About Lickety Splits Flyball Team
Flyball it is the fastest growing dog sport in the US,
and there are teams all over the country and Canada. There
are two sanctioning bodies for flyball; the United
Flyball League International (U-FLI™) and
the North American Flyball Association (NAFA). Lickety
Splits competes in both leagues however, we do run primarily with
U-FLI™ since our team has made a commitment to racing on mats
and at indoor facilities since we feel it is safer for the dogs. We
are the only team in San Diego county to have made this commitment
and it means we are the only team also to have permanent site for
our equipment and practices as well as all of our tournaments. Mats
mean a lot more time to set up and take down, but provide a completely
consistent racing and training surface for both human and canine
competitors.
Flyball is a relay race for two teams of 4 dogs each. The
dogs run a straight course over 4 low hurdles towards a spring
loaded box. They make a 180 degree turn on the box face and catch
a tennis ball as it is propelled out of the box, then they return
over the same hurdles to their handler. As the cross the
finish line, the next dog on that team goes. The fastest
team with no errors wins the race. read more...
There are many flyball teams in the US and Southern California
is host to 7 teams. Lickety Splits is one of the oldest and
most successful teams. We are the fastest team in California
and are ranked 7th in U-FLI™. We have competed successfully
in 3 of the last 4 international championships and have always
placed in the top 3 teams across North America for our division. We
have the highest point earning dog in all of U-FLI™ and also held
the world record for Pairs racing for a few years. Our winning
pair of dogs is still the fastest pair of rescued dogs in all of
flyball. Lickety Splits was originally part of the Aztec
Doberman Pinscher Club and still supports their rescue with money
we earn from our tournaments and raffles.
Lickety Splits
also has a small rescue called Second Wind Athlete Rescue and works
with the San Diego County Animal Control, San
Diego Humane Society and the Escondido Humane Society to help assess and place high
energy athletic dogs into sports homes.
We host 4 tournaments each year and we also sponsor one or two
training weekends each year. The training weekends are low
cost events to help other teams to improve their training and competitive
strategies. We also have teams from Nevada, California and
Arizona come to our practices on occasion to train with us. Since
we have a fairly large membership of 13 people and such a nice
training facility we are able to do some kinds of training that
other teams just don't have the membership to do at their own practices. Because
we have made a serious commitment to training and competing, we
also have a lot of knowledge and expertise to share with other
teams. We welcome the chance to give back to the flyball
community and hope that dogs and handlers everywhere share a closer
bond, have more fun,and have more successful and safe racing because
we are able to help them.
Val Pearson,
Lickety Splits Flyball Organization, Pres.
2006 Division 2 U-FLI™ Champions
November 11th, 2006 the Stealth Squad took first
place in Division 2 in the U-FLI Championship
tournament in Mesquite.
 It
was a complete team effort
to accomplish this wonderful feat. The competing
dogs were Twister, handled by Jack Cameron,
Holly, handled by Eunice Ciaccio, Vengeance,
handled by Val Pearson, and Spirit handled by
Peggy Knapp. Backing up the team were
Crack and Anna. The pass caller was Lynda Beck-Smith,
box loader Kathy Daniels, timer Sally Frankel,
field marshal Alan Daniels, and Chris Davis
handling props and flags.
We are very proud of our whole team and had
a wonderful time racing all the other teams
in Dallas. The competition was fierce
and every team there had obviously earned their
seed times. Thank you all for some GREAT racing.
Team History
The Lickety Splits Flyball Team was created when a number of Aztec
Doberman Pinscher Club members, led by Trudy Morgan and her dog Jetta,
decided that Flyball would be a terrific outlet for their Dobermans, and
would showcase the breed in a positive light. This was important because
of all the negative publicity Dobermans had received (undeservedly) over
the years. Initially, Lickety Splits was an independent team, but was later
adopted and sponsored by Aztec DPC to ensure that Lickety Splits remained
as a viable outlet for showcasing of Dobies in Flyball.
Original team members were Dobies Jetta, Shermie, Roonie,
and Miss
Bud. They were joined by Bryson (Belgian
Malinois), and height dogs Becky (Pembroke
Welsh Corgi), and Cozy (Border
Terrier). Soon the team expanded its Dobie population with Lux, Sunny, Nugget,
and Jade.
Then came Bruiser and Kari.
The team also added a number of other breeds. We have one Doberman
currently running with the team -- Bruiser.
Lickety Splits has evolved into a fun and competitive team with
an emphasis on training for speed, accuracy, and dog safety. Our
4 different breed squad's time puts us among the top multibreed (NAFA)
and variety (U-FLI™)
squads in North America.
The team is now independent from Aztec DPC, but we still support their
award-winning rescue
work.
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