Then I made a quick trip out to get some pictures of the action. In addition, to the cute dog, the handler and the judge, you can see all the people that sit around the rings and watch all the action.
While it didn't rain as predicted each day, you can see that it was very blustery..but that didn't keep people from sitting around to watch the action.
What a huge dog for such a small handler! I saw the reverse as well with these huge guys handling dogs there weren't as big as their foot. There sure were a lot of interesting sights.
We got over to our breed ring about 30 minutes early as we wanted Boogie to have time to walk around, potty, get used to the environment, etc. before he had to go into the ring. I got very nervous as it was close to time to start and I didn’t see Alison. Oh no, I might have to show Boogie. I got my little arm band on and got Boogie all pretty and to my great delight, Alison showed up. Big relief.
The only thing I really know (or thought I knew) is that the borders aren’t supposed to carry their tails so high – as we learned yesterday. So the four dogs go into the ring and I’m elated as all the other dogs had their tails higher than Boogie! Yippee, we’re going to win for sure. After a bunch of fiddling around (or whatever it is that they do), the judge narrowed it down to two dogs. Boogie and one other dog. He had them trot down and back right next to each other – dog to dog. The other dogs tail looked like it was trying to find a satellite so it could get perfect TV reception. Boogie’s tail was a little lower today than yesterday so I just knew we had this in the bag.
What?? I couldn’t believe it – Boogie got 2nd place. Didn’t that judge see that dogs flag pole tail? Was he blind? Oh, you mean there is more to the dog than the tail? This sure is complicated. No matter the case, Boogie was perfect in the ring for Alison. I’m so very proud of him. He stood nice and tall and sure of himself the whole time the judge felt him up…hmm, I’ll bet that’s not what they really call that – but you know what I mean. Whatever the case, I thought that was a major deal. He wouldn’t have done that a week ago for sure.
The moment that I saw that Boogie had gotten 2nd place I made a mad dash for the Rally ring as my walk through was supposed to start 15 minutes ago. As luck would have it, they were just getting ready to start the walk through. Perfect timing.
Once again the course looked pretty simple. There were two stations that aren’t our best maneuvers but I figured we could do them well enough we would still easily pass. Now a mad dash back to the Conformation ring as Alison said Boogie might go back in if this or that happened. But I guess this or that didn’t happen as when I got back, Mike and Boogie were still standing where Alison told them to but she was gone and there was some other breed of dog in the ring. Oh well. I’m just so proud of Boogie and SO grateful to Alison for showing him.
Some other people that know Harriet came up to us and introduced themselves and then introduced us to a number of other people. I think everyone in the world knows Harriet. They all sure speak highly of Harriet. And just like we feel, they all said Harriet is the nicest person you could ever want to meet. We are so fortunate to have gotten a dog from Harriet and Meg. We thought we were just getting another dog (another child for us). We had no idea we were also going to meet two of the nicest most caring people you could ever want to meet. Our lives are certainly much more full and fun now that we have Harriet and Meg as our mentors and friends.
I hurried back to the RV and got Wazzu and ran back over to the Rally rings…well, not exactly ran – Wazzu had to stop and mark every tree and every post from here to there. We ended up getting back just in the nick of time. I was sure I had Wazzu all jazzed up – but the minute we stepped to the start line she started her yawning. I don’t know if it was the 40 mile an hour winds or what but I had a lot of trouble keeping her attention. The wind was blowing so strongly that every once in a while some of the signs would blow over (along with everything else around). Even though she was distracted and a little unfocused she managed to get a 91 and came in third place.
Last, but not least, in the whole show was little Boogie. Some of his favorite moves were in this course so I thought we were going to do very well. He did the first two stations just fine and then the nose kicked into high gear and the brain took a back seat. I couldn’t get him to pay attention to me for anything. Somehow we managed to make it about three quarters the way through the course when he spotted Mike and Wazzu watching us. He made a beeline out of the ring to get them. No matter how much I called I could not get him to come back. Mike and Wazzu left very quickly and Boogie started to come back in the ring. But just then a lady with a German Shepherd took the same spot Mike and Wazzu had just vacated. Boogie was sure that must be Wazzu. I absolutely couldn’t get him to acknowledge I existed. Since I figured we’d been toast long ago I picked him up to leave. The judge rushed right over and told me I wasn’t to pick him up in the ring (she told me yesterday too – guess I don’t learn so quickly). I told her we were just leaving as I was sure we’d failed by now. She said “no, you haven’t failed yet but you ware mighty darn close.”
So I guess what I learned today is that no matter how badly you think your dog is doing, don’t give up. Keep at it even though it is complete and utter chaos – you never know what the judge is thinking.
The judge then called all the qualifiers back in the ring. She started out her little speech by saying that she had a perfect class going until the very last dog (yup, that would be Boogie). So every dog passed but little Boogie. Darn it. He knew all that stuff so well – it should have been a slam dunk. I think we have a lot of proofing to do! Too bad we weren’t tracking today as I’m sure Boogie would have cleaned up in that type of competition today.
Over all I’d say we are totally exhausted, well except for Slugger and Sparkie who were lucky if they got two quick potty walks each day. What good puppies they were these past three days. They can’t wait until next weekend when Boogie gets ignored and they get to do agility all weekend. I think these past three days really made Mike appreciate his agility time with Sparkie even more than he already did.
Wazzu wasn’t all that impressed either. She enjoyed the warm up time before her rally turn each day as she got all my attention. But the rally itself was boring…walk, sit, walk this way, now walk that way, sit and stay, and walk this way and that again. What’s the point of this. I’m not sure if I’ll do any more rally with her. She was really good – she just had a really poor handler. But she doesn’t know that and doesn’t care one bit. She just wants to be with me. No wonder I love dogs so much.
I’m not sure Mike was all that impressed but I was very proud of Boogie. For his first time showing ever I thought he was great. This was all so new to him. We’ve only been practicing Rally for about month and he’s only been exposed to the show ring maneuvers for three days. And he’s certainly never been in an atmosphere like this – for that matter, neither have we! So all things considered I think he was just the best little boy. I’m so glad he’s mine!
I really think what got me through the weekend was all the encouragement and kind words from Harriet. That really meant more to me than I can ever explain. When we were a little discouraged Harriet would have all the right words to pick us up and give us hope. And when we were all excited she was right there celebrating with us and helping us to feel so proud of our little boy. HUGE thanks to Harriet!
While we didn’t do as well as we’d hoped, we did have some very positive experiences, met some very nice people, and learned a lot about how all this works.
Rain was forecasted for each day we were there and thankfully it never came! As today wore on you could tell the rain was moving in so we were ready to get out of town just as soon as we could so that Mike wouldn’t have to drive six hours in the rain.
Our timing was pretty good as it started raining just as we pulled into Phoenix at 10pm this evening. As much as we had looked forward to this weekend, we’re sure glad it’s over!
Debbie
1/6/08
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