Scared Border Collie Bingo

SUMMARY: A treat from Team Small Dog

I laughed out loud at this Border Collie Bingo, now that Team Small Dog includes an actual border collie. I've had so many discussions with people about their over-sensitive BCs! I guess this is the dark side to their amazing ability to notice and respond to the slightest change in a sheep's path or an agility human's body language. So they respond to the slightest change in anything, or the slightest unfamiliar thing.

And oh Boost had SO many things that she had to bark at in a scared way when she was younger. The rock in the yard that I moved earlier, that I moved earlier and she watched me move it. The chair in the yard that I moved earlier while she was there. The table in the yard that I moved earlier while she was there. The big black garbage bag of leaves whose edges were blowing in the wind. A branch blowing in the wind. Plastic bag in a shrub. Plastic owl on the shed! Yes! Anything driving by and hitting a pothole. Pet stores. Dead things in vendor stalls (e.g., "rawhide" is a thinly disguised dead thing). Remote control car in the street. Footballs not being caught and hitting the ground. The cartoon drawing of a dog above a door!

And as you likely know, she saved up until she was 3 or 4 to become scared of Evil Floors.

Team Small Dog sez -- "Play along with me. Border collie bingo! Click-n-print version over here!"

Treasures!

SUMMARY: Photos from the weekend.

Many people bring cakes when their dogs finish a major title. I thought that this was a great idea for Gypsy's CPE championship (C-ATCH), earned at WAG with a Jackpot run.

Might have to steal that idea if there's time for me to get them this week-- oh, wow, $130 for a 5-lb bag, plus $25 shipping and $20 expedited delivery to get them by next weekend. Maybe not. But if I loved my friends enough to pay $35/pound for M&Ms, here's what they'd have looked like:

Guess my friends will have to satisfy themselves with looking at photos of our ribbons. Here are ours, minus our final Q and placements from the last run of the weekend. And the only photos of the Merle Girls from the weekend--Backsides of Dogs.

WAG had kind of a fun game. They handed out bingo cards to everyone, and you could use your run times (the numbers before and after the decimal point) to fill out the card. Plus they periodically pulled 2 more free numbers. Here's Tika's sheet--she got a lock on 32 and 33 right away, but we couldn't get 5 in a row.

We had to wait until the last dog had died, so to speak, Sunday evening, when everyone crowded around the bingo machine as they pulled more numbers until all the prizes had been awarded. I can't show you Boost's card; I had to turn it in because we won! A cool, custom-embroidered (purple and black) blanket.

Also Boost did well in the worker raffle again, picking up a Cold Stone Creamery gift card, a bag of dried fruit, and a $15 cert to come back to WAG sometime. She might not be good on course, but she's sure good at raffles and paper games.

I stopped on the way out of WAG's driveway to capture their signs. Fritz was Susan's first agility dog, a big sheltie, who could do no wrong and earned thousands of championships in several venues. They were competing back when Remington and Jake and I were still running. He died of cancer last year, but what a great life he led. The sign with his name is the 3rd one they've put up. The first two were stolen--jerks!--and they've put it up more securely each time. This last time, a lot of us at one trial did a secret gathering of funds and presented it to Susan and Dave to replace the sign once again. Hopefully it won't go away again.

Out on the freeway, a most glorious sunset held sway. I drove frantically looking for a place to get off the freeway and then to stop with a clear view of the sky and hopefuly something interesting in the foreground. Well, nothing interesting in the foreground and by the time I got here, the sunset was way past its peak. But still pretty impressive down near the horizon.

Thus the weekend faded to black.