Monday, March 2, 2009

And The Result of the Agility Trial?

A big E :)... but that's ok. Reilly did his absolute best and in our eyes was a SUPERSTAR! I could not have asked for anything more from him at all.

So our whole weekend was a mess - the painters came on Friday and I sent Reilly to daycare. They left on Friday evening, while we were out, and left the place a mess. Their ladders and everything were EVERYWHERE. This threw poor Reilly just totally out of whack.

I was counting on agility class on Sat morning to get us out of the house while the painters finished up. But because of the horrible rain, class got cancelled. We ended up holed up in the bedroom. The stress was too much for poor Reilly and he got sick - throwing up and everything. When the painters left, he was finally able to relax a little bit and catch some sleep.

Sunday we woke bright and early to continuing rain, which was supposed to turn to snow. And it did, but that was later.

It was FREEZING at the trial - just bone chilling cold.... we got there at 7 and the trial started at 8. Thankfully DH and a friend brought coffee for all of us. Reilly seemed a bit stressed at the trial, but that was to be expected. I walked him around some, but due to the ever present rain, we couldn't really venture out for long. Oh, and we had an admirer! Someone came up and started gushing about how much Reilly looked like her dog. So she went off to get her dog and well, she did look somewhat like Reilly. She was older, and shorter and well a bit heavier, but I could see the resemblance. She was very sweet and we chatted for a few minutes.

It came out time to run and well, he did his best. Part if it, looking back, was definitely my fault- I wasn't in place when he unexpectedly started his run and I pulled him off the second tunnel. He proceeded to tour the ring for his admiring fans, but not at his usual breakneck speed. He was just kind of checking the place out. Which was fine, I expected that. And, after all that, he came back to me, I got him under control, we went through the last tunnel and out the gate where the DH was meeting us with tons of treats and LOTS of praise. So he was an AWESOME dog!!!

But the highlight of the day was when our friend came with his 2 little girls. They all had tshirts - and they even had one made for me and Doug. Mine said "Reilly's mom" in crystals, Doug's said "GO Reilly", our friend's said " Go Santos"( we joke that Reilly looks like Santa's Little Helper from the Simpsons) and it said something very clever on the back, which I can't remember. The girls( 3 and 6) were VERY cute in their shirts which said "Go Reilly" and " I Love Reilly". I thought it was awesome of them to come out in the cold and wet to watch us go for 30 seconds.... and to make the shirts. If I get their permission to post the pictures with their children in it, I will so you can see the shirts.

Our next trial is on March 22nd( I hope, I just sent the entry in). We have tickets to Spamalot that day, but hopefully it will move quickly and we'll get to do both of our runs. If not, that's fine too.

Oh and DH didn't get any pics bc the camera battery was dead :(....

And the one comment I heard at the trial was how fast Reilly was. I asked the DH if he was really fast( I can't tell I see him all the time) and he said, yes, VERY fast and he was only running 1/2 speed. WOW.

2 comments:

  1. Awwww, you'll get them next time Stephanie & Reilly. At least you had a lot of great support and tried to have fun inspite of the bad weather. It's good you got the kinks out and next time you'll have this experience under your belt and ready to move on to a great score. My first obed trial bombed terribly. My kennel club was running the show and so I was doing too much and still trying to show. Tux ran out of the ring during the sit/stay. Somebody had to catch him for me, as if he'd never seen a leash before. Sheesh. It was totally embarassing.

    Anyhow, next time, bring fresh batteries! Can't wait to see the shirt pictures. I bet they're cute.

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  2. At least you've got this first trial behind you and can move on from here. I hope you can post pics of the shirts. They sound adorable!

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