USDAA Western Regional, Day 1 Reportage.

We entered local qualifiers for Steeplechase and Grand Prix just because. Because we like running these classes, and because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Regionals is festive. There is festivity in the air. It's like that febreze commercial where they spray chemical shit in the air around a rotting homeless van filled with expired salami and everyone gets in and is all, Wow! Smells like a meadow full of unicorns! Nobody is whining on the first day, no girl fights break out. People are happy, dogs are dogs. There is a flat grassy field and all the people show up and it turns into agility land. There is a lot of giddy.

I had my own giddy, and then I ran Gustavo.

Gustavo could not run Steeplechase. Because when he got to the poles, there were 2 screws sticking up, holding the pole base down to the ground. This is not an uncommon occurrence. How else you want those poles to stand up still? They are very small. These screws horrified him. Many dogs are not horrified of screws, including Gustavo, yet today, we was. Each time he saw screws, smack in the middle of the poles, he jumped out in horror. We tried 3 times. After his third jump of horror we moved on and finished the course. This is known as E.

Gustavo could not run Grand Prix. He went spacey soon after starting and to bring him out of outer space was too much a challenge. It did get him up on the teeter, because he was running as if in a dream, where the real world was somewhere else, a somewhere not in the agility ring. So Yay. But kind of not really. He could not get up on beloved dogwalk, one of best obstacles ever, because you just run fast over the damn thing. And so we mutually decided to be excused. Without even finishing the course.  The judge said, Nice Try. This is known as E.

We have nice shirts to wear that I made, and a covered wagon. These things are a plus, and I had a great parking spot. Looking on the bright side. Tomorrow is another day.