Happy New Dog Year

SUMMARY: From Taj MuttHall denizens.

Costumes Past

SUMMARY: Some old photos for Halloween season -- Taj MuttHall and other agility doers

Human Mom as gunfighter, 1979

Human Mom as Leia, 1981

Human Mom as trapper (friend as ZZ Top), 1984

Ben and Sparkle, 2015

Mardee and Dorris, 2011

Jeanne, 2007

Ellen Pirate, 1964 -- made the mask and vest myself, could you guess? The "peg leg" is natural.

Human Mom as an old woman (with friends), 1980

Tika and Jake, 2004

Belly Dancer, different party, 1984

Maura (straight from Hogwarts), Rookie, and Juno , 2011

 Zigi, Scott, and...., two pairs of electronic timers, 2007

Long Rem Silver 2002

Human Mom, 2007

Tracey, USDAA nationals 2008

Human Mom, 2013

Human Mom, 1995 (southern belle)

Deanna as Vergina Schadenfreude disciple, 2014

Human Mom, "red/blue", circa 1990

Boost

Tika and Boost, 2008






Human Mom as lumberjack, 1983. Dancing, prancing lumberjack?

Independence Weekend USDAA - Friday

SUMMARY: Team day, in which we don't completely suck.

Well, Boost actually had a decent day:

• Clean and mostly really nice Standard run (one bobble my fault where I forgot a front cross, one dogwalk contact where she stopped halfway through the yellow and I had to keep prompting her to get her to the end, wasting time but no faults). Those time-wasters kept us from Qing, but still a decent score in DAM team terms.
• Got most of the way through the snooker except the last obstacle, enough for a Q; we did four reds in the opening with an Aframe and three weaves, and she didn't get the entry on two of those weaves. In the closing, ran past the entry to the weaves at #7 on a U-turn, not sure what that was about. But I'll definitely take the Q!
• Gamblers opening lovely but too much wasted time in closing to get points; turned wrong way out of tunnel as whistle blew, came too far out of a tunnel in the middle, and turned back to me as she approached the last jump, and that's when the whistle blew, darn.
• Jumpers we didn't E (2 bars and a refusal on a rear X before the broad jump, which didn't surprise me).
• Relay 2 bars--out of 11 obstacles! And her teammate had already knocked a bar that was two of those obstacles, so, wow. But she was already tired and a little sore, doesn't bode well for the rest of the weekend. I could tell by the way she stood up before the last two of our five runs for the day, not good, and this is new.

Teammates, if I remember correctly, one Eed in Jumpers, the other Eed in relay, two had not good snooker scores,  one like us had good gamble opening pts but didn't get the gamble points, so we were a longggggg way below the leading teams, who did *not* E in relay, so no team Q. Ah, well, but they were good people to run with.

Chris (Human Mom of the late great Kelpie Tika) and puppyyyyyyyy!

Gave Boost a piece of rimadyl and will give her a little massage to night and see how she is in the morning. She had no problem at all running after a frisbee at the end of the day, so even if she is stiff, it seems to evaporate quickly.  Will have to watch her carefully the next two days to decide whether to scratch some runs.

Uncle Agility Sam Wants YOU

Tika had no runs today. Got her out a few times to do some practice tricks and hang out with me. Two runs for her each of the next 2 days.

Another good old agility dog, Millie!

Oh, and what a pleasure for it to be chilly and me wanting to wear a fleece all day. The last week here has been miserably hot, over 100 F (37.8 C), and humid, not dry. After all that, actually today it felt weird not to be sweating constantly. That's the benefit of this agility site, Manzanita Park in Prunedale, out near the coast so it seldom gets all that warm.

From last Saturday--self-portrait with thermometer--

So, although things felt fairly good for today, some of it is because it's OK to have bars and refusals in team, probably won't disqualify you or hurt your team. The rest of the weekend, though, normal rules are in play. I at least felt good today--knees haven't bothered me, sore foot is still sore but I'm not noticing it much, back didn't even bother me much (except for when I first got up this morning and walked bent forward at the waist until it eased up a bit). Didn't feel like I was flying on course, but didn't feel draggy, either.

A typical agility judge (Eric Quirouet) and his fans.
Judge Carol Voelker makes a quick exit stage left but not quick enough, ha!
Note people wearing sweatshirts. Chilly!

Guess I should go have some dinner and get psyched up for tomorrow.

I Thought It Was A Costume Ball

SUMMARY: Nearly Wordless Thursday--costume contest at our CPE trial last weekend.

Photos are here.