We had one crazy weekend! It was three days long, full of variety, and not too many high points. There were a few good things, so we thought we would share our weekend with you all. It began with my first Elite Nose Work Trial on Friday. Bailie, Olivia, and Nelson all stayed home alone all day. Thankfully, the house was still standing when we returned later in the day!
Mom was quite excited about it and to see how we would do. Our goal for the day was to have fun and keep all our points. An Elite trial is one hundred points total and you need at least forty three to keep your points. That should be easy, right? The first problem with Friday was that it was ninety degrees out and humid. We would be spending the entire day in our car in a “no shade” parking lot. Mom brought our car cover and fans but hot is hot. On the plus side, our searches were all inside with a/c.
Well, the morning was a huge disaster. I decided to keep anything I was finding a secret. There were eleven hides in a total of two searches and I found three. I was not my usual self at all and Mom was not a happy camper. Fun had forgotten to show up for us. Nevertheless, Mom put on her positive self before each search and said it was a new beginning. In the afternoon it was much better. I found five out of seven hides. In my first search after the lunch break we even got a pronounced from the judge for our exceptional team work.
Sadly, we had to “no” calls when Mom panicked in the morning which cost us one of our eight hides and we lost all our points. So, let’s pretend this trial never happened and we will try again in July.
Olivia was not happy about not getting to do nose work, but she also knows she can’t always be the one doing trials. When we got home, the weather cooled a bit and she enjoyed some evening time in the yard.
Saturday, Mom and Bailie went to visit Gramma and help her out with things. They had a nice day, but Mom was busy running errands and doing things all day and it was a bit tiring. Bailie relaxed and ate a lot of dog cookies. Me, Olivia, and Nelson all stayed home.
Sunday was barn hunt day. To get there on time we had to get up at four am. Unfortunately, there were big thunderstorms for about an hour in the middle of the night. Bailie and I are scared of storms, so we woke Mom up and she could not sleep until the storms ended and we stopped shaking and panting. The weather Sunday was the opposite of Friday, it was cold and rainy. Mom headed out with me and Nelson to the Cambridge Summer Solstice Event.
Mom has attended this event for many years now, usually at least two days, but this year we only attended Sunday, and only me and Nelson. Last year, Mom took all four of us and we competed in FastCAT and Barn Hunt. Unfortunately, we were late signing up for FastCAT and it was full. Nelson bombed his first barn hunt run but he had fun and did much better on the second one, still not a Q, though. I enjoyed my master run just for fun, and I earned forty more points in my Crazy 8’s run. Now I have three of the five hundred points I need for my next title.
We are now done with sports for about ten more days and are busy catching up on things around home. It was not a terrible weekend, but it really was not what we were hoping for. Still, there is plenty to be happy about. We can’t always be winners and we learn as we go for our next time out.