Mud and malinois

We're home! Malinois nationals were great! Wet. Muddy. Rainy. Stormy. Cool. Cold. Colder. Windy. Did I mention it rained? But GREAT!

Wow, where to start. I think the absolute best part was meeting so many of the wonderful Carousel family and their dogs. This was MY kind of family reunion, one I would go to every year if I could! It was so much fun to meet everyone and put faces to all those e-mails.

It was so awesome to see Catherine (Phoenix's breeder) and C.J. (owns his brother, Seeker) again, plus getting to meet Angela, Jeanine and oh dear, there were so many faces and names and so little time.

It rained. Yeah. A lot. I'm not sure it ever actually quit raining. Sometimes it just didn't rain as hard as other times. They had severe weather with heavy rain, high winds and golf ball sized hail the morning of the day we arrived. Fortunately, we missed that part.

It rained off and on for agility Thursday. When we got to the field on Friday morning, it was raining. And the sprinklers were on. Because obviously the grass needed to be watered.

Thank doG for Goretex. Phoenix pretty much looked like this after Friday's runs, too. The goal on Friday was not necessarily to Q, it was just to get around the course without wiping out. The field was basically a super-sized Slip 'N Slide. You know it's in bad shape when the leash runner falls down! And he was WALKING!

Nix and I managed a Q in Standard and were 1 bar away from our first DQ but the takeoffs were so mucky he couldn't get a good launch and down came the bar. Lots of people pulled their dogs and wouldn't run. I decided to run Nix but not push for speed. He did a super job and ran with more speed than I would have asked for. But he also had good sense and didn't do anything reckless. Unlike Thursday's runs. Ahem. Enough said.

C.J. and I are deep in thought about the course. This must have been Thursday's course. There were a couple WTF places on Thursday's runs. It's a good thing I wore my dirt-colored rain coat to run my dirt-colored dog. We were all pretty much dirt-colored by the end of the day.

(Photo courtesy of Angela Silvestri)

This is Seeker, Phoenix's litter brother. Isn't he gorgeous? He finished his MX on Friday, in spite of the weather. Those Wild litter dogs are mudders!

(Photo courtesy of Angela Silvestri)

Here's Phoenix. He Q'd on this course, too. It was a little scary how much alike Seeker and Phoenix are. They have the same jumping style. Seeker runs a little more upright, while Phoenix runs with a lower profile. It was great to trade stories about the two boys. They are definitely cut from the same cloth. It was getting a little scary, though, when C.J. and I started ordering the same meals at the restaurants and bought the same sweatshirt at the vendors.

(Photo courtesy of Angela Silvestri)

On to obedience. Or not. It poured all day Saturday. The rings were a soggy, swampy mess. I decided to pull Phoenix from Open. I felt showing him in those conditions would be counter productive. I was pretty disappointed — I was SO looking forward to getting back in the Open ring — but know it was the right decision. Honestly, let's NOT take a dog who is working through stay issues and make him lie down in standing mud and water for 5 minutes in the pouring rain.

Many of the dogs did lovely "elbows up" drops in Utility and Open, if they bothered to drop at all. Sits were also frequently optional. Nobody passed the Utility classes, only 2 qualifiers in Open B and HIT went to the Novice B winner w/192.

We did show in Versatility though and other than getting lost on his go outs (Go? Where? Over the jump? Okay. Back over the jump? Okay. Over the jump again? Okay! I can do this!!!) he did well in spite of the conditions. This is the second Belgian national I have shown in at Purina Farms and asked my dog to do an underwater retrieve! Here's Nix sitting in the rain, having his picture taken, wondering why he can't go back in his nice warm dry crate. Notice the sagging bulges in the tent roof in the background from all the rain.

Here's Nix watching C.J. and Seeker go into the Open B ring. C.J. was braver than me and decided to show anyhow. She and Seeker did just fine. He has his CDX and is a very solid worker. He's checking out the squishy conditions on the way to set up for the first exercise. Honestly, you can train all you like but how do you proof for this? Judge Virginia Kinion is sporting a lovely periwinkle rain jacket and contrasting black rain pants with rubber boots and has chosen to accessorize her ensemble with a plastic covered clipboard in dark blue.

The Wild boys. Seeker and Nix got to play a little the first night. I don't know if they recognized each other as brothers but they were both pretty fascinated with each other. Oh, to have had a big fenced in area where they could run. And we could get out of their way. Like a football stadium.

(Photo courtesy of Angela Silvestri)

The vendors weren't extensive but they had some cool things. This garden art was my big purchase. And a couple sweatshirts, of course. And the Pup Art lady was there and OF COURSE she had a great agility collage of Phoenix so I had to buy that, too.

I hated having to say good-bye to everyone yesterday afternoon. We got home about 10:30 last night. I unloaded the van and went to bed. The dogs went a bit insane, leaping on the Farmer, who was (key word: was) sound asleep. I'm sure he was happy to see us, too. Spent this morning putting stuff away and starting on a mountain of muddy laundry. I was only gone 4 days, how did I get so many clothes dirty!

Can't wait for Valparaiso in 2011! Rumor has it there will be an obedience team of Carousel dogs. Rumor also has it, the show site is INDOORS!