Wisconsin State Fair

Yesterday I got home from work just before 1:00 and was once again greeted to a mess in Jedi's crate. I'll admit, I did not see him poop outside before I left at 7:30. We went outside together, as we always do before I leave. He went potty and then he stood and barked at me because he wanted to play. Well, that's not going to happen at that time of day, so in we went and he went into his crate with his Kong. Last time he messed his crate he buried it neatly in the blanket and it was easy to clean up. This time I just had a towel in there (still haven't washed the other blanket after hosing it off on the deck) and, well, it was everywhere. It was bad enough that I picked Jedi up and carried him to the door to put him outside because I didn't want him tracking it through the house.

The dog door got locked and the dogs stayed outside while I went about cleaning up the mess in the crate. I hadn't spent any time determining how much Jedi had on him, but I figured he was going to get a bath. Because it was over 90 degrees outside I decided to do the easiest thing and just do it outside with the hose. I looped a slip lead over Jedi's neck and hooked him to the tie ring on the deck -- and proceeded to wrestle him through the entire ordeal. I was still wearing my work pants/shoes and pretty much got as wet as he did. For a dog who is so obsessive about water and the hose, Jedi was surely not a fan of his first hose bath (nor did he really enjoy that one bath I gave him in the house, so I don't think it's the cold water). Oh well, we survived, he got clean.

We left just after 4:00 to head over to the Wisconsin State Fair. This is the third year we've gone over to participate in the weave pole challenge and this year the plan was to bring Jedi along to hopefully give him a chance to jump into a new pool off a new dock. My dad always comes along for the ride and is a huge help -- there is no way I could do this trip on my own with more than one dog, and the drive home would be a tough one on my own. It's roughly a three hour trip each way. The competition started at 7:30 and we needed to be there fifteen minutes in advance. Because of the heat, I didn't want to get there any earlier than we had to, so we stopped at a rest stop and killed about 15 minutes shortly before hitting Milwaukee and timed it perfectly.

Jedi did just great with the atmosphere at the state fair. The gate we enter for the dog sports arena is generally not super crowded, so that is always helpful, but there are still a lot of people and stuff going on. The noise level is remarkable as well, with music blasting from seemingly every direction. We got through the gate very quickly. They make a big fuss about security, but they barely looked into my bag (I packed light and said, "It's all dog stuff" as I offered it) and they didn't wand me -- they did my dad, though, which was kind of humorous since he was the one carrying the (metal) crates. I gave them our entry tickets and they never asked to see my dog passes. They only sent two, for the two entered dogs, which is why I said I would have to smuggle Jedi in. It was a non-event since they never even asked.

It was 7:13 when we got to the staging area, so I immediately set up Jedi's crate and stuffed him in it. He wasn't very pleased about going straight from one crate to another and barked his disapproval, but as soon as we went around the corner he stopped. At least there was a giant fan blowing back in that crating area, so he got to stay pretty comfy while I was out doing the competition with the little dogs. That went awesome, by the way -- Kaiser got 1st and Kizzy got 2nd! Definitely made the trip worthwhile ($$, yay!). When I went back to the crating area to grab Jedi he was just hanging out in the crate looking totally chill. I love that I can take him absolutely anywhere.

The organizers were a-okay with Jedi taking a turn on the dock when the weave pole stuff wrapped up. Jedi was pretty much elated when he realized what we were doing. Because this was his first time on a new dock/pool, I did a short toss for his first go -- good thing, too, because he did a stop & prop right at the edge. He wiggled back and forth a few times but then he jumped in. My second throw was still on the conservative side and he way overshot it, so after that I started to throw like I usually do. Jedi had a blast. His jumps weren't super consistent -- he had some that were super and some that he biffed a little and jumped really flat. He drew a crowd, though, and was able to entertain some fair goers for a bit. Jedi did better climbing out of this pool than he does at the Dog Tank -- This ramp was a little easier to navigate, I think.

We were back on the road home just over an hour after we arrived. The dogs were nice and quiet on the drive home. I'd debated bringing dinner along with us, but in the end I decided to wait and everyone ate when we got home at 11:15. Due to the late night I would have expected a quiet day today, but they were kind of bonkers. I worked from home to give me that extra 1:30 of sleep. The dogs had just finished breakfast before my 8:30 meeting and were a bit wound up, so they caused a bit of distraction with some of the noises they were making (glad I have an understanding boss). Jedi went out in the rain and came back covered in mud, but there wasn't anything I could do about it since I was in a meeting. Afterwards I passed out the yak chews I got at the store a couple of weeks ago -- probably should have done that before the meeting! Surprisingly they are lasting! The dogs have had them all day and have barely made a dent. Awesome. I might have to go dig through the clearance bin and see if there are more. We haven't done anything else today because I was so wiped out. Hopefully tomorrow we can do something fun.