with their first team, The Salty Dogs, in
May '06 and ten months later they took their second team, The Wave
Runners, to All Dogs Gym in Manchester, NH for the club's sixth
tournament in March of 2007. Not only did the "new" dogs do a great
job but several titles were earned in the process! Since March 2007
the Seaside Sprinters have been to five more tournaments in
Massachusetts and New Hampshire, our dogs have earned many new
titles and the team has run its fastest time ever of
22.414
seconds. Then February of 2008 the team took its 4 newest member to
two tournaments in New Hampshire where again there were new titles
earned by both the newest dogs and many of our veteran dogs.
Flyball
is run as a relay with four dogs on a team, running side by side
against another team. Each dog must jump over four hurdles,
retrieve a ball from a spring loaded box, and return carrying the
ball over the hurdles. The first team to complete the race without
mistakes, wins the heat. Flyball is an exhilarating
sport combining team work, speed, running, jumping and lots of
tennis balls. This is a sport in which all dogs can
participate; it makes no difference if your canine is a purebred or
a mix, large or small, dogs of all shapes and sizes and even those a
little older can play the game.
The
Seaside Sprinters practice weekly at My Dog's Place in Mystic, CT.
The practice is led by the team captain Bea DeGruttola, who has been
involved in flyball for over eight years. The following are members
of the team:
Bea
DeGruttola and her English Springer Spaniel "Molly-Dog"
with 1316 points, FDCH-S and "Power Pup" her mix breed with
55 points - FD
Katie Jordan(Co-Captain) and her
Vizsla
"Tiki"
with 3027points - FDCH-G, All American "Scout"
with 683 points - FDCH,
and cockapoo "Addie" with 2948 points - FDCH-G
Marge Lineweber and
her Irish Setter "Derby" with 2743 points - FDCH-G
Sheri Throop and her Standard Poodle
"Lucy" with 354 points - FDX
Gina Macaione
and her Border Collie "Jasmine" with 1839 points - FDCH-S
Megan Roche
and her Old English Sheepdog "Oliver" with 62 points - FD
Bill Loftus
and his Australian Shepherd "Champ" with 461 points - FDX
Joseph &
Elizabeth Cefaratti and their Labrador Retriever "Cassie"
with 50 points - FD
Kari Daniels
and her Labrador Retriever "Potter" with 17 points
Kim Daoust
and
Amanda Throop
Box Loaders
Joshua Throop and Xochitl Hernandez-DeGruttola - Ball Chasers
Abbreviations indicate Flyball titles:
FD
= Flyball Dog, FDX = Flyball Dog Excellent, and
FDCH = Flyball Dog Champion. The dogs earn points towards a
title when, as a team, they run the race under a specific time. If
the race is completed in less than 32 seconds each dog earns 1
point, less than 28 seconds: 5 points, and less than 24 seconds: 25
points. Titles are awarded based on the number of points a dog has
received. More information can be found on
www.flyball.org
or www.flyballdogs.com
If you
are interested in taking a flyball class, Bea teaches a beginners
and intermediate level course. Please contact My Dog's Place for
more information.
More pictures from our recent
tournament coming soon!

