Kaya hits Top-10 in NAFA Flyball & Hobbes!
We’re proud to announce that Kaya has climbed up the rankings over the last 6 years of racing and she has reached NAFA Flyball’s Top-10 Pointed dogs of all time!
So what…how many dogs are there racing in Flyball, anyway?
22,700. Dang, that’s a lot of dogs! The NAFA database counts points earned by all dogs back to 1991.
Okay really there aren’t that many actively racing right now, but that’s how many have registered with NAFA Flyball. A more accurate number is 17,457…which is the number of dogs who have earned the “Flyball Dog” title…meaning there are over 17,000 dogs who have raced in Flyball and earned points.
How many points does it take to make the Top-10 list?
109,311 points.
HOBBES (Photo by Len Silvester, www.NAFA.org)
The former #10 ranked dog retired in 2004, with 109,310 points. He was the first dog in NAFA history to hit the 100,000 point mark! That is a big mark to make in Flyball Racing history…so big of a mark in fact that they named a new title after him! It’s called the “HOBBES” title, and it is the highest title any dog can earn in NAFA Flyball. It is quite an honor to pass up such a historic dog in the rankings.
There are only 19 dogs who have earned the HOBBES title. Ever.
How long did it take Hobbes to hit 100,000 points?
(Well now, since NAFA is awesome enough to have an OPEN database with all competitor’s racing details – unlike AKC and USDAA whom you have PAY to get any information – then it’s easy to find out!)
Almost 10 years! 12/11/92-9/28/02.
He hit 100,000 points while racing on his 213th team. Hobbes then continued racing for two more years, and then celebrated his retirement on 9/25/04 with 109K points after nearly 12 years of racing, on 236 teams.
How long did it take Kaya to hit 100,000 points?
Yes she shared her cake with me.
5 years and 4 months! 4/2/05-8/17/10.
She hit 100,000 points while racing on her 241st team. Kaya earned her 100K title in half the time that it took Hobbes, however she had to race on more teams to get it. That could mean several things:
- Her teams were not as good at being clean and earned less points per day.
- Her tournaments were 1-day events (1 team Sat + 1 team Sun), and Hobbes’ region had more 2-day events (1 team for Sat+Sun).
- Kaya often raced on a second team each day where she may have been part-time.
I would guess that the reason is more likely #2 and #3. Not necessarily #1 because one of the reasons that Kaya has earned so many points is because she has always been on a Division I team. When you’re in Division I, if one dog makes an error, they can often re-run as the 5th dog and still finish under 24 seconds.
How do you earn points in Flyball?
Sorry, we should have started here, for those of you who don’t know much about Flyball!
Generally, a team will race in about 6 races per day. Each race consists of about 4 heats. Each heat, your dog has the opportunity to earn 25 points – if they finish their heat faster then 24 seconds. So that means that when you race on a team for one day, you have an opportunity to earn about 600 points per day.
Also, a dog may race on two different teams on the same day, so this would double your earnable points to up to 1200 points per day.
And then some tournaments span two days, so then it would be considered racing on only one team (instead of two), but earning up to 1200 points.
Based on the numbers for Kaya and Hobbes, Kaya earned an average of 415 points per team, and Hobbes earned an average of 469 points per team.
Okay back to the subject of Top-10 rankings.
How many points does the #1 ranked dog have?
152,786 points.
Shadow, a mixed breed who was nominated for the NAFA Hall of Fame in 2009 (but didn’t get inducted…got beat by some Great Dane!), races on Paws-a-tive Attitude, and last raced 11/20/10. So while we have the NAFA Database open and we’re looking at all these numbers and stats, let’s just see how long it took Shadow to hit 150,000…to earn the “Shadow” award! (Oh, wait, NAFA doesn’t give out any awards or titles or recognition for dogs who have earned over 100,000. Nevermind, Shadow, you don’t get a title named after you like Hobbes did. Why not continue to reward the top dogs in the sport? Well…that’s a topic for another blog post, isn’t it?)
10 years and 5 months! 3/13/98-8/30/08.
He hit 150,000 points while racing on his 285th team. That averages 526 points per team…wow, Shadow raced on teams that average less then 2 mistakes a day? Nice! Or else maybe they’re in a region who has each team race over 2-days. See #2 above.
So how many points will Kaya end up with?
Well considering that Hobbes and Shadow were still actively racing at 10 years old, and Hobbes retired at 12, and Shadow is STILL racing at 14 years old…well then Kaya might be just beyond half-way through her racing career.
The last few years Kaya has earned around 20,000 points per year (and ranked pretty well in the annual Top Point Earning Dogs list as well):
- 2010 season – #4 with 22,628 points
- 2009 season – #2 with 25,894 points (congrats to #1, Digit! She’s Arrow‘s mom!)
- 2008 season – #3 with 18, 372 points
- 2007 season – #5 with 22,934 points
I’m predicting that Kaya could be giving Shadow a run for that top spot in about 2013. She’ll be 9 years old.
Not too shabby for a little mixed breed mutt picked up spur-of-the-moment from a rescue in Nebraska!
Flyball Updates – Envy and Bootzilla
The Flyball page has been completed on the new website, take a peek and let us know what you think! We added basic background info about the D.E.O. Speedwaggin’ Flyball team, highlighted a few of the dogs and our team accomplishments, and have also added all of our planned 2011 Flyball Tournaments to the Calendar.
We have a couple exciting new additions to our team for the 2011 season! First off, we’re really really incredibly stoked about adding a new height dog to our roster:
ENVY
This little dynamo is a 7″ jumping height dog who comes from Tooie and Ian Crooks of Blue Cedar Sport Dogs, they are on the Flying Colors Flyball team here in Las Vegas, Nevada. Envy had some issues in her former home(s) and was returned to the breeder…why?!?! As far as we can tell, she is a fabulous little dog who gets along just fine with our pack of dogs (but she IS a terrier mix, and she does not stand for wild puppy antics in her face – that’s all!). Since she moved back with Tooie, she has worked on her flyball training and has hit 4.6′s in practice (see video below). Wow! She is now a solid and dependable height dog who is going to race on the D.E.O. Speedwaggin’ team. So far she has raced with us in Phoenix twice and Denver once, all three tournaments she has been outstanding!
Envy is a sport dog mix…her dam, My-My, is a Border Border x Border Jack (Snap x Vice); and her sire, Pilot, is a Border Jack. Envy’s littermates are Nevada, Thrill, Timmay!, Grifter and Seeya.
You may have seen Envy’s dad, Tri-Hard Top Gun “Pilot,” with his owner Pam Martin performing on America’s Got Talent in 2009, or on the Martha Stewart Show, or on the Top Dog Racers flyball team from Dallas. He was the 2008 NAFA Region 5 MVP, and raced for years as Top Dog Racer’s 3.9 second height dog on their A team which ran in the 15′s.
And don’t forget about Envy’s Grandma, Snap! Also a member of the 3.9 second height dog racing club, Snap has even been nominated to the NAFA Flyball Hall of Fame.
We’re confident in Envy’s skills, and we plan to add another Division I Regular team to our roster at our next tournament! How exciting!
BOOTZILLA
At our last tournament in Phoenix, the rain came and all the other Division I teams left. We waited around, and a few hours later, racing resumed! So we ended up having several races to run against no one.
Woo hoo! We brought in Bootzilla and she got to run in several races with no one in the other lane to distract her. She did fabulous…ran some 4.5′s… and wore her shiney new bling-encrusted disco-style golden bedazzled harness! Congrats to Ethan and Bootsy for earning her FDX 100-point Flyball title!
