Waiting for that Lifetime Platinum...

SUMMARY: It's tiny in the grand scheme of things, but still--

--I did so want to get there. Particularly now that I'm unlikely to compete again, ever, let alone enough to earn all those Qs with a single dog. [I'm not heartbroken about that not-competing thing. But, you know--yes, about that award. ]

  Tika was only a few short of the 500 required when her heart decided that she was done. 

Tika's LAA Bronze (150 Qs)

But then, in January 2020, USDAA announced:

With new crossover rules in effect, these qualifications [counts for Lifetime Achievement Awards] may come from either the Championship or Performance program, and are limited on a combined basis to no more than 3 qualifications per class (the number to earn a class title) for a maximum of 15 qualifications at each level (i.e., Starters and Advanced), for an overall maximum of 30. This is in keeping with the definition of “Lifetime” and recognizing performances from the beginning of a dog’s career to retirement. This change will be reflected at a later date, following implementation of other programming changes. (https://www.usdaa.com/regulations/upload/USDAAChanges01_10_2020_announcement_Update01_23_2020.pdf)

Translation: Starters and Advanced Qs that didn't used to count towards LAA awards now do. And they'll retroactively update the records and titles for all affected dogs... and Tika had 13 Starters  and 11 Advanced Qs!

Tika's LAA Silver, 250 Qs

And then--COVID hit. So, I waited.

A year after that announcement, I finally asked USDAA In January 2021:

Did this actually go into effect? Specifically, my dog Tika had to retire just 12 short of her LAA platinum, but I see that none of her Starters or Advanced Qs are applied to her award.  Is there any action that I need to take?

Tika's LAA Gold (350 Qs) 

The response was:

Thanks for your patience  - we are still completing the work to update the formulas from the January 2020 updates. The pandemic and cancellation of events nationwide required that we shift all programming energies to the USDAA@Home platform.

LAA awards formulas should reflect the change this quarter. Dogs that were competing and earned an LAA at the time of the change will be awarded their plaques automatically.  We are working on a case by case basis to recognize dogs that have earned these retroactively and are no longer with us. Certainly a great accomplishment in either case.

Last year was a rough year for everyone, I understand that. Her record is still not updated on their web site. I am still trying to be patient. Sigh. I wonder how very many dogs are in a similar place with their LAAs of all 4 levels? (oh--wait--now there are 2 levels even higher!)

She was an amazing dog and gave me just about everything I could've imagined in agility.  But, yes, I greedily want just that little tidbit more.

-----

(See previous blah-blah-blah-agility-awards posts on the topic of Lifetime Achievement Awards)

Tika, 2006
Photo by Erika Maurer

Agility in the Autumn Recap

SUMMARY: Sometimes nothing goes the way you expect it to.

Picking up from where I left off--Tika again coughed most of the night Friday night, so even though I had no trouble drifting off because I was so tired from lack of sleep Thursday night, when 4 a.m. rolled around, I was then operating on two nights of sleep deprivation. Still, when I headed out on the road, I felt pretty good and even looking forward to the weekend.

The trip to Turlock was uneventful and I arrived half an hour earlier than I had anticipated, so turned on my alarm and napped in MUTT MVR for half an hour. First time I think I've ever done *that* (although I have often stopped & napped on my way home from trials).

The weather cooperated nicely. Cold and crisp on Saturday, with no rain at all. Tika in particular likes the cooler weather, so I figured that we might get some good fast runs. (Sunday was a bit warmer but still nicely cool for the dogs.)

We started the morning with Pairs Relay. Boost and her partner did great--her partner (a half sister) knocked a bar, but Boost was spot on perfect and I felt great running, knee again not bothering me, felt faster than I've felt in a long time. We had THE fastest running time of all 16 teams, wooohooo! but the 5-second penalty for the bar knocked us into 2nd place. That's very cool; Boost very seldom finishes with a placement ribbon even when we Q.

Tika and her partner did good, although once again Tika stunned me by popping out of the middle of the poles. I always made a high-pitched "brrrrrrrrr!" noise as she did the poles, and so now I'm wondering whether she's not hearing it so is thinking she's in the wrong place. But we still Qed and placed 2nd of 6 teams! A great way to start the morning, and Tika looked quite happy to be out there.

Next up, Standard, and OMG OMG OMG Boost and I had *another* spot-on perfect run! I felt fleet and fit; she did everything right, and placed 4th of 26 dog with a Q! Like, truly, WOW! On only 4 other weekends, ever, has she placed in the ribbons in 2 runs the same weekend! Happy happy happy, we both looked pretty pleased coming off the course. I also decided this weekend to do quick releases off all the contacts rather than stopped and telling her she's good. I liked that.

I'm thinkin'--oooh, this COULD be our day for a Super-Q in Snooker! Everything is clicking!

In Standard, Tika took the first jump and started coughing. I kept going, because on the few times she's coughed while running, it's gone within 3 or 4 coughs. She kept going, doing everything perfectly, but still coughing coughing. By the 10th obstacle--a chute (collapsed tunnel), she was obviously slowing. Next up, the dogwalk, and I decided that if she was still coughing on the dogwalk, I was stopping. But, you know, Tika doesn't stop on the dogwalk.

She didn't this time, either, but she was very slow, took a couple steps off the end, stopped completely, and stood there silently with her head down as I moved quickly in.

She took a step and staggered. I grabbed her. Head still down. I gently tried to turn her around to leave the course, and she stumbled against me. I held her still for a moment, scared down to the pit of my soul. She took another step, stumbled, then another step, and another, and her head came up, and her ears came up, and she trotted off the field like nothing had happened.

I checked her gums, and they were white.

White gums was how I always knew that Remington's tumor was bleeding internally, so I know about white gums. And, because of Remington, I have checked Tika's gums occasionally since she started the coughing, and they've never been white.

Much quick consulting with the many season vet techs who are also agility addicts around here. Tika still acting like a completely normal Tika, ready to go, eager to eat, bright-eyed. Got info about the 24/7 emergency clinic and headed off with both dogs.

So.

By the time we got there, Tika's gums had a little pink to them. They did a triage check and said, nope, her gums are fine, and so we went on the end of the queue of not-in-immediate-danger pets spending their Saturday at the emergency clinic.

Eventually, we met with the vet. By that time, Tika's gums were the usual bright pink. And aside from occasional coughing, looked and acted completely normal, including being quite stressed about being at the vet's.

They did a blood test at my request, and her blood cells were normal, no sign of anemia. The vet also kept listening to her chest over and over, and we finally decided to do chest x-rays (w/out sedation--Tika was very good!). Now, I've known for a couple of years that Tika had a heart murmur, and that it had gotten slightly worse by this summer;  at our most recent visit, our vet discussed a little bit about how Tika was likely headed down the road sometime to congestive heart failure. He said to let him know if she started coughing. She had been for several months at that point, but he seemed to think that what I was reporting wasn't significant. But it did prepare me for this diagnosis confirmed by Saturday's x-rays: Congestive heart failure.

Her heart is enlarged, and her chest had accrued extra fluid, all putting pressure on her blood vessels and bronchial tubes, which is what causes the coughing (same in people as in dogs). Most likely what happened on the field was that she simply was not getting enough oxygen to her brain.

Why she was fine during frisbee that morning and during her pairs relay run, but then started coughing during Standard, dunno.

But obviously in those preceding 48 hours, her body had crossed some kind of threshold that had made everything suddenly quite worse.

Do you know how strange it is to think, "Oh, thank Dog, she only has congestive heart failure!" ??!

Got some diuretics for her to reduce the fluid in her chest (standard treatment for humans, too). And returned to the trial, 4 hours after we'd left.

Anyway.

Scratched Tika from the rest of the weekend.

When we got back, Steeplechase Round 1 was in progress, so we had completely missed Gamblers and Snooker, dagnabbit. Everyone was very nice and let me get a quick walk-through at a jump-height change so that I could still run Boost in the Steeplechase.

I still felt fast and fit, but Boost ran past two jumps, wasting too much time when I had to take her back to fix them, so no Q. But parts of the run felt brilliant.

We also were able to run Jumpers. It was a gnarly course (in the negative sense) and the Q rate was low: Only 6 of the 28 dogs in Boost's height Qualified... including Boost! That's Jumpers Qs two trials in a row! Holy mackerel! AND a fourth-place ribbon! (It wasn't a pretty run, way too many turns in the wrong direction, but she kept all her bars up and didn't run past anything.)

So three Qs and three placement ribbons out of four runs! That has never happened before!

Took Tika out of her crate about every half hour and she peed a lot each time, so the diuretic was doing its job, I hoped. Dreaded the night, though--

I was in bed and asleep by 8:30, SO tired from 2 nights of interrupted sleep and the stress of the day. Had to set the alarm for 10:30 p.m. to give Tika her next pill, took her out then for one last pee--

--and then we all slept straight through until the alarm went off at 7. Blissful sleep! And no coughing from Tika! Yay!

On Sunday, Tika and I: 

• Spent time together with her just out of the crate, visiting people, getting treats and affection.
• Wandered around the grounds looking for molecules of goodies in the grass.
• Worked at the score table together--well, I worked the score sheets and she worked the food.
• Played tug-of-war. Vet said no running for a week, keep her fairly quiet. Tug probably isn't quiet, but she was SO happy to get some playing in! And I stopped at the first sign of a cough each time.

Everyone at agility is SO nice; I can't tell you how many people helped me after Tika's meltdown in the ring, even offering to go with me to the emergency room (I declined), or came by later that day or today to ask how she was, share their knowledge or their lessons from their own similar experiences, and to wish us well. I hope I said thank you often enough--you all out there were wonderful, and I'm grateful beyond words.

On Sunday, Boost and I:

• Had a not-quite perfect jumpers run--she knocked the 2nd bar, I got in a late front cross for an off course after #4, and then--were brilliant! Oh, what a fun dog to run when everything is clicking!
• Had a PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT Standard run with the 2nd fastest time of all 30 dogs in her class--oh, except for that one little bit where she ran past the first jump instead of taking it. I didn't go back and fix it, no point to that. So we E'ed but I was SO happy with that run!
• Had a SUPER Grand Prix run; 7th fastest out of 29 dogs but 4 of the others had faults and we didn't, so she Qed AND placed 3rd!  In Grand Prix! OMG all over again! The highest she had ever placed before was 5th, and that only twice ever!
• Had...well...a not-so perfect Snooker run. OK, she kept all her bars up! But we had to have discussions about 2 different jumps that she didn't go over, so we ran out of time partway through the #7 in the closing, but the bits between that were SO much fun! Turns out that even if we'd made it, we'd have been 1 point shy of a Super-Q, but still, at least it was a regular Q.

And my knee continued to feel great... oh, except now it's popping every time I take a step. Doesn't hurt (much), though, and it hasn't felt this good in a very long time as it has these last couple of months.  And I've felt like I've really been hauling my own butt around the course, which maybe is why she's doing better. It's inexplicable.

So, for Boost's weekend: Qed 5 out of 8--62%! She has NEVER Qed more than 35% in a USDAA weekend, EVER! *AND* four of them placing in the top 4 out of a large class, when she'd only ever had 2 placements in a weekend before.

Don't tell me that Boost and I are figuring out how to do agility as she's approaching her 8th birthday and Tika is unexpectedly retiring?! That's just ridiculous!

So, is Tika retired from agility? Most likely, yes. Did I really believe that this weekend would be her last weekend of agility, ever? Not really. I expected to have some time to think about it, for her to gradually still get older and slower and more frail, and that I would then make a decision and have a nice retirement agility trial with her, but hopefully not until we'd gotten those last 20 Qs for her Platinum Lifetime.

But today she felt fine all day; annoyed that i wouldn't let her play frisbee; almost no coughing. Tomorrow, we'll meet with our regular vet and talk about the future.

The future-- yes, sometimes, nothing goes the way you expect it to.

The Agony and the Ecstacy

SUMMARY: Another USDAA weekend under the belt.

(Photos by Erika Maurer.)

What a weekend.

Weather was perfect.

Friends were fun.

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

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

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

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

Boost's contacts were all perfect.

She and I had some amazing runs. Including:

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

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

And then, there was the agony.

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

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

And then ending the day Sunday:

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

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

Of course I have no video to analyze.

Deep quivering sigh.

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

Anyway.

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

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

P.S. About Those Platinum Lifetime Awards--

SUMMARY: The peer pressure is intense!

To date, only 97 dogs have ever made it to Platinum Lifetime... and 14 of them are in my club (The Bay Team)! And 5 of them are still competing.

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Lifetime Platinum
My friends all have got one, it just makes me numb
Worked hard all those trials, and maybe I'm dumb,
But Lord, won't you buy me a Lifetime Platinum.

(Addendum May 2016: I never really thought I'd get there. But Tika was so close--missing just a dozen points out of the 500 required when she abruptly had to retire.  Ah, well, close is pretty good.) 

Sunday at Agility On The Green

SUMMARY: And another agility weekend goes by.

From our running order for the whole weekend: One of these things is not like the others:

Today often felt more like a handler having a bad weekend than the dogs doing so. Both dogs ran nicely, looked healthy and happy and eager to run, although, yep, Tika can't match the speed of so many other dogs in 22" performance now.

Tika:

• Steeplechase Round 2: It had 2 sets of weaves. We can't compete on time with that these days. Placed 4th of 5, all of us running clean. Brought home $7 for it.
• Standard: Ran nicely, got all her contacts, kept all her bars up, went down pretty quickly on the table for a change--and 4 obstacles before the end, I sent her into a tunnel under an Aframe that I thought was a gimmee, but apparently she wasn't convinced because she pulled off it and jumped onto the Aframe from the side for an off course. 100% handler issue (although I don't think I'd have had that issue if she wasn't checking in with so much as she's doing now).
• Grand Prix: A killer of a course, very few dogs Qualified. She ran nicely and clean, although much slower than many of the dogs. However--out of ten  22" dogs, only two of us Qed, giving her 2nd place. 
• Jumpers: A pretty smooth run, although I was late on a couple of front crosses, slowing her down a little. Qed but placed only 5th of 8 dogs. Our time of 25.82 wasn't *horribly* behind the winning time of 22.97... but, well, 3 seconds, that's more than 10% slower. Ah, me.

Boost:

• Standard: A challenging course and there was one spot where dogs needed to make a sharp turn but instead were shooting ahead for an off course or not turning tightly enough and running past the jump. I vowed that we would not make yesterday's Jumpers mistake, where I knew it would be an issue and still couldn't fix it. So--yes, indeed, I came to a dead stop, did an RFP (reverse flow pivot--aka fake front cross), and yelled her name--and, yes, indeed, I managed to catch her and bring her in over the jump, but I think I was in her way, because she knocked the bar. The rest of the run was flawless. Another one of those "just ONE thing wrong!" courses.
• Gamblers: Almost perfect opening, but a bobble going into a tunnel--pretty sure it was a handling thing although I didn't review the video--cost us 2 points and the highest of all opening scores. Still, once again, I believe we were tied for 2nd highest of all. The gamble--I was rushed, didn't make sure Boost had a good approach line, and we weren't even close on a gamble that I think lots of people got. 
• Grand Prix: The wheels on our agility train started wobbling--she had to make about a 30-degree adjustment in her path to come in to the weaves that I was running at and yelling Weave!, and she had at least 20 feet in which to do it, but she just ran completely past them on the opposite side from me. Later, she went offcourse where tons of other dogs had gone offcourse--the strategy that worked for Tika didn't work for her.  Most of the rest was nice, though.
• Jumpers. After Tika's run, I was determined not to be late on my front crosses. But-- the wheels came off completely.

So--4 Qs out of 10 for Tika plus $7 Steeplechase winnings and a 2nd in Grand Prix. Real pity about not getting Snookers, though, so that PDCH-Gold is still aching for 3 more of them. Down to only 38 more needed for her Lifetime Platinum.  (As of mid-June, only 96 dogs have ever achieved that. Peer pressure is omnipresent when 20 of them are people/dogs you know and have regularly competed against--you know,  as Janis Joplin sang,

"Oh, lord, won't you buy me an L.A.A. Platinum?
My friends have all got one, I must raise a hat to them..." )

One Q out of 11 for Boost--the win in Pairs yesterday. She didn't even win anything in the worker raffle this weekend.

Tomorrow we'll go for a long walk to drown our sorrows and get MUTT MVR's brakes and rear windows checked.

Cool Top Ten

• 
  

SUMMARY: A brief note about Tika's 2012 Top Ten standings.

Hope you're all cool and comfy while I'm roasting. Posting this in advance for your cool-saturday-morning pleasure.

I'm trying not to look at Top Tens this year, because our chances are so very slim at making it in again.

I've also decided not to do the Labor Day weekend regional this year, and for the past 3 years, that has been a big point-earner for us. This year, doubt it would be for all the same reasons that I doubt we'll be Top Ten at all.  And I'm SOOOOOOO thinking about doing even fewer trials this year after the big push the last few months. (Have you heard THAT before?)

But, meanwhile, it's kinda fun to look.

At the moment, in 22" Performance, Tika is:

• Tied for 6th in Jumpers with 13 points (it'll take at least 30 pts to be Top Ten at the end of the year, but for the moment it's nice)
• Tied for 11th in Standard with  13 points (it'll take probably 35 at the end of the year)

And of course we're a no-show in Snooker (can't even Q most of the time for some reason) or Gamblers (not even entering any more).

Meanwhile, according to the USDAA Lifetime Achievement Awards listing, Tika is currently the 126th all-time Qualifying-score earner.  As long as she looks happy doing it, we'll  keep on trying to add to that count.

Making Myself Feel Better

SUMMARY: Lifetime Achievements, Top Tens.

I looked at the USDAA listing of Lifetime Qs (in Masters, P3, and Tournament), and got to thinking that only 130 dogs in the history of agility have ever earned more Qs than Tika has.

Of those, there are:

• 76  Border Collies
• 12  Australian Shepherds
• 9  mixed breeds--Tika's category
• 6  Shetland Sheepdogs
• 5  Jack Russell Terriers
• 4  Calling Birds...oh, wait, sorry, wrong meme
• 3  Rat Terriers
• 2 each  Cardigan Welsh Corgis, Australian Cattle Dogs, Golden Retrievers, and Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers
• 1 each  American Foxhound, Toy Fox Terrier, Portuguese Water Dog, Whippet, Catahoula Leopard Dog, Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Belgian Malinois, Keeshond, English Shepherd, Labrador, and Pyrenean Shepherd

Of those 130, 18 are local Bay Area dogs. Of those 18, at least 7 are retired or deceased. Of the remaining, all except one (the Pyr Shep, and I'll bet you can guess who that is) are competing in Performance now, and some of those in only a couple of classes a day, just to give them something to do.

So I guess Tika hasn't done too badly in her agility career at all.  Not bad for a  dog who was turned into the shelter twice for being too hyper and then taken by Rescue because the shelter didn't want to try adopting her out to the general public another time.

Top Ten Silly Stuff

Just trying to remind myself that numbers can be so deceptive. And it all depends on which numbers you look at, anyway.O n the USDAA subscriber site, you can look at Top Ten by region and by breed! Oooh, a whole set of 3 more ways to pick the numbers you want! For example, let's feel better about Tika in Snooker:

Performance 22" Snooker rankings as of late November, Tika is:

• Overall: 12th
• In the Southwest Region: 5th
• Among Mixed Breeds: 2nd
• Among Mixed Breeds in the Southwest Region: 1st

Well, there ya go, we're number 1! That and $20 will buy us a Steeplechase entry.

Congratulations, Tika; Congratulations, USDAA!

SUMMARY: Tika's Gold Lifetime Achievement Award

Hoody hoo, Tika's LAA Gold plaque, which she earned in May, showed up in my mailbox this week!

In the past, they awarded these at the Nationals each year. Which mean that, for example, if you earned an LAA in January of one year, you'd have to wait until September of the following year to get it. It was kind of worth it, being acknowledged in a public ceremony, although there have been enough dogs earning them that they'd just do an "everyone stand up who earned one" thing; not quite as much fun, and, well, it would've been nice to have the plaque earlier. So, congrats USDAA on getting these things out so quickly! (I guess they're doing them quarterly now.)

The other thing I got this week was an official email from USDAA asking for a photo of Tika (or me and Tika) to be used " in a visual presentation at the Cynosport 2011 World Games." Now, that's a cool idea! Now to decide what photo to use--so many to choose from!

x

I'm sure it's just my weird sense of humor, but I suspect most dog photos will be them doing agility. I'm so tempted by the box one or the standing-on-the-tunnel one.

What do you guys think?

Gold!

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

Tika tried to be very consistent today:

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

But dropped off a bit:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Boost's weekend looked like this:

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

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

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

Related to the Same Subject

SUMMARY: Lifetime Gold and another blogger.

Also, on doing less USDAA: I was hoping to finish Tika's Lifetime Achievement Award (LAA) Gold this year. We need 32 Qs. Last year we earned 85. So (in theory) I could do half the USDAA trials and still make it. Although--ahem--of course it would be nice to see whether we could actually make it to Platinum. That's Gold plus another 150 Qs. Two more FULL years like last year and then some. And she'd be over 12 by then. So we'd have to keep on with a full slate of USDAA.

Nothing like pressure.

Meanwhile, another blogger (Cedarfield, back east) just posted about her new agility life sans actual trials. I can see my life, if I were to stop trialing, roughly parallel hers. So it's great food for thought.

Her blog post is private but she kindly gave me permission to repost. So here it is.

My New Life
Feb. 15th, 2011 at 3:52 PM

Even though I'm still adjusting to this new non-trialing lifestyle, I can say that I'm definitely liking the slower pace and lack of pressure I feel. I no longer spend my Friday evenings dreading the thought of getting up in the cold pre-dawn to schlepp myself and all my stuff and my dogs out to some cold, damp, windy or otherwise inhospitable locale to spend the day feeling out of place among all the people who were happy to be there. And I'm loving that I can sit around on a weekend morning and just enjoy the company of my husband and dogs rather than always rushing off to be somewhere else. Why, last Sunday I actually spent a couple of hours reading a book. I can't remember the last time I did that unless I was on vacation.

And I'm still doing agility. I take a class once a week that I thoroughly enjoy despite having to drive 90 minutes each way after working all day and knowing I'll have to get up early the next morning. I'm teaching a couple of times a week and training my dogs when I have time and I feel like it. I'm still just as interested in agility as I was before but I've added a couple of new training interests and signed up for a Nosework camp next Fall. I'm also still working on getting started in a new activity that I don't want to talk about until it actually happens. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time but never had the time or resources to do because--hello!--agility trials ate up everything I had. I'm even taking a basic drawing class one night a week just because I've always wanted to learn how to draw and now I have the itme.

I definitely do miss being part of the agility community and seeing people and dogs that I've known for years. And even though I'm still doing agility with my dogs and teaching agilty classes, I don't see most of the people I've spent so much of my life with over the past 15 years. I feel a little like I'm standing on the side of the road watching busloads of people going past. They're all going to the same party but I got off the bus and now I'm feeling a little lonely and forlorn standing there by myself. It's what I knew would happen if I stopped going to trials. I've spent so much time trialing that I neglected to become a part of other communities. But despite feeling lonely sometimes, I know I'll find new things to do and new friends. I'll develop new goals and new interests and probably by next year at this time, I will have forgotten how I feel now.

I have actually entered a couple of local AKC trials for one day only. I want to get Zodi out there just to see what happens. I wonder if it will be fun or if I'll regret entering. If I find I'm feeling those old (negative) feelings again, I can just stop entering. There are also a couple of CPE trials that allow day of trial entry so I might do those, too. The people who go to local CPE trials are not the same people who go to the local USDAA and AKC trials so I'm wondering how that will change the experience. I don't usually enjoy going places where I don't know anyone but I'll give it a try and see what happens.

And the weather for the last month has been dry and sunny which will soon give way to perfect camping weather. This will be the first Spring in quite awhile that I'll have the time to do more than one quick trip. Another big thing on the horizon is the yard sale I've been wanting to do for oh, about 120 years. I think I've finally convinced my husband that it's time we parted with some of the accumulation of almost 41 years together. Every time a relative died and left anything behind, we somehow ended up with it. Both of us are so sentimental that we find it hard to part with anything but I have a good--no, a GREAT goal of what to do with the money. It's been almost 14 years since we've been overseas and this is the year I want to go.

We have friends who own a little house in the Greek islands that we plan to sponge off of for at least a week and then take a drive down the length of the Peloponnesus to see the Mycenean ruins. And I really want to see Paris and visit the Louvre and maybe take a quick trip to Cornwall. So, I'm clearing out the barn and the closets and having a huge blowout yard sale. It might not be enough for the whole trip but it will sure go a long ways toward the plane tickets.

I actually already started cleaning out the garage this weekend when I threw away almost all of my agility ribbons and notebook upon notebook of seminar notes, class notes, camp notes and notebooks. I don't know why I saved it all, it just seemed like anything I put that much time and effort into, I should have something to show for it. Unfortunately, I don't. It almost seems as if I'm waking up after a long sleep. What was I doing all those years? Yes, I had fun and stayed busy but what was it all for? It's not like I became a champion or anything close to it. I never became famous and gave seminars all over the country (although I did make an appreciable contribution to other presenters annual income). It was a pretty sobering exercise but it felt good to clear out all those old boxes and see the clean space underneath.

Oh, Right, Titles for Tika Plus Summary

SUMMARY: Just remembered--

As I noted in Titles Schmitles, Tika could possibly have earned 3 titles this weekend. Well, crapped out in Steeplechase and Grand Prix, so didn't get the really cool [Performance] Tournament Silver.

But did complete the other two:

• One Q in Standard, for (Perf.) Standard Champion. (ASD?)
• One Q in Snooker, for  (Perf.) Snooker Champion Bronze. (AKD-Bronze?)

I'd count these as "minor" titles in the sense that they are among the things that just come along without any stress or overt angst on my part.

Any, BTW, a summary of the weekend:

	Boost	Tika	Notes on TIKA's
Runs	12	13	Pulled from 2 of those because of soreness
Qs	2	8	Includes 1 Super-Q
1st	0	2	Incl's 5 Top Ten pts for Standard
2nd	0	2	Includes 5 top tens for snooker
3rd	0	1	Includes 3 top tens for gamblers
Competing against	42-80 dogs	10-18 dogs

And in Lifetime Achievement Award Qs, Tika now has 290; needs 350 for Gold and 500 for Platinum. I really still don't see how we'll ever get to platinum with her recurring soreness, but Gold may be doable next year--we've earned 64 so far in 2010 in 10 trials; 4 trials to go this year.

So many numbers to track, so little time!

Brag Treats!

SUMMARY: Class ritual: Brags.

At the beginning of class, we get to share our successes from competition (or training or whatever seems momentous enough). If the brag is important enough to us, we'll sometimes bring treats.

Last night, Carson's Human Mom and I shared bringing treats. Carson just got his MX (something important in AKC agility that takes a lot of work). He is such a large, darling dog, it's sometimes astonishing to see what a jet-pack of a Border Collie he is on course. So Carson's Human Mom brought a pizza sampler assortment and a bottle of wine.

(Photo by Taj MuttHall, stylizing by K. Normoyle)

I have never that I can ever remember had such a collection of braggable events in one three-week span. Yeah, sometimes a title. Sometimes a first place. Sometimes a good showing in the tournament events. But this time, I indulged myself and made a list from my database and tried to keep it brief but, jeez, I'm so thrilled with how our weekends went.

Actually, although it was three weekends, technically it was 4 trials (Haute Dawgs had Thursday/Friday, TRACS had Saturday/Sunday [or vice-versa], then SMART, then Bay Team).

So here's what I said: [this will be a rehash of my recent posts, but much more terse for those of us who like summaries]

Trial #1:

Tika Qed 5 out of 12 runs, won the Performance DAM tournament with her partner; won Snooker and Team Snooker, 2nd in Standard and Team Gamblers, 3rd in Gamblers and Team Standard.

Trial #2:

Tika Qed 10 out of 10 runs, won both rounds of Steeplechase, won Gamblers, won both Jumpers, Standard, Snooker; 2nd in Gamblers and Standard, and 3rd in Snooker and Pairs Relay. [There were more than one of most classes, hence duplication.] AND she completed her [all Performance] MAD, Tournament bronze, Jumpers Master, Relay Champion, and Snooker champion titles.

Trial #3:

Tika Qed 9 out of 11 runs, won Snooker, 2nd in Grand Prix, steeplechase, and Pairs Relay, 3rd in both Standards, and Jumpers; plus completed her [all Performance] Gamblers Champion, Championship (APD), and LAA-Silver titles.

Trial #4:

Not quite as much: Tika Qed only 3 of 10, won round 2 of Steeplechase, 2nd in Gamblers, California Cup, and Jumpers, and 3rd in Standard. AND I believe consolidated her place in the Top Ten Performance Jumpers for the year 2010. And it's only May!

BUT AFTER ALL THAT, here's what made me scream & jump up and down and cry with elation: On her 40th attempt at a Masters Jumpers Q, Boost finally got one and completed her MAD.

I shared a bunch of snacks: Olives, a cheesecake sampler, a veggie tray, a bottle of sparkling cider, and chocolate-dipped strawberries that I dipped myself. Which you may now all share vicariously.

Should I Be Thrilled or Dismayed?

SUMMARY: Saturday at the SMART trial.

NOTE: I might put up some course maps later in the week. Or not. Check back.

Qualifying summary:
Tika Qed 5 of 6
Boost Qed 3 of 6.

Tika's Day

It's hard to get back to "normal" after the preceding exceptional weekend with Tika. Once we start winning and Qing left and right, we should keep on doing so, right? Alas, it is not to be.

Same dogs we were beating last weekend, were beating us today. It was kind of fun to have a couple friends come over and say, "Whatever my results are, I just want to know: Did we beat Tika?" [grin] The answer was often, yes, EVERYone beat Tika.

Gamblers: First run of the day. Again, with Tika's general consistency, I know that we'll eventually get all the basic Qs that we need. What I want is Top Ten Points! Wellllllll Tika didn't hold her start line stay, so she took a 1-point gamble obstacle as she raced by me, which meant that not only could I not do the back-to-back 3-point gamble obstacle that I had planned on doing, but we also had to sort of threadle clumsily among all the gamble obstacles to get to where we were going, wasting a ton of time, which meant that at the end of the opening when the whistle blew, she was *on* hte 7-point teeter but did not GET the 7 points. So we got 12 points fewer than my plan.

In fact, we barely got enough opening points! (Instead of having enough for 2nd place.) BUT she did get the gamble. BUT 5 out of the 12 dogs in her height group beat her, so no placement, no Top Ten. BUT that was her 10th Performance Gamble, completing her AGD (like Gamblers Champion) title, which is always a nice thing to do.

Mixed feelings.

Steeplechase Round 1: Very fast and happy, although a couple of wide turns. She is still running so nicely! We place second out of 8 dogs, just half a second behind the winner, so we're 2nd seed for Round 2. I'm fairly pleased with that, AND with the Gamble Q last run, that completes 250 Masters/P3/Tournament Qs for her Lifetime Achievement Award (LAA) Silver title! A big milestone that we enjoy mostly quietly.

Jumpers: She FLIES around that course! But I go in too deep before a serpentine and then I'm crowding her over the serp jump and she knocks the bar, so no Q. 2nd fastest time of 13 dogs, but no Q so the speed isn't worth anything except just gratification.

Standard: After not being able to get Standard Qs forever, this is her 3rd Standard Q in a row. It's a pretty good run but we managed to place only 3rd. For 3 Top Ten points and a ribbon. Better than none. 2.5 seconds off 1st place, and that's OK, probalby wide turns again, which are a real problem for us again with her running so fast, I'm just not getting the info to her soon enough. BUT That's her 5th Standard Q, which is all she needed for her APD (Performance CHAMPIONSHIP)!!!! Yayyyyy! We get a victory lap and a huge ribbon. And I kept thinking: Haven't I done this before? Not that I'm saying that it's become dull to earn a championship, but the Nth one doesn't seem nearly as exciting any more. Especially when for the first time ever I can actually focus on Top Ten points and have a chance of doing something there!

Snooker: I stand in the Snooker ring during walkthrough, despairing of finding a course that I like. Don't know why the brain just froze up; I consider myself to be pretty good at coming up with gamblers and snooker courses, but I'm flummoxed. So I beg Ashley for his course, which he gladly shares with me, which we execute to perfection (well except for that scary moment in the closing where I forgot the course for a moment) and we win by a wide margin, 1st out of 15 dogs, so 7 Top Ten points. Yeeeha, love it!

Pairs Relay: Tika and partner are fast and clean, so another Q, and we place--2nd. Just can't get those firsts in today!

Steeplechase Round 2: Surprised me that we're doing both rounds in one day. But that's OK. It is one amazingly fast and simple course with two Aframes. And I get casual about the first Aframe and she leaves a bit early, and sure enough I see the judge's hand go up. SOOOOO this time everyone else did NOT have faults, and we end in 4th place (just enough for a pretty white 4th place ribbon but no cash to take home). Curses. Even so, we were .8 of a second slower than the fastest dog, so the best we could've done was 2nd anyway. Sheesh.

Boost's Day

Both dogs are very happy to be doing agility again.

This is the second trial at which I've noticed Boost with a bloody nose before going into the ring. First one was also at this site last year. Is there something at this site that aggravates it? I'm thinking that she plays shake-it so hard with her tug of war toy and/or leash that she messes up her nose, or when she yanks it out of my hand maybe she hits her nose on the ground. It's just one run, and the rest she's fine.

Gamblers: In the opening, runs past a 3-point tunnel and we also run out of obstacles, which means I didn't plan this one very well, so we're sort of running around in an open area looking for simple one-point jumps to take before the whistle blows. In the gamble, ends up in wrong end of the tunnel. So a not-great opening and no Q.

Steeplechase Round 1: Not superfast but actually reasonably smooth (with just brief hesitations here and there) and, wow, we're 7th of 38 dogs and Qed to go to round 2!

Jumpers: Sighhhhhhhh... And it's SUCH a doable Jumpers course, too. Bleah bleah bleah.

Standard: Two bars down, some bad turns; not terrible but not wonderful, either.

Snooker: I do a slightly different opening than Tika's because some of those wild and crazy handlers got more points in their opening than Tika's lovely run. But I misjudge and she ends up bouncing around in front of me as we go between obstacles to get to where we need to be, wasting time. Then she knocks the 4th (required) red, which knocks us out of Super-Q competition, so we have to threadle halfway across the field, wasting more time, so we're out of time after doing the 6 in the closing. Well, at least it's a Q this time but still no Super-Q.

Pairs Relay: Our partner runs beautifully. We took the half with the tough weave entrance and I thought she got it but no, went in at #2 so 5 faults and have to swing back around and restart. Then she misreads a rear cross and turns the wrong way, wasting several more seconds. Fortunately combined we're fast enough that we eke out a Q despite Boost's 5 faults and wasted time.

Steeplechase Round 2: The worlds EASIEST steeplechase course, just a couple of big circles, and she CAN'T. TAKE. JUMPS. THAT. ARE. IN. FRONT. OF. HER. I mean, she literally comes to a stop in front of one jump when she's so busy looking at me that she gets RIGHT UP TO IT and then of course is too close to go over it. Plus 2 bars, or maybe 3. I need to stop putting it off and go back in for some more private lessons. This is just insane.

Title Summary

Tika's AGD (Gamblers Champion), APD (championship), and LAA-Silver. Pretty good for one day!

Boost could earn her Standard Champion (10 Qs) tomorrow if she Qs in Standard, but otherwise, that's it--between last weekend and this weekend, Tika sucked up all the titles that she was close to, and now we need to work our way through a bunch more Qs in all the classes before we're in titling range again.

Top Ten

Hmm, thought Tika was further along than we are. As I said, last year it took about 30 points to actually be in the Top Ten. As of today, Tika has:

Gamblers: 17
Jumpers: 22
Snooker: 21
Standard: 17

There's still tomorrow and next weekend, then a lull for a couple of months, two trials in July, and 3 or 4 more weekends around Labor Day timeframe. And probably one in November and one in December. We could do it if we all remain healthy and sane. Which isn't always a given. And, remember, I was wanting to cut back on trials more and more. But--but--this top ten thing is addictive now! Ack, help me, Mr. Wizard!

Database geek

Hey, how cool is *this*? I preentered the info I knew ahead of time for this weekend into the database and then printed a form from the database in which to fill out my results. For the last decade (or more), I've been printing a table that's *all* blank and filling it out. (Which was very convenient, but I'm likin' this new strategy even better.)

If you want a copy of my Word document form to fill out for a trial (not the database one), I'd be glad to send it to you.

Day 5 After Haute TRACS

SUMMARY: Monday looking back.

Runs run: 23.
Miles walked (per pedometer): 33.5.
Courses built as co-chief course builder: I dunno, somewhere less than 20.
Pounds lost: 3.

Video cameras dead in the water: 1. (Can you believe it, I finally remembered to ask people to videotape us, and it worked for one--ONE--run in a 4-day weekend, and then crapped out completely. Auuuuuughhhh! Now I can't even play the tapes I already have, or even the one run from this last weekend. To decide: Repair this and make an effort to translate all the tapes into another medium? Pay costco to translate all the tapes to another medium and buy one of those cute little pocket-sized video cameras? I'm thinkin' the latter will be about the same price as the former and take me a whole lot less time.)

Knees bothering me: 0. Iced the problematic one once when it was a little achey, but otherwise wonderful!

Hips bothering me: 0. Not a peep out of that supposed pulled muscle all weekend!

[But from the perspective of Thursday--after sitting at my computer for 3 days and getting virtually no physical activity except mowing the lawn, NOW my hip and knee are quite painful. They were fine Monday and Tuesday. I'm thinkin' it's not activity that's hurting them, no matter what the doctor says.]

Blisters: 3. THAT made it hard to get around. Why don't I notice that my feet hurt until too late?

Awards

Tika: 15 Qs out of 21 Q-able runs. Tika's weekend awards:

Boost: 5 Qs out of 21 Q-able runs.

Boost's weekend awards--well, YES it IS better than nothing, thanks for asking!:

Titles earned

Well, we knew about:
- Tika PD3
- Boost MAD

But I hadn't checked out the numbers before the weekend on how close we were to other stuff. So Monday I learned that Tika:

• finished her ARD (accomplished relay dog--10 pairs relay Qs)
• finished her AKD (accomplished snooker dog--10 Snooker Qs with at least 3 Super-Qs (she has 8 SQs))
• finished her PJ3 (performance 3 jumpers -- 5 jumpers Qs)
• finished her performance tournament master bronze (15 Qs, at least 3 in each tournament)
• is now one Gamblers Q short of her PGD (gamblers 10 Qs).
• is now one Standard Q short of her APD (performance ADCH)! I'm a little bummed that we didn't get it, but onthe other hand it would've been really dumb to have gotten it and not realized until I got home and missed out on the awards!
• is now two Qs of ANY kind short of her LAA Silver! (Lifetime Achievement Award, 250 masters/p3 Qs)! There were times I thought I'd never get here, but, look, here we are! Now on to Gold with 350...

We have two weekends of agility coming up now, with 4 shots at getting that last Standard Q, and I think 20 shots at getting those last 2 Lifetime Qs. I think we can do it!

Goals met

1. Boost Jumper Q for MAD: Done!
2. Tika win all three Gamblers and all three Snooker (with the entry size, that would've totalled 15 Top Ten points for each of the two). Achieved: Gamblers, 3rd for 1, 1st for 5, 2nd for 3.  Snooker: 1st for 5, 3rd for 1, 1st for 5. PLUS earned 10 in Jumpers and 11 in Standard. Pretty good, really.
3. Tika's 3rd Standard for performance MAD: Done!
4. Tika and Brenn win Team: Done!
5. Boost earn Super-Qs in Snooker. Yeah, well, can't have everything.
6. Boost have some nice smooth runs without knocking bars or runouts or refusals: Well, sort of. I don't know that there's really been an improvement. It still feels like that Jumpers Q was a fluke.
7. Tika win Steeplechase. Done!
8. BONUS 1: Boost is looking like a real gamblin' dog, at least in the opening! She had:- 3rd place of 42 dogs in Team gamble
   - 2nd highest opening pts of 46 dogs in Thursday's gamble
   - 5th highest opening pts of 51 dogs in Saturday's gamble
   - very good opening points in Sunday's gamble AND got the gamble for a change, placing 6th.
   
9. BONUS 2: Boot's team Qed in DAM Team!
 
10. BONUS 3: Tika's amazing saturday/sunday performance: 10 Qs out of 10, 7 1sts, two 2nds, and two 3rds (one class wasn't Qing) out of usually 8-9 dogs.

Result details

(In case you want to peruse them--top 10 points are in parens next to our placements.)

			qual	place (top 10)	our time /pts	1st plc time /pts	SCT/ min pts	our faults
Boost	Fri	Grand Prix	n	27th of 56	43.45	32.87	52sec	10
Boost	Sat	Steeplechase	n	36th of 61	34.83	28.28	35sec	5
Boost	Thu	Mas Gamblers	n	14th of 46	28+0	30+20	op+cl pts
Boost	Sat	Mas Gamblers	n	16th of 51	41+	42+25	op+cl pts	.53
Boost	Sun	Mas Gamblers	Q	6th of 48 (3)	32+30	38+30	op+cl pts
Boost	Fri	Mas Jumpers	Q	10th of 49	26.54	23.11	39sec
Boost	Sat	Mas Jumpers	n	48th of 48			sec	E
Boost	Sun	Mas Jumpers	n	44th of 44			sec	E
Boost	Thu	Mas Relay	n	42nd of 42			sec	E
Boost	Sun	Mas Relay	Q	17th of 27	39.10	37.84	50sec	10
Boost	Fri	Mas Snooker	n	31st of 45	24+9	32+27	37pts	6.74
Boost	Sat	Mas Snooker	n	42nd of 47	19+	24+27	37pts	9.43
Boost	Sun	Mas Snooker	n	27th of 40	22+	23+27	37pts
Boost	Thu	Mas Standard	n	40th of 40			sec	E
Boost	Fri	Mas Standard	n	20th of 42	56.70	46.49	62sec	15
Boost	Sat	Mas Standard	n	45th of 45			sec	E
Boost	Sun	Mas Standard	n	19th of 42	54.42	38.26	56sec	10
Boost	Fri	DAM Gamblers	Q	3rd of 42	31+20	34+20	op+cl pts
Boost	Thu	DAM Jumpers	n	16th of 46	31.33	23.82	28sec	3.33
Boost	Fri	DAM Relay	Q	11th of 29	56.01	55.07	sec	20
Boost	Thu	DAM Snooker	n	31st of 46	27+9	30+27	37pts
Boost	Thu	DAM Standard	n	46th of 46			sec	E
Tika	Fri	PfD Gamblers	Q	2nd of 5	33+16	35+20	op+cl pts
Tika	Fri	Per Grand Prix	n	7th of 7			sec	E
Tika	Thu	PfD Jumpers	n	5th of 5	34.46	26.11	29.49sec	16.97
Tika	Fri	PfD Relay	Q	8th of 13	41.65	40.28	sec	5
Tika	Thu	PfD Snooker	Q	1st of 5	27+27	27+27	37pts
Tika	Thu	PfD Standard	n	3rd of 5	48.28	40.3	46sec	9.28
Tika	Sat	Per Steeplechase	Q	1st of 10	32.75	32.75	42sec
Tika	Sun	Per Steeplechase	-	1st of 4 (3)	32.58	32.58	sec	5
Tika	Thu	P3 Gamblers	n	3rd of 6 (1)	22+0	23+20	op+cl pts
Tika	Sat	P3 Gamblers	Q	1st of 8 (5)	39+25	39+25	op+cl pts
Tika	Sun	P3 Gamblers	Q	2nd of 8 (3)	32+30	32+30	op+cl pts
Tika	Fri	P3 Jumpers	n	9th of 9			sec	E
Tika	Sat	P3 Jumpers	Q	1st of 9 (5)	25.68	25.68	36sec
Tika	Sun	P3 Jumpers	Q	1st of 8 (5)	25.68	25.68	40sec
Tika	Thu	P3 Relay	Q	5th of 13	45.16	40.15	65sec	10
Tika	Sun	P3 Relay	Q	3rd of 11	35.75	33.65	53sec
Tika	Fri	P3 Snooker	S	1st of 7 (5)	29+27	29+27	37pts	5.22
Tika	Sat	P3 Snooker	Q	3rd of 9 (1)	20+27	23+27	37pts
Tika	Sun	P3 Snooker	S	1st of 8 (5)	21+27	21+27	37pts	1.2
Tika	Thu	P3 Standard	n	4th of 7	50.99	46.98	61sec	5
Tika	Fri	P3 Standard	n	2nd of 9 (3)	46.89	50.96	64sec	5
Tika	Sat	P3 Standard	Q	1st of 9 (5)	45.60	45.6	59sec
Tika	Sun	P3 Standard	Q	2nd of 7 (3)	49.94	46.53	59sec

Hopes for Titles Addendum

SUMMARY: Lotta lifetime runs

Oh! And Tika is only 21 Qs away from her silver lifetime achievement award (LAA). At our average Q rate, that'll be another 5 or 6 trials, but at our *best* Q rate it could be 2-3. Go, Tika!

Bronze Dog

SUMMARY: Tika's Lifetime Achievement Award (LAA).

Some nice friends brought it back for me from Scottsdale; this represents 150 lifetime Masters and Tournament Qs. This sucka's heavy! Not sure how I'm going to hang it on the wall.

I think Tika is now at 224 lifetime Qs; the Silver LAA requires 250.

Dang injured foot--USDAA trial in less than 2 weeks with a chance to earn more.

Guess I can't take her to the vet to be x-rayed tomorrow, since I'll be at the Trkman seminar. Tuesday, then.

About Tika

SUMMARY: May I brag? And list some statistics, too?

Just occurred to me: Hmmm, OK, Tika has been in Performance only since the end of April, but she's done very well in Steeplechase, Grand Prix, and Snooker, and I wonder where she shows up in the Top Ten listings? So I go to the USDAA page and look:

Heh, cool. I know we won't hold this (especially after this past weekend's Snooker disaster, and especially because I'm not planning on doing that many more trials this year, and also because who's likely to beat us at most trials? Hobbes and Brenn), but it's always fun to see our name in lights: Top Ten Performance 22" Snooker as of roughly the end of August.

Although, oh, interesting:

• According to my records, in the last 3 trials we've earned another 13 points that aren't on there (but then, so has probably everyone else).
• Out of Tika's 8 P3 Snooker runs, four have been Super-Qs (jeez, wish we could'a done that in Championship!).
• Because I mucked up something in my database, I just realized that Tika earned her P3 Snooker title LAST trial! Woot all over again!
  

Not bad, for only a partial year. Not bad, for a dog who took 36 tries to get her first 3 Super-Qs in Championship.

How about Tournament Top Ten? Pfah, nothing listed on the web site that I see. But she has Qed in 6 out of 7 Performance Grand Prixs to date, and 5 out of 7 Steeplechase. Not bad, for a dog who Qed in only 11 out of the 42 Championship-level Steeplechases she entered--almost all the non-Qs with 5, and sometimes 10, faults. Now we're clean. Go figure. We like 22".

So how is my challenging, attention-deficit, fun-loving and now-getting-reliable Tika girl doing in comparison to other dogs? According to this USDAA page:

• Only 192 dogs have ever earned the Silver ADCH.
• Only 247 dogs have ever earned their Tournament Master Platinum.
• If/when Tika finishes her LAA-Silver (only, hrm, 28 Qs to go), that's be one of only -- uh-- don't know because that's not listed on that page or anywhere that I'm finding. Gol dang.
  

Compare that to 9,946 dogs who have ever earned their Agility Dog (Novice) title, and who knows how many more who've competed some and never gotten even that far.

I think we're doing pretty OK.

Tika's Round 2 Steeplechase run from Sunday. Fairly smooth, not super-fast. It's 7:30 in the morning and we're starting behind the jump right in the center of the video, and I lead out towards the left.
My only real handling faux pas is that I was going to go for a front cross before the blue tunnel but wimped out--which was stupid, because I ended up coming to a complete stop and waiting for her, so I had plenty of time to get there and probably would've eked another second or so of speed out of things. Not sure it would've mattered--1st place dog was 4 seconds faster.

USDAA Qualifying and Titling Rules

SUMMARY: Some of the arcanity of USDAA scoring.

I'm skipping Starters and Advanced qualifying (Q) requirements (sorry, nonmasters) because they're fairly straight-forward (I'm speaking relatively, of course).

On to Masters/P3 and Tournament, because that's where one accrues the most Qs over your competition lifetime. As a source of entertainment, qualifying requirements and title requirements change periodically, so keeping up with it could be a regular hobby.

OK, there are two somewhat parallel sequences of titles that you achieve with your Qs: The basic titling sequence and the lifetime titling sequence.

The basic titling sequence includes things like your MAD (Master Agility Dog), RCh (Relay Champion), TM (Tournament Master), ADCH (Agility Dog Champion), and so on. You can follow this sequence in either Championship program ("Masters") or Performance program ("P3". You have to start anew with each program; masters Qs don't transfer to P3 and vice versa.

The lifetime sequence is just that: Lifetime Achievement Award bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. This counts ALL Qs of any type that you earn in Masters, P3, or Tournament (performance or championship). For example, it takes 30 (specific) masters Qs to earn your ADCH. If you then move to performance and earn your APD (Performance championship), it takes another 30 legs. You now have 60 legs towards your LAA awards.

To earn your basic titles, you need Qs in the regular classes of Standard, Gamblers, Jumpers, Snooker, and Pairs Relay. For the major titles in this group, you also need Tournament Qs (Steeplechase, Grand Prix, Dog Agility Masters (DAM) Team).

For your ADCH or your APD, you need: 5 each of the regular classes plus 5 tournaments, with at least one of each tournament type.

Is that all perfectly clear now?

Here's the annoying thing about the DAM tournament: You have to do a DAM jumpers, DAM gamblers, DAM standard, DAM snooker, and DAM relay to get JUST ONE DAM Q. None of them count towards titles in your basic titling sequence. All that work for ONE Q?!?

Back in The Day, Team Snooker and Jumpers, if I recall correctly, could also be counted as regular Qs for your snooker & jumpers titles, but they did away with that because they operated under different rules than the regular classes.

However, starting last year, USDAA finally saw the light again and allowed the four individual DAM classes to count towards your Lifetime awards. That is, they don't count towards your basic title sequence, but they do count towards your Lifetime Achievement Awards (LAA), which is wonderful.

But the qualifying requirements are different. In regular classes, there's a certain known minimum standard that you must achieve to earn a Q, which means that in theory everyone at a trial could Q in every class, no matter what anyone else does. For the Team individual Qs, however, you must be within a certain range of the best performers in each class.

To do this, you take the top 3 dogs (in your height and program) and average their scores. Anyone within 15% of that average earns one of these bonus Q. Yeah, in theory, everyone could also Q, but that raises the bar high enough--especially at the regionals--that it's more difficult to earn those Qs.

Except that Tika the wonder-performance-dog, who seems to love being at 22", has Qed in every one of her Team events in the two tournaments we've entered. Huzzah.

Hey, is any of that clear? It made sense while I was writing it--

Example:

In Masters/P3 Standard, to earn a Q towards basic titles, you must have a clean run and be faster than the Standard Course Time. This Q *also* counts towards your LAAs.

In Championship/Performance DAM team Standard, to earn a bonus Q towards your LAA, your time plus faults must be within 15% of the average of the top 3 dogs' time plus faults. These do *not* count towards your basic titles.

Well--so--since I suspect everyone's eyes are now glazed over, let me just say that, between Masters and P3 and all Tournaments, Tika now has 217 Qs towards her LAA awards. 150 was her LAA-bronze. Another 33 to go to her Silver.

And over and out.

Clarifying DAM Team Bonus Qs

SUMMARY: Just a little more on how well Tika did but still didn't earn those new Qs.

I explained in this post that you can now not only earn just the one Q in DAM Team based on all 5 runs of all 3 dogs, but also in the individual events if your score is within 15% of the average of the top 3 dogs. I expressed doubt that even Tika would earn many Qs that way; I expected that it would shut out most dogs just like Steeplechase does and SuperQs do.

Yesterday I noted that she got only one (Snooker) of the four possible bonus Qs this weekend. But I also want to point out that, for example, she was 8th of 24 dogs in Team Jumpers and didn't Q, and 7th of 24 in Team Gamblers and didn't Q. Only 5 of 24 Qed in Team Standard; Tika had a clean run that I thought was particularly fast, but apparently the open course and cold weather had all the dogs running particularly fast, as she was still 8 seconds behind the winning dog.

Oh, well, I'm glad to get one additional Q towards our Lifetime Achievement Award (LAA), but it just means that all of my faster, more talented, and/or better trained friends who already stack up awards that I try hard (but don't always succeed in) not to compare myself to will stack them up even faster. Run, little handler, run!

USDAA Rules Change to Qualify in Team Individual Events

SUMMARY: Now your individual events in DAM tournaments can count as Qualifying scores (Qs) towards your LAAs. Maybe.

Effective Sept 19, dogs can earn Qs in the individual events in the DAM tournament.

This will be calculated similarly to Steeplechase: Average the top 3 scores in each jump height, and dogs within 15% (Steeplechase is 25%) will earn a Q.

It's nice to get additional Qs towards the LAA. But. Take Tika, who always is within Steeplechase time at 25%, but just barely. She'd never be in steeplechase time at 15%. So she'll probably never Q in Team std or jumpers at 15% of the top 3 dogs.

I did a quick look at our Team Standard from Labor Day. Forty-eight 26" dogs ran. The top 3 did Standard in 29.39, 30.52, and 31.98 seconds. This averages to 30.63. Add 15% of that, and the qualifying score is 35.22. I see only 9 that would've Qed: Dan, Reya, Icon, Rusty, Jester, Apache, Cirque, Aiko, and London. All very fast border collies, I believe, except Apache (Terv--34.68) and Rusty (Aussie--32.71, actually pretty good). That's under 19% Qs.

Tika was clean but 2 seconds over. I didn't note anything in particular that we did wrong on course. Still, hmmm, we're often comparable to Apache's and Rusty's time, so maybe on a good day...

Once again, rewarding the very top dogs and blocking out those who aren't at the top of the sport. USDAA is less and less a venue for Just People with Just Dogs.