Michigan... a weekend getaway!

This weekend was filled with agility, friends and lots of playing on the beach! I was able to have Colby's house in New Buffalo for the weekend and stay there with some friends because there was an agility trial in Buchanan, MI. Friday I left after work to go up there... Kelly and Polly joined -- the dogs all had a blast playing on the beach and we had fun at the house and at Casey's for dinner.


Saturday started at the trial. Dylan had a great JWW run, but I was right in front of him so he couldn't enter the weaves (oops!)... but the rest was very nice. He was really tired for his Std run so I wasn't expecting anything. I'm very happy I decided just to enter him for 1 day this weekend, since he isn't a big fan of trialing outside. Rumor had gorgeous weaves today in all classes! His Std run was great, but we missed 1 dogwalk descrimination... other than that, he looked really nice. A whole slew of us went back to the house after the trial... did lots and lots of swimming... then out to dinner at the Stray Dog. It was a fantastic day!

Sunday was just Rumor for agility. He Qed in Exc FAST and did a very nice job. His JWW run was fantastic, but I messed him up on a part of it (awesome weave entrance tho!). In his Std run I stepped in a hole and the mis-step really hurt my tailbone (that is still not totally healed from flipping the quad) and I had a tough time recovering... but, we finished strong :) Polly, Kelly and I went back to the beach and made sure the dogs were totally pooped! Then we finished the weekend sitting on the deck and heading out to Mexican.


Overall, it was a perfect way to end the Summer :) We lucked out with the weather... had a wonderful weekend... couldn't ask for anything more!

Agility, DockDogs and friends, oh my!

I haven't updated in a while, but the boys have been keeping very busy! For Labor Day weekend I thought it would be fun for Chris to compete with the black dogs at On The Waterfront event. He can only compete when he isn't working... so I decided to become DockDog Staff on Sunday and he would compete with both boys.... so, in order to keep myself entertained on Saturday, we did an agility USDAA trial :) Lots going on...

So, Friday after work I went to Rockford so that Chris could practice jumping Rumor... he had only jumped Rumz once and that was last August... they did great! He had Rumor jumping 22'+ pretty consistantly... he looked awesome.


Saturday morning the boys and I went to Crystal Lake for a USDAA trial. Dylan got to play and had a really nice Standard run... all perfect except his missed dogwalk contact... bummer! He did, however, get Qs in PI Gamblers and PI Snooker -- I was glad to get Snooker out of the way :) Rumor also did very nicely. He got Qs in Advanced Gamblers and Advanced Snooker... both were pretty good runs, too. He didn't have a great Standard run, but his Grand Prix run (had it not been for 1 refusal at the weaves) would have been clean! Not too bad since I was having a hard time running since my tailbone still hurts a lot. We went back to Rockford Saturday afternoon and watched some friends jump at DockDogs.

Sunday Chris jumped the black dogs and I worked the event. I was absolutely amazed with how well Chris and Rumor did in Speed Retrieve. Until then, my personal best with Rumor was a 6.66 seconds at a club event... and low 7 seconds at a national event. Chris' 1st time out he got a 6.3 and his second jump of the wave he got another personal best.... 6.264! AND he thinks he can really get Rumz under 6 seconds... that would be fantastic. Clearly, Chris' reaction time is WAY better than mine! He made it to the Speed Retrieve Finals... didn't perform quite as well (with a false start), but ended up 8th -- I was very proud of them both! He had nice Big Air jumps with both Dylan and Rumor... no personal bests, but they were 2 wonderful teams.



Now... onto more agility... the boys won't see dock diving again until Nationals -- can't wait for that!