Trial in Pa

   Sorry I wasn't able to blog until I got home because the motel did not have wifi.

Betty and I packed up and left around 10:30 am on Friday morning.  We had a good uneventful trip down to a location we had never been to before. The GPS gave some problems when it deposited us into the middle of the motels town and said we had arrived when in actuality we were a few miles away from the motel. I need to get a new GPS. This one has given me problems from the get go.  The motel had promised me a ground floor room which of course they could now not supply even though it was obviously not full and never got full.  Pretty good location though.  It was in an industrial park so there were places to take the dogs that were safe and there was even grass.

All 4 dogs stayed in the room, with my 2 in crates and her 1 in a crate and 1 loose.  Only problem with that is Peak got up on my bed a couple of times in the middle of the night and woke me up.  I wasn't sleeping well anyway so I was annoyed with her.  Bad doggie.  Beds were good and no bed bugs.  Thank goodness.

So after a night of fitull sleep, we packed the dog back into the car and went to try and find the trial site. Again the GPS  was stupid but it did finally get us there. Seems like it was a circuitous route but maybe not. The trial site was wet and muddy but it apparently gets way way way worse when it rains hard.  I found out  later that it was the site of an old grist mill and the arenas were where the old holding ponds had been and the drainage was horrible.  Very shady site , parking was tight and the arenas were only minimum regulation size.  The sheep were broke to go around the course, but if your dog was truly working them, they were a bit panicky.  The dogs that were off pressure and slow and barely moving did well. Mine not so well. The cows were great!.  Nice broke cows that had to be moved by the dogs but were not trying to kill dogs or fight much at all. Ducks were calls and they said there was no draw but there was definitely a strong draw to the back and the dogs had to work hard to get them up the arena.

Dare was horrible on sheep and I pulled him both days from the course after the outrun lift and fetch on day one and after the outrun and lift on day 2. pushy not stopping and  just being Dare I guess, but it's just not acceptable and I need to address it.  He placed 2nd both days in ADV ducks.

Dually won STD cattle on Sat and so with one leg on STD cattle I decided to move him up to INT cattle and he won that on Sun. He was a little pushy on Sunday but nice control and had fun.  He placed 2nd both days on INT Sheep.  Again pushy but still pretty good control on my part.  I didn't have him entered on ducks.

If I go again I will enter Dare on cattle and not sheep and Dually maybe will do ducks.

Bettys dogs did phenomenal!  She finished Zests STD sheep title on Sat with 4th place and Peak got her 2nd leg and then on Sunday Peak finished her STD title on sheep with 4 the place. Betty moved Zest up to INT sheep and gave that a try and almost Q'd.  The dogs covered well and Betty handled well and I was quite proud of all of them.

On the ride home, the GPS almost sent us the NYC, but I caught it in time and we redirected ourselves, but seemed to get stuck on a slow road for a number of miles before we got back on a main highway.  We drove into and thru  Hartford and a warning light came on the dash. It was low tire pressure. I pulled off of 84 but we decided to get off the highway before we looked at the tires. It wasn't too far to a gas station with air.  I pumped up the tire, but as I was putting air in, I could hear the air coming out just as fast. So called AAA  and they told me if they had to tow the car they would not tow with the dogs in it and I would have to get alternative transportation. Not happy with that being on 43 miles from home and having the extended tow service.  But the tech came in 15 minutes and was able to get my spare off the car. That was the problem I had anticpated.  He changed it in no time flat but then we couldnt' get the damaged tire back where the spare was because the cable would not wind up.  so we had to move crap and dogs and crate around so we could get the bad tire in the car.  Finally back on the road around 10 and home at 10:40.  Betty loads up her car says goodbye and promptly loses her keys.  Yikes.    I went inside and got a flashlight and we found them pretty quick.  yay.

All in all , we had a fun weekend and would probably do it again.