Rio Rancho Tournament

Well, the dogs did well.

We were at a tournament in Rio Rancho, a town adjacent to Albuquerque. Spoiled One was running a vet's team the second day, and he did well. I don't think he broke any speed records, but he ran over the jumps, got the ball, and ran back. They were warned about the inflatodog trick, so they ran him in anchor. That dog wore me out. He's 60 lbs of very loud enthusiasm.

Weasel lived up to her sneaky little nickname. She was nearly a full second faster than we were anticipating from her performance in practice. She got to run on the team for one race on Saturday, and made us break out. Twice. So she was banned to her crate, until the second day when one of the dogs was pulled. It worked out with no more breakouts, though it was a close call.

Squeaky toys were awarded and will be disposed of with typical doggie enthusiasm.

Maybe Running Veterans in Rio Rancho

Spoiled One may be running veterans on Sunday in Rio Rancho, which is both cool and kind of sad. It's cool because he'll get to run both days, probably, with the regular team on Saturday and with the Veteran's team on Sunday. But, my puppy is EIGHT YEARS OLD. He's getting older. He doesn't seem it, really, maybe a little calmer and easier to manage. I don't want my dog to be old.

Well, at eight, he's more middle aged than old, I guess. Anyway, I will be sure to do stretchies and warm ups for him. The sad part is a lot of core dogs on our team are getting near the veterans mark. The start dog, Weasel's idol dog, our current height dog, have all been there the entire four years Zeph has been training. I believe the idol dog and the start dog will be qualifying for veteran's in a year or two. With the new dogs, we'll have to be careful to practice with several different dogs in the start dog position and I would love it if we got more than one height dog going strong, so we could switch them out.

Weasel will run with the regular team both days, probably. She's just starting her flyball career. I should be working on their endurance conditioning (and mine - Spoiled One is a workout to run). Also, as always, building tug drive. The current tugging game is making them wait in another room, grabbing the tug and calling them to race and come get it.

I also ordered them one of the much coveted pheasants and a mallard from the website. Weasel has joyfully snuck into my teammates cars and stolen their pheasant every practice. She's so cute and proud as she would prance about, chased by the pack of dogs, proudly squeaking her prize and then drowning it in the water bucket. I tried a petwhatever one, but it held no thrill for her. My theory is that it's because it's SOMEONE ELSE's pheasant that she loves it so, but I am trying to accomodate her. Maybe my teammate and I can switch pheasants every practice.

Such spoiled dogs. . .