Sunday
October 19th
FCATs & Agility
We were up by 5:45AM to get the dogs fed and to head towards the World Equestrian Center. We needed to be there a little after 6:30AM as my husband was going to help a friend run their dog in our endurance trial. The endurance trial is a 12-mile run or bike event which you complete in 3 4-mile loops. Your dog also must show a willingness to work with you before and during the events – needing to do a simple obedience test before the run begins and during the breaks between loops. Your dog must complete the 4-mile loop in 40 minutes. As my husband can run a 7-to-8-minute mile, this should be easy for him to do if the dog is well trained.
As we waited for my friend to arrive – we got our dogs’ kennels set up along the wall nearest the door to the agility field. While our dogs were going to chase some bunnies today – our main event would be agility with Gantu as he was running Novice Standard and Open Jumps with Weaves. I wanted to make sure they had a nice air-conditioned space to hang in while they all had their turns out.
My husband and Sky got acquainted with one another and she showed a willingness to work with him and my friend said she was trained so I saw them off at the start line, a little before 7:30AM.
I had some time before Shaun would be done with his first loop and I wanted to get Gantu done with his FastCAT runs with enough time before he had agility, so I got him out of his crate and headed over there and checked him in. One of my friends was there so I could have her “catch” him. Gantu has this thing that if either my husband or I aren’t there to catch him – he will run back to the start line as he wants to run again. I was going to use this to my advantage to get his runs done with. He did exactly what I thought – completing his run and then trotted back to me saying I had fun – let’s do it again! We did his second run as well. The course wasn’t the greatest and his times were slower than normal – running 20.557 & 21.022 mph. As he’s technically a veteran and well over 300 points away from his next level title – I don’t really care about his time. I just want him to have fun!
As I was heading back to the main building, my husband called asking where I was. I was confused as I thought he should be running the endurance trial. It seems the ridgeback he was running was NOT feeling it and he had to slow down to not have to drag her and they were 0.25 mph too slow to be allowed to continue. We met back up at the crates and got Gantu some water in his crate and decided to get Qi’ra her runs done as my mother & her husband still had not arrived but I was keeping an eye on the agility trial so I know when Gantu was going to have his run.
Qi’ra loves chasing the bunny! She had two decent runs at 24.793 and 24.322 mph. She ended up earning her 3rd level title of “FCAT” and got a pretty ribbon!
As we were finishing up with her two runs, my mother arrived and we had a fun game of telling her to wait while we were almost done with Qira and then we would meet her at the agility area or our crates. Apparently, we weren’t fast enough and she was about to drive to the FCAT field and I’m like – we’re in our truck on the way back.
My mother was glad to see us and we caught up a bit. We were going to take Belo for his FastCAT runs but we realized that Gantu would be running his agility run soon.
I introduced my mother to my friend, Jenna, as we waited for Gantu’s run.
Gantu’s run started out ok. He was a bit slow but that’s normal for him in class where the first few obstacles are slow and then he speeds up. Except this time – he saw dad. If you want to watch the cringe – it is here:
Oh well! At least he didn’t escape the course like some other dog did.
We headed back to our set up to give him a rest and then we headed back to the FCAT field for Belo to have his first official FCAT runs. We decided that I would release and my husband would catch him. His first run was rather slow at 20.353 mph as he was half chasing the bag, half like hi dad! His second run was a little more on the bags and ended up at 21.463 mph. It will be interesting to see how it goes in December when we’re in Bush, LA. My mother enjoyed watching him.
We had a little bit of time before Gantu’s next agility run but not enough time to go get food. Luckily I had bought those powdered donuts at Publix the night before so we all had some of those and water and Gatorade.
For Gantu’s Open Jumps with Weaves run. He said it was hot and he didn’t want to do it. He was pokey and we ended up getting timed out.
At that point, we got the other dogs and headed back to the Airbnb. My mother and her husband were running to Publix to get a couple things and subs for lunch.
In the mean time, I got some photos of the dogs with their ribbons.
They made it back around 2PM where we all were more than happy to enjoy our chicken finger sub that I wanted the night before. It was well earned with all the running around today!
My mother and her husband got settled in their room and I took a shower to get cleaned up before we would head back out for the evening. Eventually we headed back to the World Equestrian Center to move our crates to the free long term crating options and pick up our welcome bags and purchased items before we would head to dinner. Being there early meant we got some of the best locations for the free crating.
