Things That Super Frightened My Pups

SUMMARY: Brave dogs, scardey dogs

I'm talking about things that are way outside the norm, things that could flat-out terrify them.

Who	What	Notes
Amber	Nothing that I remember
Sheba	Loma Prieta Earthquake and aftershocks	She'd lie on my chest for hours (45-lb husky), panting and shaking, eyes looking like she was going into shock. (Amber would just look up and go back to sleep)
Remington	Smoke alarm testing	He'd go hide in the farthest point of our long half-acre yard and not come out for ages
Jake	Nothing that I remember
Tika	Vet's office	In her last few years, would give her a little sedative ahead of time to take the edge off
Boost	Pet stores. Unfamiliar uncarpeted floors.	Various other random things
Chip	Thunder, fireworks	O...M...G
Zorro	Nothing that I can think of

Nature vs Nurture plus Evil Floors

SUMMARY: Who's her daddy?

If you haven't already read this short article about nature vs. nurture in dogs (USDAA posted it in its news feed), you should. It's easily read and has nice diagrams. It clearly describes how both nature and nurture affect a dog's behavior, but that even the best nurturing can't overcome genetic flaws in behavior (and, vice versa, the worst nurturing can't completely overcome genetic strengths).

It's All in How They're Raised (not)

Here's my response:

Thanks for this article; just read in in the USDAA news. I particularly liked it because it followed a discussion with a friend about human children. I commented that she'd done a great job raising her kids, and she said that, no, she was just lucky. I said that I believed it's a combination of nature and nurture, and she said it's almost all nature, because she's seen good kids in bad situations and vice versa. Your article captures the answer to our discussion quite nicely. Thanks.

My border collie (Boost) abruptly developed a fear of unfamiliar flooring (especially if it was smooth, although it could be the exact flooring that I have in my house, just in a different building) when she was maybe 3 or 4. She'd always been concerned about changes to her environment, but this stunned me, because it also included floors in houses in which we had previously spent many days during her life or even weekends visiting. This manifested with the toes splayed out, the legs splayed out, hunkering down for a low center of gravity, and preferably hugging the walls and furniture as if somehow that made the floors safer. Fast forward to when she's 8 years old--still does it, although not quite as much and she can get used to the floors given time and patience. Talking to her breeder one day about border collies in general and reactivity, and I mentioned the floors thing. He said, oh, yes, her father did that his whole life, on *all* smooth floors, even in his own house--hugging the walls, toes spread out. Funny thing is that in looks and attitude, she's so much like her mother (whom floors never bothered).

Previous posts about Evil Floors (some with photos):

• Evil Floors 
• Vicon weekend in Point Arena (scroll down to Evil Floor Syndrome)
• Evil Floors and Working Dogs
• Evil Devil Floors (the very beginning)

Weekend Results--Hopeful and Not

SUMMARY: Training might be paying off--

Saturday: Generally a  good day.

• Pairs Relay: On a lead-out pivot, Boost ran around the first jump. Reset her and started over and we ran beautifully. No Q, though.
• Standard: On a lead-out pivot, pulled off the 2nd jump and (watching the video) I don't think I had even turned yet. Reset her and started over and we ran beautifully (well, except once where I did a front cross and the jump wasn't where I expected it to be, so a bit of time wasting while I figured it out). No Q, though.
• Gamblers. Went exactly per plan, except for a bit of confusion in the actual gamble part--we got it but were *barely* under time. Thought it was a pretty good run--a Q but ended up with no placement.
• Jumpers: Went really nicely up to the next to the last jump when she turned back to me for a refusal, but the rest was lovely.
• Steeplechase: Wahoo, a lovely, fast run! At least, it felt fast to me. Would never have occurred to me that Boost doing a lovely clean run wouldn't Q, but she didn't. I did notice that she hesitated slightly before a couple of jumps, but thought nothing of it. In watching the video afterwards, I see what I've noticed in other vids-- it might feel fast to me, but she's constantly measuring her strides, taking too many, spending too much time looking at me. That made me very sad--despite how well things have gone all day, this tells me that we have a very long way to go to fix things. (I'll see about posting the video later.)  Plus, well, the fastest dogs are so DANG AMAZINGLY fast.
• Which took us up to Snooker, which is the one Q I really want--the Super-Q variety, that is. We'd had a pretty good day actually. NO (!) bars knocked, no weaves missed, only a couple of runout or refusal things. I could only hope--I scouted out a four-reds, four-7s course but decided that it required skills that we are too weak on, so picked a  nice four-reds, one-four and three-sevens course that I was pretty sure that we could do.
  Sadly, however, we were near the end of the running order, and by that time I knew that, to get a super-Q, I had to do at least a 6 and  three 7s, and four 7s was easier--by that I mean that it wasn't easy (for us) but that it flowed better than the 6. So--the part that I thought would be hard for us? It was. On the 2nd red, she did the "what jump?" thing and then knocked the bar, and I knew it was all over. Went a little longer but my heart wasn't in it and I missed an obstacle, so not even a plain Q.

Sunday: Not as good; reverting.

•  Jumpers: Well, we got through it sort of--two knocked bars and one reallllly wide turn (my late front cross). Still, a reasonably good flow.
• Snooker: Picked a reasonable two-7, one-3, one-5 opening that I thought that we could probably get through--only one long stretch where she had to send ahead of me, and of course she didn't--turned in front of me and started leaping backwards. I had to reset her and move again, wasting time--and then turned back to me instead of taking a teeter, which really surprised me. But we got all the way through the opening, all the way through 6 in the closing, over the first jump of the 3 jumps in #7, and on the second jump of #7--she was so busy watching me that she ran past it instead of taking it. I could've just died. Yes, it would've been that badly desired Super-Q. Crap.  SO much work left to do to try to fix years of deteriorating performance. Still--with 3 days perspective--it was a pretty good run over all. It was a Q, adding to our huge stack of useless plain Snooker Qs.
• Gamblers-- Wheels starting to fall off. Some miscommunications wasted time, two sets of weaves and she didn't make the entry on either of them, so not a lot of opening points. I had a good approach to send her out to a tunnel in the gamble (which lots of dogs had trouble with), but I knew that the part where she had to keep going over a jump after the tunnel would be a problem, and sure enough, she turned back to me before the jump. So no Q.
• Standard: Ran past a jump while looking at me. Turned away from a jump in front of her to look at me. Turned away from the weaves in front of her to look at me. Back to our usual messy style. But at least no bars down.
• Grand Prix: Came in past a jump in front of her while looking at me. Turned back to me on the approach to the weaves. Definitely no Q.

 Looking at me and running past or turning back from obstacles is still a huge problem. I guess I shouldn't expect miracles after only 3 weeks of more concentrated and focused practice. Generally, our runs pleased me, but I admit to feeling a mite discouraged at the work that I need to do.

So--Only 3 bars for the weekend, which is pretty good for us. Two Qs for the weekend, which is definitely better than 0.  I'm not completely discouraged--it does feel like we made progress--but will I have the stamina and determination (and time) to keep on it?  We shall see.

We're Still Here

SUMMARY: Boost training, Tika eating, Human Mom...wellll...

Hard to believe that I haven't posted anything since Sept 15. I keep thinking of things to write here to keep track of, but then somehow I never implement.

I've started working more diligently on Boost not wanting to drive ahead to obstacles in front of her. Working in the yard, mostly just running in circles to keep her going. Have rented the big field at Power Paws 3 times to spend an hour practicing. Got one private lesson--two days ago--so I've had only 2 days to practice a few minutes each day on that material. (Also got some tips on improving her weave reliability, you know, the reliability where some weekends she is HOT and other weekends we can't do them correctly EVah?)

I dropped my weekly class for a while so that I can concentrate on Boost's Special Needs. Feels odd--it has been a long time since I've not had a regular agility class or two, but I think that this is what we need right now.

She seems to enjoy it!

Tika started coughing more and more and I took her in to the vet Wednesday. He's pretty sure it's "bronchitis" caused by one or more of: weakening trachea (happens in some older dogs), heart enlarging more and pressing on the trachea, or allergies or dust. Lot of construction going on behind us right now to turn the 300ish-acre parcel into a park (yay!) and the neighbors are complaining about the dust, so could be that.

He recommended upping the hydrocodone that I'd been timidly giving her, and sure enough, pretty much no more coughing.

Although I'm not sure that she isn't a little less energetic. Hard to tell, because she's been less and less active and energetic. Maybe a couple of close-to-full-speed chases after a toy or frisbee, and then is content to just wander around investigating things. Lies down quickly in many cases. Doesn't bother getting up to see what's going on unless she's really convinced that it's worth her while (used to always have a Tika tailing me everywhere, every time I even stood up).

Her appetite seems good as long as I keep rotating through 4 different kibbles (NOT the one she's been eating for 10 years and NOT the one that I bought for her back in August--got tired of both). Although she's SO SLOW now. Old timing on mealtime: Both dogs sit. I set Tika's food down and release her, she attacks it. I set Boost's food down and release her, she starts eating calmly, and...Tika is done already! NEW timing on mealtime: Both dogs sit. I set Tika's food down and release her, she starts picking up small mouthfuls and chewing thoroughly. I set Boost's food down and release her, she starts eating calmly. Eventually, Boost finishes and then stands and watches Tika. Meanwhile, I take 6 t-shirts out of the dryer and fold them neatly. Then, finally, Tika is done. It's eerie, how different it all is.

I seem to be making some kind of subtle commitment to continue doing agility, as I have just bought a replacement tunnel for the most disintegrating one, and I've just bought 2 new (well...used) jumps. No activity on adding dogs to the family, though. I'm starting to be inclined to wait until Tika is gone (yikes, painful to think of).

My foot no longer bothers me--mostly because my back has been giving my muscles and nerves such a nasty ride that I've not been very active. But in the last couple of weeks I've started walking to the frisbee park again, and working on a little agility training again, and trying a couple of new things through the physical therapy department. There might be hope. (I think I'll still be struggling this weekend, but mentally I'm feeling pretty good.)

So, this weekend--off to Turlock for two days of USDAA agility. Boost competes, Tika gets to hang out.

I usually, as we all know, get up at 4 am to drive out on Saturday morning of out-of-town trials, but after getting up to the alarm this morning to go up to the practice field, I decided that I can't bear to do that again (even earlier) tomorrow, so I've done the unusual thing and reserved a hotel room for tonight. MUTT MVR is pretty much packed--oh, clothing! Ok, will get to that in a moment--and dogs got some exercise and maybe, just maybe, I'll be in bed in Turlock at a reasonable hour tonight! Worth the expense this time around, anyway.

See you all on the other side of Weekend.

Working on that Snooker Super-Q

SUMMARY: Steps I'm taking.

So, for the first time in many, many months, I've had the energy and enthusiasm to focus on improving Boost's agility performance in hopes of getting that danged last Super-Q.

I've actually been working on bar-knocking in the yard.

I actually rented the big field last saturday morning and again this coming saturday morning to practice just having Boost drive ahead over jumps. Basically I dropped toys in various places around the field where I could drive her over 2, 3, 4, or more jumps to get a toy. I felt that Saturday went well--she's very happy to drive ahead when she thinks there might be a toy out there. I noticed that she knocked bars when she wasn't sure where the toys were going to be, hmm, something to think about.

It was pretty warm, even at 8 a.m., so we rested quite a bit between runs.

Tika wanted to bark while I was running Boost--this is a no-no, don't want to disturb the neighbors, but if I ran her through 5 or 6 obstacles and then gave her treats, she'd be quiet for a while. Not sure what I'm going to do this weekend--have been instructed "NO barking," so we'll see whether it's cool enough that I can leave her in the car.

Anyway, will work on more of the same this Saturday morning--I decided to sign up ONLY for Sunday of this weekend's 3-day USDAA trial in Woodland, because that's the only day with a Snooker, and I just don't want to be out in the heat in the central valley for 2-3 days.

Tonight in class, there were only 2 of us! I asked whether JB would be willing to do some private lessons/evaluations on snooker, and then we agreed to spend most of class trying to do various snooker-like runs. Boost didn't knock a single bar! And she got all her weave entries! I made a few handling errors, but got no refusals, either. I hope this carries over to Sunday's competition; would sure be nice.

My back is still a mess, but my core muscles are getting stronger as I do my exercises (not as often as ideal, but enough that I notice a difference) and I've been doing some exercycling in lieu of hiking to try to let my foot continue to rest but still work my legs and cardiovascular system. I felt pretty good in class tonight, but with only two of us, I turned into a pumpkin before the full class session and came on home.

But, in other words, the enthusiasm that I've had in the past but not for a long while is back. Trying to hold onto it and keep on going.

Hopes Are Up

SUMMARY: A good evening in class.

I love going up in the hills to class at this time of year.

A few pointers from the instructor.

Sunset over the south Bay Area. South end of san Francisco Bay
is the light area near the horizon on the right.

The only bar that Boost knocked all evening came while I  struggled to get my handling correct for a tight backside/wrap and she pretty much crashed the jump and jump wing; not her fault. She ran fast, worked away from and ahead of me, had lovely contacts. And I mostly got to where I needed to go, but boyyyy do I need to start doing some sprints at home (have I said this before?). It felt great.

EXCEPT for the dang left turn into the weaves. Yes, her long-time bugaboo has returned in force. I finally took her off to the back field for a bit of remedial weave entries and she was starting to get it again. Otherwise, her weaves were their usual amazing speed and she stayed in them even when I moved a long way away laterally. And entrances while bearing *right* were awesome.

Tika got one practice run at 16". She's just not confident about her moves when she can't hear me, but she looked happy to be doing it, and that was the point.

Waiting our turns.

Funny things-- I hooked the Merle Girls' leashes to a pole and went to walk the first course. A minute or two later, a classmate came hurrying by with Boost pulling on her leash... Oh, no, wait, that was Boost's sister, Tcam. So funny, they pull in exactly the same way and their stance and markings are so similar.

So, halfway through the class, I finished an exercise and put Boost in a Down facing me with her back to the end of the exercise. Tcam's mom had already run Tcam, then went back a few dogs later and ran her other dog. When she finished that run, she started towards me, stopped, pointed to Boost (whose back was towards her), and said, "Is that mine or yours?" She thought she had left Tcam in that exact spot, and from behind, they are REALLY hard to tell apart! Yes, Tcam had wandered off a dozen feet or so. So clear that they are sisters! I think Boost is inspired after Tcam's amazing showing at the World championships and at the AKC nationals finals recently.

All in all, a pleasant evening, cool but not cold, good friends, the usual discussions about agility shoes (should one care more about the treads or about the fact that you can get a style that's blue and purple? Tough call), and beautiful views.

Same view, 90 minutes later

Dang Jumpers and Super-Qs

SUMMARY: So close, and yet so far, to lifetime glory.

Just counted--Boost is only 13 Qs away from her bronze lifetime (which would be 150 Qs, with a minimum of 15 in each class and the tournaments)! The challenge is that 9 of those have to be Jumpers.

I already knew that Boost is only two Qs away from her ADCH (championship)--and those must be two Snooker Super-Qs.

And only 11 away from her ADCH-bronze (essentially a triple ADCH): Funny, that requires 9 Jumpers and two Snooker Super-Qs.

Do you think that we have a couple of weak spots?

Class with a swollen head

SUMMARY: Well--it only just felt like it.

I've had a cold all week. Entire head has felt like it's full of fluid. Brain doesn't function well like that. Sleeping or at least lying down a lot. Doing completely mindless things and not doing them very well.

Example: Tried to do a quick grocery trip while completely congested and foggy (me, not the traffic or weather). Needed milk, fruit, kleenex (er--facial tissue) since I've emptied 3 boxes this week. Checked for sanitary wipes at the store entrance--container is empty and stuffed with trash. Conscientiously touched everything with my hand in my shirtsleeves instead of my bare hands. Put some frozen foods and fruit into the child seat of the cart. At the self-serve checkout, scanned everything from the child seat and put the bags back into the child seat. The Monitor Person asked, "Do you mind if a put a sticker on your milk so that they don't think you're stealing it?" Milk? Oh, crud, yup, I did put a gallon of milk into the main part of the cart. And I hadn't paid for it. So paid for it, put it back into the main part of the cart. Out to the parking lot, loaded the bags into my car, took the cart to the nearest return point. Got into car. Thinking....thinking... oh, crap, milk. Got out of car, retrieved milk from cart. Home. Sat in car in garage for a few minutes thinking how nice a nap would be right there and now. Thinking maybe back to bed would be good. Realized I hadn't gotten more klee...facial tissue. Had to go back the next day for that.

Anyway. Felt a little better today. Head swimming and thick when I first got up, so took some decongestant. It helped. Still not perfect, but better than yesterday.

So decided to go up to class this evening.

OK, dumb-- a quarter of the way up the mountain, the pressure started building. Halfway up, it was so hard and thick in my head that I pulled over to the side of the road for 5 minutes to see whether it would ease up. Didn't want to bust an eardrum. Didn't hurt, though, just crazy disorienting, like my head was in a bucket of water sort of, so drove the balance of the 1200 feet or so up. Never occurred to me to take another decongestant before heading out there. Head/ears NOT happy--could barely hear anything, and what I could hear whanged on my eardrums like they were 50 times louder than normal, they were stretched so tightly, I guess.

I wanted to share some snacks for Tika's birthday. Lots of other people showed up this week with snacks, too--when it rains, you know--.

So I said there was no way I was going to be running and would anyone consider running Boost for me, because she really wants to run. I wasn't sure whether she would--last couple of tries, no interest, wanted to go back to Mommy. Had three expert volunteers, but one friend ran her all 3 runs. Fun to see my dog working. Kept my fingers in my ears. Funny/odd. Someone said she's not running as fast as she does with me, but she still looked pretty good and ran really nicely. She had a couple of the same problems I have--couple of bars down, needing to really work each jump even when they're straight in front of Boost, but Boost stuck with her and paid attention all through the run. Pretty cool.

After 3 runs, my ears had gradually eased back to normal, but my sinuses were pulsing. So I headed down the mountain, and of course now the pressure reversed itself so my head got all funny by the time I reached the bottom.

Sigh. At least Boost was happy because she got to run; I was happy because she got to run and because she was willing to work with someone else; Tika was happy because she got a bunch of treats; I was happy again because I got a couple of chocolate-covered strawberries (someone else brought those); and now I think I've learned my lesson about going up mountains with a head cold without decongestant.

Now taking my weirded head to bed.

Randomness Again

SUMMARY: Birthdays, superheroes, agility practice...

New Year's Day--a perfect California day for a trip to the beach with twenty or thirty of your closest dog friends.

We were very happy about it.

We got a lot of good exercise.

Strategized about our plans--keep going or turn back? (The beach goes on for miles.)

Made a giant peace sign in the sand and lined it with dogs. It was a little challenging, even with our highly trained, super obedient (cough cough) agility dogs, but we did it.

Some of us LOVE LOVE LOVE going in the water.

Some of us think that moving water is an Evil Thing but LOVE LOVE LOVE all the action going on with all the dogs, in particular all those other fascinating border collies, or anyone running after a ball, even if they are chasing it into the Evil Thing.

From our agility club's holiday gift exchange, Spiderman, The Hulk, and Captain America came home with us.

Boost loves Spidey.

But apparently is not so keen on The Incredible Hulk. Maybe it's the hair.

Most recently, it's birthday season in our family. Boost's and my birthday one day; four days later, my niece's birthday; ten days later my sister's and Tika's birthday.

Even at work, there shall be cake.

And a family dinner out.

Oh, am I supposed to be talking about agility? Class Thursday night felt great in some ways and not in others. I felt like Boost and I were both doing some awesome things on the courses. The only ones we got through without a bar down, however, were two short 10-obstacle courses (this demonstrating why we have so many Pairs Qs and not so much other things). Plus Boost still is having trouble making that bear-left entry into the weaves.

Our instructor asked us all what the biggest reason is for us to not Q in Standard and to not Q in Jumpers. I had actually just recently counted--as if I needed to. For Boost, it's about evenly split between bars and refusals/runouts (if I count only the first fault in each run). For both classes. Very rarely an off course, only occasionally a weave fault, never a contact fault.

Tika is still more or less officially retired. We have our first trial since November coming up this weekend. We'll see how she and I manage it.  Still feels very weird, anticipating running only one dog all weekend.

Last night I dreamed that I sent out an email to the club asking whether anyone knew of a dog who was available for re-homing who already had some agility training. You can see where my subconscious sits on the subject of getting a new dog and training it.

Generally, things are just flowing along swimmingly.

Tika and Boost

SUMMARY: Resting, playing, training.

Tika doesn't seem to have any side effects from the new meds so far; whew!

This evening marks the first time that she has wanted to play since last Wednesday evening. At the time I thought maybe she was sulking or confused because I wasn't playing "properly" with her, but in retrospect, I realize it's because her butt hurt so much. Glad that she's now feeling a bit better.

So now I had to go back to not playing properly with her while at the same time throwing the toy enough for Boost to chase. The challenge with dang Boost is that she won't play with a toy while Tika is--she wants to watch us. So I can't distract Tika with one toy while I throw another one for Boost.

On the other hand, the last few days where I've been able to work with Boost while Tika hung out inside the house of her own volition, it's been so much easier to practice some agility things that I know we need to practice.

It's a reminder that I used to be adamant about the not-being-trained dog staying up on the porch while I worked with the other dog, and have let that slide a bit; and also that at the moment I'm actually enjoying working with Boost on a few issues:

* Send to the opposite end of a tunnel
* Rear cross tunnel and turn in the opposite direction
* Rear cross curved tunnel
* Blast out of tunnel and go straight ahead over a jump with me way behind
* Dang weave entry approaching from the left, and some from the right to keep it balanced.

And we've got 3 months to just casually practice stuff like this before our next competition. Sigh--just hit me again that Tika won't be competing. It has been a very, very long time since I've deliberately run only one dog in agility. It'll be odd, but maybe good for a while.

So things are, at the moment, relatively at peace.

Boost Jumps In Some Other Direction

SUMMARY: Dang.

Well, this is some of the sort of thing that goes on when we are competing. Am I not being clear that I'm heading to the right, Boost? I'm even clapping my hands. Because all the really good dog trainers clap their hands on course when they're not using the pointy finger.

Although pointy fingers sometimes work.

Thank Goodness For Medicine

SUMMARY: Boost: Bladder infection.

Yes, Boost has a bladder infection, and a pretty good one, too. I feel better about the accidents that she had--it wasn't me or her screwing up, it was her infection.

SOOOOO my fourth 30-minute-one-way drive to the vet and back in 6 days, this time to pick up the antibiotics. And say goodbye to another $59.

Now I'm wondering...Tika's been doing a lot of licking lately in that same, er, area, and sometimes a little difficulty peeing. Could *she* have an infection, too? Do I want to spend another $200 to find out? Ack.

I may moan about the costs, but in truth I thank goodness that we have tests to figure out what's wrong and the means to treat it.

The Scary Vet Adventure

SUMMARY: In which we are all traumatized.

September was a rough vet month for all of us here at Taj MuttHall.

On Sept 16 and 17, Tika was suddenly in so much pain that she could barely stand up (as described here). We ended up at the vet for problem analysis.

Tika abhors going to the vet. So much so that, normally, I give her a tranquilizer an hour before we leave the house. Even so, she completely over-dramatizes the vet experience. For example, I pull into their parking lot, I pop out quickly, open the tailgate--and Tika is lying in her crate (instead of the usual "Let's go!" pushing to open the door), shaking. Quivering. How does she even know? Are the noises in that area so unique? I can't imagine that she smells much there--the windows aren't open. But who knows how--she knows.

I coax her out, and as we approach the door, she pulls on the leash away from there. In the waiting room, she paces and whines and will not settle, occasionally throwing herself at the door to get out. In the examination room, waiting for the vet to come in, she paces frantically in a clockwise circle around my chair, occasionally throwing herself at the door to get out. You know, those vets stick things where things should never be stuck.  She survives; she's actually very good through the exam, just panting heavily and tense and I have to hold her front end firmly.

I like my vet, but my wallet hates going to the vet, too. I can feel it quivering as we approach the front door.

Tika, as previously reported, decided just before we left for the vet that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her (which the vet confirmed), but I didn't give her a tranq this time because I wanted a better evaluation of her state. So, even for an evaluation that everything is OK, my wallet had things stuck where they should never be stuck--the credit card into the card reader.  $57 for the office visit. $55 for a refill on her Rimadyl for future painful episodes. And the standard $5 for "medical / toxic waste environmental fee". It's printed permanently on their invoices.

Meanwhile, Boost has had some potty issues. A week after and again two weeks after her prednisone stopped, but after she started hydroxyzine (all for her over-the-top scratching), she peed on my bed while lying there. The first time it was right after we went up to bed and she didn't want to go outside before that, while I brushed my teeth. Behavior? Illness? Medication?

So *she* went to the vet last Friday for an exam, and returned again this morning to give a urine sample. We arrived and I opened the tailgate--poor Tika is lying hunched in the back of her crate, quivering. Boost is not fond of the vet, either, but what a difference. The office door was ajar this morning, and she pushed it open to go inside. Her tail starts wagging--maybe it's an "I'm unhappy or worried" type of wagging, and she does tend to snuggle up to me a bit, but SO different from Tika! After the vet examines her, Boost gets off the table and lies down, completely relaxed. SOOOOOO different!

But my wallet still quivers: $57 for the office visit. $40 for "cystocentesis" ("a veterinary procedure where a needle is placed into the urinary bladder through the abdomen of an animal and a sample of urine is removed"), $54 for general urinalysis, $136 (!!) to culture the urine to check for a bladder infection.  And, of course, $5 for  "medical / toxic waste environmental fee".  Holy smackeroons.

Well, we will all soon recover from the trauma, I'm sure. Whoever thinks that owning a dog is cheap entertainment is in for a shock.

Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back

SUMMARY: Boost's jumps and weaves; Tika in general.

Well, Thursday night's class was interesting for the Merle Girls.

Back up a step.

Last weekend, Boost handled beautifully, as if runouts and refusals had never been an issue. But, out of 12 runs, Boost knocked 10 bars. Ten! That's, shall we say, excessive. And although her weaves, which have been really excellent for several trials now, were perfect on Saturday, on Sunday out of 4 weaves, she missed one entry and, on another, popped two poles early.

The weaves were nuts, because I've been practicing weaves and not much else lately. So we might just be in another one of her sine-wave cycles (I should plot it out sometime) of not knowing how to do weaves.

The bars were nuts, so I actually had the energy and determination to do bar-knocking drills at home three days this week so far.

So, in class last night: Boost popped out of the first set of weaves FOUR times IN A ROW! Jeez!

But she continued her awesome running style from this weekend--nice run after nice run after nice run, just the way I always imagined it would be with her.

And the entire evening, she knocked or ticked only ONE bar!

Hi C-Era Interstellar Propulsion: Always a challenging border collie.

Tika, meanwhile, had a pretty nice weekend of competition: Qed 6 out of 8, and missed Qing in each of the jumpers by one bar, which has been unusual for her since she moved to performance. She placed 2nd in both Steeplechase and Grand Prix, which is pretty good for an 11.5-year-old dog.

But in class, all kinds of things went awry that I'm assortedly attributing to her not hearing well, possibly her not seeing well, and me not being fast enough to compensate for what always used to work well. After each of our garbled runs, I wondered how we ever manage to Qualify at all with this kind of handling and confusion.

Now, if I stop because we've gone astray in class, she *immediately* goes into "I'm looking for treats somehwere in the grass here" mode. She used to do that quite a bit when she was a young dog, but not much at all for several years. I'm taking it as a sign of stress rather than her really being naughty--I think she really doesn't understand what I want and probably doesn't understand why I'm not SAYING anything (do dogs realize that they're going deaf?).

Anyway, everyone presents challenges, including myself. Last week in class, I felt fleet of foot. This week, legs dragging. What's the difference? No idea.

Soooooo we might do a few more drills today and tomorrow.

This weekend, Friday through Monday, is the Western Regional Championships, and for only the 2nd time since 1995, I'm not going--well, except that I gave in an signed up for just the first two classes Sunday morning: Jumpers and Snooker, hoping to get that last Snooker that Tika now needs for her PDCH-Gold at our home club. If I don't stress out too much about it, which I'm wont to do.

So, if any of you are there, I might see you during my brief appearance Sunday morning. Otherwise, good luck at whatever you're doing this weekend, and have a great time.

Not Quite As Bad as the Previous Trial

SUMMARY: But I do wish we'd done better.

First: It WAS hot. Not 108; Saturday got up to around 105 (I took a thermometer this time) late afternoon, but there was a breeze/wind all day, which made it almost bearable. Today it was 102 when we finished about 3, but almost no breeze, and humid (at least for us). Very uncomfortable, very draining, tempers a little short I think, and so many people scratched the last couple of runs each day that we had trouble staffing the rings with sufficient workers.

Tika did the best of the 3 of us, especially after I discovered that hosing her down (which she hates) made her frisky. Boost looked pretty wasted to me midday today. I hosed her down before & after her runs, but in the next to last class (Snooker, she did jump-Aframe-knock jump, knock jump, so we left the ring and went back to the shade. Last class, jumpers, she knocked two of the first 6 bars, so we again left the ring.

Tika, on the other hand, ran that Jumpers one of the best (it felt) in a while and grabbed my feet joyously at the end of the run.

Slept in MUTT MVR with all the doors and windows open and it never got below 85; a restless night, sticky and sweaty.

Did have a nice time Saturday evening with pizza at the record-fast Bay Team meeting (we were all melting so much in the 105 heat that we couldn't even get up the energy to move to adjourn the meeting--pretty pathetic!) and another Bay Teamer celebrating her birthday later provided tasty marinated/bbqed portabella mushrooms, chocolate cake, and ice cream.

TIP LEARNED: On hot days, leave your sun lotion in the cooler; feels so much nicer when you spread it on!

Tika's Weekend

The hearing problems are showing up in a lot of ways. A couple of people even commented this weekend on how her attention is on me all through the course; this is not how Tika used to run. But she was a game competitor, doing what she needed to do even in the heat.

Wanted one Standard to complete her Standard Gold, and we got it Saturday, yahoo! One goal done anyway! Sunday's standard was lovely except for one rear cross that she didn't seem to understand and did a full spin right before the jump for a refusal, so no Q.

She qualified in Steeplechase (3rd of 7 dogs and only a little more than 2 seconds slower than the winner) and came in 2nd in round 2--missing first by .82, due to going into the weaves correctly and then coming back out right at me, as if she didn't think she was supposed to be there, so we had to come back around and try again. I'll take the $14, though.

Qualified in Grand Prix and came in tied for 2nd of 7 dogs.

Qed and came in 2nd in both Jumpers, but those were the last classes both days so tons of dogs had scratched, so combined we got only 1 Top Ten point.

The biggest disappointment and frustration is trying to get those last 4 Snooker Qs for the gold PDCH. I'm picking easy peasy courses and it's just stupid things. Saturday, in the closing #2 was a tunnel; I sent her in, and needed to come back past the tunnel to #3; saw her head blast out and she looked directly at my eyes, so I turned and burned--isn't that what you're supposed to do?--and she somehow reversed herself and went back into the tunnel.

Today, we got through 5 in the closing after doing a simple 1-3-1-3-1-3 in the opening, and then suddenly approaching #6 it didn't look right and I couldn't figure out what was wrong and we ended up with a fault (had to have someone remind me after we left the course what I should've done)--so no Q again. Jeeeezzzzz. Still don't know why it suddenly looked wrong. The heat getting to my brain?

The one Gamblers was a serpentine--thought we had it, she did sort of a double-step like she was shifting leads to go out to the next jump, so I moved on forward, and she changed her mind and came with me, so no Q.

Pairs relay, both of us on our team had miserable runs, go figure (we both did well in steeplechase & grand prix, for instance, but can't do 11 dumb obstacles in pairs??).

Summary: 5 Qs of 10 runs; only 1 of the 3 that I really wanted but much better than the 2 Qs out of 9 from the previous trial.

Boost's weekend

Well--her weave poles remained superb. Her start line remains rock solid; I can't even remember the last time she broke her stay. Her contacts were...well, not rock solid and she was stopping with her feet off the side, but she left early only once and I was able to recover quickly from that.

You can see that I'm struggling for positives.

However--running past jumps--SUCH a frustrating weekend for that, even when I feel like I'm doing everything right, and, well, OK, you know.

Really really wanted to get Jumpers and SuperQs towards that elusive ADCH--

Jumpers Saturday had me so frustrated with running past jumps that I left the course; Jumpers Sunday I already mentioned above, she was too messed up by the heat, I think.

Saturday's Snooker, she got all the way through on what would've been a Super-Q if she hadn't knocked a bar on #7 in the opening--but there was such carnage on that course that, although she got only 37 points (the minimum to qualify), she missed a super-Q by one place anyway, coming in 4th of 19 dogs.

And I mentioned Sunday's Snooker above.

Both Standards--refusals, runouts, bars; steeplechase--running past jumps and a knocked bar; grand prix--I think that was almost nice with just a bar down early; Relay--both of us on our team also has issues.

Summary: 1 Q for the weekend of 10 runs, just another of the huge number of blah Snooker Qs that don't do us any good.

Thinking--

Still thinking about stopping agility. Would really like to finish those last 4 Snookers of Tikas, and would like to have the energy to work on Boost's issues to get those two SuperQs and one more Jumpers, but still not sure that I really have the enthusiasm for it. Boost just loves doing agility so much. The hot trials I'm really not liking. Wellllllll I guess I'll keep on thinking about it.

C-ATCH 48 Hours, C-ATE 2 Weeks

SUMMARY: My Little Agility Champion! And My Good Ol' Agility Multichampion!

Boost was freaked out by the whole post-C-ATCH run process. Normal process: get leash, tug on leash, go pick up riot tug that we left outside the ring, tug on that back to the crate, get some treats and loving, get collar back on, go into crate.

Instead, it was tug on leash, someone else comes into the ring and hands Human Mom stuff to distract her, leash goes back on the ground, mom sends dog around some obstacles without even a sit-stay, then leash tug, then riot tug, then take those away and go sit in the driveway while strange people make funny noises at you.

She was a little uncertain about it all.

Tika's hearing, plus some good runs from both Merle Girls
Tika and I had a rough weekend. As I noted in Saturday's post, there was far too much ambient noise for whatever state her hearing is currently in, and if she's having vision issues, too (still not entirely clear about that, no pun intended), then the darkness in the ring and the light around the outside probably didn't help.  You can see how hesitant she is about things in these videos--I'm not the greatest handler, but hesitation and uncertainty have never been her traits before-- she's taking more strides between obstacles, looking at me a lot-- Watching her gait in the videos, it looks kind of old and stilted, but on the ground with her, it just felt hesitant to me.

Tika, Saturday Standard:


Her Sunday Jumpers course was pretty nice, parts felt like good old Tika, but still Chaps' time was more than a second faster, and given that we probably beat them more than half the time until recently, I can tell that she's slowing down.


In Tika's Full House on Saturday, that point-accrual game where, historically, we've aimed to be (and usually were) the highest scoring dog at the whole trial--but here, Tika hesitates and then runs past the Aframe, checking in with me constantly--and we run out of time long before I expected that we would.



In comparison, here's Boost's Full House, in which we collected way more points than anyone else, even though my handling after the tire wasn't the best:


Boost also had a really nice gamblers run on Saturday; kept all her bars up, had some really nice turns (and some wide ones that were my fault) and our timing on heading to the gamble was impeccable. The only thing that went wrong was that she didn't stick the Aframe in the gamble, so I was wayyy out of position when she came over the next to the last jump.



The Race!
Sunday's Colors was a really fast little course, so I placed bets (verbal only) with my fellow score-tabler on how fast my dogs would do it. Because what's an agility dawithout some gambling? We had seen a couple of fast runs in the 14-15 second range, and one really fast one at 13.28. So I bet 10.5 seconds for Boost and 13.56 for Tika.

Here's Tika's--I got her as riled up as I could figure out how before the run, basically ran off the line with her, tried to get her as excited as possible during the run and to be right in front of her most of the run to keep her confidence up; she ended with 14.61, so my guess was off by a second, and that made her merely the 7th fastest dog of the 60 who ran that course. Naturally, three of those dogs were in her exact class of 7 dogs, sheesh.



Here's Boost's run--she didn't need any revving up, never does at this age. She's still taking extra strides and hesitating to look at me at the beginning, then again at the very end, when she's ahead of me, taking an extra step and starting to turn her head and ears towards me at each jump, but I'm just close enough to keep her from actually pulling off a jump. Still, those slowed us down enough that her actual time was 12.72, so I was TWO seconds off for her--and, dang, she knocked a bar. But that was THE fastest time of all 60 dogs.


Next fastest was our friend & arch-nemesis Chaps. He doesn't always look that fast, but his time was 12.79, so we barely beat him. They're so efficient and he's just a big dog with a long stride. Hard to compare directly, though, because in Colors you pick your course and they did the other option-- also, the camera people seemed to have had it in for Chaps. I tried to get their Jumpers run for comparison, but the video was cut off halfway through. So I got the colors run instead--and now I see that *that's* cut off halfway through, too. Weird.


The worst of it...

But, sadly, Boost and I had all the same kinds of troubles that we usually have. In Sunday's Standard, she didn't bother with the 2nd jump in a lead-out pivot, although I guarantee she's lined up to look right at it. Next, I needed her to take the jump after the Aframe, waited until she was looking at it to release her, and she came right in to me instead, forcing me to do a rear cross that I didn't want to do and sure enough she refuses the jump when I try it. Then she turns instantly out of the tunnel looking for me instead of for the next obstacle, resulting in some spinning before the following jump, then although she's got quite a lot of room to get into the weaves, she skips the entry (I think the only time this weekend, but still...), then at the last jump, although I'm running pretty hard (sure doesn't look like it, but as I said, I'm not a great athlete) right at it, and she just stops and turns to look at me and spins past it. SIgh.

My new dog and I have a lot of work to do.



And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make
Still and all, it is like a weight has been lifted from my heart, to get both dogs through their major CPE titles, and so close together. Happiness is a C-ATCH puppy, and here we are right after that C-ATCH run. (Thanks, Chaps' Human Mom, for photos again.)