Some weekends we have the luxury of staying at home and driving back and forth to shows, but this is a rarity. Often handlers handlers drive hours upon hours every week to get to shows where they believe their dogs have the best chances of winning. These hours of driving on the road can be tedious, tiresome, and stressful.
Feeling like a truck driver????
Fast food multiple times during a week, let alone a day is one of the yucky parts of being on the road. We have time lines and shows to make so fast food is often the best and only choice. The cons of fast food are obvious, we hear about all over the media, fast food is bad for your health. Handlers need to be fit to constantly run circles for a living, so eating fast food and snacks while on the road can create problems.
Keeping awake adds another element of stress while driving. It is a little known fact that handlers often hold rock concerts in their trucks while on the road! Sometimes there are drummers, guitar players, singers all wrapped up into one determined driver! Others need brakes from music and listen to books, talk radio or just a time for silence, it's all about what is going to keep you awake to get to the show you need to get to.
The stress of driving these big trucks and motorhomes over mountains, through traffic, through construction can be overwhelming. Breakdowns are unfortunately inevitable, it's how we have to handle these situations make all the difference. Keeping the dogs that travel with us in safe, comfortable conditions is always a top priority. Driving white knuckles for hours on end, then arriving at a show and having to immediately start working can be exhausting. This is one the hardest things to do as a handler in my mind, drive hours on end then immediately turn it on and get going with taking care of the dogs and interacting with other handlers and clients when you've had a bumpy drive.
I bet some handlers drive more miles than some truck drivers! Are you one of them?
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