What a Weekend!

A while back, our club sent out a survey to see why people didn’t work more at agility trials.  As you might imagine, there were many different reasons.  One of the main reasons, was that they are running more than one dog so they don’t have time to work.  Mike is a very good example of how that logic doesn’t make sense.

Like every trial, Mike ran four dogs took care of a fifth, took care of me, and he still made time to work six times a day.  That is dedication.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous again today.  79° and sunny.  While everyone else sat in their tents in the shade, I laid in the grass in the sun.…  And got to watch agility.  I really can’t think of a better day in my situation.

And I was extremely touched.  Allison visited for quite some time with her wonderful border terrier, Grizz, who earned his NATCH-3 and Versatility NATCH-3 this weekend.  She also helped Mike out with his work assignments today when they conflicted with our photo shoot.  Visiting Allison was probably my favorite time of the whole weekend.

And quite to my surprise, Alison and her young baby stopped by to visit.  Alison is the one that showed Boogie for us in conformation.  We hadn’t seen her in quite some time so it was a very pleasant surprise.  Her baby is exactly the same age as Aria.  They’re both such good babies.  Seeing Alison was a very unexpected and joyous surprise.

I also had a very wonderful visit from Jeannine.  She was one of the very first people we met in Arizona on our first trip down for agility in 2005.  She had a dog named Jack that looked very much like Sparkie.  So of course we were drawn to each other.  We have been friends ever since.  Jeannine has since added two dogs, Roy and Jill.  In my perfect fantasy world, Jill would be my number one pick for my agility dog.  Of course that’s just a fantasy as there is no way Jeannine would ever give that dog up. And I'm sure she has a list a mile long of people that would like that dog! Every time Jill ran, I was blown away.

Jeannine has always loved the way Sparkie smiles.  So the two of them visited and did some smiling.…  With a lot of barking mixed in.  Again, it was a very pleasurable visit.  I’m so happy she took time to come to see me as I know she was very busy not only running her dogs but being trial secretary as well.

It really meant a lot to me that the three of them would take time out to come and not only visit, but sit down on the ground where I could see them.  Little things mean so much.

Of course the day was also enjoyable because I got to see all of our dogs run a run or two.  They are all not only doing well, but even more importantly they all look like they’re having a blast.

Boogie continued his amazing streak going five for six today.  His only miss all weekend was one very hard Chances run.  But he got two of three Chances this weekend which I would take any time.  So his grand total was 17 for 18. He ran fast all weekend. Good boy.

He did have something to say about Mike's handling on occasion though!  And he said it loud and clear!

Sparkie did really well today also.  Her only trouble was on her second Regular run.  She ran probably her fastest run of the weekend absolutely perfectly…  except for the very last jump.  Instead of being straight ahead, the jump was just offset a bit toward the middle of the ring.  Mike is used to running straight out of the ring....so he ran smack dab into the jump.  There went that Q!

But they still make a great team.

2iggie ran really fast....but she seems to have borrowed Boogie's Superman cape.  She lost 7 Q's this weekend due to flying off the A-frame.  We really need to find a place to practice before the next trial!

Wazzu made up her own courses today but got loud cheering from everyone anyway.  Too bad she can't hear any of it.

Fabulous weekend.  I told Mike that I'm requesting all agility weekends to be nice and warm just like that.  He said "request denied".  That means we have to go home in the winter.  Brrrr.

Debbie