Monday Morning Blues

SUMMARY: Just one of those mornings.

Also sing today's song to the tune of Darling Clementine, because I created my own earworm yesterday and it won't go away.

Oh my darling
grown-up doggie
you're no longer just a pup
Yet you peed
upon my carpet.
In what barn did you grow up?

When I got up this morning and put my feet on the floor, yup, a wet spot. Don't know who did it or when or why, and no one's talkin'. I don't remember anyone being restless or trying to get my attention during the night, and I'm usually (sometimes too much) aware of their movements and when they thud-jump off the bed. No recollection at all.

Dang.

Soooo I cleaned as best I could with my Bissell Spot Lifter using just water, then applied generous doses of Nature's Miracle.  Spot Lifter and Nature's Miracle--two products that a dog owner with carpets really can't live without! Wish I'd known about them 30 years ago instead of only 10.

But the motor on the Spot Lifter is going south. I ran it down completely several times and then recharged, but it didn't help.  This is my second one; the first one  just wouldn't run one day. So looks to me like their lifespan is around 5 years. But it's so amazingly useful in my life that I'll keep shelling out the $50 every 5 years. Heck, that's not much more than entering Grand Prix and Steeplechase at any one USDAA trial.

And now, for a gratuitous photo because I can.

Mat Matters

SUMMARY: Goodbye to some old plastic friends, hello to the newest member.

Way way back in the ages dark, the first couple of years I did agility, my dogs just lay on the grass in an x-pen or in their crates on the grass. After a rainy trial or two, though, and a really dusty crating area after that, I finally saw the value in having one of those plastic rug-mats that everyone seems to have.

I bought the first one that looked vaguely purple.

In fact, it's red and blue, which is obvious up close, and the pattern is kind of hokey, it was only 6x8, but that was a good size for a couple of crates with no canopy, it looked vaguely purple and, well, it was available, which is always a key factor in my shopping decisions.

I sometimes saw people throwing away their decrepit mats, and I vowed that I'd always take good care of mine, fold it carefully, pack it carefully, and it would last forever. Well, that hokey ugly first mat has held up reasonably well for being, now, about 14 years old, but it is in fact disintegrating--little pieces falling off every time I open it; binding coming off and the edge raveling; parts are badly faded so doesn't even pretend to look purple any more; and, let's face it, the pattern is still stupid.

It folded up into a long bundle that was just thin enough to shove between the dog's crate and the side of the van if I worked at it, so it mostly stayed in the car for several years.

But the main reason it didn't die completely a long time ago is because about about a year after buying that mat, I found this one, which is so TOTALLY my colors and my kind of pattern:

Still only 6x8, but this one folded up into this handy-dandy size that sat in the window well next to the dog's crate, so no struggling to get it in place.

I kept using the original one, trying to save the newer one for later, but when I finally got a 10x10 canopy, I started using BOTH mats, overlapping, to try to fill more of the 10x10 area. Eventually I gave up on that idea--too much work, too many edges to trip over, so I've used just the teal/purple one most of the last many years, and it really is disintegrating now, broken along most of its seams and folds and held together by faith.

I knew its time was coming, so a couple of years back, I bought this one. I MEANT to get a full-sized one to match the canopy size, but, once again, this was what was easily available, and although a large purple/white checkerboard wasn't my first choice for a pattern,  at least it wasn't butt-ugly and it was genuinely purple, even though it was STILL barely more than 6x8. And, yeh, it was available. BUT about the 3rd or 4th time I used it, the whole edge started to unravel. That was disappointing.

It kept unraveling because I was too lazy to duct-tape it, so after a while I folded it up into its square and left it in the garage and continued using my deteriorating teal/purple one.

Finally, this weekend when packing my dearly beloved teal/purple mat, I ceased to think "the time is coming" and decided "the time is here", so I left it at home and reactivated the purple/white checkerboard, placing the frayed edge under the crates, and decided that eventually, soon, I'd just need to make the effort to really find a mat that fit all my needs.

On Saturday, while killing time between runs (see what happens when I'm not full-time at the score table?) I decided to browse quickly through the vendors, probably not buying anything because, after all, I have everything. And then this caught my eye.

It's really purple, matches my purple/black/teal crates, it has a subtle and not stupid pattern, it's very sturdy--even has grommets along the sides for staking down--and FINALLY it's a full 9x9! So, yep, it's now mine.

It's also HUGE compared to the others. No sticking it alongside the crates; it's going to take up obvious space in MUTT MVR. The price we pay for a well-furnished agility home away from home.

The two oldest ones are now headed for the landfill. I hate tossing things if there's a chance they can be reused or recycled in some way, but I haven't come up with anywhere for them to go, so out they go. So long, and thanks for all the memories.

Haven't decided yet about the purple and white one--might duct-tape that edge after all and use it for indoor trials where a smaller mat is more practical--although that also usually means dust and dirt, and all those large white squares--gah. Can decide later. But for now--my new Mat and I are looking forward to our next trial and his very first use with the Taj MuttHall clan.

Another Device Dog Owners Shouldn't Be Without

SUMMARY: The Tick Key!

Bummer that I never got around to setting up my web site so that, when someone clicks through from Taj MuttHall to buy something, I get 3 cents for it, because you will all want this, I guarantee it.

I am completely sold. No more tweezers, pluckers, grabbers for me. This has worked amazingly well. An agility friend--Jersey and Sheila's Human Mom--showed it to me when we were out hiking, and I was mildly skeptical about the gimmick factor, but it worked nicely for her, so I ordered one (purple, of course) and have had it since mid-winter.

O.M.G! It works so well, on my dogs. Pure genius! The big seller today is that, after my romp in the creek bed on saturday, it never occurred to me to check myself for ticks. So there I was at work, scratched at my scalp, and there was a daggummed tick. I could barely see it in the mirror, it was far enough around my skull. Fortunately the tick key was in the car. I was able to get it under the tick and remove the little bloodsucker with almost no effort at all, and no pinching or squeezing as it comes off (which you're supposed to avoid so that you don't squish any disease into your dog, which is difficult to avoid at times).

I am SO SOLD on this thing. Before, when ticks have liked my hair, it's been off to the doctor's office or find a nearby assistant with some experience at pulling ticks off. This replaces all that.

Well worth the $7 or whatever they charge.

Here's their web site: http://www.tickkey.com/; some pet stores carry it, too.

They even have a youtube video on how to use it, if you're not too squeamish to see ticks close up.

Part 2 of Packing for an Agility Weekend, Then and Now

SUMMARY: Second in a series comparing my 1996 gear to my 2010 gear, and transitions between.

[Previous parts: Part 1, transportation and others.]

Shade:

• Then--Phase 1, X-pen progression:
  
  
  • A: A couple of old beach towels (one yellow, one blue) draped over the x-pen. 
  • B: In a moment of inspiration, I bought a couple of small sun umbrellas (deep green, not really teal) designed for clipping to a chair, which I clipped to the x-pen and moved around as the sun moved during the day. The clips were flimsy and broke pretty quickly, and it was challenging to find a way to clip the very thin, round, smooth metal handle to the x-pen.
  • C: I bought yard and yards of blue/purple flowery fabric with which I was going to sew an x-pen cover and matching storage bags. I cut one piece that was long enough to go across the top of the xpen and down 2 sides (but it's only 32" wide, so it doesn't come close to covering everything).
• Then--Phase 2, Crate progression:
  
  
  • A: When the first dog moved into a crate (too expensive to buy 2 at once, plus I already had an x-pen for the 2nd dog), I finally broke down and bought a small piece of that silvery metallic-looking sun fabric, maybe 3'x5', just big enough for one crate.
  • B: When both dogs moved into crates, I bought a large beach umbrella (purple & blue) at Costco. Despite the pointed screw end, it would NOT go into the typical ground at agility trials, and it was really hard to fasten it to the crates to keep it upright. AND it also needed constant moving to chase shade from the sun, despite clipping the beach towels and/or shade fabric to it. It still rotated annoyingly at all the wrong times. 
  • C: Eventually I broke down and bought a sturdy metal umbrella/cup holder (purple) that pushes into the ground so I could tie the umbrella to the stand. It mostly worked. When I discovered loop bungies, those worked much better at keeping the umbrella in place. But there never was really enough shade for me AND the dogs, even though...
  • D: I bought (on sale) two lovely purple beach towels that are specifically for agility shade or for covering my chair on muddy days. 
  • E: But still--And my friends had canopies!
• Now--Canopy progression:
  
  
  • A: When I got MUTT MVR (late 2001), I finally bought myself a huge, sturdy, 10x10 canopy at Costco (white--custom purple would've been WAYYY expensive). It is frigging heavy, but it has outlasted many windstorms and heavy rain. The canopy's seams are deteriorating now, though, and whenever I'm going somewhere where I think I can crate out of the car or in existing shade, I really try not to take that huge, heavy thang with me. But it'll be with me this weekend! (And it has proved to be useful for many nondog outside activities as well.) 
  • B: Shortly therafter, I bought a full 5'(?)x10' silvery shade fabic. (Had always seemed too expensive when a cheap old sheet or towels would work. But it's really the right tool for the job.
  • C: At the CPE nationals in 2005 (?), each dog got one (I think 4x6) silvery shade fabric as a check-in gift. I now use all of those shade fabrics regularly.
  • D: Oh-- I still carry around the piece of blue/purple flowery fabric (the rest of the bolt is still sitting in my garage--anyone want it?), AND the purple beach towels, which have come in handy for SO many things.      Oh, yeah, and those old green chair umbrellas, with or without clips, are also still in my garage because they'll be useful SOMEday.

Crate covers:

• Then--As above, for shade or to give dog privacy from neighboring dogs.
• Now--If Boost can see those fun, fast dogs running and playing, she hits the sides of the crate repeatedly, knocking over her water and moving the crate halfway across the field (and/or tipping it over). So I bought a purpley/tealy/bluey flowered sheet at a garage sale for maybe $1 that's good for all kinds of things, although mostly for tossing over Boost's crate to shield her view.

Mat for ground:

• Then--
  
  
  • I used to laugh at dog people with their plastic carpets with designs like oriental carpets (except often with doggy patterns): You've got to be kidding! What's wrong with grass? ...er, burr clover?... ...er... dust? OK, OK, I'll toss down a beach towel on the...er, sopping wet grass? ...er...mud? ...er, rain? Oh, OK, I get it.
  • So I grudgingly paid out the bucks for a 6x8 mat (10x10 too expensive) woven in blue and red (so at a distance it looks purple, best I could find at that time) with these cutesy dog images on it. I sneered at people with their falling-apart mats--edging dangling off, broken at the folds, just totally scuzzy-looking, because *I* would take tender care of My Precious and it would last forever. 
  • A couple of years later, I found a teal and purple striped mat! (6x8, no 10x10 in sight) and bought it because I liked the colors. Meanwhile, my original mat was getting a little ratty--every fold and unfold made it worse and worse. They're just cheap plastic mats, really. But I kept using it because it was functional and hadn't died completely.
  • A couple of years after that, I found a purple and white one with a paw print pattern (again I think 6x8).
  • For a long time, I used TWO or ALL THREE mats, trying to cover the entire ground under my 10x10 canopy.
• Now--The original mat--edging dangling off, broken at the folds, just totally scuzzy-looking--was still in MUTT MVR until about a year ago, when I pulled it out and just left it in the garage. It's not bad enough to toss, but it's not my favorite, and I wasn't using it any more. My newest purple/white one deteriorated faster than either of my first two mats, plus  it's really thick and luxurious (read: pain to pack), so it stays in the garage, unused. Now it's just my one little teal/purple striped mat. (Whose edging is starting to come off and folds starting to break.)  If I could ever find a 10x10 one of those, I'd buy it. (Once found a vendor who had one but had promised it to someone else and she didn't get another one, sigh.)

Part 1 of Packing for an Agility Weekend, Then and Now

SUMMARY: First in a series comparing my 1996 gear to my 2010 gear, and transitions between.

I got to thinking about all the Dog Stuff that I now own, carry around with me without thinking about it, and/or load into the car routinely, that back in 1995 I'd never thought about that, in 1996 when I attended my first competitions, looked entirely different from what it looks like now.

My list of topics is so long, I think I'll break it into several posts over the next few days. This is Part 1. This could be a continuing series as I think of things I've got now but didn't then, had then but don't know, or tried in between and abandoned.

Dogs:

• Then--Just one, Remington, my pet dog who made a decent agility dog some of the time.
• Now--Two dogs (Tika and Boost), both obtained specifically with agility in mind.

Vehicle:

• Then--My grown-up luxury sedan, my four-door Acura Legend. I got an amazing amount of stuff into it, but when I decided I wanted a 3rd dog and a canopy, it was right out.
• Now--Minivan, MUTT MVR. I bought it for only one reason: Hauling dogs and their gear around.

Dogs in vehicle:

• Then--Rem sat in the front seat and watched the world go by. After a year or so of that, I bought seatbelt harnesses at the SPCA. They proved to be pretty flimsy, in retrospect. When I read friend Holly's post on good harnesses, I bought two sturdy ones (for Rem and Jake at that time).
• Now--When I got my 3rd dog (Tika) and my minivan, she began riding in a crate right away. Jake and Rem continued using their harnesses until they passed away. Boost and Tika now both have their own crates strapped into MUTT MVR.

Hauling stuff to and from the vehicle:

• Then--We had a red metal dolly that could convert from a furniture-moving upright to a 4-wheel thingie. Tiny wheels, tiny dolly, very heavy and very difficult to move across, say, gravel or grass. I scoped out what was available over several years.I love the huge metal carts in brilliant powder-coated colors with huge wheels and folding handle, but they are huge and I don't have a lot of room, plus they are expensive. The basic wire or tubular crate-sized carts that people pull don't work well with my problem back & shoulders and the wheels aren't the best over rough terrain.
• Now--I saw the light when a friend showed up with a light-weight folding dolly with an extra-deep shelf. That was what I wanted! But also expensive. I was delighted when, at a flea market one weekend, I found a guy selling his, nearly new, for practically nothing. (Looks something like this.) Have used this for several years now.
  

Where to put the dog at the trial:

• Then--I didn't own a crate and didn't think I wanted to. At my first seminar, I planned on just putting Rem in a chair like I did in class. But when I arrived--everyone else had a crate or an x-pen! Doh! I think the instructor loaned me an x-pen and noted that my leash/chair plan wouldn't work at a trial. So I went out and bought a huge x-pen "so he could move around." It was really heavy and space-consuming in my Legend.
• Now--Each dog has her own zippered soft crate (purple, black, and teal). Each cost considerably more than the x-pen, but combined they are so much lighter and so much easier to store and move around, and the dogs are generally happier than they are in the x-pen. (Read how my dog converted me to crate use.)

Clips and bungies:

• Then--Oh, yeah, we had the usual pile of random long bungies in a box in the garage. After a couple of trials, I started taking the box with me for the trial, futzing with long bungies, then putting the box away afterwards.  I saw that people had metal clips that they used for various things, and we had a couple of old metal clips in the garage that I'd likewise borrow for the weekend.
• Now--I have a bag full of metal and plastic clips of various sizes (some even blue and purple) that I've bought through the years and stay exclusively with my dog stuff. Same thing when I discovered loop bungies: have a whole bunch of different lengths on a clip, and some straight bungies (purple) that I bought specifically to go with my dog stuff.

For dog gadget lovers

SUMMARY: A friend begins a series of "Essential Tools for Dog Lovers" on her blog.

An agility friend says "Hi, my name is Holly and I’m a dog-loving gadget-freak."

Read her intro to her gadget blog series here.

Read her first post in the series, which is on pooper-scoopers here. I had no idea that her favorite even existed!

(The comments may have useful info in them from other folks--like TMH myself!)

There is Some Joy in Muttville

SUMMARY: Sunday at the Bay Team trial.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 For some reason, people think I like purple

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

Day 3 at Haute TRACS

SUMMARY: Saturday

Another day of beautiful weather, another great night's sleep, two happy eager dogs--yowza all over again!

Tika: 5 Qs out of 5 runs! Four 1sts and a 3rd.

Boost: Well. Hm. Can't possibly hope for actual Qs two days in a row, now, can we. Sigh.

New Stuff

Boost's wonderful Turlock friends presented her with a new toy all her own for finally completing her MAD. She definitely liked the looks of Mr. Flying Fox.

Back around when I first started competing, I bought this black with colored accents slip lead and used it for going to the ring every run. Sometime after Jake joined me, I bought a solid purple one that was a bit longer but essentially the same thing, on the grounds that I now had two dogs so needed two leashes. Well, of course, I almost never needed to have them both at ringside at the same time, so almost never used the purple lead.

Around the time I started competing with Boost, the little leather slip thing that holds the slip loop tight against the neck broke off the black lead, so I started using the purple one instead. Well, sometime in Januaray or February this year, it vanished. So I went back to the black one. Well, for some reason the loop UNloops itself through the little metal ring fairly easily, but it's a bear and a half to get it to loop back through. So, with it falling apart and all, I decided it's time for a new leash.

Tika pulls so much so often that I thought maybe I'd try a martingale this time around instead of a slip lead.

No one had the round rope style ones at this show, but I kinda liked the blue leopard print ones (they had bright purple, too, but I preferred this). So I'm still hanging onto the old black one for emergency backup, but we started using the new one on Saturday. Boost and I play tug on the lead ALL the time, and she doesn't seem so sure about this one. Maybe because it's such soft, thin fabric compared to all the other leashes we own.

I've been keeping an eye out for new lattice-style balls, which are *my* favorite for playing toss and tug in the yard, and a vendor here had a couple of them. Another vendor had some cool smart-dog toys for them to figure out how to get treats out of them, and the Merle Girls have gotten so efficient at emptying their Buster Cubes that I thought I'd try some new ones.

There went my new-dog-stuff budget for the entire year.

Tika knew EXACTLY what the big round ball with holes in it was for; I could barely keep her out of the picture, she wanted to push it around to see whether food would fall out.

Steeplechase

Oh--note--tika is in PERFORMANCE level in everything--I noted that I didn't say that in the previous days' posts. I just know, so I assume everyone else does, too.

So, Steeplechase first thing in the morning.

Tika: Runs like the wind! Gets TWO Aframe contacts (although I hustle butt to be there to meet her on the way down) and, wow, we win round 1 without a backward glance! First of 10 dogs!

Boost: Very fast, knocked one bar, might STILL have qualified except that her human mom did a stupid thing--thought that the last jump was actually the next-to-the last jump, so didn't work it closely while trying to line up for what she thought was the final jump but wasn't, and Boost ran around the REAL last jump for wasted time. Crap! But it was RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER and she should've taken it! Crap.

Standard

Tika: Well, OK, our THIRD shot this weekend at that elusive 3rd Standard for her Perf MAD (PD3)--and, oh my, she is running beautifully, gets all her contacts--has a couple of very wide turns which means I'm getting info too her much to late about where we're going next--but she sails through it and Qs!!! TITLE! Woo hoo! And furthermore wins again! 1st of 9 dogs.

Boost: Popped out of the weaves, ran past a couple of jumps, once disastrously into an off course. JUST TAKE JUMPS IN FRONT OF YOU for crying out loud.

Gamblers

Tika: My notes say "Completely to plan!" (How often does THAT happen?) Does the gamble like we do it every day. Not only does she have high opening points, but she is the ONLY 22" dog out of 8 to Q on that course. Another 1st.

Boost: A lovely opening, only 1 point shy of highest opening points among 51 22" dogs, and then complete meltdown for the gamble, I can't even get her over the first jump! Usually that's not our problem in gamblers. Aughhh! Still, it's a hard enough gamble that lots of dogs miss it, so having high opening points puts us in 16th out of 51 dogs. No ribbons or anything, but better than a poke in the eye with a ring post.

Jumpers

Tika: I can't believe this dog! She OWNS the day! Another flawless run, another 1st place! I'm grinning ear to ear by now.

Boost: Well, despite my attempts to convince myself that we are now on a Jumpers Qing Streak, our streak ends at 1. Off course again.

Snooker

Doing three 7s in the opening required some tricky threading between obstacles. It'll be challenging to do it the first time, but I think manageable, and then very doable IMHO for the 2nd and 3rd times.

Tika: Well, hrm, what did I say about challenging the first time? I get her past a jump and a tunnel opening but the 3rd tunnel opening is too much for her and in she goes. So 2 points instead of 7. The rest is flawless but by taking the risk and not making it, we placed lower than others who didn't take the risk. We were aiming for 51 points, got 47, and lost to two dogs who got 50.  So a 3rd place, not a Super-Q, but at least it's still one teeny Top Ten point. Bummer to end that way, but it's really hard to argue with a USDAA day with 100% Qs and first places in four of them plus FINALLY her PD3 title!

 Boost: The opposite of Tika: Gets past the rough spot easily, but then meltdown trying to do weave poles resulting in several re-dos, and I forget to do a crucial rear cross for a huge time-wasting bobble, and we  run out of time on obstacle 4 in the closing, so again not even a regular Q.

End of day

And that's the end of day 4. Both dogs get to run around like crazy again in the evening, chasing the frisbee or Border Collies as the case may be, both before and after the Bay Team meeting, which was amazingly short (only an hour) and startlingly noncontroversial through careful management. Yeah, new Bay Team Prez!

The Curse of the Baskervilles

SUMMARY: In which Holmes follows a 12-hours-old trail and discovers the culprit.

Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up in the night to let Boost out, was seated at the breakfast table, staring at a large orange blot upon the doormat.

"Well, Watson, what do you make of it?"

"I think," said I, following as far as I could the methods of my companion, "that the doormat is soiled."

"Ah," said Holmes, "but in what manner?"

I knelt to better examine the offending stain, and the color and odor soon enlightened me. "It seems to be dog excrement, perhaps transferred from the sole of a shoe in passing."

"Good," said Holmes, pushing back his chair and standing, "though elementary. Pray tell, did you notice any additional soiling?"

Taken aback, I looked around me. Sure enough, another blot, perhaps a stride away from the first, on the kitchen floor. And another. And another.

"What further inferences may we draw?" asked Holmes. He began to pace slowly and methodically, following the trail of blots into the hallway. I hurried so as not to be left behind.

"Perhaps," said I, "someone stepped in the offending substance in the yard, failed to notice it, and trailed it into the house?"

"Ah, yes, the leavings of the Hound of the Baskervilles," said Holmes. He said no more as he followed the trail down the stairs to the laundering room, back up to the front hall, up the marked main stairs to the carpet on the upstairs landing, into the master bedroom, across the carpet to the far closet, back and into the lavatory, back out across the carpet, and to the small closet, where the stains ended at a large pile of shoes.

"The thing takes shape, Watson. Might I ask you to hand me that brown shoe, and we will conclude this matter anon."

I did so with alacrity, and sure enough, a large wad of poo remained embedded in the arch of the shoe. The mystery remains, however, how the wearer of the shoe walked all that way the prior evening without smelling or feeling or seeing the soft gooey stuff underfoot.

All we can say is, thank goodness for the dog owner's best friends, the dust buster and the spot lifter. And there went half an hour of the morning, cleaning. What a curse.

Haute TRACS Is Almost Done

SUMMARY: Some success. Some failure. Some high-tech fun. Some nifty colors.

Here's a brief wrap-up, in which we determine whether it's possible for me to actually be brief after 3 days of agility. (It's hot. Hot hot hot almost like summer. 90ish degrees. I am glad to be home, not doing more agility. A friend said it was weird that I would do three days and not all 4. This from someone who thinks that 4 days of agility in a row is a Good Thing. They are all still there, being normal and very hot and tired. I am home and clean and coolish and well-rested and typing in my blog and, apparently, weird. Who wins?) It was largely a weekend of stupid handler tricks. Note to self: Need new brain. Details later maybe. I thought I'd maybe get a chance to cruise around and take lots of photos, especially to help Team Small Dog's discussion of what makes cool agility fashion, but nooo, I was busy either being behind on my score table work or running my dogs or being exhausted. I did, however, take the opportunity to photograph what really stylish agility handlers have: all agility gear in their favorite colors. Which is guess what for me. Thursday was All Team, All Day, All Rings. Five runs each dog. Combine your scores with your 2 partners' and then if you're within 25% of the average of the top 3 teams--or within the top 50%, whichever is larger (see, USDAA wants to compete with CPE on the complexity of scoring, since they don't want ANYONE to be better than them at anything)--well, then you Qualify For Nationals. Five runs for one Q. Maybe. OK, I have to be brief. OK. I can do this. Tika qualified. Boost didn't, capped by a memorable Jumpers run with about 4 bars down and half a dozen refusals, although the judge claimed it was only 30 faults. But wait! All is not lost! I won two, count-them-2, things in the worker's raffle on Thursday! Vanna, would you sniff at what we won? Thanks, Vanna! Yes, a free entry for another trial plus a big box of Guard-The-House Goodies! And a purple tug toy that I forgot to put into the picture! Friday I started the day by earning 15 faults with Tika in Masters Standard, 15 faults with Boost in Masters Standard, 15 faults with Tika in Grand Prix, and messing up so badly in Grand Prix with Boost that halfway through I finally asked the judge "which way is out?" and he pointed and we went. Fortunately Tom Kula was laughing inside, not steaming with irritation. At least I hope so because he seems like that kind of guy. 

 Then Tika got a Jumpers Q, which is kind of a miracle because (A) it's Jumpers and (B) we'd not run well so far, and Boost kept it to a mere 10 faults. Friday afternoon, Tika ran a nice pairs relay course but her partner had problems with the weaves and knocked a bar, so no Q; Boost's partner had a nice pairs relay course but Boost managed to earn 15 faults (this being my number for the weekend, I guess) in little figure 8 with only about 8 obstacles, so no Q. And I mishandled both through the Snooker course, resulting in a Q (but not Super) for Tika and none for Boost. 

 In the evening, I had a lovely potluck with some friends and also briefly engaged in a conversation with two of the judges, Tom Kula and Karen Gloor, about how USDAA really should move the Nationals around to other places in the country, and I'm tired of going (but I HAVE to because it's LOCAL, you know) and the people in Arizona are tired of doing all that work (while at the same time enjoying having it there--I am paraphrasing all of this), and how People Think That USDAA Nationals Should Be About USDAA Not A Hundred Other Agility Sports (which I am fairly confident that most of the U.S. bloggers in my list (to the right) have had something to say about although I cannot now find any of those specific posts--perhaps you'll tell me where yours are and I can link to them here). 

 Saturday continued with non-Qing Standard for both, but I got a boost with Boost's first-ever Masters Gamblers Q (woohoo!), although Tika was over time on the gamble due to (once again) stupid handler tricks. Steeplechase was depressing--with Boost, I forgot which loop I was on and did the second loop first, although she was clean to that point (although wasted time on a missed weave entry). And Tika knocked the next-to-the-last bar on a badly done rear cross (I was trying to push a bit more speed there). She'd have qualified (as usual) without that dang bar--but, jeeper creeper, her time was only .05 seconds under! That was almost 8 seconds slower than the fastest dog! Still, I'd have loved to get that Q, no matter how squeaky it was. 

 In Masters Snooker, I mishandled both dogs dramatically again, resulting in a Barely Q for Tika and a Barely Not Q for Boost. Sighhhhhhh-- But things picked up with our final run of the weekend, Jumpers, where Tika again ran clean and Boost ALMOST ran clean. With Tika's two Jumpers Qs for the weekend, that finished her ADCH-Bronze (like a triple ADCH). I am all, like, happy happy joy joy and Tika is all, like, where's the food? 

 And Boost's Jumpers run--no refusals, no spins, no runouts, and only one knocked bar, --was SUCH a joy to finally run a nice fast smooth run with her! She had a couple of hesitations that might have knocked a couple of seconds off our time, but even so her time was more than 3 seconds faster than Tika and barely 2 seconds under the fastest time, and there were some super dogs running this weekend. I am all, like, wow, bouncing around with delight and Boost is all, like, wow, Mom has energy to play way crazy tug of war after the run, not just before it! 

 So Tika came home with 5 Qs out of 11 possible and her ADCH-Bronze; Boost with 1 Q out of 11 possible which is one leg closer to her MAD. And furthermore, I got to take my first ride on a Segway! Which one of my high-tech friends (Apache's dad) was tootling around on all weekend. And which was really VERY cool and I would love to ride some more! And which I asked a complete stranger to take a photo of me on it, and I said, "let's move over here so I have just grass behind me, not cars," and he moved, too, so that the cars were still behind me. I would not make a very good even-more-amateur-photographer-than-me instructor. In other high-tech news, we demonstrate that even major canopy tears can be repaired--at least temporarily--with stylish matching duct tape, as indicated by my stylish popular agility noncompeting slip-on shoe. I don't even know what they call these. But hundreds of people wear them. Horse people too I think. Maybe even normal people, because Big 5 has sales on them all the time and there are about 270 different brands that are all basically exactly the same, just some fit and some don't. But wait! There's more, to distract us from sad disintegrating canopy covers! We won AGAIN in Saturday's raffle! Yes, it's another free entry, plus a Costco Samoyed-in-a-bag! No, just kidding, ha ha, I already have one dog with too much undercoat. Really it's a throw for the dogs themselves to sleep on, and we'll try it on our bed and see whether they like that better than they like curling up and shedding directly on my pillow. However, despite all the raffle-winning excitement, the dogs are ready for me to get the danged van loaded and head for home. I did not put them in the van. They loaded themselves and gave me impatient looks while I rearranged stylish blue and purple agility gear for informative and educational photography. And now, as this blog sinks slowly and not so briefly into the west, we leave you with one last gratuitous cute photo from this very moment: