Pretty much, we celebrated Fourth of July in our traditional fashion. If by celebrating, you mean to avoid catatonic dog shock by the 48 hours of street warfare that ensues, we lock ourselves in the house with the dogs, stereo blasting louder than I ever thought humanly possible, and shove the 2 sensitive eared dogs under blankets. Otterpop doesn’t really care. She’s all, “Bring on those illegal imported via internet black market fireworks for days. Because now Sarah Palin is ready to join forces with Otterpop.” Um, okay…until even she’s had enough and I cover her crate in blankets, turn out the lights, and hope it ends by morning.

And if it couldn’t get any more festive, how about throwing in a dog show into all of that? And a wedding? A horse treasure hunt at work? Right? You try to beat that much festive.

And can I just tell you, this was the wedding cake. It barely fit in the trunk of a car.

She was super happy about that.

So you’re dying to hear about the dog show. Because, I know, my non dog agility friends. You’re always all, “YAY! More Info about Dog Agility, Fascinating Fringe Sport for the Middle Aged!”

Maybe about how Otterpop got yet another plain Snookers Q to add to her collection of non SuperQ’s. Or how I totally, how should I say this in dog agility terms, spazzed out and prevented yet another masters gamblers Q? Yes. Spazzed out in her gamble and once again, still 3 gambler’s Q’s away from her ADCh. We carefully plan and practice those gambles, this was one we do all the time, the Far Away Serpentine of Death. And I send her over the line, and start sqwacking like a chicken and waving my arms around over my head and I believe possibly jumping up and down and Otterpop just turns around, looks at me with wild eyes, and runs back to me quickly to see if there are explosives in my butt that have just misfired and she is missing one helluva party and I am not sharing illegal fireworks with her and perhaps even withholding Sarah Palin.

I mean, really. Spazzed out.

She was actually running just fine. A classic 5 faulter in standard when she did her first judge identification stare over the second jump and knocked a bar. Watched the judge carefully over the dogwalk and then, just like a trained, normal dog, ran the rest of the course without a hitch. Thanks Otterpop! I believe she thought I would buy her fireworks afterwards but there is no way I’m supporting her whole Sarah Palin fixation with explosives. If there was ever a dog you don’t want anywhere near things that you light with matches and blow things up with, that would be Otterpop. She had to just settle for a treat and a game of frisbee on the soccer field.

I hemmed and hawed about running Ruby. She has been running so beautifully over the tiny jumps, and I’m pretty sure that those humongous 12 inchers of the Performance division are really sucking the life out of her. I entered her in one snookers as an evil science experiment. So what’re you gonna do? Call PETA? If they come with explosives, Otterpop’ll totally kick their asses. Figured out a course with as few jumps as possible. A total Ruby course, lots of fast running over a bunch of 7 point a-frames. And just felt like every jump she did was such a stretch, flingy heaving herself over until she just finally crashed through the number 6 combo of the closing. Big time. Poor Ruby. I think it’s confirmed that she’s retired from USDAA. She was happy to run and had a fast time but I just can’t look at her jumping like that anymore. It’s as painful for me as I suspect it’s become for her. She can still practice with tiny jumps. Eat treats. Play frisbee. Do some CPE. She’s ok with that.

Gustavo made a single appearance in Advanced Gamblers. No stressy freakouts, no spookies, hit contacts, had actual genuine handling, one weird a-frame refusal and needless to say, I kept him away from the teeter totter. It’s interesting to have a dog that shoots off like a pistol in gambles. When I send him out over that line, he goes out and then some. And then some more. He had to go out over 2 jumps and into a tunnel beyond the second jump. He shot out WAY past the tunnel, ran back around the long way and through the opposite end. Funny and creative points! I wish I could say it’s my stellar distance training but it’s more like he thinks he’s like a tiny cannonball and you say OUT and OUT you are gonna get. He collects many, many opening points. Good god.

Hobbes had a great standard but I had to bark at him to get him to lay down on the table. That standing out there, barking, costs us time. Not to mention, is super embarrassing. I am wearing a skort with pale chubby legs and I am standing out there, with a judge staring at me, barking at dog to make him lay down. But he’s so cute. And eventually he did.

We only went to a little bit of dog show. So we could still go to work and to the wedding. Which was a-ok with me. Hey! That’s my husband with a foxy wedding guest.

Because some things, maybe a little bit more important than dog shows. Imagine that.