It was 8 AM before we left Stuart Florida this morning headed NW. It has been an amazing stay here. The opportunity to work with Susan Garrett and Greg & Laura Derrett has been incredible. We have worked with them on many occasions in the past but I never tire or the challenge and information. Mel does however, get tired of the days on end of agility. He was ready to just sit in front of his computer and veg out weeks ago.
It has been a long time since my last blog so I will try to recap the past two weeks from my fractured old spayed memory.
We were homeless at the last blog I believe. If I weren’t so lazy I would go look it up. We spent the night at a friend of the woman where we were supposed to stay. In the morning, I called around and found an RV park that let us stay for a few days only. They were booked full after that so at least we had a few days to do laundry, take long showers and clean up well. We had to leave there on Thursday so we went looking for another place. We ended up at Phipps Park in Stuart. It is a County park with limited hook ups, no sewer, but was close to where we were filming and doing the seminars. And it was cheap! That is always a good thing in Mel’s book. So, with no sewer hook ups, we were back to Navy showers and rationing waste water. I hate that!
What a time it has been!
Susan had asked me to give a seminar on structure and performance while in Florida and I agreed. I put together a Power Point presentation with over 75 slides that included video, wolves and more. After the slides, we did hands on with our girlz, then I evaluated about 10 dogs that were brought by working participants. I thought it went well and I got lots of great comments. I have been asked to give the seminar in NJ, MI, FL and CA and Susan wants me to give it at her place in Canada as well but I will only give it if I happen to be going through a place.
Mel is filming Susan Garrett’s new 2x2 video as well as her video on motivation and retrieving and some shaping things. We filmed three sessions a day and have more than 25 hours of tape from two cameras rolling all the time. They are loaded with incredible stuff Mel gets to edit and finish for Susan. She used Crush’s little sister Trendi to teach to weave. Trendi is bigger and rangier than Crush and very different in a lot of ways. She is a great dog and worked through scorching temperatures and horrid humidity day after day. Sessions were short and productive and watching the Master teach 2x2s from scratch was a once in a lifetime opportunity for sure! Trendi was weaving 4 straight poles in 4 days and 12 straight up poles in 12 days! Hopefully, the video will be ready late spring or early summer if all goes well. The videos were shot on location at a couple of incredible mansions on water and golf course in Palm Beach Gardens. It was a tough gig but somebody had to do it.
When we weren’t filming for Susan, we were taking her seminars. We did foundation, advances in dog training, masters handling, double box work and more. We also attended her private small group classes every Tuesday and Thursday nights for 2 – 3 hours each night. Some days, we did a seminar all day and then class at night. We were exhausted! Mel said. “remind me to never do 10 F#@*&ing days of classes in a row again.” Last night ruined his knee. He couldn’t finish the class and could barely walk when we got home. It is wrapped this morning but very sore. He has iced, medicated and wrapped it twice since last night. I hope he can run next weekend!
Susan’s classes were extremely challenging and tough. We learned a lot and struggled a lot but it was worth it.
We have been in Florida for more than a month and never once saw the ocean! I am so bummed about that. It BLOWS! I doubt we will return to Florida. It is too hot, too buggy and too humid. I spent a lot of time here in the winter when I was a kid so at least I got to see the ocean then. Mel has never seen it. We should have made the effort.
We met some of the greatest people ever here in Florida. Many are long time students of Susan’s. One is Neta J and she owns Grumpy the standard Poodle. Grumpy is probably the Greatest agility standard Poodle to ever walk the earth. He is the only one to ever beat Josephine when Josephine was young and Lisa ran her. Grumpy has a MACH3 AND an ADCH. He was the first SP to ever get an ADCH. He is 14 now and very old but looks terrific! Neta and I hit it off immediately and we laughed hard through the entire stay. We called ourselves the moron sisters because every time we would make a mistake, the other would yell, “MORON!” and we would die laughing. At one of Susan’s taping sessions, something Susan said hit us funny and we started cracking up and trying our best to stifle our laughter. The tears were streaming down my cheeks and Neta’s shoulders heaved in laughter as she cupped her hand over her mouth to quiet her roars. Susan, being the professional she is, never missed a beat and continued her monologue with a straight face. Actually, I think the straight face part was easy because she wanted to kill us! When she was done speaking, she banned us from the set until we could keep our composure. I haven’t laughed so much and so hard since I was in high school. If laughter is truly good for you, then I am rejuvenated for many years to come. I try to surround myself with funny people because I love nothing more than laughing. Thanks for the great laughs Neta!
So here I am typing as we drive up I-95 towards Alachua Florida. I have a friend there and we were planning to stop for a bit but Mel wants to go on because he is on a roll driving. We are about three hours south of there right now. We’ll see when we get closer.
That’s all for now.
Helen & The Girlz and That Old Bald Guy With a Sucky Knee Driving the Global Warmer
www.jility.com
