a Taj MuttHall Dog Diary: 6th Photo

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

6th Photo

SUMMARY: An exercise from the "taggers" gamebook.

There are multiple meanings for "tagging" in the blogosphere (read my earlier post on this topic). Here, we leap into the fray with the type of tagging in which someone does xxx on their blog, then says to you, "I'm tagging you so that you have to do xxx on your blog, then you must tag nnn more people to do the same."

OK, I don't play that game. Unless I want to. And, if I want to, I'll do it even if I'm NOT tagged. But then I let others self-tag as I did if the game appeals to him or her. Here's the game as described in a Many Muddy Paws post:

Check your Photo Archives (or wherever you store your images), select the 6th file folder, open it, post the 6th picture contained there, and give the story behind it.


I thought, wow, I have a weird way of storing my photos, and this is a dog blog, and I don't want to post a blurry photo of my attempt to find a missing sprinkler valve or the like... plus I have nested folders within nested folders within nested folders.

But, when I followed the rules as best I could, here's what I got, and I'm happy to post it:


This is Jim Basic in September of 2001 with Mick, his first agility dog. Mick was the first dog in the US to earn agility championships in two different organizations. In USDAA, he was in the Top Ten in all four categories in multiple years. He was the first to earn the top lifetime award--platinum--and for a very long time had more Masters Qs than any other dog in existence, even after he retired. In fact, he's still #22 on the list, about 4 years after retirement.

In this photo, they're in the Grand Prix National Championship finals in Del Mar (near San Diego). They know that they have to hustle to try to win; they have to scrape together every fraction of a second that they can manage. And they're doing it, they're looking good, but Jim knows that he has to give everything he's got for one more win.

And so Jim makes an extremely daring, aggressive, and risky front cross right before the last jump of the run--and misjudges his turn, resulting in the photo that he probably most regrets of any I ever took:


(Note Scot Bartley in the background, calmly giving Jim a fault for touching the equipment--) With great humor, Jim just rolled over, laughed, held up a piece of the now-broken jump in victory, and said hello to Mick, who thought the whole thing was quite interesting. Jim has always been a good sport on top of being a tough competitor, a talented instructor, and a friend to his dogs.

6 comments:

  1. I have the video of that run and I laugh so hard every time I watch it. What luck you were ringside and able to get a photo of it.

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  2. I'm sure that Jim is glad that he's left a legacy that has made such an impression on so many.

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  3. Oh my! What a great photo, neither the dog nor the human having landed yet. Sounds like he's a great sport.

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  4. Ouch! That looked painful. But he still looks happy despite all that!

    Butt wiggles,
    Solid Gold Dancer

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  5. Priceless! When you see top competitors do 'silly' things it sure makes us beginners feel better!!! Am sure he would appreciate that. Now I don't feel so bad :)

    Was having a great first Masters Jumpers run, was actually giving some high level national folks a run for their money; tough long course; miss judged a front cross on the last jump and ended up 5 inches from the bar with forward momentum carrying me. Johann and I jumped the last jump together :) And we both fell to the ground in laughter. Great Master initiation.

    Bet you were super pleased to have that show up for your meme!!!

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  6. Fortunately no one has caught any of my equipment tumbles and crashes on film. So far. The most painful was running full-tilt into the up end of a teeter. That really hurt. But Remington (whom I was running at the time) thought it was hilarious and started bouncing around so enthusiastically that I just had to get up and finish the run with him.

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