Friday Recap of the World Team Tryouts

Friday is practice day, you can indicate what 'approximate' time you'd like to practice, and they try to fit you in appropriately.  You're practice is a total 7 minute segment, shared by 3 dogs.  That's right, you are in the ring with 2 other dog/handler teams, and no, there are not any ring gates dividing the area.  Honestly, it's not a problem, these dogs are focused on their 'work', not the other dogs. 

At your scheduled practice time, ours was 4:01, you have 15 seconds to enter the ring and get to your 'course'.  Seeker stated at Course #2, or the one in the middle.  You then rotated after 2 minutes, you had 15 seconds to get to your new course, and a whistle signaled when to start and stop working.  We rotated from course 2, to 3, then to 1. 

You might think 2 minutes isn't much time, but it really is.  It is a good idea to have a 'game plan' before you enter the ring.  In other words, have a specific goal as to what you want to work on.  For most people it seemed to be contacts, weaves and getting a good look at the viaduct jump.  

You could stop training before your 2 minutes were up, honestly, I should have 'saved' some dog for my 3rd course.  You would not think that you could wear a dog out that quickly, but with the energy level and arousal level of the dogs, most were 'spent' by the time there 6 minutes were complete.  Okay, I'll be honest, Seeker's head almost exploded!  He was in HEAVEN!

Think of it this way, the time spent in the practice ring on Friday, is more time than any dog spent in the ring for the next two days completing. 

After your 'work out' time was over, then it was time to just hang out and visit with friends.  Drawing for running order, and the briefing was scheduled at 6 PM that evening.  I drew 28 as my running order for Saturday.  Not a terrible draw, you get to see a lot of dogs run before you, which is nice.  When it reverses order, you still get to see 12 dogs plus the five FEO (For Exhibition Only) dogs, so that wasn't too bad either. 

Tomorrow....Saturday's Courses......