weavin' and retrievin'

We've had a busy couple of weeks.

Jan and all the dogs accompanied me last weekend to Gearhart, Oregon (on the coast) for a weekend water workshop. Since I was the presenter for the workshop and am a big believer in being prepared, organized and having extensive handouts, I was hustling around almost until we pulled out of the driveway getting ready. The weather was fabulous and the attendees for the workshop were super. The weekend was lots of fun and Jan entertained the dogs each day by taking them away for a swimming and retrieving session. A number of us shared a rental house and we had lots of extra visitors drop by for dinner each evening and it was truly amazing to see how well all the dogs (11 of them, I think) got along sharing the house and yard.

I took Monday off from agility class since it was really hot and I was still tired from the weekend. On Tuesday, Ecko and I made a trip to the river and had an excellent training session despite bunches of loose dogs tearing up and down the shore and periodically trying to steal some of our equipment. On Wednesday, Ecko and I attended her weekly Foundation agility class. Today, all the dogs got to do a little retrieving and training in the front yard. After practicing the weave poles and a few dummy retrieves with Ecko, I decided to practice the Apprentice level dummy carry. The dog is supposed to take the dummy from your hand and walk 20 feet at your side before delivering to hand. After a few "boring" repetitions back and forth across the yard, Ecko took the dummy on my cue, accelerated smoothly through the weave poles and met me at the other side of the yard to proudly hand me the dummy. What a funny little multi-tasker!