Fun in the Sun Even Though We're Not Quite Number One

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday

(Thanks to my niece Elizabeth for the photos of us running courses.)

>>  Visit the Wordless Wednesday site; lots of blogs. <<

Addendums

SUMMARY: Stretching, more results, Grand Prix challenge

Stretching: For years, first thing in the morning when I'm in the bathroom doing my morning ablutions, I've rewarded the dogs for stretching and attempted to put names to it--"Stretch" for stretching out the front, "Other legs" for stretching out the back. Tika always leaves the room to stretch out her back legs just out of my sight, so I haven't been able to reward that for her. I started this after a Susan Garrett seminar back when Boost was a puppy, I think.

They don't always understand it when out of context--and, really, they're not particularly useful commands when they'll already do it in that particular location on their own, which is why it's a good place to shape the behavior. Therefore, recently I've been trying the commands in other locations, such as at the last two agility trials. Yesterday I opened Boost's crate, said "Stretch," which she did nicely out through the crate door; then I said "Other legs," and she did! (She doesn't typically stretch when coming out of the crate, so this was clearly progress.) We apparently impressed a nearby friend whom I didn't know was there.

Friday Snooker: I just now looked at the results--despite having only 24 points (you need at least 37 to Q), Tika placed 2nd of 6 dogs for 3 Top Ten points! How funny is that?! Apparently everyone was having some trouble with that Snooker course.

Grand Prix: Sunday's Grand Prix offered a huge challenge in the final box that the dogs had to get through (formed by 17, 18, Aframe, and 5). It was so tempting for the dog to go across adjacent sides (17 to 5), but I thought that if I was far enough ahead and yelling, they'd come with me. Worked for Tika, didn't work for Boost. Even if you got the front cross in there, dogs would knock bars or take the wrong jump anyway.

It was about a 20% Q rate, which isn't the worst I've ever seen, but sure not the best. Thought it would be worth posting.

Here's a video of a nonqualifying but really nice, fast run (Fireball Pryse) with a front cross and a bar down there.

P.S. Watch the weave entry--that's the one that Boost ran past on the far side because it was apparently too difficult for her to make that entry. Reallllllyyyy?!

Surprises Good and Bad

SUMMARY: USDAA weekend summary.

It's been 38 tries over more than 3 years since Boost last earned a Grand Prix Q. (I thought it had been only 2 years, worse than I thought.) Today, it wasn't pretty, but we got our 4th-ever GP Q. (At Boost's age, Tika already had 22--however, 18 of them were with 5 faults, back when they allowed it. Under the same rules, Boost would now have an total of 12 GP Qs.) So--that was a pleasant surprise.

Boost's Jumpers run was lovely, but had one bar down on a klutzy handling move. So close!

Boost's Standard run was, well, not lovely, but mostly very nice, and we missed a Q ONLY because she came off the side of the teeter again! Something *always* has to be broken that used to be fixed!

Boost was doing fine in Snooker until 6 in the closing where, once again, she had to keep going over jumps in front of her because I wasn't as fast as she was, and she turned back for a refusal. I really need to find the motivation to work on this.

Boost's cracked toenail didn't seem to bother her at all, all day, all 5 runs plus frisbee. That was nice.

Tika and I had TWO off courses today in 5 runs--compared to our average of about once every 23 runs the rest of this year.

Tika and I finally got all the way through a snooker course--but here's the thing: in the 16" performance class (remember, these are big dogs, like border collies etc.) out of 20 dogs, one had 49 points and one had 47 and everyone else was quite a bit lower, so I figured that our plan for 47 points would get us a placement and some top ten points. Well... dang 22" performance class, there were 7 entered, but 3 scratched (last run of the weekend, I guess), and of the remaining, the scores were 49, 47, 47, 47! And because I mishandled a couple of places, Tika had very wide turns, which knocked us into 3rd place for 0 top ten points. Sheesh.

She did well in Jumpers, placing 2nd to a former national steeplechase finalist dog who's just moved to performance.

And she did the hard part of the gamble but I anticipated a different turn than she actually made, and the result was a backjump, so no Q, and earlier handing bobbles kept our opening points low, too.

But she ran very well, pretty fast, very happily, no signs of soreness or slowing in tunnels or anything. So that was nice.

Overall: Tika 2 Qs out of 5, more Jumpers Top Ten points that we don't really need.

Boost one Q out of 5. Got all her weaves, even stayed in when I veered way off in one direction during snooker. Good start lines. Good contacts except for that one dang teeter. Good lateral lead-out pivots. And only one bar down, I think. It's still just a problem with looking for obstacles to take rather than always looking at me.

And the weather was, once again, perfect. So lucky in October! Ground was a bit goopy in places, but thank goodness the rain chose to stop on Thursday and leave us with a gorgeous, sunny, blue-sky, not-too-warm Sunday. That was very nice.

Weekend Steeplechase and Grand Prix Report

SUMMARY: with videos

Actually I don't have all that much to report.

SW Regional Steeplechase Round 1

I think the toughest spot was getting the dog into the right (right) side of the tunnel, but if you launched the dog to the jump after the Aframe and then turned and ran straight (as I did), you'd be aiming the dog straight at the correct side of the tunnel. It was a smooth and doable course--about half the dogs made it to Round 2.

Tika did fine, placing 5th of 16. But then, so did most everyone else in her 22" Performance group: 10 advanced to the second round.

However, in watching videos, I notice that she seems to hesitate or slow in several places in such a way that makes me think "she's not getting the right information from me fast enough." I've thought for quite a while that she's slowed down to accommodate me rather than me learning to handle her speed (and I fear that Boost may be getting to the same place, dang). This video shows it in several places. (And again we won't mention standing up at the start line to sniff for treats--)



Boost's run--well--some nice bits, except when I had to yank on every invisible rope in the universe to get her to come in over the 3rd jump in the pinwheel--a known issue, when she's blasting full speed ahead and I ask her to come back in to me (e.g., with serpentines, too), she keeps runnning in a big loop rather than trying to come in over the jump that's between us. And immediately thereafter runs past the 4th jump in the pinwheel. Yeh, could be she's not getting the info she needs either. Plus two knocked bars, the second on a rear cross after which she pulled in to me instead of going over the next jump that was, yes, right in front of her.



For comparison, here's our classmate Kicks! winning that class (22" chamionship). 30 of the 60 22" dogs moved up.

Grand Prix Final

I tried to push myself and Tika as hard as I could. Funny, watching the video, I look like I'm just loping along, but I *felt* like I was running all out. I clapped my hands a whole lot more than I think I usually do. Also funny, Tika's weaves look fast in the video, but the difference between hers and Boost's is amazing--with Boost, I have to run full speed to get to the other end before she does, but with Tika, I just jog gently.

We ended up 3rd, but the Malinois and Border Collie who beat us were 5 (!) and 4 seconds faster than we were. Still, we easily qualified for the Nationals Semifinals--but, no, we're not going to Kentucky.

(Will add map when available.)

Friday at Haute TRACS

SUMMARY: 6 additional runs per dog, no Qs for Boost, 4 for Tika plus PDCH-Bronze--and how about that Grand Prix!

NOTE: FYI, All of Boost's classes are in the Championship program; Tika's are in the Performance Program. Both dogs have been jumping 22" for the last 2 years.

Friday morning

... did not go well for Taj MuttHall.

Tika Snooker: A 0-point run. (Knocked the first bar and my second obstacle was only a single full stride after that--no way I was calling her off it.) That's our 9th career 0-point Snooker; her last was three and a half years ago. May there be no more! And it was SUCH a doable Tika-style snooker. Sigh.

Boost Snooker: Knocked a bar on a 7-pointer in the opening, taking us out of SuperQ contention, then gave me a 'what this jump" refusal on #5 in the closing, so not even a Qualifier.

Tika Jumpers: Nice and flowing, felt like we were moving nicely (we were--we had the fastest time, I believe) but she knocked a bar in the middle and not sure why. No Q.

Boost Jumpers: Auuuughhhh! She was doing all the moves I asked, but I pulled her out after she'd knocked 4 bars in the first 9 obstacles (one of which was a tunnel).

Friday afternoon

...picked up a little for Tika:

Boost's Standard: I must've been getting tired of writing down all the ways we were blowing things after 2 days of it; I have no notes on the course. But I believe she had already had more than one fault when she left the Aframe early and so I pulled her off and put her away.

Tika's Standard: For several years now, I've been putting her into a Down at the start line, because in a sit she either lay down anyway or took off early. In this class, she would NOT "down" at the start line. I didn't want to get called for delayed start, so I left her in a sit and led out. Sure enough, she took off early, bounced off me as I was pivoting, which stalled us out for a moment (and while I briefly pondered taking her off the course), but then we continued, Qed, and even placed 2nd of 7 dogs. That was nice, because it completed the 15 Standard Qs we needed for our Performance Champion Bronze title! W00t! Nice to have that out of the way.

Boost's Gamblers: More lack of notes. Not very good opening points, refusal on the tunnel in the gamble (starts to go in, pops back to look at me, then goes in, ARGH!), then instead of going in a straight line from the tunnel to the jump in front of her, veers out of the tunnel straight towards me, so no gamble, either.

Tika's Gamble: I apparently had a crappy opening plan; we had some bobbles, she popped her dogwalk for 0 points, and although she did the gamble itself spot on and Qed, we didn't even place, which is rare for us when we do get the gamble.

Friday afternoon final two classes

Tika's day picked up even more. Boost? Well. Hm. Back to seriously considering not entering her in trials; it's just a waste of money most of the time without me doing constant maintenance training and upgrade work. So much to work on, all the time.

Boost Pairs Relay: On a lead-out pivot, blasted right past the 2nd jump and into the next obstacle for an off-course. (Hmm, she did this once already this weekend, which course was it?) Otherwise it was lovely, and so was her partner's run. Can't even get a danged Pairs Q (of which she already has 23, which is twice as many as she has anything else).

Tika Pairs Relay: Tika and Maddie teamed again. We did great. But another team did even greater. So we Qed with a 2nd of 9 teams. Not complaining!

Boost Grand Prix: Yet another course with no notes. We Eliminated on that one, too. It was SUCH a Boost-able course, smooth and flowing and I could keep ahead of her all the way through, and what happened? I think I did a lead-out pivot and she ran past the first obstacle, but don't remember for sure.

Tika Grand Prix: Tika and I came off that course with me yelling "Best Grand Prix Course IN THE UNIVERSE!" (thanks Pat Corl) and Tika biting my feet. (Which she does after every course, but no matter.) We ended up winning, the first time EVER in my agility career earning a bye voucher into the regional semifinals. Happy happy happy! (Tika has previously placed 2nd in Grand Prix 6 times.) Finally!

Here she is with our Steeplechase and GP ribbons.

There is Some Joy in Muttville

SUMMARY: Sunday at the Bay Team trial.

I love driving in the early dawn, as the shape of the world is gradually revealed in the growing light, as the wisps of clouds in the sky change through ranges of pastel colors, and as tendrils of tule fog loiter in the fields and hills. It piques my wanderlust, makes me want to keep on driving to newer horizons.

But nooo--I take the exit for the agility trial and once again find myself surrounded by the same canopies, dogs, people, and agility paraphernalia.

Like these typical agility judges. (Karen, Rich, Lisa.)

Like this typical gorgeous tie-dye agility bra that a friend made for me because she could. It will match my assorted purple-and-blue tie dye shirts! Thanks, Wendy Wear!

The day started with Steeplechase Round 2. Tika didn't Q yesterday, but she made it in as 4th-seeded wildcard entry (thanks, Ashley's finger) because they always take a minimum of 4 if there are viable candidates.

We pushed it as hard as we could, and Lo, Tika won. Our time was 31.57 and 2nd place Chaps the Wonder Aussie was 31.93, so we didn't win by much. And Trinity the amazing German Shepherd had a brilliant run--a time of 30.98--but popped the Aframe on the next to last obstacle. So we won. No ribbons, dang, but a check that paid for some of our entry into Steeplechase.

A bit startled to find out that the 3rd place 12" champion dog, whose class was less than half the size of ours (in Round 1 anyway) got the same amount of $ as we did, winning our larger class.

The rest of the morning followed Saturday's pattern, and I was becoming kind of numb to it all.

Grand Prix: Tika had another gorgeous run but had it in mind that the Aframe was inconsequential and had a pretty major fly-off, so no Q, and placing 6th out of 8 dogs. Boost had a really amazingly lovely run--time was slow because she didn't stick her teeter, so I had to figure out how to get around her for a front cross--and we were in great danger of actually earning a Q until she knocked the next to the last bar.

Gamblers: Thought I had a pretty good opening course, and thought that the Gamble was a gimmee for Tika. But I ran out of opening obstacles for Tika before the whistle blew, so I was improvising when it blew, and suddenly found myself blasting forward with my toes EXACTLY at the gamble line, so when I needed to give her one little push out, instead I was flailing my arms trying not to fall forward on my face past the gamble line, and bleah she did not get the gamble. And there were plenty of others who did, so we were 4th place but no Q, no top 10 points again.

So I planned for more obstacles for Boost, who then did NOT send out to ANY of the obstacles that Tika did manage to take, and again no gamble. Her opening points would've been good for 4th place of 51 dogs had she managed it. But no.

Then, after the morning sessions, Tika ruined our perfect non-Q weekend by Qing in the last 3 classes of the weekend: Jumpers (very nice but could manage only 2nd place for I think 3 top ten points, .6 seconds behind 1st place), Standard (another one where I don't know how I could have gotten any faster time but still managed only 3rd for 1 mere Top Ten point), and Pairs, where she knocked her first bar so took our 2nd fastest time and turned it into a 4th place.

Boost's Jumpers run was also truly beautiful, except where I assumed she'd take a jump and raced ahead of her, so she raced *with* me. Her Standard run--

Oh, man, what a heartbreaker on this one! (I don't know how many times my heart cracked this weekend.) The first half was flawless. She even went down immediately on the table. At the end of the table count, I released her, she started to move, I looked forward at the next jump, and I heard a really weird noise and no Boost coming my way. Turned back, and she's standing next to the table, one foot slightly up, looking dazed. I think the judge is asking if she's OK. I'm looking just at her; ;I have no idea what happened. She walked slowly over to me where I was standing by the next jump while I asked her if she was OK (you always have to ask your dog, as if she'd answer), and then she started focusing on the jump like she wanted to take it. So I went ahead and told her to HUP, but of course she was too close to it and ran by it for a runout fault. And then the rest of the course was absolutely flawless!

Crap crap crap! Not clear how it happened exactly, but turns out that she somehow lost her footing leaving the table and whacked the side of her head against it as she took off. She has seemed fine since then; I found a vet competitor who said she'd look at Boost, but then I was so busy the rest of the day that I never followed through.  Looks OK to me--

In Pairs Relay, she missed her weave entry for the first time this weekend (I think), for a fault, but in this class, it's time plus faults, and she and her partner were plenty fast enough to Q, ruining her perfect non-Q weekend with the last run of the whole weekend.

Tika also ran in the California Cup. The top 30% in each height who competed in Grand Prix both last weekend and this weekend got to run in it. It was just for fun plus for really nice ribbons and a trophy for 1st place. Like another Grand Prix run, but no Qs involved. Once again, really pushed it, and we were clean, but came in 2nd (33.88 time, just behind Chaps' 33.27-- the dog we beat in the Steeplechase by less than half a second). So we got a really lovely ribbon and posed with our arch nemesis Chaps.

Also, for simply being eligible for California Cup competition (entering Grand Prix both weekends), we got these cool collapsible travel water bowls.

Most of the courses this weekend were really nice--flowing and yet still challenging. It was a real shame to miss Qing because of stupid handler tricks or simple knocked bars (or danged Aframes). Both dogs mostly ran very well. I'm very lucky to have the two of them, for all the frustration they sometimes give me.

For the second weekend in a row, I was able to set up in the shade of the big trees, so didn't have to wrestle with that huge and heavy canopy, which made setup and teardown SO much easier on my poor aching shoulders. I just set up a screen to prevent Boost from being able to see the running dogs to prevent massive crate thrashing.

 For some reason, people think I like purple

And now, maybe a couple of months off of weekend agility again? I think I'm really looking forward to that. I can't take many weekends like this one, no matter how many I have like the preceding 2.  3 Qs of 10 runs for Tika, 1 Q of 10 runs for Boost.

Snooker Day!

SUMMARY: General Snooker strategy for Super-Qs, plus, OK, what exactly IS a Super-Q?

Thanks to Mary and Maralize, whose comments and questions led me to these writings.

Lots of talking here; pick your topics!

What is Snooker, anyway?

Here's a summary:

The field contains 3 or 4 "red" jumps worth 1 point each, and 6 other obstacles worth 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 points. For example:


You have a set period of time, usually around 50 seconds, in which to accrue points by following first an opening sequence consisting of red, number, red, number, red, number, and then the closing sequence of 2 through 7. (Sometimes you can do a 4th red, number in the opening.) You may repeat the numbered obstacles, but you cannot repeat the reds; for example, do the 1st red and #7, then the 2nd red and #7, then the 3rd red and #4. Then 2 through 7.

During your allotted time, you must earn 37 points for a Qualifying score (a "Q").

If you take an incorrect obstacle, you are whistled off; if you fault an obstacle in the closing, you are whistled off.

Placements are determined by your points.

There are a lot of additional rules and gotchas; if you don't know how to play Snooker, and want to read my previous in-depth post about How To Play Agility Snooker, including why it has the same name as a billiards game, feel free.

What exactly is a Super-Q and how many do I need and why?

Whenever USDAA Masters Snooker plays at a trial, the mysterious word "Super-Q" repeats obsessively.

A Super-Q means that you place in the top 15% of the dogs in your height group. (They round up, fortunately--but when I'm working at the score table, I always look at the Super-Q cheat sheet to be sure I'm giving the right quantity.)

Point ties are resolved by your time. That's why you always race for the finish line when you're done, no matter how many points you have (assuming you've gotten a qualifying score).

Super-Qs apply only to Masters (and P3) Snooker. To earn an ADCH or your APD, 3 of your 5 Snooker Qs must be Super-Qs. Once you've earned the 3 Super-Qs in Masters towards the ADCH, you never again need another Super-Q in championship for anything except glory, no matter how high you go in titles. Ditto with the 3 in P3 towards the APD.

Super-Q caveats

There are two gotchas that can make it slightly more complicated:

• You have to earn a Q to earn a Super-Q. For example, if there are 20 dogs, there would normally be 3 super-Qs. But if only 2 dogs qualify, well, there's a Super-Q that never is awarded, oh well! (Hence, it's a Super Q--because you already have the Q but now it's an extra-special Q.)
• If there are fewer than 7 dogs in either of the open heights or fewer than 5 in either of the mini heights, they have to combine the heights (but only open with open and mini with mini).

For example, let's say:

• There are 20 16" dogs. Normally there would be 3 super-Qs with 20 dogs.
• The top three 16" dogs (let's say, Luka, Wave, and, oh, Sizzle) get 59, 58, and 51 points.
• Meanwhile, the top 12" dogs score 52, 50, and 49.
• There are only four 12" dogs. Therefore they have to combine the 12" with the 16".
• Now there are 24 dogs, which makes 4 Super-Qs. the Super-Qs will be the top 3 16" dogs, plus the top 12" dog with 52 points (because the top 4 dogs in the combined heights have 59, 58, 52, and 51 pts).

That's probably more than you need to know, but I'm being complete here.

The info on Super-Qs is in the USDAA rule book chapt 6 in the Snooker section's "Qualification" subsection.

Tournament events: Other scoring with percentages

You might be thinking that some other classes are related to Super-Qs--for example, in Steeplechase, you have to be within 25% of the average of the top 3 dogs to Q; something similar for DAM. Those aren't super-Qs; those are just how you earn Qs in those events. Grand Prix  uses percentages only in Round 2 at the regional--top 50% (?) in round 2 get a bye into the semifinals at the nationals. Or that's what the calculation was; they dink around with these things periodically so who knows.

Must I always go for all 7s in the opening?

So--a friend who has earned her three Super-Qs now wants to go for Top Ten points (that's over all dogs over the whole year--a 1st place earns more top ten points than a 2nd place, etc.). So she commented something like: "Now I must ALWAYS go for all 7s in the opening, no matter how many reds there are and no matter what the course is."

I said that that was not the right approach towards earning Top Ten placements (which are more or less synonymous with Super-Qs).

My point is that, if you try for an impossible course or try one that you have slim chance of doing, you're normally worse off than if you go for somewhat lower points but a sure thing. I will always *look* at the all-7 opening, but I don't nearly always pick it, and neither does anyone else.

I *do* always pick a slightly aggressive course to push myself and my dog, because most other people will be doing so, too. And I just like getting placement ribbons, so a mere Q isn't good enough. :-) On a very challenging course, lots of dogs will crap out trying to get more than they're really capable of. (Look at me and Boost--oh, ok, well, don't--)

She further put herself out on a limb by saying that, nowadays, with the crowd we have, someone ALWAYS does all 7s in the opening and gets all the way through the closing, so she has to always try.

I said, NEVER and ALWAYS are two concepts in agility that are likely to be easily disproved. And, being the database geek that I am, I was able to quickly pull up some numbers from our local trials:

(1) In Masters 22"/26", since January '08 (in trials I've competed in of course), I count 50 times we've run snooker, and I count only 17 of those where I'm pretty sure that "all 7s" were done in the opening by the winning dog. It's probably less than that; I'm going by the note of 24 or 32 opening points (which is three or four 7s) but of course a 24 opening can also be gotten by, say, 3/3/7/7.

(2) So--that's to *win*. How about simply to earn *some* Top Ten points? Well, of course, winning gets you the most, but as I keep saying, some is better than none. Back to the database:

Among my dogs, I've earned Top Ten points on at least 34 snooker courses; 22 of those were also super-Qs.

Are they all 7/7/7 plus 2-7? No way. Here are the ones where I specifically noted what I ran.

6/7/7 +2-7
7/7/7 +2-7
7/7/5 +2-7
7/7/6/6 +2-6 (4 reds req'd)
5/6/7/7 +2-7 (4th red optional)
7/7/7 +2-6
5/4/4/2 +2-7
7/7/7 +2-7
5/4/3 +2-6 (no Q but a 1st place! still get Top Ten pts!)
1/7/7 +2-7 (1 means we faulted the point obstacle)
7/7/6/6 +2-7
7/7/3 +2-7
7/6/1 +2-7
7/7/7 +2-7
6/6/7/7 +2-5
7/7/7 +2-7
7/7/6 +2-7
5/5/7/7 +2-7
7/7/7 +2-7
4/7/7/7 +2-7 (4 req'd)
4/5/2/7 +2-7
5/7/7/7 +2-7 (4 req'd)
6/7/7/6 +2-7
3/5/7/7 +2-6
0/5/7 +2-6 (0 means we knocked a red jump)
1/7/7 +2-7

So only 6 of these 26 runs used all 7s and completed the closing. It is possible that one needed even fewer points than that to get top ten points; my records aren't THAT detailed.

This Weekend--Hopes and Fears

SUMMARY: USDAA Southwest Regional Championship/Qualifier

This weekend my club, The Bay Team, hosts one of the six(?) annual Regional events for USDAA, the oldest and the most interesting and challenging agility venue in the United States.

Until last year, if you took 1st place in Steeplechase or Grand Prix at a regional, you earned a bye into the finals at Nationals. No more; firsts this weekend aren't special. The advantage here is that all qualifiers in Grand Prix or Steeplechase Round 2 earn byes into the semifinals at Nationals.

Of course, first you have to make it to round 2. In Grand Prix, you just have to run clean; in Steeplechase, your time plus faults has to be within 25% of the top 3 dogs' average score. Those Qs count towards titles and send you to the quarterfinals at the nationals (AKA round 1 at the nationals).

However, to get the bye into nationals semis, you have to do well enough in round 2 this weekend in comparison to the other dogs who made it to round 2. In Grand Prix, you have to be in the top 50% (I think, jeez, why isn't that in the premium? That's what it used to be). And in Steeplechase, you have to finish within 15% of the average of the top 3 dogs.

Plus there are all the regular classes.

My fear is--based on last night's performance in class--that I'll be forgetting courses again; I must have forgotten half the courses we ran.

My hope is that the dogs will run as well as they did in class last night. Tika ran two courses at 26" without knocking any bars, for example. Boost is running like a champ.

And once again, I try not to focus on titles too much, but for the record:
* Tika Jumpers Q at 26" completes her silver ADCH (that's like a regular championship 5x over).
* Boost Jumpers Q completes her MAD (master agility dog).
* Tika Performance DAM and either GP or Steeplechase earns her performance tournament master title.
* Boost gamble earns her masters gambler title.
* Tika needs 2 Performance Standards and a performance Jumpers for her performance MAD--of course she can't get the jumpers until she's finished that last one at 26".
* Tika Pairs Relay Q earns her performance masters relay title.
* Boost needs the first-round steeplechase Q to be qualified to run Steeplechase at the nationals. If we go. Which we won't. Unless boost wins round 2 this weekend. (It is to laugh! I laugh, ha ha!)

OK, better go back and get ready for four (groan) days of agility. I won't be online at all (unless I decide to come home one of the 3 nights after all) until Monday evening at the earliest.

Videos Videos Videos! GP and Pairs

SUMMARY: Grand Prix and Pairs Relay vids.

OK, trying something different for these videos from this weekend, rather than directing you to the 3-Dog Video site. These are all lower-resolution MP4 vids, displayed larger than their actual size so they're sort of grainy. You can click the 3-dog video link to have your option (like the prior day's vids) of which size/resolution to play.

I was able to purchase these videos on an introductory special price. Can't do it every weekend, but it was nice to get some for a change.

For discussions of these runs, see Saturday's and Sunday's posts.

Grand Prix

Grand Prix Boost
See the Dread Border Collie Spin in two places, one for a runout 5-point fault. But the rest is nice. (3-Dog Video versions.)

Grand Prix Tika
See her try very hard in 2 places to take the off-course obstacle but come back to me thank goodness gracious. (3-Dog Video versions.)

Pairs Relay

Tika goes to investigate the judge and gets a runout. (3-Dog Video versions.)


Boost pops weaves, knocks bar, and skips a jump. (3-Dog Video versions.)

Actual Agility Video Footage!

SUMMARY:

Last weekend I promised to post some videos. OK, here ya go. I take my camcorder to every trial with me, but almost never remember to ask anyone to tape us. Last weekend, I finally did--on 4 runs only.

When transferring from my camera to computer, there was this odd jumping thing it was doing, like it was skipping frames or something. Not sure whether camera, tape, recording, playback--and I didn't feel like futzing with it to figure it out.

Round 1 Steeplechase

Tika wins in Performance, Boost Qs in Championship even with a bar down, because she was plenty fast.

Boost's run: Note that, on the first A-frame, I release her quickly, and on the 2nd Aframe, she doesn't bother actually doing 2 on/2 off or waiting for a release. And at the very end, instead of running ahead of me over the last line of jumps, she's kind of waiting for me and looking back a bit.

Tika's Run: Note a huge wide turn after the first Aframe, because I'm trying to get in front of her to make sure she gets a foot in the yellow zone so she thinks we're going straight instead of turning left.

Boost's run:

Grand Prix

Tika takes 2nd place.

Masters Jumpers

Boost and I still have some issues. Like, I'm trying to give her plenty of room to take a jump right in front of her before rear crossing, but she just won't do it, backs around it, and backjumps it. Most of the run isn't awful; she sends out nicely to one jump but, near the end, comes in around a jump I was trying to send her out to. And a bar down. Ah, well. Mostly she's starting to run instead of looking at me all the time.

6th Photo

SUMMARY: An exercise from the "taggers" gamebook.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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


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

Saturday Good, Sunday Not So Hot--Literally and Figuratively

SUMMARY: Got a couple of Qs but there's work to do.

Saturday in Santa Rosa was cold but not awfully so. Both dogs ran well: 7 runs each in one day! They loved it, probably because they could go all out in the cold weather and not risk overheating. You know how canine athletes worry about that stuff, especially when they're not drinking Gatorade. It was a long day, though, not done until almost 9 PM. At least the club had planned for that & advertised dinner along with Strategic Pairs. But I felt pretty good at the end of the day with our successes and luck.

Sunday chilled us to the bone. 28F at 7:30 in the morning. Glad I took my ginormous purple down coat, which you can't miss noticing from half a mile away. And wore thermal underwear. Then around 4:00, just as I was ready to start hauling stuff out to my car, it poured. Dogs were still happy to run in the cold for another 4 runs each, but things didn't go quite so well and I had to work myself out of feeling disappointed.

To give you an idea of the chill--I always take an ice-filled cooler packed with my fave diet soft drinks because I can't stand warm diet soft drinks. This time, I skipped the cooler entirely and just left the cans loose in my car. They were plenty ice-cold, thank you very much!
The "Lytle Cow Palace," scene of our glories and disgraces and some really cold Alaskan weather come to visit.

Saturday Tika Team

Five of the runs were for Team. Tika ran clean and fairly fast in Jumpers and Standard, although (as I had expected) even with the new Qing system for Team individual events, she missed Qs by 1.7 seconds in Standard and 0.2 in Jumpers--although had I worked even one of my sloppy turns better, we'd have gotten that bonus Jumpers Q. She had a nice Gamblers opening and we were exactly where we needed to be to try for maximum points in the gamble--but knocked the 3rd bar, so had very high opening points but only so-so closing; no bonus Q there, either.

Tried for four reds in the Snooker, knocked the first bar, but recovered easily to accrue 49 points. Only about a dozen dogs of the 87 competing in all heights managed to do four reds and get through to the end, so she did have enough for a bonus Q here.

Her team did pretty good. After the first two rounds--Standard and Gamblers--where both teammates did even better than Tika--we were in 2nd place overall of 29 teams. One teammate Eed in the Jumpers round, so we lost our prime position, but the rest of our Jumpers and Snookers were pretty good, and we all ran well in the relay in which at least half the teams Eed. So we ended up 5th overall despite that Jumpers E, and with 18 teams Qing, we were well up there.

Can I fantasize for a moment? Without the Jumpers E, we'd have been plenty above the first place team's score. But, oh well, I'm very happy with how Tika ran and delighted with my teammates.

Pretty good, and very happy about that; that finished her 10th Team Q. So, to get our Tournament Platinum, we needed only EITHER the Steeplechase OR the Grand Prix on Sunday.

Saturday Boost Team

We were all younger, less polished dogs on this team. After the first two runs--Standard (where one teammate Eed and the other two of us bobbled and faulted our way through it) and Gamblers (where Boost wouldn't go OUT for a bonus and I dinked around trying to insist that she do it, so got really low points--and our teammates had lower points than that)--I think we were in 3rd to last place. Not promising for Qing.

In Jumpers, another teammate Eed, Boost accrued a ton of faults, and one teammate ran very well. In Snooker, Boost knocked a bar in the opening so missed some points and popped out of the weaves on a rear cross in the closing so lost a bunch more points; One teammate did very well and the other better than Boost.

But we had a wonderful relay run; placed 7th of the 29 teams, and so even with two Es earlier, we all held it together individually enough here and there, and fully half the teams wiped out of the relay, including some of the top ones, leaving us enough room to just squeeze into Qing territory by a mere 2.17 points out of our total of 914.84 (1st place at 1229.79 for comparison), placing 18th overall. So one more bar anywhere, or one more popped contact, or one more missed weave pole that someone had to go back for, out of our 15 combined runs, and we'd not have qualified. Whewwwwwww!

It was quite a surprise and delight to get that Q after what had seemed like a dismal showing. Sometimes I curse the high point value of the relay, but it saved us this time.

The rest of Saturday

Tika earned another Q in Masters Jumpers. Boost and I Eed early in that--serpentine that she wouldn't come in on (which I was lamenting about on Thursday, remember that?) and by the time I got her over the jump, I forgot where I was going and--while I stood there thinking--she backjumped. So still no MAD for the baby dog.

Strategic Pairs filled out the day. 19 teams stuck around for the fun.

Tika's Strategic Pairs partner, Chaps the wonder-Aussie, who just got back from spectacular successes at the Aussie nationals.


Tika and her partner ran clean, but Tika had some bobbles in our first segment when she got ahead of me and I couldn't direct her, and then we had a communication failure among human teammates so there were several seconds where we both were standing doing nothing. We still managed to come in 6th of 19, which was nice--only 6 seconds slower than the 1st place team... who was...

Boost and her partner! Ta-da! We had no faults, we communicated well, we didn't waste any time. Boost was not the dog I'd have ever guessed I'd win a wild game like Strategic Pairs with--but actually the judge(s) designed a course that was very straightforward for switching between two dogs, so it was just short, simple sequences.

So, at the end of the day, I felt pretty good about my agility weekend.

Boost and her Strategic Pairs partner, Taiko, who just got back from winning at the ASCA nationals.

Here is what Boost won for me in Strategic Pairs. I had no idea it would be something cool like this! Thanks, Bay Team SP prize czar!


Here is what Boost won also for me in Strategic Pairs. I don't imbibe, so my renter/dogsitter benefitted from this part.

Sunday

Things fell apart a bit on Sunday. Not a lot. Just enough to take the edge off the general satisfaction for the weekend. It went like this:

Tika ran very nicely, fast, eager. In Steeplechase, almost 4 seconds under qualifying time, which is pretty good for her. But ticked the bloody broad jump. Just barely. I barely heard it and wasn't even sure whether I had heard it. We couldn't miss a Q by whacking a bar or flying off the Aframe or mishandling; no, we incurred 5 faults with a tiny tap of a toenail, putting us just out of Qualifying.

In Grand Prix, she ran fast and smoothly; we got through the whole course with no problems at all, nice tight turns, bars up, got the Aframe contact. The next to the last obstacle was the dogwalk, and she even got a foot solidly in the yellow zone going up, which has been one of our Grand Prix bugaboos. And then, 15 feet away from the last jump (which she kept up), she flew right off the end of the dogwalk, not even pretending to slow down for it. Crapola. Just one little flaw at the end of a lovely run.

So no Tournament Platinum.

Tika had a lovely Gamblers' opening, except that I lost her at one point, wasting time, and decided not to adjust for it; as a result, was way on the far side of the course with an Aframe between us and the gamble when the whistle blew. And she did the dang gamble, too, very professionally. But over time, so no Q.

And, in our opportunity to maybe pick up a placement, in Masters Pairs, I stepped into her path at the wrong stupid moment when I should've been stepping out, and pushed her into an off-course tunnel.

So not a Q all day.

Dogs get cozy crates with furry mats to curl up in during the freeze.


Boost ran very nicely all day, with no refusal or runout problems. She was such a good girl; very proud of her. But still... as I've commented before, there's only so long I can get by on "making progress" without "earning Qs".

I did the exact same stupid trick with Boost in Gamblers; she went into the weave poles in the wrong side so we had to restart, but again I decided that, since she's faster than Tika, I could go the extra distance and not adjust for it. Well--we ended up with more opening points than the first place dog, AND she also did the gamble perfectly, but only after (repeat after me) we were way on the far side of the course with an Aframe between us and the gamble when the whistle blew. Foolish handler trick again.

In Steeplechase, Boost had a lovely run, but had a bar down. Thought we might have qualified anyway, but nooo--there were 10 faults on our scribe sheet, not 5, and I have no clue what the other 5 were for. Another good reason to have your runs videotaped. But will that teach me? Nope, never does.

In Grand Prix, doh, I just skipped a jump. And this was a course I had already just run with Tika. Go figure. So--off-course.

In Pairs, however, she partnered with her SisterDog Bette, and both dogs decided to show the world what a wonderful litter they came from. We both had beautiful, clean runs, and placed 4th of 41 teams. So that was it, my sole Q for the day between both dogs. Disappointing, especially when several were so close.

This is how I end up averaging only 50% with Tika--one weekend with 9 of 10 Qs, the next weekend 2 of 8 or so.

Never did get the final word on what this was about--

And In Other News

Mom is home from the hospital, feeling good, injecting self with drugs (I knew there was a reason we needed to keep her from hanging out with those decadent hospital personnel), trying to get back to where she was muscularly before she had to lie in a bed for 4 days again. Yay, Mom! And I heard that Dad even got a good night's sleep a couple of nights ago, finally, after all that all-night hospital brou ha ha. Good on ya, dad!

Too Much Wind

SUMMARY: The wind blew blew blew all weekend. That must explain the dropped bars.

The Dixon site is known for its winds. They have had a trial or two over time where they had to strap the jump bars to the jumps to keep them from blowing off repeatedly, and relying on the judge for whether they SHOULD have fallen. Not quite that bad this time, but most of the jumps had to be staked, we used huge rocks to hold down everything on the score table (dang, why didn't I think to take a picture of that? It's the wind drying out my brain...), and my skin and respiratory system are so dessicated that they'd make the long-term inhabitants of the Valley of the Kings look thoroughly moisturized.

Qs, though, were in short supply.

Boost finally got her only Q of the weekend out of 10 tries, in the last run of the weekend, pairs relay. She knocked a bar (which is OK as long as your time plus faults stays below the required number), but she and her teammate had the second-fastest time of all 26 masters open pairs. That's very promising. And she did have a bit of a hesitation before one jump--not enough for a refusal but fractions of seconds matter--and I did hold her a bit on the Aframe because she's been leaving early. So the speed really is very promising when she actually runs instead of looking back at me to see what I'm doing and thence going around jumps or earning refusals.

And that finished her Relay title, which is her first Masters-level title. Happy!

Tika earned Qs in Gamblers both days, 5th place out of 17 both times (dang, just out of placement-ribbon range!), and also in pairs, and--funny thing for a dog who has earned most of her 25 Grand Prix Qs with 5 faults--she was one of only two 26" dogs who ran clean in the Grand Prix today, taking 2nd, which I think is the best we've ever done. So I guess it *is* possible that everyone else in the known universe could crap out at Nationals and we'd be left standing.

Except that the rest of her runs had issues, so the opposite seems more likely.

(Boost also did the gambles beautifully both days, but knocked a bar in each. Dang bars!)

Maybe more tomorrow. Mostly I had fun, mostly the dogs ran well, and very mostly indeed I'm glad to be home and out of that wind!

The World's Most Expensive Polo Shirt

SUMMARY: I'm out of excuses. Guess I'm going to Nationals. Besides, I want that shirt.

In her life, Tika has had 9 opportunities to earn a bye into the Grand Prix semifinals at the Nationals (and get a nifty "free" polo shirt to commemorate the occasion), which you can do either by placing in the top 50% in Round 2 of the regionals or the top 50% in the quarterfinals at the nationals:

• Regional 2003: Made it to Round 2 at her first-ever regionals. Still a green dog. The run was flawless--well, except the little detail of running between the tire and the upright instead of going through the tire
• Regional 2004: Made it to Round 2. Don't know what happened--we had 15 faults there.
• Nationals 2004 quarterfinals: 5 faults. Placed 36th, and 34 dogs went to the semis.
• Regionals 2005: Eed in round 1.
• Nationals 2005 quarters: 5 faults. Placed 50th, and 41 dogs went.
• Regional 2006: Made it to Round 2. Got called on the dogwalk up for 5 faults Placed 16th and 13 dogs got byes.
• Nationals 2006 quarterfinals: Clean up to the next to the last jump, where I got overexcited and caused a backjump.
• Regional 2007: Made it to Round 2. Fell off the dogwalk and Eed when I spent time making sure she was OK.
• Nationals 2007 quarterfinals: I just messed up and pulled her out of the weaves early trying to run aggressively. Clean otherwise.
• Regional 2008: Clean run and pretty fast for the Tika dog, and for her mom, too! (Although a full 6 seconds off the fastest dogs.) We did it! We did it! Taj MuttHall is just about overwhelmed with joy!

Who cares if no Taj MuttHall dogs Qed in dumb old Gamblers, Standard, or Steeplechase! Those Qs were probably all sour anyway.

The cost just to pick up the polo shirt that I've been wanting so badly for so long: A week off work, a drive to Arizona, a week in a hotel, massive entry fees for the Nationals, team shirts for the DAM teams... and all the incidental expenses, too. We're not adding up the cost to *earn* that polo shirt.

Another competitor was speculating that, if she earned that bye, maybe she could just send in her entry form and pay the entry fees, not bother making the trip, and just have someone pick up the shirt for her. Pricey for a polo shirt, but not as pricey as actually making the trip.

Boost and Tika celebrating their nationals qualifications with a little frisbee:




Scully, the Princess dog who never plays at trials, thinks that might actually look like fun:


Sparkle believes that there is evidence to be found, even if it's not yet clear about what:

There might be gophers here:


Ewww, what's this? Smells gross! Ewww! Guess I'd better roll in it!


Most of the judges getting their instructions from Leslie, who organizes workers:

Judge Scott 'splains what it's all about:


Taj MuttHall and Tie-Dye Superwoman pay no attention to the camera while working at the score table all weekend:


Our rideshare, Scully & Sparkle's mom, walks a course in her cool tie-dye.

Zero-Fault Grand Prixs

SUMMARY: You just knew it was going to happen sooner or later.

Well, folks, we're getting word that the 2009 Grand Prix qualifying season will now require clean runs to qualify.

Sigh--I knew that would happen sooner or later. There go all of Tika's future GP qualifiers. (It's like steeplechase--knocked bars have kept her from qualifying SO many times; now it'll be the same in the GP. 19 of her 25 GP Qs have been with 5 faults. And one of Boost's two Qs has been with 5 faults. Basically-- I'm doomed.)

Here's how they've gradually been shortening the leash:

Grand Prix introduced: 1988. I have no info from then through 1996.

1997: 15 or fewer faults to qualify.
1998, 1999: I can't find info. Anyone have this?
2000, 2001, 2002: 10 or fewer
2003, 2004, 2005, 2006: 7 or fewer
2007, 2008: 5 or fewer
2009: 0 or fewer

2012: 0 or fewer faults within 25% of the top three finishers?

2015: The top three finishers with 0 faults?

Maybe I shouldn't even suggest those, even facetiously, in public...it might give the wrong people some bad ideas...

Tika is Qualified in Grand Prix

SUMMARY: A relief to discover--

I was just putting Tika's ribbons from this weekend on the wall, and had to move a couple of older ones, and so noticed a 2008 Grand Prix qualifying ribbon already nestled among Tika's ribbons from last fall. Sure enough--she DID already get one GP Q, and now this weekend's makes two, and so now she's Qed for Nationals in GP. Whew! Just one more Steeplechase and she'll be all set. If I decide to go. Looking at her times compared to others in the Steeplechase in particular, but all the classes in general, plus this ongoing occasional soreness thing, makes me wonder whether it's worth the trip. I don't have to decide yet--

Weekend Courses

SUMMARY: Some interesting courses from the Haute TRACS event.

Here's a selection of interesting courses from this weekend. Coincidentally, they also are all from different judges (also judging, Tami McClung).

Team Snooker

I like Snookers that give people a lot of reasonable options so that everyone isn't running virtually the same course over and over. That's hard to do. Tammy did a nice job with this one by making 3 and 7 (and 4 of course) one-way-only during opening and closing and 2, 5, and 6 usable from any direction, any which way. Time was 50 secs for large dogs, 55 for 16", and 60 for 12".

The 4, 5, 6, and 7 were most-frequently used in the opening in various combinations. I had a two-part strategy: Find something that flows fairly nicely so I didn't have to be doing call-offs and threadles between obstacles, and secondly, hope that everyone else trying to do more complicated things crap out. Hence, my plan was (as numbered on the map) middle red to #2 to right red to #4 teeter, to left red to #5, to upper red. After that, I veered onto the dogwalk #7 for Boost because she has fast & reliable contacts, and #6 for Tika because her dogwalk up and down are iffy but her weaves are good.

It worked well except that Boost slid off the dogwalk on the way up (I guess I didn't line her up well, although she also slid off the dogwalk in the Standard ring later, and the teeter later, too) so I had to go back and redo it, and then she knocked the bar on #3 in the closing. She actually did a great job of sending out to the red after the teeter and then swinging around and sending ahead of me to the #5 pinwheel--except she knocked one of the bars there. Still, no refusals that I remember.

And I was already feeling stupid and lethargic in Tika's closing and didn't bother lining her up for the #4 teeter, so she came on from the side above the contact, earning a whistle.

Huh, I forgot to note what the higher or typical scores were for this class; sorry. Will fix that when the results are posted online.

Team Gamblers

Team Gamblers is always interesting because it's nontraditional. Funny that a USDAA friend commented to me recently that she wasn't that fond of CPE nontraditional gambles because you always had to figure out new rules, whereas traditional gambles you don't--but everyone accepts and generally likes to play Team Gambles, which are exactly the same concept as CPE nontraditional gambles. (Judge invents something. Period.)

This was a how-greedy-are-you kind of gamble. Big dogs had 30 seconds. The Aframe was worth zero, BUT it doubled any points that you had gotten up to that point. You could do it once, and then continue earning points as usual until the whistle blew. Attempting it and blowing it did nothing except waste time. However, the gotcha was this: If your dog was on the Aframe in any way at all (e.g., even holding a 2-on, 2-off) when the whistle blew, you lost EVERYTHING.

Also, if you did the weaves as a gamble from behind the line, they were worth 7 instead of 5.

Many people did some part of this sequence: tire-teeter-jump(to the left)-tire-teeter-"get to the weaves"-weaves-tunnel-weaves-jump-Aframe, where "get to the weaves" is either the tunnel or the 3 jumps after the teeter. If you completed ALL of it successfully, this sequence earned you 78 points. Most people didn't try for the whole sequence, maybe leaving out the tire at the beginning (which I left out for Tika but did with Boost), or going directly from the first weaves to the jump-Aframe, etc.

Highest score was 89, good lord, I have no idea how they managed it--even doing that sequence and then doing the tunnel under the Aframe twice would've been only 84 points and you'd have to be really really really fast to do that.

Typical scores were in the 60-64 range. Both my dogs popped out of their first set of weaves, dagnabbit, must be something in the water and not something their handler was doing. Tika ended up with 64 points, placing 19th of 43; Boost had 60, placing 28th of 73. (ANd I'm still puzzled because I thought she did 2 points MORE than Tika! Never had time to go back and check the scribe sheet.)

Grand Prix

The Grand Prix had about a 50% Qualifying rate, I believe, but very few of those were clean qualifiers. I think that only about 4 dogs out of 44 in Tika's jump height, for example, had clean runs, although a bunch qualified with 5 faults.

A lot of people had problems of one sort or another in the sequence between the dogwalk and the #15 tunnel. There was much debate about whether to send the dog to #13, and serpentine #14 into the tunnel, but I think it was tighter in reality than it looks on paper. Some people front crossed between 13 and 14 and pulled into 15; some did front crosses in both places.

Tika flew off the dogwalk while I stopped flat-footed in an attempt to get her to make the contact, then when I called her hard, she knocked the bar on #13 but still didn't turn in time to avoid the runout line on #14, so within 2 obstacles we had 15 faults. The rest was nice.

Boost was having weave pole issues a lot the first day, including here.

Another problem area for people was the 10-11-12 sequence. I handled it by running on the far side of the dogwalk, rear crossing the tunnel, and catching up to my dog for a wrap to the dogwalk. They both slowed and looked back at me, but weren't close enough to 11 for a refusal. Tika pushed/wrapped nicely, but Boost looking back at me put her into multiple-refusal-land, and this is the point in the course where I finally left. Ashley's the only one I saw who did it on that same side AND got a front cross in before the #10 tunnel. Most people ran on this side of the dogwalk, with the dog veering off towards the tire before the handler got there, sometimes taking it for an offcourse, or ended up backjumping the #11, either before or after taking it the correct way.

Coming out of the #15 tunnel to #16, an amazing number of dogs headed straight for the chute or the #20 final jump (again indicating that the actual layout was slightly different from the course map). Some dogs went around #17 or #18 or both. The #6 to #7 caused some off courses at #3. The 7-8-9 caused some off courses onto the dogwalk.

In short, lots of opportunities to screw up.

There were

Steeplechase

The Steeplechase really wiped people out. There were some, like me, who took the Aframe path after the first set of weave poles instead of the correct path. The biggest challenge was the 12-13-14. Lots of dogs had problems with the broad jump itself, and many dogs went into the wrong end of the #14 tunnel. There were some offcourses from 10-11 over the 18 or 3, but not as many as you might think, as those were fairly obvious problems that people were prepared for.

The #5-6-7 also gave problems. I think that the jump was further to the right, in reality, so a lot of dogs were pulling past it on the left as the handler broke off towards the weaves.

Many many many missed weave entries, particularly after the #6, and it's not entirely clear to me why, unless the dog was heading for the tunnel and so came in at an odd angle. Tika had no problem. Boost made the entry but skipped the next pole, but she's been doing that a lot lately so I don't think it had much to do with the course.

Fastest times were in the mid-28-seconds, posted by Cap, Luka, and...uh...I should remember but don't (having worked that score table most of the day--wow what a long class, 5 hours!). Those fast times plus the high fault and offcourse rate kept the number of qualifiers very low, it seems to me.

Nationals Practice

SUMMARY: Good practice today, but tired.

Every year, the weekend before Nationals, Power Paws Agility hosts a nationals practice for their students. It's lovely--free--plus snacks and drinks--plus courses from previous Nationals Grand Prixs and variations thereof.

Today's weather was absolutely lovely for it. Not too warm, but sunny. Just a teeny breeze. Hazy--apparently we're getting a wee bit of the air crud from the southern california fires, 300 miles and more south from here! Amazing.

I ran Boost, even though she's not competing. She did very well. Knocked a couple of bars when I called her wrong, had a couple of runouts on tough pulls, and skipped the second weave pole on a tough entry that almost everyone (except Tika, woot!) had trouble with, but she got it easily the second time around the course, and not everyone did. And her contacts remain fast and accurate.

Tika ran well enough, but I notice the lack of speed especially in comparison to Boost. She moves efficiently around the course, but she doesn't drive like I've seen her do sometimes, or like when she spies a squirrel, or even when I'm tossing the frisbee. This is summed up as follows: In two of the previous 3 years at Nationals, her speed was plenty fast enough to get her into the Grand Prix semifinals, but each time we had a 5-point fault, which dropped us just below the cut-off point. If she had been half a second to a second faster, even the fault wouldn't have kept us out.

But she did her contacts fairly quickly today, even the dogwalk, which I've been working on lately for speed (although never enough, never enough!).

The worst part of today was how tired and brick-like my legs were, once again, from yesterday's mile test at Boot Camp. First 3 or 4 runs were OK, but my feeble attempts at sprinting became less sprintlike and more thudlike; after run #8 (4 each dog), three and a half hours after the first one, I called it quits for the day.

My first run at Scottsdale isn't until Thursday, so I should be hale and hearty by then. The trick is to keep up with my daily one-mile walks to maintain my stamina for the site, without overextending myself.

Grand Prix vs Standard

SUMMARY: What's the difference?

OK, you agility geniuses. Grand Prix is basically just a Masters Standard course without the table, right?

So why on earth does Tika run clean in Masters Standard more than 20% of the time, but only 10% of the time in Grand Prix?

(As a side note, 45% of her Grand Prixs are 5-point-fault runs, but only 20% of her Standard runs--which brings up the question of why she gets 0 or 5 faults in 55% of her Grand Prixs but only in 40% of her standard? Only 6% are table-related, near as I can tell, so that doesn't make up the difference.)

Saturday at the Regionals

SUMMARY: Tika does well, Boost doesn't

I'm tired so this will (probably) be (mercifully) short. Not posting general results, which is silly--I was there and working score table and could have gotten them. But nooo, didn't occur to me until now. But I was busy enough that I haven't even written down my own dogs' scores yet, just kind of glanced at them.

We did DAM Team and Grand Prix Round 1 today.

Tika did reasonably well in Team; one refusal on a Standard course that claimed a lot of dogs; one bar in a Jumpers course on which maybe half the dogs went off course; 7th of 53 in Gamblers, and I think 9th in Snooker. And she didn't E in the Ream Relay, either. Her partners weren't quite as lucky this time around--including a heartbreaking E in the Team Relay where the judge Eed the dog because, he said, the dog had stopped at the bottom of the dogwalk all the way off and then stepped backwards with one foot onto the contact. Oh, well. But 38 teams Qed, and we were--38th. By the hair of the whiskers of our teeth!

Boost's teammates did fairly well today, too, and Boost did credibly in Gamblers. In STandard, I thought we had Eed on refusals again, but in fact survived with only a weave pop-out and 2 refusals. However, in Snooker we had catastrophic weave failure in the opening so ended with 7 points; in Jumpers we looked like we'd never been on a course together before; and in Team we Eed with a zillion refusals plus popped out of the weaves pllus finally at the end ran past a jump for an offcourse.

So Boost won't be running in anything at Nationals this year.

In Grand Prix, Tika was uninspired--it was hot, she probably needed to potty; I was hot and probably needed to potty--she edged her way down the dogwalk rather than running--but in fact we Qed with 0 faults, only the 4th time (if I'm remember the count correctly) in her whole life where she Qed without 5 faults. But this was the same thing last year--in round 1, 0 faults; in round 2, where we really needed 0 faults to be in the top 50% to get a bye into the semis, 5 faults.

So we'll see what happens tomorrow.

Interestingly, we got through well over 400 runs per ring by (I think) 6:00 or a little after. Things went very well overall, and it was quite warm and humid for here but really not stunningly hot, and we had a firm breeze all afternoon.

OK, dogs barking, me tired, bedtime.