Stuff I've Done In the Last Month-ish

SUMMARY: Your choice: Wordless Wednesday OR Caption Wednesday (hover over image)

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

Puppy Environments for Fun and Learning

SUMMARY: I love how friends have set up their puppy enclosures.

If you want your litter of puppies to grow up being unafraid of different kinds of surfaces, things that make noise, things that wobble or movie under them of various stabilities, random objects of various sorts, what better thing to do than to fill their environment with that in mind?

One friend posted a video of her litter in their playground. So much fun to watch! (Puppies are about 4 weeks old here.)

Another posted a photo of the playground, ready to go as soon as soon as their little legs and eyes can get them moving. All kinds of mini teeters, tunnels, things that make noise, that roll, that can be climbed (a little bit), different surfaces, similar thing to what's in the video.  Lovely!

Then And Now

SUMMARY: In honor of National Puppy Day.

March 23 is National Puppy Day (at least per this organization). In honor of puppies, a look back.

Tika

Tika at 9 months from the rescue site and Tika today.


Over the years, I've thought that she has looked more and more wolflike and less and less Aussie-like. Now I can really see why--the ears no longer tip over nicely; her colors have faded and merged considerably through the years; her coat has become fuller.

Update April 12,2012: A friend who hadn't seen us in a couple of years stopped by today and said that Tika's coat looks so much paler than she remembers. Maybe that fading is a recent, age-related thing after all.

Boost

Boost at maybe 6 weeks (before I adopted her) and a year ago.

I loved the very light gray as a puppy, but she has darkened considerably, as her mother also did. When she was younger, her left ear was distinctly gray compared to her black right ear, but now it's not nearly so obvious.

Puppies are so darned cute! But you sure can't use them to judge what the dogs will look like when they're all growed up.

New Puppy Blog by Nancy Gyes

SUMMARY: Enjoy puppy-training thoughts with a real pro.

Our instructor, Nancy Gyes, has a brand-new Border Collie puppy and a brand-new blog about training a future agility champion to go along with it. (I helped with some of the technical set-up so I feel a tiny bit of ownership. ;-)).

Follow along and see how a new puppy's training is approached by someone who has been training other people and her own dogs (at least a couple dozen by now I'm guessing) in obedience, behavior, and particularly agility, for many years; who has been national agility champion in various venues with multiple dogs; who has been on the agility world team multiple times and won; who is now world-team coach; and who has many current and former students who are national and world champions and team members (at least three this year on world team).

No Thanks, No Puppy for Me

SUMMARY: In which I continue to realize that I am content with my current dog population and that my current dog population has some agility issues.

There's a brand new border collie puppy at Power Paws, and it visited class last night. It was very cute. It was happy to see everyone. It had delightful puppy breath. It wiggled and ran and fell over and got up and wiggled some more. As astonishingly freshly cute as every puppy ever made. I snuggled it.

And I had absolutely zero, not one, not a whit of, desire for a puppy of my own. Puppies are hard work. Training is hard work. Taking care of dogs is hard work, and expensive, too. I like having two dogs. Me and my twos, we be a happy little family unit.

Someone in class suggested that, when I said, "I have no interest in a puppy," that I was trying to convince myself. Funny that that's the reaction--does everyone else want a new puppy so badly that they can't imagine someone NOT wanting one?

No thanks, no no no--I've got enough training and attention challenges with the dogs I've got!

But I do like having lots of friends in agility. I left my Wednesday night 8:15 class a while back, but I'm still an Honorary Member. So when certain members of the class promised human treats to celebrate his 3rd consecutive placement on the World Team, I invited myself along.



Then they invited my dogs to participate in class, so I got a bonus class this week (in exchange for giving up my Wednesday night sierra club hike).

As an additional bonus for going up to class on Wednesday, I had an opportunity at a stop light to capture the sunset.


Then, as yet another bonus, in Power Paws' driveway, Mr. Owl awaited me on the phone lines for a photo op in the twilight. No tripod, but not bad anyway. (Great Horned Owl.)


And so, with two nights in a row of class, I have established this: Tika runs well at 22", and Boost knocks a lot of bars.

So here we are again.

Family Resemblance

SUMMARY: Some features pass through generations...

So I was sitting in the stands Saturday evening, waiting for the Steeplechase finals to start, and I turned around and about 5 rows above us was Boost. Or, wait--Boost at about 5 or 6 months old. I looked away again; there are so many blue merle border collies around these days and I guess they all look pretty much the same. (Like black & white border collies look pretty much the same. OK OK don't land on me, I know I know.)

But I looked again, and it was SO Boost. I commented to friends how much that puppy looked like Boost. And finally I had to climb up there and ask where the puppy was from. Turns out it's one of the litter from Boost's sister Gina, the littermate who looked the most like Boost and their mom, Tala. He even has heterochromia in the same eye as Boost!

Who'd have ever thought I'd get to know Border Collie faces well enough to be able to pick out a nephew (Shazam) in a crowd? I don't think I could do that with my own real human nieces and nephews!

Which is which?





(First is Shazam; second is Boost. And here's Shazam's whole new family. Dang, I didn't get their email addresses to send the photo. And I had a notepad with me, too!)

Sing Your Puppies to Sleep

SUMMARY: Cute names and the amazing power of lullabyes.

As I mentioned, there seems to be a plethora of puppies suddenly! It's so hard to come up with unique names in agility, and yet people keep coming up with good ones. For the party gal, Jenn, there's Tonic (Jenn and Tonic); for Ash there's now Dash (Ash & Dash); for the lady who videotapes agility trials and whose husband works in high tech, it's the name of one of his products that seems appropriate for a camera person: Tcam.

And for all those puppies out there who won't settle down: Warm up your singing voice! Link forwarded by a friend. (Direct link)

Coming Right Up: Agility Weekends! Plus Puppies!

SUMMARY: Four USDAA trials in the next 5 weeks.

Starting this weekend, then next weekend, then a break, then two more weekends. Whew! Busy!

I might go to only three of the four, which include Boost's last 3 chances to earn her last Steeplechase Qualifier for Nationals, and her one last chance to earn her DAM Qualifier.

I am starting to waffle about Nationals. I do have fun when I go. It's just--well--all this. OK, I'm thinking about it again with a little prodding from friends. Arrrghhhh, tough choices! Why can't everything in life be easy?

Boost is still knocking bars, still refusing jumps that I think are obvious. Instructor has lots of good suggestions on things to work on, and I do some of them, but sometimes I just can't get it right even when I think I am! Takes someone else to watch me and tell me again where I'm going astray.

So--what we could accomplish in these next few weeks:

• Boost qualify in Steeplechase for Nationals
• Boost qualify in DAM for Nationals
• Boost earn her MAD (just one Standard--out of at least 4 chances! And one Jumpers--out of at least 3 chances! Just that's all!) (Just because she's missed 13 out of 13 jumpers so far, and 12 out of the last 12 standards...how did we ever get 2 standards out of her first 4 in masters?! Seems like someone else's life in some other universe.)
• Boost earn her Relay Master (two Qs out of 3 chances)
• Tika earn her Bronze Lifetime Achievement Award--10 Qs of ANY kind out of at least 27 chances

But, all that aside, here's a bonus puppy picture: Boost's mom with her new litter of full siblings. (Not my photo.) More agility blue merles, coming right up!

Joy and Grief

SUMMARY: Puppies and another tragedy.

Our Thursday-night agility class has more or less 8 dogs and handlers.

Boost's mom (Tala) had a repeat mating with Boost's dad, and two of the people in class are on the short list to get puppies from that litter. Just heard that Tala gave birth this weekend to 5 puppies. Those are Boost's full brothers and sisters, just not littermates. Pretty exciting that I'll get to meet them and hear about their exploits as they grow.

For both women, this'll be the first time that they've picked out a puppy for agility. (But will be the 2nd agility dog for one--and she's learning to be a great handler and has done very well with her aussie-- and the 4th agility dog for the other--and she's been on the Argentinian world team with two of hers already.) What prospects!

Another dog in our class has been Homer, another BC. His main handler's current dog was in last year's Scottsdale finals in Grand Prix, DAM Team, and Steeplechase (placing 2nd there), so this is no ordinary handler, either. And Homer has been learning running contacts, and Robert and Karen have been obsessive about them, and they looked like they could be unstoppable in the ring. Except that Homer, at 2 years old, collapsed this weekend after swimming and died.

It hit me in the gut. I try to picture Boost, when she was two (January 2007) just starting to compete, with all of her verve for living and those bright, intelligent eyes and her phenomenally fast weaves and drive and how she loves to do things with me, suddenly being gone. Oh, it hurts to think of what Homer's owners must be going through.

That is still the hardest part about knowing so many dogs so well now.

Boost is an Auntie

SUMMARY: More fast puppies.

Boost's nearly twin sister, and really fast agility dog, littermate Gina, had puppies! (Gina, left; Boost, right; look at those ears!)

Their daddy (Yankee) was off at the European Open last week, blazing away on the courses. These should be wonderful agility pups.

Thanks to east-coast blogger Flirt the Squirt and Bodhi, for letting me know. I'm always the last node in the grapevine.

Here's the puppies' blog, with photos.

The Weekend

Note about photos: All scanned in, and I apparently did a crappy job of it. Will have to redo eventually. Not tonight. Sorry. They're blurry & not all that great-looking.

One: It was danged hot.

Tika ran very fast despite the heat, but it slowed her a bit eventually. She never did stop panting.

Probably in the high 90s each day, and progressively more humid each of the three days. Ah, agility in the Central Valley in July! I suspect the humidity might have had a lot to do with the neighbors flood-irrigating their huge, huge fields. The owner of the agility site says that that also has a lot to do with the clouds of mosquitos that we encountered at certain times of the day or night.

So we're busily emptying our flowerpot drip pans, and meanwhile there are gigantic fields of stagnant water all over the central valley--

But I digress from the heat. Even I, who usually perspires not a drop, had thouroughly soaked through my jeans and polo shirt by midday Monday.

Two: Toenails Too Long

Tika allows me to do her nails, but she always looks away or hides her head. I don't know why--noise? Smell? Can't bear to see whether Mom'll hit the quick?

Everyone got his or her toenails dremeled this weekend. Jake's toenails are mostly black, so I can't tell where the quick is, really. Boost's are white/clear and I've been trimming them fairly often and she's still fairly young so they haven't become overly long. Yet. Tika's are also clear and I can see the quick and it's much further down the toenails than one would ideally like. If only I had the get-up-and-go to just touch them with the Dremel every couple of days, I might chase the nails back to a reasonable length.

Three: The old guy

Jake, who's cool no matter the circumstances.

Jake ran in only 5 classes this weekend—three Jumpers, one Snooker, and one Jackpot (Gamblers). He was very smooth in all of them, but did not get the Gamble. Qed in four of five, what a good guy. Placed from first to third out of about 4 dogs, all considerably younger than himself. And he seemed pretty happy, although I've seen him run faster...for example, last night in class! Maybe it was the heat.

Four: The baby dog

Boost at five months.

Everyone tells me how cute Boost is. Of course I think so, and maybe they're just under the spell of puppydom, but it's nice to hear. She got to play with one of her sisters for a while, although Beck (your basic black & white BC) wanted to lie in the shade more than she wanted to run around like a crazy dog. It barely got Booster panting, although she did do quite a bit of running. I tried to remember to put her into a crate rather than the x-pen whenever I took one of the dogs out for an event or took both for a walk, but I forgot a couple of times, and one of those times she apparently climbed out of the pen, was caught by a neighbor, and plunked back into the pen. She didn't try again in the few opportunities she received.

Five: Tika's Championship Chase

Tika weaving, with both eyes open in the photo for once.

Tika Qed only 8 out of 15 this weekend, but there were some that were plenty my fault and not at all hers--

• I ran the wrong course in Snooker
• I forgot where I was going in one Jumpers and one Standard
• She had *two* chances at two different gambles in one Jackpot and missed both--thereby proving that I'm not training & practicing gamble-type operations nearly enough with her, as they were both fairly straight-forward (although only 3 dogs out of about 50 got either gamble--and those got BOTH gambles. So either you can gamble or you can't.)

However, she was running really nicely. Stayed at the start line, lying down only once. Left a couple of contacts early at the first opportunity on Saturday and I made her lie down after each (earning an elimination for training in the ring--there went another Q), and then she was good for the rest of the weekend. Hardly grabbed at my feet at all at the end of the run, although once she leaped in the air and grabbed my shirt, which could be a bad thing. Did her dangedest to do everything I asked her to, and very quickly. What a lovely girl!

Still, back to knocking bars again. Knocked a bar in probably half of the 15 runs. Better than sometimes, but not as good as the previous CPE weekend, with NONE down. So--back to practicing jumping drills regularly. Sighhhh--

We DID get another Jackpot that only a few dogs got. AND we got two Jumpers and two Colors legs (out of 3 and 2, respectively), towards our C-ATCH. So we could still finish at the Bay Team trial on the 23/24 if we get both Jumpers and both Colors. A long shot, but it could happen...

Puppy Puppy Puppy

Backfill: April 17AND I looked at the Border Collie puppy again. And again. I'd love to take her home, but I just don't think I can afford her. I mentioned what I thought I could afford; now I wait to see whether they are willing to go anywhere near that. I think they won't. Sigh. The initial response was to let me pay the full price but on a payment schedule of however long I wanted. The issue isn't not having the money *now*--the issue is not having the money.

I could drop still more agility events for the year, I suppose, than I'm already planning on dropping... but that wouldn't be fun and I'd resent it. I'm already working on paying off money borrowed (against my home equity) for a few necessary expenses this year, and I really don't want to add more to my debt load. I could, um, make *all* of my meals from scratch for about 6 months rather than eating frozen dinners as often as I do--I'm fairly certain I'd save enough money by doing that, but I'm also absolutely certain that I wouldn't manage the time and effort, certainly not for that long. I've already cancelled my earthquake insurance to allow me to keep doing agility, which I'm also not happy about. I'm pretty much out of things to do without.

I hadn't budgeted for an expensive dog. Just training and vet bills and such were enough to make me squeak when pondering a new dog.

Life is hard when you haven't won the lottery yet. Maybe buying a ticket would help.