Yesterday as we were approaching the acreage where the lure coursing is done, Kipawa started to go NUTS! We've only been there once before. I swear he has a GPS system inside of him! I?ve never heard so much squealing and whining, peppered with lots of ?talking?.
I set up an x-pen my sis lent me. Kipawa had been so good in it last week when I was doing some front yard gardening. I don?t think jumping out of it even occurred to him. However, we are talking about other dogs running after the bunny/plastic bag where Kipawa could see them. All of a sudden I hear ?loose dog?. I turned around knowing it was Kipawa. I just KNEW it!
The lure course area is all fenced off, but that didn?t bother Kipawa. He had at least an acre of grass to run in and he was going nutso doing it. 
All of the other dogs were in their pens. Kipawa would zip near the pens as if he was challenging the other dogs to run after him. This is a game he plays all the time when we meet dogs on the dikes (very safe for off leash). I did get him back into the pen fairly quickly though.
When they were organizing who would run when, I put Kipawa down for 2 runs on the straight course and 1 run on the random (is that the right term?) course. I knew this amount of running would be fine for him because he runs tons every day. Kipawa only has 1 speed ? GO! He just loved the random course. Darn that bunny (white plastic bag)! It would deke him and he would have to change directions. But he's good at that. Yes, I did take my camera but couldn?t get any shots of him running. He?s so fast! I?m going to ask some friends for pointers on how to do this. I know I need a fast shutter speed, which I did have, but there's other stuff I should be doing too.
Then, rookie operator error. I remember Kevin (his breeder with wife Therese) mentioned this last summer when we were introduced to coursing at their place. Don't be anywhere near the cables. So of course when I was retrieving him after the random run, like an idiot I got too close to the moving cable and now have one nasty burn/tear on the back of one of my feet on the achilles tendon. A searing hot cable cutting into you does not feel too good.
Kipawa slept all the way home, laying comfortably in the back seat. When we got home he checked out HIS backyard and then plopped down on the couch with me. I was exhausted too, from the excitement of watching him and from the socializing. There were a lot of people there yesterday. I'm a little bit of a hermit, so having tons of people around is a challenge for me.
We certainly will go there again. It's every weekend unless the owners of the property are at lure competitions. I might have to get a taller x-pen or a cover for the one I have. The funny thing is that they had a little agility course set up and Kipawa only jumped over the lowest jump. But jumping out of the x-pen? No problem. :)
