It poured all night long. Luckily, it stopped right at 7:00am when we were all starting to move around. Unfortunately, at 6:00am a pig started screaming his head off. We wondered what the heck was going on. But we ignored it the best we could.
The girls were both on fire this morning. Wazzu was happy once again and Sparkie must have had jet engine fuel for breakfast. They each got 1st place Q’s in the first two runs of the day, Jumpers and Regular.
As usual, Chances was really hard. Wazzu came so close to getting it. There were two really hard parts and she got one of them so even though we didn’t Q, I was so proud of her and so happy. I love it when you can see a dog think. Wazzu was heading toward the wrong jump and I could just see her thinking and processing the information she had and at the last second she turned to the correct jump. Smart girl!! Sparkie thought it was really easy and had no clue why all the other dogs were having trouble. I didn’t look at the little dogs but in the 16” and over dogs only two dogs Q’d – Sparkie and her main competitor down here, the amazing Chellie.
Weavers and Tunnelers were both really fun courses. Actually the set of courses they used today were really fun. I hope we see this set again as they were all just really fun courses to run – really great flow yet still had good challenges. Anyway, I’ve never seen Sparkie run so fast. She was blazing. She got 1st in Weavers by quite a good margin. Tunnelers was really competitive with the top four dogs being spread by only three tenths of a second. Of course, Sparkie was in that group!
Wazzu was too fast in Weavers. How can you be too fast you may ask. She’s not used to going that fast so when she got to the weave entrance while she entered the weaves on the correct side she was leading with the wrong foot. So she had to go through the weaves crossing her feet. And though she was trying as hard as I’ve ever seen her try, you just can’t go fast when your feet have to cross at every pole. But when she was out of the weaves and going through the tunnels, she was as fast as I’ve ever seen her. I thought since she was so fast in the tunnel portion that we still might Q but we were one second over time. Too bad. But I was so happy with her as she really was fast and happy. She also was very fast and happy in Tunnelers, earning another Q there.
Even if Slugger had been healthy, we would have had to pull him from every run today. In the open air building right next to the open arena we were in, and right next to our RV, they were having a pig auction. I don’t know if you’ve spent much time around pigs but they don’t like to be handled one bit! They squeal like crazy. This squealing went on all day long. And Slugger was going ballistic. He would start screaming and crying which then led to howling. Then Sparkie, who had no idea what the problem was, would start howling as well. It would have been entertaining if Slugger hadn’t been so traumatized. He worked himself into a frenzy. We finally decided he might be better if we crated him in the arena. But to get there we had to walk by the pig area. Slugger totally forgot that his leg hurt and he was pulling with every bit of muscle he had. Mike finally had to pick him up and carry him in a bear hug to get by the pig area.
The squealing really got bad and was really getting on everyone’s nerves. I’m sure it was quite a sight to see all of us walking the course covering our ears. A bunch of us wanted to go over and just open all the gates and let the pigs loose. Mike said all the squealing was just making him hungry for some bacon. Eewww. We heard a lot of people say they would check to see if there was going to be a pig auction before they signed up for another trial there.
I’m thinking that maybe Sparkie thought the pigs might catch her if she stood still as she ran like a rocket today getting 1st in every run but one, in which she was less than .30 out of first. That’s quite an impressive day considering the competition she was up against. So other than the squealing pigs it was a pretty good day.
I found it to be interesting today how long a memory a dog really has. I think it truly is WAY more than we ever give them credit for. There was a lady there this weekend that has some Kelpies. They were parked near us so we crossed paths with them quite often. Wazzu didn’t really pay much attention to any of them until the lady brought out this one that was chocolate brown and just a tad smaller than Wazzu. Wazzu started wagging her tail really hard and started pulling on the leash (which she never does) trying to drag us over to see this dog. This dog looked just like Wazzu’s best friend, Nick, who sadly is no longer with us. Of course I’ll never forget Nick….and now I know that Wazzu won’t ever forget either. Today was for you, Nick buddy. You’ll be in our hearts forever.
We took off right after the trial ended today to start our trek home. We’re really sad to have to say goodbye to our nice little group of friends down there so much earlier than expected. They are a great group of people and it is fun for Sparkie to have such great competition. I made the comment as we drove away that the people there sure are nice. Mike said “Yes, but it’s too bad they live in such a cool rainy place. If we wanted to be around a really nice group of people in a cool rainy place, we could just stay home.” So very true.
Debbie
4/22/07
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