A Memorable Memorial Day

What a whirlwind of a weekend! Long treks down south are difficult when you have to work a full day beforehand, but we made it. For some reason, when I lived in Bradenton, it seemed to only take me three and a half, maybe four hours to make the drive back to Jacksonville. Strangely, when Buster drives, and when we make several stops, and decide to stay in St. Petersburg because the La Quinta is free with Returns points, the drive morphs into a five hour expedition. We departed on Friday evening at roughly 6 pm, which was fairly remarkable given that I had not cleaned out my car or packed prior to leaving work at 4:30 pm, and arriving home at a little after 5:15. The poor dogs, having been locked up all day while we were at work, got walked and fed and shoved into crates. They had a pit stop along the way; however, it was not sufficient to satisfy poor Xander’s need for activity. By the time we made it to the hotel after 11pm, we were ready for bed. He was not. He understandably did not sleep well that night, and so neither did we.

Saturday morning began around 2am with the “I am frustrated and don’t want to sleep “ bark, which is exceedingly annoying. I tried to ignore him, and finally gave up and let him out. After that, I tried to fend off the excited licking and pawing for a few hours until the alarm went off at 5am. We left the hotel at 6am, and made the drive into Bradenton. The benefit of staying in St. Petersburg is the privilege of driving over vast expanses of beautiful water as the sun is rising. We arrived at the Manatee Fairgrounds in time to secure a nice close parking spot, and got set up for the weekend. My purchase of warm weather accessories, including cooling mats, a Ryobi fan, and an aluminet shade cloth really paid off. Although we were covered in shade during the later parts of the afternoon, the first several hours of the morning brought heavy sunlight directly onto our crating area. The prime real estate was taken the day prior, so we had to work a bit harder to stay comfortable. Buster went as far as to set up our canopy near the edge of the cover, so as to block more of the sun. We managed to stay fairly comfortable in spite of the heat and humidity.

My biggest flaw with traveling to trials is that I am not a superstar when it comes to being sleep deprived and off my routine. The first day of a trial is typically the worst unless I arrived early the day prior. Coming in late on Friday night and not sleeping well equaled a less than stellar state of mind. Having support there in the form of Buster and our friends Chris and Carol helped tremendously, however, I really need to work on getting better at handling the travel, etc. We did get a couple of Q’s on Saturday, however, they were flawed and I did a pretty poor job on our other runs. I even knocked over a jump wing with my arm as I was running Kirby and it almost fell on him. Poor guy. He did break his stay, but he really didn’t deserve to have jumps thrown on him. Thankfully, both my dogs are very forgiving. Xander earned his second Open Fast leg on Saturday morning and I tried a sharp rear cross into the weaves. He made it to the 10th pole before doubting himself, so that is something to work on more. I really do like Fast for the purpose of trying different handling maneuvers without necessarily sacrificing the Q. He would have earned 1st if we hadn’t spent so much time on the weaves, but he earned a 2nd place anyway. Kirby recovered from Exc JWW to earn his Open Standard title that afternoon with one off course and a 2nd place as well. Not our best day, but not our worst either. I really enjoyed hanging out with everyone, and although we were there for about twelve hours, Buster was still game for a trip down memory lane. I took him to my first apartment in Bradenton when I attended Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota my first year of college. We cruised down to St. Armand’s circle, which is a major tourist spot for those with money, and for those who wish to appear they have money. Past that, we stopped at Lido beach to appreciate the beautiful blue water and white sand. We didn’t make it back to the hotel until after 8pm. It was a long day.

Buster was kind enough to go back out and pick up a delicious meal from Pollo Tropical, and with full bellies and tired dogs, we all slept well through the night. It is amazing the difference a good meal and a good night’s sleep will do for my mental acuity.

Sunday morning began with much less stress and much more appreciation for the beautiful trial site, the happiness of being surrounded by friends, and the privilege of playing my favorite game with my wonderful dogs. Xander began the morning very early with a kick ass Open Fast run for 1st place and his title. The relief of having that title completed seemed to boost me throughout the rest of the day. I had really wanted to finish his Exc A titles in std and jww, but even more, I had wanted to get both dogs completely out of Open. With Kirby done on Saturday, and Xander done that morning with Fast, I just decided to enjoy the rest of the day. I worked hard on visualizing success in our runs: I pictured exactly what our runs would look like and how my dogs would respond to my cues. I did not allow any thoughts of just “seeing what would happen” and instead focused on making what I had visualized a reality. This was very successful in JWW, as both boys ran clean and each earned 1st place. That would make Xander’s AXJ title, and his second title of the day.

Standard came many hours later, and by then my attention was starting to fade. I made the conscious effort to eat and stay hydrated throughout the day, which I had failed to do the day before and got very lightheaded along the way. Even still, the heat and long hours had started to take a toll. I let doubt creep in as Xander and I approached our standard run. I tried as hard as I could to push that out and just enjoy my boy. I made myself smile and we began. We had a close call when he nearly ran past the teeter again, the same mistake we had made in std on Saturday, but I pushed in just in time, and he made it. I recovered on the table, and we were solid right up to the end. It was a tricky ending that involved two jumps heading toward the fence, with a wrap on the second jump and doubling back to the first and a turn to the finish. I planned to pull him and then flip him away to make the wrap, but in my anxiety, I called “switch,” his rear cross cue, WAY too early, and like a good dog, he turned on the flat. I immediately pushed him forward and flipped him again, and we finished clean. As we came off the run, I was disappointed that we had no doubt incurred a refusal with the spin only a few jumps from the finish, but immediately my friends came over to say the judge hadn’t called it. I was incredulous. Why? I still wonder why, but I didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth. The agility gods giveth, and the agility gods taketh away. Maybe we were far enough back that the judge didn’t feel he had seen or committed to the second jump, or maybe she was distracted. Either way, we earned his AX title. Maybe not the best way to earn it, but in my experience, it will come back around. One day a judge will call us for something undeserved, and I will have to remember this gift. They are human. They make mistakes. Sometimes it is in our favor, sometimes it is not.

At any rate, after Xander’s hat trick of three titles and three 1st placements in one day, I wasn’t too concerned about Kirby’s first venture into Exc std. He has been surprisingly consistent lately, having earned his second AXJ leg that morning, but I still consider running him pretty hit or miss in the realm of qualifying. He really gave it a good go and was flawless except for bouncing off the table. After watching the video, it was totally my fault for the angle I presented it to him, and I was very happy with his speed and focus. He nailed his weaves ALL WEEKEND and our friend Kaimen offered me a million dollars for him. I briefly considered it, but then decided I am kind of attached to him after all.

In the end, Xander ended up with an awesome new neon green and blue tug leash that matches several of my shirts and his harness. There was good video footage taken by my lovely fiancé and some fun pictures taken by Furry Fotography. I may have purchased a photo license plate….We ate terrific food supplied by the best food vendor I have ever encountered at a trial. We thoroughly enjoyed the company of friends and the beauty of our surroundings. The boys earned four titles, four 1st placements, and two 2nd placements, and we made it home by 11:30pm on Sunday night. It would have been fun to stay and compete on Monday, but it was great to have a day of recovery before returning to work today. And although Buster had to work yesterday, he had a shorter than normal day and was able to take a nice nap before we headed out to teach class last night. It was a really memorable Memorial weekend.

I am already looking forward to our next adventure.