I just wanted to thank everyone for coming out to the first sanctioned AKC Fast CAT event held at our place. Maria and I, along with the West Volusia Kennel Club, truly appreciate your support. Our hope is to make Fast CAT events something that brings people together for the love of the sport and their dogs. It's great exercise for the dogs and we all get to watch some amazing animals tear it up down the track. I wouldn't want to be that lure!
By the way, I just wanted to give kudos to Karen Ashe's dachshund. He may not have been the fastest dog on the track but I have to give him credit for being the smartest. Rather than waste energy chasing the darn lure, he just started chewing through the line. That would make catching the lure a lot easier! A big bravo for Bravo!
It took 6 months of hard labor and a lot of love to build our track and get to where we are now. What started out as a wild idea for spoiling our corsos has turned into something much bigger. The WVKC has been very helpful in bringing this all together and without the club's support, last night wouldn't have happened. The same can be said for everyone that showed up to participate.
We had 32 dogs run last night. I think that's pretty respectable for a rescheduled event. Some folks drove a good distance to be there. Fast CAT certainly is addictive if you've got a dog with high prey drive. Maria and I have driven over two hours just for 8 seconds of track time with our boy Ty.
By the way, Ty made his first official run of the year last night. Ginny Merchant was kind enough to take over the lure operator position while Maria and I launched our corso cruise missile. He came in just under 8 seconds with 7.95 seconds. Not bad for a 135 pound dog!
Surprised you, didn't he Ginny!
That's 25.7 MPH! If he could average that, he would be the #10 corso in the country. Last time we ran him at the Fast CAT Camp he turned in a 7.93 second run so I think he can do it. Maybe even a little faster. We haven't been properly conditioning him. Now that I have finished the track project (mostly) I'll have more time to work with him.
On that note, don't forget we have Fast CAT Camp on Friday nights. I think we have one more session of the first camp offering. Even if you didn't sign up for all four sessions of the camp, you can still show up and pay $15 for the 2 hour session. It's lots of fun and keeps the dogs in top shape. Plus, the proceeds all go to the club.
We have the timers going so you can track your dog's progress. I hope to be able to offer a Fast CAT logbook for all the dogs that run here. Being a pilot, I'm all about logbooks. On one hand they're a good way of tracking your dog's health and on the other hand they can give you insight on the dog's overall performance - over the span of weeks, months, and years.
Looks like I already have another project...
Maria and I are striving to make running your dog at our place a fun experience. We hope to come up with better ways of doing everything so less time is spent doing paperwork and stuff like that and more time is spent enjoying the dogs running. All the folks that ran last night will be getting a survey form to fill out so we can get your feedback. We already had some great ideas suggested and we'd like to hear more. I hope you'll take the time to fill them out. We really do want to hear from you.
One last time - thank you for coming out last night.
It may have been just another FCAT event for many of you but it was a very special night for Maria and I. Now we have to get all the information sorted out and sent off to the WVKC and the AKC. But for those that don't want to wait until the official results come out, I'll be posting the unofficial results in my next blog. There's got to be some value to my blog other than me rambling on about things.
See you at our next events in September.
Mark
