The Agony and the Ecstacy

SUMMARY: Another USDAA weekend under the belt.

(Photos by Erika Maurer.)

What a weekend.

Weather was perfect.

Friends were fun.

Both dogs were healthy and happy and eager to be running.

Tika picked up 6 more Qs towards her LAA Platinum (out of 9 Qable runs), pretty good work. Now only 26 to go. Even eked out a Snooker Super-Q somehow, and a first place in the second Snooker (although not a Super-Q). And a 1st place in Steeplechase Round 2 (made easier by the fact that we were the only team who ran in our height class).

Both dogs qualified in Steeplechase Round 1, and both brought home a little cash from Round 2! That never happens! (Together, the amount almost pays for one dog's entry into Steeplechase. But that's not the point.)

Boost did not knock one. Single. Bar. In. Eleven. Runs. I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. Very very happy and I don't know what to credit that to. Someone joked, "is she on drugs?", and I said yes, but just antibiotics--oh, and hydroxizine for itching--and suddenly I had this flashback to some other weekend where she didn't knock bars and was on some kind of drug and I wondered whether that affected anything. Wish I could find supporting info for that memory. Will have to figure out how to search for it among all my posts. Jeez, it would be terrible if the only time she ran that well was when she was drugged up somehow.

Boost's contacts were all perfect.

She and I had some amazing runs. Including:

A Jumpers Q!!!! That's 5 and her Jumpers Master title! I thought I'd never see the day!

So, yeah, there were a lot of very, very happy things indeed.

And then, there was the agony.

The Jumpers run that Boost did perfectly on and then, 3 obstacles before the end, I put my front cross in the wrong place and pushed her past a jump. Augh!

The Snooker run that we did the opening perfectly and really fast and then, on the spot where I knew I'd have trouble (threading between two jumps to get to the correct one), I tried pulling her to me and it didn't work; she went off course. (I ran Tika after that and, instead, did sort of a front crossy thing and it worked much better. Sigh.) So another handling error.

And then ending the day Sunday:

• The Standard run that was perfect and gorgeous and fast and driven and we were flying and doing all these complicated things with perfect execution-- except in one spot where she was ahead of me going into the chute, which fed into a jump right in front of her and she ran towards it but then turned back to me to see where I was before going over it--refusal! Right in front of her! And I was running towards it! And saying "Go! Hup!" Why why why why why?
• The Grand Prix run that was A-MAZ-ING through 18 of the 20 obstacles, I was running on air, it felt so astonishingly world-champion-like, to the Aframe, where she was stopped perfectly. Only 2 jumps to the end.  I calmly walked through a front cross so that we could do the last two obstacles in a nice smooth arc, released her--and she was so busy looking at me that she never even looked at the first jump, which actually saved her because the judge didn't call a refusal when she almost backed into it her way towards it. Finally went over it, but then, running straight at the last jump, she got so busy looking at me AGAIN that she kind of peeled around in front of me and pushed backwards past the plane of the jump, and so we DID get a fault, on the last *@&*!* jump! Why why why why why? 
• The Snooker run that we did the opening perfectly and really fast and got through 4 in the closing and all we had to do for #5 was run in a straight line and I did and she was so busy looking at me that, when she realized there was a jump in front of her, she dodged around it! Why why why why WHY? I was there to work it, my line was perfect, my feet were in the right direction, I was running through it, not stopping... Auuuuughhhh!

And those were my last 3 runs of the weekend, so those are the ones that really stick in my head, even now, 4 hours later. I just don't understand. I can't think of anything that I did wrong on those, and I don't understand why those jumps were any different from any of the other more challenging obstacles we'd done all the way through the rest of the courses--those were the *easy* bits in each case!

Of course I have no video to analyze.

Deep quivering sigh.

Oh, my beautiful Boost, it is SO nice when you run fast and well and take obstacles and I can run and be there to work every jump, but why does it suddenly fall apart like that? People watching me said that maybe I was too excited, but actually in both those cases I felt completely calm because those parts were almost gimmees. And I really don't believe that I did anything wrong on any of them, and no one identified anything specific that I did in any of them.

Anyway.

I am trying to bask in all the amazing runs where Boost and I did 95% of each run correctly and fast and accurately and like an actual masters level champion winning team. And the lack of bars down. And the Jumper's title.

But that Thing that I don't understand, that Mysterious Why, will drive me nuts forever.

Thoughts From Last Weekend and CPE This Weekend

SUMMARY: strengths and flaws and fun.

Some things I noticed from last weekend:

• Both dogs left the start line early once last weekend. I don't remember which course(s). I didn't even write it down afterwards. I don't know why I kept running--well, maybe I do: It has been ages and ages since either left before I released them, and I think (a) I was surprised and already starting to move, and (b) I chalked it up to, as Bartholomew Cubbins said, one of those things that "just happened to happen and was not very likely to happen again."  It's random, I guess. I hope.
• Both dogs had awesome downs on the table. Why last weekend? Who knows. I have been practicing a bit with Tika doing quick downs while running or repeatedly on the table at home--but I've done that before with no apparent help in the actual competition. It's random, I guess.
• Boost had some weave pole issues. It's another thing that she hasn't really missed or popped out of in a while, but I think we had 3 different cases--hit the entry and skipped, popped out early, and ran past them completely. Why now? Who knows? I hope this isn't the start of another "I don't know how to do weave poles" era. It's random, I guess.
• Boost actually handles well at a distance but from the side, not behind. Like, it seems to be no trouble to do a huge distant arc of jumps where I'm twenty feet inside the arc but parallel. More trouble if I'm closer to her and parallel, or if I'm behind her. And I think knocks more bars if I'm ahead of her. I'm not sure what this all means. Not sure whether it's random.
• Tika is less comfortable now with me crossing behind her. Need to try to find ways to stay ahead of her and always in her sight. This is challenging, because she can still move pretty darned fast. Dang, now I have TWO dogs that I have to manage more.
• Boost's contacts were lovely. I think she left only one early. Why now? Who knows; we haven't been practicing these the last couple of weeks. It's random, I guess.

This weekend: CPE locally. Only about 25 minutes from my house. I go because it's close, because it's a fun relaxing weekend for me, and because I want to support any trial that's close to my house. Unfortunately we don't seem to get many entries for this trial. I don't get it--we used to get lots of entries for the CPEs at Twin Creeks, which is only about 30 miles away. Oh, well.

So we might not ever have agility really close to my house again. The challenge of living in a dense suburban/urban area, I guess. Lots of conveniences--like I had several choices of which theater to go to tonight for a 3-movie Batman extravaganza--but nowhere to do huge USDAA trials.

Maybe I'll go practice some agility stuff with the dogs. Randomly.

SMART USDAA Day 1

SUMMARY: Tika reliable and slow, Boost fast and, well...

Here's the deal.

We had 6 runs each dog today.

Tika Qed in everything except gamblers, and that's because she was slow enough that she wasn't even close to where I thought she'd be, and so I wasn't prepared, and managed to push her *past* the first gamble jump, which disqualified us, but when I brought her back around, she did the whole gamble perfectly.

My overwhelming feeling is of slowness. She's still Qing with plenty of room, but plod plod plod--compared to her former self and of course compared to Boost. F'rinstance, her yards per second today in standard was about 3.4, which is among the half dozen slowest YPS she's ever gotten on standard courses--all of which have been in the last 6 months. So, yeh, slow.

She even placed:

• 3rd of 9 in  Standard (but, as I noted, slow, so a lot of that was other people with faults)
• 4h of 7 in Gamblers (and got few enough points that, even if she had Qed, she'd still have been only 4th
• 3rd of 9 in Snooker--I picked a lower-point course for ease and comfort
• 4th of 8 in Jumpers--a full 6.5 seconds slower than the winning dog who ran it in 22.02
• 2nd of 5 in Steeplechase--2 of the 5 E'ed
• 2nd of 9 with partner Chaps in pairs relay--and if she hadn't seemed so uncertain in 2 or 3 places, we'd have made up the half second we were behind 1st.

So, yeah, I'm happy and sad at the same time. I'm not quite jollying her through the course, but she doesn't seem drivey at all. Doesn't seem sore or unwilling, but also grabbed my feet only at the end of the first run of the day and no others, so she's not her normal excited self.

I worked on managing her more, to avoid recent hearing-related communication issues, but we still had some iffy spots anyway.

Boost, on the other hand,  NQed in everything except Steeplechase, and even that wasn't lovely-- Backstory: Second run of the day was Gamblers, and I was pretty sure we weren't going to get the gamble, so I went for points points points in the opening for Glory. And indeed, we had the highest opening points of all 40 22" dogs and the 2nd highest out of all 96 dogs at the trial. And we were in a good position for the gamble, but we failed it in 2 different ways. Anyway, after the 1st contact, she realized that I was releasing quickly and so started self-releasing and instead of nipping it in the bud, I let it go so that I could get my Glory. (Which, incidentally, no one else pays attention to because we didn't Q.)

As a result, the rest of the day she continued to self-release, so in Steeplechase she was ahead of me going over the aframe and didn't even slow down, just came off and turned back to face me, so I had to put her into a down to get myself past her to finish the course. Other than that it was pretty nice--kept up her bars, got her weaves fine, etc.

Boost E'ed on refusals and runouts in 2 of the classes today, sigh. 

It was a beautiful day to be out in the open air at Prunedale doing agility. A little warm in the sun midday, which might have contributed to Tika slowing down. Heat never used to affect her, but now I notice that it does. Don't know what that's going to be like as we get into summer!

We came home this evening and I put Boost over some contacts and tried to get her to release early, to no avail. Maybe that'll be  a reminder.

Oh--and practiced some fast table downs with Tika; hmmm, come to think of it, it has also been only the last few months when she hasnt' wanted to go down on the table in Standard, so that sure could be the main thing affecting our yards per second, and today was no exception.

Also, for years I've been putting Tika into a down-stay at the start line, because the Sit-Stay was too tempting for her to stand up and take off early. Lately, she's been not wanting to go down at the start line, either, although I've insisted. Twice today I gave up and let her sit. Sure enough, she was already up and creeping forward at the end of my lead-out, but she hadn't actually taken off yet.

Funny. Odd. Different. Strange. All takes adjustment.

I guess I'll go back tomorrow and give it all another go.

Boost Two-On Two-Off Aframe Intensity

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday

(Thanks for the surprise photo, Diana Wilson.)

And In Conclusion

SUMMARY: Weekend's attempt at attitude realignment.

Well, I tried, I really did.

For the most part, I succeeded at keeping the perspective that I enumerated on Friday before leaving.

I fought with the discouraged feelings and often won, but by the last class of the day, when Tika ran past yet another tunnel in Jumpers and Boost got called on a runout where it wasn't anything she did but the runout line was just annoyingly tight, I just lost it again. (I saw several people actually stop their dogs after the preceding jump before continuing to that one in an attempt to not miss the runout line.)  I ran Boost off the course at that point--she had done her obstacles well and I didn't want to ruin it after that with my frustration.

So, on the down side with Tika: She Qed only 4 of 10 classes and placed in nothing (except round 1 of Steeplechase, where she was 2nd, but that just seeds us for round 2). As last year's #1 Jumpers dog and #2 gamblers dog, we failed in both of the Jumpers and both of the Gamblers this weekend. Tika is doing odd things again; running by tunnel openings that are right in front of her is so Boost, but it is not and never was so Tika, and if it's a vision thing, I'm not yet tuned into when that's a problem, and if it's a handling thing, i don't know why that's changed. Her Standard on Saturday was slow in general and very slow on the contacts and really really determinedly not going down on the table slow--we Qed but were only a second or so under course time, which is also so not Tika. She isn't wanting to play tug before runs so much. She's not grabbing my feet after every run, which until VERY recently was a standard thing that she did from excitement and energy. She knocked several bars this weekend, so this seems to be getting worse.

On the down side with Boost, she Qed only 2 of 10 and once again got no Jumpers and no Snooker Super-Qs. That's just almost too painful for me to bear at times.

On the down side with the handler (that would be me), I made mistake after mistake after mistake. Not forgetting-the-course kinds of mistakes, but so often just moving a little too soon or a little too late, the kinds of things that (at least for me) are really hard to fix, or I'd have fixed them before in my 16 years of agility.

I was so discouraged as the weekend went on that I stopped taking notes (and people around here know of me as a prodigious and detailed note-taker) and never collected my very few ribbons. That's two trials in a row. Sigh.

So now I try to remind myself of the weekend's ups.

With Tika, mostly she ran happily and fairly fast. I am glad that a dog who will be 11 in 3 weeks is doing this well. Of the 205 dogs entered this weekend, only 17 were at least 10 years old and only 11 were at least 11 years old, so she's held up pretty darned well. She continues to amaze me with how well she responds to  all kinds of handling situations--rear crosses, really really awfully late front crosses, distance work, sharp angles, whatever.

With Boost, oh my, we had SO many nice sequences. Like:

• Saturday's Jumpers, the first 13 obstacles were spot on perfect, and the last 6 also (in the middle is where I moved just a fraction of a second too soon and pulled her off a tunnel entrance for a refusal). 
• Her Round 1 Steeplechase was gorgeous (except where she missed the weave entry, but it was quick and I was right there and we qualified for round 2, only the 4th time that she's ever done so). 
• Her Round 2 Steeplechase wasn't entirely perfect but very close to it, and she ended in 5th place to bring $ home, only the 2nd time ever that she's done so).
• Her Standard on Sunday was spot on perfect. I held her on all her contacts, as I'm not going for Top Ten points and have no reason to blow them off, so she didn't place, but she missed placing by only a second or so out of all those 22" dogs. Someone commented about her table, "She was almost lying down before she even hit the table." And she stayed down (unlike Saturday, where the butt went up and wouldn't go down again). It was really gorgeous. I might have to buy that video.
• Runouts and refusals were extremely rare, or caused by a blatant handler issue (or in today's dang jumpers, the dang tight runout line). So I guess the running in circles in the back yard is helping.
• She didn't knock nearly as many bars as usual. No bars in yesterday's jumpers, no bars in the half of today's jumpers that we ran. No bars in snooker, only one bar in today's gamblers opening and none in yesterday gamblers.  No bars in steeplechase round 1. Since I stopped taking notes, I don't remember for sure, but for whatever reason the bars  stayed up more than usual.
• Her weaves were wonderful: Other than the one miss in Steeplechase round 1,  she made all her entrances, she did them really fast, and she stayed in even when I moved away quite a distance laterally.
• I think she left a couple of contacts marginally early, but mostly she hit the ends correctly and stayed there even when I ran ahead to get into some useful position.

And the people, as always, are so wonderful. Everyone has their times of feeling discouraged or upset about something, but that's human nature. For the most part, people are helpful, cheerful, engaged, funny, forgiving, encouraging, and on your side all the way.

And then there's this, among all the pouring rain going on outside most of the weekend, with a sudden beam of sunlight touching the far sky and the folks walking a course inside the arena, who a moment before had all been in the rain-cloud darkness:

Training Notes

SUMMARY: A little work with both dogs and myself.

One of my concessions to entering a squillion more agility trials this year  was that I needed to work on the things that have been problems or are frustrating me.

As yet, I have no written, quantified plan. At this point, after months of not feeling like doing anything at all, it is enough for me to feel like training with the dogs, and to actually do it at least for a few minutes a few times a week.

Hence, I've been:

• Practicing deceleration moves with both dogs (that seems to be the move du jour for some reason), after observing that in some cases neither one seems to notice that I've stopped moving.
• For Tika, down on the table, lots of food rewards.
• For Boost, practicing just running and going going going over jumps (and tunnels) without hesitation or looking back at me, over and over and over.
• For Boost, trying to build as much value in doing jumps as in doing tunnels.  (We seldom get refusals on tunnels; we also play in tunnels a lot at home.) So, for example, sending her over a jump to get her toy rather than only running through tunnels or on the flat.
• For Boost, trying to put more name recognition value on "Hup!" She's pretty good at "weave", "climb" (Aframe and dogwalk), "teeter", and "through" (tunnels), but just "hup" isn't one that I ever practiced very much.
• For both dogs, some "out" work (for gambles).
• For both dogs, "touch" to a nose touch at the end of contact obstacles (Tika with emphasis on the dogwalk, because that's what she's most likely to do oddball things on, and not at all on the teeter; Boost with emphasis on the teeter because that's where she's been coming off the side.)
• For me, just trying to get a better grip on getting to where I need to be. I have been reviewing online videos of other people's timing, watching so carefully the people in class who are really good at that with their really fast dogs--which (after all these years) I'm finally remembering has more to do with how quickly you can leave the dog on the previous obstacle than with rushing to get to the next one. Boost has made this more challenging for me with her propensity for pulling off of obstacles, but some things we've been analyzing in class lately, on really learning where your dog is taking off for, say, a jump, is helping me refocus on this. I'm not really fast, myself, but watching the people who are really good at being there--90% of the time they're calmly almost loping into position.
• For me, running. Just lifting my feet and moving. Trying to do at least a little jogging around the yard or a little jogging and a sprint or two when we go to the park.

I'm alternately worried and not worried about Tika's hearing. I think she is having some hearing difficulties. Oh, no she isn't. Oh, yes, she is.  I keep thinking back to Jake and my earliest introduction to his hearing deterioration was that he seemed to blow me off on course when I was clearly and loudly calling him or giving him clear and loud verbal instructions. Tika is sort of manifesting the same thing. Sometimes.  Like, she always used to send to tunnels fine. Now she's turning back to me more often, as if not certain what I want her to do.  Now she's not "COMEing" (in nonagility situations) where she used to be fairly reliable about that. She seems to startle more if she's napping and I touch her or something louder happens. A few times she has started alarm barking when the renter has made some noise in the house, as if she can't recognize the noise or its provenance.

In class, she alternates between doing even complicated courses with her usual not-super-fast experience ease, and then completely messing up things that I thought were simple for us to do as a team, and that often involve verbal cues.

This is an evolving question. I am working on emphasizing COME and her name value with treats, with the assumption that if she's not losing hearing, it will help, and if she is, it won't hurt.

Boost seems to be doing better with the run-run-run strategy, even though I'm only doing it in small loops in my back yard. At least, better in class. Last couple of classes, no refusals at all. .. oh, except that she still still STILL doesn't get the  serpentine cue.  Should work on this again; so far haven't been.

Of course--like this last Thursday night--it's all about the bars. At least one bar in every run, but she was fast, kept going even when I did rear crosses, got her weave entries and stayed in, got her contacts, and did nose touches.

So, yeah, need bar-knocking drills again, too, I suppose. I haven't been adding them in because right now the Take Obstacles In Front Of You seems much more critical.  And I have mixed feelings about stopping dogs and taking them off the course for knocking bars. The experts seem to differ on whether that's effective or causes more problems. When I do drills, I've decided that I much prefer rewarding for not knocking them and not punishing for knocking. I'm not consistent in this.

That's it for now; another note to myself that I'm actually working on things again. Not sure where that little dribble of renewed enthusiasm for training is coming from, but i'm glad it's here.

Not The Way I Expected Things To Go

SUMMARY: USDAA weekend results, plus The Campaign and Top Ten updates.

Wellllll I knew it would be an--er--interesting weekend when Saturday's first two runs started off with Boost getting two Qs and Tika none.

Tika ended up with only 3 Qs for the whole weekend of 11 Qable classes, although she won both rounds of Steeplechase, won both Gamblers (although only one was  a Q), won Snooker.  Admittedly, the courses were very hard this weekend, with very low Q rates, but we mostly lost Qs in stupid ways (leaving the table early, called on the dogwalk up contact, things like that). She ran nicely in Pairs on Saturday but her partner Eed; she Eed in Sunday Pairs on a stupid handling move--she did exactly what I asked her to right after we finished what I considered to be the hard part of the run. Just a comedy of errors. 

We were back to having our usual Very High Gamblers Opening Points; on Saturday, that got us the win even though we didn't Q (because almost no one did); on Sunday, that also got us the win (only 2 dogs in our class got the gamble, but also she had 3rd highest points of all dogs at the trial).

I am starting to worry about bars, though--she had 3 or 4 down this weekend, which is nothing compared to, say, Boost, but quite a few more than she's been pulling in Performance. Something to watch, I guess.

Boost also ended with 3 Qs, and floored me by finishing in the top 3 in TWO classes: 2nd in Standard on Saturday (OK, there were only 3 Qs in her whole class of 22 dogs, but her time was really nice, too), and 3rd in Gamblers on Sunday (again, only about 5 of 27 Qed, but she still had about the 4th highest opening points of all dogs at the trial--would've been higher if she hadn't run past the last jump and tire before the gamble). Happy Human Mom.

She missed one weave entry, which I hope is not the first step descending back into "i don't know how to weave", but her other weaves--what few we did--were nice.

She left more than one contact early, so I used our last gamblers of the weekend to hold her for a long time on 3 contacts and she did that nicely. (And still had 4th highest opening points, with that and running past obstacles. If only...   well, ok, don't go there.)

Sadly, we had meltdowns (defined as multiple incidents of bars down, refusals, runouts, etc.) in one Pairs, one Jumpers, and Steeplechase. Nicely, one Jumpers was pretty darned smooth in the handling and running, except 2 bars came down.

My goals and results on The Campaign and Top Ten:

• Tika Platinum Tournament:
  Weekend goal: Finish the one non-team Q she needs.
  Results: Accomplished (Steeplechase). Now on to December to finish (I hope) that last team Q.
• Tika Platinum LAA:
  Weekend goal: Earn Qs at [at least] the 60% rate she's been earning them since we moved to performance almost 2 years ago.  That should've been 6 or 7 Qs out of 11 possible.
  Results: Jeez, 3 Qs, a paltry 27%.
• Tika PDCH-Gold:
  Weekend goal: Well, with our 60% expected Q rate, we should've been able to knock off 5 or 6 of these.
  Results: We got two. (Gamblers and Snooker.)
• Boost ADCH:
  Weekend goal: Well, trying not to be greedy and hope for two Jumpers Qs AND a Snooker Super-Q, but one of the three would be nice.
  Results: Zilch. Not surprising, really, but discouraging.
• Boost ADCH-Bronze:
  Weekend goal: Other than needing the ADCH and a slew more Jumpers, she also needs 3 Gamblers.
  Results: Got one of those Gamblers.
• Tika Top Ten Standard [not officially in The Campaign]:
  Weekend goal: Want to get  "a few more"  points to keep us in the top 10. A 1st place either day would've gotten us 5 each; 2nd place 3 each; 3rd place 1 each.
  Result: One pathetic 3rd place, and it wasn't even a Q. But I'll take the 1 point.
• Tika Top Ten Snooker [not officially in The Campaign]:
  Weekend goal: As I had observed earlier, our only chance in Heckaroonies to make it into the Top Ten this year is to win this weekend's one Snooker AND the December Snooker, and even so, that probably won't be enough. So actually I abandoned this as a goal. Our Q rate was so low on Saturday that I just wanted to pick something very easy and flowy and not even care if we placed, just get the Q. Not only was it a low-point run, but we also knocked a bar on one of the obstacles, making our score even lower. 
  Results: Oddly enough, we won anyway, for 5 Top Ten points. This could just be giving me false hope that we could do it again in December, because based on our history this year and the expected competitors, that's still very unlikely. But maybe...
• Tika Top Ten Gamblers [not official etc.]:
  Weekend goal: None; we have plenty of points for this year.
  Results: Well, we won *both* gamblers, for 10 more points--and one of them we didn't even Q. That moves us up from 3rd on the list to a very solid 2nd place. In other words, just bragging points.

I've updated the tracking page for The Campaign  and for Tika's Top Ten.

Practicing Contacts II

SUMMARY: Am I making progress?

What I've really discovered is that my dogs no longer have excellent "touch"es on the little clear plastic targets. If I'm holding it in my hand, pretty good, but on the ground, pft!

That's on top of Boost (in particular) apparently having forgotten how to run to the end to do the touch EVEN IF I remind her half a dozen times beforehand. Example, I put her onto the dogwalk downramp, tell her "touch" as I release her, she goes to the end, touches (more or less) and I give her a treat. Repeat 5 more times, with her starting further up the ramp each time.

Then go all the way to the beginning and do a normal dogwalk, and she not only drops her front feet off the side instead of doing a touch, but also stands AND BARKS AT ME! This is from a dog who has never been much of a barker.

OK, Nancy G, you don't have to tell me "I told you so," because I remember over & over when we were in class & Boost was young and had gorgeous contacts so I stopped using targets that the risk was deterioration of criteria, and I just went my merry way while her contacts remained gorgeous for about 3 years...

When did I notice deterioration? A year ago? Two? Doesn't matter, they're really decomposed now. So back to the drawing board.

Meanwhile, we're finally getting some hottish weather here, after one of the coolest July/Augusts in history in San Jose. Fortunately, this weekend's USDAA trial is in Prunedale, right on the coast, so--we hope--not too hot, because I'm sweatin' just sittin' here typing. We can't all sweat, but there are other ways of keeping cool--

Practicing Contacts

SUMMARY: Hey--I practiced!

I did about 5 minutes with each dog on dogwalk contacts with a target at the end and clicking and tossing treats on the dog's far side (not facing me). Actually practiced! Whether that will make any difference in either dog's contact performance remains to be seen, after years of gradually decaying criteria.

In fact, after a whole bunch of fast, rewarded contacts in a row, I removed the target and Boost immediately came down with her front feet off the side towards me again. Gads.

But at least we practiced *something*!

Itchy Itchy Itchy But Agility Progress

SUMMARY: Boost scratching and does well in class.

Last night was our weekly agility class. Boost did pretty good (except for bars bars bars). No refusals or runouts except for the usual, *normal* kinds of handling issues that one might have. We even got a compliment from the instructor on how much Boost seems to have improved.

Here's the thing: We didn't go to class last week. My agility practice for the last three weeks has added up to approximately the following:

• A few weave pole exercises.

So, go figure.

We (and others) got called out on how sloppy our contacts have become--a known issue with Boost, who has for some time been stopping on the dogwalk with her feet off the side where I am (if I'm behind her) rather than straight forward, and has sometimes progressed to just coming off the side entirely. Something else to work on, besides maybe going back to bar-knocking drills.

Neither of which, frankly, I still have any particular urge to do.

Meanwhile, Boost has been scratching like crazy. This happened last year briefly, but this year has made a ferocious return appearance. Tried benadryl for a couple of weeks, no luck. Like, as in, scratching for 10 minutes straight in the middle of the night.

Saw the vet Wednesday morning and talked about the different levels of treatment, and his preference is to try things with the least side effects first, which I agree with.  He said the doggy dermatologist reports that this hay fever season is extremely high, so dogs with any kind of sensitivity or slight irritant are more likely to dive right into the deep end of reaction.

So she got a shot of dexamethasone for short-term relief to try to break the cycle of scratching, a prescription for hydroxyzine, and a spray bottle of GentaSpray (gentamicin sulfate with betamethasone valerate).

Well, that worked great--for about a day and a half (probably the Dex), and then Boost scratched off and on, sometimes with insane intensity, most of the night last night. I'll give the treatments another day--erk, well, hmm, another day would put me on the weekend, wouldn't it. Hm.

Meanwhile, I have this to say: Zzzzz.

Gold!

SUMMARY: More titles in Tika's amazing run of Qs. Boost had some good things.

Tika tried to be very consistent today:

• 3rd in Steeplechase round 2
• 3rd and Q in Jumpers
• 3rd and Q in Standard
• 3rd and Q in Grand Prix

But dropped off a bit:

• 4th, no Q, in gamblers (although she still had excellent opening points--a send that worked well with boost int he gamble didn't work with Tika, go figure)
• 4th and Q in Pairs Relay, last run of the weekend.

So Tika was 9 of 10 for Qs for the weekend.

I didn't realize until I got home that that final Q in Relay did two things:

• Completed Tika's Performance Relay Champion Silver (25 Qs)
• Completed Tika's Lifetime Achievement Award Gold!!  Woo hoo!  350 lifetime Qs in Masters, P3, and Tournaments. 

Never thought I'd get to LAA-Gold. (According to points listed on the USDAA web site, I count only about 200 dogs that have ever reached this level.)

Now I can think a little about LAA platinum, which very few dogs get--500 Qs. That's a lot of trials, a lot of Qing, and a lot of time during which Tika would need to stay sound and happy. I think that's pretty unlikely, though--the last 150 Qs took us a year and a half. What are the odds that Tika will still be hale & happy as she nears her 12th birthday, given her history? Time will tell--who knows!

Boost's weekend looked like this:

• Weaves: Never popped out early, missed entry only once.
• Contacts: Held them all in 2on/2off position even when I did weird things.
• Table down: Fast and stayed down (2 tables for the weekend).
• Start line stay: Solid until, once again, last run of the weekend, pairs, when she left early & the complexities cost us a Q.

And that's about what I can say about that. It does occur to me that, without working on fixing the problems, and continuing to pour entry fees and frustration into her agility so-called career, fits that definition of insanity that you've heard, i'm sure: Doing the same thing over and over and expected the results to be different.

She did, however, paint the tip of her tail blue and purple; quite a few dogs have been sporting colors at our trials lately.

Dogwalk speed

SUMMARY: Timer built into the dogwalk.

Where I train now has beeper/timers built into the dogwalk, and the Aframe is coming soon. So you can use the beeper to indicate when the dog hits the yellow zone (e.g., if you're doing running contacts), or attach the timer clock, which times from their first hit on the up contact to their first hit on the down contact.

Boost's time Tuesday night was 1.32 seconds, 2nd fastest that I saw (another Border Collie did 1.23). And I've been thinking that she slows down for the descent. Pretty darned cool.

I didn't notice Tika's time.

I wonder how fast Boost's sister Gina's fabulous running dogwalk is? Didn't film any of Gina at the Regionals, but it sure looked good.

These Are Not My Beautiful Contacts

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday. (Thanks--I think--friend Sarah for photos.)

x

Fixing the Danged Contacts

SUMMARY: Boosts, once lovely, are broke. Tika's, always struggling, are broke. Plus some useful definitions.

Definitions

• Two on/two off (2o/2o): Stops at the bottom of the contact with two feet on it and two feet on the ground. A common strategy for ensuring that the dog hits the contact zone, because it is an easily teachable position.
• Running contact: A *trained* pattern in which the dog doesn't slow down on the descent but must run through the end of the board, not leap from it.
• Maintaining criteria: Choosing a way in which something should be done and then refusing to accept less than that. For example, for 2o/2o, not accepting the dog running past it or leaping off it. (That's after you've been through all the training process, of course.)
• Running contacts through gradual relaxation of criteria: Agility-dog-training joke.

Tika's Contacts

In early training, her contacts were lovely, fast, accurate 2o/2o. That meant things like, if I was way behind her, she still ran full-speed to the end of the contact and stopped; she didn't slow down and wait for me. And she *stopped*. Until there were squirrels in the training facility (remember on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride where the voice says, "Thar be squirrels ahead!"? (During the 30 years before the dang move-based renovation anyway.) That was the warning in class!

We fixed that by putting tika on a 20-foot lead, which the instructor held while I ran tika on the contact, and when she flew off after the squirrel, she came to an abrupt and ignominious end (of the lead, that is).

She's been just about perfect just about always in class even since, but I have fought with it at trials for lo these many years. A few years back, I just stopped. I was spending trial after trial after trial giving away my entry fees because I'd do something to correct her or stop her on the contacts when she tried to run through them. Turns out that she was hitting the yellow contact zone most of the time, and she was fast but not as fast as many of those Border Collies, so I've been accepting the "modified running contacts" (as one innocent admirer called them).

Except that means that I have to babysit the contacts. It does make a difference in how i run a course. Like last weekend's Grand Prix, where I really wanted to be 10 feet away from her on the dogwalk to get a critical front cross. And she bailed BIG time.

Or in Steeplechase Round 2, where I got almost right on top of her on the Aframe but she still bailed BIG time.

I'm thinking that it's the rubberized contacts. They are SO quiet and the surface is gentle and easily gripped, and I think it accelerates the dogs!

Boost's contacts

Have always been lovely in class. (You know how it goes.) And were pretty good in competition, too, although--

Well, see, we started with a nose touch at the end of the contact (to keep the dog focused forward) and, despite warnings, I dropped that criteria. So Boost started running to the end and swiveling back to face me. That's a problem when I'm trying to go straight or turn away. And then she started leaving the contacts without waiting for my release --I'm afraid I encouraged that by releasing very quickly in things like Gamblers and Steeplechase.

Last weekend, she stuck only one of all the aframes, dogwalks, and teeters that we did. One. Which makes it very hard to get distance and assume that she'll be facing the correct direction at the end of the contact. In the past, slowing down and making her DOWN when she leaves early has fixed the problem. Well, that didn't work Saturday.

So Sunday I picked her up and took her off after she left the contacts early (well, ok, except in round 2 of the Steeplechase.)

I'm going to blame some of that on the rubberized contacts, too.

So--fixing them--

Hard to fix nonsticky 2o/2o when the dogs do them fine at home and in class. They're way past where me doing things like crossing in front, saying "good dog", moving suddenly, throwing a toy, and so on will get them to break.

In class this week, I bumped up the level to my most excited and devious. Got Boost to break once with one method and another time with a different method, and then she was solid. So I got the instructor involved. NG appeared suddenly on the opposite side of the contact as I yelled "touch!", and NG yelled in an excited voice while running, "yay, get it!" and threw a toy. On the dogwalk, Boost watched with fascination but didn't break; on the Aframe, she broke, we repeated, and then she was solid.

Tika? Ha! No food involved, Tika didn't care what the instructor was doing. Continued with rock solid contacts, completely ignoring NG.

Sigh, so this weekend--Regionals--3 days--

Sooooo with Boost I probably will take her off the course again if she leaves the contacts early. I REALLY need reliable 2o2o. I hope the message gets through.

With Tika, I dunno. In competition, if she's going to do 2o2o, she tends to slow way down, so I like the speed of the "modified running contacts." And she's 9 and a half now. And I fought with them for SO long, I just don't want to go back to it.

Did take a couple of seminars in running contacts, thinking they'd be perfect for her, but the training is (seems to me) far more rigorous than the 2o2o, and I've just never felt rigorous enough. Plus REtraining contacts after 8 years, yeah, well, good luck with that.

Guess we'll see how they look after the minor catches in class! Wish me luck!

Boost in Flight

SUMMARY: Photos from July USDAA.

A teenage photographer (Gadabout Photography) came to the SMART USDAA back in July and took a ton of photos. Didn't find any of Tika, but here are some of the many Boost photos.

Boost keeps a low profile going over the Aframe. She's pretty fast, flying close to the surface.

She always hits pretty solidly in the yellow zone and almost always lands two on/two off--but whether she'll hold it and wait for my release is getting iffier. I'm kinda wishing I had taught her a running contact, although, boyohboy, if I think I'm falling behind her *now*--

When she's ascending to fly over a jump, her ears fall back--

But descending from a jump, those floppy little ears fly straight up! That'll be the only time you'll see her with pointy ears.

This could be part of our bar-knocking problem, although I haven't asked any experts for analysis--she's leading with her left foot but also looking left, meaning she'll land on the wrong lead and/or try to change directions in midair, possibly knocking a bar.  I wonder whether some dogs always tuck the same foot under when jumping and it's OK, or whether this is a symptom or cause of some of her bar knocking?

Here's another one--she's clearly jumping to the right and leading with the left paw (which would be correct if going to the right), but looking left, so I miscued or she misunderstood--too bad I never see any photos of her with the bar coming down! Maybe the photographers just never put those photos up?!

I wanted to find a nice photo of her jumping from the side, and, ah ha!, here's one--

Oops, but wait-- what's wrong with this picture?

Boost seems to get a thrill out of doing the teeter--and of course of taking off running again afterwards. Dang ear flipped backwards on top of her head again! Makes me crazy!

My 2.5-second-weaves Booster!

Flyyyyyy-in'!

We Coulda Been a Contenda

SUMMARY: The successes and the almost-champion-of-the-universe-but-nots.

HEALTH: I remained symptom-free after about 8 p.m. Saturday night. Slept mostly OK until actual hunger pangs and hunger headache woke me middle of the night. A banana and a can of Diet Coke(R) with caffeine took care of those, respectively. In the morning, got up to the alarm and went to the trial without incident.

Early on, stuck to the bananas, pretzels, and 7-UP that seemed to have worked the best over the last couple of days; felt fine. At lunch, I headed to to the vendor fully intending to order plain rice and chicken (hey, works for dogs with upset tummies). BUT. Well. They had BLT on the menu. And that got my cravings moving, so I ordered one dry and on a whole-wheat pita. It was delicious, and I continued to feel just fine. So I guess I'm done with whatever it was. Whew!

DUST: I crated in the limited crating area in the arena, which we reserved for trial committee. I might never do that again--there was so much dust that I'm going to have to dismantle everything I own now that it's home and clean them individually to get rid of the grit. Horked up dust for half an hour after packing up. In the future, would rather walk the extra 40 feet and set up my canopy on the grass. Too bad; it was very convenient there.

Coulda been a contenda #1: I forgot that we (and many other CPE events) offer Perfect Weekend awards: If you Q in all available classes, you get a special ribbon. Tika Qed 8 out of 8 this weekend, but because I wasn't there for the first two classes Saturday, we didn't qualify for the special Perfect Weekend ribbon. Drat!

Coulda been a contenda #2: I'm not too ashamed to admit that I love CPE because of the opportunity it provides to bring home a lot of first place ribbons for us. Tika especially. But, as I noted earlier, we still have to be on top of our game for that to happen. Like yesterday, where we took two firsts but overhandling her on the weaves in Wildcard caused a miscommunication and we ended up in 2nd place.

Today, out of five classes, Tika and I managed to pull down only 2nds in the first four, losing to our usual top competitor Chaps in three of them (due to handling issues in two of them and one, just, well, chaps was .3 seconds faster) and, oh, the angst, losing to Boost in the other! (The only class today in which they competed directly.) Finally pulled it out in Jumpers with a really nice, smooth, fast, bobble-free run for our only 1st.

Tika's Sunday

So, class by class:

Full House: My favorite CPE class, 30 seconds worth of rabid point accumulation, in which I'm always striving to be the highest-scoring dog out of all entrants at the trial. We weren't. Only 2nd highest. That dang upstart Boost beat her by 3 points!

Standard: I don't remember any bobbles (didn't make any notes on this one). Pretty good run, as I recall, but Chaps usually has an advantage in classes with dogwalks and weaves, and indeed they beat us by .3 seconds.

Jackpot AKA Gamblers--Coulda been a contenda #3: Today's was a nonstandard gamble, which amounted to 30 seconds of rabid point accumulation followed by another 18 seconds of rabid point accumulation that required at least a 1, 3, and 5-pointer and then getting to the table to stop the clock within the alloted time to qualify. I had a course that in theory could've wiped everyone off the face of the planet with our stunning accumulation of points.

Before we ran, I watched superfast sheltie Cory, who has nice running contacts, tear the place up with 76 points. I thought that our course could get at least that much if everything went well, but Cory's flowed better. Problem with Cory's plan was that it involved doing three fast and accurate dogwalks, and Tika can't be counted on for that.

So I stuck with my original plan but mishandled in the opening in the 3 places for time-wasting bobbles in all 3 places that I knew would be tough, so then chickened out of the slightly more aggressive closing. Result: 74 points, which was still way more than anyone except Cory, but 3 less than I had hoped for.

However, Chaps ran after us, therefore knowing that they had to push the limits to beat us, and did, and did. (Really pushed the limits--just a half second under time, getting very close to NQing on time.) They had 77 points, for high in trial to that point. [Follow up with Boost's run, below.]

Colors: ALMOST beautiful in really high-style execution, until I ASSUMED she'd go *out* to an Aframe when I said "climb," but instead came past it while I tried to get fancy and race ahead for a super-fast finish. So had to go back and approach it again. Result: Chaps' handler said, "thanks, that reminded me that I have to do an "out" there," and so we were a whole 4 seconds behind Chaps, although still good for 2nd place.

Jumpers: Smooth and fast and a win.

Boost's Sunday

Unlike yesterday, had no problems with weaves that I can recall.

She continued yesterday's trend of not stopping 2o2o at the bottom of the Aframe, but I just tried to anticipate that and use it instead of trying to fix it. Great for speed and point accrual, like as in Full House and Jackpot. But very bad in terms of having a reliable Aframe. Will fix later. (Yeah, right. Danger Will Robinson!)

Qed 4 for 5 (3 1sts and a 2nd) and had several best-in-trial...except oh wait...maybe not quite...

Full House: Rabid point accumulation. When Boost and Tika are both on and I or they don't muck up, Boost is just faster in ground speed and has faster weaves and dogwalk. (Especially when she's not bothering to stop on the Aframe.) Boost had 50 points to Tika's 47 for a 1st--I believe highest out of all dogs competing. What a good girl!

Standard--The Long Down Count: Here's the danger of the unreliable Aframe: If I'm behind her (which I was), she comes off and *comes in to face me* rather than, oh, say, looking for the next obstacle to do. So now she's in my way and I can't get to the correct handling position. I said "down," she downed, I took a step, she jumped up in front of me. "Down," step, jump up. "Down," step, jump up. "Down," step, jump up, "Down," step, sort of stay halfway down enough for me to cautiously get around her. Yeah, she has a fabulous down except when I really need it. (Have been here before.)

SOOO her time was 12 (!) seconds slower than Tika's, but she was in a different group and that was good enough for another 1st place and Q.

Jackpot/Gamblers--Coulda been a contenda #whatever: [Refer back to Tika's description.] So: I stole Cory's plan because it was smoother than my original plan and Boost can, in fact, handle three fast, accurate dogwalks. And we ROCKED! Oh, man, she was fast, she loved the course, she handled beautifully, everything was perfect (well, except for leaving the Aframes early, repeat "good for speed & point accrual"), I knew that we could be well past everyone else's totals at the entire trial and all we had to do for the Q and the full bonus points to wrap it up was to go over one jump on our way to the table to stop the clock. Aaaaaaaaaaaand she knocked the bar.

So I had to pull her away from the table to the jump beyond it--iffy now as to whether we'd make time, but still had a chance. Aaaaaaand she did the "what jump? this jump? This one? This jump?" crap, and THEN knocked the bar. I knew we wouldn't Q at that point, but we still needed a jump for the full bonus points, so we went beyond that to the last remaining jump in the vicinity, where she repeated the "what jump? this jump?" dance and finally, with me standing there as calmly as I could and just saying "hup!" she finally turned around, took a good look at it, and went over.

All of that--the speed and the jump drama--entertained the sympathetic crowd mightily. We did in fact end up with a trial high 79 (yowza) points, but no Q. Doh.

Colors--Coulda been a... you know...: A really, really nice run, except that she came off the Aframe early so I couldn't get a front cross in that I needed for a smooth finish and we had a spin and then a turn the wrong way on the two following jumps. However, she still pulled out the 2nd-fastest time of all dogs who ran the course (Chaps was fastest), 17.28, for a 1st and a Q; only 2 other dogs besides chaps and Boost even broke 20 seconds. Without the bobbles, I'm sure she'd have been fastest. But, in her specific group, good for a 1st and a Q.

Jumpers--Coulda been... A really lovely, amazingly smooth run, even better than Tika's, which is saying something. She was almost 2 seconds faster than Tika, in fact, and was indeed the fastest of all dogs on that course--but naturally, sighhh, had a bar down. At her level in CPE, that was still a Q, but not a 1st place.

Wrap-up

Home, no photos (didn't want to leave my camera in that dusty environment so it stayed in the car), pile of ribbons, back to eating comfortably; and now back to our regularly scheduled life.

Training for the Weekend

SUMMARY: Serps, bars, USDAA this weekend.

Yes, boys and girls, we have a USDAA trial this weekend out in Turlock. And, since I've been concentrating on other important things in the meantime [um--facebook?--]*, and Boost turned 5 two weeks ago and Tika turns 8 this weekend, I figure it's time to finally spend some time fixing ALL OUR AGILITY ISSUES before the trial this weekend.

In class this week, Tika did our jumpers courses just absolutely beautifully and looked completely healthy. I'm sure that, had we done contacts, they'd have been perfect as always (they were last week).

It was Serpentine night, and Boost and I demonstrated once again that this is a major chink in our armour: Boost wouldn't come in, or knocked the bar when she did, or in one memorable escapade, took me out at the knees so that my denim-blue-colored fleece became stylishly mottled with mud-colored mud. Both with serps and with blasting through a tunnel, if I'm yelling to get her to come in my direction, she keeps going in her original trajectory full speed while LOOKING at me, and then after evaluating that I'm not moving, makes a huge ugly L-shaped turn to come in to me.

She also [gasp!] knocked bars in several places.

Tika and Boost do some warm-up drills.

So yesterday I actually set up some serp thingies with jumps and tunnels in my yard. Tika did them flawlessly (when my timing was good, anyway, and even sometimes when it was iffy). Boost had a terrible time.

So we backed off to just our customized bar-knocking drills, and after doing about 40 just-one-jump drills when she got to where she wasn't even ticking the bar any more, we went back to the serp drill and broke it down into pieces until she could finally do two at-speed single-jump serps without knocking the bar, and we quit that for the day.

Tika loves her bed. It's the best toy in the universe for playing "Keeeel eeet!" with in the morning. To loosen up for agility, of course. (You like the sign in the background for this?)

Also working on contacts with both dogs. I have suffered for my sins, oh Dogfather! I relaxed my nose-touch criteria and both dogs' contacts have deteriorated. So we went back to remedial nose touches to a target, then standing at the end of the ramp doing target nose touches, then partway down the ramp and running to targeted nose touches, until I ran out of special treats and we left that for the day, too.

I hope I can get more of all of that in today, among packing, going for a nice brisk hike with a friend, and work, and--um--facebook.*

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*OK, some facebook, but really photography and work and random random random things, but saying "facebook" is funnier. I think.

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This Training Thing Is Hard!

SUMMARY: Thanks to my friend Sarah for these photos from Sunday's fun match.

Boost is so intent on watching me as I start lining her up at my side at the start line. She'd probably be a great heeler in obedience.

Boost waiting as I lead out. Is this an intense dog or what?

Tika saves her energy at the start line for more important things.

...Like blasting her way up the dogwalk. Too bad that she slows on the down ramp. She's so fast going down at home when I get her revved up. This training thing is hard!

...Or like blasting away from the teeter. She's not superfast on the teeter; jumps to a comfortable tilting point, rides it down gently, then takes off. Always in the yellow zone, 2o2o not needed, but not the fastest ride down. This training thing is hard!

...Or like blasting away from the Aframe after correctly getting her 2o2o. Again, fast 2o2o at home and in class, just trots down to it in competition or flies off way high. This--er--yes--training thing is hard!

Boost sails over the top of the Aframe. She doesn't usually catch some air doing it, but keeps her center of gravity low and wastes no steps. (Here you can really see that streak of gray in my hair above my ear. Good thing I'm blonde and it doesn't show that easily. Yet. In some light.)

I like this one because you can see the wood chips flying behind her, and those wide-open eyes show that she is having the hyper time of her life out there.

Boost's teeter is blazing. She doesn't ride it down out at the end like some dogs; near as I can tell, she rides it down her and uses the momentum of the slam-down to slide to the end as it hits. Some times faster than others. Wish I could get the fastest version all the time. This, sigh, training thing is hard. BUT her teeter is blazing even when it's slow, so of course I don't work on improving it.

Oh, good lord, who trained that dogwalk? Why is she not driving to the end looking forward? That is SUCH a problem that she's looking back at me instead of driving to the end. Training is... well... you know...

At least this time she actually got one foot in the correct zone (ground at end of board) rather than popping off halfway into the yellow to come back and meet me. I was *warned* that if I didn't keep up my drive-to-nose-touch-at-end criteria, I'd pay for it eventually. I hate when they're right and I'm lazy.

Hey, Well, Qs and Titles are Overrated Anyway

SUMMARY: One rainy day of USDAA agility doesn't have a lot of high points. But dogs were happy to be running!

Saturday was supposed to start with a little rain and then clear up. So it started with a little rain and continued with a little rain almost all day. We were under cover for the trial, but it's a metal roof, so when it started raining, especially heavily, you could hardly hear each other to talk. Wonder whether the dogs could hear one's spoken commands.

After all this rain recently, the huge lawn where we usually play some frisbee at the end of the day to burn off any remaining exercise was a bit of a lake. Dogs didn't much care.

If I had taken time to post "what I want from this weekend" before the trial, I'd have said a Jumpers Q to finish Boost's MAD and a Standard Q to finish Tika's Performance MAD-equivalent (PD3 I think). Short answer: Didn't get either.

Both dogs, however, were delighted to be doing agility after weeks of little or none and after a solid week of rain. I could tell from the way they went at it. Very, very happy dogs.

Tika remained in full healthy form, not a sign of pain at all. Halleluia! I did give her a rimadyl Friday night and another Saturday morning Just In Case. She looked great. She started the day with a lovely Gamblers run in which she completed 4 contacts--not 2o2o but completely solidly legal--and got a high enough score that she'd have beaten ALL the 30 dogs in the Border Collie height (16" Performance)--but dang high levels of competition at her height, only 11 dogs and 2 of them had higher scores (barely--3 pts and 1 pt). She made the gamble itself look like a cakewalk, so an easy Q and 3rd place.

Tika then had a simply gorgeous Jumpers run, never even ticked a bar. One challenging rear cross (for me) and she started to turn the wrong way but picked it up and went on--and that lost us 1st place by .2 seconds. Ah, well, it was another Q and a 2nd.

Then in Standard, where I really needed the contacts to be perfect for her title, she flew off both the dogwalk and Aframe without even trying to slow down.

In Snooker, I thought I had a perfect thing going after the first five jumps but then apparently Tika entered the weaves from the wrong side and I didn't notice it so got whistled off with a whole 8 points. You'd think that after all these years, I'd notice something like that. I can usually tell a bad weave entry even with peripheral vision and half a brain. Ah, well.

She ran beautifully again in Pairs, which was good because her partner had two refusals--but collectively we were fast enough to earn a Q.

Boost-- Ahhh, what can I say, this is a dog with whom I have to do the straight-ahead and bar-knocking drills constantly, apparently. In Snooker, she had a spectacular start--over a red on the far side of the course, between two jumps straight to me and a perfect right-angle turn into the weave poles. Beautiful. Then--she knocked the next two red jumps, which right there not only kept us from a Super-Q but also from qualifying at all, but we continued into the closing sequence (with combinations, 10 obstacles), which she of course did perfectly. Gah.

In Jumpers, in the first 5 obstacles, two bars down and then turned back to me and ran past a jump sideways for a runout. The rest of the course--clean although still way too much looking back.

In Gamblers, we had a good high-score opening going until our last 2 obstacles--looked back at me as she went through the tire and got caught in it and took a couple of seconds to regain her feet but continued without a backward glance, then leaped off halfway down the dogwalk down ramp to come back to me (behind her). So no points for that, and the buzzer sounded, and she was between me and the gamble entry, so I had to calm her enough to line her up, we didn't have quite the momentum and angle I'd have liked, and she hung out before the 3rd gamble jump doing the "what, this jump? what, this jump?" thing 3 or 4 times before she finally took it and then completed the gamble but over time.

In Standard--oh, the heartbreak, we were SO close to a perfect run, and then once again in a straight line of obstacles, on the middle jump, she turned back to me and backed up past the jump for a runout.

In Pairs, she crashed the second jump on a lead-out pivot, looked back at me several times before taking jumps, and then on the last jump turned back to me just as she got to the jump and ended up crashing the metal upright with the side of her head, the whole thing went flying (jump upright, bars, and wing, not her head, although I was afraid she'd knocked a tooth out--but no, she kept going without a backwards glance). We did squeeze out a Q by about 2 seconds because she had enough speed and her partner executed perfectly. Her only Q of the weekend, and it just wasn't purty.

On the up side, Boost's weave poles seem to be perfect again with no apparent effort on my part, go figure.

After we were done, I took them out to the frisbee field and let them splash their way through it until Boost lay down in the slushy grass, panting. The sun came out at the horizon long enough to backlight a few clouds nicely for us.

Then we spent the night at my cousin's house, where Boost proved that now, apparently, ALL smooth floors are evil except the ones at home and ALL water dishes except hers are evil (I never filled in that story over New Years--will have to come back to that) and my cousin finally managed to get her to drink from a large hand-held plastic pitcher. All other offerings were evil. What a strange dog.

We had a great night's sleep, very comfy, chatted with the cousin a bit more in the morning, and came home. Next trial in 3 weeks I believe.

All the News That's Fit To Blog--Plus Clothing

SUMMARY: Boost jumps and dogwalk and weaves, Tika jumps, flying your dogs, Disneyland, Sylvia Trkman, facebook, insurance--whew! Anything else? Oh, yeah, it's all about the clothing!

• In class last night, Boost hit bars like a new 21-year-old on amphetamines. Argh. I was jumping her at 24", not the 22" that we usually do in class (although often use 24 or 26 at home). Will be doing a private with our instructor this weekend to work on bars.
• Also: Contacts! Last week in class Boost left her dogwalk contact early once and I punished her severely ("Oh! My! What happened!" (lean over and grab her as if to pick her up, and in a low voice:) "You have to stick those contacts! Don't be leaving early!") and all of a sudden she wouldn't blast to the end into 2on/2off but instead stopped halfway into the yellow. I immediately put her back on 2 or 3 times until she got the 2o/2o and rewarded lavishly. This week, first dogwalk, stopped halfway into the yellow. OMG have I broken her perfect dogwalk at age 4 and a half?! Dang sensitive dogs! We repeated the down-ramp part 2 or 3 times until she got it, then rewarded lavishly.
• On the other hand, Boost's weaves were perfect all evening! Even the hard ones!
• Jumped Tika at 24". Have been jumping her at 22" lately, too. She knocked several bars. I have to remember before a USDAA trial where she'll be jumping 26" in a couple of runs to get her back up to 26" probably at least a couple of weeks before the trial with plenty of bar-knocking drills at that height. It's always something!
• Southwest airlines is now accepting small pets in the cabin on a trial basis.
• I'm going to Disneyland! Nov 7-8. Staying with my sister & husby at their favorite place, the Candy Cane Inn, which has a convenient shuttle that I almost never use. Which means I won't be doing my club's (Bay Team's) November CPE. Instead I'll do either the Turlock USDAA right before it or the Turlock CPE a couple of weeks later. Nice to have choices! Disneyland, yayyyyy!
• Sylvia Trkman is coming to the Bay Area to do 4 days of seminars! I can't afford all of them, but signed up for a one-day Masters Handling with Boost and two evenings of tricks as an auditor.
• I'm going to try to get onto the FaceBook brand-new choose-your-username-URL land grab at 9:01 this evening to get my choice! I think I'll go for Ellen.Finch if I can get it; if not, maybe TajMuttHall. What do you think? (You have until 8:30 PDT today to tell me what you think. ;-)) The thing is, I'm mostly taking as friends only people that I really already know in one way or another--e.g., local agility folks, relatives, people I've communicated with in blogland--not the world at large. So my own name might be more appropriate. We'll see...
• Still waiting for the final insurance paperwork to arrive for me to sign and send back to finish the settlement on my auto break-in. They said it went into the mail "late last week or early this week." I haven't gotten it yet. Hm. Starting to look into what camera & lens I can really afford on that settlement. And haven't even started looking for a replacement for my Perfect-For-Everything Coat.

A Few Adventures of The Perfect-For-Everything-Coat

Finding the right replacement coat is crucial because--after all--agility [and everything else] is all about the clothing!

Photo junket at Almaden Quicksilver Park Winter 2009Touristing at Cannery Row Dec 2008Hiking at Big Basin Redwoods Park summer 2008Beterphoto.com seminar at Monterey Bay Aquarium Oct 2008
Flying home from Montreal Sept 2008 (reflected in seat-back TV)

Hiked up Black Mountain Spring 2008
Hunkering down at Grand Canyon May 2008

With Tika, hiking at Truckee March 2008
With Boost at Power Paws Camp 2007 (on back of chair)
With Jake and Top Turkey Team, Nov 2005
Tika's C-ATCH Nov 2005