a Taj MuttHall Dog Diary: Fun Day in the Heat

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Fun Day in the Heat

SUMMARY: Got some practice, exercise, socializing, and food!
It was the Bay Team Fun Day in Hollister today. Yesterday's weather was lovely. Who knew it would shoot up into the 90s today? (Well, yeah, ok, there's always looking at the weather report ahead of time...) Everyone spent their spare time darting from shade to shade. And consuming beverages.

After I walked a couple of rough miles at the San Jose Airport (checking out the new terminal) last night, my legs were already tired. (Why is that kind of walking so much harder than 5 miles round trip up a mountain several hundred feet and back down, like I did Wednesday evening on Black Mountain?) With the heat and the sore legs, I was set up to be just too tired to do much.

I got there at 8:30 and by 11:00, I was finished. The day was scheduled to go until 5:00, but with the exception of a few people who showed up at lunch, we all pretty much cleared out after the EXTRAVAGANT pot luck. Lots of fruit salads today, for sure. Wayyyy too much food for us to make even much of a dent in. Bay Teamers are such good providers!

But we did get in runs on the Jumpers, the Standard, the Gamblers, and the Whatever courses; I think I did probably good 4 sessions with Tika and 5 with Boost, each session with maybe a minute and a half of good solid course running. So probably at least twice the on-course time that we'd have at a typical real trial--since they'll both typically finish a jumpers course in 25-30 seconds and a standard course in maybe 40-50.

I used some of the preset courses, but also made up a lot of my own. With Boost in particular, I practiced lots of just running fast around a large loopy shape both to send her ahead of me or to get way ahead of her. She seemed to be getting the idea as the day went on. Also practiced some aggressive rear crosses on weaves and Aframe, and she didn't blink an eye on those.

I took a small 6-pack cooler with drinks and the usual blue-ice soft-drink-cooler frozen thingie, but by the time I was packed and headed home, the drinks were warmish and I was aching for ice-cold libation. The agility site was wayyyyyyy out in the boonies in Hollister, but there is a roadside cafe not too far down the road.

I popped in and asked whether I could buy a big cup of ice, but the guy said, Just go ahead and take what you want from the ice dispenser (on the soda machine). So I did! Ahhhh, wonderful!

And they really do make great sandwiches, out there in the middle of agricultural land (and just up the road from where we had our only herding lesson).
Sooooo I don't know that I'm completely ready for next weekend's trial, but at least this afternoon and evening the dogs haven't been pestering me for attention. We'll see how long THAT lasts.

If you want to see the rest of my photos (just of people at the trial, mostly), they're here.

2 comments:

  1. For a moment there I thought all that food was the spread you get at a regular agility trial and I was going to be impressed but then I read more closely. Still looked like a good party.

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  2. Sometimes there are potlucks at trials on Saturday evening. SOmetimes the potlucks are really awesome, but it seems to me that they've been dribbling off over time, as the uniqueness wears off and the difficulty of making food a day or two ahead of time and storing it becomes more apparent. But, boy, you should come to our parties! (Because we need more people to eat all the food.)

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