Day 68 – More campers had arrived at Babler State Park, oh yeah it’s the weekend, that’s why. We hung out at the campsite and caught up on some things, then left to meet Gayle & Jake at Westinn Kennels. This is where she takes Jake for Agility and Obedience classes, and they have dog shows on some weekends. There are other dog shows in the area, at Purina for example, which has a large facility nearby.
Most of the dogs are purebred and when showing them, the owners receive points for their performances. (We say “their” performances because it’s not only how well the dog does, the person running or showing the dog has to learn how to work with the dog, and together they learn how to communicate with each other.) These events are well-organized, 10 to 12 hour days, and there’s a lot that goes into planning & operating them. The dogs also work hard, as do the owners. We enjoyed watching the whole process.
(Forgive us dog-show people if we are using the wrong terminology below, this was our first time attending an event and we are just learning!) There are several categories: novice, open, and expert. A judge, or more than one judge, grades the participants; if not meeting the predetermined requirements the dog is disqualified from that particular event & earns no points. Once a dog has qualified enough times & earned enough points, he or she moves on to the next, more difficult category. Some of the owners are extremely serious about the sport, hoping to earn enough points to breed their purebred dog with another, to sell the offspring (no judgment here). And some of the owners do it just for fun, for the quality time spent with their dog, or for the friendships which develop. My sister’s dog is a rescue dog, not a purebred; he is high-energy and the classes and events help to keep him busy and focused. This Saturday was Agility; we’d like to come back and see Obedience sometime, also.
Before the beginning of a show category, novice for example, a drawing of the course is passed out to the owner whose dog has been registered to participate in that event. Each category is broken into size groupings – small dogs compete against each other, then medium dogs against each other, etc. The course changes with each category and the difficulty changes depending on the size of the dog, i.e., small dogs do jumps over lower bars than larger dogs. The volunteers set up the courses according to the drawing the participants have received. Then the judge shows the owner the course and walks them through it. The owner has a short period of time to learn the course and briefly practice without the dog. Then one by one, the owner and their dogs are called up to complete the course and be judged.
Some of the dogs are extremely fast and the owners can barely keep up with them to show them, often by hand signal, where to go next. Touching the animal is not allowed. It really is quite difficult. When the dog is very fast, the owner has to communicate to him or her to pause/stay until the owner can get in front of the dog to show it where to go next. That dog could have just come full speed off a jump, only to be asked to stop and pause for a few seconds to wait for the owner. Some of the courses are just jumps; some contain poles which stick up and the dog has to weave between each stick, starting at a pre-determined place and not missing a “weave”; or there could be tunnels the dogs have to travel thru, or see-saws, or maybe a large A-frame which the dog must climb up and then down the other side. Any or all of these challenges can be in the course in any order. Pretty amazing. Sometimes the dog just doesn’t want to do what he or she is supposed to do. It will just stop and say, “Nope not today, I want to go this way instead” or “No way am I coming down from the top of this tall A-frame”. It’s pretty cute and everyone laughs.
Try getting a cat to do any of these things! They’d be like, you want me to do what?! Have you lost your marbles? This is SO beneath me, yawn. But the dogs just want to please their owners or caregivers. After the dog show, Gayle took Jake home, then met us at the Outback nearest to her house. It’d been a long day for her & she was going back to do it again at 8 a.m. tomorrow. We relaxed over drinks and dinner, said good-bye and went back to our individual homes. The cats missed us, but wondered why we smelled so doggy. The campground was almost full when we got back. We wished we’d had more time to explore the Park but tomorrow we leave for Indiana. Thanks again, Gayle, for a great visit!
Dr. Edmund A. Babler Memorial State Park, 800 Guy Park Drive, Wildwood, MO 63005, (636) 458-3813, “https://mostateparks.com/park/dr-edmund-babler-memorial-state-park“. This is a very large property, nicely maintained, and we liked it. Some sites are smaller than others so it would be good to make sure the site you reserve is big enough for your vehicles because they do not allow any parking on the grass by your RV. Electric hook-ups, no water and sewer, but both are available at the campground. We would definitely come here again. It would be a great place for us to ride our bikes; we didn’t have time when we were here.