Secret's Journey: Another away trial!

Secret got to go to another "away" agility trial this weekend -- This time in Burnsville, MN, while the boys played more NADAC agility.

The weekend started out SUPER fun.... As I cleaned up the yard Friday before we left, I noticed that both Secret & Luke had some pretty foul diarrhea going on. I pretty much have to blame the (somewhat old...) chicken drumsticks I gave them Thursday evening. My fault! Kaiser got one out of the new package and he was totally fine.

Luke was pretty much cleared out by Friday night and pooping normally, but Secret was still spurting out liquid (sorry blog readers). That made me REALLY nervous when I found out that our hotel room was on the FOURTH FLOOR. Come on, really. Who puts dogs on the fourth floor?

The good news is that Secret got over it quickly, had no problems overnight AND did incredibly well with her first elevator experience. Of the three, I think Luke is the only one who has been in an elevator before, but none of them really even noticed it.

Our room had two beds, so Secret & Kaiser thought it was much fun to bounce back & forth between the two. The two beds also made sleeping arrangements a bit nicer (for me). Luke got his own bed, while Secret & Kaiser stayed by me.

Secret did very well at the trial, once again in her own crate while the boys were together in the pen. The only issue we encountered was on Sunday. There was a woman crated across from us who brought her young daughter along -- I'd guess 3 or 4 years old -- And she didn't watch her AT ALL. This little girl would go randomly wandering around the crating area and it drove all of the dogs bonkers, Secret included. The whole crating area went berserk during the morning briefing and this mother never went and fetched her child.... It was like that most of the day.

I managed to get in some training time with Secret at the trial! We played only briefly on Saturday because I was armed with nothing but kibble, but Secret hopped over a single jump a few times for me off leash with LOTS of distractions around.

We went back on Sunday armed with CHEESE! It was towards the end of a Jumpers round, so it was more on the quiet side, but there was still plenty going on to pull Secret's attention from me. She did great! We did tons of single-jump drills, figure-eights, recalls, rear crosses, etc. She was a good, good girl! I was happy to get her on the turf for a bit, too, as she slipped around a bit on the wraps and needs to figure out how to handle herself on surfaces other than grass. It would also help greatly if I shaved her bushy feet -- I tried with my little trimmer on Friday and the amount of hair was too much for it! I'll have to get the horse clippers out for this hairy girl.

The dogs were all pooped on the trip home, so they didn't see the gorgeous view out the window!

Before going home, we stopped up at my parent's house for my grandma's birthday dinner (she's 81 today!). Between dinner & cake, I took the dogs outside for a run -- Secret & Luke had a BLAST! I've never seen Secret run so fast! We played a fun game of, "This way -- No, this way! -- No, THIS way!" :o) She thought it was a hoot and must have put on a mile of running, at least.

In the house, my dad surprised us with DEER ANTLERS! I bought a couple of these at the show this weekend ($$$) and when my dad found out that the dogs liked them he went out to the garage and produced four of them for us! Secret went nuts with them (and the various squeaky toys she kept pulling out) for the rest of the night. Even at home she didn't crash until about 9 p.m. because she was chewing on her new antlers. These things are a hit -- and it appears that they will last a good long time!