Old News


Shamrock Shenanigans 2022

In the club's first ever U-Fli tournament, Patriot Flyball Tailback placed second in Standard 1 while the Linebackers placed second in Standard 3 at Ruff Enuff's Shamrock Shenanigans, March 5-6 at Gemini Dogs in Littleton, MA.
This was the first Flyball tournament held in the Gemini Dogs facility since their renovation, and it was quite impressive. Crating was a little tight, but the racing venue itself was large and airy with plenty of runback. Ruff Enuff went all out with the frills, including complemetary (and impressive) breakfast and lunch on both days, as well as really great raffles (the team scored a couple of raffle items) and spot prizes (Angelica earned a boxloader prize).
Tailback (Winchester, GG, Breeze, Quinn, and Nixx) ran very consistently the entire tournament, giving the other teams in the division some tough competition but ultimately falling to second place on the fastest-time tiebreaker. Nixx was especially impressive running anchor, performing almost flawlessly and posting a personal best time of 5.3 seconds.
The Linebackers (Thor, Revel, Rocky, Zak, and Poison) also ran very well, matching the first place team's won/loss record but falling to second place on the tiebreaker. This was Revel's first tournament running consistently in the pack instead of anchor, and she did a good job of hitting and staying on her tug. Poison ran warmup in most of the races, but also ran a full five-heat race and earned her first ever Flyball points. Well done Poison!
Many thanks to Junior Handlers Peyton and Keely for helping out. Peyton did an impressive job running Quinn on Saturday when Renee couldn't be there, and Keely had some extremely tight passes running Zak part time on Sunday. Good job, and we hope you can both help us out again in the future.

Reindeer Games 2021

In a return to Syracuse for the first time since 2018, Patriot Flyball sent two teams to the 2021 edition of Syracuse Flyball's Reindeer Games tournaments, December 11-12 at the Syracuse Obedience Training Club in Syracuse, NY. Organized as two one-day events this year, the weekend featured a grueling 5-races-per-day, 4 of 4 format. Each team was slated to race in the top division of their class - Offense in Regular 1, and Special Teams in Open 1.

The weather was mixed - warm, windy, and cloudy on Saturday with heavy rain in the morning, followed by cold and blustery but sunny on Sunday. The transition from warm to cold on Saturday evening featured two brief power outages, but luckily the power was not affected during the tournaments.

One worry going into the weekend was that the dogs would be running on turf with no lane markings other than the jumps. To deal with this, the team ran some of the dogs Friday evening in Single Dog Racing, and then during racing spent extra time making sure the dogs knew to go over the jumps rather than around them. The results, like the weather, were mixed, but overall the dogs performed very well.

Offense (Henry, Maris, Rocky, and Revel with a cameo by Henna during the second race) started auspiciously on Saturday with a 3 out of 4 heat win. However, the second race turned out to be a total disaster, and the team ended up with 4 no-finishes. The third race was much better - the team spent extra time during warmup with the dogs that were having problems, and the extra work paid off, with the team taking 3 of 4 again for another race win. The fourth race was the same (3 of 4), and then in the 5th race the team scored a perfect 4 of 4 to take first place in the division by one point.

Sunday started out even more auspiciously for Offense - a 3 of 4 win in the first race followed by two perfect 4 of 4's in the second and third races. But then the long days of racing started catching up with the dogs, especially the green dogs, and the team went 0 for 4 in the fourth race. The fifth race went somewhat better and the team easily and cleanly won the first two heats, but then they fell apart in the last two heats, ultimately slipping into third place for the day.

Special Teams(Gehrig, Quinn, Violet, Nixx, and Henna for two races on Saturday) ran extremely consistently, and ended up placing 4th on both days. They ran very well, but were just not as fast as most of the other teams in their division.

Both start dogs (Henry and Gehrig) deserve mention, as they ran flawlessly both days. Kudos to Kathy for running Henry in start (something she had never done before) and to Renee for boxloading for Offense. Many thanks also to Junior Handler Eija for ball shagging and for keeping us all entertained.

Titles earned:


Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

Thanksgiving Throwdown 2021

Organized as two one-day tournaments, Mass Chaos' Thanksgiving Throwdown was held the weekend after Thanksgiving, November 27 and 28, at Pack of Paws Dog Training in Charlton, MA. The weather was cold and blustery on Saturday, with a dusting of snow on the ground, and just cold on Sunday, with occassional snow flurries throughout the day. Crating and parking were both tight, but overall it was a very pleasant venue for a small tournament.

Offense (Cedar, Thor, Rocky, and Revel) placed 2nd in Regular 1 on both days, and really enjoyed running in the first division. This was the second tournament in a row for this lineup, and they spent the weekend honing their passing, hovering around the 18 second mark and ultimately posting a fastest time of 17.856 seconds on Sunday.

Special Teams (Winchester, Maris, Zak, and Phantom on Saturday, with Dillon replacing Phantom on Sunday) had mixed results - on Saturday they took first place in Open 2 on the tiebreaker with an overall fastest time of 18.317 seconds, while on Sunday they ended up 3rd in Open 3 with an overall fastest time of 21.348 seconds. From the top to the bottom! But they ran very consistently both days and did themselves proud.

Defense (Gehrig, Quinn, Henna, and Nixx, with Wicked running in a couple of heats) also had mixed results. On Saturday they placed 4th in Open 3 with an overall best time of 20.462 seconds, while on Sunday they took first place in Open 4 with a best time of 20.807 seconds. The Saturday results featured a tie heat with Roughin' It S'Mores Please (both teams ran 20.462 seconds), while the Sunday results were particular impressive, as the team flirted with breakout (which was 18.2 seconds) while posting an almost flawless result (only two no-finishes for the day out of 16 heats total).

A special shout out goes to junior handler Alex, who ran Gehrig both days and boxloaded for Offense on Sunday. The Sunday boxloading assignment was particularly difficult, as the team had decided to do reruns on heats when there was a single fault. But Alex stepped up to the challenge and did a great job. Well done!

Titles earned:


Pictures of the tournament can be seen here and a video can be seen here.

Flyball MAINEia 2021

Returning to Boothbay Harbor for the first time in two years, Patriot Flyball Offense placed 2nd in Regular 1, while Defense placed 3rd in Regular 2 and Special Teams placed 1st in Open 2 at the 2021 running of Flyball MAINEia, November 6-7 at the Boothbay Region YMCA.

Offense (Winchester, Henry, Maris, and GG with cameos by Zak and warmups by Poison) ran extremely well the entire tournament, setting a new club regular record of 16.420 seconds, and going into the second-to-last race tied for first place with Mass Chaos' Big Bang team. They ultimately ended up slipping into second place, but in the process gave Big Bang quite a run for their money. A very impressive performance overall.

Defense (Gehrig, Quinn, Violet, Nixx, Henna, and Dillon, with warmups by Wicked) ran well but had trouble settling into a groove, ultimately settling for 3rd place in a surprisingly strong Regular 2 division. They broke out once, running a 20.478 with a breakout of 20.5, so had to be mindful of their running times during much of the tournament.

Special Teams (Cedar, Thor, Rocky, Revel, and Henna, with backup by Zak) had a little trouble settling down on Saturday, but by Sunday had found their groove and ran nearly perfectly the entire day. They also flirted with breaking out, posting an 18.575 (with a breakout of 18.5) and runnning sub-19 second times for most of the day Sunday. We look for great things from this lineup in the future!

Highlights of the tournament included absolutely gorgeous weather, a race judged by Tom that seemed to last forever (a total of 8 heats, most of which were reruns because of one or another technical problem), a very nice team dinner at the Tugboat Inn on Saturday night, and the switch back to Standard Time on Sunday which gave us all an extra hour to sleep in - or would have, if the dogs had been informed of the time change.

Many thanks to our Junior Handlers Peyton (running Quinn), Alex (running Gehrig and Nixx), and Eija (ball shagging). Many thanks as well to Alex for boxloading for Special Teams after Carlos sustained an injury the day before the tournament.

Titles earned:


Pictures of the tournament can be seen here and a video can be seen here.

CanAm 2021

At the twelfth incarnation of the CanAm Classic Flyball tournament at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis, Indiana, Patriot Flyball Special Teams placed 5th in Open 3 on Friday while Patriot Flyball Offense (Regular 4) and Defense (Regular 11) both placed out of the running on Sunday. Although the tournament was much smaller than in most years, with only 4 rings on Saturday and Sunday and no Canadian teams able to attend, this year featured live streaming on AKC.tv, plus all of the CanAm invitational races were recorded in the Farmer's Coliseum building by ESPN for broadcast a week later.

The intent of the Friday effort by Special Teams (Revel, Quinn, Maris, Rocky, Nixx, and Torre) was to introduce the green dogs to the excitement and chaos of CanAm, and to get Torre a run in her last tournament before a well-deserved retirement. Although the team did not win any races, they comported themselves well, forcing the first place Dixie Flyers team to 5 heats in the first race (and running a team best time of 19.250) while earning Torre 70 points in her last tournament. Of the six dogs on the team, Rocky was running in his second tournament while Maris, Nixx, Quinn, and Revel were all running in their third tournament. All in all it was a very impressive showing by this decidely green team.

A late scratch by Henna mixed things up a bit for Saturday and Sunday, with Dillon replacing her on Defense (Cedar, Gehrig, Dillon, Nixx, Quinn, and Violet). The team started out very ragged in the first race, getting a No Finish on all three of their heats, but then settled down in their second race to win it in 4 heats, posting a best time of 20.746. However, they were unable to keep the momentum going and ultimately lost their last two races, ending up 5th in the division.

Offense (Thor, Henry, Maris, GG, Revel, and Rocky) put up a very solid performance, running their opponent to 5 heats in the first race, handily winning the second race in three heats, and posting just one No Finish on the entire day, with a best time of the day (in their last race) of 17.348.

Going into Sunday, Offense looked to be out of the running, since their last race had bumped them from the top of the Regular 2 seeding to the bottom of Regular 1. They planned to just run as hard and fast and clean as they could and hope for the best. Defense, on the other hand, looked to be in good shape, since they ended up seeded second in Regular 42 (the even bracket of Regular 4). Their plan was to up their game a little bit while still running clean, and if everything worked out well they had a good chance of making the finals.

These plans would be put to the test early on, since Defense ended up being scheduled to run in the very first round of races. And as often happens the dogs had other ideas. In their first heat they ended up having to rerun one dog and ran a time of 30.812 seconds, but in the second heat they ran 19.140 and broke out, ending their hopes of making the finals (breakout was 19.215). They then proceeded to break out twice more that race and three more times the second race, ultimately posting a best time of 18.640, more than two seconds faster than their fastest time on Saturday and more than half a second faster than breakout.

Offense, with nothing to lose, put the pedal to the metal and cranked out a club record 16.703 in their third heat. They continued to put up a solid performance for the rest of the day, ending up with only one No Finish and one rerun, and winning 2 of their 4 races against some tough competition.

Aside from the club record time from Offense, this tournament marked a record number of club members and junior handlers at CanAm (14). The junior handlers were indispensible, with Peyton running Quinn full time, Alex running Gehrig, Linnea helping to run Nixx, and Eija doing ball shagging and giving out the goody bags to our opponents.

Titles earned:


Many thanks to our box loaders Nancy and Judy for keeping up with us, even as we kept changing the lineups on them every race. Great job!

Kudos to Tom and Cindy for their work in judging during the CanAm races, and a special shout out to Tom for all the hours he put in as a fill-in head judge during the Classic racing.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here and a video can be seen here.

The official photographers for the tournament were:

Organized Chaos 2021

Patriot Flyball Offense placed 2nd in Regular 1 while Defense placed 2nd in Regular 2 and Special Teams placed 3rd in Open 2 at Organized Chaos 2021, September 25-26 at the Franklin County Fairgrounds, Greenfield, MA.

In a warmup for CanAm in less than two weeks, Offense (Thor, Henry, Maris, and GG, with a cameo by Phantom and backup height duties by Dillon) posted a Patriot Flyball regular team record time of 17.026 seconds. The team looked very solid and really had a good time racing. 16 seconds here we come!

Defense (Cedar, Gehrig, Henna, Nixx, and Violet) also ran a very good tournament. All five dogs looked comfortable running together, and Nixx especially turned in a very solid performance in what was only his second tournament. Good job team!

Special Teams (Winchester, Quinn, Violet, Rocky, and Revel, with a cameo by Torre) was indeed a special team. Featuring three green dogs (Quinn, Revel, and Rocky), this team had the potential for disaster but turned out to be very steady against some tough competition. Rocky in particular turned out to be very versatile, running both in the pack and in anchor in his Flyball debut. The team ended up tied for second place in tournament points with NASDOG, but slipped into third place on the fastest-overall-time tiebreaker. Overall a very impressive performance!

New titles went to Thor (FM), Maris (FDCh), Nixx (FDCh), Quinn (FDCh), Revel (FDCh), and Rocky (FD, FDX). Great job team!

Special shout outs go to junior handler Alex, who ran Gehrig and who also ran Arrow in start for the MAINEiacs, and junior handler Peyton who ran Quinn. Also many thanks to Carlos for boxloading for Defense and Offense in his very first boxloading stint. Not an easy job, especially since we kept changing the lineups on him, but he did really great.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here. A video of the tournament can be seen here.

Return to Racing 2021

In the first Region 13 tournament since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Patriot Flyball Offense placed 1st in Regular 1 while Defense placed 2nd and Special Teams placed 4th in Open 1 at their own Return to Racing tournament, June 19-20 at Canine New England in Walpole, MA.

A total of eight teams took the opportunity to shake out the kinks and the cobwebs and get back into the swing of playing Flyball after almost a year and a half of pandemic lockdown. The racing was a little ragged in spots but overall everyone had a good time at this small, low key tournament.

The tournament gave us a first look at new teammates Henry, Violet, and Winchester, and featured the Flyball debuts of Nixx, Revel, Quinn, and Maris, all four of whom earned their FD and FDX titles. It was great to be back in the lanes!

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here. A video of the tournament can be seen here.

Winter Blast 2020

Patriot Flyball Offensive Line placed 4th in Regular 1, Defensive Line placed 2nd in Multi 1, and Special Teams placed 4th in Open 2 at their own Winter Blast tournament, February 1 at Canine New England in Walpole, MA.

In addition to the club's signature hospitality table and Pot Luck Lunch, the small one-day event also featured two sessions of Singles Racing - one before team racing began and the second during the lunch break. Open only to dogs who were not entered as tournament competitors, the sessions allowed green dogs a chance to race in a tournament environment. From what we can tell this was a much appreciated addition to the tournament offerings and we anticipate offering it again in future tournaments.

The weather was very cooperative and the tournament ran very smoothly (even though there were problems before the tournament with the EJS display and the judge's remote was not working until a programming fix during the lunch break).

One high point of the tournament for the club was when Odo (running on Offensive Line) got his FDCh-G title in the first race. Well done team, and congratulations Odo!

Special shout-outs go to Nancy and Angelica for once again running the scoring table (and having fun while doing it!), and to Junior Handlers Alex, Keely, Peyton, and Ciara, who did everthing from ball shagging to running dogs to helping at the scoring table to helping with the raffle to judging. Thank you all for doing such a great job.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here

Flyball MAINEia 2019

Patriot Flyball Starting Lineup placed 4th in Open 1 while Stars and Stripes placed 3rd in Open 2 at the 2019 Flyball MAINEia tournament, November 9-10 at the Boothbay YMCA in Boothbay Harbor, ME.

The tournament began on an ominous note when GG had to be scratched due to an injury and Torre and Gehrig were stranded 160 miles away because of an 8pm Friday night flat tire. But Torre and Gehrig made it to the Y with 30 minutes to spare and then went on to perform admirably for their respective teams.

Starting Lineup (Thor, Phantom, Jessie, Torre, and Wicked) definitely felt GG's absence, and even though Torre ran gamely the entire tournament in her place (not the original plan) the team was no match for the Open 1 competition. But they ran well and were able to get Wicked some more experience running in a tournament (as well as 25 points), and Phantom earned her FDCh-G. Good work!

Stars and Stripes (Cedar, Gehrig, Henna, Dillon, and Zak with Poison doing warmup runs) fared better, posting a best time of 18.306 and narrowly missing 2nd place on a tiebreaker. Cedar and Gehrig ran full time while Henna, Dillon, and Zak rotated through the remaining 2 slots, earning Cedar his FM title and having a good time overall. Congratulations, Cedar!

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here and a video can be seen here.

Merging with Patriot Flyball

In November 2019, Weston Whirlwinds and Patriot Flyball announced that they will be joining forces and will become one club under the name Patriot Flyball.

In the words of Weston Whirlwinds club owner Cindy Henderson:

Weston Whirlwinds has been playing flyball as a club for 21 years so this is somewhat bittersweet for many of us, however we all are super excited to be joining Lorraine Messier and Patriot Flyball. We are excited about this opportunity and look forward to hosting and participating in flyball tournaments for years to come!

Watch this space for more information as the merge progresses. Note that team practices remain the same (Sunday mornings at 8am at Canine New England, when the facility is available). In addition, some of the club members participate in Canine New England's drop-in Flyball training sessions on Wednesdays from 7 to 9 pm.

CanAm 2019

Weston Whirlwinds Thunder placed 4th in Open 4 on Friday, 3rd in Open 3 on Saturday, and 2nd in Open 3 on Sunday at the 11th annual CanAm Classic tournament, October 11-13 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, Indianapolis, IN.

The team of Cedar, Gehrig, Jessie, Torre, and Dillon, augmented by Bella from NASDOG, had trouble finding their rhythm on Friday but pulled it together on Saturday and Sunday for a quite respectable showing with some very tight races. Saturday included one race (against Shenanigans Unleashed) that went to five heats, with the last heat ending up in a 19.565 second tie. On Sunday the Open 3 division ended up with a 3-way tie for first place that was decided on tiebreakers.

Weston Whirlwinds went to Indianapolis this year with a very small group - only 3 handlers and 5 dogs - and we are very grateful for all of our friends who helped us out, including Jeff from NASDOG who ran Bella with us, and everyone from Ready, Set, Ruckus! who boxloaded for us for the entire tournament. Many many thanks - we couldn't have done it without you!

Such a fun event - we're already looking forward to next year!

End of Summer 2019

Weston Whirlwinds Hurricanes placed 3rd in Multi 1, while Thunder placed 4th in Open 2 and Patriot Flyball's Starting Lineup placed 1st in Open 1 at our own End of Summer tournament, September 28-29 at Canine New England in Walpole, MA.

Co-hosted by Patriot Flyball, the tournament featured a breakfast hospitality table, potluck lunches, placement prizes, title ribbons, and plenty of fun racing. New team member Maris was introduced to Flyball as she attended her very first tournament.

With a primary goal of getting Wicked on the board, Thunder (Cedar, Zak, Finn, Henna, and Wicked with backup by Gehrig) had trouble finding a rhythm but in the end succeeded in getting Wicked her first Flyball points and her FD title. In addition, Junior Handler Alex did an outstanding job of running Finn the entire tournament. We saw some pretty tight passes out there and were very impressed. Well done team!

Thunder (Gehrig, Phantom, Max, Stella, and Odo) ran very well, and there were some tight races with the competition. Phantom in particular is coming along nicely, and Gehrig posted some 3.9's running start. All in all a very good tournament for this group.

Starting Lineup (GG, Thor, Jessie, Torre, and Dillon) blew away their competition, easily winning first place in the division by a wide margin. Junior Handler Peyton continued to impress, running GG in start for several heats. Well done!

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

Shark Rush Fully Loaded 2019

In their first foray ever to Napanee, Weston Whirlwinds Thunder placed 3rd in Open 4, while their sister team Patriot Flyball's Starting Lineup placed 2nd in Open 1 at the Shark Rush Fully Loaded tournament, August 31 - September 1 at the Napanee Fairgrounds in Napanee, Ontario. Both teams arrived at the tournament with a mission - Thunder (Arizona, Jessie, Henna, Addie, Scarlet, and Torre) were determined to get Addie as close as possible to her FGDCh-50 title, and Starting Lineup wanted to see how fast the lineup of Cedar, Gehrig, GG, and Thor could go. In the end, both teams achieved their goals admirably.

Thunder had the most drama of the two teams. Addie needed just 535 points to get her title, but with a 3 of 5 format, only 8 races to run, and a seed time that was at the bottom of the division, the team would have to run clean for as many heats as possible to achieve their goal. In addition, the team's one really fast dog came into heat just a week and a half before the tournament and had to drop out of the tournament, which left them scrambling for a replacement. Luckily Arizona and Scarlet from 2 Fast Fur U were available, and so the team went into the tournament with paws crossed that they could jell quickly enough to get the job done.

Going into their 7th race, Addie needed just 83 points. Thunder ran clean and won the first heat, ran clean and lost the second heat, and then ran clean and won the third heat. Everyone held their breath as the fourth heat began - Arizona ... clean, Jessie ... clean, Henna ... clean, Addie ... clean! Time - 22.379, and Addie had her title!

Starting Lineup was simply impressive and fast the entire tournament. Aside from their second race when everything seemed to go wrong all at once, the team ran cleanly in the low 17's and upper 16's almost the entire time. Even more impressive, they posted their fastest time - 16.434 - in the first heat of their last race of the day, and closed the tournament with a 16.654. Really fun to watch!

Other highlights of the tournament included Henna running in start for the first time in a long time and posting some blistering (for her) 5.1's while doing it. Henna also ran for the first time ever with another Toller when both she and Scarlet were in the lineup together for 4 races (it was a first for Scarlet as well). There was some confusion as to which dog was going to be the more ball-obessed but they worked it out and ran well together.

We owe a huge thanks to Lisa from 2 Fast Fur U for letting Arizona and Scarlet run with us on Thunder on such short notice, and to Lorraine and Nancy for letting Cedar and Gehrig run with you on Starting Lineup. Also a huge thanks to Lorraine for boxloading for Thunder - you did a get job of keeping up with the lineup changes!

Congratulations to Addie for earning your FGDCh-50K, and have fun in your well-deserved retirement.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here, and a video slideshow of the pictures can be seen here. Also, a video of Thunder in race 85 can be seen here.

Pawsapalooza 2019

Weston Whirlwinds Hurricanes placed 4th in Multi 1, while Thunder placed 4th in Open 3 and Patriot Flyball's Open team placed 3rd in Open 2 at 2 Fast Fur U's first ever Pawsapalooza tournament, June 8-9 at the Wayne County Fairgrounds in Palmyra, NY. After racing on Saturday there was a hot dog social, or for the more adventuresome there was fine dining overlooking the Erie Canal. We all had a good time catching up with friends and enjoying the absolutely gorgeous weather.

All three teams started the tournament strong and ended strong as well. The Hurricanes (Cedar, Gehrig, Henna, and Dillon, with backup by Zak and warmups by Poison) were very steady the entire weekend, and ran several races where they posted four heats without a fault. Poison was able to get in several warmup runs and looked pretty good out there, although not quite ready to run for real.

Thunder (Gunnar, Jessie, Zak, and Addie with backup by Gehrig) for the most part decided to go with three-of-four-clean-heats throughout most of the tournament, except for one race where they ran all four heats cleanly. Gunnar, who was coming back from an injury and had appeared doubtful for the tournament, ended up running very steadily the entire time. Jessie and Zak were their usual consistent selves, and Addie continues to surprise us with her longevity.

Both teams did extremely well with a schedule that featured 4 races on Saturday and 5 on Sunday, not something we're used to, so we were very happy with their performance.

The Patriot Flyball Open team (GG, Thor, Phantom, and Torre with warmups by Wicked and backup by Cedar) also looked very good. Wicked was able to get in several warmup runs, and she also took a stab at a real heat late in the tournament on Sunday. Unfortunately she didn't earn any points but she is looking very close to getting there for real. The team also tried out the lineup of GG, Thor, Phantom, and Cedar just to see what would happen, and broke out twice as a result. That was one fast lineup - very fun to watch.

All in all, even though the teams didn't place very well, everyone had a good time and had fun.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here, and a timelapse-ish video can be seen here.

Greenfield Derby 2019

The Bid for the Balls! Weston Whirlwinds Hurricanes placed 2nd in Multi 1, Thunder placed 3rd in Open 3, and the combined Weston Whirlwinds-Patriot Flyball team Starting Lineup placed 4th at the 2019 edition of the Greenfield Derby, May 4-5 at the Franklin County Fair in Greenfield, MA.

The Hurricanes (Cedar, Gehrig, Zak and Henna with Finn and Torre as backupts) ran very well the entire tournament and posted a best time of 19.527. Cedar was very consistent in start and Gehrig appeared to be settling into a new role running 2nd in the lineup. Zak was his usual steady self, and Henna looked to be returning to form after a couple of rough tournaments. Well done, team!

Thunder (Gunnar, Jessie, Stella, Torre, and Finn with Gehrig as backup) had problems the entire tournament and just couldn't seem to find their rhythm. Both Finn and Gunnar came up lame - Finn after Saturday and Gunnar at the end of the day on Sunday - and had to drop out of racing, forcing Gehrig into double duty for the team's last race. One bright spot was when they unexpectedly won the bucket of balls for the closest heat of the tournament - a very hard-fought contest in the first heat of their last race that went 23.446 seconds to 23.463 seconds in their favor. Well done!

Starting Lineup (GG, Thor, Phantom, and Addie with backup by Dillon and warmups by Apollo from BARK) ran fairly steadily both days with some exceptions. Dillon played a pivotal role, doing a great job when he had to come in for Phantom late in the tournament. Both Thor and Phantom earned their FDCh-S titles; congratulations to both!

The weather wasn't perfect but it wasn't awful either; Saturday afternoon and evening in particular were quite nice. The team hung out in the Dole building during the day and enjoyed playing cornhole with the Ruff Enuff crew and chatting with their Flyball friends at the Hot Dog Social.

Many thanks to Keely and Ciara for ball shagging for us!

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here and a video slideshow can be seen here (don't blink!).

Spring Fling 2019

Spring has sprung! Weston Whirlwinds Thunder placed 2nd in Open 3, the Hurricanes took 4th in Multi 1, and the combined Weston Whirlwinds-Patriots Flyball Starting Lineup team took 1st in Open 2 at the 2019 Spring Fling tournament, April 6-7 at the Dover Ice Arena in Dover, NH.

Both Thunder (Cedar, Max, Stella, Odo, and Addie, with Poison doing warmups) and the Hurricanes (Gehrig, Henna, Jessie, and Zak with backup by Dillon and Torre) had their problems, but there were some bright spots in an otherwise difficult tournament: Cedar performed very well in start, hitting a new personal best of 3.7 seconds; Dillon earned his FM; and Poison was very steady in her warmups. Well done, Cedar, Dillon, and Poison!

Starting Lineup (GG, Thor, Gunnar, Torre, and Phantom with backup by Gehrig) ran very well the entire tournament and helped Phantom earn her FDCh. Their biggest problem was avoiding breaking out, especially when Phantom was running instead of Torre. They did break out once, and were within a tenth of a second of breaking out in a couple of other heats later in the tournament when Phantom was getting better at passing. Many thanks to Lorraine and Nancy for letting Gunnar, Torre, and Phantom run with you.

Congratulations to Junior Handler Peyton for running GG and Zak, and thank you to Keely, Ciara, and Celeste for ball shagging.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

2019 St. Paddy's Day Tournament

Weston Whirlwinds Thunder placed 2nd in Open 2 while the Hurricanes placed 3rd in Multi 1 and Lightning placed 3rd in Regular 2 at our very own St. Paddy's Day Tournament, March 16-17 at Canine New England in Walpole, MA.

This was the very first Flyball tournament at Canine New England and everyone pitched in to make sure things ran smoothly. Setup on Friday took a little longer than anticipated as we worked out the best way to lay out the mats, plus we had to deal with half of the lights being missing somewhere in the UPS delivery system. But much to everyone's relief everything was in place and working in time for single dog racing at 6pm Friday (many thanks to Lorraine for camping out at the UPS facility until they dug up the remaining EJS case).

Because it was such a small tournament we were not able to offer all of the usual frills, but instead stocked a hospitality table both days and hosted a potluck lunch on Saturday. Both of these extras were well received and we will seriously consider doing them again at future tournaments.

The teams had a little trouble shaking off the winter blahs. Thunder (Gunnar, Jessie, Torre, and Addie) were the most consistent team, and the veteran dogs provided a solid core for Phantom's Flyball debut. Phantom did an absolutely marvelous job, racking up 125 points and earning both her FD and FDX titles. We're looking for big things from her in future tournaments.

Lightning (Gehrig, Henna, Zak, and Stella, with backup by Dillon and warmups by Poison) had more trouble finding a rhythm but ran fairly well. Dillon in particular was very impressive when he replaced Stella in the middle of the third race on Sunday and had to run without a warmup - something he doesn't usually like to do. Well done Dillon!

The Hurricanes (Cedar, Max, Finn, and Odo with warmups by Wicked) also had their problems but in the end ran OK. Cedar earned his FDCh-S, and Wicked was able to do several successful warmup runs and also ran a live heat in several of the races.

Congratulations to our Junior Handlers Ciara (ball shagging), Linnea (Finn), and Alex (Finn) and special congratulations to Peyton for running Lorraine's GG in start on Patriot Flyball's Starting Lineup team. Thanks also to Keely for running the raffle table and to Celeste for ball shagging.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

Reindeer Games 2018

Weston Whirlwinds Thunder placed 4th in Open 1 at Syracuse Flyball's Reindeer Games, December 8-9 at the Syracuse Obedience Training Club in Syracuse, NY. Faced with a grueling 5-of-5 format, the team of Cedar, Gehrig, Henna, Mandy, and Addie (backed up by Dillon) struggled throughout the tournament to find their rhythm but in the end managed to put up a decent performance overall. Bright spots during the tournament: Cedar earned his FDCh and came very close to earning his FDCh-S, and Addie became the highest-pointed Australian Shepherd in Region 13.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here

Flyball MAINEia 2018

Weston Whirlwinds Hurricanes placed 3rd in Multi 1 while Thunder placed 2nd in Open 3 at Flyball MAINEia 2018, November 10-11 at the Boothbay YMCA, Boothbay Harbor, ME.

Both teams had their problems throughout the tournament. The Hurricanes (Gehrig, Henna, Jessie, Zak, Dillon, and Wicked) were hit with misfortune in their very first race, when Jessie came up lame and had to be pulled. Dillon made a valiant effort at replacing him but the team never really gelled. Thunder (Cedar, Gunnar, Torre, Mandy, and Addie) always seemed on the cusp of running clean, but never seemed quite able to get things together for a consistent run.

One bright spot was Cedar, who ran start the entire tournament; he still needs to work on holding his ball but he's definitely making progress.

Another bright spot was Wicked, who made her debut in the lanes with some warmup runs and some live heats. Even though she didn't earn any points, it's clear that she is beginning to get the idea of what this game is about. We look forward to seeing great things from her in the future!

Aside from the tournament itself everyone had a good time. The weather was excellent, and we had a great time having dinner together at the Tug Boat Inn. It was also nice catching up with our Flyball friends, especially those from Canada who we haven't seen in a while.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

CanAm 2018

The Weston Whirlwinds are thrilled to be the 2018 CanAm Flyball Classic Multibreed Division 4 champions. The Hurricanes (Gehrig, Henna, Remi, and Zak) were undefeated on both Saturday and Sunday, including a thrilling 5-heat victory over our friends and fellow Region 13 flyballers 2 Fast Fur U in the fourth and final race of the round robin on Sunday. Both that race and the championship race were livestreamed, so video of the races are available - the 2FFU race is available here and the championship race is available here.

This CanAm (the 10th annual) was special for us in very many ways. It was the first time that the Weston Whirlwinds had a full complement of team members at CanAm, so we were able to go through the entire tournament without borrowing box loaders or handlers. It was Cindy and Mattingly's 10th CanAm. Sebastian flew in from Boston on Thursday evening so he could run Finn on Lightning on Saturday and Sunday. Mattingly came out of retirement and ran on Thunder on Friday - mostly he ran around, instead of over, the jumps, but in his last chance in the last race on Friday he made a clean run and scored a point (Mattingly has not only attended all 10 CanAm's, he has also scored points in all 10 CanAm's). On Saturday Gunnar, Jessie, Remi, and Torre all ran on Lightning in the first heat of the first race of the day and won their Irondog titles together. Zak earned his FGDCh-30K and Remi earned his MBOnyx title.

The club had a total of three teams entered in the tournament. Thunder (Gunnar, Gehrig, Cedar, Dillon, Addie, and Mattingly) ran in Open 10 on Friday only. The main goals of this team were to warm up Gunnar and Gehrig for the main event during the weekend and to give Cedar a chance to run in a big tournament. Both objectives were achieved very nicely. In addition to Mattingly running on the team, Addie came out of semi-retirement to run three races so that the other dogs didn't get too tired, and Dillon did his job well the entire day.

On Saturday, the club had Lightning (Gunnar, Jessie, Finn and Torre with Cedar and Remi in backup) running in Regular 10 and the Hurricanes (Gehrig, Henna, Remi, and Zak with Gunnar and Dillon in backup) in Multi 8. Remi came in for Finn for the first heat for the Irondogs run, and Cedar came in when Lightning was running unopposed, but other than that the backups were not needed. Lightning ended up 4th in their division while the Hurricanes placed 1st.

For Sunday, Lightning was seeded 3rd in the R100 sub-division (R10 division) while the Hurricanes were seeded 2nd in the M40 sub-division (M4 division). Since the teams were running so well together, the core dogs were left the same. Both teams had a good chance of advancing to the finals, but Lightning ultimately fell to the long weekend and the hectic schedule and the stiff competition and failed to make it beyond the round robin.

The Hurricanes, by contrast, ran unopposed in their first race and breezed through their second and third races, winning them handily by large margins. Their only real test came in the fourth race, when they ran against the M40 first seed, 2 Fast Fur U ROC Flight. Things didn't look good for the Hurricanes after the first heat, which 2FFU won by more than a second. But 2FFU had an early start on the second heat, and even though Zak dropped his ball right before the line he was able to rerun and the Hurricanes won the heat. The Hurricanes won the third heat by a tenth of a second thanks in part to a bobble by 2FFU's third dog but also due to Zak's impressive run in anchor. In the fourth heat, Gehrig had an early start and so the team lost that heat, but by then the 2FFU team was visibly tiring and running slower overall than the Hurricanes. In the fifth heat, both the start dog and the third dog on 2FFU bobbled and so the Hurricanes ended up winning the heat and the race easily.

The championship round, by contrast, was almost anticlimactic. The Hurricanes were racing RUSH! Mixology, who were seeded almost a full second slower than the Hurricanes, and so even though the Hurricanes were also showing the effects of the long tournament by this time they handily won the race and the championship in three straight heats.

The team had a good time hanging out at the hotel after the races, eating takeout and socializing with our friends from 2 Fast Fur U and Alaska Dogs Gone Wild who were staying at the same hotel.

Many thanks to Celeste, who made the trip out to Indianapolis for the first time, and to Seb, who flew out to run Finn. We hope you had as good a time as we did.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

A video of the tournament can be seen here.

Beach Party 2018

Weston Whirlwinds Lightning placed 4th in Regular 2 while the Hurricanes placed 2nd in Multi 1 at the Beach Party 2018 tournament. Billed as "The Last Blast", this was the last tournament to be held at the Finger Lakes Pet Resort as the facility is being reconfigured and will no longer be available for Flyball events.

Lightning (Gunnar, Henna, Jessie, Dillon, and Torre) ran consistently all weekend and helped Gunnar make it into the ranks of the top five Giant Schnauzers in NAFA.

The Hurricanes (Gehrig, Remi, Zak, and Mandy with cameos by Cedar) had their problems, but pulled together and helped Cedar earn his FD and FDX titles. Cedar is looking good in the lanes and we anticipate great things from him.

A video of the tournament can be seen here.

Greenfield Derby 2018

Weston Whirlwinds Lightning placed 6th in Regular 2 while the Hurricanes placed 5th in Multi and Thunder placed 5th in Open 1 at the 2018 edition of the Greenfield Derby, May 5-6 at the Franklin County Fairgrounds in Greenfield, MA.

Their ranks thinned by illness both human and canine, the teams competed gamely but were ultimately outmatched by the competition - the basic theme was "slow but steady".

Lightning (Henna, Jessie, Finn, and Sophie) and Thunder (GG, Torre, Addie, and Dillon, a.k.a. Three Vets and a Border Collie, a.k.a. the Three Judges Team) were constantly flirting with the 24 second barrier, while the Hurricanes (Gehrig, Remi, Zak, and Mandy with backup by Zak and Henna) ran well the entire tournament but just didn't have the speed to catch up to their faster rivals.

The weather featured the usual mix of New England spring weather - beautiful day Saturday with plenty of sunshine; cool and drizzly on Sunday. Even though the teams didn't place well everybody had a good time, as we usually do at this tournament.

Of special note at this tournament were junior handlers Seb (Finn and Mattingly) and Peyton (Sophie, Torre, and Mattingly), with a special shout out to Peyton for running Sophie all day both days without any adult supervision at all. Anyone who knows Sophie knows that she is not an easy dog to run, and Peyton did an absolutely wonderful job running her.

Also of special note was Mattingly, who came out of retirement to take a few runs with Flyball MAINEiac's vets team. Mattingly ran around, rather than over, the jumps, but he was definitely happy to be out there - as always he was trembling with anticipation before he started his runs.

Many thanks to Lorraine and GG for running with us on Thunder.

Finally, congratulations to Gehrig for earning his FMX title at this tournament. We certainly made him work for it, and it was well-deserved.

Spring Fling 2018

Weston Whirlwinds Hurricanes placed 2nd in Multi 1 while Lightning placed 3rd in Regular 3 and Thunder placed 2nd in Open 3 at the 2018 Spring Fling tournament, April 7-8 at the Dover Ice Arena in Dover, NH. The weather was cold but sunny as B.A.R.K. and Flyball MAINEiacs brought us their incarnation of a tournament we always look forward to. It's nice to have a tournament that's close enough that we can field three teams, something we don't often get a chance to do.

The Hurricanes (Gehrig, Henna, Zak, and Mandy, with backup by Addie) ran very well throughout the tournament against some very tough competition, going undefeated in their first day of racing and splitting the second day with 2 wins and 2 losses. This division featured lots of tight races, with two of the team's races going to 5 heats and two going to 4 heats.

Lightning (Gunnar, Max, Remi, Sophie, and Dillon with a cameo by Cedar) also ran very well. Some of the dogs (Remi, Sophie, and Dillon) ran at or near their personal best times, and Cedar racked up the second Flyball point of his career. Well done team!

Thunder (Jessie, Stella, Odo, Addie, and Torre) spent a lot of time flirting with the 24 second limit, and as a result they didn't score a lot of points. But they had fun and ran well, and we were very happy with their performance.

Congratulations to Henna for earning her Onyx title.

Congratulations to Junior Handler Peyton for her great job running Sophie during all of her races. Many thanks to Junior Handlers Keely and Ciara for shagging balls for us. We really appreciate your hard work!

March Madness 2018

In the club's first tournament of 2018, Weston Whirlwinds Hurricanes placed 4th in Multi 1 while Thunder placed 2nd in Open 2 at Syracuse Flyball's March Madness tournament, March 10-11 at SOTC in Syracuse, NY.

The Hurricanes (Gehrig, Henna, Zak, and Jessie) were outclassed by their competition but put up a gallant effort, forcing their opponents to 5 heats in 4 of their 9 races. In the process they racked up 876 points and put Henna within 53 points of her Onyx.

Bolstered by the late addition of GG to the team, Thunder (GG, Gunnar, Remi, and Torre), had some problems in the early going on Saturday but by Sunday had settled down and were running like a well-oiled machine. They won their last 9 heats in a row, including all 4 heats against 1st place winner 2 Fast Fur U (assisted by Gehrig, who replaced Torre for that race only) and all 4 heats against 3rd place winner Canine Airways. In the race against 2FFU they flirted with breaking out, running a 19.095 (against a breakout of 19.0), but held it together and vaulted into 2nd place in their last race of the tournament. Well done team!

Congratulations to Cedar who did great warming up and earned his first Flyball point running with Thunder.

Many thanks to Lorraine and GG for running with us.

Santa Paws 2017

Veteran height dog Torre earned her FGDCh-50K title at 2 Fast Fur U's 7th annual Santa Paws tournament, December 2-3 at the Finger Lakes Pet Resort in Farmington, NY.

In what was truly a team effort, the Hurricanes (Gehrig, Gunnar, Henna, Zak, Remi, and Torre) ran steadily throughout the tournament and delivered enough points to put Torre over the 50,000 point line in the first heat of the team's last race. The honor of putting Torre across that line was shared very evenly amongst her teammates. Well done, team, and congratulations, Torre!

After a strong start on Saturday, with the team in second place at the end of the day, they faded in the standings on Sunday as they concentrated on points instead of speed, ultimately ending up in 4th place. But this was in no way a disappointment, since they reached their primary goal of getting Torre to 50K. Mission accomplished!

The weather during the tournament was absolutely gorgeous, and as usual 2 Fast Fur U did a great job running things in the lanes. There were Ugly Sweaters, a pet parade, holiday socks, and an appearance by Santa Claus. A great time was had by all, and it was a wonderful way to close out racing for 2017.

We owe big thanks to our friends from Ruff Enuff for helping us in the lanes, especially Joe for boxloading, Bonnie for running Gehrig and Zak, and Stephanie for running Gunnar. We really appreciate your help!

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here and a video can be seen here.

Flyball MAINEia 2017

Weston Whirlwinds Hurricanes placed 2nd in Multi 1 while Thunder placed 4th in Open 2 at the 11th running of Flyball MAINEia, November 11-12 at the Boothbay YMCA in Boothbay Harbor, ME.

The Hurricanes (Gehrig, Mandy, Remi, and Torre) were seeded last in their division, so their strategy was to run clean and hope for the best. Unfortunately they started the tournament a little ragged and so things weren't looking very good after the first couple of races. But they managed to settle down and in the end pulled out a second place finish in the tournament. In the process Remi earned his FGDCh-50k title - congratulations, Remi, and well done, team!

Thunder (Henna, Jesse, Addie, Odo, and Dillon) were also seeded last in their division, so they had the same strategy - run clean and hope for the best. They also started out ragged but also settled down and managed to move up one place, in the process helping Odo earn his FDCh-S title. Other highlights of the team's performance included Henna running a 4.6 in start and Dillon running a 6.4 in anchor. Congratulations Odo, and well done, team!

Many thanks to Lorraine for running Gehrig.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

A video of the tournament can be seen here.

Dress Rehearsal 2017

Weston Whirlwinds Lightning placed 4th in Regular 3 while the Hurricanes placed 4th in Multi 1 at the 2017 Dress Rehearsal tournament, September 23-24 at the Genesee County Fairgrounds in Batavia, NY.

While the calendar said it was the first weekend of fall, the weather was decidedly unfall-like as temperatures topped out near 90 degrees on both days of the tournament. With a total of 42 teams and 182 races, it was definitely a grueling test of endurance - both human and canine. But the Whirlwinds rose to the challenge and acquitted themselves well.

The Lightning (Gehrig, Jesse, Finn, and Torre), in training for CanAm in October, started out rough on Saturday but was doing much better by the last race on Saturday and did very well on Sunday, so all in all they accomplished their mission for this tournament. Boxloading for that team is interesting since each dog gets something different - no sleeping on the job for the boxloader in spite of the heat! Mattingly ran in one of the races on Saturday and got some points, which is all we ask of him at this juncture. He is slated for a well earned retirement after CanAm, so for those of us who are not going to CanAm it was nice to see him run in a tournament one last time.

The Hurricanes (Gunnar, Henna, Remi, and Zak) ran very consistently and racked up a lot of points, even though they didn't win a lot of races.

There was some really fast and close racing at this tournament. 2FFU and Mass Chaos duked it out for the Region 13 Regular championship, which came down to the 5th heat of their last race against each other in the tournament. Mass Chaos won that heat 15.618 seconds to 15.702 seconds. Congratulations to both clubs for an excellent job well done! Also, Border Patrol hit 14.385 seconds in one of their races. They chose not to have their height dog measured so it doesn't count for a record, but nonetheless that's some serious speed.

Congratulations to Junior Handler Seb for a great job running both Finn (on the Regular team) and Zak (on the Multi team) for the entire tournament. Well done, and good luck at CanAm!

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

A video of the tournament can be seen here.

Beach Party 2017

Weston Whirlwinds Lightning placed 4th in Regular 2 while Thunder placed 2nd in Open 2 at the fourth incarnation of 2 Fast Fur U's Beach Party tournament, July 15-16 at the Finger Lakes Pet Resort in Farmington, NY.

Lightning (Henna, Remi, Mandy, and Zak with emergency height dog backup by Dillon) were seeded fourth but almost placed third in their division, losing out on the second tiebreaker to Syracuse Final Fur with an overall fastest time of 21.192 seconds versus 20.892 seconds for Syracuse. The team ran very consistently the entire tournament. This was Henna's first time running full time in start and we were very pleased with her performance.

Thunder (Gunnar and Jessie with Kick and Darcy from 2 Fast Fur U) started out very strong on Saturday but faded just enough to slip from first place to second, ultimately losing out to Mass Chaos Nugget by one heat. A great result for a team consisting of three veterans and a dog that has only been racing for 4 months. The team used a long-tailed box - borrowed from Steve of 2 Fast Fur U - which Gunnar very much enjoyed.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.


BARKaritavillE 2017

In what was almost the tournament that didn't happen, Weston Whirlwinds Hurricanes placed 2nd in Multi 1 while Lightning placed 4th in Regular 2 and Thunder placed 4th in Open 2 at the BARKaritavillE 2017 tournament, June 10-11 at the Wide World of Indoor Sports in North Smithfield, RI.

The weather was nice both days but did turn hot on Sunday, so the air conditioned facility was greatly appreciated.

This tournament was the first one in a while in which the club fielded three teams, so it was a busy weekend for everyone. The Hurricanes (Gehrig, Henna, Stella, Zak) ran fairly consistently after some initial hiccups and easily earned their second place finish. On the other hand both Lightning (Mattingly, Mandy, Addie, Sophie) and Thunder (Gunnar, Remi, Torre, Odo) had problems throughout the tournament - one of those times when old dog issues and green dog issues combined to make things difficult.

Congratulations to Cindy and Gehrig for (yet another!) perfect start, and congratulations to junior handler Peyton for running both Mattingly and Sophie.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here, and a video can be seen here.

Greenfield Derby 2017

Weston Whirlwinds Lightning placed 5th in Regular 2 while the Northern Lights placed 1st in the Veterans division at the 2017 Greenfield Derby, May 6-7 at the Franklin County Fairgrounds in Greenfield, MA.

Lightning (Gehrig, Henna, Stella, Torre, Sophie, and Odo) ran very well the entire weekend and earned both Gehrig (FM) and Odo (FDCh) new titles. Torre and Sophie traded off height dog duties and performed solidly, while Henna subbed in for Gehrig as start dog for a couple of races when Gehrig showed signs of soreness. Henna was particularly impressive in the team's very last race, when she ran start and logged her fastest times of the tournament. Odo continues to improve, and Stella was her usual imperturbable self.

Northern Lights (Jessie, Mandy, Remi, Addie, and Mattlingly) ran steadily all weekend like the veterans they are, and in the process Mandy earned her FGDCh-40K. Well done team!

Special thanks to junior handlers Keely and Peyton for the great job they did running Torre and Sophie. Especially impressive was one heat when Sophie clipped the first jump and was spooked; Peyton got Sophie reoriented and focused and sent her on the way to the box for a successful run. Well done!

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

Spring Fling 2017

Weston Whirlwinds Lightning placed 4th in Regular 2 while the Northern Lights placed 1st in the Veterans division at the 2017 Spring Fling tournament, April 8-9 at the Dover Ice Arena in Dover, NH.

Lightning (Gehrig, Henna, Zak, and Dillon with backup by Mattingly and Odo) struggled to find their rhythm during the first day of the tournament but managed to pull things together on the second day for a strong finish - not strong enough to move up in the standings but a good ending to the tournament nonetheless.

The original plan had been to have Odo do just warmups during this, his first tournament, but he was doing so well that he was put in for a couple of heats on Saturday and then in a more significant role on Sunday. In the process he earned both his FD and FDX titles - well done Odo!

Northern Lights (Gunnar, Jessie, Remi, Addie, and Torre, in rotation) performed solidly the entire tournament - they may be getting older, but they definitely know what they're doing. Particularly noteworthy was one run when Torre bobbled the ball, chased it down a full 20 feet outside the ring, and then came back into the ring to make all four jumps cleanly on the return. A true Flyball moment - very impressive!

Also of note was the Human Flyball after Saturday racing was completed - our team of Dave, Cindy, Jen, and Brie had a great time competing against Ruff Enuff's offering and even managed to squeak out a win.

After racing (both canine and human) was over we all went out to Newick's for seafood with our good friends from 2 Fast Fur U. This outing is becoming one of our favorite aspects of the Dover tournament and we look forward to continuing the tradition in future years.

Many thanks to our friends from 2 Fast Fur U for helping us run our dogs - Tim for boxloading (not an easy job with Gunnar hitting the box full force), John for running Mattingly and Gehrig when we really needed it, Kathy for calling passes, and Steve for ball shagging. Thanks also to Brie for running Torre and to Mel for boxloading when Tim was unavailable. We love it that we can always count on the Flyball Family for help when we need it.

Title earned this tournament:



A video of the tournament can be seen here and photos can be seen here.

March Madness 2017

There's nothing like stepping outside to be greeted by a wall of white - that's Flyball in Syracuse in March. Snow and wind and cold, lake effect snow squalls, sunshine, all within the space of a couple of minutes. March Madness indeed.

Weston Whirlwinds Lightning placed 4th in Regular 3 while the Northern Lights placed 1st in the Veterans division at Syracuse Flyball's 2nd annual March Madness tournament, March 11-12 at the Syracuse Obedience Training Center.

The Lightning, consisting of Gehrig, Henna, Zak, and Dillon with backup by Mattingly posted a fasted time of 19.440 and performed well in a grueling tournament that featured 6 races on Saturday and 4 on Sunday.

The Northern Lights, consisting of Gunnar, Jessie, Remi, Addie, and Torre also performed very well and had some excitingly close races with our friends from BARK.

All in all the dogs had a lot of fun, and it was a good start to the year for the team.

Many thanks to Joe from Ruff Enuff and Carrie from Mass Chaos for boxloading for us when we needed some extra help.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here and a video can be seen here.

Santa Paws 2016

Weston Whirlwinds Lightning took 3rd place in Regular 3 at the 2016 version of 2 Fast Fur U's Santa Paws Comes to Town tournament, December 10-11 at the Finger Lakes Pet Resort in Farmington, NY. The team of Gehrig, Henna, Remi, and Torre, with cameo appearances by Mattingly and Addie, performed very well throughout the weekend. No records were set and no new titles were earned, but everyone had a good time.

Many thanks to our partners in crime on Ruff Enuff - Joe for boxloading, Shannon for running Gehrig and Mattingly, and Mel and Sue for calling passes and ball shagging.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

Flyball MAINEia 2016

Weston Whirlwinds Lightning took 4th place in Regular 2 while the Northern Lights took 1st place in the Veterans division at the 10th annual (but actually the 11th) Flyball MAINEia tournament, November 5-6 at the Boothbay YMCA in Boothbay Harbor, ME. In addition, Ruff Enuff Just Enuff, which included 2 dogs from the Weston Whirlwinds, placed 2nd in Open 1.

The Lightning (Gehrig, Zak, Henna, and Dillon with backup by Mattingly) performed very well the entire tournament and posted the fastest time in their division (18.994 seconds).

The Northern Lights, (Kick, Jesse, Remi, and Addie with cameos by Onyx) ran fairly well on Saturday but then on Sunday had trouble keeping it together - we're not sure if it was old age kicking in or just that the dogs had other ideas, but it certainly made things interesting. In any case the team held it together enough to take first place, and everyone had fun which after all is the point of the Veterans division.

Many thanks to Kathy and Kick and to Lorraine and Onyx for running with us on the Northern Lights, and to Joe and Sue and Mel from Ruff Enuff for letting Gunnar and Torre run with you on Just Enuff. Gunnar really loved that long-tailed box, we think.

Congratulations to our junior handler Kylie for doing a great job running Zak this weekend, and also for running Mattingly a couple of times. It was Kylie's first time running a big dog and she did a great job.

Congratulations to Addie for earning her Iron Dog title. It's hard to believe that this is her 10th year of Flyball; it seems like only yesterday she was a little puppy chewing holes in everything.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here and a video can be seen here

CanAm 2016

For the second year in a row, our very own Cindy Henderson was the Championship Judge at the NAFA® CanAm Classic, October 7-8-9 in Indianapolis, IN. Cindy and Mattingly were interviewed by the local TV station on Friday (Cindy's interview is the third one on the page).

Organized Chaos 2016

Weston Whirlwinds Thunder placed 1st in Open 3, while the Northern Lights placed 1st in Vets and the Hurricanes placed 3rd in Multi 1 at the 2016 Organized Chaos tournament, September 17-18 at the Franklin County Fairgrounds in Greenfield, MA.

In what could have been a difficult tournament after three dogs had to be scratched from the lineups due to kennel cough, all three teams performed very well in spite of having "mix and match" lineups.

The Hurricanes consisted of Gehrig, Gunnar, Zak, Stella, and Finn, while Thunder consisted of Gehrig, Gunnar, Max, Mattingly, Sophie, and Dillon. Sophie and Dillon shared height dog duties on Thunder, while Gehrig and Gunnar traded places between the Hurricanes and Thunder as circumstances dictated.

Northern Lights consisted of Shilo (from Flyball Maineiacs), Jessie, Wish, and Torre.

Emergency backups were Max (for the Hurricanes) and Bero of Fast Attack (for the Northern Lights).

We owe a huge thanks to Rebeccah for lending us Shilo and to Nathalie from FAME for running him all weekend.

This tournament marked the return of Wish to the Flyball lanes after he spent a year with his family in France. He did an amazing job, stepping right back into the sport flawlessly. Good work, Wish and Susan!

Congratulations to Mattingly for earning his Flyball Grand Champion 60K title. Well done!

Congratulations also to Gehrig for posting a new personal best time of 3.811.

Carleton County Pawtatoes 2016

Weston Whirlwinds sent a small contingent to compete in the 2016 Carleton County Pawtatoes 2016 tournament, August 27-28 at the Northern Carleton Civic Center in Florenceville-Bristol, NB. A beautiful facility that serves as the local hockey rink for most of the year, the Civic Center is in the midst of a very picturesque and friendly town in the St. John River valley, about 30 miles from the US/Canada border crossing on I95. The town features what is billed as the longest covered bridge in the world, which spans the St. John River.

The tournament drew spectators from around the region, and local townsfolk volunteered as line and box judges while the local 4H club supplied ball shaggers for all of the teams. The tournament included two excellent raffles and, after racing on Saturday, a corn boil supplied with local corn and hosted by the Carelton County club.

Remi and Henna ran full time with the Flyball Maineiacs Open 1 team, Shut The Front Door, settling down and running very well after a few hiccups in the first race as they got used to a new box. The team ran in some very tight races with a tie in the fourth heat of the first race (22.166 seconds), and placed 2nd in their division on Saturday.

Addie ran part time with the Prepare For Takeoff Open 1 team, Red Eye. Addie also needed a couple of heats to settle in, but then ran very steadily for the rest of the tournament. The team placed 3rd on Saturday and 2nd on Sunday.

We'd like to congratulate Carleton County on a very successful and well-run tournament, their first ever, and hope they continue the tradition.

Many thanks to the Maineiacs and to PFT for letting us run with you. It was fun, and we hope we can do it again in the future.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here. A video of the tournament can be seen here

Beach Party 2016

Weston Whirlwinds Lightning set the club record for the most points in a two day tournament, placing 1st in Regular 3 at the 2016 Beach Party tournament, July 16 - 17 at the Finger Lakes Pet Resort in Farminton, NY. The team of Gunnar, Remi, Henna, and Torre, with help from Zak and Mattingly, ran clean and under 24 seconds in 38 out of 40 heats, and posted points in 39 heats, for a grand total of 951 points. Nice work, team!

Weston Whirlwinds Thunder, running in Open 2, didn't fare quite as well, placing 5th in their division in what turned out to be a difficult schedule, with 6 races on Saturday and only 3 races on Sunday. The team of Gehrig, Zak, Sting, Mattingly, and Zoey (with backup by Torre) never seemed to find their rhythm, although they did show moments of brilliance.

The weather was very cooperative this year, with temperatures in the upper 70s on Saturday and in the mid 80s on Sunday, and an absolutely gorgeous sunset on Friday. The tournament included a Hot Dog Social/Potluck Saturday evening and a visit by the Finger Lakes Food Cart on Sunday (their pulled pork sandwich is delicious!).

Many thanks to Gail for lending us Sting and to Kyra for running him (it was fun watching Sting and Screech run against each other), to Heather and Zoey for running with us on Sunday, and to Kris for boxloading for the Lightning. We couldn't have done it without you!

Congratulations to Gunnar on earning his FGDCh-30K!

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

BARKaritaville 2016


Weston Whirlwinds Hurricanes placed 2nd in Multi 1 and the Northern Lights placed 2nd in Vets at BARKaritaville 2016, June 11-12 at the Wide World of Indoor Sports in North Smithfield, RI.

It was heartening to see the younger dogs continue to improve as the older dogs gradually ease out of the picture. Gehrig (spelled by Torre) ran well in start for the Hurricanes, running consistently under 4 seconds and even pulling out a couple of 3.8's. Finn (handled extremely ably by Sebastian) was solid as the height dog. Sophie continues to improve, and we look forward to her being a full time height dog in the not too distant future. Stella as usual was very solid - what more can we say? Henna, after having given us a scare at Greenfield, ran solidly in the lower 5 second range almost the entire tournament, only slowing up a little for the last couple of races. This was especially gratifying given that the schedule had the team running 6 races on Saturday. Good job all!

The vets team continues to have fun. This time around it was Mattingly, Addie, and Remi from Weston Whirlwinds, ably aided and abetted by Lorraine's Onyx and by Macy from Infurno. We look forward to racing with them again in the future.

Congratulations and good job to our Junior Handlers Sebastian (Finn) and Peyton (Sophie), and thank you to Keely and Ciara for ball shagging and to Ciara for the cartwheels.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

Chris Livinston's photos from the tournament can be seen here.

Greenfield Derby 2016

In what turned out to be a much more interesting tournament than we had planned, Weston Whirlwinds Hurricanes placed 5th in Multi 1 while the Northern Lights placed 2nd in the Vets division at the 2016 running of the Greenfield Derby, April 30 - May 1 at the Franklin County Fairgrounds in Greenfield, MA.

Many thanks to Jeannie and Scandal and to Bonnie and Juice for running with us in Vets. We had a great time with you!

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

Spring Fling 2016

Weston Whirlwinds Northern Lights placed 1st in the Veterans division, while the Hurricanes placed 2nd in Multi 1 and Thunder placed 3rd in Open 2 at the 15th annual Spring Fling tournament, April 9-10 at the Dover Ice Arena in Dover, NH.

The Northern Lights, being the veterans that they are, had no problems putting away the competition, easily winning almost all of their heats even against Open 3 opponents. The team of Eika, Max, Remi, Addie, and Onyx performed solidly throughout the tournament, and helped Max earn his FMX. In true Weston Whirlwinds tradition it took us until the end of the tournament to get him there, but we did it! Congratulations to the team and especially to Max.

The Hurricanes (Gehrig, Zak, Stella, Henna, Mattingly, and Torre) put in a solid performance, managing to pull out a 2nd place finish (they were seeded 3rd) even though an injury to Mattingly knocked him out near the end of the first day. It was an impressive result from what could have been a very difficult tournament. Good work team!

Thunder, consisting of Gunnar, Mattingly, Kick, Sophie, Torre, and Gehrig, also suffered when Mattingly was injured but pulled through in the end to finish well. The loss of Mattingly was especially difficult for this team because it meant shuffling the racing order so Gehrig could run in his preferred starting position. Gunnar ended up running second, which he almost never does - but you wouldn't know it from how well he ran. Sophie also stepped up big time, running without any problems in both the right and the left lanes. It's quite possible that this was a breakthrough tournament for our feisty little height dog, and we look forward to seeing how she does at our next tournament.

Congratulations to Cindy and Gehrig for a perfect start (their second!) in the last heat of Thunder's last race. Way to go!

Congratulations to our Junior Handlers Peyton and Kylie for running Sophie and Zak, and many thanks to Keely for ball shagging the entire tournament - broken wrist and all.

Many thanks to Lorraine and Onyx for running with us on Vets and to Kathy and Kick for running with us on Open 2. We had a lot of fun running with you and we hope we can do it again in the future.

Pictures of the tournament can be see here.

March Madness 2016

Weston Whirlwinds sent two teams to the first ever Flyball tournament in Syracuse, NY on March 5 and 6. Held at the Syracuse Obedience Training Club, the two-ring tournament was actually two one-day events, a rarity for Region 13, and so there were two sets of results for the weekend.

Running in Regular 2, Weston Whirlwinds Lightning (Gunnar, Torre, Mattingly, and Henna with backup by Addie and Zak) took a little while to shake off the winter cobwebs, placing 4th on day one and 1st on day two.

Running in Multi 1, Weston Whirlwinds Hurricanes (Gehrig, Remi, Eika, and Zak with backup by Torre and Addie) also struggled on day one and placed 4th, but settled down and placed a solid 3rd on day two with a best time of 18.616.

We enjoyed just about everything about the tournament - the venue, the food (the stuffed French toast was to die for), the weather, the location (1 hour closer for us!), the early finish on both days. We really enjoyed interacting with the folks from Syracuse Flyball, and we hope to see them in the lanes in the not too distant future. We know how hard it is to man the tables and the judges' chairs and we really appreciate all the hard work you put in. Sure there were a few hiccups but pulling it off as well as you did was a tremendous accomplishment.

Special thanks to Denise for running Zak and to Darla for boxloading, and to everyone else on Buffalo Wings for helping us.

Congratulations to Henna for earning her FMX.

A video of the tournament can be seen here and pictures can be seen here.

Santa Paws Returns

Weston Whirlwinds Lightning placed 4th in Regular 2 while Thunder placed 4th in Open 2 at the fifth incarnation of the Santa Paws tournament, December 5-6 2015 at the Finger Lakes Pet Resort (formerly Boomtowne Canine Campus) in Farmington, NY.

Both teams ran well but were outclassed by the other teams in their divisions - but not for lack of trying. Many of Thunder's races went to 5 heats, which just goes to show what consistency can do.

Many thanks to everyone who helped us, especially Steve from Buffalo Wings and Jeff from NASDOG who boxloaded for Thunder (and to Stephanie from Ruff Enuff who tried).

Notable accomplishments included:


Pictures of the tournament can be see here and a video can be seen here.

Flyball MAINEia 2015

Weston Whirlwinds Lightning placed first in Regular 2 at the 2015 edition of Flyball MAINEia. This year there was a fairly small turnout, so there was plenty of crating space and a very relaxed feeling. The weather this year was gorgeous - one of those bright, crisp fall weekends that we learn to cherish (especially after last year's snow storm).

The team of Gunnar, Remi, Zak, and Henna performed well in the first race on Saturday, but then a set of unforced errors (both human and canine) left the team in a virtual tie with three other teams by the end of the day. But Sunday everybody settled down and pretty much demolished the competition, flirting with breaking out in the first race and ending up just one heat shy of a perfect performance for the day.

Addie contributed to the victory with a cameo appearance in the last race on Saturday, substituting for Remi.

A big congratulations to Junior Handler Kylie for helping Zak win his Onyx title. Well done!

Congratulations to Tom Lamont on his first apprentice judge assignment. Nice job.

Many thanks to Seth from White Mountain Mayhem/NASDOG for being our boxloader. We really appreciate you being there and being so steady. Thanks also to Jeannie from NASDOG for calling passes and to Celeste (a.k.a Stacey's mom) for ball shagging.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here

CanAm 2015 Championship Judge

We are very proud that our own Cindy Henderson was the CanAm 2015 Championship Judge. In her own words:

" ... Thank you to Buffalo Wings and 2 Fast Fur U for running together on an open team, I had a ton of fun and we even took home first place on Sunday! Thank you to Kevin for running Mattingly for me on Saturday and Sunday. Thank you to my friends on Ruff Enuff for helping take care of my dogs when I was judging and for helping me pack my car on Sunday night. Thank you to all the volunteers who worked to get the event set up, work the line and box judge chairs for the weekend. Thank you to Sheri for your hard work, support and laughs working the head table in the blue ring with me all weekend. Thank you to all the NAFA judges for your support, laughs and assistance in the ring over the weekend so I could race my dogs and enjoy a few breaks, I am honored to work with such a professional and supportive group of individuals. Thank you to the NAFA Board of Directors for your tireless efforts in making CanAm the premier flyball event in the world. Thank you to Lee, Leerie and Dave for all you words of encouragement and support during the event. Thank you to all the competitors that raced in my ring that made me smile with your sportsmanship, love of your dogs, and kind words of support. Thank you to so many friends from all over that provided words of encouragement and laughs throughout the weekend ... "

Mattingly earned his Iron Dog during the tournament. Congratulations, Mattingly! Hard to believe it's been 10 years.

Organized Chaos 2015

Weston Whirlwinds Hurricanes placed 3rd in Multi 1, while the Northern Lights took 1st in Vets 1 and the All Junior Handlers team, the Tiny Typhoons, took 4th place in Open 2 at the 2015 Organized Chaos tournament, September 19-20 at the Franklin County Fairground in Greenfield, MA.

What a wonderful weekend it was! After the fog burned off on Saturday morning the weather was almost perfect - a beautifully sunny early autumn weekend - and everone enjoyed hanging out under the EZ-up while waiting for racing.

In the lanes, everything was all business. The Junior Handlers impressed everyone with their excellent starts (Kylie running Zak), tight passes (Seb running Finn and Alex, Linnea, and Finley running Diesel), and savvy handling (Peyton running Sophie and Remi). The boxloader was Keely, who performed as if she had been doing it for years, having to deal with 4 different kinds of balls and several changes in the lineup and handling it like a pro. Ball shagging was handled ably as always by Ciara. The team even helped the newest member of the Weston Whirlwinds family, Gehrig, earn his first points. Well done team!

The vets team, Mattingly, Eika, Max, and Addie, performed steadily throughout the tournament. For Mattingly, Max, and Addie, this was their first tournament running in the veterans class, and they took to it quite nicely.

The Hurricanes, consisting of Gunnar, Remi, Stella, Torre, and Henna, also performed very steadily. They were totally outclassed in speed by their opponents but managed to give both of the other multi teams a scare with their consistency, ultimately dropping to a third place finish on a tiebreaker. Nicely done!

There were several milestones at this tournament. To our knowledge, no other club has fielded an all junior handlers team before, so that was quite an achievement in and of itself. In addition, both Remi and Torre earned their FGDCh-40 titles - how often does it happen that two dogs on the same club reach 40,000 points in the same tournament? And lastly but not leastly Stella earned her FMCh. Excellent work all!

Many thanks to Lauren from Mass Chaos for lending us Diesel for the Tiny Typhoons, and to Mass Chaos for lending us Finley to run Diesel for one race. Many thanks also to all of you who cheered on the Junior Handlers team.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

A short video of the Tiny Typhoons can be seen here.

BARKing Mayhem 2015

Weston Whirlwinds Hurricanes placed 5th in Multi 1 at the 2015 BARKing Mayhem tournament, August 29-30 at the Wide World of Indoor Sports in North Smithfield, RI.

In what was to some extent a training exercise, the team of Mattingly, Stella, Henna, and Sophie (with a relief appearance from Addie) was extremely ragged on Saturday. This was Henna's first full tournament after recovering from her Addisonian crisis, and she had a little trouble adjusting to not running anchor on the team. Sophie, our fiesty little height dog, was also having trouble adjusting to running full time (in the absence of Torre, who was recovering from a bout of kennel cough). The other dogs also seemed to sense that something was not quite right, and so the day as a whole felt somewhat frustrating.

But everyone stuck with it, and by the end of the day Sunday the team was running much more smoothly and managed to get in a couple of fairly clean races. Particularly gratifying was that Henna was able to run consistently for the entire tournament, and even clocked a 5.0 in one race; she hadn't run this fast for almost a year.

The tournament overall was a very fun one. The N. Smithfield venue is very nice (even though parking was a bit tight, partly because we shared the facility with an AKC agility trial). We really appreciated the air conditioning, especially on Sunday when it got fairly warm outside. The raffle was really nice - and we won several items from it - and the pizza place across the parking lot drew rave reviews. We hope that we can have more tournaments there in the future.

As usual we owe a lot to people from other teams for helping us out. In particular, thanks to Tom from ARFF and Joe from Ruff Enuff for boxloading for us a couple of times so we could run Addie, and to everyone from FAME, Mass Chaos, and Ruff Enuff who helped with Gehrig in his warmup runs.

Remi also sends his thanks to Wicked Fly for letting him run on their Open team; he had a blast.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

Foto Finish 2015

Weston Whirlwinds Thunder placed 2nd in Open 1 at Fetch 'n Fly's Foto Finish tournament, August 22-23 at Boom Towne Canine Campus in Farmington, NY. The team, consisting of Win and Fury from Ruff Enuff and our own Remi, Henna, and Addie, performed very consistently for the entire tournament. This tournament marked Henna's return to the lanes after her diagnosis with Addison's Disease, and although she had to sit out the second day we were very pleased with her performance.

This was a very small tournament with lots of sharing between teams, and it was gratifying to see how everyone pitched in to help each other. We especially appreciate the help Sue and Jo-Anne from Ruff Enuff gave us, particulary so since the Ruff Enuff team was in the same division. Thank you, Sue and Jo-Anne! Thank you also to Jen from Ruffin' It for boxloading for us the entire tournament, and to Kathy from 2 Fast Fur U for running Fury when we were running against Ruff Enuff (glad to see you still have all of your fingers, Kathy!), and to Lisa from 2 Fast Fur U for ball shagging. We couldn't have done it without you!

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

Beach Party 2015

Boom Towne lived up to its name as the 2015 edition of 2 Fast Fur U's Beach Party started with the BOOM of a thunderstorm at 5 am on Saturday morning, but luckily the storm departed and the clouds cleared out by the time racing started. The newly air conditioned Boom Towne Canine Campus made for a lovely venue for some mid Summer racing, as the Weston Whirlwinds Hurricanes placed 3rd in Multi-1 during the hot and sticky weekend of July 18-19.

The tournament featured one dog (Fire from Obsessed K-9's) earning her Hobbes award; it's the first time any of us have seen such an event and we were honored to be even a small part of it.

It was an eclectic group of teams at a small tournament, and since so many teams came short handed it was nice to see everyone helping each other. Speaking of which - once again we owe big thanks to our friends from Buffalo Wings, especially to Julie who ran Mattingly and to Cindy who boxloaded for us. Also thanks to Joe from Ruff Enuff/OK9 for boxloading and to everyone else who helped us.

Congratulations to our Junior Handler Peyton who ran two (!) dogs, Sophie and Torre, and did a great job.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.
A time lapse video of the tournament can be seen here.
A video of the tournament can be seen here.

BARKaritavillE 2015

Weston Whirlwinds Lightning placed 3rd in Regular 2 while Thunder took 2nd in Open 2 at BARKaritavillE 2015, May 30-31 at Habitat for Soccer and Sports in Uxbridge, MA. The calendar said Spring but the weather felt more like Summer at a small tournament that offered plenty of time outside on Saturday and inside on Sunday for relaxing and visiting with teammates.

The Lightning (Mattingly, Finn, Remi, and Stella) ran very consistently the entire tournament, earning 776 points with an impressive 78% clean-heat percentage. Well done team!

Thunder (Wish, Addie, Torre, Sophie, and Patches with a cameo by Remi) also did well, even though the team lineup was continually changing. Sophie ran almost the entire tournament and ran in both lanes, while Patches ran the entire day on Sunday. Wish ran start in his first tournament since last November and did an extremely good job. Remi replaced Torre for one race on Saturday when Cindy had to judge the race.

This was Wish's last tournament before heading off with his family for a year in France, so it was really nice to see him in the lanes again after a winter off from racing. Bonne Chance and Bon Voyage to Wish and Susan on their big adventure.

Congratulations and many thanks to our junior handlers Sebastian, Keely, Peyton, Ciara, Alex, and Linnea for the great job you did.

Pictures can be seen here

A video can be seen here

A time lapse video can be seen here

Greenfield Derby 2015

Weston Whirlwinds Lightning took 1st in Regular 3 while the Hurricanes took 4th in Multi 1 at the 2015 Greenfield Derby, May 2-3 at the Franklin County Fairgrounds in Greenfield, MA. The weather was well-nigh perfect, and the Lighning (Mattingly, Stella, Zak, Finn, and Patches) pretty much dominated the competition, even flirting with breaking out while posting a best time of 20.313. The Hurricanes had a harder time of it, but managed to pull things together enough to win some points and some cheers from the onlookers as they closed out the tournament with the last race.

Congratulations to Sophie for earning her FDCh-S.

Many thanks to Junior Handlers Kylie (running Zak), Sebastian (running Finn), and Keely (ball shagging). Great job!

Pictures can be seen here and a time lapse video can be seen here

Spring Fling 2015

In the first Region 13 tournament since last September that didn't feature snowflakes falling from the sky, the Weston Whirlwinds Lightning placed 1st in Regular 2 while Thunder placed 2nd in Open 2 and the Hurricanes placed 3rd in Multi 1 at the Maine Coast Runners 14th annual Spring Fling tournament, April 11-12 at the Dover Ice Arena in Dover, NH.

Lightning, consisting of Mattingly, Eika, Max, and Finn (ably handled by Junior Handler Sebastian), with cameo appearances by Patches (making her Flyball debut in great fashion), ran very consistently throughout the tournament and pretty much dominated their competition, posting a best time of 18.991.

Thunder (Zak, Kick, Remi, Addie, and Sophie) had some rough moments but did a great job. It was especially nice to see Sophie beginning to settle into her role - she ran very well the entire tournament. We look forward to seeing her expand her repertoire to include both lanes in the not too distant future.

The Hurricanes (Gunnar, Stella, Torre, and Henna) performed admirably in their division (Multi 1 is always tough), posting a best time of 21.157 and managing to beat their seeding by one place. Addie pulled double duty by acting as cheerleader and one-time standin for Henna.

Congratulations to our Junior Handlers Kylie (running Zak), Sebastian (running Finn), and Peyton (running Sophie). You guys did a great job!

Many thanks to Kathy and Kick from Buffalo Wings for running with us on Thunder.

Milestones: congratulations to Addie for earning her FGDCh-40 and to Patches for earning her FD and FDX.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.
Video can be seen here.

Flakes a Flyin' 2015

We don't know if it was the weather or the winter cobwebs or what, but things were definitely flakely at the 2015 edition of Fetch 'n Fly's Flakes a Flyin' tournament, March 14-15 at Boom Towne Canine Campus in Farmington, NY.

Weston Whirlwinds Lightning (Mattingly, Finn, Addie, Henna, Torre, and Remi) placed 1st in Regular 2, showing once again that consistancy often beats speed. They cranked out a best time of 20.292 while dealing with the unfortunate loss of Addie for the second day of racing. Kudos to Torre and Remi for their excellent work in replacing her and helping the team to their first place finish.

Weston Whirlwinds Blizzard, running in Open 1, consisted of Fyurie and Errow from Buffalo Wings, Iago from On The Fly, and Torre (with backup by Finn) - that's right, three German Shepherd Dogs and a mini Aussie. That's something you don't see very often. The team ran a little ragged at the start of the tournament but settled down to finish nicely - most likely just shaking off the winter blahs. We'd love to be able to run this team again some time. Many thanks to Kevin, Trish, Tim, and Tracey for running with us.

A.R.F.F. Tug Thugs, with Jessie, Whit, our own Remi, and Secret, placed first in Open 3, a very competitive division with several excitingly tight races. The Thugs ended up winning all but one of their races, and even that one went to five heats. Thanks to Barb and the entire A.R.F.F. team for letting Remi run with them.

Kudos to Junior Handler Sebastian, who handled Finn all by himself for the entire tournament - not only as planned on Lightning but also on Blizzard as part of the replacement shuffle for Addie. It's not everyone who can run a dog on two different teams like that - great job! And thanks for sharing your birthday cake with us!

Pictures can be seen here.
Videos can be seen here and here.

Santa Paws 2014

Weston Whirlwinds Hurricanes placed 1st in Multi 2 and Weston Whirlwinds Lightning placed 2nd in Regular 3 at the Santa Paws 2014 tournament, December 6-7 at Boom Towne Canine Campus in Farmington, NY.

Kudos to Junior Handler Kylie for doing such a great job running Zak even though we kept switching the running order around on her. As we all know, it's hard to deal with that kind of thing even when you've been playing Flyball for years, and Kylie handled it like a champ.

Congratulations to Henna for earning her FM.

Many thanks to our friends from Buffalo Wings for once again helping us run our teams, in particular Kevin for running Mattingly and for stepping in and boxloading for us in our last race, and to Alyssa for coaching Kylie for a couple of races. Also many thanks to everyone who helped us calling passes and ball shagging. You guys make all the difference!

Pictures can be seen here, and a video can be seen here.

Flyball MAINEia 2014

Creepy spiders, ghosts and goblins, the Great Pumpkin, and a touch of winter as Weston Whirlwinds Hurricanes placed 2nd in Multi 1 while Lightning placed 3rd in Regular 1 at the 2014 Flyball MAINEia tournament.

Activities started on Friday night - Halloween - with single dog racing and a dog costume contest, and continued into Saturday with a crating-area decorating contest, so the mood was "festive but eerie" for the first part of the weekend. Then Mother Nature threw in a reminder that winter is coming with a strong Nor'easter that blew through the area on Sunday and dumped about 5 inches of snow in the Boothbay region.

With a total of 11 dogs running on two teams, both Lightning and the Hurricanes were able to try out a number of different configurations, and both teams ended up running very well even though the lineups kept changing. No particular milestones were reached, but both teams earned regional points with their placements.

Pictures can be seen here, and a video can be seen here.

CanAm Classic, October 17-19 2014

How to explain the spectacle that is CanAm in just a few paragraphs? You can look at the pictures or you can watch the video, but those will only convey part of what CanAm is all about. 291 races in 4 rings on Friday; 470 races in 7 rings on Saturday, 440 races plus the CanAm and Classic championship rounds on Sunday - the sheer scale of the event is hard to imagine unless you've been there. CanAm is a time to connect with old friends, make some new ones, and watch and participate in some of the best Flyball racing in the world.

This year Weston Whirlwinds send a total of eight dogs (Mattingly, Torre, Addie, Remi, Henna, Eika, Gunnar, and Zak), one puppy (Gehrig), four adults (Cindy, Liz, Stacey, and Dave), and one Junior Handler (Kylie) to Indianapolis to run one team on Friday and two teams on Saturday and Sunday. For the second year in a row Cindy was a head judge (in the pink ring this time around). So with only three other experienced handlers we were very short handed - but not to worry, our Region 13 friends came to the rescue and gave us lots of help.

Friday was a warm-up day, with Gunnar, Remi, Addie, Henna, Torre, and Zak in a 6-dog rotation running together on one open team. The team was seeded last in their division (with a breakout time of 17.8) so there wasn't really any hope of outrunning the competition; instead, they concentrated on running clean, tuning up, and preparing for the real racing the next day.

Saturday was just non-stop excitement. The plan was to just run clean and not try to break any speed records, but as usual the dogs had other ideas: Lightning (Mattingly, Eika, Henna, and Zak, running in Regular 17) started the day by breaking out with a blistering 18.48 (breakout was 18.5), essentially dashing any plans of getting a favorable seeding for Sunday. The Hurricanes (Gunnar, Remi, Addie, and Torre, running in Multi 6) ran steadily all day and ended up with a seed time of 20.8.

When the Sunday seeding list and schedule came out, Lightning as expected was seeded last in their division. But the Hurricanes actually had a glimmer of hope; they were seeded second in their bracket of Multi three - behind our friends Buffalo Winds BBQ, who we would be racing in our first race. A quick roster shuffle swapping Torre onto Lightning and Zak onto the Hurricanes and we were all set to go. The complication was that we were only going to have three experienced handlers and no boxloader of our own for this team because Cindy could only be available for Torre's team due to her judging duties. We scurried to find boxloaders and handlers for our races and by the time of our first race we had everything lined up.

We figured we didn't have a huge chance but we were going to give it our all. The first race went to 5 heats but we managed to beat Buffalo Wings, and we began to think we had a legitimate shot at the Multi 3 finals. The second race also went to 5 heats and we beat DogGoneFast. The third race didn't go quite as well and we fell to Alaska Dogs Gone Wild 3 heats to 1. We won our last race in 3 straight heats to end up with a total of 11 race points, but Buffalo Wings managed to pull out a win in their last race, ended up with 12 race points, and went on to the Multi 3 finals which they won to become the CanAm Classic 2014 Multi 3 champions (we like to think that they won it for us because under the more-usual 1-point-per-race scoring the Hurricanes would have ended up going to the finals).

With only three full-time handlers and one half-time handler we really needed help running our teams, and we have lots of people to thank for pitching in. Our Junior Handler Kylie did such an awesome job running Zak (and even took a stab at running Eika during warmups), it's hard to believe she hasn't been doing this for years. And to all of our friends from Region 13 who boxloaded for us, ran dogs, called passes, shagged balls, and in general just added support: we couldn't have done it without you.

Particular standouts include



Finally, congratulations to Zak for earning his FMCh at CanAm; this is Zak's second CanAm-earned title.

Barktoberfest 2014

Hot stuff! Weston Whirlwinds Thunder placed 1st in Regular 3, while the Hurricanes (in Multi 1) and Lightning (in Regular 2) both placed second at a steaming Barktoberfest tournament, September 27-28 at the Habitat for Soccer and Sports in Uxbridge, MA. Mother Nature threw us all a curve, bringing back Summer temperatures for the last tournament of the 2014 season, but the Weston Whirlwinds teams rose to the occassion, performing admirably despite the heat.

Thunder, consisting of Wish, Max, Stella, and Finn with relief appearances by Bella, demolished the competition, winning all 9 of their races in convincing fashion.

Lightning, consisting of Mattingly, Eika, Torre, Henna, and Sophie, also performed extremely well. Highlights of the team's performance included both Henna (FDCh-G) and Sophie (FDCh) earning titles, plus Henna running in the pack for the first time.

The Hurricanes, consisting of Gunnar, Remi, Addie, Zak, and Sophie, with warmup runs by Patches, also performed well and moved up ahead of their 3rd-place seeding to end in 2nd place. Highlights included Sophie running in the right lane for the first time and Patches doing warmup runs in a tournament for the first time.

We owe a big vote of thanks to Kerry of Canine Mutiny for running Mattingly and to our Junior Handlers Keely, Peyton, Ciara, Sebastian, Linnea, Sam, and Maggie.

Many thanks also to Susan for supplying the smoothies on Sunday - they were very cool and refreshing!

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

A video of the tournament can be seen here.

I Love NY Flyball 2014

There was Dirt Track racing, R/C car racing, tropical downpours, a rainbow, and lots and lots of Flyball at Buffalo Wings' I Love NY Flyball tournament, September 20-21 at the Genessee County Fairgrounds in Batavia, NY. Weston Whirlwinds Hurricanes placed 5th in Multi 1 in a tournament that served many clubs as a warmup for CanAm 2014. With a large turnout that attracted teams from Regions 1, 2, 13, 15 and 20, racing lasted until 8pm on Saturday and 6pm on Sunday, but with only one team entered the Hurricanes had plenty of time to sit back and enjoy the action.

Highlights of the tournament included Mattingly getting his FGDCH-50K (congratulations Mattingly and Cindy!), Henna running anchor and doing some real passes, and Remi running for a handler other than his owners (thank you Alyssa!).

Many thanks to Kevin, Piper, and Alyssa from Buffalo Wings for running Mattingly, Torre, and Remi, and thanks also to Mark from Buffalo Wings and Stephanie from Blue Ridge Blast for boxloading.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

A video of the tournament can be seen here.

Survivor Seekonk 2014

Weston Whirlwinds Hurricanes placed 3rd in Multi 1 at the Survivor Seekonk 2014 tournament, August 30-31 at Sherwood Ultra Sports in Seekonk, MA. The team of Henna, Remi, Stella, Finn, Mattingly, and Sophie gave it their all against some tough competition and were able to come away feeling very good about themselves. The team ran almost flawlessly on Saturday, and on Sunday even though everyone was hot and tired they managed to take three out of four heats in the last race against the first-place-winning Ruff Enuff team. Well done team!

After some last-minute shuffling when Cindy had to miss the tournament because of illness, Finn was double-named to the Baystate Bandits' Open 2 team in support of teammates Addie and Torre. Finn wasn't needed so much on Saturday - and in fact was ably supported by Sophie on the Hurricanes - but on Sunday he ran almost full time on both teams. Handled very well by Junior Handler Sebastian on both teams, Finn hardly seemed to miss a beat and was key to the success of both teams. Way to go, Finn and Sebastian!

Congratulations to Sophie for earning her FDX and for running her first full races flawlessly. Congratulations also to Junior Handler Peyton for handling Sophie so well. We're looking forward to lots more from our feisty little black dog!

In all of the excitement and confusion, we missed that Finn earned his FMX title. Way to go Finn!

As is often the case we were short handed at this tournament, so we owe a huge thanks to everyone who helped us, in particular our Junior Handlers Sebastian, Peyton, and Keely. We couldn't have done as well as we did without you! We wish you could come to all of our tournaments.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

Beach Party 2014

Weston Whirlwinds Hurricanes took third place at 2 Fast Fur U's Beach Party tournament, July 19-20 2014 at Boomtowne Canine Campus in Farmington NY. It was a small tournament so there were not a lot of races but there was a lot of racing, and it was a lot of fun for all of us. It was nice to be done by 3 on both days, and really nice to be home by 10:30pm on Sunday. The weather was very cooperative (the last time we were in Farmington there was 5 inches of snow), the raffle was great (and we actually one some stuff), and the company as always at Region 13 tournaments was friendly and helpful.

It was good also to see teams from out of region that we don't usually see. Always nice to see new faces.

We really like this venue, and hope that the new owners see how great it is to host Flyball tournaments at their facility, and what a great bunch of people Flyball people are.

Thanks to our judges Toby, Cindy, and Chris - great job all three of you and you kept things moving at just the right pace for this tournament.

Our team competed in the Multi division, which is always a tough thing to do in NAFA these days, and we are very pleased with the way our dogs ran. Our little feisty height dog Sophie earned her FD, and Henna the Toller got her FDCh-S running in start.

Special thanks to our friends from NASDOG who let Remi run with them on open; it was a lot of fun and there were a lot of good races (especially against our hosts - had some really tight ones there). We look forward to being able to doing it again some time. Congrats to Nike on his ONYX; it's really nice to have been part of that.

Special thanks also to our friends from Buffalo Wings for helping with ball shagging and holding and running dogs, and for letting us share lunch.

Congratulations to Junior Handler Peyton for doing such a good job running Torre.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

A video of the tournament can be seen here.

Flyball at the Fair 2014

Weston Whirwinds made a sweep of second place at the 2014 Flyball at the Fair tournament, May 10-11 at the Franklin County Fairgrounds in Greenfield, MA, with Lightning, Hurricanes, and Thunder placing 2nd in Regular 1, Multi 1, and Open 2. In a tournament that promised to be much more chaotic than it turned out to be, the dogs and people all rolled with the punches to end up meeting or beating their seeding in two out of the three divisions they raced in.

We co-hosted this tournament with Ruff Enuff, and we can't express enough how impressed we were with the way they kept things moving throughout. We can't remember the last time setting up or tearing down a tournament has been so easy, and the placement prizes they provided were wonderful.

Even the weather (mostly) cooperated. After a foggy and drizzly start on Friday evening and Saturday morning, the skies cleared and the thunderstorms missed us, leading to a Saturday evening that was a delight to everyone camping at the fairgrounds, and to an absolutely gorgeous day on Sunday. It was nice to experience some warm weather racing for a change - it's been a long time coming.

We owe huge thanks to everyone who helped keep the tournament running as smoothly as it did - all the Ruff Enuff crew, of course, but also to Lorraine who was able to come to the tournament and split the judging duties with Cindy. We also owe thanks to everyone who helped with box judging and line judging, especially when the two hosting teams were running against each other. Kudos and thanks especially to Jess from Ruff Enuff for spending so much time manning the scorer's table when the rest of us were busy running dogs.

Special thanks to Kristen, who came on Saturday to give her dog Patches a taste of what a tournament is all about and ended up boxloading for us for a few races. We really appreciate your help, and we hope we didn't scare you away!

Also thanks to Dave from Canine Mutiny for running Bella.

Milestones:
Remi - FGDCh-30k
Henna - FDCh, and she ran 8 races in start

Special Note: Jeter's Retirement
This was Jeter's final tournament. After more than 10 years in the lanes, Jeter has made it clear over the past few months that it's time for him to stop racing. And so we wish a fond farewell to "Iron Dog" Jeter - you have been a calm presence on this team for so long; you have been so patient and so forgiving of the stumblings and transgressions of countless green dogs and junior handlers. It will be strange not to have you running with us.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

A video of some of Jeter's last runs can be seen here.

Spring Wing Ding 2014

Weston Whirlwinds Lightning placed 5th in Regular 2 at the Buffalo Wings annual Spring Wing Ding tournament, May 3-4 at the Kenan Center in Lockport, NY. The team of Mattingly, Addie, Remi, and Torre ran well but were totally outclassed by the competition.

The Kenan Center is a great venue, with plenty of room to spread out both inside and out. Having the lunch vendor on site again this year was a special treat, and the pre-orders were a great idea. We hope this tradition can continue! It would have been nice if the weather were a little warmer, but it was warm enough to crate outdoors so the dogs were able to rest between races. At least it didn't snow!

Our team owes special thanks to the crew from Howl, who let Henna run with them on their open team. We really appreciate it (and as always it's fun to watch Gail bowl her dogs down the lane).

Special thanks also to Kevin and Piper from Buffalo Wings for running Mattingly and Torre, and to Chris from Howl for boxloading for us. We came to the tournament with only three people so we couldn't have done it without you.

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

Spring Fling 2014

Weston Whirlwinds Lightning took 3rd in Regular 1 while the Hurricanes (Multi 2) and Thunder (Regular 3) both took 1st place in their divisions at the 13th annual Spring Fling tournament, April 12-13 at the Dover Ice Arena in Dover, NH.

There were plenty of high notes from this tournament, the most notable being our own Cindy "Iron Judge" Henderson who took over sole Head Judge responsibilities when Lorraine had a family emergency and couldn't attend. Cindy, we work with you every week, and we know you had it in you but we still don't know how you do it.

With Cindy judging full time, things got a little interesting in the dogs department. Torre, being the momma's girl she is, wouldn't run properly even though Angelica and Hunter did their best to get her going - she managed a few runs but not anything consistent. Of course we can't blame her - most of our dogs don't run very well if at all for other handlers, and when momma is standing right there and won't even say hello it can be very upsetting. But the team as always was flexible, with Zak pulling almost double duty (way to go Zak! you really saved the day) and Sophie also got in on the act for enough runs to get into the record books. Truly a great team accomplishment.

The weather for the weekend was a mixed bag - gloriously warm and sunny on Saturday, cold and wet on Sunday - but that's to be expected at this time of year. In any case it didn't snow, and it was nice to sit outside in the sunshine during lunch on Saturday.

The team owes huge vote of thanks to Dave Dubois from Canine Mutiny for running Mattingly and to Hunter from Ruff Enuff for running Torre. Also we'd like to thank Jeannie and Rachel from NASDOG for helping us with Henna during warmups. We couldn't have done it without you guys!

We also had several Junior Handlers helping us out - Peyton ran Sophie, and Keely and Maggie helped with ball shagging, with Keely being very good about bringing the balls down to the box after the races. We really appreciate your help!

Milestones:
Sophie: First Points
Henna: FD, FDX
Gunnar: ONYX
Eika: FGDCh-30k

Pictures of the tournament can be seen here.

Thawin' Paws 2014

Weston Whirwinds Lightning placed 4th in Regular 1 and the Hurricanes placed 4th in Multi 1 at the 2014 Thawin' Paws tournament, March 29-30 at Boom Towne Canine Campus in Farmington, NY.

The paws may have been thawin' but the weather was not as the teams dealt with rain, sleet, and 5 inches of snow to compete in the first Region 13 Flyball tournament of the 2014 calendar year. It's been a long winter and it was nice to get out in the lanes and stretch a little.

We really like this venue, and the on-site food vendor was an extra special touch - nothing like a bowl of hot soup on a snowy day, especially when you don't have to go out in the snow to get it!

As is often the case we needed lots of help. We owe huge thanks to Kevin from Buffalo Wings for running Mattingly and to Joel, also from Buffalo Wings, for stepping in and box loading for one race when we mixed up our assignments. Also many thanks to everyone who helped us with pass calling and ball shagging - we really appreciate it!

Congratulations to Junior Handlers Sebastian (running Finn), Kylie (running Zak), and Piper from Buffalo Wings (running Torre). We saw some awfully good passes in there - keep up the good work!

And finally, a big congratulations to Bella who earned her Onyx this weekend, and to Henna who made her debut in the lanes (although for warmups, only). Henna also did Single Dog Racing on Friday night and ran a 4.9. We look forward to (more) big things from both of you in the future.

Pictures of the event can be seen here.

A video of the event can be seen here.

Santa Paws 2013

Weston Whirlwinds Lightning placed 1st in Regular 2 and the Hurricanes placed 3rd in Multi 1 at the 2013 Santa Paws Tournament, December 7-8 at Boom Towne Canine Campus in Farmington, NY. The Hurricanes (Eika, Addie, Torre, and Remi) ran an almost flawless tournament, scoring 25 points in all but one of their heats. The Hurricanes (Gunnar, Mattingly, Bella, and Zak) started out the tournament in fairly ragged fashion by losing their first race, but then pulled it together to take the rest of their races in commanding fashion.

Congratulations to Remi for earning his MBMX (Multibreed Master Excellent) title, and for running 4.9 seconds in Single Dog Racing on Friday evening.

As usual we owe many thanks to people from other teams, including Chris and Alyssa from Buffalo Wings who ran Mattingly and Zak, Joel from Buffalo Wings who boxloaded for the Hurricanes, and Piper, junior handler extraordinaire from Buffalo Wings, who ran Torre on Sunday. Thanks also to Keri from Buffalo Wings and Dave Walt from Rocket Relay for calling passes, and to Celeste (a.k.a Stacey's mom) for ball shagging. We couldn't have done it without you!

Pictures from the tournament can be seen here.

A video can be seen here.

2013 Flyball MAINEia

Weston Whirlwinds Lightning placed 3rd in Regular 1 at the 2013 Flyball MAINEia tournament, November 2-3 at the Boothbay YMCA in Boothbay Harbor, ME. Even though the club was only running one team, things were "not boring at all" for the small contingent of Whirlwinds as team members were kept busy helping other clubs who were in turn helping us - mostly Canine Mutiny but also Ruff Enuff and we even got some help from our friends on Prepare for Takeoff (Eika had a total of 4 different handlers for the weekend, which may be some sort of club record). Many thanks to all of you for your help!

On the touristy side, some of the team stayed at a new (to us) hotel, the Tugboat Inn, which they highly recommend both for the rooms and for the spectacular views of the harbor.

2013 CanAm Classic

What a weekend! The Weston Whirlwinds traveled to the 2013 CanAm Classic tournament, October 18-20 at the Indianapolis State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis, IN. This year the club had three teams running, the most ever for us, and it was great to have a big group there - some of us for the first time - to enjoy the festivities.

First some THANKS: