Busy Day!

Yesterday was one heck of a long day, as evidenced by the way Secret crashed on the car ride home.

The fun started on Saturday. It was a rainy day, so the poor dogs were stuck inside pretty much all day doing nothing. I gave Secret & Kaiser their baths around 4:00 p.m., and at that point life got even more boring because they could no longer even go outside unsupervised. With as pent up as everyone was, there was sure to be some mud wrestling going on -- and we couldn't have that after making them all white & beautiful! :o)

I went out Saturday night, so that meant boring crate time for Secret. I tried to make it up to her by making an extra special Kong for her. I froze canned dog food into the Kong earlier in the day and then added peanut butter to it before I left. I figure that should have lasted a bit longer for her.

We got up and going around 8:00 on Sunday. Sadly (for me!), it was one of those days where we probably could have easily stayed in bed until 10:00 because the dogs are always tired on nights I go out, but alas we had to hit the road! Everyone cooperated and we were able to leave a bit after 9:00. The good thing about everyone being tired is that all three dogs pretty much slept the entire trip to Woodbury, MN.

We arrived at our destination around noon and the dogs were ready to get out of the car! I went in to register and discovered that there wasn't any sort of crating area available, which meant the dogs were going to have to stay in the car. :o( Thankfully it was a beautiful, cool day and they would be comfortable in there. I set them up with the water bucket and then took them out in turns for walks and into the building to settle into the environment.

I cannot say enough about how proud I am of Secret's (and Kaiser!) behavior. It was literally a mad house in there at times. Many, many dogs showed up for the open casting call -- and the majority of them did not have the sort of manners you would expect from an "animal actor." Multiple dogs came in on halties, presumably because they were uncontrollable any other way (going by their behavior). Several dogs were hyper beyond belief and wouldn't settle down. A few were aggressive, most had no manners. I was a bit appalled. Those of us with mannered dogs seemed to congregate together to try to protect our dogs from the madness.

Secret got many compliments on her calm behavior. She went through her repertoire of tricks a few times and otherwise just laid calmly at my feet. She lightly growled at a few of the crazy dogs that came near, but settled when I spoke to her.

Our total wait time was THREE HOURS. The dogs got shuffled in and out of the car several times in that period and they all did so well. When it was Secret's turn to be photographed, she was a bit nervous but she held her sit-stay incredibly well. She even got to show off her bow, pretty & stand (on her hind legs). Hopefully the pictures turn out well!

The timing could not have worked out better. As soon as Kaiser & Secret were done at the photo shoot, we hit the road for Shakopee and made it just in time for weight pull practice for Kaiser. They hold these a couple of times a month, but generally it doesn't pay for me to drive all that way just for a quick practice. I lucked out that I was able to combine it with my trip up for the casting call!

Secret was pretty pooped by this point, so she slept quietly in the pen for the majority of the time we were at the pull. The dogs were happy to be out of the car for a little while, I think! Poor Kaiser was sleeping in the pen between pulls, he was so tuckered out. He still did a great job, though, and pulled the 300 lb cart four times -- once with a young girl sitting on it to add another 50/60 lbs or so.

I fed the dogs their dinner at the warehouse, figuring they would be upset if they had to wait until 9:00 to eat. That put us back on the road around 6:00 p.m. Secret & Kaiser had a bit of a wrestling match in the back of the car, but everyone was zonked out by the time we hit Hwy 52.

It was a long, long day, but everyone traveled very well and were model citizens. I will be interested to see if anything turns up with the animal acting gig!