Dirt Nite

Agility night is not really descriptive of exactly what we go through to do agility.

OK, so first of all it happens after work. I have to leave the barn at exactly 5pm to get out to the other barn it's held at. Horses tend to get sick at 5pm so I have missed agility nite before. We unload much heavy equipment out of a trailer near the covered arena. The arena footing is sand and all weather coated with a sticky dressage loving polymer that sticks to everything and is black and disgusting. Because dressage people tend not to have to haul jumps around. If they did, they would do the old fashioned thing, installing sprinklers.

We set up a course, full course, lugging the large items around on a 110 x 70 sf course. Then I teach, usually 1 class. Right now, my class has a teenager with a unfocused cockapoo, a triathalete with a lab, sometimes a very fast pug, and a King Charles Spaniel puppy that looks like a stuffed animal with a very experienced handler. They do great. It's very fun to teach, even though I still have a lot to learn.

Then Otterpop does a lower level competition class. If I teach an additional class, she does Ruby's master's level class which is actually sort of more fun. Class is a social event for the mostly over 45 year old ladies who enjoy wearing dog tshirts. I am not incredibly social. Also if a dog wins an award, everyone eats cake! The dogs in class go to a LOT of dog shows. They show in AKC. This is sort of not my thing, I do only some dog shows. And I find dog shows not so exciting to talk about. So even though these could be my peeps, they are kind of sort of not my peeps.

At 9:30, we put everything away into the trailer. In the dark and the dirt. We do this rain or shine. Everything is very heavy at this time of night and I am usually staggering around because I haven't had dinner yet. Luckily I only live 25 minutes away, so I am home by 10:30. Project Runway is on at 10pm and I miss it because I love agility even more than Project Runway. I feel like the opposite of a Project Runway contestant at dog agility. Unless it was the dirt challenge. When I get home, I have to take off my clothes outside because of the amount of dirt. Having black dogs is an advantage for our agility night.