Raining Cats and Dogs

Well, it may not have been raining cats and dogs, but it was raining hail shortly after Xander and I arrived in Deland, FL for a Saturday night training session/fun run/fund raiser. Gail Waller owns a nice little facility called "Fast Friends" near Daytona, and has recently been offering it for fun runs as well as hosting Dog-On-It's evening USDAA trials in September. Given that the September night trial, (which does not include standard runs, only tournament and a few games classes), will be held on Labor Day weekend, I thought it would be beneficial to go try out our new and improved contacts in a trial like setting.

Xander and I had already woken at 5am on Saturday to go out and practice and for me to set up and teach my classes, so by the time we left at 3pm to make it to the fun run at 5pm, it had been a long day. Fortunately, we'd all had a brief nap in the afternoon, and with the help of a java-chip frappachino from Starbucks, I was ready to rock.

Laurie Dana from Dog-On-It had organized the event as a fundraiser for the World Team, who were practicing themselves this weekend for the big event in October. I volunteered to act as "judge" and was the keeper of the stopwatch as well, so had planned to stay until the posted 9pm finish time. My friends Chris and Carol also made the long drive from Amelia Island to get young Wicked more exposure on different equipment, so we were all a bit bummed when we arrived to what amounted to a small hurricane.

Chris and I actually fought through the initial tumult on the road to the facility, with oncoming traffic throwing walls of water at our windshields as we tried to navigate the narrow two lane highway(since construction had the two other lanes shut down). Once both our vehicles arrived at Fast Friends, the wind was whipping, but the storm had not yet arrived. In spite of lightning and thunder, Carol and I managed a brief walk through on the course before the bottom let out. The entire group of us ran for the shelter of our vehicles and endured wind, rain, and even hail.
After one hour of the pounding storm, a number of people gave up and headed for higher ground. Fortunately, those of us die-hards who remained only had to wait another half an hour for the storm to relent.

Surprisingly, the ground was not soaked on the field, as it was raised above the level of the other areas, and Gail's nearby creek collected much of the run off. Laurie and the others decided it was safe to proceed, and so we did.

The wait was well worth it. Laurie had set up a Grand Prix course with a starters/advanced level course nested within it. Each participant had two minutes to run the course, work on whatever they chose, and use toys/food as rewards. I enjoyed playing judge/timer and watching the other teams play. When it came time for Xander and I, my plan was to pretend that the first run was real, no toys, no corrections, just test our contacts in a trial setting. Xander NAILED them. I was thrilled. We handled the opening in a way that others were struggling, and although I didn't do it as well the second time through, it was beautiful the first time. He was fast and confident, and held his contacts fantastically. I rewarded him with a tug session, and as we still had one minute left, we proceeded to run the second course. He was a bit more pushy on his a-frame this time around, but I did not correct him. I knew that he might self release on our next turn, so I kept that in mind.

After cycling back through the running order, it was our turn again around 8:45. Xander nailed his dog walk, but as I had anticipated, self released from the a-frame. I put him back on the contact and rewarded with the toy this time. Laurie suggested I repeat the sequence again, and he was "sticky" this time, with some creeping into position. I released and rewarded with the toy. We did another sequence involving the dogwalk, and again I released to the toy. After doing a few more things, we ran to the aframe, and he nailed it again. Fast, confident, held the position for release to the toy. All in all, he was MUCH improved, and I will just have to make an effort to hold and mark the a-frame in competition. His dogwalk was fast and confident, and his jumping and weaves were lovely. He has really matured a great deal in the last year, and all our work has paid off. Thanks again to Gabrielle Blackburn for all her wonderful advice at the summer contact seminar!!

Thanks goes out to Laurie and Gail for organizing and hosting the event, and although the fund raiser was not as successful as they'd hoped, some money was still raised for Tori and the rest of the World Team. Only six weeks until they leave for France!