P.S. Tika Not Sore

SUMMARY: Just went for a short walk--

--maybe 3/4 miles, leisurely, on the flat. As I was getting the leashes out, Tika was doing explosive leaps straight up into the air, all four feet of the ground; spinning and dancing wildly; and of course making a joyous noise unto the hall. No sign of a limp at any pace. Gah. It's that on-again, off-again that's so hard to figure out.

On Judging and Tika

SUMMARY: Last weekend and through the week.

Friday May 18

Friday before my UKI judging trial, we did the Stairs From Heck as usual. Tika was even more reluctant than usual to go up the second time, but I insisted.

That afternoon, out in the yard, I thought I saw a little limp. Or, no, no limp. Or, maybe? No, definitely not. Wait--maybe?

She was perfectly happy running full tilt around the yard to play, so I didn't think more about it.

Saturday

Saturday morning, we weren't starting until 9, so it was actually lightish out when I hit the highway, and I felt as if I had actually gotten enough sleep.

On the freeway as I was crossing the central valley, I passed a string of old but beautifully restored cars obviously on their way somewhere together. They made me smile, but I regretted that I couldn't take any photos.
To my delight, when I got to Turlock and pulled off the freeway, there were a ton MORE old cars at the coffee shop next to the freeway exit, and I had plenty of time, so I stopped and took a bunch of photos. Will have to post them separately later. They just don't make cars like this any more!

At the trial site, Tika stretches fine, she runs fine in the open field, she walks fine, but when she moves up one pace (trot? I'm so bad at paces), there was a bit of a limp in the front. Didn't slow her down. She looked eager to do agility. We were signed up to compete in only 3 runs on Saturday. She had a great jumpers run--pretty fast, happy, jumping well, grabbing my feet at the end. But when I got her out of her crate for the next run an hour later or so, the limp had become very pronounced (although still only at that slightly faster pace, and she still stretched fine, etc.)

Even though Tika had been on rimadyl since friday, the limp at that one pace showed up periodically all weekend.

So I scratched her from her remaining two runs.

Dustin judged Saturday--this was only his 2nd time judging--and he's a natural. So calm and in control, good sense of humor. Good courses, too. He's a frequent chief course builder, so that helps, I'm sure.

Boost had a great jumpers run--and she actually Qed and won, compared to Tika, whose handler (yeh, me) walked the course wrong and neglected to do a serpentine between two jumps instead of a 280. Boost's Standard and Speed Stakes courses were messes of bars down, runouts, and the like, but boy her jumpers was gorgeous. I offered to trade it for a USDAA Jumpers Q. Sigh.

We were done on saturday at 1:30, then a bunch of us sat around at the picnic table in the shade and snacked on chips and fruit to avoid the heat (90s maybe) while some of the dogs played in the water. Tika kept a close eye on the snacks on the table; Boost kept a close eye on the other border collies. Bump, as usual, had a lot to say.

After that, we drove 45 minutes--halfway home!--to Ghirardelli chocolate's factory outlet for hot fundge sundaes. And that was lunch.

Sunday

On Sunday, I judged. A very busy day--there were so few competitors in each class--about 7 on average--that we couldn't keep up with the course building and tweaking in the other ring, so there was a lot of sitting around waiting for me to be available or the course to be built (with only about 20 people on site, half were working at any given time and half were running their dogs--a great group of people!). We started at 9 a.m.; I judged 10 classes (2 standards, speed stakes, jumpers, gamblers; 2 levels each); and we were done by 1:30.

I actually ran Boost on my novice speed stakes and my senior jumpers courses because they looked fun. We did OK but not perfect. I also got Tika out, because she kept voicing off when I'd take Boost out (which means she wants to go, too, which she doesn't do when she's not feeling well), so I ran her at 12" in a circle and off the course again, and she seemed happy about that--ran great again, but that pesky limping-when-at-a-trot was still there.

I had a good enough time judging; everyone was really nice. I think my courses were too easy--almost everyone qualified in almost everything, especially the gamblers, where only knocking bars or being out of position disqualified people. Oh--I should say, almost everyone who actually competed qualified--I'd guess that 5 out of 7 runs all weekend were NFC (Not For Competition) because people wanted to practice, so it was a like a fun match with the option to actually compete for points and ribbons.

Here you can see the ENTIRE crating set-up for everyone at the trial. REALLY small.

I learned that I shouldn't put all the high point gamble obstacles on one side of the field--too easy to get all those points! Although people appreciated it.

I loved watching some really good handlers with really fast dogs do amazing things on the course, from right up close.

I sometimes had trouble remembering what I was supposed to be doing--wasn't in the right place for a couple of contact calls, for example, but otherwise I was there. Because the rounds were so short, I'd just get into the swing of where I was supposed to be and how to get there, and it would be over.

I'm not sure that I'm cut out for standing in the sun all day and judging. I did slather on the sun lotion and did not get burned. I wore my street shoes at first, thinking, what the heck, I'm not doing that much walking, right? Wrong! Blisters on both toes by the time I realized that my feet were uncomfortable, so switched into my agility shoes and my feet were happier.

It was a nice enough, pleasant day--much less stressful than competing, that's for sure!--but I also didn't come out of it thinking, oh YEAH, I LOVE judging! Especially not with the hours of course design work ahead of time. I'm signed up to judge again in August at another UKI. Will see how I feel after that.

Monday and the rest of this week

So, come Monday, I didn't do the stairs from heck because I didn't want to go for along walk without the dogs, and I wanted Tika to rest some. The way it worked out was--we didn't do ANYthing ALL WEEK, didn't do the stairs even once, and only one short walk. But playing in the yard, yes. And Tika was fine fine fine. Until we got to class Thursday evening, where for jollies I put her over two 12" jumps, and she moved slowly, knocked both the bars, and came up short with a yelp. Remained hunched over, circling on her leash, for the whole evening. Yelped periodically when something would happen.

Does this dog look sore to you? Other than that the wind keeps blowing the door shut on her?

Mostly her circling kept wrapping her leash around the stake to which she was attached, but I watched from afar with disbelief at one point as she circled Boost, neatly wrapping her leash around three of boost's ankles, pullling it tight, and knocking Boost over onto her side--no rodeo cowboy roped a calf more neatly than that! But as I ran over, both dogs started to panic and Tika yelped some more, so after that she went back into her crate in the car.

Gave her a rimadyl before we left the site, and 20 minutes later at home, no hunching over or anything. But she remains in a want-to-run, want-to-play-tug, no apparent problems mode, and then briefly a little limp, briefly a yelp and then she's fine again.

Trying to find one of the chiros who might be able to give her a work-over before we compete this coming weekend.

Ratz ratz ratz.

Gratuitous dog photos

Paula (Dustin's dog)

Dig (Bump's "sister")

Booster!

Goodbye, Tala

SUMMARY: Boost's amazing mother is gone. (11/1/00 -5/22/2012)

I learned last night that Boost's mother, Tala, died Tuesday at only 11 and a half.

She was diagnosed very recently with leukemia, and apparently it was quick and aggressive, because just like that, she's gone.

It was less than two months ago that she competed at the AKC Nationals, at her age, doing very well against much younger dogs in the regular classes (as I noted with video here).  And Greg was conceding that maybe next year he'd enter her in Preferred instead of the Regular classes.

She was an amazing competitor who, after a rough early start (knocking bars and running past jumps, things like that) became the Dog Who Could Do No Wrong--she'd even run for just about anyone and do very well, although I think she really sparkled with Greg. Through her career, she often had highest score (as mentioned in this post and several others) or fastest time on the courses she ran. She appeared in the USDAA Nationals finals multiple times.

She wasn't a doggie dog--f'rinstance, once her puppies were grown and out of the house, she was done with them. She was into having a job, and whether that job was running agility or obsessively bringing back a toy--any object will do--she didn't much mind. And she was as reliable off the field as on. When I attended the judge's clinic in 2010, Greg was doing some remodeling work on the multi-acre site, and just turned Tala loose for the day. If there was activity, she'd be there to check it out--some of us ran her on the test courses for judges, because she was there, wanted to work, and never got tired--or if there was no activity, she just hung out quietly in the shade.

One of the tests for the judges was to examine a course to make sure it was ready for competition, and one of the "traps" that you were supposed to notice was a water bottle lying on the field. Whenever someone was out wandering around the field, Tala would trot out to the water bottle, pick it up, and drop it at your feet to be thrown. Tough to convince her that it wasn't actually a toy!

Blackwatch Hi C-Era Tala had both her USDAA championship (ADCH) and her AKC championship (MACH)--which I noted here--where you can also see how much she and Boost looked the same doing the teeter.

She'd have probably done a lot more if she hadn't taken time off during her career to have four (?) litters of puppies, all of whom have been amazing dogs, and many of whom look so much like her--here's a comparison of Boost, Tala, and Rowdy, for example.

My apologies to all those who have patiently explained through the years which litters their dogs came from, but here's who I can remember (who can help me out here?):

First litter?: Wyn...who else?

Second litter: Boost, Beck, Bette, Gina, Derby (and two other dogs who I believe don't do agility)--all of whom (other than Boost) have their ADCHs and I believe at least one other championship (MACH or C-ATCH). Gina and Derby have competed at the national level in USDAA and AKC and have done very well; all are smart, super dogs who want to work.

Third litter: Quas, Quik, Rowdy...is Roulette in this group? or Smarty Joanz in this group?--I believe that the first two have their ADChs, don't see enough of the others to know.

Last litter: TCam, who at 3 already has her ADCH and MACH and won her way onto the world team; also Tonic, who doesn't compete that often but who looked like a pro even as a novice--and I should know who else but don't remember.

And some of those pups--definitely Gina and Smarty Joanz--have already produced some amazing Tala grandchildren who ALSO look a lot like Tala (and Boost)--f'rinstance, as shown in this post.  If you have links to your Tala offspring or grandchild's photos, let me know, and i'll post them here.

So although she is gone, and way too young as too often happens--she lives on and on and on.

Thanks to Tammy and Greg for letting me have one of her puppies.

Boost

Tala

To post here later: Gallery of the tala photos that I already have...

In The Garden

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday

To appreciate these more fully, I suggest going here and double-clicking the Slideshow button.)

A Day Photos

SUMMARY: My choices for the "A Day" project.

Here are the 10 photos I picked to contribute to the May 15 "A Day" global photo project, along with their stories (why I picked them, basically):

http://www.aday.org/profile/7838

All About My Photos

SUMMARY: The three ribbon winners from last week.

As noted in this previoius blog post, some of my photos won some ribbons. W00t!

The Sunnyvale photo club does this nice thing where the ribbon winners get to say something about how and where they took the photo.

You get a bonus--my notes *and* the original files for comparison.

Mystic Pathway

The Pole Field at Byxbee Park (adjacent to Shoreline and Baylands) is "environmental art" built atop an old landfill. The tops of the poles form a single plane, which gives a little bit of forced perspective, making the crushed oyster-shell path weaving through them take on an even more mysterious air of vanishing in plain sight. Taken in the evening of May 2, 2012, while on a brisk conditioning hike with the Sierra Club. These folks don't stop for nothin', so when I'm with them I take only my Canon S100 set on full auto for quick snapshots. But I'd never seen this Pole Field before and it resonated with me immediately. I let the group get way ahead of me while I found a composition that I liked. The photo was muddy and the sky bland in the automatic photo, so I applied a graduated neutral density filter in Lightroom to bring out the clouds and then brightened the shot in Photoshop Elements. (5.2mm, ISO 100, f/4.0, 1/200)

Original:

Final:

After the Rose is Gone

This rose hip is less than an inch across; lens about 18" away. Taken in January 2010 in my front yard. I was shooting all the flowers that were in bloom as a way to check out my new Canon 100mm macro lens on my Canon 40D and suddenly noticed that even the rose hips were quite colorful. You might laugh that this was also an auto exposure (because I was just testing what the lens could do). I switched to aperture priority and took several more shots at different angles, but after seeing them on the computer, I kept coming back to this spontaneously shot one. I played with exposure, contrast, saturation, and cropping for over an hour, but in the end, this is exactly as shot with only the contrast increased, which really made the colors pop. (100mm, ISO 400, f/4.5, 1/200, pattern metering, auto white balance, probably with a tripod)

Original:

As submitted:
Not how much clearer the red and green are, compared to muddy in the original, and the red seems to shine now and seem more 3-dimensional.

Another possibility:
The judge suggested cropping in one or both sides, and I've also read that sometimes an angle coming in from the left side draws you eye into the picture more (because we read from left to right). How about this?

Brown Pelican Fishing

In August 2011, I borrowed a Canon EF 100-400 lens specifically to try to get some bird shots with my Canon 40D. I often see some interesting water birds at Almaden Lake Park, so I went there, expecting to see Canada geese, mallards, and maybe some egrets. This was one of a few pelicans, and he was the only one to get off his wet butt and try feeding himself. I panned with him as he repeatedly scooped with a big splash and flew on, ending up with about 30 shots, most of which were useless. He was about 250 feet away, so even at 400mm, I had to crop in on this shot. It was noon, and the lighting was tricky with the reflections on the water, and--well, yes, i was in auto exposure mode AGAIN. Tried several different crops (including very close and also vertical) but liked this one with a lot of room in front of him because he was moving quickly and I think this crop implies that. Sadly, that cropped out his reflection; maybe that's a different crop for a different feeling. Tweaked the exposure and contrast in the raw editor until it looked right, and sharpened it slightly. (400mm, ISO 640 [set it higher to enable faster speeds], f/10.0, 1/1000, spot metering, auto white balance, had a tripod with me but not sure whether using it at this time)

What most of my shots looked like (this is cropped way in):

Original:

Final:

Couple of other possible crops:

My Photos Have Merit!

SUMMARY: May photo club results.

The Sunnyvale Photo Club, of which I am a fairly new member, runs a photo contest every month for members. Each month, four out of the the several defined categories are made available for members to compete in, and each person can enter up to three photos. Categories are judged according to the club's rules (check out Sunnvale's categories and rules). Clubs can tweak their own rules and categories, but apparently they're all based on some standard set.

Judges come from all over the area and are different every month. The judge reviews the photos as they're displayed on a screen in front of the club (photographers' names aren't known at this point), saying what they like or how they could be improved. Also may disqualify a photo if it doesn't seem to fit the rules for the category in which it's entered.

So the judging is a lot of subjectivity; one could get a ribbon from one judge and not from another for the same photo (although you can't keep entering the same photo over and over).

Judge can award several Awards Of Merit in each category, a best of category, and a best of show.

My previous entries have mostly gotten comments like "huh, it's a photo." [perhaps I exaggerate, but basically yeah.]

In this previous post, I showed the three photos that I entered this month.

I was delighted when "After the Rose Is Gone" got an Award of Merit--my first-ever ribbon! Then Mystic Trail got Best in Category in General Pictorial B! Wow! And then "Brown Pelican Fishing" also got an Award of Merit in the Nature category! Wow wow wow! Guess I'm not completely helpless after all.

View all of May's winners in a quick slide show on the photo club web site.

When my Mystic Trail photo award was announced, someone said that someone else had won a while back in the Creative category with a similar photo by adding a horse skeleton, so I dug around in the previous winners, and here's Robyn's very creative version (she also won this month--shown in the same slide show as my shots-- with her "His Time Had Almost Come" Dali-esque and unusual combination of multiple photos). I guess I'm not the only one who gets a mystic feeling of the unknown or unknowable on that path.

Fitness for Agility Addendum

SUMMARY: Forgot to mention--getting there and teeters.

FYI, the Stairs this morning took me 2:54 the first time up and 3:14 the second time up (after walking the 3/4 mile back around to the base), using a stopwatch this time.

Forgot to mention about class last night:

Boost's teeters and dogwalks were lovely. I've been putting out targets in class fairly often again, and she went straight down and nose-touched, sometimes repeatedly, at the end of each. Just like the old days! Whether that translates to doing straight-down nose-touches in competition rather than coming of the side, dunno. But it's nice to have that behavior back.

Getting there: I felt last week that I was doing a good job of hustling to be where I needed to be. This week, over and over, I wasn't. They weren't easy sequences, but I watched so many classmates just seeming to take a couple of steps and be where they needed to be. I think it has more to do with when I actually start moving. They're fond of saying, "It's not how you get there, it's how WHEN you get there," including when you start moving. My timing, after all these years, is still pretty bad. Sometimes on the 2nd or 3rd try I'd actually get to where I needed to be. Could there be do-overs in competition, please?

That's it for now.

Fitness for Agility

SUMMARY: How we're all doing, and preparing for the UKI judging weekend.

I'm gone this weekend to the UKI trial in Turlock. Judging on Sunday (but I also get to run my dogs on a couple of my courses to try them out--Laura says that the judges in England do that all the time).

Competing a little on Saturday mainly to support the club and my fellow Bay Teamer Dustin who is also a newish judge. So I'll "judge" him while he runs his dogs on his courses and he'll return the favor on Sunday. (We can't compete on our own courses, but even Not For Competition runs must have a judge on the field.)

Wednesday on the Stairs From Heck (some days they feel much worse and are obviously From Hell), the second time up I did them in close to 3 minutes, give or take a few seconds. I think I did them more slowly than the first time up. Wish I'd timed them the first week I was doing them to see whether there's been an improvement. Off to do my Friday attack shortly.

Last night in class, Boost could NOT get a weave pole entrance approaching with the slightest turn to the left--ALWAYS skipped the first pole. Jeeeeeezzzzz! Before class, I was just doing a little warm-up and she couldn't get it, so I softened the angle, softened, softened, softened--and as soon as it was straight on, fine, but one step to my left and she skipped the first pole again. This flashes me back to wayyyy back when i first couldn't figure out why so often she couldn't make her weave entries and other times she got even really hard ones--and realized in another flash of insight that it was always the approach to the left. The approach that's supposed to be easier because the dog can wrap around the first pole. Nope, couldn't do it in practice, couldn't do that entry in class, either.

Back to square 2 again.

Tika looked fine, eager to go. She sure does loaf around the house more these days--although, must say, when the leash comes out for a W-A-L-K, she still catches some air leaping straight up in the hallway for joy.

This weekend I'm hoping we'll be done by, maybe, noon both days. Wouldn't that be a treat! And looking forward to the experience of judging. Have to remember some differences from other venues:

• In Gamblers, teeters are 3 pts, Aframes are 4 pts, and only the dogwalk and 12 weaves are 5.
• In Snooker, there can be 4 reds but dogs may *attempt* only 3 of them.
• No up contacts judged.
• In Gamblers and Snooker, you MUST stop the clock or you lose all your points!
• In Gamblers, whether there is a "no loitering" rule is at the judge's discretion!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

About Tethering Dogs

SUMMARY: Apparently I'm swimming against the stream here.

The vitriol that people use against other people who tether their dogs in the yard is amazing. More and more places are passing laws where it's illegal to tether your dog in the yard. Period. There is apparently no room for situations where tethering actually makes sense.

Let me give you two examples.

Example one.

When I was a kid, the neighborhood we lived in was a nice, basic, middle-class neighborhood. And none of the yards had fences. You were considered a weird antisocial freak if you put a fence around your yard. Our family dog liked being in the yard and could entertain herself for hours with a toy or a stick or a rock (not that we gave them to her--she'd just find them or dig them up). Normally she was in the house with the family or out in the yard with us kids. But sometimes it was nice to let her be out in the yard on her own for a while. And if the whole family left the house for longer periods, it just made more sense sometimes for her to be outside (potty issues, like that). She always had shade. We never left her outside in bad weather conditions or anything like that. It was a good solution and worked well for all of us. This was not an abused or neglected dog.

Example two.

As an adult, one of my dogs--Sheba--a Siberian Husky--couldn't be confined in the yard. She went over, under, and through fences. We added concrete and electric fence--didn't help. Added Invisible Fence--helped some but she'd still get out sometimes. When we were gone for even a short time, tethering was the only way to keep her safe (at home, out of traffic). She was never near a fence where she could go over and hang herself, always near drinking water, always had shade and shelter. I don't know what we'd have done if tethering were illegal. (And actually just tethering wasn't always a solution--she could slip collars and harnesses, too. The combination of that plus the Invisible Fence was the only thing that worked fairly well.)

I use a doggie door so that my dogs have access to the house as well. If we closed that and confined her to the house while we were gone, she sometimes would break through a window or tear up carpet, doors, or curtains trying to get out. So locking her in the house wasn't always an option.

None of my other dogs have ever been tethered (or needed to be). She had freedom of movement, ability to potty, and interaction with the environment and our other dogs that way, none of which she'd have had if I had to put her in a tiny wire crate whenever we left the house, sometimes for many hours at a time.

And, dunno about you, but I think that's a better solution for the dog than building a permanent concrete and chain-link kennel, in addition to that being an expensive and space-consuming option.

Antitethering laws are general-purpose laws made because some people are idiots and that ignore situations for when tethering makes sense.