I met Valli while volunteering for the Huachuca Animal Shelter six years ago. I walked the dogs, took photographs. She helped walk the dogs and promote the animals at the shelter. We hit it off as dog lovers, but Valli, being German, can also be very straightforward. While I can be easily pleased, Valli has the expectations of an old-world German: be on time, follow the rules, pay attention to details, and ask no questions. She is usually right and I don't argue with her.
"Did you bring your paperwork?" she asked, referring to the registration form and basic information on Minnie. The forms are accessible via the website.
"No, my laptop crashed last night. (True story.) I can fill it out here in the office, we have time." And I did. Paperwork took just a few minutes.
"Did you bring cash?" was Valli's next question.
"No, they accept credit card." And I was correct again. I paid my $60. Since I wasn't in the introductory class last Sunday, I got a $20 discount since I missed the first of four classes because the owner of Animal Watchers told me over the phone that the class was booked, but that she would place me on a waiting list and call me for updates. She never did. It was Valli who told me late last Sunday to just bring Minnie in early today since there was a cancellation at the last minute. Minnie started in a class with other dogs already familiar with what is expected for a beginning dock diver.
The class that Minnie is registered for is from 10am-11am. Six dogs are allowed per class and each dog gets three mini-sessions in the pool. Each session is about four attempts. I had no idea what to expect and was a bit nervous about Valli's criticisms. Like I said, she can be brutally blunt.
"Did you bring a kennel?" she asked.
"Was I supposed to bring one?" While I did see kennels in the area, the dogs that were waiting for the 10am class were obediently sitting by their owners on leash. I got no information from the business reminding me that I must bring a kennel. The thought of putting Minnie in a kennel is ludicrous. She would need an XL crate and carrying that thing would be quite a chore. In the end, she was well-behaved around other dogs, although she showed an interest in the anxious MinPin next to us, a female named Buttons.
"Did you bring a toy for her to fetch?" Now this was something I should have thought of. Again, my answer was negative. Valli went back to her SUV to retrieve a fetch toy for me, an orange rubber water toy made by Chuck-it. She had a smaller one for her dog Cowboy.
The final blow was not bringing water and a bowl for Minnie, although I keep both in the truck. Would I really need water for the one hour there, with dogs in the pool cooling off? Again Valli got her portable blue water bowl out for me and poured some water for Minnie. Minnie lapped up a few sips. I know I failed as a responsible dog owner in Valli's eyes, although she said nothing.
Only four out of six dogs showed up for today's training. Minnie was #3. A young Newfoundland pup, Bella, was first. Then came Valli's Border Collie Cowboy, then Minnie and Buttons. Cowboy, I learned, is easily stressed around other dogs. After every session, Valli took her dog straight to her SUV to calm Cowboy down. That explains why Valli covered her Ford Escape in a sunshade. I watched the other dogs dive. Bella and Cowboy are pros at dockdiving, running from a long deck and then jumping far and high into the water to fetch the toy the owners threw. In competition, a metering tape along the side would measure how far the dogs leaped. It's impressive to watch.
While Minnie loves fetching and swimming, she first had to learn how to use the rubber ramp, which gently guides the dogs in and out of the pool. She learned fast that the ramp was her access out of the water. But she also liked to swim around first with the toy in her mouth, which the trainers discourage. The dog must learn to take a run, jump, swim to the toy and come right out of the pool.
The trainer was pleased with Minnie's progress, but mentioned that Minnie's excess weight (OK, she's fat) keeps her from jumping high. Minnie did learn to jump off the ramp. But when she graduated from ramp to deck, she stalled. That drop down from deck to water looked high for her and we had to encourage her. Her dives were more like drops into the pool, much like I would while jumping feet first off the high dive.
Minnie was in the water four times. She will have two more Sundays to practice. I am pleased with her performance and I hope getting her into the water is a safe alternative to the walks I do, as she is easily tired and sometimes flat out refuses to walk and prefers to wait on us in the truck.
I enjoy watching working dogs. Cowboy ran and jumped into the pool like a pro, going straight for his toy and the exit ramp. He's advanced enough to start "speed retrieving," which measures the distance of the jump and the time to swim to the end of the pool and back. (Photos of Cowboy by Michelle Heater, taken from Valli's Facebook page). Today, though, he too, needing coaxing from the trainer to jump in and swim to the end of the pool.
By 11:20am all activity for Minnie's class stopped. Bella and Buttons had left. Valli got Cowboy ready for the drive back to Hereford. She and I acknowledged our departures and went our separate ways. I stopped at our local Walmart to get a new Chromebook. The one I got, an Acer Chromebook 15, was over thirty bucks cheaper than on Amazon. I had that thing quickly set up once I was back home in the afternoon.
***
The annual Perseids meteor show came to its prime tonight at 10pm. I had seen a few meteors during yesterday's night walk, which was quickly interrupted when the dogs encountered a skunk. Tonight the show resumed, with a bright red Mars toward the Southern horizon. I purposefully didn't start my walk with the dogs until 10:30pm, and quickly saw three impressive meteors, all with long tails. However, my walk was again interrupted when Sweetie bolted at something and the other dogs, minus Sadie, took after her. Zeke came right back and so did Minnie. The reason? Another skunk. Minnie and Zeke are familiar with skunks now and avoid them. This time Sweetie took the brunt of the spray. She wasn't coming back right away, though.I returned home with three dogs. Sweetie finally came running up from behind, frothing at the mouth. She had taken a direct hit by what seemed like a surfeit of skunks waiting in ambush. I banned her to the backyard while the other dogs went inside. I rubbed what scent I could off with an old towel, but was too tired at this time of night to bathe her. I didn't want to wake Kevin up.
Zeke and I resumed our late-night walk alone for almost two more miles. He heels so well by my side when he's not distracted by Sweetie and is a joy to walk with. The entire neighborhood smelled of skunk. We crossed over Hereford road and walked north on S Golden Valley Drive, a narrow one-way street, for another half-mile. Distant dogs barked ahead. Yards are recessed here, so that any roaming animal would need to make an effort to invade the privacy that comes with front yards and fences. There were many faint meteors in all directions. What a peaceful, albeit smelly, night walk.
I turned around before encountering any more aggressive animals, be it dog or skunk, and returned home. I saw one last bright meteor flash across the western sky, leaving behind a wide tail of cosmic dust above the silhouette of the Huachuca mountains that quickly faded.
That one meteor made the late-night experience with the skunk worthwhile, as normally our late-night August skies are cloud-covered during the monsoon. This year's monsoon is proving to be far below-average, but at least I got to see this year's Perseids. The last good year for that was in 2005.
When I got back from my walk with Zeke, Sweetie was back inside the house. Kevin had let her back in when he got up to smoke on the patio. He said he couldn't smell a thing.
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