Westminster 2019

Braddock missed competing at Westminster in  2018 due to his injury.  It was probably best given that we had just gotten Gracie and the trip to NY with a small puppy would have proven difficult.  Even so, a year later, we decided to leave Cadia with Russell's parents because 4 dogs in NY is tough and Cadia hates NY the most.


We left on Thursday night after Russ picked me up from working in MD and we stayed at a La Quinta in Newark DE to be near White Clay Creek State Park.  We went to the Whitley Farms trailhead and walked the Brian Fields Trail.  Next time we should just park at that trailhead as there is a restroom in the parking lot.  Also, the trails at Whitley Farms trailhead were pretty muddy from all the rain.


We arrived in New York about noon.  It was too early to check in but we went ahead and unloaded our items onto a cart at Ink 48 and then headed to Central Park.  The dogs didn't seemed phased by the big city.  They pulled like crazy after squirrels in the park.  Gracie strutted around just like Braddock and Frye was in high-alert - ears up. 


One thing to notice, unlike last year, the weather was much warmer so the dogs didn't need their coats - about 50 degrees on Friday.  Colder weather came in for Saturday, but not as bad as previous years.

We met an interesting guy with a whippet.  He wanted to see Frye and ended up talking to us for about 30 minutes.  Said that the nation's problems would be solved if everyone had a dog because it doesn't matter if you are black, white, gay, or straight - everyone has to take the dog out in the rain. 

We ended up eating the crappy pizza again and decided that next year we need to do something different if we come back. 


Saturday morning we were up early to check in (left about 5:30 am).  We left Braddock at the hotel to sleep in.  Russ went back to let everyone out and bring Braddock back for his first run.  This year he ran STD first, and he placed 3rd, same as he did in 2017.  He ran beautifully - like he hadn't aged in 2 years.

But in JWW, he missed the weave entry and then, being deflated,  I sent him into the wrong end of the tunnel.  I was ready to pack up and leave - get out of NY early and get home to Cadia.  Ashley convinced us to stay telling us that many people had gone out in JWW and that we'd likely make finals.  So we went back to the hotel and waited and found out that we indeed made finals.

I was so proud of him and how well he had done.  I really wanted to rock finals.  There was a push off the Aframe concerning me and I contemplated crossing in front of him to get his attention, but decided not to eat up time doing that.  Sadly, he needed it because he read my push as a blind cross.  The turn (front cross) - bringing him around the jump the long way - would have prevented that.  Likely, we would have placed first because the faster border collie also made a mistake.  That said, it was a thrill to run him in finals again.  I am in constant amazement of what this dog can do out there on course and I don't know how I'm going to handle it when we stop competing competitively after this year.

We left NY at the crack of dawn on Sunday - about 5 am - and headed back to DE to walk the Brian's Field Trail.  Russ left to pick up Cadia as soon as we got home - she showed her disgust by sitting as far away from him in the front of the truck as possible.  I met them at Poor Farm with the other dogs.  Our typical routine is to let Cadia run free at Poor Farm until she decides to welcome us all back into her fold.  We let Gracie off early and Cadia seemed fine with that. 

After our walk we came home to watch the finals on TV.