Tags
Big Air, Chesapeake DockDogs, Dock Diving, Dock Dogs, dog mom problems, Dog Training, English Springer spaniel, ESRA, ESS, Puppy, Rescue, Speed Retrieve, Springer Spaniel, swimming dogs
The first event of the 2019 season was this past weekend. It was fun, emotional, busy, tiring, and so many other things….
First on the topics to discuss, it was my first event without Charlie, I should say everyone’s first event without Charlie. A lot of people gave a lot of love and support throughout the weekend. I was not the only person missing him, that’s for sure. I knew I’d cry at some point, it was just a matter of when and what would get me there.
It was Maisel’s first time on the dock. I knew she loves to swim, so water’s not the problem (it was cold), but the newness of a 2 foot drop and a huge crowd….. that was the hurdle (or so I think).
I took Maisel up for her first practice first thing on Friday afternoon. The event wasn’t open yet, it was vendors and competitors. She wasn’t so sure about the drop. I took her to the ramp. She hesitated but finally walked in. She realized it was a pool and was pretty happy. I threw her Wubba again and she gave a good pop off the ramp…. HOPE!
I decided with the help of the crew member and a friend that it was going to be her weekend! I signed us up for three waves….
The next time in practice…. almost no water entry…. oh no….
We hit the dock again and it became time to build confidence. Maisel was not so sure about the crowds and dock and drop… she wouldn’t focus on the toy. So I just started playing with her on the dock. The first wave she was entered in, she was worried and tail down.
Second wave, tail started to wag and wiggle.
Sunday morning my friend and I took four toys up on the dock and spent a minute just playing and throwing the toys… Maisel had her eye on the new thing of Kong squeaky balls…. so what did I do… set it up to take that as her toy for the next wave
Third wave… I got a play bow and lots of wiggles! Huge improvement, I was thrilled! Dry dog award happily accepted!
I also got to jump Dirk, My dad’s Springer Spaniel. Dirk is 11 years old and starting to go deaf, which was news to me. (Lets just say I practiced hand signals and visual release ques).
He and I squeaked into finals with a 12’7″. And Finals we took home fourth place!
I also joined the rent-a-dog program and got to jump two labs, Luna in Big Air and Dillon in Extreme Vertical.
Luna and I had a great first jump… the second jump was comical. But the first jump manged to get us into Senior Finals. Senior finals were just as comical. I was thrilled to be on the dock, and had to laugh when we timed out both times… Overthinking for the win!
Dillon was not only a full body work out but the best adrenaline rush I’ve had in awhile. Starting at 6’2″ I wasn’t sure what to do with all that extra time. Charlie and I always started in the 4 foot range. Dillon and I got two solid grabs and missed at 6’6″ but I had a blast and was just happy to be able to compete in EV.
Speed retrieve I decided not to watch. I wasn’t competing and knew it was likely going to bum me out. I decided that brushing out Maisel, Dirk and Eddie was a much better activity than crying at dockdogs.
During finals, I had my cry. I was finally triggered past my control point (at the event, I did have a good cry on Saturday night on the drive home from a brewery). I was petting Satchmo, who happens to have a few things in common with Charlie, including swimming the pond at Maggie Malick’s Wine Cave events…. As we chatted and he had his pre-finals snack, I mentioned that I’d love if he swam the length of the pond in Charlie’s honor. His mom laughed and said he’d be happy too. I got a few great Satch kisses.
A few minutes later, Satchmo, plopped onto the ground and showed me his belly. I got the honor of Satch belly rubs. As I walked back to my area in dog town I crumbled. I couldn’t function for a min the tears flowing. It finally truly hit me like a tanker truck.
While it wasn’t super hard to stay positive and happy this weekend, I know I have a rough year ahead as we head to events that Charlie loved, the events he got new personal bests, and started EV and Speed retrieve and his first iron dog. The pond will probably be the hardest for me, but Maisel should be jumping then, Eddie’s still the best cheerleader (even though CDD didn’t think so!), and who knows maybe I’ll have another big athletic male Springer in my life…. Who knows what Charlie has in store for me!