Tails of the Travelin' Trio: Too Fast

(Ramona, CA) Gosh it was cold this morning. There was even still some snow around. But fortunately as the sun came up it felt really nice outside in the sun. The arena was chilly but that’s how Wazzu likes it, so I guess all was good. In fact, maybe a little too good.

Wazzu was a nut! We got to the start line and I’d given her leash to the leash runner when they then said there would be a delay. Oh no – this usually shuts Wazzu down if she has to wait. But She was started doing crazy dog at the line – I was afraid she’d accidentally go over the line before it was time.

I knew I was in big trouble as this Tunnelers course was proving to be a nightmare for the fast dogs. The only way it was possible was if the handler was fast enough to get to a certain spot…and so far I hadn’t seen anyone make it. I considered asking Mike to run Wazzu as he might be able to make it but then I decided that I’m not really doing this for the Q anymore at all – I’m just out to have fun with my dog. And boy did my dog ever have fun!

Wazzu took off like a rocket – she was so far ahead of me I felt like I was trying to run in quicksand. By tunnel number three it was all over. Wazzu was out there running around so fast it was like she was a blur. She decided she didn’t need me at all as she could make up a perfectly good course on her own. And she did. It was a really nice and tricky course – just not the one the judge had made up. We didn’t Q but we were a definite crowd pleaser…and Wazzu was very pleased with herself as well.

Mike and Sparkie were a crowd pleaser as well – but it’s because they were the ONLY fast team to do the course correctly. They had no bobbles at all – they ran a perfect and efficient line and they were FAST! Good thing Mike can run fast as he was the only one able to make it to the correct spot to save the dog from going off course. This was one of the hardest (but very fun) Tunnelers courses we’ve ever seen.

Wazzu continued her crazy ways the rest of the morning. Her first Regular run she just missed the dogwalk contact as she was going SO fast. Her second run she was doing fabulous. She was flying through the course. We just had three obstacles left to go when I decided to do some major distance. I guess I hadn’t been watching as this part of the course provided much difficulty to everyone including the Elite dogs. And since I had left my poor dog way out there all by herself we encountered the same difficulty. But she had a great time anyway.

Sparkie loves this place as right after every run, Mike takes her out and lets her loose to go chase the bunnies over hill and dale. The minute she is doing eating her celebratory cheese stick she pulls Mike out to the field. I guess she’s so excited to get out there that she does her agility runs even faster than normal – I didn’t know that was possible. But she was a blurry streak running these courses and never had one step or lean even in the wrong direction. She was truly perfect. Until it came to Chances.

Neither of the girls got their Chances run. We’d done this course before so I remembered exactly what our mistake was the first time and I was going to make sure we didn't have the same problem. The dogs went over two jumps and you then had to call them toward you (away from the dogwalk) to another jump. Easy! Wazzu always prefers to be near me so this should be easy. But the first time we did this, Wazzu did the dogwalk. I couldn't believe it. So this time I was going to make sure to call her early and loud and use lots of body language. I did all that and she STILL took the dogwalk. What is up with that?!

Mike and Sparkie went next. Seeing Wazzu (and some other dogs) take the dogwalk, Mike made sure to call her nice and early...but as it turned out he called a little too early and called her off the jump and she crossed the line. Darn!! He sent her back out and she did the entire thing perfectly - but of course it doesn't count once she crossed the line.

Then it was Slugger's turn. He was so pumped. It was really fun to see him so excited. He ran like he was late for dinner. In fact, he was going so fast that he got to the second to last obstacle which was the A-frame and hit the board in the contact zone and never touched it again until he hit the bottom of the down contact! We don't know if it scared Slugger but it scared everyone else in the building. All Slugger had to do now was go over the last jump and he'd have a Chances Q. But Mike was so worried about Slugger that he just instinctively went to check on him so they didn't do the last jump. But it was a great run!!

Slugger's Regular run was exciting as well. He was running as fast as he possibly could yet just nailing the course. Second to last obstacle was the dogwalk. The up ramp on the dog walk is extremely bouncy. He'd been on it a couple times before and it didn't scare him one bit which we were very surprised about. Same thing this run...he ran up the dogwalk as fast as his little legs could take him. Well actually as it turned out, he ran faster than his legs could take him and his feet got all tangled up and he took a very bad fall off the middle of the dogwalk. Mike picked him up and petted him a bit. They continued on - just as fast as they'd started. And while he did the course correctly, of course it wasn't a Q.

But in Jumpers he was flawless. Mike had me run him in Hoopers. We Q'd but it was quite comical. Slugger was not fast like he'd been all day - he was back to his strolling around and sniffing cones, etc. But somehow I managed to get him going enough to make time. Good thing I'm so skillful or we'd never have gotten this Q. Tee Hee.

Boogie, since he wasn't allowed to do agility, was really into his earthdog mode. He was going to find himself a critter.

He was so "into" it that Wazzu had to take a peak at what might be down there.

But Boogie went right back to digging. And boy did he dig. Wazzu wanted to have another look and I think she may have been surprised by how deep Boogie had dug.