Trialing outside in the rain

Justicemom said:
I ended up pulling Birch from his Standard run on Sat. The course was very twisting and the approach to the contacts quite steep. It had not been raining long or heavy but the grass was wet and so were the contacts. It had started raining about 2 minutes before his Open FAST run and I could already see he him sliding on the teeter(non rubberized).

Alot of people where like well standard is jump jump stop jump jump stop and i will go conservatively. Well my dog is young, green and has a shocking lack of concern for his personal safety so it was not worth it to me.
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Good for you, You went evaluated the course and the conditions, factored in the equipment state and your dogs ability, Made the Call and stuck too it, it can be difficult as you say when others are continuing to run But Good Job.:biggrin2:
 
I know this has been asked before and honestly, my answer is "no....for Koji". And no, a Q isn't more important than the health of my dog. Even if I made it to that one international trial (can't recall where/when), when the dogs were running in the mud, slipping around, I would honestly cry but I'd pull my dog.

One thing I was thinking about though was about it raining overnight? I know there was this one 5-day trial where it didn't rain at the trial, but it continued to pour overnight. In the AM the ground was still wet, soft, and in places muddy. They would put down hay or dirt, but it's still yucky after a few runs. And we run JWW 16" which means, we're first up in the AM (this was pre-T2B/FAST).

The times I have fell, it wasn't raining, but the ground was wet due to dew, nothing more. The times that Koji has slipped, same thing, dewy in the AM and the equipment was wet and it was not rubberized. When it has been rubberized, he's better, I've never seen him slip.

Personally, I do not like to run in the rain, unless it just started and is very light. The reason I do not run Koji in the rain is because he has no body awareness whatsoever. So, if he slips or is off-balance, he can't fix himself as easily as other dogs. The other reasons I kept him out of the rain was that we used to train indoors, so no experience ever on wet equipment. When we went to a new trainer, it was outdoors. We'd only practice if it was light rain.

So, would I run a dog who wasn't green, had great body awareness, and the equipment was rubberized? Probably more so. Maybe not in the pouring rain, muddy ground, etc....but more likely to run in the rain. To me, it's a "need to see" how bad it is type of thing. Like Dr. Shelli with Birch, I'd want to see what the course looked like, go off of what the dog knows, how he runs, etc., before I make my decision.

And to be frank, most of the time, I don't want to run in the rain because I don't want to have to wash Koji afterwards. Too lazy. Even when I do indoor trials on dirt, yuck. :rolleyes2:
 
We train outside - luckily the field is well drained so dries out very quickly but inevitably there's going to be times when it's raining. Today it started to rain half way through training, but reasonably light and we had done the contact work so we carried on (jumps and tunnels only). Rain this afternoon turned heavy so the PM class was cancelled.

I would probably run if it had been raining but wasn't at the time, but not in steady rain. I wouldn't walk the dogs under those conditions either - none of us would enjoy it apart from anything else. Wind is probably more of a worry as it can get really windy where we train. I've heard lots of scary tales of dogs being blown off the DW so wouldn't want to risk doing an agility round in strong winds.

I would rather be safe than sorry personally and would sooner miss one competition than weeks of agility through my dog being injured.
 
All this talk of rain, my class was cancelled yesterday because of the wet stuff. Must have talked it up:(

I wouldn't walk the dogs under those conditions either - none of us would enjoy it apart from anything else.
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I love my rainy walks, splashing out in my wellies, my new duck print rain mac on and hood up. Merlin loves rain, he will stand outside in it. Cadbury the, ahem, water dog, hates it, but he will come for a walk in the rain. I like throwing his tennis ball across the grass in the park and seeing sprays of water fly up in the air. Then Cadbury looks at me and goes "You can get that one." I admit, I am weird:biggrin2:
 
I enjoy rainy walks too. I haven't been able to go out on one in almost 3 years because of this drought. We don't get rain during the day much anymore (and very rarely at night). I bet Jody would enjoy rain walks, I've resonantly discovered he loves to play fetch in dew.:biggrin2:
 
Resurrecting this thread because I had to make this decision today and it sucked! I was entered in a trial today. It wasn't raining when I woke up, but it rained non-stop all day yesterday and was forecasted to rain again late afternoon.

The weather was crummy all week, so I was bored at home for days and really looking forward to our first agility trial this year. I loaded Bailey in the car, went to gas station, still debating what to do... the park isn't that far....I could just go and see how the field looks.... What to do... And I ended up just driving home.

I wanted to go so badly!!! But in the end Bailey's safety outweighed my boredom and need for an agility fix. We haven't trained on grass (let alone wet & muddy grass) since the fall, she has an extra pound of winter weight, and I don't think the contact equipment is rubberized. That just seemed like an accident waiting to happen. Blah!
 
take4roll10 said:
Resurrecting this thread because I had to make this decision today and it sucked! I was entered in a trial today. It wasn't raining when I woke up, but it rained non-stop all day yesterday and was forecasted to rain again late afternoon.

The weather was crummy all week, so I was bored at home for days and really looking forward to our first agility trial this year. I loaded Bailey in the car, went to gas station, still debating what to do... the park isn't that far....I could just go and see how the field looks.... What to do... And I ended up just driving home.

I wanted to go so badly!!! But in the end Bailey's safety outweighed my boredom and need for an agility fix. We haven't trained on grass (let alone wet & muddy grass) since the fall, she has an extra pound of winter weight, and I don't think the contact equipment is rubberized. That just seemed like an accident waiting to happen. Blah!
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Ugh, bummer. But, you made the right call. It's not worth the risk. Good for you. Hope Bailey wasn't too mad :)
 
You definitely made the right call. Rained all the day prior, strike one. Not having trained on grass, much less wet/muddy grass, strike two. Not having rubberized contacts in wet conditions, strike three. See, you made the right choice. :) It is hard though, when you really wanna get out there.
 
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