Today the doggies and I went up to East Freehold Park, in Freehold, NJ. The weather was predicted to be sunny and hot--92 degrees. The sunny part was right, but it got significantly hotter than expected! When I left the park around 4:00pm, it was 98 to 100 degrees! Yowza! I found a place in the shade with some breeze to crate the dogs all day. Before and after each run I soaked Darcy with a hose, then put a soaked reflective vest kind of a thing on him while we got ready for our run.
Neither of our runs were super fast--not too surprising! But they were both clean. So no complaints. Especially since Darcy has always been pretty heat-sensitive.
A lot of people and dogs were pretty fried in the heat. The two courses were not THAT challenging, but a lot of people were getting lost, bars were coming down for no particular reason, etc. In the Standard course, the weaves were the second to last obstacle, with the finish jump directly in front of the weave exit. But many dogs popped out of the weaves early--I think both the handlers and dogs knew the run was just about done and lost focus.
For us, today was our only trial day this weekend. We were originally supposed to do all three days, but tomorrow I am flying out to Oregon for my mother's memorial service. Given that the rest of the weekend is supposed to stay very hot, I don't mind missing it. I will miss my doggies, though.
So, good luck to anyone spending the next two days up in Freehold. Stay cool and stay focused.
Rob
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