Recently, Maddie and I ran the AMK9 Canine Biathlon. It was a 3.66 mile run with obstacles and challenges along the way. We had a lot of fun and Maddie did great!
We ran with Chelsey and Ryder, Brandee and Titus, and Jason and Tizzy. Most of the dogs at this event were military and police Shepherd type dogs so it was fun to have our band of misfits.... a Labrador Retriever, Pit Bull, Greyhound, and Jack Russell.
Unfortunately, I do not have many pictures of us. So what you see below are photos from Facebook of friends and strangers.... but at least it gives you and idea of what we did.
The race started easy enough with sand dunes. Maddie loved this section! Next was sort of a dog walk type apparatus with deck steps and missing boards.
Maddie did not appreciate the missing boards so she bailed off early and made me do it alone. She waited for me though. :-)
Then into our first water obstacle.
Maddie had a Holy-Crap-I'm-Not-Doing-That moment and I said "yes, you are". She did great and was quite pleased when she survived.
Then into the stream we went. We had to go under several railroad ties. Big sections of the race were through the water. Maddie was definitely the right dog to bring with her huge pillow pads on her feet. She is bred to run on rocky ground and handled the rocky stream bed with no problems.
I think we climbed over the cars next. This was pretty easy for Maddie.
Next, we had to crawl through sand. This was Maddie's first time crawling and she did great!
Maddie was on a 15 foot long line. So on the jogging parts of the race she loved to get ahead and try to pass our running buddies and making me run faster. She jumped through the window jumps perfectly. She was just trotting up ahead of me and I told her to "jump" and she did.
And then back into the water we went and through a drain pipe. Thankfully the drain pipe was bigger than the agility tunnels, but it was kind of scary and Maddie balked a bit, but then followed me in.
Unfortunately, the reward for her bravery was a drop into deep water on the other end. Sorry, Maddie!
At that point, she did not really have a choice and I just pulled her out.
She was again thrilled when she survived. Tail up and happy again.
Then onto a familiar obstacle. An a-frame. Although this one was much larger than an agility a-frame. Maddie got up and over willingly with no problems.
Then we had some nice big tunnels that she recognized as such. Without thinking she went right through instead of trying to go around.
I believe the another drain pipe was next. It was much longer than the last one, but at least there was no drop. Maddie followed someone else and went ahead of me.
Then lots of stream trekking and trail running. We had to throw 2 balls through a tire. And drag a tire to a certain point and back.
We had a couple of sections of climbing or jumping over things in the water.
We also had to jump/climb huge wooden spools and large round hay bales. I had to climb, but Maddie easily jumped on and off. I would tell her to jump and she knew what to do and she impressed the jump judges. We then had some exhausting hill work for the last third of the race. Serpentines straight up and straight down a steep hill side. The 15 foot long line was great because Maddie could go ahead and then wait for me. Towards the very end, we had a long climb that was very tiring. Even Maddie started to look a little less peppy and was not pulling ahead as much.
The last hill we had to climb was not that big, but they covered it with tires. Maddie resisted, but once she got going, she got through it.
But then surprise! A ledge to jump off into deep water!
Maddie does not dock jump so I did not pull her off the ledge. I allowed her to go around. Then into one more set up tunnels.
That emptied into this.
This was not a fun crawl and it was pretty low for big dogs. I ended up pushing it up with my back so Maddie could crawl through the last section.
Then one more small a-frame and onto the finish line. I believe our final score/time was around 1 hour and 20 minutes once penalties were factored in.
After the race, I was thinking I would not sign up for it again, but a few days later and I'm thinking... I just might! :-)
Pictures stolen off FB from Friends and strangers. Ha!
