Race to the ONYX!

2 July 2010 Comments Off

I mentioned in my last post that I was incredibly excited about last weekend because we were traveling to York, PA for an awesome flyball tournament and that I fully expected Magnolia to receive her ONYX award there. I am happy to report that all went exactly as planned and in the 2nd heat of the last race of the first day, we crossed the threshold of 20,000 flyball points! I also mentioned that I explain what an ONYX award is… so read on…

In 1984 the North American Flyball Association (NAFA) was organized to act as a sanctioning agency for this relatively new dog sport. With as little as 12 teams that began the sport, tournaments were few and far between. It wasn’t until the late 1990s that the sport really began to catch on and tournaments started to gain popularity and become less infrequent. Back in 1993 an event occurred that no one thought possible, a dog amassed 20,000 racing points. To date, no dog had ever acquired that many points. He’d completely gone out of his league. He’d surpassed the last title by a full 5,000 points. There was only one thing to do… name an award after him. And that was the birth of the ONYX award.

Since that time, NAFA has added 2 more official titles and 6 intermediary titles. After the ONYX and another 10,000 points you can earn the Flyball Grand Champion (FGDCh-30) and the 6 intermediary titles are at intervals of 10,000 points between the first FGDCh and the highest award, the Hobbes Award for 100,000 points. Again, the Hobbes Award was named after the first dog to obtain that many racing points. To date there have only been 5 total Hobbes Awards, and none of them have been awarded to a Dalmatian. Maybe Magnolia will be the first!?!

The ONYX award is the first of the “big” awards that the dog receives a commemorative plaque for. To some it marks the end of a hard earned flyball career. To others it marks the beginning of climbing within the national ranks of your breed. But to us it is a testament to the incredibly long hours of training, proofing, and practice that it took to get to this point in the relatively short period of time that we were able to achieve it in. I couldn’t have been more proud to have gotten to this point in our flyball career with my heart dog. There have been times that I wanted to quit, that I cried and though it would never happen. But there hasn’t been a more rewarding moment in the lanes with that dog… it was music to hear the words “Go SPOTTED DOG!’ after they announced her ONYX award.

Just in case you don’t happen to follow my twitter account, here’s a blow-by-blow of the Race to the ONYX.

Race to the #ONYX: 260 pts to go, we just won all of our races for the first race of the day & we are ROCKIN!! #fb #flyball 10:20 AM Jun 26th via Twittelator

Race to the #ONYX: We’re about to go in for race #2 of the day… Point update in just a bit!!! Wish us luck! #fb #flyball 12:12 PM Jun 26th via Twittelator

Race to the #ONYX: 100 more points on that race… That’s just another 160 points until 20K!!! #fb #flyball 12:37 PM Jun 26th via Twittelator

These are the most awesome portable fans on the face of the planet. @Rebel_Dog <3s me for finding them! #geargeek #flyball 12:45 PM Jun 26th via Twittelator

There’s some awesome racing going on today! Some team just ran a 16! #flyball (@Memorial Hall)http://4sq.com/9T2Ppb 12:47 PM Jun 26th via foursquare

Race to the #ONYX: Now the only thing that stands in the way of us & this ribbon is 36 pts! #fb #flyball http://twitgoo.com/15g1w8 4:48 PM Jun 26th via Twittelator

And in other #flyball milestones, @Rebel_Dog & Rebel the Dog made their very first perfect start of their career! 0.0004:50 PM Jun 26th via Twittelator

Race to the #ONYX: At just before 7:20pm Magnolia walked in a dog… And walked out an #ONYX #flyball dog!!! 20K, Mission Accomplished! #fb 7:59 PM Jun 26thvia Twittelator

My #flyball friends are awesome. They got Magnolia & I an#ONYX cake to celebrate! http://twitgoo.com/15hc1w #fb June 26, 2010 9:51:32 PM EDTvia Twittelator

And Rhonda got me this awesome #ONYX pin do I’d have bling to show off immediately! #fb #flyball http://twitgoo.com/15hc2t June 26, 2010 9:52:30 PM EDT via Twittelator