Doggy drag races: Summer Solstice Flyball Tourneys underway

PALMER — Within the mostly vacant Alaska State Fairgrounds, there was a pocket of energy swirling near the Purple Gate Wednesday. Dozens of dogs barking and their owners’ shouting could be heard as the annual Alaska Summer Solstice Flyball Tourneys commenced.

Furry athletes jumped over hurdles, going back and forth with tennis balls and ropes. Owners cheered and yelled; some even busted out some Amazonian war cries.

The event was hosted by Alaska Dogs Gone Wild, the Valley’s only flyball club and one of the three clubs total across the state — the other two being the Glacier Shakers and Pawsitive Synergy. To compete in flyball tourneys: each dog takes a turn, four dogs down, each dog goes over four jumps to a spring loaded box that ejects a tennis ball. As they’re coming back, the next dog gets released and the first team to finish with four dogs wins. With the tall race lights in the center, one team on each side of each other revving it up and barking it up, it seemed to feel like a little, furry Indy 500.

“The best way to describe it is drag racing for dogs. One of the reasons it’s called drag racing is because of the lights, you’ll see they go: yellow, yellow, yellow, and they try and time it when the start dog kicks the start line and it turns green- just like in drag racing,” said Curtis Smith, captain of the Alaska Dogs Gone Wild flyball club.

According to Smith, this is the only tourney held outside of Anchorage. He marveled at the frequent fliers who returned to Alaska from across the United States.

“In the past we’ve had people come up from all different states and provinces,” Smith said.

One of the teams, BC Boomerangs, was group comprised of people and dogs from three different states: Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. One member from the team Joli Jurcak of Chicago, Illinois, and her dog, McKinley (named after the mountain) would probably appeal to most of the Alaskan crowd.

He is a mix of Siberian husky and border collie. Jurcak stated he was still “green” at the flyball but a stellar sled dog. Border collies are said to be very adapt to this sport and huskies tend to be more seldom seen in the tournaments. The amount of energy excreted from McKinley made it apparent that with more training, he could be a force to be reckoned with.

“That’s what brought us here, was huskies,” said Janis Martin from Cary, Illinois.

The team of out of staters met the people at Alaska Dogs Gone Wild at a National Championship. They all decided it would be a great excuse to come up for a vacation. Jurcak is eager to make a trip to Talkeetna and see McKinley’s namesake.

“We’re gonna try to go see his mountain,” Jurcak said.

Despite coming from various backgrounds and vastly different states, the group seemed to get along pretty well.

“We picked a nice group that gels together and it works pretty good,” Martin said.

Thirty-two dogs and 30 humans participated on Wednesday.

The event will continue until June 19 — all taking place at the Alaska State Fairgrounds.