Our first Rally Trial

A couple years back, I remember talking with a trainer-friend of mine who told me about a hunt test she and her dog had been to the previous weekend.  Her dog had performed beautifully on what turned out to be an extremely difficult test.  She mentioned that her dog's achievement rivaled the feeling she had when her kids graduated High School.  She had a tear in her eye and frog in her throat when he finished his final retrieve.  Just listening to her tell me about it, I could hear the excitement in her voice. 

Non-dog people don't get that.  They think we're crazy.  We probably are.  But only a little.

Truth be told, I'm more excited about my Lilly getting her Rally title than about getting my bachelor's degree.  I realize that in the grand scheme of life, my ability to get a better job and make more money for us is a bigger deal, but my excitement level is not in line with reality.

I'll probably tell you about my graduation when I officially graduate in August; but for now, let's talk about more important things.  ;)

Last weekend Miss. Lilly and I headed to Ixonia, WI for the Milwaukee Dog Training Club's Obedience and Rally trial.  (Let it be noted I now know how to get to Oconomowoc WITHOUT getting lost.)

We were going to head to the campground at Kettle Moraine State Forest on Friday afternoon, but the weather man promised a doosie of a storm.  The weather man pretty much lied.  We left on Saturday morning anyway.

Since I'm already getting impatient and can't hold it in any longer, I'll just tell you how we did:

Saturday we took 3rd place with a score of 94 (out of 100)

Sunday we took 3rd place with a score of 97 (out of 100) 

In Rally, a 70 out of 100 is passing.  I knew my girl could do it, but since she's never even been to a show before I was VERY pleasantly surprised at how awesome we did our first weekend out.  I expected to be "happy we qualified" rather than "I can't believe we placed".

After we collected our first set of pretty ribbons we headed to the campground and got set up.  It wasn't long before Miss Lilly was wondering if perhaps I had forgotten she had not eaten her lunch yet.  I commenced to making some hot dogs after starting what turned out to be a nightmare of a fire.  It may not have been raining, but the air was heavy with moisture and nothing under the sun was completely dry.

I call this my "hands-free" weenie maker.

Miss Lilly was glad to get her weenie.

But for a dog who eats raw meat every day, she sure had some issues.  She kept setting the darn thing down in the dirt.  Then making "the face" because it had dirt and pine needles stuck to it. 

 

I felt bad for her, so I finally brought it over to her mat, and broke it in half so she could figure it out.

After eating I thought she might like to take a walk around the campground so we headed into the tent so I could change and get ready for a walk.  Little Miss was so tired she hopped right up on the air mattress and curled up for a nap.  

After our walk, the poor girl could hardly keep her eyes open.  We went to bed extra early.  I bought a magazine to read in bed, but was far more tired than I thought - I only lasted for about 5 pages.

We got up bright and early for breakfast.

What?  You act like you've never seen bagels toasted on weenie sticks before.

Took a couple pictures.

And headed back to the kennel club for our second day in the ring.

All-in-all it was a GREAT weekend!

Bailey was not fellin' it for the photo op.