Hi there!
There was a Barn Hunt trial in Soldotna this past weekend, so TheMother and I packed the truck with camping gear and headed down for a weekend of rats and exploration with Fly.
Fly was in her heat cycle, so she had to compete last in every group in which she was competing. This was a total bummer, because it meant she and I had to wait for forever and Fly, the princess and used to being catered to, was not patient. She barked the entire weekend, from the back of the truck, waiting, waiting, waiting. KBDs do tend to bark when they are bored. However, it is at least neat that Barn Hunt allows females in season to compete at all, since so many other AKC events do not allow participation, so we can’t complain too much about having to go last all weekend.
In the evening, we had time to explore around a bit of Soldotna and we took a stroll along the Kenai river. There were some ice and packed snow bergs in the river, as an example of the late spring we are having.
A carved wooden statue of a fisherman out front of the visitor’s center caught Fly’s eye and she didn’t trust that fellow one little bit. She growled and barked at him for quite awhile, until I called her off of him; even then, she wouldn’t turn her back for a second. Some evil vibes coming off of him, I guess, and he did look rather fishy (see what I did there?).
After two days of Barn Hunt competition, Fly successfully earned her Open title (RATO) and earned points in another title area called Crazy 8s. She is the first KBD in the nation to earn an Open title! It wasn’t all awesome though, because Fly has suddenly decided that she doesn’t want to go through the hay bale tunnels (a requirement). Tunneling was the final element Fly would have to do during each trial and the spectators held their collective breath each time: waiting to see if she would tunnel or fail the trial. It was so quiet each time Fly and I entered the ring that you could have heard a needle drop into the proverbial hay and each time she successfully tunneled before time ran out, the applause was loud and profuse. We will have to work more on tunneling, so it isn’t such a nail biter at the next Hunt. The two judges were very nice and loved Fly: exclaiming how beautiful she was. Fly is the first KBD that they had ever seen or judged in Barn Hunt, so it was terrific to educate more people about this awesome dog breed.
Mornings in Soldotna were colder than I had expected, we woke to frost, but the sunrise was gorgeous and worth a frosty stroll through the woods. I loved how the gossamer light filtered through the trees and made the mornings that much more special.
On our way home, we stopped in Portage to look at the glaciers, but they were too snow covered to fully view and enjoy their lovely blue color. We did get to see two swans, who honked at Fly and didn’t appear to be concerned with our presence at all. They leisurely swam in front of us and flaunted their graceful beauty with shameless ease.
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