My regular flyball crew was supplemented by my friend Megan and her Aussie, Rowdy. Only 2 of my teammates wanted to go to the tournament, and while I have the dogs to fill out a team we needed another person to run a dog, that's where Megan came in. She did phenomenally well for her first tournament!
We stopped off at the hotel first, unloaded some of our paltry human belongings, then headed off to the tournament site to set up the crates. There was no good way out of the hotel to get onto the street we needed to be on. The 3 vehicles in our caravan ended up taking different streets. At one point we ended up passing Kris and the whole thing felt like a scene out of a cartoon where there is a room full of doors and when you go in one door you end up in the same room coming out of another door.
When we got to the fairgrounds, we all drove in circles trying to find the building.... or heck someone with a dog! We finally did find it and got our boxes, balls, and ball shagger unloaded. Then we set up our crating area. We actually had quite a bit of room considering we were only running one team and we had 4 dogs with us not on the team roster! I got to use the RV mat I won in Davisburg as our floor covering. The x-pen covers I ordered didn't come in before I left (they arrived about 90 minutes after, grr!) so instead we stacked the crates which worked out pretty well.
They had informal singles racing going on (it's a NAFA tournament) so Megan and I hung out and watched for a bit so I could kind of show her the flow of the race since she'd never been to a tournament and we don't have full runback to practice in. Then we headed back to the hotel where a guy had his boxer off leash running around behind the hotel. I asked him to hold his dog so I can get mine out of the car. "Oh, she's friendly" Well, mine are not, especially towards boxers. >_< Luckily we didn't see them again.
Trophy was his usual jerky self the first night in the hotel. I crated him, and Rowdy was crated as well since he had some diarrhea. So, as per usual, i didn't get a good night's sleep. Trophy's getting better, I get more sleep every night we stay in the hotel, but I still MUCH prefer camping.
So we had 5 races each day. My plan was to run Pan in 3 and Demo 2 each day. My goal was also to work on my starting abilities, as I sucked. Our very first race the opposing team was a mess. I'm pretty sure they false started every single heat. The third heat in Pan was getting pissy after their third false start. She very clearly looked over at their start dog, and exploded down the lanes in her very own false start. Ha. She was having an absolute ball running in start and her times all weekend were extremely consistent 4.6's. The absolute highlight of my day was getting my starts dialed in. I got running .05 splits and less, and then it happened. Let Pan run and i cringed because I was sure it was early. Stand up and the screen flashes .000 - I thought I broke it! It took a few seconds to realize what happened and that we got our very first perfect start!
Demo ran his two races, but was pretty slow, running in the upper 4's. It looked like his boxturn wasn't clean either. He got his FDCh in his first race, and we accomplished our goal for the weekend and I decided I wasn't going to run him Sunday unless Pan was having a problem.
Saturday night in the hotel was better. I didn't kennel Trophy, he slept on the bed with everyone, but he was trembling almost the whole night. He's just wound up too tight and too stressed in the hotel. My poor boy. :( He did eventually fall asleep curled up with Pan.
I felt like I got much more sleep that night, but when Sunday dawned I felt like I had been run over by a truck. It was really hard to get going.
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| Rowdy learning to chill (compare to first picture of him above!) |
Our first race Sunday was a hot mess. The race before ours went really fast. I had just gotten their boots on when we were in! Almost missed our warmup, didn't get to do a full run through. Second heat pan tried to launch early and ended up with a .2 second start after I tried to quickly reset her. Next heat the other team false started and Pan decided to not wait and reran herself >_< After that exertion, she was so slow coming back at the actual start of the heat Trophy bad passed into her. Trophy did run a 5.0 on a clean heat, so there was some positives i guess.
I went up to watch some of the host club's races. Mainly, to watch Steve from http://www.underdogged.net/
When I went back to our crating area they told me Demo had thrown up twice. I didn't think much of it at the time, even though it is really odd for him to get sick at a tournament. Then I went up and learned how to line judge (OMG WAS IT SCARY! I did 3 division 1 teams in a row, and even though they were slower than division 1 teams in our region it was TERRIFYING. I was so tense!) When I went back to our crating area Demo threw up again.
We finished out racing on Sunday with nothing major happening, packed up the cars, and settled in for awards.
Then we started the journey home. we stopped around 9pm for some sleep as I couldn't keep my eyes open. 1am I'm awoken by Demo getting ready to throw up again. Finally made it home at 5am where Demo threw up again. Fell asleep woke up at noon... to Demo throwing up again. At this point I figured he was hungry since he hadn't eaten since 6am Sunday. Fed him breakfast and he was fine. Fed him dinner, he was fine. 11:30pm he is fast asleep on the floor and then the next thing I know he is projectile vomiting all over the place.
Dropped him off at the vet Tuesday morning along with my cat who is peeing outside of the litterbox. $300 in tests later for both of them, and nothing is wrong with either. OH MY FREAKING GOD. This is the story of my life with my pets. Something is clearly wrong, since one is vomiting and one isn't using the litterbox, but all tests are normal. UGH! Demo is doing better today. Surviving on rice, but not throwing up.
Kept Trophy home from Agility since I didn't know if this was contagious or not... unfortunately due to my large vet bill, looks like Trophy's agility debut will be pushed back. Just can't afford it right now.
I went up to watch some of the host club's races. Mainly, to watch Steve from http://www.underdogged.net/
When I went back to our crating area they told me Demo had thrown up twice. I didn't think much of it at the time, even though it is really odd for him to get sick at a tournament. Then I went up and learned how to line judge (OMG WAS IT SCARY! I did 3 division 1 teams in a row, and even though they were slower than division 1 teams in our region it was TERRIFYING. I was so tense!) When I went back to our crating area Demo threw up again.
We finished out racing on Sunday with nothing major happening, packed up the cars, and settled in for awards.
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| BrokenButt's Total Annihilation FDCh! |
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| Tournament Swag, I love ribbons! |
Then we started the journey home. we stopped around 9pm for some sleep as I couldn't keep my eyes open. 1am I'm awoken by Demo getting ready to throw up again. Finally made it home at 5am where Demo threw up again. Fell asleep woke up at noon... to Demo throwing up again. At this point I figured he was hungry since he hadn't eaten since 6am Sunday. Fed him breakfast and he was fine. Fed him dinner, he was fine. 11:30pm he is fast asleep on the floor and then the next thing I know he is projectile vomiting all over the place.
Dropped him off at the vet Tuesday morning along with my cat who is peeing outside of the litterbox. $300 in tests later for both of them, and nothing is wrong with either. OH MY FREAKING GOD. This is the story of my life with my pets. Something is clearly wrong, since one is vomiting and one isn't using the litterbox, but all tests are normal. UGH! Demo is doing better today. Surviving on rice, but not throwing up.
Kept Trophy home from Agility since I didn't know if this was contagious or not... unfortunately due to my large vet bill, looks like Trophy's agility debut will be pushed back. Just can't afford it right now.
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