Day 47 - Jedi's first horse show

I think someone put something in the water. Jedi's been kind of nuts the last couple of days. I'm half tempted to go get Wes & Lexie from daycare for the next couple of days to help wear him out. lol Everything is pretty well puppy-proofed around here so he can't get in much trouble. It's entertaining for the most part, but just a bit exhausting when he's still going strong at 10:00 p.m.

This morning we practiced stuff that I wanted to get video of in later sessions today. We did a quick refresher on putting stuff in the bowl and then did some side legs. We also got in some leg pivots. I rushed through everything this morning and didn't have much time for play because I had to be in the office for an 8:00 meeting this morning. Yes, I actually made it out of the house shortly after 7:00 this morning. I made it in time for my meeting and everything. Jedi didn't seem to mind the rush, he was just happy to get his Kong when I left. I swear my dogs escort me out the door in the morning because they want their Kongs.

I took the camera downstairs with us for Jedi's lunch training session. We got some good footage of his bowl trick. I had him pick up the spoon, two different lids, and the small plastic container. I suppose next we'll have to aim for a smaller target. After the bowl I moved to side legs, and then we finished with his introduction to holding an object. I used a jump pole that was down in the basement. Jedi caught on to this right away -- at least the interaction with the pole part.

We went outside and chased balls for a bit after that to run some energy off everyone (and by everyone I guess I mean Jedi because he was the one who did the most running). His clockwise send around the cone broke by the end and he only wanted to go the other way, so I guess I know what we need to focus on next time. After play time was done I did what is becoming the daily ritual of dumping and refilling the pools. They get so much bird poop in them every day and it's gross. I want to know what kind of bird is doing this, too, because it's big and nasty. At any rate, Jedi certainly doesn't mind that we do this every day. He thinks it's great. Then again, he also plays in the bird poop water, so....

I've had our outing of the day planned for several days now. I was on the website for the Western Wisconsin Horse Show Association a while back and saw that there was a horse show (games) in Black River Falls tonight. I'm always looking for things to do on a weeknight, and since I don't have anything else going on Thursday nights I knew I'd have time to make the drive (it's a bit over a half hour away). Horses used to be a big part of my life and while I have no plans to go back, I still would like for Jedi to be comfortable and well-behaved around them. I figured if I could get him introduced before the 16-week window, all the better. So, off we went!

Hindsight being what it is, I absolutely should not have chosen a gaming show for Jedi's first exposure to horses. A nice sedate western pleasure show would have been a much better option. That said, the PEOPLE at the show could not have been better. Gaming people are so laid back it's insane. If I would have been at a dressage show doing what I was doing people would have had a conniption and thrown me out. These people didn't bat an eye and the horses are just expected to be fine with everything. Kudos to them.

I parked in a little lot out past the horse trailers. I decided to introduce Jedi slowly by letting him check out the horses tied to the trailers. It took him a bit to notice them, but once he did he was definitely unsure of things. He barked, so we moved further away until I could get him to play with me, then we tried again. He got better quickly and we were soon able to walk up and down the sidewalk in front of the parked trailers without any problems. It didn't hurt that Jedi was super distracted by his new favorite thing -- Horse poop. I'm so used to the dogs eating it that I didn't even bother trying to stop him. This was just the smooshed stuff out of the bottom of the hoof anyhow. Tasty treat!

Once Jedi was okay with horses that were standing there doing nothing, we started to make our way over to the show arena. This is when we met our new little friend, a little girl who was kind of obsessed with Jedi from the get-go. She was wonderful, though, and she led me around and showed me where the observation area was (this was helpful, because I was going to plow right through the horses to a totally wrong entrance).

Jedi got to meet LOTS of kids tonight, as everyone wanted to come over and play with him. Once we were in the arena the kids learned that my backpack contained all of Jedi's toys. And here is where I am solidly impressed with gaming horses -- Those kids were running back and forth, waving Jedi's fuzzy tail and octopus in the air, bouncing balls, and just making all sorts of noise. Bless them, because Jedi thought this was awesome and was having the time of his life. He was so engrossed in playing with the kids that he didn't even see the horses running in the ring directly in front of us.

On our way in Jedi got to meet a German Shepherd puppy that was the same age as him! That was a nice surprise. They got a little bit of play time later on before the other puppy left, too.

We were inside the arena for a good long time with Jedi completely focused on playing. Then, like a switch, he realized there were running horses in the arena. His mind was gone. My little helper helped me stuff all of Jedi's toys back in the bag and we high-tailed it out the door so as to not be a disruption (again, these people were so totally cool about everything, and I thank them for that).

We spent a good deal of time standing in the doorway and then removing access to watch when Jedi got too high. He seemed to catch on to this and was able to watch for a bit. He did okay with the slower horses, but as soon as one of the fast ones came in he couldn't contain himself and we had to go around the corner again. After a point he was just getting over-stimulated and it was time to go (when he kept barking and pulling even after we'd gone around the corner). We were there just over an hour, though, so that was a lot to take in tonight. Again, a more sedate show probably would have been the better choice -- or even if the show was outside and we could watch from a distance and move closer as appropriate. There is another show tomorrow that I think is outside, I may consider giving that a try.

Jedi crashed hard on the drive home, but popped up when we got home. It was 8:00 so we had to hurry up and get our dinner training session recorded before it got too dark outside. We did side legs on the agility table -- I had to prop it up on the side to get a decent angle. Jedi offered spiderman a couple of times, but I think he's probably too young to spend much time on that trick already. We finished with more pole holding. I had wanted to get more stuff on video for this lesson, but it will have to wait. Considering Silvia is in a different time zone (continent....) I hope I'm not already too late to get it submitted before break! And with that, I am too late (just checked and the forum is locked). Bugger. Oh well, I guess I'll just share it here and likely do a new video when class starts back up in two weeks.