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Sitting in the bleachers at the spring NADC CAT show, Carol Hibbard sat down next to me and asked if I would like to go to California for the Haute TRACS USDAA show in April. Carol asked me to run Kells on her team Runs in the Family. Since Kells, Leo and I were going to last big Power Paws camp down in the Valley for our spring entertainment, all Kells and I had to do was show up and go clean to help Runs in the Family get to the Nationals in November. Sounded good in the rain in Oregon. The Haute TRACS USDAA, April 14-17, show was in Dixon, California at the Dixon County Fairgrounds. The 4-day show had both a Grand Prix and a Steeplechase. 426 dogs ran with a total of over 5000 runs over the four days. This was one of the biggest shows I have ever been to, and since I rarely camp or attend shows outside the Portland area it was quite an adventure. It turned out to be one of the best dog parties I have been too since the first Fido Follies in Lacey. I recommend going to the show 100% . What made it such a good show? Let me list the reasons. Number one: It was highly organized and well thought out. This meant the management of dogs, camping, ring crews and volunteers was under the organization of experts that knew how to run a show. I heard later, this was possibly the first large show Haute Tracs had put on. I had trouble believing this. Space management can be a large problem in the shows with people taking excess amounts of space with their exercise pens and crates. By using tape and allotting space on a first-come first-served basis, with key areas reserved for the key personnel, crating space issues were kept to a minimum. This was a relief after some of the space scrimmage scenes I have seen at shows with limited space. Number two; the club was extremely generous, beyond generous to the volunteers working the rings. While many shows use a stick and club approach to enlisting volunteers to do the mundane tasks of bar setting, scribe running, and leash running. The Haute TRACS crew showered lunch tickets, raffle tickets, and thanks upon us. If you worked several rings over the several days you received a fantastic handmade tie-dye T-shirt. Unfortunately they were not enough T-shirts to go around at the time, but I did score a really cool red Haute Tracs red T-shirt. I enjoyed working my three sessions a day, because everyone was so friendly to the people from Oregon. All the team dogs got tie-dye bandannas. I heard from Kathy Legget yesterday, guess my shirt is coming by mail, it may be weeks after, but WOW! Number three; the raffle was the most fantastic volunteer raffle I have ever seen. Normally, I ignore raffle's since I have enough material goods in my life. But with my pockets stuffed full of raffle tickets, it was hard to resist what I should put my tickets on. When I won a large fluffy dog bed that hardly fit in my overloaded van, I stopped accepting raffle tickets. The last and absolutely best reason to go to the show was the judges and the courses. After surviving my last AKC in McMinnville, I am now a fan of USDAA forever. The courses were lovely, open, flowing, challenging but not discouraging. The only nasty course was an undoable Master Gamble the first day. It was one of those courses that work in a quiet practice barn, but not in public. The DAM tournament consists of a standard run, gambler, snooker, jumpers and a three-dog relay. Those course were a lot of fun, I am always amazed how the judges can get three great runs out of one assortment of equipment. Watching the top California and Oregon teams’ battle it out with high drive dogs over tight turns in the team relay got every body jumping and shouting on the sidelines. The team relay was the team last run and the most exciting event. (After jumping around in the ranks our team went clean in the relay, ending up 25th, qualified for the Nationals.) California has a lot of fantastic mini dogs, and I enjoyed watching the high drive shelties. A frame contacts seem to be a universal sheltie problem, The California “STAY” is a full body movement and fun to watch. Kells ran clean again and again, not the fastest, but very consistent and we took sixth in steeplechase.
There are only a few suggestions I would make for the show next year to help it run a bit more smoothly. Taping off a walkway between the ringside pens to the campgrounds would be extremely helpful. On Saturday, someone put a large set up there, and it was very difficult to get back and forth to the camping section. A space aggressive dog in the middle did not help A few Porta potties closer to the main championship rings would have be helpful. It was a long walk to the restrooms, and we were all drinking lots of water to stay hydrated in the sun and wind. The restriction that was the most difficult was the no car movement during the show rule. From 730 in the morning until after the last run, for safety reasons vehicles could not leave or move around the Fairgrounds. I felt we could have safely taken cars out the back of the camping area without danger to the dogs. Since the runs went on so late at night. I had no energy to go to the grocery store for food and camping supplies at the end of the day. If you have an RV of course, this is no problem. Carol was very kind and shared her refrigerator with me. Fortunately, the food vendor besides being an excellent cook very understanding and wrapped up my lunch so I could put it away for dinner. The Haute Tracs experience was worth the drive, and I encourage everyone in Oregon to go down and enjoy the California sunshine next spring in Dixon. I heard the week will be the same, April 14-17 2006 , load up the sun block, and your dogs and lets go party. Written by Justine Merrill, who loves a good party with her dogs.
More pictures of the trip at www.justineleo.net
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The
crew I could get to stand still! In the cool t shirts.
Runs
in the Family did great!