Bayshore Part 1: Slumber Party

Heaven got a new shining star yesterday, as Buddy was, indeed, sent to the bridge.  We'll miss him with all our heart and always remember how much fun we had with him.  Thank you all for the lovely comments about him.


What a weekend!  I'm exhausted and would really love to go to sleep right now, even though it's only 8 PM.  I figured I'd write a bit about our looong weekend.

Thursday
I spent the majority of Thursday afternoon packing for the following day's agility trial.  Usually, this activity is reserved for the late nighttime the day before a trial, but this trial was different.  We were leaving that night at 5:30 PM and, in addition to a crate and stinky treats, I needed a change of clothes, a blanket, and my toothbrush.

We were staying overnight in the park in my friend's travel trailer!

Although I was only entered Friday, my friend decided she wanted to take her "little house" down to the park the night before, since she needed to be at the park very early on Friday morning.

We arrived at her house around 5:30 on Thursday and set off to pick up the trailer shortly thereafter.

While the trailer was being hooked up, Marge was absolutely terrified.  There was little I could do about it, as she was crated in the back of the car and there was really no way I could get to her while they were hitching the thing up.  I began to be doubtful about whether or not she'd enjoy herself on our little overnight excursion because of how teeth-chattering scared she was.

Once we arrived at the park, I briefly let her offleash to RUN with other club members' dogs, including our travel companion, Golden Retriever Spirit.  She was completely wired after the ride in the car, and I knew that she needed to blow off some steam.  I leashed her again pretty quickly, but I was glad that she got to run a bit.

We set up her crate inside the trailer, on top of one of the beds (there really wasn't room elsewhere.  She probably didn't really need her crate since she is 100% comfortable with Spirit, but I felt better about having her crated, especially since she can resource guard towards other dogs.

I was even confident enough to leave her crated without me while my friend and I visited some other friends in their giant RV.  We had a great time talking about dogs and gossiping.   When we returned to the trailer, Marge was excited to see us, but didn't seem to be any worse for wear, so I guess she dealt OK.

We stayed up a while, Marge and Spirit play bowing to each other in the little bit of space.   It was weird to be in East Freehold Park at night, in a kind of nice way.  I love it there.

When it was time for bed, Marge willingly went back in her crate.  Spirit stayed loose and readily took the opportunity to slobber all over me during the night.  At one point, I woke up to see her laying flat on her side next to me, staring at me like a person would.  It was hysterical.

By about 5:30 AM, I couldn't sleep anymore.  Marge was tossing and turning in her crate and was starting to get upset about seeing people passing by the window.  It was also freezing; I would have closed the window, but my friend was asleep and I didn't want to wake her up.  We both got up a short while later, after the dogs told us by being wiggly that they had had enough of sleeping.

Marge and Spirit, trailer buddies

By 7:30 or so, the trial was beginning.  I went out to help with leash running in Excellent FAST while Marge hung out in the trailer for a bit more.  By about 12 PM, our first course was being built and we'd have to gear up for her run.

How did Marge fare in her first run after a night of sleeping in a strange place?  Come back tomorrow to find out.