# On the Road to Rally Nationals



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

We had a good night's sleep, but I wish we were all still asleep! Javelin gave me a request to go out around 7:00 so off we went with Lily still asleep. When we got back she was up and about so back out now all three of us went. When we came back to our room they were all set to have a poodle wrestle mania episode so I gave them each an ear to chew to put them each onto their own quiet task and put a little something in their stomachs. It worked like a charm and they are both sound asleep again, but I am wide awake!

The hotel is very full and there seems to be at least one large school group of middle schoolers. They were all at breakfast when I made the early potty run, so the trip through the lobby was like running a gauntlet of new cute people and plates and plates of food! I am very proud to say that all 8 paws stayed on the floor, no child lost their breakfast and they were polite for petting from those youngsters (who all asked before sticking their hands out!). AKC CGCs in action for sure!


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## Sammy the spoo (Jul 7, 2016)

Good morning - glad to hear you had a good night sleep! I had to smile thinking about the 7am poodle wrestle mania episode  Oh boy. . 

Good for both Lily and Javelin to have all 8 paws stay on the ground with the kids! I hope you will have a good day today and for Javelin to feel comfortable in crate or whatever arrangement you will have for him.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Sammy the spoo said:


> Good morning - glad to hear you had a good night sleep! I had to smile thinking about the 7am poodle wrestle mania episode  Oh boy. .
> 
> Good for both Lily and Javelin to have all 8 paws stay on the ground with the kids! I hope you will have a good day today and for Javelin to feel comfortable in crate or whatever arrangement you will have for him.


Sammy good morning to you too! I have a sedative to give Javelin the day of the rally tournament so he will be able to rest in our crate. I think it will be too warm to leave him in the car. Thanks for asking about that plan.


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## pudellvr (Dec 1, 2016)

Safe travels! What temptation for the SPoo-kids!


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## DCspoo (Apr 19, 2015)

Sounds like a great start to the trip! I didn't know Salisbury had a hotel that allowed dogs. I was there last weekend...my Hubby's family lives there.


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## rj16 (Jan 30, 2017)

Safe travels! I look forward to hearing about your adventures.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

haha, of course Lily owns the bed - she just lets her mommy share it with her.

Well after a rough start sounds like you are doing well. Those kids must have been thrilled to see two spoos.


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## Liz (Oct 2, 2010)

Sounds like everyone's enjoying their adventure. Safe travels and I can't wait to see and hear more.


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

It sounds like quite the adventure. Glad you made it safely. Good luck at the nationals. Hope all goes well.


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## mashaphan (Sep 4, 2014)

keep us updated! Best of luck to all the rally-ers!:adore:

martha and the thundering paws


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

So far so good! Stay safe!


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## Axeldog (Aug 29, 2014)

Sounds like your adventure is off to a positive start, in spite of the early morning potty run . Have fun!


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

Drive safely! Lily does seem to enjoy a nice hotel


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## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

Yes, very nice hotel! I'm glad the pups made you proud with all of those kids. Have a safe trip the rest of the way. So exciting!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

DCspoo said:


> Sounds like a great start to the trip! I didn't know Salisbury had a hotel that allowed dogs. I was there last weekend...my Hubby's family lives there.



The Hampton Inn in Salisbury is very dog friendly as is the Hampton Inn near Virginia Beach that we are staying in tonight. They often are and it is really nice to have a pet friendly place to stay that isn't a dive.


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## Charmed (Aug 4, 2014)

The bed picture was nice. However, the mental image of you as Moses parting the Red Sea of junior high students, with poodle duo in hand, was even better. May you continue to have a safe and enjoyable journey.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Charmed said:


> The bed picture was nice. However, the mental image of you as Moses parting the Red Sea of junior high students, with poodle duo in hand, was even better. May you continue to have a safe and enjoyable journey.



If I could have navigated the children and the spoos and videoed it all I would have. They were really very good!

We have had a very nice day today. It started a bit showery but got nicer and nicer for the most part, so we never really got wet.

We drove from Salisbury, MD down route 13 and across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (CBBT) to the Virginia Beach area. When we got over to the other side of the mouth of the Chesapeake we went to First Landing State Park which is named in reference to the 1607 landing of Capt. Smith and the others who later settled at the site where they founded Jamestown, VA.

Here will come some pics. First once we got to Virginia we stopped at the welcome center for a potty break and to pick up some information on the Virginia Beach area.









Javelin looks mopey here because I tested giving him the sedative that the vet gave me for him. I gave him the lowest recommended dose and I don't think I will give him any more that what I gave him today when we are at the nationals. He is fine though.









They had the most immaculately clean road side lavatory I have ever seen anywhere at this rest stop.


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## pudellvr (Dec 1, 2016)

Virginia always has the nicest rest areas! Georgia also nice ones. Followed by NC then SC. The nice thing is all of them are pretty safe. 


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

*Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel*

This is an amazing feat of engineering. We crossed it when my family took vacation when I was pretty young. I have remembered it for decades.

I went across from north to south. You start out on a bridge that is I think over ten miles wide. You can see it in the first picture.









You then go into a tunnel under a shipping channel (three miles long), back onto the bridge, back into another tunnel (one mile) and then back onto bridge. The islands for the starts and ends of the tunnels are all artificial. At the southernmost island there is a restaurant that overlooks the bay and there is a gift shop (bought two really nice mugs to give to my substitute and his wife (who is a close friend whose office is directly across from mine)).

Here are some pictures from around the southern island (called first island). the picture that shows the next island and water then a piling of rocks shows the distance of the second tunnel (in other words the water channel is 1 mile).


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

*First Landing State Park*

We took a hike through a bald cyprus swamp and then went over to the beach side of this park.

At one point on our hike we passed some people going the opposite direction. Their presence was very concerning to Lily who you can see has her tail down in one of the pictures. It was a mom with two boys, so I don't know why she didn't seem to like them, maybe she didn't like that nature was disrupted by boisterousness.


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## StormeeK (Aug 3, 2015)

Great pictures and descriptions of your journey so far! Though I have been on many trips overseas, I have only seen the East coast a few times so I've really enjoyed reading this. Thanks so much for sharing these pics that include your beautiful poodles. Good Luck!


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

What a beautiful place to hike with the dogs and a great way to break up the drive. The spoo kids look like they are having a great adventure.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

They are having a good time and I think Lily is happy that we brought Javelin (even though part of me still thinks he should have stayed home).

They are nice and tired tonight! And we have another nice Hampton Inn room where Lily thinks she owns the bed, although Javelin came up for a while too.

























It was funny to have to make a U turn at this road to get to tonight's hotel. For those who haven't seen pictures of it, my vehicle is a Volvo SUV.


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## snow0160 (Sep 20, 2016)

What a fun adventure! I know exactly what you are talking about leaving Long Island but usually I go back north and go by the Bronx. Thank you for sharing your photo and stories from your trip. It is very exciting.


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## Carolinek (Apr 2, 2014)

What great pictires- thank you sharing them. I am living your experience vicariously! I love road trips, they bring unexpected treats like the Cypress Swamp. Both poodles look very relaxed and happy- glad Javvy wasn't too out of it on his meds. 
Safe travels- look forward to more pics and stories!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

snow normally I would have left through the Bronx (which can be bad in its own way too) but I had stopped at my vet's office and they are on the south shore down by Sunrise Highway so the Belt was the way to go.

CarolineK I am glad I tested that dose of the ace with Javvy yesterday. I may try giving him a slightly lower dose mid week to see if that would be enough. Otherwise I will give him the dose he had yesterday for Friday.

This morning Javelin and I went out at 5:00 AM! He went back to sleep and thankfully so did I, but then BF called at about 7:30 so our day is started. It looks like we will deal with rain this morning, so I will have to think about what to do on our way to the Wrightsville Beach, NC area for our overnight tonight.


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## Charmed (Aug 4, 2014)

I hadn't seen any photos of Javvy and Lily together. He has a decidedly masculine face and Lily's is very feminine. I like this, especially since my boys are always being called girls.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Charmed said:


> I hadn't seen any photos of Javvy and Lily together. He has a decidedly masculine face and Lily's is very feminine. I like this, especially since my boys are always being called girls.



Despite his distinctive masculine appearance Javelin gets called a girl all the time! He suffers from the "All Poodles Must Be Girls" Syndrome. This is part of why I don't ever plan to give him a banded top knot.

Anyway today we woke to cold, rain and wild wind. It apparently was snowing about 20 miles away from Virginia Beach to boot. I didn't see any of the white stuff, but it did force me to modify my plans a bit. I had hoped to swing around to the west side of the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge so that I could visit their exhibit on the role of the area in the Underground Railroad and to take a bit of a ride on one of the dike roads to see if I could see any interesting birds. In the interest of time and trying to get south to get away from the rain I skipped that stop and went straight out to the Outerbanks dtarting at Kitty Hawk.

Sadly that didn't leave the rain or the wind or the cold behind, but we had a nice day anyway. We went to the Wright Brothers Memorial at Kill Devil Hills where they made their famous first flights in December 1903. Here are a few pictures. I didn't get any of the poodles today since I never was able to get them to settle for a pose because of the wind.









































On the recommendation of a nice woman at the Kitty Hawk Visitor's Center we then continued down across the Oregon Inlet over to the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. It got windier and windier the further we went, but we did go down to where the visitor center is located. I never got out of my truck though since the wind was whipping my hair around just from putting the window down so badly that I was afraid it was going to also blow my glasses away. The few pictures here are near the visitor center and sort of convey the weather, but not really.

























We then turned back to the north and went to the Bodie Island lighthouse before heading west at Roanoke Island then south to Wilmington, NC. We put on a lot of miles today (almost 340)! I think I will be turning in soon. Lily and Javelin are already pretty sacked out, but I'll have to take them out to potty (hate to wake sleeping dogs).


















Well now here is a weird coincidence. Wilmington, NC is on Cape Fear and just now on TCM there is a preview for a Tuesday night screening for the Robert Mitchum version of that very scary story.


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

Thanks for taking me with you on your journey!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

We stayed at a Day's Inn in Wilmington, NC last night. Rather than doors that open to a common hallway the rooms open to the outdoors. The advantage is that the truck is parked right outside the door and it was easy to unload the luggage. The disadvantage is that the dogs hear a lot more random noise. The desk clerk seems to have put all of the people with dogs in rooms near each other (and nicely the potty stop area). Two doors down from us there are two women with a parti colored tpoo who is a major league yapper. Last night they were clearly right in front or nearly so to our room and their dog was non stop yapping. Javelin and Lily both had to answer big time the first time this happened, but they heeded my orders to settle and leave it. Since the first round the biggest answer that has been given to the yapping is one bark from Javelin and a half hearted grumble from Lily. I wasn't sure why I kept hearing the tpoo until this morning when I came back from our first potty break and saw the women outside their room smoking cigs. Javelin was all set to take a big pull over to visit the little yapper and when he started to go I put him on a down and made him refocus to me before we went into our room. So score two points now for the CGC: negotiating a herd of milling adolescents and leaving a rude little yapper to his own devices.


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## rj16 (Jan 30, 2017)

Thanks for the pictures and description! I'm glad everything is going smoothly. It sounds like a really interesting part of the country. I so hope that someday we will be able to take fun road trips with Monty too.


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## snow0160 (Sep 20, 2016)

The marbled beaches at Pea Island is beautiful. When you say Roanoke is that the Lost Colony? Last season's American Horror story was based on Roanoke. 
As for yapping small dogs yep they are annoying. My Pomeranian yaps a lot but I was able to get it down to 50% since I first got him. I got him when he was 1 year old and he came with a lot of bad behaviors. He used to yap whenever someone near him ate and he wanted their food. This included us eating dinner and my old dog Sahara eating her meals and treats. Sahara thought it was super annoying and one giant growl from Sahara ended that on week one. Lucky is mute and i joke how he is a "never bark" (arrested development joke) lol. 


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## Axeldog (Aug 29, 2014)

Good boy Javvy for showing the little yapper a demo of good behavior!

I love that first photo of them when you were at the Cyprus swamp. Really nice. 

I am enjoying your photos and descriptions of your trip - thanks for sharing.


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## Charmed (Aug 4, 2014)

We, too, had an experience with a yapper in the motel room next to us. Unfortunately, Yappy was right next to the ice machine, so people were getting ice all night long, and Yappy had to announce it. It got to be hilarious because we had four dogs in our room and all they did was sigh dramatically. As the night wore on, Yap's noise was followed by the cussing of his owners. Two years have gone by and I can still remember how Yappy sounded just like the Flintstone's Dino. Thank goodness your training has paid off and your ebony beauties did not join in with your yapper.


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

I am enjoying your trip soooo much! Thanx for taking me along!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

The weather has taken a turn much for the better today!

We left the little yapper, who I later realized was all the way out at the end of a flexi leash when I saw him again (figures), and headed down to the Wilmington River Walk area. Here are a few pictures of the area and of the poodles. The ship is the retired USN battleship North Carolina which was brought to Wilmington in the early 1960s and established as a memorial to North Carolinians who served in WWII.


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## pudellvr (Dec 1, 2016)

Wilmington is wonderful! The weather here in Florence has been a welcome change from the deep cold of last week. Unfortunately all my spring flowers were killed by multiple freezes. 


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

As we strolled by the river I heard youthful voices start calling "LOOK, POODLES!" I looked up to see a few eager middle schoolers leaning over a railing near an opening in the boardwalk. Quickly more eager faces appeared. A few seconds later I heard an adult voice call for attention and everyone disappeared. When we got to where the opening was I saw a class of about 25 students and their teacher in a courtyard area. The kids were very excited to see Lily and Javelin appear and a few of them approached and asked if they could greet. Before long we were surrounded. Once again my poodles made me proud. Only one boy said he was afraid at one point, but he kept coming in close to interact with both dogs.

















And a little bit of video too. You will hear a bit of squealing, but really importantly no barking in reply.


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## snow0160 (Sep 20, 2016)

Yay I love the video! So happy. That is a lot of kids! Is one of the kids is barking at the end? Pudellvr my plants aren't doing so great either and I'm in Florida. After the storm in the NE some of my flowers looked a bit wilty because the weather was in the 40s. Also because lucky ate the flowers off my new trellis plant


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

snow thanks for asking about the barking at the end. I forgot about this, but just after we ended our play with the kids a couple came along the boardwalk up behind us with a black and white parti spoo. All three poodles ended up barking at each other!


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

MollyMuiMa said:


> I am enjoying your trip soooo much! Thanx for taking me along!


I agree - fun to see the photos and hear what you and the poodles are exploring.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

We are staying in a very nice Hampton Inn on the outskirts of Charleston, SC for the next three nights. When I checked in I asked the desk staff for recommendations on dog friendly dining opportunities. I went to the place that the man at the desk noted to be one of his favorite places to dine out. It was great and truly dog friendly. Lily and Javelin and I were at a table about 6 feet away from a party with a small puppy and an adult yorkie.









At first Javelin was a bit too interested in the yorkie (I don't think he knew the puppy was there since it was sleeping on a young man's lap), but he settled quickly and I enjoyed delicious crab cakes with my excellent dogs on polite down stays. Before my food came a woman approached to ask how I got them to mind their downs so well. We know what my answer was (CGC plus lots of time and many places), but here was why she asked. She is having problems getting her 9 month old shepadoodle to do a down at all. I told her to go to a training class to help train her dog and to socialize him so he will do a down (and everything else he should) with distractions. Before she asked about her problem she did ask me if my crew were doodles. I am glad I mildly toned down my answer that they were absolutely 100% poodle by leaving off that I would never contribute to the production of mutts by owning a doodle of any sort.

The sun caught Lily and Javelin's hair at one point while we I was eating my salad.


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## aasteapots (Oct 6, 2013)

Love the updates. I'm glad you are enjoying your trip


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## Quossum (Mar 18, 2011)

I'm enjoying traveling vicariously to Nationals since we're not attending this year. Thanks for sharing your journey with us! Be sure to check out the Agility for me. 

--Q


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

It was hot today and I don't totally have the best selection of clothes, but we prevailed and had a really lovely day with a neat surprise for you guys (or at least I hope you'll think it is neat).

We hopped in the truck this morning and drove out to the Ashley River Historic Plantation District. We went to a plantation called the Magnolia Plantation which has lovely English Informal style gardens. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and was a rice plantation in its working days. I was happy to find that it is even more dog friendly than I expected and the poodles went all around the gardens with me. They were great poodle ambassadors, greeting many people adult and child, white and black, wearing hats, happy to see them, a little nervous to see them and the like. For every greeting there were eight paws firmly planted on the ground. And they got lots of pets and gave lots of poodle leaning loving on all sorts of folks. One woman told me she was thrilled to spend time with them since she was missing her own spoo wha had stayed home.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

We then got back in the truck and drove in to downtown historic Charleston. We strolled around near Market Street and took lots of pictures, before meeting up with one of my old college roommates for a while. No, she doesn't live in Charleston. In fact she still lives in Westchester County. We had lost touch with each other after I started graduate school and then reconnected last year through FB. We have been trying to get together off and on for months to no avail. Out of the blue she sent me a happy St. Patrick's day text on Friday and we sent a bunch of messages back and forth once we realized we were both heading south this week. She came on a trip a friend of hers won. They are staying in Hilton Head, but drove up to Charleston for the day. We strolled and chatted for a while with a promise to get together around home before the start of summer.

While I was waiting for my friend to get to our meeting place I met a woman who also wanted to put some loving on the poodles since her two spoos also stayed home for her trip.

the architecture of the historic buildings is beautiful I am not sure if my pictures will convey what I enjoyed, but I hope you will appreciate a few pictures.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

At this hotel, Lily loves the chair almost as much as the bed.









So isn't it funny that I had to come to South Carolina to see my friend who lives an hour away from me in New York?


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

Loving the trip report. i am glad you found a dog friendly garden. I was going to suggest Duke's beautiful botanical garden and then I read the dreaded, "No dogs allowed". You have to try the BBQ somewhere on this trip


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

lily cd re said:


> At this hotel, Lily loves the chair almost as much as the bed.
> 
> View attachment 385545
> 
> ...


That is funny. I remember meeting our next door neighbors shopping in New York City in one of those fancy department stores that no longer exist - neither family knew that we both had planned vacations in NYC for shopping for clothes.

Your photos are lovely and I'm surprised at the number of places you were able to bring the dogs. Great road trip.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Here's another item for the its a small world files. Just now I took Lily and Javelin out to potty and when I walked back into the hotel near my room, the door to the next room opened and a cream mpoo and a black spoo boy emerged. The spoo is 7 months old and Javelin took exception to his presence. It seems he may feel as Lily does about black spoo girls, which is roughly that she is supposed to be the only one in the world and that she has to tell any others she meets where to go. Because Javelin was being stupid we didn't talk long, but the man did mention that they have also had a silver standard.


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## marialydia (Nov 23, 2013)

Mfmst said:


> Loving the trip report. i am glad you found a dog friendly garden. I was going to suggest Duke's beautiful botanical garden and then I read the dreaded, "No dogs allowed". You have to try the BBQ somewhere on this trip


Duke Gardens have now changed their policy again, hallelujah! Dogs are allowed before 10AM and after 5 PM. Short leash, and as before, there are certain areas they can't go.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Today we went down to Hilton Head Island. I took advantage of passing by the Tanger Outlets down that way to buy a pair of slacks and some socks since I have felt as though I didn't really have enough of either socks or pants. It gave me a chance to get out my sun shades for the truck to see how cool things would stay without big concerns since my trips in and out of two stores were very quick and it wasn't all that hot. Even with just the windshield shaded and side windows open it stayed comfortable for the dogs. If I also use the shades for my front side windows that aren't tinted and use my tailgate lock bar to allow flow from the side windows and through out to the back of the vehicle I think I can feel safe leaving dogs in the car on warmer days than I have done in the past for short periods of time.

We drove almost the whole length of HHI. It is very pretty and all, but the scene doesn't seem quite my style. Golf, don't play. Shop, not much. Eat out, only when traveling for the most part. I love the beach, but sitting on the beach all day is not a good formula for my fair skin (both my mom and her sister spend lots of time at the dermatologist). That seems to be the core of the life of the island.

I was happy to find that even though I was wearing long pants and real shoes I could walk the dogs onto the beach. We didn't stay long since I couldn't think of letting them put their feet in the water because I have no hope of getting them clean if they get too messy. For Lily it was a return to seeing a beach and sand and for Javelin it was his first beach trip. For both of them it was the first time they saw the ocean. Lily found something fun to roll around on. They sat to pose for me in a very funny position. Lily sat and then Javelin sat directly in front of her. We had lots of admirers and nice conversations with a few different folks.

































































I did let Lily be "just a dog" for a few minutes at the beach.






Just before driving back off the island I found a wonderful restaurant that had outdoor seating overlooking marshes and creeks on the sound side of the island. I was able to enjoy a wonderful view while Lily and Javelin got a nice fresh bowl of cold water. The food was fabulous. For anyone who wanders out to Hilton Head, eat at the Crazy Crab!

















I am planning to head out of Charleston early tomorrow morning so we can get to Perry, GA as early in the afternoon as possible so that I can check in and get my exhibitor's packet and set up my crate space. I will also bring Lily throguh the building to let her get used to the sights, sounds and smells before we show on Friday.


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## Sammy the spoo (Jul 7, 2016)

What a beautiful beach! I loved the video of Lily being a dog . She was so cute!!! I hope you will have a smooth journey and setting up/settling in tomorrow.


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## snow0160 (Sep 20, 2016)

Cool [emoji41] I love the video. Lucky does that dig and roll. It is sooo fun! 


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

Great video! Lily sure wanted to leave her presence there! Whatever it was her nose was working overtime Hahaha! She was totally enjoying 'being a dog!'


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## Charmed (Aug 4, 2014)

Thank you again for posting. This vicarious trip is so much easier than the real thing; it feels authentic with the presence of two poodles!


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## BeckyM (Nov 22, 2013)

Looks like you three are having a wonderful time!  Love all of the pictures!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Well, we made it to Georgia! I got to the fairgrounds around 1:30 and after a bit of driving around there found the correct building and got my crate and chair into a decent spot in the very busy crating area. We had check in starting at 2:00 so I got my exhibitor's packet and picked up the souvenir shirts I ordered. After getting those bits of business out of the way I went back to the truck and got Lily so we could check out the scene together. 

We had a nice walk around. I showed her that her tent crate is here and gave her some treats there. Then we walked up and down through the aisles where there were lots of dogs in crates and people sitting or walking. she gave nice attention and looked pretty relaxed. After that we walked past all of the rings we will show in tomorrow and we stopped by the entrance to the first ring we will be showing in tomorrow morning. I gave Lily a pep talk and reminded her that we were going to play the rally game and that no matter how we do I love and am proud of her. I told her that everything we do is to make our relationship stronger. Not wanting to overdo anything I then took her out to the truck and we came to find our hotel.

Here is a view of the crating area.









The four rings on the right are the RAE rings, so quiet now...









Although I would love to go home with one of these awards, I am really just happy to be here with my wonderful poodles.

















Here are some of the souvenirs and swag. Everyone gets a tote bag (this one is insulated), a pin and a catalog along with a certificate of participation. I got a grey T shirt and a black 1/4 zip pullover with long sleeves and pockets. The logo is nice!









































This is one of two bargain chain properties we are staying at on this trip. While I am happy to have a place to sleep I can't say I am thrilled to be here. There seem to be renovations going on. There are dents in many doors and a whole pile of old TV's (not flat screens) sitting outside near where I parked. I ran into a couple that is here for agility and the husband told me he was still trying to get his room straightened out since the desk clerk kept sending him to rooms that hadn't been made up. At least the first room I got a key card for was prepared properly.


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

Glad you arrived safely, now go win one of those pretty ribbons ! :cheers2:


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## snow0160 (Sep 20, 2016)

Aww!! You guys will do great! 


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

Glad you are all set up and sorted for tomorrow. Crush it, Team Lily!


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

Go Team! Go! Cheers and hugs from here. So proud of you for all your hard work. I'm inspired.


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## LizzysMom (Sep 27, 2016)

Logged in especially to wish y'all luck, Lily! I'm having fun vicariously through your posts, so I'm sure the real thing must be REALLY fun! Can't wait to hear how you do!


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## pudellvr (Dec 1, 2016)

Do you have an exact time and ring you will compete in?


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## rj16 (Jan 30, 2017)

Good luck!! I hope you both have lots of fun and maybe win some pretty ribbons too.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Good luck to the both of you - and thank you for taking me along the journey. We'll be cheering you on from the sidelines.


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## Asta's Mom (Aug 20, 2014)

Best of luck, team Lily - kick it!


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## Lori G (Sep 19, 2014)

What a great trip you and the spoos are having! Good luck and enjoy the remainder of your trip!


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## Axeldog (Aug 29, 2014)

Good luck and have fun competing Team Lily!!! 

What a big venue and so many people, could be quite intimidating, at least to a team less seasoned than team Lily  Cant wait to hear about how it goes. 

I agree, the logo is really nice, and so fun to be able to buy those shirts. 

Have a great time!


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## StormeeK (Aug 3, 2015)

I just saw you and Lily on the You Tube channel this morning and you looked great! Both of you looked very calm and elegant in your black attire. Loved your poodle shirt. Hope you feel it went well too.
Wishing y'all continued good luck and a wonderful time!


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## Sammy the spoo (Jul 7, 2016)

Today is the big day!! I hope you will have a fabulous time! You guys are a great team and don't forget to smile!!


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

I just found the video on YouTube too! Lily and You looked great! 
If anyone wants to see them it is on YouTube under '2017 AKC Rally Championship Ring 3- RAE Advanced' at about 1:51-1:53


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## pudellvr (Dec 1, 2016)

What is her exhibitor #? Anyone know?


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## pudellvr (Dec 1, 2016)

886 I found you. Nice job!


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## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

MollyMuiMa said:


> I just found the video on YouTube too! Lily and You looked great!
> If anyone wants to see them it is on YouTube under '2017 AKC Rally Championship Ring 3- RAE Advanced' at about 1:51-1:53


Thank you, MollyMuiMa! That was so fun to watch, Catherine and Lily! Looks like you did great


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

We did have a great start! Our second ring was very good too, although I didn't really warm Lily up too well. Despite that we got an 84 in ring 2 (minus 10 for breaking the sit stay at the end). Those were our best runs. One of the things about how this tournament works is that the rings just keep moving with the exception of the judges taking lunch breaks. So when you start in the morning everything is sort of even between the rings and then depending on how fast flowing the courses are there can end up being long periods of waiting followed by craziness. That is what happened today. The judges went to lunch and during the break and based on when they posted their restart times and how many dogs there were ahead of us in the two remaining rings I could see that we would possibly be at conflict and so I spoke to the stewards for the last ring we had (2nd advanced ring) and they said they would move us to last if needed. Since I had almost been late to my 2nd ring I was way early to my 3rd ring, where we got a 74. I could see Lily was getting tired since she was distracted, but we got through it. Then we went to see what was happening at the fourth ring and they apparently had decided to wait for our group since so many of us had told them our third ring was running slow. I had time, but not a lot of time, before we went in and so we didn't get to decompress and refocus. It didn't help that this last judge was the one who had the sharpest pencil of the day either. He also had a broad jump as the jump and lots of dogs refused it, including Lily. There was some sort of piece of a plastic wrapper (like from a piece of candy) out on the floor in the middle of the ring too. It caught Lily's eye and I lost her for the most part at that point. We muddled along, but didn't qualify. 

Overall we had a good time. The courses were all really nice and the judges were very consistent across all of the exhibitors. There were 160 RAE dogs entered. I don't know how the judges keep focused, but they do! the stewards were excellent and very helpful.

I lucked out on the weather today as well. It stayed cool and cloudy enough that with sun shades on my windshield and front windows and my tailgate lockbar allowing flow through ventilation (there was a nice breeze) I was able to leave Javelin in the car. I did give him the acepromazine this morning, but it didn't sedate him at all this time even though I gave him the same dose as earlier in the week. That is part of what I don't like about this drug, the inconsistent effects. At any rate he was happy and cool every time I went out to see him. It was good not to worry about him trying to get out of the crate and I suspect Lily was happy enough to not have to share with him. Now I have more time to work on getting him better with crating and having them be happy with sharing for when we go to places like this event where you got one spot for one crate unless you entered more than one dog.

Tomorrow we plan to go watch some agility runs and do some shopping before we start our trip back north.

Thanks everyone for all of your support and good wishes. Even though we aren't top finishers, Lily is tops in my book! I hope more of you will come out and play these great games with your dogs. It is truly enriching to challenge yourself and your dog to meet new goals.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

MollyMuiMa said:


> I just found the video on YouTube too! Lily and You looked great!
> If anyone wants to see them it is on YouTube under '2017 AKC Rally Championship Ring 3- RAE Advanced' at about 1:51-1:53


I too am glad you posted. It was so much fun to watch knowing that I know Catherine and Lily.

It sounds like it was a good day with some challenges which makes it more interesting.


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## Sammy the spoo (Jul 7, 2016)

Thanks for sharing your day (and trip) with us! I love how you wrote "Even though we aren't top finishers, Lily is tops in my book!". That is awesome! You are so right!


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## Asta's Mom (Aug 20, 2014)

It was so nice to see Lily and you working - she is tops in my book too! What a great team you all make and thanks for sharing the journey with us.


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## Axeldog (Aug 29, 2014)

Congrats team Lily. Sneaking a peak at PF while at work to find out how things are going. 

cant wait to see the video later. 

Glad you had a good day overall and have a safe trip home!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

A number of years ago I was at a big cluster of shows in Syracuse, NY. It was a four day event with agility, conformation, obedience and rally. I was very new to showing (in fact it was there that Lily and I got our first Q in novice obedience) and didn't know much of anyone who was there, so we were basically on our own and in between doing stuff with Lily I did a lot of people watching. One of the things that has stuck in my head was a woman who came back to her crate near where I was sitting from whatever ring she had been in (open or utility I think). She yelled at her dog, who cringed at the brow beating. I promised Lily, Peeves, myself and all of my future dogs that I would never let myself become so obsessed with Qs or scores that I would ever give some other newcomer a picture like that as what our sports are like. Even if I am very disappointed because I had high expectations that weren't met, Lily never knows I am sad or worse with her because I never am.

I know a big event like this can be stressful, and while I don't generally walk around grinning there were a lot of people who looked so stone faced serious around the rings and crates today. I don't quite understand that attitude either. You spent time and money to train your dog to do performance events. You spent money to enter and to get to the event. You should be looking like you are having fun and hopefully you really are enjoying yourself and your special time with your dog. If it isn't fun for you and doesn't make your relationship with your dog better then you need a new hobby.

BTW even though we will be heading home I think you will find we have some interesting things to do and see on the way back, so stay tuned.


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## Carolinek (Apr 2, 2014)

You both look great! Love the black bell bottoms and sparkly poodle shirt on you, kind of like a human Miami clip. Beautiful complement to Miss Lily. She looks so sweet, and perfectly calm in the ring- you make it look easy! Safe travels home.


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## Theo'sMom (Mar 23, 2011)

Lily looked gorgeous and also seemed happy in the ring, smiling.


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## Axeldog (Aug 29, 2014)

LilyCDRE- I 100% agree with your comments on the attitudes of a few of the competitors at obedience events. Some seem so serious that it appears they could not be enjoying what they are doing. I understand the incredible amount of work that goes into training for competition, and that it is a serious endeavor in that regard, but heck, if you aren't going to enjoy it, and have fun, then why do it? 

In the times I have competed with Axel, we do our best. It is fun to get ribbons and qualify, but if we hadn't, then I wouldnt be angry or upset. He's a dog for goodness sake, and I am human. Things happen 

I watched your video and it was great. I love watching the connection you have with Lily, it is wonderful!


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## mashaphan (Sep 4, 2014)

lots of SOTC/DDS people there,rally and agility. Judy and Tommy cocker didn't Q the first 2 times,don't know how others are doing. Loved sharing the trip,LOVE the national Logo shirt. Are you going to do rally Masters w/the queen? (In the meantime ,puppy perpetual motion is driving me batty! )

See you in June!

Martha et al (off to watch the youtube video now!)


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## mjpa (Dec 11, 2016)

Congrats Team Lily! I really enjoyed all the pictures and specially the videos. Thank you so much for sharing.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Martha, yes I saw some Syracuse folks there.  I saw Leeann with Derby this morning too. There are a number of NYC/Long Island people I know there for obedience as well. I watched a couple of rings this morning. It is intense. I watched some agility runs and checked out the vendors too. I ordered a ribbon holder (will post pics when I get it set up) and I picked up a gear bag that I already have one of. I love this bag and I don't think they make it anymore so this one will go in reserve for when the current one wears out. I also ran into Debbie Dubay over at the agility arena. I hadn't seen her to speak to for a long while, so I was happy to be able to thank her for recommending Javelin's breeders to me. I had left the critters in the truck so I could focus on my shopping so she didn't get to meet him, but I showed her pictures. She was very happy to hear her recommendation had worked out so well.

We drove up to Columbia, SC after a stop at a peach and pecan farm near the AKC event site. I bought a bunch of things I can give to folks when i get home. The poodles were welcome in the market store at the farm so I did bring them in and they were quite good.

The Hampton Inn we are at tonight is super pet friendly. They have a nice walking trail around a small lake where we will take a stroll somewhere along the line. They actually don't seem to mind if you leave your dog in the room alone (which I don't usually do unless I am going to have breakfast) and gave me a sign to hang on the room door notifying the housekeepers that there is an unattended pet in the room. I've never encountered this pleasant amenity before.

I have been having a fabulous trip, but I think all three of us are starting to be a bit road weary and I am happy to be heading north.

Axeldog you have a lovely attitude about performance rings. We are the people, not them and the decision to compete is ours not theirs. It is important to remember that. Along those lines, Martha I am thinking pretty seriously about doing rally masters with Lily. I think she would like to continue with rally and the temptation to try for a prefix title is huge, but it will require stamina to get that RACh.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

*Another funny meeting on the road*

This one wasn't with an old college room mate, but with total strangers who just put tremendous amounts of loving on Lily and Javelin because they are missing their black spoo girl. They took pictures and video to boot. Not only are they poodle peeps, but their previous dog was a German Shepherd dog. It is really interesting to me how many people have poodles and GSDs.

There is nothing like walking dogs for meeting folks.


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## Quossum (Mar 18, 2011)

Wow! Very fun! Thanks for sharing the journey. I like what you said about not being too emotional. I'm a very driven, "perfectionist" type of person, so it has been a real struggle for me not to be too obsessed with my performance. Sugarfoot has really been "the dog I need" in some ways because it takes such calm and happy behavior to get the best performance from him.

Great job!

--Q


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

What a wonderful experience this has been, for you, the poodles and every random who has had the good fortune to meet you. Maybe the waitress will remember the CGC, or every field trip child will tell their folks about the poodles that came for breakfast I know how wonderful it is to see your favorite breed when you are away from home, especially if the owners who allow you to effuse Looking forward to your next update.


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## Charmed (Aug 4, 2014)

lily cd re, in regards to Javvy peeking his head through the shower curtain... that would have made a great photo. Oh wait, were you busy at the time??


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Charmed said:


> lily cd re, in regards to Javvy peeking his head through the shower curtain... that would have made a great photo. Oh wait, were you busy at the time??



Yes I had shampoo in my hair and no phone in my hand, although my phone is waterproof.

Anyway, I forgot to put these two little pictures in yesterday. They are of pecan trees at the orchard farm market we went to in Georgia.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Today we continued our northward journey and moved one state closer to home. We are again staying at a nice Hampton Inn in the Raleigh, NC environs.

We had a nice visit with a fellow PF member today on the campus of Duke University near the Duke Chapel. 

Here are pictures of Lily and the poodle belonging to our new friend. I am not going to tell you who it is. Let's see if anyone can figure it out from the picture of her dog and where we are now.

















Our new friend took some pictures of me with my two black spoos and the chapel in the background. Then I also took a few pictures of just Lily and Javelin.


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## Charmed (Aug 4, 2014)

I think I got it! The dog's name starts with a "P". Am I right?


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Yes, the other dog's name starts with a P.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Today we will be making our way to Virginia and hope to see some sights along the way. It will be our last tourist kind of day. Tomorrow we will get from Virginia to home with one stop in the middle to give us a break from the road and to meet a friend. The stop should also help me to avoid the evening rush in New York.

My students are taking their midterm exams today. I haven't heard from them very much so I think things are all good. I know my substitute finished all of the material that is covered on the exams I left.


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## marialydia (Nov 23, 2013)

Charmed said:


> I think I got it! The dog's name starts with a "P". Am I right?


Pericles it is!

We had a lovely visit. Lily is so pretty and feminine, and a real charmer and won my heart. And wow is Javelin a hunk. Both were, as expected, extremely well behaved! They did a brilliant sit on a bench to have their photo taken, and even with lots of students swirling around admiring them, they just sat there and soaked it all in.

And I was so worried about Pericles being silly around these stars and their expert trainer...but he done me proud! He was very sweet and focused and did not make a fuss. I think the cheese in my pocket helped.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

marialydia, Pericles is a great dog. He has very nice manners and you have done a nice job raising that handsome redhead.

We left the Raleigh, NC area this morning amidst some showers, but nothing terrible. Once we turned northward the sun came out. I decided to go out to Jamestown and Yorktown in Virginia on the way to our current and last hotel.

This is a statue of Pocahontas. It is roughly life sized and for some reason it freaked Javelin out. I suspect he found it odd that a "person" could stand so still and didn't smell like a person.









Here are a couple of pictures of the poodles also at Jamestown. In the second one that is the James River in the background. Needless to say they attracted a lot of attention from all sorts of folks. A few people got really involved in petting them, noting that their dogs were at home and they missed them. Both poodles were very good.

















By the time we got to Yorktown it was almost 5:00 PM so we focused on doing a driving tour of the battlefield. Here are just a couple of pictures, including one of the York River.

















It was interesting to see these two places in conjunction with each other. The first, Jamestown, is the cradle of the representative democracy we enjoy still to this day. The second, Yorktown, marks the moment we ceased being a colony and took our first steps as a free nation.

Home tomorrow with one more interesting stop on the way.


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## peppersb (Jun 5, 2011)

lily cd re said:


> Home tomorrow with one more interesting stop on the way.


A poodle stop???


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Yes a poodle stop!


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## Axeldog (Aug 29, 2014)

marialydia said:


> Pericles it is!
> 
> ....
> 
> And I was so worried about Pericles being silly around these stars and their expert trainer...but he done me proud! He was very sweet and focused and did not make a fuss. I think the cheese in my pocket helped.


MariaLydia!
This really made me laugh, because I would feel the exact same way, worrying about introducing my wild Axel boy to LilyCD RE and her stellar performers. I would be praying the whole time Axel would not do something super naughty, haha!


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## rj16 (Jan 30, 2017)

I love all your poodle pictures. They always look so happy and full of personality! Do you have a knack for getting them to pose for you or are they just naturally so funny? I bet they make fantastic poodle ambassadors everywhere you go.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

rj16 they have been really good poodle ambassadors. They are generally just happy dogs.

We just got home within the last hour, so I am going to eat a bite of pizza that just came. I will tell you more about our last day on the road later.


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## peppersb (Jun 5, 2011)

So guess what Bob and Sam and Cammie and I did today? You guessed it -- we visited with Catherine and her two beautiful poodle ambassadors. Really fun to meet Catherine and Lily and Javelin. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and my plans for a nice walk with 5 poodles got rained out. But I really enjoyed having lunch with Catherine and trading poodle stories. This has been a great thread and sounds like Catherine and her gang had a great trip.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Yes, we had a lovely time even though we didn't take a walk. peppersb made very delicious carrot ginger soup. Since it poured rain for about the last hour and a half of the driving yesterday evening I am very grateful for having had such a wonderful rest stop in the middle of my longest day of driving. And BTW I did time it well to miss the worst of the NYC rush hour. there was a bit of slow traffic around the George Washington Bridge, but not terrible.


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## 67x (Jul 3, 2015)

I've been holding out to reply in the event that perhaps you had a conclusive summary of sorts. No matter, that was a good ride and I enjoyed tagging along with every entry. I'm glad you opted to bring Javelin and your efforts make me want to sell everything I own, buy a motor home, and go see things with the poodle. Back to reality for you.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

67x, you are right I should write a conclusion!

Here are some technical thoughts first. 

For those of you who know I was debating about whether to bring Javelin I am glad I did. Even though he can be a PIA sometimes (like bad with a travel crate) he acquitted himself well at times I might have thought he would be a bratty teenager. He was good about settling down at restaurants and even left small dogs that he otherwise would have bounced around trying to play with alone. He behaved very well at all of our hotels. The only times he and Lily barked were pretty justified by loudish noises very close to our room door. They settled quickly too when I told them to. I got lucky with the weather the day of the rally national at being able to leave Javelin in my vehicle. I had given him a sedative that morning, but it didn't work. He would have been very bad in the crate being as wide awake as he was. Clearly I have some serious work to do to get him to be well mannered and relaxed in crates so that he will cope better with show environments.

Ten or eleven days (this was 11) is as long as I can go out on the road with both of them. There is just no practical way I can see taking all of the cooked meal packs I would need to take to go for longer. I am happy to have set up all of their meals with my new food sealer before we left. I labeled the bags as to who the food was for and put in all ingredients except vitamin D drops which I only give 1X daily. I then froze the bags. Having it all frozen helped keep it fresh easily as I could take out what I needed for where I was staying any day and have it thaw with the rest still frozen in coolers in the back of the truck. I initially thought I could use the crate buckets I always have used for kibble and water in the past, but the first day I realized it was hard for them to get all of the wet food out of the bottom of the buckets so I bought small steel flat bowls the second day we were on the road.

Four or five hours a day is as much driving as made sense with the dogs along. You need to have good strategic plans for stopping at places where they will be able to have some water (maybe even a meal) and exercise time. I was very happy to find that many places along our route were much more dog friendly than places near where we live. For example I can only think of two or three places that serve food where you can bring a dog near me, but I never had any problem finding places that were not just willing but welcoming of my poodle ambassadors.

I found almost everyone we met to be super savvy about greeting my dogs. Almost every person who wanted to greet them asked first. I always told them that they had to keep their four feet on the floor. While a couple of people said they didn't mind getting a jump up, most people stopped interacting with them if they started to jump.

Here are some fun facts.

We had a great time meeting poodle peeps all over the place. We got to meet marialydia and Pericles and were hosted by peppersb and her gang for lunch. Additionally we met any number of other poodle folks whose dogs were at home. The ambassadors were happy to give those folks their hands on poodle fix. They were both very sweet to those folks.

Both of the poodles had new life experiences. They both saw the ocean for the first time. Javelin got to see a sand beach for the first time too. They stayed nicely with me in a number of restaurants that were quite busy. They made eating dinner by myself quite pleasant by keeping me company while I was waiting for dinner to arrive. They also attracted conversations from any number of passersby and gave me a chance to meet and exchange thoughts with lots of different folks.

This trip reminded me how wonderful the United States is. We saw lots of beautiful countryside. I was reminded of the diversity of the wilderness areas that still exist not that far from my busy urban backyard. I got to drive though history at many turns. I got to exchange thoughts with a diverse array of nice folks ranging from the hotel staff at all of the places we stayed to the women who sell their beautiful sweet grass baskets in the Charleston, SC area and on to the people who I stood in line with to check in at nationals and the woman who crated near me Friday who now lives in Florida, but grew up on Long Island. 

I went back to work and found that everything had gone just fine while I was away. I haven't taken a vacation at any time of year when classes were in session for 30 year other than to take a three day weekend now and again. It was very freeing to know that I can make the work move along without being physically present for every moment of it.

Now I just have to see where nationals will be in 2018...


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## Charmed (Aug 4, 2014)

I want to thank you again for sharing your trip. Also, your decision to take Javvy reminds me of something that my parents said to my brother when he did not want to take his rather rambunctious toddler out to restaurants... "How do you expect him to learn unless you expose him and teach him how to behave?" MY brother groaned that it made it so difficult for him to enjoy his meal, and my father replied, "That's part of being a good dad; you have to make some sacrifices." I'm glad you figured out a way to make it work; Javvy is a better dog for having had the experience.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Charmed, thank you so much for those kind words. He is a better dog for the experience of our trip. If we all stay at home where we think things are safe and predictable then nothing changes. I suspect this is a large part of how people end up with dogs that are horrible at the vet and the groomer, or worse end up rehoming dogs they can't manage.

Your parents are wise folks and they helped you and your brother to be excellent parents.


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