Ely, MN... vacation and DockDogs

Chris convinced me to go to the Ely, MN event with him this year... and I'm so glad I did! Since it is 10 hours away, I wanted to make a vacation out of it... so I took my 1st *real* vacation in over 4.5 yrs!

We stayed at White Iron Beach Resort and had a blast there... we BBQed, made bonfires, went pontoon boating, played with the dogs... also saw the North American Bear Center... the International Wolf Center... and saw the Vince Shute Bear Sanctuary in Orr, MN... it was great!





DockDogs Northern Stars put on a great DockDog event in Ely... so many nice people and the event was just a blast. I was very proud of both black dogs! They both had new personal best records... I think all the swimming/conditioning they did really made a difference.

Rumor didn't start out very strong on Friday... he wasn't jumping well... I think his Speed Retrieve was over 9 seconds and his Big Air was under 15'. Dylan, on the other hand, did very nicely! He had a Speed Retrieve time under 8 seconds... and he set a new personal best (by far) in Big Air of 18' 7"! Before that, his best was 17' 11" set 2 years ago.

Saturday, Dylan had another nice day. 1 jump in Big Air over 18' and he was a bit slower in Speed Retrieve... mid/high 8 seconds. Rumor was like an entirely new dog the 2nd day. He stopped doing the "chase" for some reason... he kept stopping on the dock. So, I tried the place and send... he jumped 22'! I couldn't believe it... after that, all of his jumps were well over 20'... most over 21'. I was also thrilled with Rumor's improvement in Speed Retrieve... the little boy busted out a 6.66 and won the wave.

Sunday I pulled Dylan from the Speed Retrieve Finals because his times were getting worse and he was #8... some new friends were #9 and I wanted them to have the opportunity to play in the Finals. Rumor was #1 and so I wanted to focus on him more instead of running between the 2 dogs. Dylan was in the Senior Big Air Finals... he didn't jump all that well so he finished 6th, which was still fine by me. He had fun. Rumor won the Speed Retrieve by a couple hundredths of a seconds and and he finished up 3rd in the Masters Big Air Division... he had a jump of 21' 2". The winner had 22'... a 1st time dog... pretty impressive.

Overall, it was a wonderful weekend! I was very impessed with the DDNS club and they ran a very nice event. I'm so glad Chris talked me into taking the trip... it was well worth it and now I want to go back next year! :)