Memoriam
Flyball Grand Master Champion "Torch"
June 29, 1993 to December 1, 2007
A true competitor and an extremely loyal companion. Torch was bred by Jackie Parkin in the Toronto area of Canada. Jackie is an author of books on dog training and on flyball in particular. When I was searching for a Border Collie, I told her of the issues that I found with Border Collies in our area. She assured me that Border Collies were not supposed to circle endlessly and pointlessly, nor were they supposed to stare at inanimate objects, not supposed to lose focus if they had to wait until they ran a flyball heat, and most importantly were not supposed to be aloof and cold to their owners. Before I knew it, I went to LAX to pick up my little red ‘ball of fire!’ I am so grateful to Jackie for breeding such a wonderful and talented family member.
Torch learned Flyball and agility very quickly and was immediately a force to be reckoned with, with her speed, intensity, talent and competitive spirit. She consistently ran 3.9 – 4.1 in flyball and at 11 years old still put in many 4.4 second runs in flyball. After all these years, she still likes to “eye” the competition, and has intimidated many dogs from the other teams, yet never has she crossed over. In agility, she has the same competitive spirit and tries to figure out the course ahead of time. She yells at me when I make mistakes, or am too slow with my commands. She’ll cheat to do the course faster if she thinks she can get away with it. A typical Border Collie work-aholic she will run for, work with anybody, as long as she got to come home to us at the end of the day or weekend.
Torch has always loved demos. She really loves to show off to the crowd, and being as self-centered as she is, the louder the crowd, the wilder she performs. Her favorite thing to show off after a run or demo is to leap into the arms of whoever is handling her and kiss their face. I still find it amazing when people come up to me on the street and ask if that is “Torch”. Many will then say how they saw her at such and such a demo and will never forget it. Also, there seems to be a population explosion around the flyball and agility rings of red/white border collies. However, there is only one Torch.