Dog -gone Almost

   The agility course was set up  for the 4-H dog show,  and dogs and  kids  were ready.   A beagle showed early promise but would not  participate in some of the obstacles his handler chose, and so didn't accumulate as many points as he could have.  A little pomeranian was willing but its small size limited what it could do, too small to see the light at the end of the tunnel and too light to move the teeter board. I had already predicted victory would go to the only border collie in the competition, but he apparently was new to the obstacles and lost his focus.  A very pretty boxer took the apparent lead, performing very well at whichever obstacle he was faced with.  I thought he would win until the next dog, a golden retriever, entered the course.  At first she was goofy and distracted but settled down and ran through the remaining obstacles at record-breaking speed, and then decided on her own to repeat some of them, which accumulated extra points. 
      I wanted to see whether the boxer or the golden was the winner, but I had to leave after the next entrant.  The handler of the tiny black poodle took the leash off her dog, as most handlers did.  The dog, probably weighing only about 3 lbs., was doing fairly well for her size, and running the course very quickly when while running at a high rate of speed ran right  underneath the sparse railing at the end of the barn out into the roadway just as a tram was passing by.  Everyone was aghast, the young girl running from the building calling her dog, one man flagging down the driver and several other people looking underneath to see if the dog was there.  Of course the show stopped while the search was underway.  I think the dog, traveling at its top speed, might have run right beneath the moving vehicle, but I couldn't wait to see.  As I was leaving, probably 5 or 6 minutes later, a group of people entered the building in hot pursuit of the poodle, still clocking about 20 mph on its tiny little legs.  I don't know which animal won the obstacle course; I suppose  they resumed the competition, but I didn't stay.