Fitness for Agility Addendum

SUMMARY: Forgot to mention--getting there and teeters.

FYI, the Stairs this morning took me 2:54 the first time up and 3:14 the second time up (after walking the 3/4 mile back around to the base), using a stopwatch this time.

Forgot to mention about class last night:

Boost's teeters and dogwalks were lovely. I've been putting out targets in class fairly often again, and she went straight down and nose-touched, sometimes repeatedly, at the end of each. Just like the old days! Whether that translates to doing straight-down nose-touches in competition rather than coming of the side, dunno. But it's nice to have that behavior back.

Getting there: I felt last week that I was doing a good job of hustling to be where I needed to be. This week, over and over, I wasn't. They weren't easy sequences, but I watched so many classmates just seeming to take a couple of steps and be where they needed to be. I think it has more to do with when I actually start moving. They're fond of saying, "It's not how you get there, it's how WHEN you get there," including when you start moving. My timing, after all these years, is still pretty bad. Sometimes on the 2nd or 3rd try I'd actually get to where I needed to be. Could there be do-overs in competition, please?

That's it for now.

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"

Catching Up

SUMMARY: Deaf dog training, knee, Tika feet, Stairs from Heck, agility class, movies, titles, online slang.

Deaf dog training: Ummm, not so much. Busy.

Knee: Has been feeling lovely since going up Black Mountain wednesday night.

Stairs from Heck: Did them Friday morning. They're still there. Still tough. Boy, those thigh muscles burn by the time I'm doing the last 50 or so. Wonder whether the Merle Girls get muscle burn like that? What is that, lactic acid? Ooooohhhh, yeah, here's an interesting Scientific American article about that!

Tika foot dragging: Haven't heard that toenail drag again after that one day last week.

Agility class: Boost and I did great in class Thursday night. Another thing giving me hope. Hoping that it isn't, again, false hope. For a while, TCam's Human Mom and I kept talking about switching dogs in class occasionally to see what it was like. Now that T is on the world team, I'm pretty sure Human Mom won't be in a switching place for a while.

Movies: I go to see a lot of movies. Don't often see movies twice. Just saw Avengers for the second time this morning. One can never get too much of a crew of smart, athletic, hunky, active, super-competent, wise-cracking, good-looking men. Er, I mean, I went for the action and the plot.

Titles: Last month Boost completed her Tournament Master Silver!! How could I miss something cool like that? That's 25 grand prix, Steeplechase, and DAM Team Qs, with at least 5 of each. But can't get dang Jumpers or Super-Qs. As always, go figure.

Online slang: "[headdesk]" means to bang your head on the desk as one might if one does or is the victim of something stupid. Don't say I didn't warn you.

'K, gotta go; off for a 4-mile walk with friends along the Guadalupe River Trail and Gardens and dinner (if all goes to plan) at Gordon Biersch. In 90-degree heat. Yah. Ta!

The Stairs From Heck

SUMMARY: Some uphill practice.

As I noted yesterday, my goal --starting 2 weeks ago--was to go up these stairs at Communications Hill two times, three days a week.

We start here next to these tall, stately Italian cypress. See those teeny tiny Italian Cypress wayyyy at the top of the hill (upper right next to the condos)? That's where the stairs go.

The dogs would like to put in a vote for doing something more sensible, like walking around the block among the pretty townhouses.

It doesn't look so bad from the bottom--just these steps and then you're almost there, right?

But then you get to that landing--and it goes around a corner and up again. But after THAT, you're almost there, right? Just up to that overlook?

Then you get to the overlook and, despite having already done 129 steps, ha ha, guess what--there's more! 93 more, to be exact.

Once you finish, there are nice views, though (there's that overlook below us that had looked like it had to be at the top).

So--let's go back down around the hill and come up again!