Trying To Give It Up and Not Succeeding

SUMMARY: All those elusive titles.

It's USDAA time again. Fairly local (40-60 minute drive from home). So that's good.

I've done so little training the last couple of weeks that even my previous "very little training" looks like a lot. Even skipped class last week. Did two days of really working on contacts with both dogs (that's maybe 20 minutes each on those two days). Couldn't tell in class last night--Tika's contacts are always lovely 2o/2o; Boost continued to pop her front feet off the side and look at me, although she did one really awesome old-style Boost contact that she got a lot of rewards for. Next time she still stopped off the side.

Boost knocked bars a lot last night.

Tika was checking in with me a lot and a lot of little bobbles where I think she's committed but then she glances at me & changes her mind--all the "new Deaf Tika". She's running fine, though.

I really had hopes about finishing Tika's Gold PDCH. Piece of cake, right, such a Q-able girl? But (I've commented before) this thing about not even being able to get plain old basic Snooker Qs all of a sudden is killin' me. We still need 4 of them. I keep trying simple courses and we muck it up. I'm doing better with BOOST in snooker than with Tika, which gives you an idea of how messed up we are!

I had been thinking of taking most of the rest of the year off from agility, but those dang 4 snooker Qs are going to nag at me, because nowadays I just really don't know how much longer Tika will be wanting or able to do agility.

This weekend at Bay Team: One chance.

Two weeks later at SMART: One chance, unless I want yet again to take a half day off work and do the one they're offering Friday evening. I'm so tired of using my vacation on agility.

Then a month and a half more until my next chance, another SMART, and not sure whether it'll be one or two chances.

I'm skipping the Bay Team regional over labor day.

Two weeks after that, I'm going to Disneyland (I think) instead of that USDAA trial.

Then, after that through the end of the year, there are only 4 more USDAAs, all out of town; one is in Santa Rosa which I'm skipping now--never much liked going up there, and Tika now does so poorly there because of the ambient noise that it's not worth the trip.

I'm guessing I'll be needing to do those out of town ones to try to get enough Snookers, because the way things are going, every month with Tika so greatly increases the risk that she'll be done competing, and every snooker we fail at--well--makes me crazier.

...

And should I even mention the ungettable Jumpers and Super-Qs for Boost's ADCH? I had been kinda thinking that when tika finished her Gold PDCH, we'd take the rest of the year off and give my energy level a break, but now I'm not sure that's going to happen.

Ah, well, the dogs seem to like going to agility things, so I'll try to do my best to just enjoy them. Weather should be SOOOOOOO much nicer than that 105 degrees two weekends ago. Out close to the coast, early morning fog, like that.