DOGS WEEKEND

So much happening this past weekend! The Dog Paddlers paddling their hearts out at the Victoria Dragon Boat Festival, and my four-footed dogs working away at the Scallywaggs agility trial. Where to start?

Let's start with the Dog Paddlers. Way to go, Dawgs!! They did us proud once again. I'll have to get more of the details from folks at the paddler wrap-up party next weekend. When I got home Saturday night, I hit the computer first thing. How had the Dog Paddlers done on Day 1 of the festival? Click on the results. Yippee! They're in Diamond again. Fingers crossed all day Sunday, but I'm incommunicado, so have no idea about what's happening. The runs at the agility trial are not going in the order anticipated, and I'm watching the clock trying to figure out whether I can make it down to the Inner Harbour or not (break down the tent, break down and stow all the gear, race home, drop off the dogs, dump all the gear out of the car, get changed, blast down the Pat Bay to Victoria, find parking, walk down to the Inner Harbour...). I finally had to admit that it wasn't going to happen. It was a very difficult decision to make.

When I got home...first thing, once again....head to the computer. I deliberately opened Round 3 results first instead of going immediately to the final standings. I wanted to experience it a bit the way the team would. Wow. First place in the semi-final. Alright! Close that file. Open the final results file. My gosh....how much tighter could that race have been??? Itsy-bitsy hundredths of a second between teams. The Dog Paddlers bring home the Bronze medal in the Diamond division. Sweet. A wonderful way to end the season.

Now, how about the pawed-dogs? How did they do? Well, I've discovered one thing. They DON'T like to do runs in the middle of the day. At least not when it's hot out. They just totally lose their drive and just dawdle around the course. Break-neck speed it ain't! But in the morning they're quite zippy, and in the late afternoon and evening, they're zippy. It may also have to do with conditioning. Some more walks and maybe a little treadmill time to up their stamina might be in their future.

That said, they did very respectably. Little Miss Abby showed up her big brother Zack by bringing home FIVE Qs. Imagine. Who'd have thought that would ever happen? But Zack was no slouch either. He finished strongly, by pulling out a Q in his very favourite event, Tunnelers, at the end of the day. That brought his total up to FOUR Qs for the weekend (and his second title in Novice Tunnelers). Oh...and you know that "hundredths of a second" thing that the Dog Paddlers contended with on the water? Well, Zack missed out on a Q on Saturday by TWO one-hundredths of a second. Argghhh.

And then there was little Miss Gemma. She, of course, got carted along for the duration of the weekend. Did a lot of snoozing. A lot of people-watching. A lot of flirting with new dogs. I wasn't anticipating that she would get to do the Tunnelers fun run at the end of the day on Sunday, as I wasn't expecting to still be there for that event, but...since we ended up being there later on Sunday, I signed her up. She runs like snot. I think I have a speed dog. She followed directions moving from tunnel to tunnel, and just got distracted once. After I went and picked her up and pointed her in the right direction for the second half of the course, she was off and running again. You could hear her banking off the inside of the tunnels as she went through them. I think she's been hanging around the border collies too much!!