Open Practice at Outdoorama

MaraLee,

Will there be open practice at this event? My friends want to test drive their labs?

Beth

Hi Beth,

At first, I was going to say that there isn't because I think that we are sharing the pool, but now I can't remember for certain.

I am going to move this question over to Milt's section. He will know the answer.

Sorry that I can't be of more help.
MaraLee

I hope I am not jumping in, in error. I had emailed Milt with a specific question and his response was that Outdoorama will be his pool. That being said, there "could" be open practice, but I do not know for sure. He did say 'his' pool to me.

Ann

im really hoping ther is some time id like to introduce mavrick to the pool atleast from the exit ramp i dont expect him to be jumping any time soon

I don't know you might be suprised, I know Sky jumped 17 feet her first time off the dock so he/she might suprise you.

Being his pool doesn't mean that we aren't sharing it. I still don't know. Sorry.

MaraLee

It sounds like we aren't going to have a lot of time to practice. In Milt's post about how and where to enter the event he said we will be restricted on both time and space. To make things move smoothly I think if you have a dog that you don't know whether it will jump or not to please wait until all competitors have had a chance to get at least 1-2 practice jumps in. This might not be the event to introduce a new dog to anyway since the water will be so cold. You don't want to traumatize them their first time in. Just my 2 cents...

rocketdog wrote:To make things move smoothly I think if you have a dog that you don't know whether it will jump or not to please wait until all competitors have had a chance to get at least 1-2 practice jumps in. .... Just my 2 cents...

First, there is normally only One Practice Jump per dog in the circumstance of sharing the pool.

Second, all handlers should line up with their dogs with no consideration whatsoever to letting others go before you!

In fact, it is quite the opposite...the Only time that we ask anyone to let another person/dog take cuts is to let a Dry Dog, who has not had a chance to jump, go before someone's Wet Dog, who has already jumped.

What we do ask is that if your dog will not jump by the second attempt, to please get the dog off of the dock immediately, in order to save time for everyone to jump.

As for Jason's suggestion about the cold water, that might not be a bad idea for some breeds and some dogs. It depends entirely on the dog. Lucy breaks through ice to get a drink of water. Waffles breaks through that thin layer of Fall ice to get ducks. I don't think that cold water has much of an effect on them one way or the other. (Bill might disagree with me?)

We do, however, towel dry them every time they come out of the pool. I think that this helps to prevent Cold Tail, because they won't be shaking themselves to dry off as often. But I'm not a Vet, I'm just the Momma. (As in "Get the Momma!" which is Bill's command for the dogs to kiss me.)

I am going to cut and paste Milt's answer to the original question here.

Have a safe flight, everyone!
MaraLee