Looking Back -- Moving Tika to Performance

SUMMARY: The emotions are still so fresh.

I just read Nancy Gyse's latest blog post,  Endings and Beginnings.  It took me back to the summer of 2009.  Just wanted to capture my response here.

I went through the Performance-or-Championship decision with Tika when she was only 8–still running fast, still making jumps, no Early Take-Off (ETO), but was coming up sore more and more often during or right after a trial (not always–but enough to finally decide that it wasn’t just a random tweak, so went to the vet). Xrays confirmed that she had arthritis in her neck and lower back.

 I do watch my title counts, and I know that it would be better to not do so, but she seemed to love being out there with me and running and jumping like crazy and I LOVED watching her do the courses. I cried because, you know, “all my friends have their platinum ADCHs” and moving to Perf meant that I’d never ever get that on any other dog, because she was so good.

That was a personal thing, so true…but it also hurt because I was sure that this would just be temporary–if she had arthritis, she’d soon be done with agility completely, and I SO wasn’t ready for that.

She was only a few Qs away from silver, or had finished, in all the classes, so I moved her to Perf in each as she finished them.

The surprise benefit to me, then, was that, at that time, I stopped thinking so much about titles because I thought that she’d be completely done in only a few months. The surprise benefit to her was that she started running like a young dog again, didn’t get sore, and started pulling in Qs and ribbons against some pretty tough competition!

In fact, my other surprise benefit was that we blasted through all of the performance titles and were less than 20 Qs away from that coveted platinum when heart disease sidelined her suddenly at 11. I’d never dreamed she’d like that difference in height so much or that she’d be able to compete that long comfortably, as big as she was.

(So, even when I started caring about titles again, it was almost all pure fun because her Q rate became so high.)

I don’t really have much of a point, except that, yes indeed, I understand the feeling about it being a physical milestone that one doesn’t want to see because it means essentially that the dog is moving on towards being an old dog.

Agility Weekend

SUMMARY: Me and Boost

Saturday, lacking sleep again. Sunrise was eh, OK, but not worth stopping, hence just a quick blurry shot with a little Tule fog over the fields. Better than rain or darkness, though! It apparently poured at the trial site on Friday.

I did not enter everything on the two days we were there. I didn't enter Thursday and Friday at all. How far I've drifted from a couple of years ago, when it was two dogs, four days, every.single.class. I don't currently have the energy for it. And not sure whether Boost does; she was looking tired by the end of the two days.

At least we got a couple of Qs, even if it wasn't the Super-Q that I really want/need to complete her championship.

Here's how it went.

Saturday

• Masters Pairs: I couldn't find the person I thought was my partner, so I walked both halves several times. Turns out that the pairs had been rearranged, so my partner was my instructor. I asked for the easy half, and wouldn't you know it--started great, but the place where both first and 2nd half do the same thing, I then continued with the 2nd half, so off course. Doh!
• P3 Gamblers: During the opening, she popped her weaves when I ran to get ahead (didn't go back and fix), and turned back to me before going up the teeter. Seeing that a lot from her lately; odd thing. The gamble was just tough; pretty low percentage on Qs. I didn't expect that she'd do it, and she didn't.
• Masters Snooker: Got through a 4-red opening with just a couple of bobbles, then #2 in the closing was a straight chute going to a jump, and I just couldn't run fast enough to get there, so she turned back to me after the tunnel, ran backwards towards the jump, finally took it but knocked the bar.
• Masters Jumpers: Ran past a jump where I was hoping to rear cross; I might have pushed her off it, but really I think if she were taking obstacles instead of staring at me, she'd have taken it. I didn't see anyone else miss that jump. I think knocked a bar or two, also; forgot already.

Sunday

• P3 Gamblers: Did nicely in the opening until we tried getting into the weaves from the approach she doesn't do well on--turning towards the left. I had to try 3 times to get her into the weaves, so that wasted time didn't allow us to do our planned 2nd set of weaves. But I adjusted my course, we were in the perfect place to get into the gamble on the buzzer, it was basically a send to a tunnel and she did great, so a Q and actually 2nd place. The Q rate was quite high on this one.
• Perf Grand Prix: Nearly perfect. I released her early on all her contacts to keep her moving and excited. Only flaw was my fault, where I tried to push her out but wasn't enough ahead of her so she almost went off course and I had to call her back. Not a fault, though, just a time waster, although we were still 10 seconds under time (although still almost 10 seconds slower than the winner). But a Q! Her first GP of this Qing season.
• Masters Snooker: I picked a very simple course because it was one of those tiny courses with only 3 reds where it looked almost easy to do something with high points, but I thought that lots of people would crash and burn. I picked a 4-5-5 opening, but she knocked the first red, which pretty much put us out of competition for a Super-Q. Then in the closing knocked the #4 bar. So no Q, but I was right; people were Super-Qing with high 30s points and the winning dog in our height group did a 4-5-5 opening, too. 
• Masters Jumpers: Really felt good--no refusals or runouts or blatantly obvious hesitations, only one bar down. Even did a couple of rear crosses (which can be problems for us) and at the end she also kept going over the last jump rather than turning back. It was a nice way to end the weekend even if it wasn't a Q.

Raffle

For a change, I wasn't working score table, and since I didn't enter everything and had only one dog, I had plenty of time between working with Chip and playing with Tika to work in the rings. Which gave me a free lunch and tickets for the raffle, which, as always, I entered under Boost's name.

View from a pole setter's chair.

As usual, Boost was a good girl in the raffle and won something.

Over all, feels like we both need to get in better shape and take off some weight. So much to do, so little time!

A No-Q Day

SUMMARY: Some highlights and lowlights.

I drove 4 hours today for about 2 minutes of ring time. Pretty crazy, huh? My general rule is that I have to stay at the destination for at least as long as my round-trip time to make it worthwhile going, and we were actually there for right about 8 hours. For 3 runs.

Got there in time to work the first class (not entered in Masters Challenge Standard) to earn a free lunch and raffle tickets.

Gamblers--opening started well and then she pulled off a dogwalk right in front of her, not sure why, then I couldn't get her into a replacement tunnel, but we ended up even so about where I wanted to be when the whistle blew, with her on the A-frame--but she came off the A-frame without being releasd and I had trouble getting her lined up and we in no way came close to getting the actual gamble. Still, she had two awesome sets of weaves.

After that, I got Tika out and we hung out in the shade watching the runs.

The Woodside site is known for being hot. Wasn't as hot as some times when I've been there and the paint is peeling off the roads (well--maybe not, but it should have been). But still, by the time I had finished lunch, it was hot enough an late enough (11:30 already) that I decided that I for sure wasn't going to stick around another couple of hours after Snooker to try a Jumpers run (last class of the day), so scratched Boost from that.

Standard--beautiful run, felt good; she came off the teeter without being released and I made her down for a moment as a reminder (then her dogwalk and Aframe were good and I held them a bit). And, dang, she missed her weave entry. After doing so well on them in gamblers.

Hung out with Tika again, getting hot even in the shade.

Snooker--well, crud, on the 3rd jump, I said "go hup" and she started towards it and I moved to get into front cross position and she pulled off it, then I got frustrated, like really WHAT does it take to get you to go over a jump, really???? and finally she did it but knocked the bar and it was all over.

At least it was a good reason to hop in the car and come home. Took about 20 minutes longer to get home through heavy Sunday-afternoon traffic heading back into the Bay Area than it took to go out thataway between 5:30 and 7:30 in the morning, go figure. Glad I left a couple of hours early; got home after 5:00 as it was.

So, back to the drawing board, or try to find more specific things to focus on. Yes, I should be videotaping everything. Guess I should get out the new/used camera and figure out again how it works.

Agility Titles

SUMMARY: Regrouping for Boost.

(Repost with corrected numbers.)

Do I compete in agility to have fun with my dogs? Yes. Do I compete because it's a good physical and mental workout for me and for them? Yes. Do I compete because I like being outdoors and hanging out with many good friends? Yes. Because I love seeing dogs and handlers working together like clockwork and demonstrating the best that they can offer? Yes.

But I also do it for ribbons and titles. Just sayin'.

Somewhere up there in the fog is the Power Paws agility field.
Plus some mountains and similar large objects.

Now that Tika is out of the picture and will never get her Platinum Lifetime, drat it all, my current next best bet for ribbons or titles is Boost, but we have not done that well as a team most of the time.

Now that I have my energy and enthusiasm back for training a bit, we'll see what happens. Because, for me, competing and repeatedly failing to Q is not fun. Handle it better with a young dog with whom I see progress. But not an 8 1/2 year old dog when we should both know better.

So, again this morning I rented the agility field--getting up there by 8 a.m., groan! --to practice having Boost run on ahead of me. We'll see how that goes in our one day of competition tomorrow.

Looking back down through the fog towards where I took the first photo.
Last Saturday at 8 a.m., it was scorching. I'm not complainin' about the fog!

Anyway, just a quick regroup on titles that Boost and I *could* earn in the Championship program if our Q rate vastly improves:

Title Category	Current level	Next Level	Have Qs	More Qs needed
Masters Standard	SAM-Bronze	Silver	21	4
Masters Relay	RM-Gold	Platinum	39	11
Masters Gamblers	GM-Bronze	Silver	16	9
Masters Jumpers	JM	Champion	7	3
Masters Snooker	-	Champion, Bronze, and Silver	26, incl. 2 SuperQs	1 SuperQ
ADCH (championship)	-	ADCH	Everything but...	1 SuperQ
ADCH	-	Bronze (triple ADCH)	Everything but...	1 SuperQ and 8 Jumpers Qs
Tournament	Silver	Gold	31	4 (any mix of Steeplechase, Grand Prix, and DAM Team)

There are hills beyond those trees? Really?

So, the point is, if I want to satisfy my own cravings, I must concentrate and keep up the energy and enthusiasm and hope that my aging body lets me keep going. Boost is quite willing to keep at it.

See y'all on the other side of tomorrow.

The sun hides in the fog, but wait--
I see a tiny round speck that is the sun, perhaps the light at the end of the tunnel?

Musing on Boost's SuperQs and Other Qing Statistics

SUMMARY: Why we don't have SuperQs

It's because we can't get through a course without a fault. As I said the other day, it's not that I'm trying to do courses that I think are very hard for us--I always default to courses that I think we're capable of doing that are still in Super-Q range. I'm not trying to *win*, ever. But the bars and the (often inexplicable to me) refusals do us in.

Tika was 5 when she finally got her 3rd SQ, and it had seemed like *forever*. The difference between Tika and Boost is that Tika pretty regularly finished one or two spots out of the SQs, whereas Boost and I almost never completely get through the course at all. Seems to me that most dogs who regularly get through Snooker courses usually get their SuperQs eventually.

Of the 113 Masters Snookers that Boost and I have attempted, 25 have been Qs--which isn't great--22%--but given that judges seem to aim for 25% of dogs Qing on any given course, I guess that's not too bad.

But getting the SuperQ by being in the top 15% of of those competing...

Among our 25 Snooker Qs, we have only EVER gotten through a complete course four times. Ever. Two of those were our two SuperQs and the other two were enough points for a SQ but missed it based on time that we wasted on course (in other words, tied with a dog on points but they had a faster time so got the superQ).

Again, it's not like we can't get through them in time or can't logically get through them--there are another 10 where we've completed our entire chosen course and finished the closing, but knocked a bar somewhere in the opening.

So getting through the course error-free is our biggest challenge. I think that dogs who can get through their planned courses regularly are much likelier to get their SQs quicker, even if they're not aggressive on points.

OK, that's enough about Snooker for the moment.

Perhaps I should move on to pondering why we've only ever Qed in Jumpers six out of 127 times (under 5%), which ultimately is what keeps us from earning our lifetime bronze award (which requires 15).

Really, maybe she should've been a herding dog. Good thing she's cute and loves to be active and engaged.

(photo by Sarah H.)

Boost's USDAA Qing percentages:

• Jumpers: 5%
• Grand Prix: 10%
• Gamblers: 12%
• Standard: 14%
• Steeplechase: 14%
• Snooker: 22%
• DAM Team Tournament: 38%
• Pairs Relay: 47%

Independence Weekend USDAA - Sunday

SUMMARY: Got some Qs.

Tika:

• Q and first place in Jumpers, no problem.
  She's so good to run, just figures out what she needs to do. She's supposed to lie down at the start line, but she just wouldn't do it this time so I let her sit. I thought that meant that she was tired, but she blasted out of there quickly enough that I was behind her all the way and she adjusted for my puny mortal failings.
  
  
• Q and first place in Standard, no problem.
  Watch for the spin at the green tunnel entrance and where she's looking as she descends the Aframe (didn't catch that I rear crossed)--issues having to do with her hearing.
  
  

We were able to park close and crate out of MUTT MVR this weekend,
which was a dogsend, since my back was absolutely not up to lifting or moving ANYthing.
Mr. Alien hung out with us occasionally.

Mr. Alien ... hung... out with us...

Boost:

• Same Jumpers as Tika, problems.
• Same Standard--whoa, really nice run with nothing to complain about! Q and 5th of 38 dogs.
  
  
• Snooker, yeah, well, knocked one of the reds, which took us out of the running for a Super-Q right away, and then too much dinking around and miscommunication to even be able to finish #7. It's a Q, but your basic useless Q of which we now have 24. It was an entertaining Snooker course, though, with three tunnels in a circle forming the #7 obstacle. A real crowd-pleaser, lots of yelling and cheering and groaning for all the competitors.
  
  
  
  
• Grand Prix, well, oh well. Who needs any stinkin' Grand Prix Qs anyway. They're probably sour.

 Boost flying down the dogwalk, and me... uh, not sure exactly WHAT I'm doing there--

Boost now has 141 lifetime Qs, just short of the 150 needed for the Bronze Lifetime Achievement Award. Except--it requires at least 15 Qs in each of the classes, and we have only 6 Jumpers, and the thought that we could ever earn another 9 Jumpers Qs is slowly fading away to nothing. I mean, she's 8 and a half. Sigh. Let alone getting those two elusive Super-Qs to complete her ADCH.

When I'm at a trial, like this last weekend, I feel actually motivated to go work on some of our issues and try to fix them. And then I get home and realize how much time it really takes, and I go back to just hoping the issues will just magically solve themselves. Huh.

That's about all I have to say about that.

Running our leg of the relay and doing really well.

Lookit that nice two-on, two off. She was good on her contacts all weekend.

Kelpie puppy Batman subdues my scary hat!

Long-time agility friend Debbie and her Porsche do a little warm-up massage. Debbie used to sometimes run Remington back when my foot was broken.

Embarrassing, Mr. Alien, to be abducted by giant inflatable aliens!
At least they're wearing  a seatbelt.
(Inflatable aliens appeared in random places all over the trial site on Sunday. No particular explanation from anyone, but it was entertaining and engendered lots of conversation.)

Awww, Millie practices her school visit skills among a flood of children.

If nothing else, at least Boost continues her awesome skill at winning things in the raffle. A certificate for a day's entry on Saturday, and a bag of Cod Skin Treats on Sunday.

Hmm, something fishy about these cod skin treats.

*Photos of us running by Laurie Cowhig and Lisa Pomerance, thanks, agility friends!

tap--tap--Is This Thing On?

SUMMARY: I dunno, guess I've been busy with stuff other than agility lately.

Feels somewhat as if I'm working towards easing out of dog agility. I don't have much lately to say that's related to dog agility, and the whole purpose of this blog was to capture my training work, my competition experiences, my failures and successes and dogs dogs dogs. So somehow it feels odd to just ramble on about unrelated things or post photos of random topics.

Random topics around downtown San Jose

And, in case those weren't random enough--

I couldn't actually bear to wait two months between trials, so at the last minute, I entered both dogs in *one* day of a CPE trial out in Turlock. I had two goals:

• Practice just RUNNING with Boost, not stopping, not going back for stuff that we missed or trying to Q.
• Run Tika in a couple of classes at 16" and see how she looks and whether she likes it.

Mixed success on the first count--once, I forgot my goal and as usual stopped when she ran by a jump; on a couple of occasions, she ended up in front of me facing me, so it's hard to keep running full-speed in that case. She actually had a lovely Full House run, high scoring, but she knocked the wrong bar in my plan and I forgot to go back and take a critical obstacle, so tons of points but no Q.

For Full House with Tika, I just picked a course that didn't have tight turns, weaves, or the dogwalk in it, didn't bother counting points, just wanted to run and have a good time. Turns out that we accidentally had just enough points to Q, which was our collective only Q of the entire day-- 1 out of 7 runs. That has got to be my lowest-Qing CPE trial Ev-Er but since that wasn't my goal, I didn't mind so much.

Tika indeed ran nicely--obvious still that she doesn't hear me clearly or trust to get ahead of me where she can't see what I'm doing (turns back to check), but her eyes were bright and she was fast and she grabbed my feet at the end, which is a sure sign of Tika pleasure.

So I've started running her in class a couple of runs a night at 16" after 3 months of no runs.

And I've entered her in one class at day in Veterans 16" at the next USDAA trial.

So funny to have my big girl who used to jump 26" jumping only 16",  but I think it's much better for her than the 20-22" she's been jumping for the last 3 1/2 years, and she has looked like she wanted to participate when I've run Boost, so now she can. She sure looked comfortable and natural doing it.

Photo by Carlene Chandler

Her stamina is low, but then, so is mine--I'm just not getting out much or doing much. Sometimes I'm really tired. The counter to that is that I've got a contract that I'm really enjoying for work, but with one thing and another, it's taking more of my time and attention.  Have done 6-mile hikes in the hills the last 2 weekends, but with so little keeping in shape, they were quite hard for me. And for Tika, too, I think.

Hiking at Almaden Quicksilver

Hounds Tongue (seems appropriate)

 Foundations of the old pump house for the mines

Hiking at Santa Teresa

A peek at San Jose over the edge of the hill--
there were deer, too, but they didn't stick around for 5 dogs.

 Mount Umunhum with Cold War radar tower in the distance

Photo by Lisa Williams

 Coyote Valley section of San Jose, with Santa Teresa Golf Course below us

 California poppies and California gilia

We've walked over to the park to do frisbee on occasion, but less often than we had been for a little while.
Boost waits for us to catch up.

At the park.

Rambling on.  Not sure that I even have solid goals now in agility. I'd really still like to eventually get Boost's two Snooker Super-Qs for her ADCH, but except for occasional spurts of enthusiasm, I mostly have gotten to where I don't feel that I care that much any more. Mostly in the yard we play *around* the agility equipment, although I keep making Boost do jumps to get the toy instead of running around them all the time.


So--on I go, doing whatever it is that I do, and the dogs are bored a lot. Poor suffering dogs.

Bored-est Collie Boost's artistic output using cardboard and pinecones.

Ahhhh, retirement.

Dang Jumpers and Super-Qs

SUMMARY: So close, and yet so far, to lifetime glory.

Just counted--Boost is only 13 Qs away from her bronze lifetime (which would be 150 Qs, with a minimum of 15 in each class and the tournaments)! The challenge is that 9 of those have to be Jumpers.

I already knew that Boost is only two Qs away from her ADCH (championship)--and those must be two Snooker Super-Qs.

And only 11 away from her ADCH-bronze (essentially a triple ADCH): Funny, that requires 9 Jumpers and two Snooker Super-Qs.

Do you think that we have a couple of weak spots?

The Campaign Is Almost Over

SUMMARY: List of goals--most accomplished, much progress made.

Thirteen months ago, I announced The Campaign to try to complete a specific set of titles for both dogs.

I've been marking off the completed items under the "The Campaign" link at the top of my page. I also pretty much stopped frantically chasing things back in September--too many weekends of agility once again, got tired of it once again.

Assuming that Tika is retired, then her Campaign is obviously over, with much success. Boost is still working, but also made significant progress.

Here's the original set of goals, and what we achieved in these 13 months:

For Tika:

• PTM-Platinum: Performance Tournament Master platinum, that's  50 Performance Tournament Qs (Grand Prix, Steeplechase, and DAM Team, with at least 10 in each).  What Tika still needs: A DAM Q and any other Q. DONE! [In fact, she now has 68 total Perf Tournament Qs.]
• LAA-Platinum: Lifetime Achievement Award Platinum. That's 500 Qs in any Masters, P3, or Tournament class, with at least 50 in each regular titling class (Standard, Jumpers, Snooker, Gamblers, Pairs). What Tika still needs: 95 Qs. 76 Completed.
• PDCH-Gold: Performance Championship Gold: At least 35 Qs in each regular titling class and at least 35 tournament Qs. What Tika still needs:  9 Standard, 4 Pairs Relay, 1 Gamblers, 9 Snooker, 6 Jumpers. DONE!
• C-ATE: CPE Agility Team Extraordinaire. That's 5000 points at level C (which, unlike lower levels in CPE, requires clean runs for Qs), including at least 20 Qs in each of the 7 classes. Point values vary by class; for example, Standard is 25 points, Jumpers is 20, Colors is 15. My estimate is that, on average, runs on any given weekend average about 21.5 points each. What Tika still needs: 965 points, roughly 46 Qs (she already has her 20 in all 7 classes). DONE!
• ExST ExSN ExJP ExFH: Extraordinaire [class], 30 of that class at level C. So my stretch goal is for Standard, Snooker, Jackpot (Gamblers), and Full House Ex titles. We might also end up with our Wildcard, Colors, and  Jumpers Ex, too, but those aren't specific goals.  What Tika still needs: ExST: Oh, we got this last weekend! Yeah! ExSN: 2 Qs. ExJP: 1 Q. ExFH: 2 Qs.  Completed Standard, Snooker, Jackpot, Full House, and Wildcard; need just one more for Jumpers and two more for Colors. (We pretty much stopped doing CPE after the C-ATE and CATCH completed.)
 

For Boost:

• ADCH: Agility Dog Champion. That's 5 Qs in each of the regular titling classes--3 of the Snookers must be SuperQs--plus 5 tournaments with at least 1 of each tournament. What Boost still needs: 2 superQs, 2 Jumpers. (You'd think this would be easy--just 4 Qs. Apparently not.) 2 Jumpers completed. [And if we can ever get those 2 Super-Qs, that would complete not only the ADCH, but also the Snooker Champion Silver!]
• ADCH-Bronze: (stretch goal) 15 Qs in each of the regular titling classes plus 15 tournaments with at least 3 of each. What Boost still needs: ADCH plus 3 Gamblers and 10 Jumpers.   The Gamblers and one of the Jumpers completed. [In fact, she has also completed her GOLD Relay Championship (35 Qs).]
• C-ATCH: CPE Agility Trial Champion. You compete at Level 5 to earn this, where you can still have some faults but fewer than you can at lower levels. For example, you can still Q in Jumpers with one bar down. It requires 10 Standard and 5 each of the other 6 classes. What Boost still needs: 6 Standard, 5 colors, 2 Wildcard, 3 Snooker.  DONE!

Annnnnnnd that's all for tonight.

Agility in the Autumn Recap

SUMMARY: Sometimes nothing goes the way you expect it to.

Picking up from where I left off--Tika again coughed most of the night Friday night, so even though I had no trouble drifting off because I was so tired from lack of sleep Thursday night, when 4 a.m. rolled around, I was then operating on two nights of sleep deprivation. Still, when I headed out on the road, I felt pretty good and even looking forward to the weekend.

The trip to Turlock was uneventful and I arrived half an hour earlier than I had anticipated, so turned on my alarm and napped in MUTT MVR for half an hour. First time I think I've ever done *that* (although I have often stopped & napped on my way home from trials).

The weather cooperated nicely. Cold and crisp on Saturday, with no rain at all. Tika in particular likes the cooler weather, so I figured that we might get some good fast runs. (Sunday was a bit warmer but still nicely cool for the dogs.)

We started the morning with Pairs Relay. Boost and her partner did great--her partner (a half sister) knocked a bar, but Boost was spot on perfect and I felt great running, knee again not bothering me, felt faster than I've felt in a long time. We had THE fastest running time of all 16 teams, wooohooo! but the 5-second penalty for the bar knocked us into 2nd place. That's very cool; Boost very seldom finishes with a placement ribbon even when we Q.

Tika and her partner did good, although once again Tika stunned me by popping out of the middle of the poles. I always made a high-pitched "brrrrrrrrr!" noise as she did the poles, and so now I'm wondering whether she's not hearing it so is thinking she's in the wrong place. But we still Qed and placed 2nd of 6 teams! A great way to start the morning, and Tika looked quite happy to be out there.

Next up, Standard, and OMG OMG OMG Boost and I had *another* spot-on perfect run! I felt fleet and fit; she did everything right, and placed 4th of 26 dog with a Q! Like, truly, WOW! On only 4 other weekends, ever, has she placed in the ribbons in 2 runs the same weekend! Happy happy happy, we both looked pretty pleased coming off the course. I also decided this weekend to do quick releases off all the contacts rather than stopped and telling her she's good. I liked that.

I'm thinkin'--oooh, this COULD be our day for a Super-Q in Snooker! Everything is clicking!

In Standard, Tika took the first jump and started coughing. I kept going, because on the few times she's coughed while running, it's gone within 3 or 4 coughs. She kept going, doing everything perfectly, but still coughing coughing. By the 10th obstacle--a chute (collapsed tunnel), she was obviously slowing. Next up, the dogwalk, and I decided that if she was still coughing on the dogwalk, I was stopping. But, you know, Tika doesn't stop on the dogwalk.

She didn't this time, either, but she was very slow, took a couple steps off the end, stopped completely, and stood there silently with her head down as I moved quickly in.

She took a step and staggered. I grabbed her. Head still down. I gently tried to turn her around to leave the course, and she stumbled against me. I held her still for a moment, scared down to the pit of my soul. She took another step, stumbled, then another step, and another, and her head came up, and her ears came up, and she trotted off the field like nothing had happened.

I checked her gums, and they were white.

White gums was how I always knew that Remington's tumor was bleeding internally, so I know about white gums. And, because of Remington, I have checked Tika's gums occasionally since she started the coughing, and they've never been white.

Much quick consulting with the many season vet techs who are also agility addicts around here. Tika still acting like a completely normal Tika, ready to go, eager to eat, bright-eyed. Got info about the 24/7 emergency clinic and headed off with both dogs.

So.

By the time we got there, Tika's gums had a little pink to them. They did a triage check and said, nope, her gums are fine, and so we went on the end of the queue of not-in-immediate-danger pets spending their Saturday at the emergency clinic.

Eventually, we met with the vet. By that time, Tika's gums were the usual bright pink. And aside from occasional coughing, looked and acted completely normal, including being quite stressed about being at the vet's.

They did a blood test at my request, and her blood cells were normal, no sign of anemia. The vet also kept listening to her chest over and over, and we finally decided to do chest x-rays (w/out sedation--Tika was very good!). Now, I've known for a couple of years that Tika had a heart murmur, and that it had gotten slightly worse by this summer;  at our most recent visit, our vet discussed a little bit about how Tika was likely headed down the road sometime to congestive heart failure. He said to let him know if she started coughing. She had been for several months at that point, but he seemed to think that what I was reporting wasn't significant. But it did prepare me for this diagnosis confirmed by Saturday's x-rays: Congestive heart failure.

Her heart is enlarged, and her chest had accrued extra fluid, all putting pressure on her blood vessels and bronchial tubes, which is what causes the coughing (same in people as in dogs). Most likely what happened on the field was that she simply was not getting enough oxygen to her brain.

Why she was fine during frisbee that morning and during her pairs relay run, but then started coughing during Standard, dunno.

But obviously in those preceding 48 hours, her body had crossed some kind of threshold that had made everything suddenly quite worse.

Do you know how strange it is to think, "Oh, thank Dog, she only has congestive heart failure!" ??!

Got some diuretics for her to reduce the fluid in her chest (standard treatment for humans, too). And returned to the trial, 4 hours after we'd left.

Anyway.

Scratched Tika from the rest of the weekend.

When we got back, Steeplechase Round 1 was in progress, so we had completely missed Gamblers and Snooker, dagnabbit. Everyone was very nice and let me get a quick walk-through at a jump-height change so that I could still run Boost in the Steeplechase.

I still felt fast and fit, but Boost ran past two jumps, wasting too much time when I had to take her back to fix them, so no Q. But parts of the run felt brilliant.

We also were able to run Jumpers. It was a gnarly course (in the negative sense) and the Q rate was low: Only 6 of the 28 dogs in Boost's height Qualified... including Boost! That's Jumpers Qs two trials in a row! Holy mackerel! AND a fourth-place ribbon! (It wasn't a pretty run, way too many turns in the wrong direction, but she kept all her bars up and didn't run past anything.)

So three Qs and three placement ribbons out of four runs! That has never happened before!

Took Tika out of her crate about every half hour and she peed a lot each time, so the diuretic was doing its job, I hoped. Dreaded the night, though--

I was in bed and asleep by 8:30, SO tired from 2 nights of interrupted sleep and the stress of the day. Had to set the alarm for 10:30 p.m. to give Tika her next pill, took her out then for one last pee--

--and then we all slept straight through until the alarm went off at 7. Blissful sleep! And no coughing from Tika! Yay!

On Sunday, Tika and I: 

• Spent time together with her just out of the crate, visiting people, getting treats and affection.
• Wandered around the grounds looking for molecules of goodies in the grass.
• Worked at the score table together--well, I worked the score sheets and she worked the food.
• Played tug-of-war. Vet said no running for a week, keep her fairly quiet. Tug probably isn't quiet, but she was SO happy to get some playing in! And I stopped at the first sign of a cough each time.

Everyone at agility is SO nice; I can't tell you how many people helped me after Tika's meltdown in the ring, even offering to go with me to the emergency room (I declined), or came by later that day or today to ask how she was, share their knowledge or their lessons from their own similar experiences, and to wish us well. I hope I said thank you often enough--you all out there were wonderful, and I'm grateful beyond words.

On Sunday, Boost and I:

• Had a not-quite perfect jumpers run--she knocked the 2nd bar, I got in a late front cross for an off course after #4, and then--were brilliant! Oh, what a fun dog to run when everything is clicking!
• Had a PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT Standard run with the 2nd fastest time of all 30 dogs in her class--oh, except for that one little bit where she ran past the first jump instead of taking it. I didn't go back and fix it, no point to that. So we E'ed but I was SO happy with that run!
• Had a SUPER Grand Prix run; 7th fastest out of 29 dogs but 4 of the others had faults and we didn't, so she Qed AND placed 3rd!  In Grand Prix! OMG all over again! The highest she had ever placed before was 5th, and that only twice ever!
• Had...well...a not-so perfect Snooker run. OK, she kept all her bars up! But we had to have discussions about 2 different jumps that she didn't go over, so we ran out of time partway through the #7 in the closing, but the bits between that were SO much fun! Turns out that even if we'd made it, we'd have been 1 point shy of a Super-Q, but still, at least it was a regular Q.

And my knee continued to feel great... oh, except now it's popping every time I take a step. Doesn't hurt (much), though, and it hasn't felt this good in a very long time as it has these last couple of months.  And I've felt like I've really been hauling my own butt around the course, which maybe is why she's doing better. It's inexplicable.

So, for Boost's weekend: Qed 5 out of 8--62%! She has NEVER Qed more than 35% in a USDAA weekend, EVER! *AND* four of them placing in the top 4 out of a large class, when she'd only ever had 2 placements in a weekend before.

Don't tell me that Boost and I are figuring out how to do agility as she's approaching her 8th birthday and Tika is unexpectedly retiring?! That's just ridiculous!

So, is Tika retired from agility? Most likely, yes. Did I really believe that this weekend would be her last weekend of agility, ever? Not really. I expected to have some time to think about it, for her to gradually still get older and slower and more frail, and that I would then make a decision and have a nice retirement agility trial with her, but hopefully not until we'd gotten those last 20 Qs for her Platinum Lifetime.

But today she felt fine all day; annoyed that i wouldn't let her play frisbee; almost no coughing. Tomorrow, we'll meet with our regular vet and talk about the future.

The future-- yes, sometimes, nothing goes the way you expect it to.

The Agony and the Ecstacy

SUMMARY: Another USDAA weekend under the belt.

(Photos by Erika Maurer.)

What a weekend.

Weather was perfect.

Friends were fun.

Both dogs were healthy and happy and eager to be running.

Tika picked up 6 more Qs towards her LAA Platinum (out of 9 Qable runs), pretty good work. Now only 26 to go. Even eked out a Snooker Super-Q somehow, and a first place in the second Snooker (although not a Super-Q). And a 1st place in Steeplechase Round 2 (made easier by the fact that we were the only team who ran in our height class).

Both dogs qualified in Steeplechase Round 1, and both brought home a little cash from Round 2! That never happens! (Together, the amount almost pays for one dog's entry into Steeplechase. But that's not the point.)

Boost did not knock one. Single. Bar. In. Eleven. Runs. I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. Very very happy and I don't know what to credit that to. Someone joked, "is she on drugs?", and I said yes, but just antibiotics--oh, and hydroxizine for itching--and suddenly I had this flashback to some other weekend where she didn't knock bars and was on some kind of drug and I wondered whether that affected anything. Wish I could find supporting info for that memory. Will have to figure out how to search for it among all my posts. Jeez, it would be terrible if the only time she ran that well was when she was drugged up somehow.

Boost's contacts were all perfect.

She and I had some amazing runs. Including:

A Jumpers Q!!!! That's 5 and her Jumpers Master title! I thought I'd never see the day!

So, yeah, there were a lot of very, very happy things indeed.

And then, there was the agony.

The Jumpers run that Boost did perfectly on and then, 3 obstacles before the end, I put my front cross in the wrong place and pushed her past a jump. Augh!

The Snooker run that we did the opening perfectly and really fast and then, on the spot where I knew I'd have trouble (threading between two jumps to get to the correct one), I tried pulling her to me and it didn't work; she went off course. (I ran Tika after that and, instead, did sort of a front crossy thing and it worked much better. Sigh.) So another handling error.

And then ending the day Sunday:

• The Standard run that was perfect and gorgeous and fast and driven and we were flying and doing all these complicated things with perfect execution-- except in one spot where she was ahead of me going into the chute, which fed into a jump right in front of her and she ran towards it but then turned back to me to see where I was before going over it--refusal! Right in front of her! And I was running towards it! And saying "Go! Hup!" Why why why why why?
• The Grand Prix run that was A-MAZ-ING through 18 of the 20 obstacles, I was running on air, it felt so astonishingly world-champion-like, to the Aframe, where she was stopped perfectly. Only 2 jumps to the end.  I calmly walked through a front cross so that we could do the last two obstacles in a nice smooth arc, released her--and she was so busy looking at me that she never even looked at the first jump, which actually saved her because the judge didn't call a refusal when she almost backed into it her way towards it. Finally went over it, but then, running straight at the last jump, she got so busy looking at me AGAIN that she kind of peeled around in front of me and pushed backwards past the plane of the jump, and so we DID get a fault, on the last *@&*!* jump! Why why why why why? 
• The Snooker run that we did the opening perfectly and really fast and got through 4 in the closing and all we had to do for #5 was run in a straight line and I did and she was so busy looking at me that, when she realized there was a jump in front of her, she dodged around it! Why why why why WHY? I was there to work it, my line was perfect, my feet were in the right direction, I was running through it, not stopping... Auuuuughhhh!

And those were my last 3 runs of the weekend, so those are the ones that really stick in my head, even now, 4 hours later. I just don't understand. I can't think of anything that I did wrong on those, and I don't understand why those jumps were any different from any of the other more challenging obstacles we'd done all the way through the rest of the courses--those were the *easy* bits in each case!

Of course I have no video to analyze.

Deep quivering sigh.

Oh, my beautiful Boost, it is SO nice when you run fast and well and take obstacles and I can run and be there to work every jump, but why does it suddenly fall apart like that? People watching me said that maybe I was too excited, but actually in both those cases I felt completely calm because those parts were almost gimmees. And I really don't believe that I did anything wrong on any of them, and no one identified anything specific that I did in any of them.

Anyway.

I am trying to bask in all the amazing runs where Boost and I did 95% of each run correctly and fast and accurately and like an actual masters level champion winning team. And the lack of bars down. And the Jumper's title.

But that Thing that I don't understand, that Mysterious Why, will drive me nuts forever.

P.S. About Those Platinum Lifetime Awards--

SUMMARY: The peer pressure is intense!

To date, only 97 dogs have ever made it to Platinum Lifetime... and 14 of them are in my club (The Bay Team)! And 5 of them are still competing.

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Lifetime Platinum
My friends all have got one, it just makes me numb
Worked hard all those trials, and maybe I'm dumb,
But Lord, won't you buy me a Lifetime Platinum.

(Addendum May 2016: I never really thought I'd get there. But Tika was so close--missing just a dozen points out of the 500 required when she abruptly had to retire.  Ah, well, close is pretty good.) 

USDAA This Weekend

SUMMARY: Out of town in Turlock

Welllll we'll see how the little bit of bar-knocking medicine I've given Boost lately helps at all. For the last month or so, I've been trying to stop her in class and in the yard every time she knocks a bar and give her a time out.

Opinions are mixed on whether this is a good idea. I've read some trainers who believe that this just stresses the dog out more. On the other hand, Boost's sister Tcam, who had a tendency to knock bars and got this same treatment I've been doing, just ran two clean runs at the World Championships and placed third in the Jumpers competition. Tcam never looks stressed out to me when we're in class--she is one happy, eager dog with a happy, eager handler.

In class last night, Boost knocked 4 or 5 bars (I'm supposed to be counting but I lost track). Not a good average. On the other hand, her last run of the evening was super duper.

Tika has been--I dunno, getting older? For the last 3 nights in a row, when she got to the stairs to go up to bed, she put one foot on the step, backed off, put it on again, hesitated--looked like she'd forgotten how to climb stairs. Or maybe something hurts when she does it, but she looks fine running in the yard and I've not seen her looking stiff....

Oh, wait, except last night in class when I tried to get her to stretch out against my chest, she wouldn't extend her front legs fully.

Oh, crap, I forgot about that. Well, too late now to find a chiropractor. Maybe it's time to dig out that How To Massage Your Dog video that I put a ticket in for in a worker raffle and won. She did look good running in class, so maybe we're OK.

My knee has felt good the last couple of weeks--I felt like I was really moving comfortably and quickly around the course last night. Hope it holds up.

Weather, thank goodness, is supposed to be mild this weekend, and although rain is coming, it's not supposed to arrive until Monday. Perfect!

I have no specific goals except to try to relax and enjoy whatever happens. The underlying goals are still, as always, to get Jumpers Qs and Snooker SuperQs with Boost, and just as many Qs as I can with Tika in the hopes of maybe being able to finish her Lifetime Achievement Platinum (500 Qs, and we need only 31 more). Not sure we're going to get there.

This weekend, out of 100 dogs competing, only three are older than Tika. But, well, they're still going, and Jake was still going at 15 (well, one run a day; and I've never known how accurate his age estimate was). So, we'll see. If we get there, that would be nice, but I think I'm done running all over the place weekend after weekend trying to get Qs.

So, here we go! Hope you all have a nice weekend doing whatever you're doing, too.

Gold!

SUMMARY: We did it!

We entered only two classes today, and Tika Qualified nicely on a challenging Jumpers course, then Qualified pretty smoothly (given the handling) on her Snooker course, making it 3 snookers in a row and completing out Performance Dog Agility Champion (PDCH)- Gold!

That's the equivalent of earning the PDCH (or ADCH) 7 times over--35 each of Performance Standard, Jumpers, Gamblers, Snooker, Pairs Relay, and the Tournaments (Grand Prix, Steeplechase, and DAM Team).

The only thing she didn't do (didn't need to) was to earn 7 times over the number of SuperQs in Snooker--you need only to get three for the first championship, then never have to get any again. But 18 of her 35 Performance Snooker Qs have been Super-Qs, so she was pretty close to doing that 7 times over, too.

Yeah! No more pressure!

[Tika: It's hot. Where are my treats? I'm bored. Can we go now?]

I have NO idea where we came up with this fancy Western Regional doodad for taking photos behind. Pretty cool, though. At least *I* liked it, Tika!