Our first tournament back in the lanes since November and one of the hardest set of line ups ever.  We started with plan "A" 3 teams.  Our multi team was pulled out in the limited draw so we moved on the plan "B" two teams, 2 core height dogs and everyone else from the THREE original teams sharing spots. That would give us a total of 11 different line ups over the weekend and no warm ups for the green dogs, YIKES!  Then we lost 3 dogs out of the line ups so on to plan "C" which actually worked out well.  No sharing spots and our greenies would get some warm up time.  THEN we lost 2 more dogs and had to come up with plan "D!"  Luckily Stephanie from Ruff Enuff saved the day and brought both Kai and Dash (seasoned visiting MAINEiacs) to play with us!

We started of the racing with a Mimosa toast to the 2012 racing year.  A tradition I think we should keep up with! (Thanks, Staci!)  

Bring it!  Lucy, Flossie, Kessie, Sally (Banner in warm-ups)
We had our share of issues but worked through a lot of them.  Joey and Lucy are getting better and better at start and pulled out some really nice times!  Flossie did a great job holding her own this weekend and had lots of fun!  Kessie was a solid little height dog all weekend, if only her mom would stop early passing!  And Sally...who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?  Sally ran in the Anchor position for the first time ever.  She has ALWAYS been a start dog due to her avoidance of a pass but I guess she and Kessie worked it out and they were great!!  Banner did some excellent warm-ups and got in one nice clean heat as start dog!! Huge thanks to Chris from Howl for bailing us out on Saturday morning when realized out boxloader was one of the folks that couldn't make it!!  Chris, I don't know what we would do with out you!!

What The Fuzz?! Sammie, Kai, Dash, Karmela & Leap (Acre in Warm-ups)
Fuzz raced really well this weekend, lots of clean heats we just couldn't out race the competition. That didn't stop us from having fun in the lanes though! Staci and Sammie had lots of GREAT start times.  Kai did a great job holding his ball except for one "blonde moment" which quite frankly was adorable. :)  I had lots of fun running Dash Dog who is a Maniac in his own right waiting for the lights to start!  Karmela did a nice job along side Leap in the height dog position.  It was nice to see Leap having fun in the lanes again!!  It was also great to race with Blue Ridge Blast!  I'm sure the papillon vs papillon racing will be talked about for years!   Big Thanks to Dan for NET for boxloading for us!! I hope we weren't moving to fast for ya!  :)  Huge thanks to Martha for shlepping Acre back and forth for me so he could do some warm-ups!  I couldn't have done them without you!!   Also a great big THANK YOU and ATTA BOY to Joey for bravely stepping in to boxload not once but twice without missing a beat...errr...ball!!  Nice job!!

Shilo got to run in OPEN with NET and we had a blast!  He just loves being start dog and once his mom got back in the rhythm we had some nice times.  Except when Brinks was in...she really got Shi rev'd!!  We had a couple early's and lots of backing up!  It was FUN!!

The new location was interesting and once you learned how to maneuver past crating we did well getting to lanes on time.  The hotel was close and comfortable with lots of great places to stop for supplies and dinner in between.  MAINEiacs are looking forward to doing it all again at the Hangover in March!!

Here's hoping Julie and Phoenix are both feeling better soon!  We missed having Julie, Lynda, Wayne and Cynthia there this weekend!

Quite a few MAINEiac's invaded Dieppe New Brunswick this weekend!  FAME always has fun tournaments and this weekend was great!  We brought up two teams.  What the Fuzz: Shilo, Breezie, Sammie, Buster/Xena & Banner.  Shut the Front Door: Sally, Hydro, Kessie, Karmela/Leap & Jada.

Let's just say the humans had a good time but it may not have been a finest tournament in the lanes.  We learned a lot and our newbies had success in warm-ups.  

It's always great to spend the weekend with friends and our fur kids!  They can't all be perfect racing weekend but they can be GREAT weekends!

This was such a special year for FM in PEI!  It was our 5th anniversary since losing Monica which made it a bit emotional to start.  We had a couple of new members join us this time along with the regulars. 

We took 3 teams up, 1 regular and 2 open teams.  FM was joined with 1 member from MCR and 2 from Ruff Enuff and we had a great time!

As always, PEI was as much about being with friends as it was about flyball.  We had a fantastic time camping with FAME and Push Play!  Campfire's are never dull and I may never see gummie bears the same way again.

A team of five and a crew of 3 hit the road for PFT's Function in the Junction tournament in Fredericton, New Brunswick last weekend!

Lynda, Julie and Rebeccah along with Chance, Sassy, Bullet, Shilo, Kessie and Acre jumped in a mini-van and took an interesting drive to the Junction!

Big thanks to Andrea from FAME and Cheryl from Push Play for all their help!  Andrea did a great job running Shilo and Cheryl (even without a voice) was the perfect boxloader all weekend.  Including be ready in the lanes before us! :)
More thanks to everyone else the jumped in to help us whenever we needed it!

The team raced well despite never actually running together before.  In typical FM style we had our groove down for Sunday racing and had lots of fun!!

On April 30th a few the MAINEiacs took a trip to the fair!  Flyball at the Fair hosted by the New England Trailblazers.  We camped, we crated outside, we raced...we ATE!

We went short handed and ran two teams.  We partnered up with Boston Stragglers and Howl.  Huge thanks to Victoria for boxloading for BS and to Stephanie for stepping in to run Rio when I had to bow out due to flyball flu!

We ran What The Fuzz with our regular line up except the part of Breezy was played by Kai from Ruff Enuff this trip.  As always this team ran really well and we took 1st place in Open 2 with a best time of 20.46!  Team: Sassy, Kai, Sammie, Kessie

Shut the Front Door ran in Open 1 and did a really nice job for a new line up. Thank you to Lisa for letting Sally come on a road trip with us to complete team!  STFD took 3rd place with a best time of 20.69  Team: Sally, Dash, Shilo, Xena

We started off with only 4 dogs on each team...Gulp...no back-ups.  Late on Thursday we had request from Howl for warm-ups spots so we had 2 mini-aussies join us for the fun.  Neither ready to run heats...gulp...still no back up!  

Who needs back up?!  Our 8 dogs ran great!  Gulp...thank dog!!

We all camped on-site and we very happy for the lovely weather!  We had some delicious meals and enjoyed crating outside.  Oh what a difference the sun makes!  It was a great weekend!!!

Maine Coast Runners Spring Fling tournament was as fantastic as always!  We brought 3 teams plus two dogs in Vets!  It made for some busy racing but with 18 FM members there we always had it covered!!  

As always we ate well!  We have many good cooks on the team and the crockpots were working over time.  It was nice to be able to have the arena all to ourselves Saturday for a relaxing dinner and Christmas in April! 

Thank you so much team for your lovely gift that will definitely help keep me in the lanes!!

All three teams came in third in their respective divisions!  Another successful weekend of racing!  All of our "green" dogs did an awesome job...some of them aren't really even all that green anymore!  :)

What The Fuzz!? In Multi  Sassy, Breezie, Sammie, Kessie, Jada and Shilo with a best time of 20.5!  Yay Jada for racking up some more points!

Bark Off!! in Regular Sally, Hydro, Lucy, Karmela, Xena and Chance with a best time of 21.1!  Sally set a new standard..."I'm not Shilo so you had all better hold your balls!"  I guess it worked!

Bring It! in Open with Shilo, Chance, Luna, Lark, Polly and Leap also with a best time of 21.1!!  Lot's of green dogs running and two pro's and after one little glitch we ended up racing really well together!  Chance did a great job running in the pack too!!  

Molly ran with Canine Mutiny in Vets and had her own cheering squad! She did a great job too! (Especially after mom put away the tuggie...it may be vets but that tuggie is still too exciting!)

Flossie ran with HOWL in vets and did a great job on Saturday.  Saturday afternoon she tweaked something and came up lame which took her out of racing.  Hopefully she enjoyed the fresh spring air and listening to Lucy talk about racing all day on Sunday.

New Titles:
Lucy FM!!
Sammie FDCh-G
Kessie FDCh-G
Lark FDCh
Polly FDX
Sometimes I wonder how a day can be so much fun and sad at the same time.  Our sympathies go out to team members Martha and Joey on the loss of the border collie, Meg.  She may not have been a flyballer but was certainly still family to us.  Run fast, run free and big woofs to Monica for us, Meg!

On February 18, 2011 the Flyball MAINEiacs headed for Fitchburg, MA and MARDI GRAS MADNESS.  We took 3 teams "Perfectly Seasoned" in Vets, "Bark Off!" in Regular 3 and "What The Fuzz?!" in Multi 2

For a team of dogs that has never run together "Perfectly Seasoned" was GREAT!!  Sally, Annie (NASDOG), Loki (NASDOG), Flossie and Foster (Buffalo Wings) did an excellent job! Andy was fabulous in START with Sally! As always it was lots of fun to run with NASDOG...even Larney got to have some fun! Foster is adorable and a very high drive flyballer...insert visual of Foster in lanes getting belly rub! Flossie did a wonderful job staying focused and proved she's ready for more!  "Perfectly Seasoned" took 2nd place in the Vets division.

"Bark Off!" Certainly had their share of challenges.  Lucy and Shilo were not convinced they needed to bring the ball back EVERY time, Hydro thought he should bring ALL the balls back and Karmela knew the ball HAD to come back with her but it wasn't always exactly where she wanted to get it from.

All and All "Bark Off!" had a pretty good come back on Sunday...in true MAINEiac fashion!  We had a lot of FUN and lanes and managed a 3rd place finish!  Next time around I'm naming this team "Hold Your Balls!"


"What The Fuzz?!" had a Cinderella story weekend!  Sassy, Breezie, Sammie and Kessie (with some help from Shilo and Leap) had a fantastic weekend!  Undefeated ALL weekend! 1st place in Multi 2 and 4 new titles!!!  Sassy really seemed to enjoy running in the start position and Breezie loved running 2nd in the pack with pass in to Sassy!!  Sammie got better and better with her passing and held pretty strong on the return for tug with the exception of one brief visit to FAMES crating area. :)  Kessie, oh Kessie...She run full time for the first time since we started training over 4 years ago! She was rock solid the whole weekend and it was just what I needed!  Thank you Kessie Monster.
Shilo stepped in for Sammie only a couple times and Leap was able to go in for one full race for Kessie.  Leap is BACK!!   Yay!!!


A huge thanks to team for all of their hard work.  Wayne, Julie and Staci rocked on the box!  

New Titles:
Sally FGDCh (40K)
Sassy FMX
Breezie FMX
Sammie FDCh
Kessie FDCh