Pet Expo 2015

Whew.

Pet Expo was actually last weekend but I'm just getting around to writing about it now. My dog club the Calgary Longshots has demonstrated dog sports at the Pet Expo for several years now and it's always a tonne of fun.

This year the demo ring was outside, always a risk in April in Alberta; we could have been buried under a heap of snow. This year it was dry but quite cold and windy on Saturday, to the point where we hardly had any audience to watch the demos. As you can see all the humans are all bundled up, and we were the ones running around. I can understand why people didn't hang around to watch much.

Photo credit to Jeanie Thomas.

Here I am trying to keep up with Soccer on our first run. He had energy to burn at this point but did get tired as he did more and more running.

Photo credit to Jeanie Thomas.

The sand-and-wood-chip footing in the arena was a pain (literally) too, it was freshly harrowed sometime during the week before so it was soft and deep; and well, I nearly twisted my ankle 2-3 times during the first demo. As the weekend wore on and more people and dogs ran over the surface it got packed down and easier to run on. Fortunately, no dogs got splinters in their paws either.

By Sunday the weather improved a lot. Here are me and Ahab strutting our stuff. As you can see it was still cool enough for sleeves but without the wind from the day before and with the sun shining it was much better.

Photo credit to Jeanie Thomas.

Because we did so many demos, 4 in two days, we had some real problems with fatigued dogs by Sunday afternoon. Soccer flat out refused to do any Flyball, even with help he just wandered off to sniff the ground so he got pulled. And we found out Sunday morning that one of our dogs had been running the day before with a puncture wound that she didn't let on about. Dogs can be far too stoic sometimes. She was pulled the moment her owners found out she was injured.

All in all though, a good time was had by all. I hope they invite us back again next year.

Knitting:

Still working on the grey tank top but it hasn't changed much since the last picture was taken.

Looming:

Changed things around a bit on the loom. I didn't like the long board so I made it into a square instead. This way I have less risk of knocking the lamp next to me onto the floor. Hopefully.