Excitement and New Things!

[Alexandria610]

Today was day one of the Doglympics in Avalon Park, FL. It is a two-day festival full of amazing events, vendors, music, demos, and fun!

I got a lot of pictures of the Schutzhund demonstrations they were doing, as well as the three musketeers (Dooney, Zira, and Alexandria) playing in SNOW for the first time. They also had 'air dogs' set up with dock diving, and a small lure course to run for fun and donations!

In-between the heats of the dock divers, you and your dog could practice on the dock or practice on the ramp/in the water. Seeing as Alex has never really had the chance to go in water deeper than her ankles, I figured I'd try it with her - I would love to get her into dock diving, but of course getting her actually down in the water would be the first step. It was a rocky step, but she took it! Swam for about ten seconds before realizing she wasn't going to die, then I pulled her back out of the water. I was really worried that she'd leap off of the dog walk and ramp (since when we did some agility she'd fling herself off the dog walk that was barely off the ground, and this one was a little over five feet off the ground) but she followed with me at her side all the way to the ground. I was really proud of this small step towards something bigger!

But the best part of the day was the lure course! It was a small one, set up on a side lot by the event with some hay bales. There really wasn't any course, besides a straight shot, but it was fun to see if the dogs would be into it.

To be honest? I'd never done ANYTHING like this with her - and was sort of nervous to let go of her leash. But I let go of her leash, and followed her as the lure started to move. It was tugging, but she didn't seem too interested in it - until I said the magic word of 'get it.' Apparently that 'trigger' word did the trick. She zeroed in on the plastic bag, hit those rocket boosters, and started chasing like there was no tomorrow. When she got to the last row of hay bales, her momentum was just a bit too much, and she went tumbling. Here's a video that Wendy (Dooney's Mom) took of it on her phone:

You Tube

You Tube

I wasn't too worried about her, since she sat up (and she's face planted while playing/running on more than one occassion) but of course one of the lure helpers ran over to make sure she was alright.

I was a tad bit afraid that it might make her sort of nervous to run again, but she was more pumped than ever! Took her to do it two more times, and she flew! It was so amazing to watch my dog, that's been nothing but a pet, become this prey-driven, fast running, powerful dog. I've fallen in love with this fun little lure thing! I cannot wait to do it again, and I know she can't either.

Oh, and as a side note, I'm not as worried about her staying with a stranger during the CGC. After every run, she didn't go to Alyssa or Wendy - no, she went to the people running the lures haha! And just stayed there until I'd call her from the course, and she'd come running all excited.

I'm just so proud of my girl!

[Dooney's Mom]

oh yes your girl did awesome today. I was so proud of her and Zira too.

I also attempted to get Dooney to dock dive- I got her in the pool she swam around the whole thing, but she was overwhelmed by everything. She seemed very interested in it though! Sorry my video isn't the best!

Oh and don't forger our "attack" pack. She just knew our dogs were going to "pack" up on her dog and kill the poor thing. It was having fun until she panicked.

But we still had so MUCH fun!!

[Alexandria610]

Yeah, Zira was like a rocket!

I know - I showed my mom some of the "pack attack" on the smaller dog, and she shook her head and said "then why did she let her small dog into an off-leash area with three larger dogs in the first place?" LOL!