BRACKEN: BPA DOG & FLYBALL CHAMP!

The role of BPA Dog is obviously important and I take my responsibility very seriously, but at the end of the day I have to remember that I am a dog ... and that I have boundless energy that needs an outlet! So, for the last few years, my older sister Dory and me have been doing flyball with our pals at Kennet Flyball Club. Dory has taught me everything I know about flyball.

Flyball is like a relay race for a team of 4 dogs. Each dog runs into their racing lane and jumps over four hurdles before reaching a ‘box’ which we jump on to trigger the release of a tennis ball. We catch the ball in our mouths and run like the clappers back to the start gate where we ‘cross’ our teammate who is starting their run into the lane to collect their own ball from the box.

It’s really important that the dog coming in doesn’t pass the dog coming out until they have cleared the gate, otherwise the laser beam knows and it triggers the fault light. This causes the humans to make gasping noises and sometimes we have to do our run again to turn the fault light off. We all run one after the other after the other after the other. For our team (because we are not the fastest paws on the planet) that all happens in just under 19 seconds! (You might think this still sounds fast, but the record is just over 14 seconds!! Wow!)

In August, my Kennet Kittiwakes team, made up of me, Dave, Cassi, Trevor and Buzz were at the 'British Flyball Association Outdoor Championships'. We spent the first day of the competition just racing for fun, putting down a clean time with no fault lights. This told the adults how fast we could run as a team. Overnight they sorted all of the teams into divisions of 6. There were a total of 34 divisions (that's a lot of dogs!). We were in Division 17. We raced against all the other teams in our division on Saturday. 3 races in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. During the lunch break I had a big helping of sardines (to help keep my energy up) and a nice snooze.

The amazing thing is that we won all of our races! This meant that we won our division! Everyone was really really happy and later in the day we were all given a massive rosette with a 1 on it, and a trophy shield because we were Division 17 Champions!

I am really proud of myself because sometimes my collie-anxiety gets a bit much for me to handle and I forget how much I love flyball ... but at Champs everything just clicked and I had the time of my life!

If you want to find out more about flyball, or see if there is a club near you, check out the British Flyball Association website.