I should have just stayed home instead!
The hotel sucked
The show grounds sucked – tons of goat heads and burrs
The building sucked – it was really hot & muggy (they didn’t turn on the a/c)
The ring footing sucked – it was dangerous!
The courses sucked – AKC has so many requirements in their course rules the courses don’t have any flow
The course times sucked! Even with the extremely dangerous footing we didn’t get anymore time!
I hate AKC agility trials!
This was going to be the very last time I had to stay in a hotel going to an agility event, so it was supposed to be like a vacation; alas it was a joke. I booked this hotel over two months ago stating in the special request box: “room on 1st floor by exit will have 1 dog”. I load the car drive the four hours to Casper to arrive at the Sleep Inn. I walk into the lobby to see it torn apart, the check in desk was a Costco portable table, and it smelled like model airplane glue. Needless to say I got an instant headache from the horrible smell.
The clerk walks me to her kids table to check in and she informs me the only rooms left are on the 3rd floor. Third floor? What? I never stay on the third floor, matter of fact I never stay in a room over the first floor. Needless to say I was pissed! I told her it would be the last time I ever stayed at this hotel, but of course she really didn’t care.
So I get the room key and go back out to the car and lug in all of my luggage to the hotel lobby, push the button on the one and only elevator and get to wait 10 minutes for it to finally arrive on the first floor while holding my breathe due to the model airplane glue stench.
Next, I drive to the trial site location bring in a tarp and my extension cord and head to my usual crating spot. All of a sudden I hear a woman’s voice yelling from clear across the building telling me not to put my tarp down because they will have to re-arrange the crating area! I look around and there isn’t a sole in the building setting up their crating BUT ME! So I walk over to Lorie and ask what is up with the crating and she said oh ignore her it doesn’t matter where you crate, just don’t do it in front of the door. Of course my usual crating spot wasn’t graded when the tractor went by so I had to walk across the building to the agility trailer and get a shovel to try and level out my crating spot so Dolcenea’s crate won’t rock back and forth.
The yelling woman came over and started pushing other people around arriving to setup their crating so we all grouped together and pretty much straightened her out that she really didn’t need to kick into control mode, we were all adults and all of us know how to crate in the building since we’ve been coming to this trial for years. So now a few of us are on guard that this trial is going to be difficult.
Casper was 90 degrees all three days I was there, and the club DID NOT turn on the air conditioning in the building. It was terrible. It felt like being in a steam room with your clothes on. Then we went out to walk the course and oh my god, I couldn’t believe it. THERE WERE HUGE BOLDERS mixed into the dirt that was supposed to be the agility ring.
Needless to say the trial was a disaster; Dolcenea only Q’d in jumpers on Saturday and I didn’t run in FAST all weekend because of the horrible footing. I slipped in the ring during the Standard run on Friday, then I actually lost my footing at the #5 jump in the Jumpers course on Saturday where we had to do the wrap around the winged jump and I hyper extended my left knee and fell having to put my hand down on the group to keep me from completely landing on my face. The footing was dangerous!
After I got cheated out of my Q in Standard on Sunday I decided this was not the trial for me! I was not having any fun, Dolcenea was not having any fun, so I took Dolcenea back out to the car packed everything up and headed home. I got home just about the time I would have been running my 2nd run of the day; being home was WAY MORE FUN!
I HATE AKC agility trials!!!
