This week was the Ohio State Fair Jr Dog Show for 4-H youth. In Ohio any dog project members are eligible to participate if they are prepared to attend. The Ohio 4-H dog show is huge – 5 days and covering activities like freestyle, agility, obedience, rally, showmanship, knowledge, and more. I’ve helped with this event for about ten years and it’s been exciting to watch so many kids (and dogs!) grow up as well as all the changes to the program over time.
On Saturday we were in the Denny Hales arena for agility. The kids get up to 3 runs a standard (kind of “everything”), jumpers (only jumps and tunnels) and a strategy game (obstacles worth point values).
Monday through Thursday we were in a different building to do everything else. We had to transform the empty building to one with nonslip mats and ring gates. Setting up actually only took around two hours thanks to some great help. Teardown at the end was actually harder – rolling the mats up is exhausting and the further you get on a roll, the heavier they get! The area we cover is about 50×200. Huge!
This was my favorite drill team. They had Harry Potter themed music and costumes.
We had showmanship, rally, obedience, tricks, CGC testing….and probably a few other things.
I’m always impressed at how much they can do. Many adults wouldn’t show their dogs in such a busy, crazy environment. Some pick just one or two things but many are doing several different activities and have to learn the rules and skills needed. There’s disappointment when things don’t go as planned and times dogs do better than expected – and times when placements are better than expected because no one did particularly well.