On Judging and Tika

SUMMARY: Last weekend and through the week.

Friday May 18

Friday before my UKI judging trial, we did the Stairs From Heck as usual. Tika was even more reluctant than usual to go up the second time, but I insisted.

That afternoon, out in the yard, I thought I saw a little limp. Or, no, no limp. Or, maybe? No, definitely not. Wait--maybe?

She was perfectly happy running full tilt around the yard to play, so I didn't think more about it.

Saturday

Saturday morning, we weren't starting until 9, so it was actually lightish out when I hit the highway, and I felt as if I had actually gotten enough sleep.

On the freeway as I was crossing the central valley, I passed a string of old but beautifully restored cars obviously on their way somewhere together. They made me smile, but I regretted that I couldn't take any photos.
To my delight, when I got to Turlock and pulled off the freeway, there were a ton MORE old cars at the coffee shop next to the freeway exit, and I had plenty of time, so I stopped and took a bunch of photos. Will have to post them separately later. They just don't make cars like this any more!

At the trial site, Tika stretches fine, she runs fine in the open field, she walks fine, but when she moves up one pace (trot? I'm so bad at paces), there was a bit of a limp in the front. Didn't slow her down. She looked eager to do agility. We were signed up to compete in only 3 runs on Saturday. She had a great jumpers run--pretty fast, happy, jumping well, grabbing my feet at the end. But when I got her out of her crate for the next run an hour later or so, the limp had become very pronounced (although still only at that slightly faster pace, and she still stretched fine, etc.)

Even though Tika had been on rimadyl since friday, the limp at that one pace showed up periodically all weekend.

So I scratched her from her remaining two runs.

Dustin judged Saturday--this was only his 2nd time judging--and he's a natural. So calm and in control, good sense of humor. Good courses, too. He's a frequent chief course builder, so that helps, I'm sure.

Boost had a great jumpers run--and she actually Qed and won, compared to Tika, whose handler (yeh, me) walked the course wrong and neglected to do a serpentine between two jumps instead of a 280. Boost's Standard and Speed Stakes courses were messes of bars down, runouts, and the like, but boy her jumpers was gorgeous. I offered to trade it for a USDAA Jumpers Q. Sigh.

We were done on saturday at 1:30, then a bunch of us sat around at the picnic table in the shade and snacked on chips and fruit to avoid the heat (90s maybe) while some of the dogs played in the water. Tika kept a close eye on the snacks on the table; Boost kept a close eye on the other border collies. Bump, as usual, had a lot to say.

After that, we drove 45 minutes--halfway home!--to Ghirardelli chocolate's factory outlet for hot fundge sundaes. And that was lunch.

Sunday

On Sunday, I judged. A very busy day--there were so few competitors in each class--about 7 on average--that we couldn't keep up with the course building and tweaking in the other ring, so there was a lot of sitting around waiting for me to be available or the course to be built (with only about 20 people on site, half were working at any given time and half were running their dogs--a great group of people!). We started at 9 a.m.; I judged 10 classes (2 standards, speed stakes, jumpers, gamblers; 2 levels each); and we were done by 1:30.

I actually ran Boost on my novice speed stakes and my senior jumpers courses because they looked fun. We did OK but not perfect. I also got Tika out, because she kept voicing off when I'd take Boost out (which means she wants to go, too, which she doesn't do when she's not feeling well), so I ran her at 12" in a circle and off the course again, and she seemed happy about that--ran great again, but that pesky limping-when-at-a-trot was still there.

I had a good enough time judging; everyone was really nice. I think my courses were too easy--almost everyone qualified in almost everything, especially the gamblers, where only knocking bars or being out of position disqualified people. Oh--I should say, almost everyone who actually competed qualified--I'd guess that 5 out of 7 runs all weekend were NFC (Not For Competition) because people wanted to practice, so it was a like a fun match with the option to actually compete for points and ribbons.

Here you can see the ENTIRE crating set-up for everyone at the trial. REALLY small.

I learned that I shouldn't put all the high point gamble obstacles on one side of the field--too easy to get all those points! Although people appreciated it.

I loved watching some really good handlers with really fast dogs do amazing things on the course, from right up close.

I sometimes had trouble remembering what I was supposed to be doing--wasn't in the right place for a couple of contact calls, for example, but otherwise I was there. Because the rounds were so short, I'd just get into the swing of where I was supposed to be and how to get there, and it would be over.

I'm not sure that I'm cut out for standing in the sun all day and judging. I did slather on the sun lotion and did not get burned. I wore my street shoes at first, thinking, what the heck, I'm not doing that much walking, right? Wrong! Blisters on both toes by the time I realized that my feet were uncomfortable, so switched into my agility shoes and my feet were happier.

It was a nice enough, pleasant day--much less stressful than competing, that's for sure!--but I also didn't come out of it thinking, oh YEAH, I LOVE judging! Especially not with the hours of course design work ahead of time. I'm signed up to judge again in August at another UKI. Will see how I feel after that.

Monday and the rest of this week

So, come Monday, I didn't do the stairs from heck because I didn't want to go for along walk without the dogs, and I wanted Tika to rest some. The way it worked out was--we didn't do ANYthing ALL WEEK, didn't do the stairs even once, and only one short walk. But playing in the yard, yes. And Tika was fine fine fine. Until we got to class Thursday evening, where for jollies I put her over two 12" jumps, and she moved slowly, knocked both the bars, and came up short with a yelp. Remained hunched over, circling on her leash, for the whole evening. Yelped periodically when something would happen.

Does this dog look sore to you? Other than that the wind keeps blowing the door shut on her?

Mostly her circling kept wrapping her leash around the stake to which she was attached, but I watched from afar with disbelief at one point as she circled Boost, neatly wrapping her leash around three of boost's ankles, pullling it tight, and knocking Boost over onto her side--no rodeo cowboy roped a calf more neatly than that! But as I ran over, both dogs started to panic and Tika yelped some more, so after that she went back into her crate in the car.

Gave her a rimadyl before we left the site, and 20 minutes later at home, no hunching over or anything. But she remains in a want-to-run, want-to-play-tug, no apparent problems mode, and then briefly a little limp, briefly a yelp and then she's fine again.

Trying to find one of the chiros who might be able to give her a work-over before we compete this coming weekend.

Ratz ratz ratz.

Gratuitous dog photos

Paula (Dustin's dog)

Dig (Bump's "sister")

Booster!

Fitness for Agility

SUMMARY: How we're all doing, and preparing for the UKI judging weekend.

I'm gone this weekend to the UKI trial in Turlock. Judging on Sunday (but I also get to run my dogs on a couple of my courses to try them out--Laura says that the judges in England do that all the time).

Competing a little on Saturday mainly to support the club and my fellow Bay Teamer Dustin who is also a newish judge. So I'll "judge" him while he runs his dogs on his courses and he'll return the favor on Sunday. (We can't compete on our own courses, but even Not For Competition runs must have a judge on the field.)

Wednesday on the Stairs From Heck (some days they feel much worse and are obviously From Hell), the second time up I did them in close to 3 minutes, give or take a few seconds. I think I did them more slowly than the first time up. Wish I'd timed them the first week I was doing them to see whether there's been an improvement. Off to do my Friday attack shortly.

Last night in class, Boost could NOT get a weave pole entrance approaching with the slightest turn to the left--ALWAYS skipped the first pole. Jeeeeeezzzzz! Before class, I was just doing a little warm-up and she couldn't get it, so I softened the angle, softened, softened, softened--and as soon as it was straight on, fine, but one step to my left and she skipped the first pole again. This flashes me back to wayyyy back when i first couldn't figure out why so often she couldn't make her weave entries and other times she got even really hard ones--and realized in another flash of insight that it was always the approach to the left. The approach that's supposed to be easier because the dog can wrap around the first pole. Nope, couldn't do it in practice, couldn't do that entry in class, either.

Back to square 2 again.

Tika looked fine, eager to go. She sure does loaf around the house more these days--although, must say, when the leash comes out for a W-A-L-K, she still catches some air leaping straight up in the hallway for joy.

This weekend I'm hoping we'll be done by, maybe, noon both days. Wouldn't that be a treat! And looking forward to the experience of judging. Have to remember some differences from other venues:

• In Gamblers, teeters are 3 pts, Aframes are 4 pts, and only the dogwalk and 12 weaves are 5.
• In Snooker, there can be 4 reds but dogs may *attempt* only 3 of them.
• No up contacts judged.
• In Gamblers and Snooker, you MUST stop the clock or you lose all your points!
• In Gamblers, whether there is a "no loitering" rule is at the judge's discretion!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Bits N Pieces

SUMMARY: Stairs from Heck, Agility training, judging, deaf dogs or not, A Day prep, plus bonus photos.

Today's stairs from heck:

Added the 59 steps that are in a separate flight 2 blocks away. Also did the whole normal plan of 2 miles including 2 ascents of the 129+94 steps flight, for a total today of 505 steps.

Some days my legs get tired first; some days, my lungs. Today I was completely out of breath after the 59 plus 2 blocks plus 129 and had to take a breather before the last 94. The second time around, I did fine the entire way up the 129+94. Odd.

This is starting the 4th week of my goal to do this three times a week. Yay me!

Deaf dogs:

One thing about Deaf Tika is not hearing the pretzel bag crinkle. Today, she heard it from about 15 feet away, because she lifted her head and looked over her shoulder at me, but apparently also didn't hear it clearly enough because she then put her head back down.

Agility training:

The only little bit of training I've been doing with Boost is more to raise the value of taking jumps. So, when playing in the yard, I make her take jumps to chase the toy instead of choosing her own path. One interesting difference between Tika and Boost: If Tika turns suddenly and there's a jump abruptly in front of her, she takes it. Boost goes around it.

Judging:

Well, this is it coming up this weekend: My first-ever judging assignment, and it's a UKI event, of which I've only ever run in one. I have read up on the rules (will have to revisit them again, as there are differences from USDAA and from CPE), have designed my courses and they've been approved, have my hotel reservation-- about as ready as I'm going to be.

I said OK mostly because it's a small, friendly trial in which I can get my judging feet gently wet. And I'm judging only Sunday; another new local judge is doing Saturday. Could be interesting. I'll be judging 10 classes for a total of--73 runs! Like I said, small trial.

Photos--A Day prep:

I've been thinking about all the different photos I *could* take to contribute. Have been preparing for some so I don't have to take a lot of time tomorrow to take them. I emailed the site about the issues I mentioned the other day, and they responded quickly--also said that at the moment they've disabled editing one's profile in preparation for tomorrow's big uploading frenzy, at which point we WILL be able to edit our profile again. Huh. Well, we'll see what happens.

Bonus photos:

The photography club I joined last year has a contest once a month; you can enter in four different categories for a total of 3 photos. I don't enter every month, but here's what I've picked for this month. (I've previously posted versions of these, I believe.)

In "General B" (photography as an art form for the less experienced photographer), two photos; in "Nature" (the natural world, telling a story more important than photo quality, one photo. I don't have great hopes--the photos that people enter are really spectacular.  I spent well over an hour each on each of these photos doing gross and/or subtle edits, and I'm still not entirely satisfied. And one can hardly tell, after comparing to the originals! Oh, well, I really needed another addictive, time-consuming hobby.

"Mystical Pathway"

"After the Rose Is Gone":

"Brown Pelican Fishing"

Judgement Day Is Coming

SUMMARY: My first date.

Looks like I'll probably be judging one day at a UKI trial in August. Designing courses and everything. So those 4 days of judging clinic won't entirely go to waste, although I'm sure USDAA hoped I'd judge USDAA events. Maybe I'll do that eventually, too. This was offered to me, it's fairly local, it's only one day, and what the heck.

Have been reading through the rulebook. Probably will want to do that again right before the trial.

Meanwhile I can practice calling out snooker numbers. One! Seven! One! Seven! Tweeeeeet! Like that. I'm very familiar with the tweeeeeeet part.

Sooooo What's Next?

SUMMARY: Two-month vacation from agility.

That's it! No more agility until January 23. That's 8 weekends plus four or five holidays (two at Thanksgiving, Christmas, one or two for New Year's, not sure yet). Of course a couple of those are taken up with family fun.

So, what should I be doing with my time? I'm excited! Or overwhelmed. Pick one or both.

• Walked gently for a mile yesterday and my knee was fine. Would like to do some hiking, with or without the dogs. Take it easy for another week or so, though, to be sure.
• Trim the back hedge! It's getting to be Sleeping Beauty Castle around here, waiting for the prince of hedge trimmers to break through. Hmm, maybe sleeping for 100 years would be good, too.
• Work on Boost's runout/refusals/bars/whatever issues.  [Hah. Like I always say I will. Two months! I can put it off for a little whillllllle...]
• Get the house organized! All those stacks of things that I've accrued in the "get rid of" piles are making things around here look worse, not better.
• Make sure all my financial notes are in order for tax time.
• Get up to date on sorting, labeling, posting, & distributing my backlog of photos. [Argh. The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.]
• Finish the agility ribbon photo project that's currently taking up my entire living room, which is supposed to be the one nice, uncluttered place in the house.
• Hey, maybe visit with some nonagility friends! I think I still have some around here somewhere. And even family!
• Go do things that aren't agility and are out of the ordinary. Maybe it's time for that Jelly Belly Factory Tour in Vacaville.
• (Oh--wait--and lose 20 pounds.  Down 8 so far. Keep the momentum!)

Oh, here's one thing I'll probably do: Go to a fun match the Saturday after Thanksgiving to practice being a judge on the field. Considering that the only time in my life I've actually done so was at the clinic in September.

Oh, which reminds me, the host offered to let me try my hand at a course design if I wanted to. Yikes! A course-design deadline already and I'm not even officially judging yet!  Better get on it pronto!

Here's Proof

SUMMARY: Judging letter arrives.

Just arrived from USDAA via snailmail: A letter congratulating me, a certificate showing that I can judge at the Starters or Advanced level with supervision (signed and dated Sept 27, BTW), and a W-9 form.

Meanwhile, Boost wonders why Human Mom is doing stupid things with the stupid flashy blinding device again instead of taking her and her ball out to the yard to play.

Thanks, USDAA! The clinic and test were a blast!

Here Comes The...Waffle

SUMMARY: Accepted as a USDAA judge.

In case you missed it buried in yesterday's post, I found out over the weekend that I'm now on USDAA's judges list. But wait--before you all rush out to sign me up to work (supervised) at your trials: I have no information of any kind about what I do and how and when. And I'm not ready yet to say yes.

It was a bit of a surprise. I was expecting a phone call or a letter, but noooo, it was just a friend who saw me on the list and figured that I didn't know.

I hadn't intended to become a judge (or I'd have followed through on this YEARS ago). Course design never interested me, which might be kind of odd for someone with a mathematical bent. *Running* courses interested me. I did discover, with the course design/judging clinic, that it was actually fun. I thought that I knew nothing at all about course design, but apparently I've picked up a lot just from having run so dang many courses through the years^{note 1}.

I'm not a person who thrives on meeting new folks in a big party atmosphere, but I do like meeting people in a calm environment where everyone basically knows what they're doing. Which, yes, really does describe dog agility. I've just never found there to be a lot of drama in agility. There might be some here and there, but for the most part, not.

I'm pretty comfortable with the rules and the environment. It's an atmosphere in which I feel confident of what I'm doing (except when running Boost, say).

But it remains that the main reason I do agility is for something to do with my dogs, not because I needed something else to do.

And it also remains that I've been gradually cutting way back on agility^{note 2} so that I could have more weekends to do all those other things that I used to like doing or that I need to do.

So how much do I really want to be a judge? I'm waffling. Have to really decide before I call USDAA to say, um, could I get, like, some actual information? And before some club contacts me to see whether I'd be willing to come judge for them.

I think I'd like doing it, but really, maybe only a couple of times a year. (I'll bet lots of judges are laughing now.) But will that make me a competent or useful judge?

Yet, in the back of my mind is the philosophical question: Will my lifetime agility experience ever be truly complete if I don't do at least some judging? Hmmm.

---

^{note 1}How many courses, exactly? The database wonk gets all excited--I think I could figure out a report in my database that would calculate that for me, but it would be complicated. So I'm going with an educated guess. I have run 3644 runs in my competition career (all venues). But of course many are duplicates (running 2 dogs). Let's say maybe 2000 different courses?

^{note 2}From a high of 23 trials in 2003 gradually down to 13 this year. I'm proud of myself!