a Taj MuttHall Dog Diary: Wednesday Night 8:15 Class Photo Album

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Wednesday Night 8:15 Class Photo Album

SUMMARY: Compare and contrast to Thursday morning class.

Wednesday Night 8:15 Class is certainly unique. Somehow we've fallen into our own Alphabet Training (see Nancy's article series in Clean Run), and it involves food. I understand that now all the other classes all week know what letter we're on and speculate on what might be served. Two weeks ago, it was "F", and among other things, Bobbie and Ken brought a portable stovetop and whipped up Fajitas for us.

Last night was "H". The main theme was Hawaiian. We had Hawaiian music, leis for all of us and the dogs, Mai Tais (I don't partake but others were quite happy to), and a variety of other themed foods. We didn't get quite as much running in last night as we usually do, between the food and me realizing that I had my camera with me--

Among the valuable lessons we learned: The state fish of Hawaii is the humuhumunukunukuapua'a, and the Hawaiian alphabet has only 14 characters.

I dunno, it's not the most conventional class format, but all I can say is that our placement rate has zoomed since we started all this.
Hail, Hail, the gang's [not] all here. Uncommon to find everyone in class at once. This week, Ashley was missing. Last week, I was gone. The week before, Jenn and Cathy were gone. Me in front, and (left to right) Jennifer, Jim, Tracey, Ken, Bobbie, Cathy, and the City of San Jose, "Gateway to Silicon Valley," glistening behind.
Honey-baked Ham, cookies with macadamia nuts, mangos, fresh pineapple... and more...
Kye the Aussie, hoping for ham.
Bobbie and Jenny the Golden prepare for a run.
Tika, hoping for ham.
Jennifer enjoying the ambiance.
Jennifer, Jim, and Tracey all enjoying the ambiance.
Flash the Sheltie always has something to tell me.
Kahuna Ken and a beautiful island wahine, Bobbie, enjoy the ambiance.
Jenny and Ken.
Jim and his Mai Tai dispensing dog-walk performance wisdom. In an unrelated incident earlier in the evening, Jim pointed out that a difficult threadle in earlier classes was easily performed even by fast dogs and large dogs with long strides, but missed by a small dog and a slow dog. The lesson we condensed from this (you might want to write this down, as it fits many real-life, nonagility situations): "It's not the size or the speed, it's the handling."
Cathy and Trooper. Trooper is famous because of Cathy's tendency to forget using his name during class runs, resulting in off-courses. So, whenever they missed a turn, we would all yell from the sideline, "TroooooPER!" And then, whenever ANYONE missed a turn, we would all yell from the sideline, "TroooooPER!" And now in some other classes during the week, as I understand it, whenever any random person misses a turn, people are starting to yell, "TrooooooPER!"
Apache the Terv, AKA Bubba, hoping for ham.

7 comments:

  1. You guys are my American (agility) Idols!! That sounds like the best and most fun class ever! And the backdrop is fairly spectacular, too. If I ever make it out there I'm going to make sure I come on a Wednesday....

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  2. I so envy you the class camaraderie.

    /amy

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  3. Awesome theme. I grew up in Hawaii and we're leaving on Monday for a ten day celebration/honeymoon we never had! Timely post.

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  4. Wow, that looks like so much fun! I bet your Q and placement rate is increasing - great camaraderie!

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  5. I LOVE the lesson you "condensed" from class! So appropriate in SO many contexts!

    Seems like such a fun class. That's what it's all about!

    Where's my mai tai mix?......

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  6. There sure was a lot of "lei-ing" going on and even more "waiting around for ham"!!!

    Looks like a fun time was had by all, even some of the humans!

    MRLD II, the sis-in-law

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  7. Great photos. Only superceded by the great fun we have in class and the things we learn from Jim (and Nancy when she gets to come back outside after her class).

    So... it seems as if we now have to add tripods to our “dog gear bags”... :-)

    Kahuna Ken

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