Archie, The Delicate Flower

For weeks, the outside temperature has been only a couple of degrees cooler than the surface temperature of the Sun. Nonetheless, Archie is convinced that he is not able to get even a moment of proper sleep at night unless his entire body is in contact with mine and he is covered with a blanket. As soon as Archie is ready to sleep (there's always play time first!), he will begin pawing at my arm, which means he wants me to lift up the edge of a blanket so he can slide under it, preferably right next to me. A complicated dance ensues as I try to cover him without having the blanket cover any part of me. Why would I need a blanket? I’ve got a 12-kg, fur- and blanket-covered heat factory attached to me all night long. 

I'm quite excited that Archie starts agility class this week. The local club holds its agility classes outside, so I hope that it cools off as predicted in the next couple of days. I am not sure my delicate flower from the PNW is ready for the heat and humidity. I bought him a cooling vest, and plan to have plenty of cold water and a fan for him. For us both!

I introduced Archie and myself to the club via email. They asked me to do a brief skills test with Archie and one of their instructors. I thought that was reasonable and readily agreed. The instructor had come up with a rather difficult Jumpers-style course that was 17 obstacles in length but that only used 9 obstacles so most were repeated in various tricky ways. Archie of course crushed it. She then said, what about his contacts? I ran him up and down the Aframe a couple of times. He nailed that too. Weaves?, she asked. To show off a bit, I rear-crossed him as he flew through a set of 12 poles. No surprise, then--we are in the Advanced Class. It will be interesting to see how this goes for us.

I'd like to find a private instructor but that is going to take more time. We are going to need to start going to trials, get known by the AKC agility community out here, let word get out that I'm looking for that.