NW Paws Across America: March 2010

Sunday Happy, Oz, Padme, Vicki and I went to Salem for the second TDAA trial at My Dogs Gym. I must tell you, the people that compete in this venue are wonderful. Friendly, helpful, patient while still being competitive. Padme and Vicki were coming with me for moral support, I so appreciate that cuz I know she was tired from the busy work week. We had to be there before 8:15 (I thought) in order to enter Happy & Oz. Vicki was up and showered and dressed by the time I saw her. I glanced at her clock on the microwave while I finished our potluck dish to take., we had plenty of time, no problem. We gathered up the dogs and loaded my car, Packy. On the road we stopped at Plaid pantry (or 7-11, I can't remember) for some cold and hot caffeine and a breakfast snack. On the road we chatted and laughed and solved many of the dog world issues. I looked at the clock in the car when we were pretty close and it was 7:40!! What the *&%# Happened, we have maybe 1/2 hour traveling time???? We had plenty of time, we left WAY early and should have about an hour yet and only have 20 minutes IF 8:15 is when we need to be there we're running out of time!! Vicki and I were convinced that we were in a time warp and aliens sucked time from our life! It is the strangest feeling to be short an hour in your day. As it turns out, Vicki hadn't changed her clock on the micowave last Sunday, DUH! We got there with plenty of time, got both entered and Oz enrolled. The hurry up was done and the waiting just begun.

It was small to tall day so it wasn't so bad except it was also superior to beginner so.. although we were first, we were also last. No fault are allowed in beginner to qualify, you can place with faults but no Q. Oz's game was first, Chutes and Ladders is a game with contact obstacles and tunnels. In hindsight I should have done something else, this had teeter and he just hasn't had enough experience on it. He did well for the first time he'd run. I could have done better guiding him but NQ was ok with us. We tried again as FEO and he did ok but still had issues with the teeter.

Then the standard beginners course. Not a hard course but still it had a teeter. Oz was first, he is fast and kind of forgot to watch me. He spent way too much time sniffing the table, didn't take the tire and we had to move on after a couple attempts on the teeter. No worries. Happy and I run more at the same pace. He also was tweekie on the table and cost us the run by jumping off and although he did the teeter we lost time. Oh well, we had fun!! I took Oz again as FEO just for practice.

Then Happy's game, "Octagon". A series of 8 jumps in a circle (thus "octagon") with a set of 6 weave poles in the middle. Beginners Serpentine or Weave the jumps. There is a start and a stopping jump but other than that it's handlers choice as to how to guide the athlete. If an error is made you must go into the center, do the weaves correctly, then back out the where the mess up happened and continue. It is a timed event, no faults just the weaves. I came up to the starting jump and took off Happy's lead, turned to toss it toward the gate and when I turned back he had started!! I heard someone say "start the time" so I just followed him. He did awesome! We had just done something similar at class on Friday so he got the concept. I was tough to keep him out and/or in as the case required but he finished AND GOT A Q!! Not only did he qualify he got 4th place. Fourth place against ALOT of dogs!! :)

Throughout the day Vicki and I volunteered for various jobs. You got raffle tickets if you worked and we're all about winning :). There was one other volunteer that was particularly .... hard to work with. It was almost like you were working for her instead of with her. She had a breed of dog that some Cairn enthusiasts do not care for because of some "events" that have happened at earthdog. In TDAA your dog can wear "clothing". Most don't but they do wear collars, harnesses and other dog items.This person had her little dog in a vest type thing that allowed her to carry him like a suitcase. It was quite comical watching her bring her dog up to the start line as if she were carrying a purse.

One run seemed quite difficult for this volunteers little boy dog. He wasn't listening and was sniffing quite a bit. He finally broke away from her and ran towards the chute, which happened to be yellow and the same color as his pee pee pads at home. He got to the lovely yellow chute and he started to pee... and pee he did!! The Handler panicked, ran and picked him up WeeWee pointing out and straight at the crowd maybe 10 feet away. Not realizing he was still peeing she swung him away from the crowd, fanning pee the whole way around then headed toward the door while Wee Willie Wee Wee was squirting a steady stream all across the mat. The crowd started yelling 'STOP' at her which seemed to frighten her even more so she moved faster yelling "I am so sorry!". She finally realized what they were yelling and turned to see the path leading right up to her. Wee Willie had finished his job, handler was mortified, poor thing. The judge (thankfully) told her to go and everyone jumped to clean the mess. The chute had to be replaced, the mop and bucket was broken out and all was back to normal in about 10 minutes!!

Moral of this story? If you dog takes off without you he's either going to do something really really bad or something really really good.