It was the third of July and we survived

SUMMARY: Long, long day at agility trial, and a noisy night.

Friday morning I had awoken feeling beaten down beyond any rationale, head swollen (like, eyes being forced from skull), and thoroughly enheadached. Eventually crawled into work anyway, and it wasn't until I was there that I put 2+2 together: That unreasonable exhaustion and the eyes being forced from their sockets feeling has been a precursor to a migraine. So I went home again and rested a lot. Apparently I was already *in* the migraine by then, because only some of the fatigue and headness lasted into Saturday.

Saturday I went to see The BFG with a friend, did a few things quietly around the house, and packed up for an agility trial! It has been a while since I've taken dogs to anything like this, although I have worked at a few competitions over the last several months. Of course we weren't competing since these Boys know nuthin' about no agility, but I signed up to work full time. Decided to take them with me to give them a chance to be around the hubbub and dogs and people of such events, and also to keep Chip with me for the evening when I expected there to be noise but I'd still be down in Prunedale.  Which meant ensuring that I packed everything I'd need for me and them, and I haven't done that in so long!

Then I tried to sleep with all the fireworks and poppers and bangs going off until the wee-est of wee hours of the morning (has been bad for a least a couple of weeks, worse that night after we got home).  I tried mitigating the shocks and jabs of noise by keeping windows closed (even on a hot night) and running a loud fan in one window.  It helped, but poor Chip-- and poor me, some of them thar things loud enough to wake the dead. And I don't mean Jerry Garcia.  ...Oh, wait, I guess I do mean him.

As a result, when my radio alarm went off, it barely registered as being not a dream, and when I finally opened my eyes, discovered it had been playing for half an hour! So much for a head start.

BUT I got stretched out and dressed and dogs pottied and still arrived at Prunedale in time to walk the dogs for additional potty-work before going to work.

I scribed all day, which gave me a chance to see familiar people and their new dogs, and unfamiliar people and their unfamiliar dogs. And in between, I got the dogs out for exercise and experience and practice paying attention to me and doing tricks (including sits and downs); Zorro was surprisingly excellent and Chip surprisingly not. The rest of the time, they rested in MUTT MVR off to one side of the field.

(You like how I've left on some of Tika's and Boost's last ribbons to make us look like official agility beasts? But, oops, I still haven't replaced their emergency info with the new dogs'.)

And I wandered around snapping candids or semicandids or not candids at all. For some reason, people knew when I was "sneaking" around taking photos (click-click-click).

The sky remained overcast all day, although bright at times. And refreshingly cool after the heat of San Jose recently.  OK, cold.

And in the evening, we had our Bay Team club meeting, complete with occasional puppies and, yay, pizza. It was still cold and getting colder. (You can tell because Dustin, although still in short sleeves, conceded to the chill and donned long pants.)

(Below, Lonny fetching himself more pizza and all of us keeping warm and pondering equipment purchases.)

Headed for home around 8:30 (and it was still light then! Love summer!), home maybe 9:30, went to bed.

So, last night, it was again hot here in San Jose, and "we" again ran a noisy fan, but I slept well despite the trouble staying in sleep because of the firestorm in my neighborhood (It's only the 3rd, people, AND it's illegal in this county! (Chip ran away on the 3rd 2 years ago)), but catnapped until Luke--excuse me, Zorro-- woke me with desperation to go out at 1:30. I let him out briefly (Chip would have nothing to do with going out there with the noise), and then I went right back to sleep until...yep, Zorro...woke me around 7:30 desperate to go out, so I staggered downstairs, put the doggie door in, and went back to bed and right to sleep.  The miracle is that (a) the dogs then let me sleep until 10...—unheard of! likely due to their level of stress (good or bad) over 14 hours of travel and being at the agility thing— …when my sister called.

(She said, oh, so you're the second sister I've woken up this morning?  Then I officially named her Linda Sisterwaker.)

Then I catnapped for another 2 hours. And  (b) the dogs left me alone and dozed with me. Amazing. 

If you've followed all that, you're doing better than I am.  

Not looking forward to tonight's insane night of noise and flash-bangs and all that. Sigh. But we'll survive again, with noisy fan and probably leaving the radio on until the wee-wee-hours again, and then glorious sleep. 

Dogs and their People--Bay Team USDAA Agility Trial June 19

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday

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

Flash!

SUMMARY: Mob, that is.
Updated Dec 4 (see end of article).

Never let it be said that dog agility is all about dogs. Oh, no; it's all about dancin' the night away!

Back to the beginning: Saturday night, October 5, at the Nunes Agility Field (NAF) USDAA trial. Big potluck, birthday party, and then the weather was just too nice to go rushing off to bed. Somewhere, somehow, Laura started teaching us to dance to  "Pause" (by...Pitbull?).  Except for Laura, most of us were having trouble remembering to wiggle our butts, stop, drop it, and pause in the right places.

"Now don't...stop, drop it, pause..."

She showed us the steps--mildly complicated, definitely involved getting down, WAY down, which my back and knees really weren't all that down with. So I snapped a few photos between trying to find my long-lost rhythm (I'm a marching band type, not a school dance type).

(Clockwise around the circle from the left: Bettina K., Dee H., Sue D., Michelle P., Karey K., and Laura H. showing us ... OMG is that *twerking*???)

There was a bit of discussion about showing off our new-found skills at a future USDAA trial, although most of our skills were pretty skanky.

Next I heard : On October 30, I received this top secret email email, appropriately titled "Top Secret Email", from Wendy Vogelgesang:

Laura Hartwick, Karey Krauter and I are planning something fun and a bit wacky for the November SMART in Morgan hill and need to gather a brave group of people.

If you like to dance and don't mind a little silly fun, please reply to this email and I will put you down as a participant and follow-up with more information.

On November 5, Wendy followed up to we secret conspirators with:

The Flash Mob will take place during the Championship DAM Relay Walk Through on Sunday. The song "Wild Thing" will play right before the Fox song to prompt us to get ready. We have created an instructional video to help you learn the dance moves.

(See how professionally organized this is? I was impressed!) The dance moves-- to the viral song "What does the fox say?"-- were, I was grateful to note, simpler than the original attempt back in early October.  Here are some important instructional clips from the video.

It is OK to share now--our own video has gone viral.

All the moves were "paw" moves...

I, for one, as a former marching band expert, liked the easy-to-follow instructions
to complicated moves such as the following:

In this part of the song, they are looking for the fox--
notice fox head has popped briefly out of the tunnel on the right!

At the VAST USDAA trial (also at NAF) on Nov 9, while we enjoyed yet another potluck (November in California! love it!), Wendy hauled us all out to the agility field to give us personalized in-person details about the steps and to help us practice.

A lively email discussion ensued about how and where and what exactly we needed to do on the fateful day, including more informational secret plans in the 30 assorted emails that flew back and forth among us mobsters..

THEN we received these final excellent motivational training videos from a "top secret mystery dance instructor" who is obviously not  Laura in a fur hat:
1. Demo
2. Detailed step by step with personal agility-style encouragement. Look! Now you, too, can dance along!

I played the video on my computer in my home office and practiced. Boost thought it was exceptionally exciting, or else a little scary, she couldn't decide which, so mostly she barked and kept a safe distance in case my clumsy pony paws dancing went out of control.

So now, we were all prepared!

As Hatwoman, I, also, came prepared!

Then Sunday afternoon at the SMART trial rolled around and... here is how it went! (Look for me--I'm wearing the muted teal fleece as you see above and, near the beginning of the flash mob, I don my fox/wolf hat. I'm between the front of the dogwalk and Aframe early on, but back behind the blue tunnel at the end.  Me, near right side, donning my hat:)

Video by Agility in Motion. Thanks!

Ah, yes, sigh of pleased sense of accomplishment and gratitude that Wendy and Laura and Karey planned everything and all I had to do was sit back, enjoy the messages and the videos, and then try not to look like I was having a seizure out there among all the actually talented dancers. A big thanks to the SMART trial committee for letting this happen, too!

Hope you all get a chance to do an agility flash mob someday.

Update December 4: Laura's write-up is now posted on the USDAA web site! http://usdaa.com/article.cfm?newsID=2477

Weekend Wrap-Up

SUMMARY: Fun but not a lot of Qs.

Had both cameras with me all weekend, but here's the only thing I photographed all weekend--pulled off the freeway on my way home tonight. This is out on I-580, across the Diablo range of mountains (that's Mount Diablo about 40 miles north). The Central Valley for the most part is a huge expanse of agriculture. Wanted to give a sense of the traffic streaming by on the interstate (tail lights).

The weather cooperated: Cool to cold but clear; pretty much perfect for the dogs. Actually took my fleece jacket off for a couple of hours this afternoon. But frost in the morning.

There are so many fun, wonderful people in agility. Spent a lot of my weekend laughing.  At one point, I explained Tika's priorities to someone who was petting her: "Food, toys, attention." Jim D., standing near by, said, "Sounds like a man!"  I miss my agility friends when I'm not around them. Plus all those dogs! For someone who's loved dogs since at least 4th or 5th grade, agility is a good place to be.

Tika got attention and treats and we practiced tricks and wandered around letting her sniff the ground for stray iotas of food, one of her favorite activities.

Boost and I had some lovely portions of runs, but only one that 100% lovely. So our superb weekend of last november (last time we competed) did not hold up. Only one Q of 10 runs, but it was a 6th place out of 32 very fast dogs, so that was a bonus. One of those Standard runs where everything just clicked. My knee felt good (all weekend in fact) and I felt that I could really move around the course. I pushed the envelope a bit on everything and she seemed to love it.

Our Grand Prix was 95% perfect like that; I took a risk that she'd pop out of the weaves to do an aggressive front cross, and sure enough, she popped. I watched about 30 other dogs do exactly the same thing when their handlers tried the exactly the same move, so it wasn't a surprise, really, and the rest of the run felt SOOOO good.

Other details:

• Saturday Pairs: Entered the weaves wrong, so had to restart them, and popped out, so had to go back to pick up the last pole, so with the 10 faults plus all the wasted time, we did not Q. Our partner ran beautifully, though.
• Satuday Standard: Lots of nice bits, but the handler made three small handling errors resulting in 2 refusals and a knocked bar.
• Saturday Gamblers, wow, a stellar opening... well, OK, not quite, because I briefly forgot what I meant to do next while she waited at the bottom of the Aframe, and then she came off early to see what i was doing, so I had to turn her around to get her back on my plan.  As a result, we were only halfway through the weaves when the whistle blew, so we ended up with 29 opening points, about 6th highest of all dogs instead of 2nd or 3rd. The gamble itself, bleah, not even close.
• Saturday Snooker: Knocked two bars in the opening, including a red after which she hit another obstacle, so whistled off after 8 obstacles.
• Saturday Steeplechase: Two bars and ran past the weaves entirely. Not entirely sure why, although she might have been running straight into the late-afternoon sun. Still, I didn't see other dogs missing that entry.
• Saturday Jumpers: A few parts very nice, several parts with runouts and refusals and at least one bar down.
• Sunday Jumpers: A runout that I'll blame on her and two dumb handling moves resulting in two refusals in a row. But the rest really nice and fast, including some great rear crosses! (one of our big weaknesses), and she kept her bars up.
• Sunday Standard: Just about perfect as noted above! Felt great! Q and 6th place.
• Sunday Grand Prix: 95% perfect as noted above. Felt great! 6th fastest time of 32 dogs in her class, really felt great!
• Sunday Snooker: A spot-on perfect and aggressive opening and then I got ambiguous on the #2 in the closing and got a refusal. But what we did felt great!

I found it interesting that, although I  released her quickly from contacts all weekend to just keep moving and be exciting, she still kept sticking them almost all the time (waiting for my release). Yeah! What a good girl!

Her table-down in the two Standards were GORgeous--fast down and no problems with the hydraulic elbows.

And back to Tika. Another sign of her aging is this: I always share a little of my lunch with them at trials. I open their crate doors and they have to be lying down to get a tidbit. Tika has *always* struggled with her self-control--down for  a few seconds, then popping to her feet. Down again for a bit, then popping to her feet. Also, she LUNGES FRANTICALLY to grab food out of the air, and as a result half the time hits it and sends it flying instead.   Something weird happened today--she lay there quietly the whole time and picked the treats calmly out of hte air as they came towards her. Makes me sad at the same time that I'm glad that she is finally behaving herself at almost 12.

And, yes, her birthday is this week. Oh my.

I slept well in the hotel Saturday night. I think I'll sleep well again tonight.  Must go have some dinner and then to bed.

Another One Of Those Days

SUMMARY: Second day of USDAA agility.

Well, I'm not nearly as bummed after a weekend of agility as I sometimes am. Boost had some really, really nice runs this weekend and it's just too bad that we didn't have more Qs to show for it.

Tika's Q rate was pretty good for this weekend, but I definitely noticed her increasing slowness and lack of confidence that she's doing the right thing in so many ways. But looks like we'll keep on competing for a while, yet, I guess.

Started the day with Standard. Both Tika and Boost had really nice runs and Qs, what more can I say? A friend commented, "Ellen, you got a Double Q!" Made me laugh.

Although Tika gave me a good scare--at the very last jump, as she approached it with me a little behind, she suddenly started to turn back towards me (something she's doing more often) and my heart sank--getting all the way through the entire course and then lose it to a refusal on the LAST jump?! But while she was still roughly parallel to the jump and still moving, so she hadn't turned away from it yet, she saw me and executed the most astonishing turn back to the jump from about 6 inches away and I swear went over it sideways and didn't knock the bar. Another friend came by to comment, "Tika was just messing with you there at the end." Dogs! Sheesh!

Boost was in Gamblers, and for a change I couldn't come up with an opening that I liked. Had one that was kinda OK, but in talking to a friend after the walk-thru was done, decided on a different course. Not sure whether we'd have done better on my original course, but we sure couldn't have done much worse--first four obstacles were jump, jump, tunnel, weaves, and let me just say that, out of all of those, she did the tunnel just fine. Sigh. Then I wasted time insisting that she do the weaves correctly, so never even got minimum opening points, so it's just as well that my oddball handling gesticulations in the gamble portion were for naught.

Tika then got to run in Steeplechase Round 2. She was clean, but even though it had 2 Aframes rather than 2 sets of weaves, and even though the faster dog had a bar down, we still came in only 2nd! (Sad day when her clean run can't make up the 5 second fault penalty of the other dog. Missed only by .12 of a second, though--so close to winning!) Of course, there were only 3 dogs in our height in round 2. We brought home a whole $6 for that.

Grand Prix ran really well for both dogs, too. It chewed up a lot of dogs--pretty small Qualifying percentage--but I thought it ran smoothly. Tika was clean and Qed (although only 5th place of 12 dogs--10 seconds behind the 1st place!). Boost had a lovely run and I blew it by overcalling in one spot, thereby pulling her off a jump for a refusal error and no Q, but the rest was nice.

Snooker--For Tika, I just wanted a plain Q, so I picked a nice,  simple little triple loop in the opening using 6-6-6 which did not turn out to be the sign of the devil as it fed nicely into the closing and we completed it easily for 48 points and a Q and 3rd place of 7 dogs. Yayyyyyyy another one down and now only ONE until PDCH gold! It's been a while since we've Qed two Snookers in a row!

For Boost, though, I wanted the Super-Q and I was absolutely convinced that, among the 40 dogs in her class, a large number would be able to get well into the 50-point range ( 3 or 4 reds optional) and that's what would be required for the Super_Q. So I picked a more aggressive course (although one I thought we could do comfortably)--and...... in the opening, she knocked a bar, missed the weave entry  which wasted time to fix, then I forgot to do a front cross so we wasted time getting into position for the next obstacle and I therefore also gave confusing instructions on the following obstacle wasting more time, and then she knocked bar #3 in the closing. A complete disaster, jeez. And this kills me--48 points turned out to be super-Qs! Gah. Of course, even if I had just used Tika's same course, she probably would've knocked the same bars, since those were in the same path that Tika took. Ah, well.

Then Jumpers. Both dogs ran smoothly and had really nice times, except that Tika crashed through one jump, not sure why--she was still only 2 seconds slower than the winner--and Boost just tipped a bar off when i did a post turn, so neither dog Qed but I was happy with how they ran.

So, for the day:
Tika 3/4 Qs, placements of a 2nd and a 3rd, one bar down, one scare at the last jump, plus $6 for a clean Steeplechase Round 2. (And both tables in Standard this weekend were one-"Down" tables, didn't have to keep saying it over and over. Yeah!)

Boost 1/5 Qs, no placements. 5 bars down, all contacts good, 2/4 perfect sets of weaves (one entry on wrong side, one popped out at #10), one runout that was my fault, no other refusals or runouts! That last one is AMAZING to me! And I certainly can't account for that for this whole weekend by my intensive training efforts, because there has been none!

My stamina: I actually held up pretty well; maybe my dogs did OK because I was able to get to where I needed to be. I'm trying to pay even more attention to my timing and on my willingness to trust the dog and move sooner. But some weekends, my legs feel like lead... this weekend, felt pretty good. The only one  that was really hard was when I had to run Tika in Steeplechase (fast, intense course with a lot of handler activity) and then less than 10 minutes later run her in Snooker--my poor legs just wouldn't move! I obviously need more recovery time. My knee feels good, too.

So, over all, a day and weekend that definitely didn't suck.

Win Some, Lose Some, Come In The Middle Some

SUMMARY: Saturday at agility.

Well, at least we got the Jumpers and Snookers out of the way first thing in the morning so I didn't fret about them all day.

Boost had really gorgeous Jumpers run with an excellent time--no refusals, no runouts or hesitations--but sadly, 2 bars down.

Tika had a nice but not superfast Jumpers run and knocked the third to the last bar, dangit.

Boost's Snooker opening was a bit of a mess--knocked one of the red bars after a refusal, so we didn't get a SuperQ, but her closing sequence was really nice (9 obstacles) and at least it was a Q.

Tika's Snooker--I picked a really simple, low-scoring one that she had to get all the way through the 7 in the closing to Q, and I took my eyes of her on the #7, which was a 3-jump serpentine, and she cut behind me--fortunately did not take an off-course obstacle and so we were able to go back and complete it for a Q. Another one down, phew! Only two to go for Gold PDCH.

Boost's Standard run was really nice, too, except, yes, a bar down.

Tika's Standard run was nice but quite slow in places--I really see her slowing down to see what I'm doing when I'm behind her, and she was slow in tunnels today--but she did Q.

Tika wasn't entered in Gamblers. Boost I thought was having problems with her rear legs and I pulled her out of gamblers. :-( Turns out it wassssss... I have no idea. But she seems to be fine.

In Steeplechase, Tika was clean for a Q, so we can run tomorrow for the money. Boost's Steeplechase was actually pretty nice except for a bar down and then I took my eyes off her and she cut behind me--fortunately did not take an off-course obstacle and so we were able to go back and complete it (jeez, does that sound familiar?) but with both the bar and the wasted time, we did not Q.

Tika wasn't entered in Pairs Relay. Boost ran beautifully, but her partner had an offcourse.

So: Tika 3/4 Qs, no placements, one bar down, one cut behind.

Boost 1/6 Qs, no placements. 5 bars down, all contacts good except left one teeter early, 4/4 perfect sets of weaves, two refusals on jumps but only in the Snooker opening where they just waste time, and one cut behind.

Tomorrow, we go back and get another shot at Snooker, Standard, and Jumpers, and throw in Steeplechase round 2 for Tika, another Gamblers for Boost, and Grand Prix for both.

The most fun part of the day was watching all the 10-year-old-or-older dogs do their four-obstacle runs with a little story about each of them. There were a LOT of dogs entered in that--many of whom are still competing, but quite a few whom we haven't seen in a while but still mostly look really good for "old" dogs.

Here they all are, listed mostly in order of increasing age, from just barely 10 up to 17. It's amazing how many had multiple championships, high-level lifetime achievements, Top Ten appearances, and so many other accomplishments, yet the recurring theme in what people had to say about their dogs was how the dogs changed their lives and thanking the dogs for putting up with their humans' hobbies and foibles.


Here's Stormy the Cardigan Welsh Corgi, making silly happy faces for the camera. Retired early due to leg issues.

Wonderful Kelly the mixed breed, whose USDAA achievements are all platinum. She retired a year or so ago.

Surely the Aussie, the only one who really dressed for the occasion. I believe she's now recently retired, too.

The event is also in honor of SMART's 10th anniversary, so Rob Michalski, the club's original president, said a few short words.

His wife, Derede, still a powerhouse behind the club, read a short, funny, and sweet agility parody of Visit from Saint Nicholas.

Some of the older dogs waiting their turns to run.

A few other older dogs, with Carlene and Brenn (still competing) in front.

They gave each dog a lovely folder with a certificate listing their lifetime achievements of any ilk, and they took photos. Tomorrow we'll get the photos to insert into the other side.

Tika adores hers, of course.

I and a friend also used my tiny camera in its video mode to get shaky, incomplete videos of several of the dogs' runs. They're uploading to youtube; will have to add a link, probably tomorrow evening.

Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEB8134AAB0512984&feature=edit_ok

Hug your dogs--these dogs all seemed like they were pups just yesterday!

Yes, Another Weekend Of Agility

SUMMARY: USDAA in Prunedale

Two days of agility again.

Tika's energy and stamina has been down a bit, although she did ok on our 5.5-mile hike with 1200-foot elevation gain on Sunday. Not zooming around nearly like she used to, but it was pretty warm and all the dogs were a bit subdued, and she certainly held up better than I did.

Boost--well, did I do my homework this week? No. Not enough energy on my part to do it. *I'm* the one with really lower energy and stamina these days. Working on it.

In class last night, Boost's first run, a jumping drill, was really nice except htat she ticked a bar and I forgot that I'm supposed to be stopping her for ticked and knocked bars. Next run, had to stop her about every 3rd jump. We never did get through the drill, even starting where we stopped before. Then she couldn't even get over a 16" jump without knocking it, while I was trying to get her to have some success for rewards. Insane.

Then, the last run of the evening, a standard-type course, she was just lovely.

Of course, her weave entries remain broken -- think I've mentioned it here lately somewhere, where she has decided once again that she enters between the first two poles no matter which direction she's coming from, rather than always entering with her left shoulder to the first pole. Jeez, I *knew* they wouldn't stay fixed! Weave entries is about the only thing I *have* worked on her at home with, and there has been no improvement.

Darn dog. So maybe I just wait and see whether they fix themselves again? No idea what goes through the little BC brain.

She started scratching obsessively again about a month ago--third year in a row now--and two weeks of benadryl and Genta spray followed by two weeks of hydroxyzine didn't make it stop (just like last year), so (just like last year) we went in to the vet; she got a cortisone shot, which (just like last year) did a pretty good job of knocking it out, and now she's on prednisone pills in decreasing doses for the next 3 weeks and we hope that'll be it for this year.

I just have to remember to let her out of her crate to potty on a very regular basis this weekend--liquid seems to pass through so quickly when they're on preds, and it is so sad for them when I don't get them out of their crate in time. But at least I'm very aware of that nowadays.

Otherwise, this weekend hoping for progress on finishing off Tika's Snookers so we can claim the Gold PDCH. Would be nice.

And, as always, praying for jumpers and snooker super-Qs for Boost.

Doesn't this all sound so familiar? Bro-ken-rec-ord. Well, should be nice to be around the usual agility friends, plus the senior-dog honoring ceremony thing for dogs 10 and over is Saturday, and at least Tika and I should do well in that. ;-)

So, off to bed, I guess.

USDAA Trial Coming Up

SUMMARY: More stats for this weekend's Woodland trial than you can shake a jump bar at.

• Driving distance one way: 120 miles (193 km)
• Driving time one way (est.): 2 hrs 5 mins
• Gas cost yesterday: $4.09/gal ($1.08/lit ... did I do that right? By what measure do non-USers buy gas?)
• MUTT MVR's average MPG for the last 3 months: 22.
• Bridge tolls paid using Fastrak: $5 (northbound only)
• Extra miles I could drive to avoid a bridge toll: 30
• Amazing toll that people pulling a trailer will pay starting July 1:  $15 for one axle, $20 for 2. (Guess that's a good reason to buy a gas-guzzling motorhome instead. Stupid.)
• Maximum freeway speed between here and there: 65 MPH (104 KPH) (or 70 the longer  route).
• Maximum if you're pulling a trailer: 55. (Another reason to buy a motorhome instead.)
• Average top speed by personal observation:  70 MPH.
• Average top speed of people pulling trailers by personal observation: 70 MPH.
• Event starting time: 7:45 briefings and walkthroughs; 8:00 first dog on the line.
• Ending time (est): Sat, 5:00; Sun, 3:00
• Set-up time required (canopy & crating, etc., walk the dogs...): 40 minutes.
• Time to set on my alarm clock for Saturday morning: 4:20 a.m.
• Forecast high temperatures: Saturday 99 (37.2 C), Sunday 99-106
• Total runs for the weekend: 945 in 2 rings (this makes it a medium-ish USDAA trial for around here)
• Dogs entered: 138. Includes 67  border collies, 17 australian shepherds, 14 mixed breeds (including one Craussie--yay, Tika!)
• Older dogs competing: One 14-year-old JRT, one 12-year old Cocker, and three 11-year olds (including one Craussie).
• Humans entered: 98.
• Percentage of humans handling two dogs: 25%
• Percentage handling 3 or 4 dogs: 7%
• Most common dog names (2 each): Charlie, Lily, Neo, Pete
• Runs I entered with my dogs: 20 (10 each)
• Entry fees for one dog in all classes:  $144 ($148 C).
• Work I will do all weekend to reduce my entry fees: Score table chief.
• Classes I might not run Tika in: Gamblers (because her Q rate is so low), Grand Prix (because 6 runs/day with her in the heat is now probably too much)
• Qs needed for titles for Tika:
  
  • Standard: 1 for Gold (35 performance Qs); chances this weekend: 2
  • Snooker: 4 for Gold; chances this weekend: 2
  • LAA-Platinum: 53 of any kind; chances this weekend: up to 10 (I sincerely doubt now that we'll get there, or that she'll still be competing at age 12. We'll see how the year winds down...)
• Qs needed for titles for Boost:
  
  • For ADCH (stop me if you've heard this before): one Jumpers and two Snooker Super-Qs; chances this weekend: 2 each
  • Gamblers: 1 for Bronze (15 Qs); chances this weekend: 1
• Where I will sleep: In  MUTT MVR at the fairgrounds.
• What I usually have for breakfast: A banana and a high-protein breakfast bar.
• What I will be hyper aware of this weekend after Elicia Calhoun's disaster (will post more about that eventually):
  
  This, from the "Live to run again" foundation, is on my driver's-side window:
  
  

The End of a Four--no, Three-Day Weekend

SUMMARY: Some items accomplished, some not.

I have so much to say that it's hard to know where to start. But I want to be concise, too. Been thinking about it for 24 hours now, and my list gets longer, not shorter. I guess I just need to plunge in and blather on. It's just going to be long. Skim and read as the mood strikes you, or just look at the happy photos.

We had some successes and some--well, failures--of one sort or another.

Weather and Camping Out

The weather wasn't bad at all; mostly pretty good agility weather, actually. Every day started with frost on the grass but warmed fairly quickly. Thursday afternoon warmed up enough that, if you were running a dog and in the sun, you wanted to take off your fleece, but the chilly wind made you put it back on quickly as soon as you stopped moving or went into the shade. After we were done for the day, the beautiful puffy white clouds turned into dark ominous clouds and, despite the no-rain forecast, we had maybe half an hour of off-and-on light showers, which made for this:

I was pretty wiped and a little queasy after the usual 4-a.m. rousing and drive out, 6 runs with each dog, and so on. Went out to dinner with friends, which was fun and tasty, but by the time the meal was over, I was drooping so badly that I decided I couldn't face 45 minutes of setting up MUTT MVR for sleeping, so investigated the Best Western where a bunch of others were staying.

They had only some rooms available by 9:30 p.m.: Suites starting at $125 a night and smoking rooms at $85. Plus taxes and $15 pet fee. Since I wanted only to sleep, shower, and leave, the suite seemed stupid. I waffled over the smoking room, though--I've had some pretty bad nights in smoky rooms. The more I waffled, the more she lowered the price, till I paid $70/night plus taxes and the pet fee. So $100 I hadn't budgeted for, but better than the original quote.

The room wasn't too horrible--I've spent  nights in nonsmoking rooms that I thought were as bad. It was spacious, had a comfortable king-sized bed, and all the faucets and lights worked.

Felt much better Friday morning. Still frost in the morning, but warmed up more than Thursday. I set up MUTT MVR and slept VERY soundly Friday night after a spontaneous potluck with generous friends, to which I had nothing to contribute since I'd planned on going out to eat.

Saturday started with frost again, but warmed up even more to shirtsleeve weather by midday. By dinnertime, though, when we had pizza brought in for our Bay Team quarterly meeting at 6:00, the chill crept in again. So--hold that point in the calendar--

Tika

Tika seemed pretty happy and healthy most of the time. She did her "hug" stretch before almost every run, where she puts her front feet up on my chest and stretches everything out. If she's hurtin', she won't do that. The last couple of runs on Saturday, she didn't do it right away or fully at first, and I thought, hmmm... but then she did it fully.

We definitely connected better than under the arena at Santa Rosa, but still had enough miscues and oddities that made me more and more aware that I can't expect her to do what she's always done.  I can point to most of them as a hearing and/or vision issue (I'm still not positive one way or the other about the latter). It's frustrating to assume that she'll just do the things she's always done and then she doesn't.

Like Saturday's gamble, which I thought was a complete gimmee for her, and she sent out beautifully but then on the turn to the Aframe, while I yelled "climb! climb!", she just kept coming towards me, not very fast, looking at me uncertainly. It made me sad, and then she didn't grab my shoes afterwards, either, so she wasn't feeling her cheery best. That's just one example.

Sure, we were never perfect in USDAA, but had held a pretty constant 65% Q average for a few years, and that average is just dropping. She Qed 4 out of 6 on Thursday, 3 out of 6 on Friday, and 2 out of 6 on Saturday, so we weren't getting any better with experience. So--hold that point in the calendar--

Tika Performance Team

What also made me sad was that she had four very nice runs in the DAM individual events. I was pleased with all of them, and yet she earned a Q in only one. Part of the problem was that there were only 6 dogs in her height class, so we combined with the 16" dogs. Between Chaps in our height and Epic and Heath in 16" (and a couple of other really awesome younger performance 16" dogs as well), between them usually having not only among the highest scores in Performance but in Championship, too, Tika's very good scores didn't Q. (Individual Qs are based on being within 15% of the average of the top 3.) What was really frustrating was that her scores *would* have been Qing in any of the Championship classes!

So I could pass it off as bad luck that there were only 6 in our class rather than 7 or that all the best Performance dogs happened to be there that weekend, but still, she's not usually had problems Qing in Team individual events before. And, in 5 of the last 11 team events, we have had to combine Tika's height with the 16", so there's every expectation that this experience could happen again.

Chaps had his usual consistently high scores, so as a team we were doing really well.

The club split team into 2 days, which makes me nuts, especially when it's such an important Q (our Platinum Tournament), so I had to sleep on the stress of hoping that we'd finally get that last Team Q needed for that title, after December's disaster, and the next team not until July.

After the first class on Thursday, Chaps and Tika were in 3rd place out of 18 teams. After next class, we moved into 1st place and stayed there after the 3rd and 4th classes, too--but, going into the relay on Friday afternoon, we were a mere 5 points (or 5 seconds) out of about 700 beyond both the 2nd and 3rd place teams--so close out of all those points! We couldn't slack off at all if we wanted to hold our 1st place.

But to me, at that moment, THE most important thing was not Eing so that we would Q. At that point, we probably would've still Qed if either of us had Eed in the relay, but not certain about that--it's a huge penalty in the relay.

One of the two teams had a refusal on the weaves and had to redo, so that moved took them out of contention for the top two spots. Chaps had a clean first half. I wanted to lead out rather than run off the line with Tika to avoid any possible off course or faults, so I walked calmly and quietly to position before releasing Tika. She had a really nice run, but that calm leadout cost us--with our final total score of 896.61 points for the 5 runs, we were 1.5 points (seconds) exactly *behind* the other team. So--

2nd place out of 18 Performance team, which I'm quite pleased about, considering how good & fast the other teams were.

And, most importantly, Tika's Performance platinum tournament! Thank goodness that's out of the way! More fun than that--that was also Chap's Performance gold tournament title! What a combo!

And a relief that last December's disaster was just a fluke due to Tika's hearing in the Santa Rosa arena.

No more team? Less agility?

Still, I'm thinking that if she can't Q in the individual events, there's no reason for me to be running her in team any more. Except that I promised our old partner Brenn to do July team for old time's sake, since Brenn's arthritis seems to have eased a bit.

We had our moments--she placed 2nd in Round 1 Steeplechase even though it had 2 sets of weaves and she looked so slow!, and placed 2nd in the final round also, which ALSO had 2 sets of weaves, but she misread a rear cross (or I was too far behind--I'd been worried about that spot before we ran) and we missed 1st place by 0.5 seconds. But that's because one of the very fast younger dogs scratched, another popped out of the weaves, and Chaps scratched, so just by not Eing we'd have been guaranteed at least 3rd.

She Qed easily in both regular Jumpers rounds, although only placing 4th of 7 and 2nd of 5.

And she won Thursday's Standard and Friday's Gamblers.

But our failures when we didn't Q seemed much larger and much more different than what we'd failed on in the past. Much puzzlement on my part on how to manage this deafened dog and much puzzlement on her part as to why I'm not telling her what she needs to know.

So I'm thinking that we're closer than I thought to not doing much agility.

Boost

On the up side:

• Weaves: We did 20 sets in 18 runs, including Friday's gamble, two in Thursday's Snooker, two sets in Steeplechase, several situations where I wanted to move far away laterally, several challenging entrances, and so on, and she nailed almost every entry and stayed in almost all. Exceptions: Coming out of a chute to a right turn to the weaves, I called her hard and overcalled her; tried a challenging serp in Team Relay and she cut behind me; and then, jeez, the easiest ones: back to back weaves in a gamblers *opening*, where I did NOT cut away and was right with her, she popped out twice in a row(!) but then got them both the next 2 tries. Those great, fast, accurate weaves made me very happy.
• She did all her contacts beautifully! No coming off the side, no leaving early! Yowza!
• Table in standard: Thursday's and Friday's were fast downs and she stayed down; Saturday's was a fast down, one elbow came up briefly but went back down when I reminded her. That's excellent, also.
• Serpentines: I dared two or three since we've been practicing them, and she actually came in! Must keep working on it, though, as they weren't completely smooth.
• Team: Wow, she did not E or crap out on any one of her five team events, which has got to be a first for her! She even earned a Q in the gamblers, and she hardly ever Qs in team events. Furthermore, none of her teammates (Jersey and Rift) Eed or crapped out in anything, either, and much to our delight and amazement, we finished 4th of 20 teams! That's the highest I've ever placed in Championship team (although Tika has placed in the top 3 several times in Performance team). Yowza.
  

Not so good:

• Bars. It wasn't a bar-knocking frenzy, but they came down at a fairly regular rate. I might count later, but I'd guess at least 10 bars out of 18 runs.
• Refusals and runouts. Sigh. Sigh. Sigh. Lots.

What we really needed:

• Jumpers: Thursday--knocked the 2nd bar, came in past a jump after a tunnel (I might have called too hard but she just skimmed the edge of it so it would've almost been easier to take it); didn't go forward to a jump that I really needed her to, so Eed on refusals. Friday (team jumpers), two refusals that were mostly my fault--I checked out on a front cross and tried a rear which is her nemesis and she just stopped, then another when I briefly forgot the course. (But she kept up all her bars.) Saturday: I think one bar down, one refusal that I fixed, and another on a rear cross where she just kept looking at me until she was right in front of the jump and stopped. I made her just jump it and then walked off.
• Snooker: Thursday (team): not too bad, got through 7-7-7-3 in the opening and through 5 in the closing but I missed a front cross again and when I tried to rear she ran past the next jump. Friday: Ran past the first red when I tried a lead-out pivot, so bobbling to get back to it. Couldn't have asked for a smoother course on which to do three 7s except that she chose *this* time to go completely straight instead of curving slightly to follow me (and for a change I was way ahead of her, so no excuse!) and went off course right away. Saturday: A twisty ugly course that the smoothest thing I could find with hopes of a superQ involved 10 front crosses. She ran past a couple of jumps anyway that I had to go back and get--mangled our way through the opening four reds and obstacles, but when we had to go around one jump she started paying more attention to me than to the obstacles and we futzed out on several stupid attempts at the next two jumps.

Health

My knee was holding up OK, but feeling worse gradually. I iced it only once--seemed like there was never time when it was convenient to spend 15 minutes doing it. My own speed and agility in the ring is DEFINITELY helped by making sure that I can jog and sprint before I get the dog out to compete, but it was taking more and more steps of each for me to loosen up as the weekend went on. And I still get winded when there's a lot of running.

 By the time I walked the last regular class on Saturday--Jumpers--my legs were so tired that I walked it only a couple of times and then peeled off so I'd have enough energy left to actually run it. Walking the Steeplechase finals (for Tika) after that, I really didn't even want to be walking, I was that tired.  Now hold that point in time...

Friday evening, vet Cindi massaged Tika and Boost--she's worked on them before, so knows them a bit--because I was still concerned about the limps I'd seen the last couple of weeks from Boost, and although tika seemed OK, she's just older and arthritic.  Another $130 that I hadn't budgeted for, didn't know she was going to be there but was glad to be able to use her servies.

Sure enough, she identified Boost's right hip socket as being sore. NOthing that she'd recommend not running Boost, but enough to keep an eye on and maybe do less of everything that we usually do for a while to rest it. And Tika's left side was pretty tight and resisting; her toes were quite stiff but loosened up with the massage (and she showed me how to work on them).

Then by midday Saturday I was detecting a very slight limp on some occasions with Boost, so it was coming and going almost imperceptibly. For that last Jumpers run, Tika started out very slowly on the first four obstacles,  and I thought she was done, but she picked up. I warmed her up a lot more for her final Steeplechase and she looked ok, but oh, she's SOOOO stiff in the weaves these days!

And we arrive at Saturday evening

Everything just added up to this point in time, late afternoon Saturday--overly tired physically, a little discouraged, wondering whether my dogs had reached their saturation point, regretting having entered Sunday also.

Sure, there was another Jumpers and another Snooker, which was the whole reason I entered Sunday, but our performances had been so crapped in all three tries at each so far, there was no reason to think that Sunday would suddenly be THE jumpers and THE snooker we'd been waiting for.

So, late that afternoon, I decided that we were done. It was a great relief once I made the decision, and it gave me the energy to spend 90 minutes packing everything up after the Bay Team meeting, although I wasn't glad to finish packing and then driving the 2 hours home after dark.

Startled my renter, coming in just before 11 p.m.--can't remember when the last time was that I came home early from a trial, but I think it's been years and years. Pottied the dogs and went straight to bed. Didn't regret at all not being there today. Oh, well--except that one other friend who's been trying forever to get a Super-Q got it today. So, well, MAYBE that WOULD have been THE Snooker... But probably not.

Being at home and in my own bed is a nice feeling, and the stress, thrills, spills, and chills of competition are a nice thing to get a break from. Remind me if I ever try to sign up for 4 days of agility again that I've been down this path several times and should know better.

USDAA Weekend Coming

SUMMARY: Big trial this time.

Bright and early (well--dark and early) Saturday morning I'm off to the wilds of Turlock for a huge USDAA trial. I heard maybe 450 Masters runs on Saturday, in one ring. Yes, it's been done before, but it makes for a really long day. (350 runs is a generally accepted number for a reasonable maximum per judge per day.)

Show secretary says: " This trial is very full and we will probably be turning on the light and running into the evening.  Please park as close as you can and the same thing with crating.  I know it will be tight but the weather should be good, at least no rain.   We will need volunteers to keep this trial running.  The white boards will be at both rings so volunteer often.   Fault limits may have to be set."

Gosh, we hardly ever set fault limits. We'll see how this goes. Usually when we do have to set them, you're whistled off at your second off-course in the same run. 

I can tell that it's big because Tika usually in a field of  5 to 9 22" Performance dogs.  This weekend, looks like 9 to 12 dogs.  Boost, in 22" Championship--chyah, 34 to 67 (Grand Prix)! Wonder if the uptick in entries is because Nationals is "nearby" this year? Well, Denver is closer than Kentucky, anyway.

I think I can run with my injured hamstring. Otherwise it's going to be a sucky weekend, because my dogs won't run for anyone else. I keep vowing to do something to rectify that, but never somehow get around to it. We'll see how things go Saturday. My hotel room is at a super-low, nonrefundable rate, I believe, so I pay for it whether I use it or not.

Dogs are ready to go. Both were very happy in class last night and running well. (Well, there's Tika's ongoing inexplicable missed cues and things that seem so un-Tika like. Still monitoring the situation.)

At least, as noted, the weather should be lovely. Yesterday was like the best spring day you could imagine, and it's still the middle of winter!

Here It Comes Again, Lookin' Like a USDAA Trial

SUMMARY: Off to Turlock for the weekend.

Once again, agility boys & girls, the Merle Girls and I will be a-packin' it up at 4:00 Saturday morning and heading 2 hours out to the central valley in the middle of a heat wave for two days of agility.

On the up side, (1) it was as hot in my part of san jose as it was out in that part of the central valley this week, so what does it matter whether we're here or there?, and (2) it's supposed to be cooling down over the weekend.

So I'm hoping it won't even get close to 100 out there, especially with Tika's lower tolerance (apparently) for heat these days.

It's a small trial. Only 4 to 7 dogs in Tika's height class.

Only about 8 dogs in Starters, only about 10 in Advanced.

Fewer than 70 in Masters/P3/Veterans combined. (Well--OK, small is relative, but ya know, there were 187 at the Labor Day trial. Granted, that was a regional, but still--it's all relative.)

Steeplechase, Grand Prix, two each of Standard, Gamblers, Snooker, and Jumpers, and one Pairs Relay.

I've gone back to not practicing anything.

Class tonight--we'll see how my Not Practicing Strategy is paying off.

(Photos courtesy of Matt Mizenko, from the Regional.)

Southwest Regionals: A look back

SUMMARY: It's small, for a big trial.

Updates!: Got more info from Karey and my own research later the same day, in red like this, and lots of tweaks throughout that I didn't mark. Basically the article is the same, just some dates are adjusted.

This weekend in Prunedale California, the Bay Team hosts its 8th annual USDAA Southwestern (Major) Regional dog agility trial. Before the Major Regionals existed, however, the Bay Team had been hosting Labor Day weekend trials since 1995. Their content, size, and location have varied over the years, and it's fun to sometimes look back and remember how things used to be.

Note: Prior to 2003, the Regional qualifiers for each Tournament were held in different locations on different dates, and the Bay Team hosted one each year for a couple or three years. Herein, I'm talking about the Major Regionals started in 2003, in which all three Tournament events occur.

Tournament offered

From 1995 through 2002 (before Major Regionals), the various clubs in central California rotated the local tournament classes. Each year, one club hosted a Grand Prix, one hosted a Steeplechase, and one hosted a Dog Agility Masters (DAM) Tournament. To our modern agility minds, that seems so odd; all these same clubs now offer both Grand Prix and Steeplechase at virtually every trial, and there are maybe half a dozen DAMs during the year as well.

So, in 1996, 1998, and 2001, we offered a DAM at our Labor Day trial; in 1999, it was a Steeplechase; and in 2000, because of the Nationals the next weekend (see below), we offered no tournaments at all that weekend.

Of course, qualifying for nationals has changed dramatically as well. In 1996, for example, you could still qualify for Nationals in Grand Prix with a single Q, and you could get that single Q with as many as 10 faults. Then it changed to 7 faults, then 5 faults, then to two clean-run Qs. Therefore, people need more attempts to earn those requisite scores.

That first Major Regional, in 2003, when we were required to host ALL THREE TOURNAMENTS IN ONE WEEKEND, OH MY GOSH!, raised quite a controversy. We'd never even hosted all three tournaments in a single YEAR before! It would be too much work, too  complicated, people wouldn't want that much stress on the weekend, too hard to handle all the special awards...  You get the picture.

Who knew we'd be doing this for 8 years running, with no  end in sight! Yep,  we cheerfully run that complicated, stressful, impossible  slate of classes every Labor Day without a whimper.  Well--maybe one or two whimpers here and there; this isn't an easy trial, but the processes are pretty well  understood and we have many enthusiastic and experienced members who see to all the details. Thanks Dog for that!

Location

In the heavily populated area where the majority of Bay Teamers live, vast swaths of grass or large arenas are hard to come by. In 1995 and 1996, the Labor Day trial used a small field in Daly City and shared a parking lot with the local library. The next year we moved to Cal State Hayward (CSUH, now Cal State East Bay) on the big lawn next to Meiklejohn Hall. Parking wasn't convenient and it was hard to get vehicles on and off the lawn for unloading.

In our eternal quest for a better space, we managed to get the 1998 trial onto the Stanford campus. Stanford has miles of lush, green lawns crying out for dog agility. We had a great spot until a couple of days before the trial, when someone getting married on campus insisted that their wedding not have a view of dog agility, and we were unceremoniously and abruptly dumped to a tiny lawn between a busy street and some residence units. 6:00 a.m. weekend dogs didn't mix well with the sleepers.

That was our only trial ever to be televised--what a mess! Although it was fun afterward to be on T.V. for 30 seconds (Jake and me after our DAM relay run),  the huge delays in classes while the TV crew set things up the way they wanted made the days drag on much longer than expected; we couldn't use the loudspeakers while they were running the cameras (which was during most of the classes); and we had to wait at the ends of classes for them to interview folks coming off the field.

The next two years, 1999 and 2000, we were back at Meiklejohn, but then the campus wanted to build there. We moved to the CSUH soccer practice field for 2001 and 2002. That had more space, but was inconveniently laid out and had challenging parking and access. We never held a major Retional there.

Then we were able to negotiate to use the soccer fields at the Twin Creeks Softball complex in the heart of Silicon Valley, making it delightfully convenient for a large number of Bay Team members. The space was huge, but overnight parking was always iffy; the management team changed frequently and we got different stories at different times; their rules and restrictions were a bit of a thorn in our side at times; and when listening to their rates, we always heard ka-ching! ka-ching! Still, that's where we held our first major Regional, and we easily fit there for five years of Regionals, from 2003 to 2007.

We might still have been there, except that in 2008, after confirming our trials for the year, management abruptly changed and confirmed that the long-rumored additional softball fields would be built on *our* soccer fields and that they were no longer available.

Meanwhile, SMART had found Manzanita Park in Prunedale. The facilities are vast, nowhere near anyone's residence, and not too expensive. Our Labor Day trials have been there since 2008.

Number of rings

Our first Labor Day trial, in 1995, had only two rings. The following year, because USDAA didn't allow entry limits and entries had been growing in this still-new dog sport, we bumped it up to three rings. The arguments that ensued when three whole rings were proposed--oh, my! It was already hard to find workers, people were already encountering ring conflicts, it was already too stressful, it was too hard to manage. But the club did it, and it worked out just fine, and it wasn't long until all our trials ran 3 rings.

In 2000, the USDAA Nationals moved to California, and we anticipated a huge draw to our trial because it was the weekend immediately preceding the Nationals. Rather than cancel it, we cut it back to two days (the only time we've done that for Labor Day). The next year, Nationals was later in the month, but our trial was so popular (in addition to being a Regional Steeplechase qualifier that year), that it was proposed that we bump ours up to four whole rings. The arguments that ensued--oh, my! It was already hard to find workers, people were already encountering ring conflicts, it was already too stressful, it was too hard to manage... Yeah, we know.

So we did four rings, and it worked reasonably well (rotation groups introduced several years later really helped) and we continued to do four-ring trials until we moved to Manzanita Park in 2008--where we threw in, yes, a fifth ring on one of the 3 days, which has helped enormously with rotation groups.

Number of runs & dogs

Sometimes it's hard to say why the numbers grow or fall they way they do. Of course the number of runs could vary with how many classes we offer, but we've been pretty consistent with that through our years of regionals.

Our last pre-Regional Labor Day trial, in 2001 (the 2nd year of Nationals in southern California), we had 2961 runs.

In 2002 and 2003, the Nationals moved to Texas.

In 2004 through 2009, the Nationals were in Scottsdale, which Californians generally considered to be a "local" trial, so not surprisingly the Regional numbers jumped way up. The Bay Team Regionals were the last before the Nationals each year, so we expected, and generally got, huge entries.

Amazing, looking back at the number of runs (including Round 2 of Grand Prix or Steeplechase except of course for this year):

year	dogs	runs	Rings	Regional?	Location	Nationals in--
2010	331	2835+round2's	5	Y	Prunedale	Kentucky
2009	426	3782	5	Y	Prunedale	Scottsdale
2008	484	4183	5	Y	Prunedale	Scottsdale
2007	527	4896	4	Y	Twin Crks	Scottsdale
2006	475	4863	4	Y	Twin Crks	Scottsdale
2005	468	4348	4	Y	Twin Crks	Scottsdale
2004	415	4143	4	Y	Twin Crks	Scottsdale
2003	293	2583	4	Y	Twin Crks	TX
2002	335	1260?	4	**	CSUH soccer	TX
2001	379	2933	4	-	CSUH soccer	Del Mar, CA
2000	314	1503*	3	-	CSUH Meik.	Del Mar, CA
1999	332	2399	3	-	CSUH Meik.
1998	218	1731	3	-	Stanford
1997		~1000	3	-	CSUH Meik.
1996	~138	~870	3	-	Daly City
1995			2	-	Daly City

* 2000: Only 2 days, no Tournaments

** regional for one tournament only

Not sure why the drop in 2008 and again in 2009; we offered the same number of classes, but Pairs  moved to Friday evening, which might have been part of (but not nearly all) of the drop.

My own thoughts are that (a) the economy played a part in what people could afford, and (b) people were self-selecting out of going to the Nationals and so weren't as concerned about picking up Regional runs.

This year, the 2835 number is the lowest that we've had since our abbreviated trial in 2000! But it's not unexpected, now that Nationals have moved back towards the east.

This should make for a relaxed weekend--at least compared to some of our most jam-packed prior Labor Day weekends--and I can use some relaxing at a trial! See you all there.

Danged Super-Qs!

SUMMARY: New championships for fellow Bay Teamers from this weekend's VAST trial.

(Yes, it seems to be a catch-up day on blog posts. I posted a slightly shorter version of this to my club but wanted to also post it here to remember parts of my weekend.)

What a wild weekend at VAST--at least from the Masters score table's perspective! We fit in a full 5 masters classes in ring 1 on Saturday (and steeplechase ran in ring 2); and 4 masters classes plus Grand Prix on sunday in Ring 1 (and Steeplechase Round 2 in Ring 2).

I woke at 4:30 to dense fog in San Jose and dreaded the 2-hour drive to Turlock, because the Central Valley can be the King of Pea-Soup Fog in the early morning.

Here's what fog looks like when you try to use a flash.

 

Same view, no flash.

Fortunately it was thick enough to slow me to 50 or 55 MPH in only a few places (but not the folks whipping by me at 65-70! Sheesh! No wonder we get 30-car pileups in the fog!), so light-enough fog most of the way that I could see clearly far ahead.

Cold fog enveloped the trial site briefly Saturday and again well into Sunday morning, but it warmed up nicely to shirtsleeve weather for a couple of hours in the afternoon.

Having TWO Snooker classes and TWO Gamblers classes gave wonderful opportunities to fill in Qs that prove challenging for many handlers, in particular, Snooker Super-Qs. [Three Super-Qs are required to earn a Championship. To earn one, your score must be in the top 15% of dogs competing in your height. This makes the competition fierce and the super-Qs hard to come by in this highly competitive northern California, even for many excellent dogs.]

Saturday Super-Qs

Saturday's Snooker required that you attempt all 4 reds, which were spread out around the outside of the course. This meant that people chose a variety of paths through the course with many off-course opportunities, and it was virtually impossible to earn the highest possible score (although I think one dog might have done it), so scores were unpredictable. At the score table, we had the usual cluster of people praying for Super-Qs and still in contention hovering nearby and waiting to see how many Super-Qs would be awarded and whether they'd be on.

The pressure sits on the score table to double-and-triple check all the scribe sheets and the accumulator sheets, because there are lots of numbers involved and there's nothing worse than having to tell someone later that we've taken away a super-Q they thought they had earned (which we had to do saturday due to a math error, fortunately not one needed for a title and handled graciously by the handler, thanks Barbara).

The 22" class, as usual, had a huge number of entrants--over 30--so 22" handlers had to wait forEVER for us to finish marking the scores.

Linda Greene, seeing me put an "SQ" on her score, asked about 4 times was I absolutely positively sure about that, and I confirmed that yes, I was, and she said, "Thank goodness I don't have to worry about Super-Qs any more." What she DIDN'T tell me was that it had been the only thing standing between Kiwi and her ADCH! (championship title)

I was delighted to see them take a victory lap with their new ADCH pole shortly thereafter to cheers and applause.

Saturday ran very late, until after dark, at least 6 or 7 p.m.

Sunday Super-Qs

Sunday was similar, except that Snooker was the VERY last class of the weekend, and 22" was the VERY last group to run, and it was well after dark so people ran under artificial field lighting rather than daylight, and the cold began creeping in, and many competitors abandoned ship. We had *so* many scratches that it wasn't clear how many Super-Qs we'd be able to give until we had completed the running order.

Furthermore, this course had only 3 reds right next to the 7-point obstacle, so we knew that you'd have to do the highest-possible 51 points AND be among the fastest to do it to earn a super-Q. All of us remaining to do score table also had to run 2 dogs each, so the score table seemed chaotic at times, but we kept at it, double-and-triple checking as we went. [Special thanks to those who stuck it out to the bitter end to help me at the score table--Sandy Zajkowski, Holly Newman, Karey Krauter--]

It astounded me how many 26" and 22" competitors remained for their runs after 6 p.m. on a Sunday, amazing hardy super-competitive NorCal peoples! Still, between trying to verify scratches and keep track of scribe sheets raining in on us, we made it through to 7:00, when competition ended. We sat there, working, with half a dozen people tearing down the field and half a dozen people and one judge hanging around waiting to see the final scores. I was cold, tired, pressured [but revved high with the excitement of the class], and so I think moving more slowly on confirming scores than I might have earlier in the weekend.

Sure enough, almost every group had multiple 51-point scores, so they weren't all going to get Super-Qs. In the end, several of those took themselves out of the running by touching their dogs before crossing the finish line, so they still Qed but, because they had no valid course time, they ranked below those who earned a time at the finish line.

The very very very last individual mark I made on the accumulator sheet was "SQ" for Dave Bennett and Zack. About 40 people (OK really only 2 or 3) kept asking Are you sure are you sure, he's had one taken away from him before?! And I double-checked with Karey looking over my shoulder and, sure enough, it was a Super-Q for Zack, and holy cow, another ADCH for the weekend! So, with the remaining dozen of us cheering and screaming and applauding as loudly as we could, Dave and Zack took their victory lap around the field, and then we all went home.

Other titles

ALSO earning an ADCH this weekend, Lauri Plummer and the delightful pointy-eared Lark ;-), who's one of those dogs about whom you think, "What, they don't ALREADY have their ADCH?" I missed that entire escapade, so I can't fill in the story.

And two others, Katrina/Maddie and Jeanne/Brandy Mae [OK, which is the dog and which is the handler in each team?!] completed their Lifetime Achievement Award (LAA) Silver and ADCH-Gold this weekend.

I Was SO Busy That--

Dang, I never got to sign *anyone's* ADCH bars! I hope they reappear at the next trial--

Behind the Bay Team USDAA Southwest Regionals

SUMMARY: What classes we offer, why, and how

Just a note: I took no photos over the whole weekend, not one. Hard to believe. Never tried to hand off my camcorder to anyone to video any of our runs, either. Fortunately another Bay Teamer took some shots. Unfortunately, this is me and Tika leaving the Steeplechase ring after she came out of the tunnel limping, and me rubbing her down a bit afterward. Ah, well, it's photos anyway. Thanks, Sandra!



Bay Team's regionals seem to go very smoothly. In fact, so do most of our trials. Some of it comes from lots of experienced people jumping in to help. Some of it comes from having one miracle of a club member who makes everything happen from mostly behind the scenes. Some of it comes from our lock-step rotation groups.

The rotation groups work very much like they do at the USDAA Nationals, although I can no longer recall whether we did them first or the nationals did them first. For a small trial where all the classes can fit into one ring, or even two, it's not necessarily needed. But we've found that, with 3 rings or more at ANY trial, rotation groups make a huge improvement in how trials run. First, it reduces conflicts to almost nothing. Second, it makes it easier for people to work because they know exactly how the classes will change.

Here's what we do: Divide all the masters and tournament dogs into an appropriate number of rotation groups--3 for smaller trials, 4 for bigger trials and regionals. Assign everyone who's in the same family or on the same team to the same rotation group. Try to keep everyone who's in a small height class in the same group to reduce jump-height changes.

You might imagine that this is no small task. Our supreme show secretary has a program that pulls out all the chains of these relationships. It becomes an issue only when, say everyone at the trial is somehow related to everyone else at the trail--sort of a 100 degrees of separation thing. Then some manual tweaking has to occur. I can't imagine doing all of this manually, but I suppose it could be done.

We put one class into each of 3 or 4 rings, then rotate the groups through the rings. For example, on Saturday, the four DAM individual classes were in four different rings. First round, group A ran Team Gamblers in ring 1, group B ran Team Jumpers in ring 2, etc. We wait for ALL rings to finish the first rotation--this is key--then give a 5-minute break for whatever needs to be done to get the rings and workers ready for the next group. Groups rotate clockwise to the next ring, and everyone again starts at the same time; now Group A is in Ring 2 doing Team Jumpers, and so on.

Repeat until everyone has run all the classes.

To facilitate this, we have a microphone goddess who waits for all the rings' chief ring stewards to confirm that all of their workers & judges are ready to go.

It works best when there is one more group than there are rings--so, for example, on Sunday and Monday, we had 3 masters/tournament rings going, with the same 4 rotation groups, so one group was always off and in THEORY would be available to fill out our volunteer ring help positions. Usually this works well.

The other big part is that--just like at the nationals--everyone has to walk all the courses first thing in the morning. We do those in rotation, too--everyone gets something like 8 minutes to walk each course.

This works very well. USDAAers now seem to accept this, although there was some resistance when we first did it. CPEers--including judges--often have a hard time with this. They do not WANT to wait for the other groups to finish. And some competitors complain... "If this ring had run straight through, then *I* could have gone home 3 hours earlier." Yeah, right, means you're not sticking around to help in the other rings to help everyone else get home earlier. And you've got only one dog who's entered in only 3 classes--we should optimize our schedule for *you* rather than for the more typical competitor who's in all the classes and has a 40% chance of running 2 or more dogs?

But we are firm, and it works. Most people like it because they can relax. They know that they're not going to miss a walkthrough because everyone walks through at the same time.

When everyone has rotated through all the rings, then we rebuild for our second round of the day (if there is one), walk them, and run in the same way.

On Friday, we had one class: Pairs Relay. Fewer people entered that evening. We simply split the 22/26" championship masters dogs into one ring and the rest of hte masters/p3 dogs into a second ring.

On Saturday, the four DAM individual events ran first, then Grand Prix round 1 and Team Relay ran in the afternoon.

On Sunday, Masters Standard and Gamblers ran in 2 rings and Steeplechase Round 1 in the third; in the afternoon, we ran the Grand Prix Round 2. Original plan was to split it into 2 rings by rotation groups, but we had so few qualifiers that it all just ran in the same ring.

Similar on Monday: Masters Snooker, Standard, and Jumpers first in rotation, then Steeplechase Round 2 in one ring.

Worked like a charm.

We had one other ring for starters and advanced classes that did NOT go in rotation with the masters/tournament classes. If you had dogs in starters or advanced, you could indeed have conflicts, and we made it clear that that ring had precedence because there were so many fewer dogs. But if you weren't in St or Adv, you never had conflicts all weekend, never!

Very nice, much more relaxing than, say, a couple of my experiences before rotation groups: At USDAA Nationals in 2000 or 2001, where I had nothing for 5 hours, then ran my two dogs in 4 different rings virtually simultaneously (so lots of working out conflicts and trying to be there), then had nothing again for 2 hours. And again at one of our first four-ring trials, where I had a starters dog and masters dog and once again ended up in 4 rings almost simultaneously, with Masters Snooker where I couldn't move my position much and starters where the class was so small, etc. I exclaimed as I ran from ring to ring, "Four rings, no waiting!"

Our superuber secretary has also developed a database application through many years of experience that helps schedule all the classes, prints the reports, and so on, and for a few years now has also done all the calculations for Team and Steeplechase. Very helpful.

So: Regionals. How do we decide what events to offer? Have to offer the three Tournament events: Team (which is 5 classes), Steeplechase (2 rounds), and Grand Prix (2 rounds). We also want to offer enough of the regular classes to make it worth people's time to come. But not so many as to make the days brain-numbingly long. We've learned the hard way to not try to cram in too many classes.

And that's about it!