Wazzu went 5/5 and was extremely fast and happy all day. More on that later.
Sparkie went 5/5 and blew everyone out of the water getting 1st in every run by a very large margin.
Slugger went 1/1 and got 1st place! In addition, he got his Elite Tunnelers title. What a boy!
This trial overall was a great one for all of us. Wazzu ended up 14/15 and surpassed 7,500 lifetime points. Sparkie went 12/15 and got NATCH-7. And Slugger went 1/2. Good thing we don't take ribbons as we earned 60 ribbons total. We saved the club a lot of money by letting them keep their ribbons - we did take the NATCH ribbon.
This was the perfect place for a trial. Here is a picture of about 1/3 of one side of the arena.
One side of the arena was all bleacher. The other side totally open (under cover) for crating and vendors. There was probably 30' between the rings - very nice and open. The judges brought probably the most fun sets of courses we've ever run. They were challenging but doable and very wide open. Lots of flow. Other than the first jumpers run of the trial the courses were very motivating for the dogs.
Back to Wazzu's happiness. It was obvious she was feeling well healthwise this weekend. In addition, Mike made homemade bread for her treats. Numm, what could be better than that?! Well we actually found something. Squirrels.
Behind the arena were some oak trees. A perfect place for squirrels - and Wazzu knows that. There was a very active family of squirrels living there. They would run back and forth between a couple trees and then chase each other around and around the tree trunks. Wazzu found this fascinating. So right after each run, instead of dragging me to her treats, she would drag me to the watch the squirrels.
After our first run on Sunday she once again drug me to the trees. The trees were on the other side of a chain link fence so she could only watch the squirrels. But there was one tree on our side of the fence. We hadn't see any squirrels in that tree before this time back there.
This time there was a squirrel about 10' up on the tree trunk on our side of the fence. Of course Wazzu saw it immediately. She very slowly walked to the base of the tree. Both the squirrel and Wazzu stood perfectly still. After a couple minutes the squirrel started slowly inching its way down the tree. It finally made it to the ground and was only inches from Wazzu. Again both Wazzu and squirrel were totally still. Then slowly they each stretched their noses out a bit and touched noses. The squirrel then turned abruptly and went about three feet up on the trunk of the tree and just started making really loud squirrel noises. It just talked and talked and Wazzu stood still except now she was wagging her tail.
It was the cutest thing. I don't think there is an animal in the world that Wazzu couldn't make friends with. I so wish I'd have had my camera but we had just come off the course so needless to say I didn't have it with me. Shucks.
The food vendor at this trial was so inexpensive and was the food ever good! They had a huge variety of menu items. All the burgers (chicken, hamburger, sloppy joe, chicken salad, etc.) were all just $2.00. All drinks only a buck and probably the very best deal (and definitely the most popular) was the huge brownies for only a dollar. Oh my goodness, these were definitely the best brownies ever. Workers got free lunches. Mike should have gotten eight or nine lunches a day as he worked almost every class each day! But he enjoyed helping and they sure needed the help. I would think with brownies like that everyone would want to help!
After everything was finished and most people were gone we took the dogs out to the field (probably 40-50 acres) to play. We let all three off leash to play. They did the staring thing then Slugger took of just as fast as he could. The girls flank him on either side so no matter which way he turns he's in trouble. Sure enough Wazzu caught him and slammed him to the ground. While she was laying on top of him, Sparkie grabbed his collar and started yanking for all she was worth. We got them to leave him alone just long enough for him to take off again. But they caught him right away and proceeded to beat him up once again. Mike finally got them off him and he came over to me with his tired little baby face asking for protection. And they say pit bulls are mean! Poor little guy.
This evening we're watching football and savoring the awesome weekend we all had. Actually I'm watching football and savoring the weekend. Mike and the dogs are all sound asleep and one of them is snoring loudly! I won't say which one.
Debbie and the perfect Travelin' Trio
11/26/06
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