June 25-July 27
Wow a month has flown by…..Mary Ellen’s Camp in Barto, PA was just great….nice people in camp, great place to train with 2 outside rings and a huge building (clear span) on sprint turf…The days go by so fast up early every workday to walk the dogs, then teaching all day. In the evening we would have dinner and then come back to the building and start training our own dogs at 10 PM. In the skills and drills camp we each got to have a day off and be campers for the day, what a nice perk that was. It was fun to sit on the other side and learn some things as well.
We had a day off between camp 2 and 3 but unfortunately all three of us had deadlines for Clean Run Articles and spent most of the day locked away in our RVs typing – serves us right we should have been more organized (BTW we get plenty of notice to submit articles)….it had it’s funny moments as my RV was in the middle and we could yell to each other through the windows “still typing”.
We had a few days off at the end of the 3 camps before driving to MA for the Riverside 4 star show. It was great to walk the dogs, train the dogs, Gifted got to play on Bev’s sheep. We had a field trip to do much needed laundry. It’s so nice to be able train late into the evening….none of us are morning people.
The Riverside show was over the July 10-12 Fable did great. Stuie had some issues with the Aluminum contacts but got better as the weekend progressed. It was fun to visit with Monica and Anna and all the Bonus puppies in the Mabeline Nation:)
Next was on to Bark Camp in New Hampshire. Lo and George have a great place with hundreds of acres of woods with hiking trails throughout.
The camps were great, with a bunch of new campers, as well as the regulars who I love seeing again and seeing the progress with their dogs over the year.
All the dogs loved their walk in the AM and Fable, Trump and Better went a little feral. They are possessed by water and trust me there is plenty of it from the streams, waterholes, ponds etc. The 3 of them would run from one swimming place to another and I would see them as they crossed my path or as they were running through the trees. It’s a little harder to train in the evening with the bugs. Jen and I would vacuum the mosquitoes up in our RVs before going to bed each night….
It was an eventful camp with an unscheduled ambulance trip to the ER after eating a small cookie laden with walnuts. Luckily Jen was a camper for that day and was able to step in and teach for me for the afternoon. I got let out of the ER later that evening once the anaphylaxis stopped and the drugs actually started to last more than 40 minutes.
After Bark it was a long long drive back to Jen’s driveway (that was a very welcome sight in the early hours) in MI for a few days before heading west to IL for Diane Sanders Camp in Crystal Lake IL. Camp is a lot of fun, with new people to work with as well as some people I have worked with in the recent and distant past. We are teaching in an indoor soccer facility on sprint turf. It is the same site as the Regional next weekend.
The dogs are all doing great and loving RV life…..The double digits Spinner, Whist and Trump are all getting good exercise. Spinner is still bossing Gifted around the RV when he starts bouncing from couch to dash to couch again. Whist is just happy to be around Spinner and myself and is enjoying the great weather we are having in Illinois.
Trump and Better are having a good time hunting in the corn fields.
Gifted, Fable and Stuie are getting in some training. Jen and I get up at 5:30 to get to the building by 6:30 to train all the dogs for 90 minutes +/- before we have to teach for the day. It’s been great to train together, another set of eyes, a training plan each day and it’s not so easy to just say I’m tired and I’ll skip today and train tomorrow.
Anyway another 2 great days teaching before a few days off before the Regional.
