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Hi.
My name is Boz the Beagle. My human's name is Denise. She is very fond of the Beagle breed
but went for almost 14 years without a Beagle when she decided it was time to have another
dog in her life. She had a friend who trained dogs for a living. He asked her lots of
questions about what she wanted in a pet, and the search began. My mom's friend knew that
I was the one when he first met me because I was not too aggressive but very independent.
I lived with my trainer friend for 5 weeks after leaving my birth mom and went through
puppy obedience, potty training, etc. I then went to live with my new mom in at the age of
4 months.
My full name on my AKC registration is Bosley Bernard Buffett. Bosley was picked by my
first trainer, Bernard is for my mother's first Beagle who was named Bernie, and Buffett
is for Jimmy Buffett, my mom's favorite singer/musician.
Several weeks after bringing me home, my mom went to see my friend Mason, a Border Collie
mix owned by Lee Hewitt, run in a flyball tournament at Astrohall. Since my mom and I both
were mediocre, at best, with our obedience training, she decided this would be something
fun and challenging we could do together. Two months after the Astrolhall tournament we
began participating in a flyball training class with a local club. 
I was not the most willing or talented participant. It took the better part of 6 months to
get me interested in a tennis ball. All of my classmates progressed faster than me and
eventually ran in their first tournaments. My mother and I were happy for their owners,
but longed for the day when I would run my first race. All of our teammates commented from
the beginning on how fast I was "for a Beagle" and how smart I was "for a
Beagle".
So, my mom didn't give up. We worked almost everyday at home and on Saturdays at practice
with teammates. When we were about to give up, my mom received an email from a woman
named Nancy who lives in Arkansas. She had attended a flyball tournament in Memphis and
was told by several of our teammates that they had a Beagle that ran flyball.
She had a Beagle involved in agility and wanted to train her in flyball. She
went to our team's flyball web page and saw my picture. She emailed my mom shortly after
the tournament, convinced that her Beagle, Bethany, and I were from the same line, Branko's Beagles in Canada. I knew that I was of
"Canadian" descent, but hadn't really paid much attention when we received my
AKC registration. Turned out Bethany and I are, in fact, from the same line of dogs, and I
have several Field Trial Champions in my line. Hence my intelligence and speed.
Nancy gave my mom great encouragement about what I could do, and we decided again not to
give up on my flyball training. Had I been able to tell my mother about my heritage
earlier, perhaps we would have gone another route, but we both really enjoy flyball.
I made my flyball debut in March, 2000 at the HFA
sponsored tournament in Hutto. Several of my teammates graciously offered to let me be the
6th dog on their team. We agreed that I would do only warm-ups for the beginning of the
day to see if I could behave myself and not get too distracted. My mom says I reacted like
a true champion -- focused like I had never been before.
On Saturday, I ran as lead dog in my team's last race of the day. And, fortunately, it was a 25 point run for the team. I earned my Flyball Dog title in one run, with an individual time of 6.2 seconds. My mom was so excited and happy -- she cried a lot. She says they were tears of joy and satisfaction because we had waited so long and worked so hard for this day. I didn't cry. But I was very happy because all my teammates' humans gave me lots of treats and hugs.
Since my first tournament, I have competed at Astrohall (what a thrill), College Station, Dallas and Hutto. I have earned my Flyball Dog Excellent, Flyball Dog Champion, Flyball Master, and Flyball Master Excellent titles.
When I'm not playing flyball, I love to chase the ball (or anything else that moves) in my back yard, do tricks for my mother and generally make her a very happy camper each day I am around.
I have become email buddies with a lot of other Beagles who run flyball or who are in training to run flyball, including Bethany in Arkansas, Budsley and Maddie in California, and Phoebe in Canada. . My mom also keeps in touch with Frieda at Branko's Beagles in Canada and updates them occasionally on my progress.
Flyball is a great, team sport, full of wonderful, caring
and fun people and dogs. We recommend it to anyone who wants to have fun and spend time
working with their dog!
Flyball pictures © 2001 Margaret Bryant Photography.
This site compliments of Flyball.com