Versatility NATCH-9 Sparkie and NATCH-9 Wazzu
FRIDAY:
Unfortunately, my legs were really unhappy after my dinner last night so Mike had to run all three dogs in all the events they were entered in except for one run. I didn't even go out to watch.
This really kept Mike hopping. It wouldn't have been so hard but we recently moved Wazzu to Novice, so Mike had to be walking and running two different levels. This caused him to have conflicts. In addition, he had a hard time remembering some of the courses since sometimes he'd be running back to back in different rings.
Unfortunately, this meant he got confused a couple times. But I'd say he did really good for what he had to do. Mike came back to the RV and said Sparkie didn't do "good" - she did "great!" She was running beautifully all day and did everything Mike told her to do. Unfortunately, Sparkie got the short end of the stick when it came to Mike getting confused on course. But she still did really well going 4/6. The most exciting news for Sparkie and Mike today was that they earned their Versatility NATCH-9. Mike said their Weavers run wasn't all that pretty but it was in plenty of time. Good job, Mike and Sparkie!
Wazzu was perfect! Mike ran her in four runs - which was one more than I'd even planned on her running. I retired her from Weavers back in May when she was diagnosed with spondylosis. But I still enter her in Weavers as it's cheaper to enter the full weekend package than to enter in single runs. Then I just scratch her. But since we moved her Novice (and there are only sets of six instead of 12), Mike decided to give her a try in the first round of Weavers today since it was the first run of the day when it was still cool. Mike said she wasn't super fast but seemed to be very happy the entire run.
For the last run of the day, Mike drove Wazzu and I over to within about 20' of the start line for Elite Chances. I guess Wazzu knew I couldn't really run so she took off from the start line like she knew the numbers. I couldn't believe it. I was all worried about a couple spots and she just went out and did the course super fast - totally like she knew the numbers. I hardly had to move much at all. What a girl!! We then got right back in the car where I got to watch a few dogs before going back to the RV - I really enjoyed that. So Wazzu ended up going 5/5 today!
Slugger got to do Weavers and Regular today. Mike said Slugger got distracted by some interesting smell in the air during Weavers. He was able to get Slugger back and he completed the whole course but not within time. Shuckens. But he kept his attention on the course during his Regular run, did the distance challenge nicely and was perfect. He got 1st place - and yes, there were other dogs in his class!!
Poor little Boogie didn't get much attention at all today. And he wasn't all that happy about it either. Even though I was with him all day, he definitely knew the other dogs were going out to play. Hopefully tomorrow will be better for Boogie and me.
When the trial was over and Mike got all of us fed, he collapsed on the couch. Between running the three big dogs, taking Boogie out for potty breaks, and working a couple classes, I don't think Mike was in the RV for more than a total of ten minutes all day. He didn't even have time for breakfast or lunch. No wonder the poor guy is tired!
After dinner we thought our day was over. But about 11:00pm I was in the back watching TV and Mike was up front watching TV (we don't always like the same shows). I thought I heard something but kind of brushed it off as nothing. Unbeknownst to me, about that same time, Mike also thought he heard something but also brushed it off as nothing.
A couple minutes later there was a knock on our door. The security guard came to tell us that she'd seen some kids throwing eggs at our RV. She chased them but couldn't get close enough to get a license plate number. I think Mike's been watching too many crime dramas as he wanted to know why she didn't just shoot out their tires to stop them. Ha ha.
SATURDAY:
In addition, to running dogs today, Mike had to spend a lot of time trying to clean all the eggs off the RV. The whites came off fairly easy but the yolks took Mike a long time to get off. The hardest part were the eggs that were thrown into a grill type area near the rear of the RV. I'd say Mike spent a total of two hours trying to get all the egg off.
Mike started out running all three dogs again today. But between cleaning the RV and two dogs having to run different courses at the same time (and I mean the same time - only 30 seconds apart), he was very flustered. Both dogs were running well but Mike got confused on each course and both Sparkie and Wazzu ended up with an off-course.
I was feeling a little better today and was able to be up a little more. So I spent a lot of my time lying near one of the rings where I could watch the courses and occasionally run Wazzu. Mike ended up running her for two runs and I ran the other four. The first run I did with her was Touch N Go. It was slightly chilly out so Wazzu was very happy.....too happy. She was so excited to run with me that she went full speed ahead. The problem was she was so happy she didn't have time to touch the yellow on any of the contacts. We rarely miss a contact, but if you're going to miss a bunch you might as well miss them all in the same run! No Q for us but I was really happy to see Wazzu was having so much fun! She calmed down a little bit and did her next Touch N Go run perfectly.
The Elite Chances run looked very doable. There were two potential problem spots that I could see. The second of the two was a tunnel/a-frame discrimination. The jumps kind of pushed the dogs out to the tunnel but they were to take the a-frame which was closer to the handler. The first tricky part Wazzu did just perfectly as she had a lot of speed and did a perfect switch. She had enough speed going that it kept her out to the outer layer of jumps. But for some reason, she cut in - running by a jump and heading right to the a-frame. Yikes, big screaming from me. She stopped in time and I called her back. Fortunately she didn't step over the line but now we had an extremely hard angle to do a jump way out there. I don't know how she did it but somehow she managed to go back out (major miracle), do the jump, get the discrimination and finish the course perfect and fast. We made it so much harder than it had to be! My guess is that I was so worried about the discrimination that I pulled a little too soon which pulled her off the jump. Whatever the case, she was great and figured it out and we got the Q! Very exciting. As fast as Wazzu was in Chances and her first Touch N Go run, she was that slow in her final Touch N Go run. I thought there was glue in the tunnels as it seemed like it took forever for her to come out! What's up with that. I'm guessing it's because neither Mike nor I could walk her around before her run. she had to lie on the ground with me while we waited for our turn....not real motivating for her. But fortunately she sped up the second half of the run and managed to make time.
Other than the first run when Mike was a little confused, Sparkie was perfect on the day. She did make everyone laugh on one run though. There were three jumps out at an angle but the dogs were only supposed to take two jumps and then curve into the weaves. To make sure Sparkie didn't take the third jump, Mike left Sparkie at the start line and did a long leadout. When he turned to release her, she had already taken the first jump and was standing perfectly still in front of the second jump...with a HUGE smile on her face - she always smiles when she thinks she is in trouble. Needless to say everyone started laughing and laughing. Leave it to Sparkie to be so silly. The rest of the run she put on the after burners which is evidenced by the fact she still got 1st place - and there is a lot of really good competition here.
Slugger was perfect today! Wow! He had a very nice Touch N Go run. There were 20 dogs in his class and he got 5th! We are so proud of him. Then in his Regular run he ran very nicely once again, doing the distance challenge perfectly just like yesterday. Slowly but surely, Slugger is making a nice comeback from his ACL surgery.
Boogie got a little bit more attention to today. He got to have a couple wrestling matches with another puppy his size, although it was a few months older than him. They had a similar playing style and had great time. He also got to watch some agility, although I'm not really sure that was his idea of fun. Sitting still wasn't what he had in mind. It just so happened that we had Boogie out when it was time to walk Elite Chances. So we left him in securely closed in Wazzu's big crate. We were walking the course when we hear "loose dog, loose dog." I look around (definitely not thinking it was my dog) and I see Boogie slowly running around the ring looking for me. The second he saw me he came barreling to me. Phew - at least he ran through the ring where people were walking and not the ring where dogs were running.
When the trial was over for the day, we got out our little set of four weave poles and took them to an empty field on the other side of the park from the trial (right next to our RV). I got some leftover turkey from my dinner the other night and we practiced some weaves with Boogie. I can't believe the angles that he can hit entries from. And speed - my goodness he can weave pretty quickly although I'll still push him for more. He really seems to enjoy agility. I sure hope he keeps this enthusiasm for years to come.
SUNDAY:
Today I was hoping I could run Wazzu in all her runs. I was so excited when I indeed was able to do all six runs with my girl. She seemed happy to be running with me too most of the time. She sped through both her Tunnelers runs with a smile on her face as well as her first Regular run. Then, for some reason, she got lazy. In our second Regular run she was almost walking for the first few obstacles. Then she got so lazy she even knocked a bar. The very second she knocked the bar then she decided agility was fun and she took off and ended very happily. Huh? Wazzu sure is good at confusing me.
Then came the all important run - Elite Chances. It was warm by now so I got her a little wet - and I got out some leftover turkey from Thanksgiving dinner. Oh, suddenly we weren't tired at all. Wazzu did the Chances course just perfectly - like she didn't even need me out there at all. But I was so happy to be out there with my very special girl. I checked with the judge just to be sure - and yup, we got it. This was NATCH-9 for my sweet Wazzu. Yippee!
Less than one minute later we were up in Jumpers. She continued on her fast and happy streak and ran a flawless Jumpers run. Wazzu ended up 4/6 today and 14/17 for the weekend. Amazingly enough she went 3/3 in Chances this weekend. My sweet girl was really on this weekend....especially in the important Chances runs.
Sparkie didn't do anything funny today....well, on course that is. Like Wazzu, she also went 4/6 today. She had some really fabulous runs and one run that was quite an adventure. She ran it cleanly but got off line a little bit and had to do some jumps at angles that we didn't think were possible. She had the judge shaking his head and laughing. Leave it up to Sparkie. But on her other runs she put on a clinic for how to do an agility course. In fact, in one of the Tunnelers runs she had the fastest time of any dog - and there are some extremely good dogs down here.
Slugger had one and a half nice runs. His first run he was a little distracted in the beginning and ended up back jumping. But he finished really strongly! His second run he was very focused and did really well. The distance portion looked way too hard for Slugger but I guess they somehow made it! Slugger had a very nice weekend overall going 4/6. And get this....Slugger earned his Superior Novice Agility Title! To top it all off, today is Slugger's 7th birthday! Happy Birthday little Slugger.
Boogie didn't get all that much attention this weekend but he was a really good sport about it. When the trial was over today and everyone was packing up, Boogie got to play with a Belgian Terv. He was a great dog. He had a hedgehog toy that made a really weird noise. Boogie wanted it and this dog just let him have it. Then they started chasing each other around while Boogie carried the hedgehog. What a sweet dog that terv was - an extremely gentle soul. It was a great ending to a pretty boring weekend for our good natured little Boogie.
After the trial ended, we headed back over to Billie's house. This wasn't our original plan but we're having more trouble with the RV so we need to be in a big city so we can get it fixed.
Boogie was really happy when we stopped the RV and we were back at his favorite spot. I took him out for a quick agility practice and he thought all was well with the world.
Once again we thought our day was over. But in the late at night I kept hearing sirens. I didn't think too much of it but they just kept going on and on. A while later helicopters kept hovering over. I couldn't get to sleep so I finally asked Mike to go check it out. It turned out that a house just down the road was engulfed in flames. This house was empty and was for sale. Hmmm, arson comes to mind as a possibility. Once the fire was out, the neighborhood got quiet again. Sleep still wasn't coming - but at least it was quiet.
Sleep is really over-rated, don't you think?
Debbie
11/23-25/07
Congradulations on what appears to have been a great weekend. A special "hey" to the Slug.
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