USDAA This Weekend

SUMMARY: Out of town in Turlock

Welllll we'll see how the little bit of bar-knocking medicine I've given Boost lately helps at all. For the last month or so, I've been trying to stop her in class and in the yard every time she knocks a bar and give her a time out.

Opinions are mixed on whether this is a good idea. I've read some trainers who believe that this just stresses the dog out more. On the other hand, Boost's sister Tcam, who had a tendency to knock bars and got this same treatment I've been doing, just ran two clean runs at the World Championships and placed third in the Jumpers competition. Tcam never looks stressed out to me when we're in class--she is one happy, eager dog with a happy, eager handler.

In class last night, Boost knocked 4 or 5 bars (I'm supposed to be counting but I lost track). Not a good average. On the other hand, her last run of the evening was super duper.

Tika has been--I dunno, getting older? For the last 3 nights in a row, when she got to the stairs to go up to bed, she put one foot on the step, backed off, put it on again, hesitated--looked like she'd forgotten how to climb stairs. Or maybe something hurts when she does it, but she looks fine running in the yard and I've not seen her looking stiff....

Oh, wait, except last night in class when I tried to get her to stretch out against my chest, she wouldn't extend her front legs fully.

Oh, crap, I forgot about that. Well, too late now to find a chiropractor. Maybe it's time to dig out that How To Massage Your Dog video that I put a ticket in for in a worker raffle and won. She did look good running in class, so maybe we're OK.

My knee has felt good the last couple of weeks--I felt like I was really moving comfortably and quickly around the course last night. Hope it holds up.

Weather, thank goodness, is supposed to be mild this weekend, and although rain is coming, it's not supposed to arrive until Monday. Perfect!

I have no specific goals except to try to relax and enjoy whatever happens. The underlying goals are still, as always, to get Jumpers Qs and Snooker SuperQs with Boost, and just as many Qs as I can with Tika in the hopes of maybe being able to finish her Lifetime Achievement Platinum (500 Qs, and we need only 31 more). Not sure we're going to get there.

This weekend, out of 100 dogs competing, only three are older than Tika. But, well, they're still going, and Jake was still going at 15 (well, one run a day; and I've never known how accurate his age estimate was). So, we'll see. If we get there, that would be nice, but I think I'm done running all over the place weekend after weekend trying to get Qs.

So, here we go! Hope you all have a nice weekend doing whatever you're doing, too.