USDAA Western Regional, Day Three :: An exciting Day!

Day Three at the Regionals is just the finals, Steeplechase and Grand Prix. The dog show shrinks down to just 3 rings, everyone gets there kind of late, and much less toilet paper is used in the bathrooms. Also, people start to throw away large, heavy items, leaving them in weird places instead of carting them off to the dumpster themselves. I expect this. Somebody has to be there to take out the garbage. I knew it was going to be a good day when I got there nice and early to clean the bathrooms and somebody had done it the night before!

This was amazing! I got to enjoy a hard boiled egg instead of cleaning the bathroom! That's about as good as it gets at a dog show!

Gooey had one of the first runs of the morning, his Performance Steeplechase Final. This is not a good thing for him! Don't ask Gooey to run too early or too late. He requires a medium time of day and a medium temperature and things just so to run. He needs a special warmup, this was one of those hurry up and go things. He had a little meltdown and I just ran him around using the tunnels and jumps. No problem! Then he was cool! Just do your own course! There was clapping, this he liked! There was a PA system, this he didn't like! The stars need to align just right for Gooey. He gets some cheese!

Here's what his first round looked like, Gooey is almost 10 years old now, this is how fast he can run. Not as fast as he used to, but he can still try very hard. For a little guy they didn't think would live past 8 or 9 years old, I think he's doing pretty darn good! Hooray for Gooey! Gooey is amazing!



Banksy was up next. She doesn't really care about the weather. She doesn't like the PA system, and the big tent was upsetting her, but she's no sissy. Also, I was so nervous I felt like I had to barf. I don't get nervous running Gooey. Because it's Gooey! I didn't get nervous running Banksy in anything else this weekend, but I sure did for the Steeplechase Final.

Seeing as how during the first round, I had an out of body experience and all.



She ran great! And then we won!


She didn't like the picture area! Scary! And the medal was so heavy she could barely lift up her head.

I was so surprised we won. We don't usually win things like this. When one of my friends told me I won I almost cried and then I tried to go empty the garbage cans but he convinced me to go get her so she could go on the podium and get her prize. So sorry about that full garbage can over there. We won a heavy glass thing and an envelope with a great deal of cash in it and a medal.

Later on we had Grand Prix Finals. It had a very hard dogwalk bit in it so then I got nervous again. Barfworthy nervous. Banksy doesn't get nervous. Her new calmness thing is before we run we sit in the shade together and I give her scritchies on her tummy. She rarely likes scritchies but new calm Banksy is so calm at dog shows she can have scritchies on her tummy. This makes me feel less like barfing, too.

Her run was amazing! Except for the part I mucked up getting on and off the dogwalk which also pulled her out of the last weave poles and was her only missed running contact of the weekend. Oh well. A thing to work harder on. No Grand Prix finals win. This would have been awesome, maybe it's something we can do another time.

I was very proud of Banksy. And of course I'm proud of Gooey. And Otterpop helped me take out the trash. And Ruby came along and had some walks. I'm very lucky to have such good dogs.