Midweek Mash-up

Most of our walks lately have been in the big field, due to time constraints and situational constraints (it's been busy out there with all of this warm weather) preventing us from going elsewhere. But, we did manage to go down to the beach the other day for an evening stroll.

Not too many photos from the trip, but a few. Marge was not thrilled about walking on the rocks with us. Normally, she doesn't mind it, even likes it. But, that night, she did it begrudgingly. I'm not sure if either the presence of people or sound of the waves had anything to do with it. Still, my sister took some nice photos. Even when she's less than amused, Marge can still work the camera!

I didn't purposely skip Tuesday Training yesterday, but it kind of worked out, anyway, because I don't have much to say on the training front! We didn't have agility class due to our instructor being away at her breed specialty show. Walks have been more good than bad (with an AWESOME walk Tuesday night with our good friend, Louie), so I'm cautiously optimistic that if I handle things correctly, we can get through the summer in one piece. More to come on that as the warm weather continues.

Our trial is Saturday and Sunday. On both days, our runs are upwards of 5 or 6 hours apart. I did get a tent and set it up in my backyard just for practice - so that will be a nice place to stay. But, the trial site is about 30 minutes from my house. Should Marge and I go home for a little while to beat the heat and take a break? Or, will going home and then going back confuse her and fatigue her more? Spending what could conceivably be 7 or 8 straight hours in the park (as opposed to a completely isolated trial site, like the last one) doesn't seem like a good idea if it can be avoided.

This is the park where the sounds of the hockey rink sent her in to a panic a couple of months ago. She LOVES this park, but the last two trips there have not gone well at all. Part of me is extremely optimistic - the low buzz of the trial environment has the potential to mute out outside noise. Additionally, the mere sight of other dogs and people arranged in what I'm sure she recognizes to be a dog show DOES have an extremely positive effect on her. (For example, she would have never recovered from the loud speaker at the last trial if not for the fact that we, indeed, were at a trial.) The other half of me is worried that I am in for an unpleasant surprise, and that this trial will be nothing like the last, very good trial that we had.

My plan is just to treat it as I treated the last trial. Go, set up my crate and equipment, chill out for a while, warm her up, run, chill out some more. I originally planned on taking her over by the big lake situated in this park, as I figured it'd be nice to cool her down before and/or after her runs, but it might be better for me to stay within the confines of the trial site and not go venturing off.

I'm not sure how much I'm going to post over the remainder of this week. Things have been pretty busy here. So, just keep your fingers crossed that we have a sweet-sounding weekend.