Morey's Big Weekend

Last weekend was the USQRA Wheelchair Rugby Mountain Sectionals in Phoenix Arizona. The good news is that we qualified for Nationals and will be going to Alabama for the National Championship in April. Aside from that, it was also a big weekend for Morey. It was the first time I had taken him to a tournament we had to fly to, but as usual, he took it all in stride.

He was great on the plane. He acts like such a natural and just settles down right at my feet (and the feet of the people next to me; luckily my teammates this time). He also scored me a bulkhead seat again : )

Another new experience for Morey this weekend was riding on a bus with a lift. I had started to condition him to it at a previous tournament-getting him used to the noise and feel of the metal grating surface. This time, he walked on and gave a look of surprise when it started moving but didn't react other than that. The bus driver was very impressed and said he had never had another service dog be able to ride the lift. Yeah Morey!! There were 10 people and wheelchairs on the bus, so Morey had to squeeze in some small spaces and at one point was sitting on one of our support staff's laps. Good thing Morey is loved by everyone!

At the tournament, he settled in his collapsible crate during our games. There was another service dog there and several pet dogs and although at first he wanted to play, he was very good at redirecting to me.

One interesting thing I hadn't considered in our trip to the desert was the lack of grass. There is rock and gravel everywhere and asking Morey to "hurry" in that confused him. The hotel had small patches of grass, but during the day at the gym he had to settle for lamp posts. I need to start getting him used to going "hurry" on surfaces other than grass. The Phoenix airport had a dog park with gravel and sawdust and by that time Morey was very grateful to have a place to go.

I was very proud of Morey for everything he had to deal with this weekend. He acted like a champ the whole time and earned many compliments and new friends. Everyone on the rugby team likes having Morey around.

Our flight was delayed and we arrived back in Austin at 4am this morning. That made for a long day at work and I was more jealous than ever that Morey could sleep all day! He deserves it though! Pictures will be posted soon!