Dogs Who Hear Quite Well, Thank You Very Much

With all the brouhaha (brouhaha?) (Yes, brouhaha) about Jake's hearing going, it's quite intriguing to realize how acute Tika's hearing is.

The other evening, I was sitting in my office. That's behind a desk. Jake was looking at me. Tika was upstairs napping, presumably on my pillow which is excellent for those of us with allergies and who love inhaling dog hairs while trying to drop off to sleep. I hardly ever invite Jake up on my lap any more because Tika gets jealous and wants attention, too. I've tried ignoring her but she's evil--I think I talked a year or so ago about how she'd go and find a squeaky, squeak it (which is not part of her normal repertoire, thank you very much), and Jake would leap off my lap to go see what the brouhaha (brouhaha? ... never mind) was all about. Then of course she'd come over and point out that my hands were now free for petting other dogs.


So I thought about this. Jake is looking at me. Tika is on the other side of the desk, around the corner, up half a flight of stairs, around a U-turn, up the other flight of stairs...all the turns and corners with walls in the way, mind you...around the corner, into my bedroom, around the corner, and muffled all snug as a bug with my pillow and down comforter fluffling up around her ears.

I thought to myself, thought I, "I'll bet Tika won't be able to hear Jake leap into my lap. On top of being up the stairs, around a corner, etc. [I often think "etc." to myself], he is standing on carpet, so his toenails will make no sound when he leaps. Plus the washer and dryer are both running full out [being dedicated overachieving appliances as they are], so it will deaden the sound of, say, his soft little feet hitting my soft little lap [no observations necessary]."

So I gently patted my chest, the signal for Jake to come up. He leaped. His tags didn't even jangle. I didn't even hear him make much more than a tail-fur-brushing-against-air-molecules sort of sound.

And, an instant after he landed on my lap, I heard kerTHUNKthunk from upstairs, which is the sound of a Tika leaping from a bed, and then the sound of toenails in a rattled tumbling down the wooden-plank stairs, and then Tika skidded into the room around the desk to see why Jake got to be in my lap while I wasn't petting her.

How did she know???

I refused to pet her. I guess she couldn't find a squeakie [spelling arbitrarily changes at the writer's whim], because she vanished and reappeared with a nice shakable toy, which she proceeded to shake vigorously and growl and leap about in Jake's sight. Well, Jake, whose brain molecules don't always cohere into something useful, decided that meant it was playtime and leaped off my lap to go find his own toy.

Of course it was not play time. I was working. But he lost his opportunity to hang out on my lap and offer technical advice about the content of the scripting guide I was working on.

Tika wanted to know why I wasn't petting her.

Bombed at CPE Nationals

Welllllll after we had such a lovely weekend the 5th and 6th, we totally bombed at the CPE Nationals last weekend. The dogs were mostly running nicely but through a combination of flubs, each dog qualified in only 3 out of 9 runs. And we managed only one first the whole time.

All of my Wed. night classmates who do CPE managed to *win* their height/level groups from a combined score over 3 Standard runs for the weekend. It's humiliating to be the only one in our class who didn't win and who wouldn't run in the final (optional) round. One classmate chose not to run her dog because the final run was a fast, Steeplechase-like run in the inside arena that had to be about 100 degrees.

They did award 2nd-place Standard winners for each height/level group, too, and Jake managed to take 2nd--pretty much for showing up, since there was ONLY one other dog in his height/level category. Sigh.

The horrible blow-by-blow weekend:

There were about 250 dogs entered for the weekend. We've had some very good weekends at CPE trials, my dogs are running well, I feel relaxed and confident. I would love to earn High In Trial, but I'm pretty sure that'll require earning either all Qs or maybe just one nonQ for the weekend.

FRIDAY

Full House

This is a point-accumulation game. Jumps are 1 point, tunnels and tires are 3, and there are 3 designated obstacles worth 5 points--in this case, a 6-pole weave and two double jumps. Usually the 5-pointers are harder to do or harder to get to. You can take each obstacle twice for points. You must get at least three 1s, two 3s, and one 5.

Tika excels because she is so fast and so responsive. We are seldom beaten by anyone on points in this game at any height or level. I pick a nice smooth course with a zillion points and my main concern is whether I'll run out of obstacles before time is up. I put her in a sit-stay and lead out confidently to the far side of the course, turn around--and she is standing up PAST the start line, so the clock has already started. She hasn't done this in many runs over several trials. In a regular trial, I'd probably have taken her off the start line and put her away. But it's the first run of a 3-day weekend and what counts this weekend are Qualifying scores to go for overall high in trial. So I let her run. We've hardly started, flowing beautifully, no knocked bars, when the whistle blows. I checked with the timer afterwards; she wasted at least 7 out of our available 30 seconds, standing there over the start line. We do indeed earn enough to qualify, but barely enough to be noticed. 3rd out of 6 dogs. No blue ribbon.

Jake runs a fairly nice, smooth but not fast course for a decent number of points, but 3 points less than the fastest dog, so a Q and a 2nd.

Wildcard

This is essentially a short standard course, but at 3 points in the course you must choose one of 2 obstacles, one harder and one easier. We must take *exactly* 2 of the harder and one of the easier. This particular course is a challenging course with lots of options for the dog and tricky changes of sides and such.

Tika handles it beautifully, no bars down, does exactly what I ask of her, gets through all of the difficult parts--and then on the last obstacle I don't call hard enough and she takes the wrong last jump. So we have to circle around to complete the correct one to avoid major faults. Despite being way out of place and having to come back in and take another obstacle, she's less than 4 seconds slower than the dog who took first. She's still good for a third out of 10 dogs, but at her level the offcourse prevents a Q.


Jake is good through most of it but we have a couple of close calls where he does that mysterious turn-in-a-different-direction thing and I just barely managed to call him away from the wrong obstacle twice. But he's slowing way down each time. We manage to be the only one of 3 dogs in our class with a clean run, so we do manage a Q and a 1st. I'm feeling somewhat good about Jake--2 Qs for 2 runs. But we're struggling with his deafness or whatever ails him and he's slowing down as the day goes on.

On the other hand, I'm extremely depressed about Tika's runs.

Colors

This consists of 3 somewhat intertwined courses of 8 obstacles each, each numbered 1 thru 8 in different-colored cones (hence "colors"). You pick one course to run.

Tika Qs in only about half of these, because they prohibit knocked bars and she does have a tendency to knock them. But she's been much better at the last couple of trials and so far today hasn't knocked any. I try a challenging lead-out pivot (yes, she stays at the start line), but when I release her, she runs *past* the second jump. So I have to run back towards the beginning, circle her around to avoid a backjump (which would be an offcourse); she comes with me nicely but--knocks the bar as she finally goes over it. At this point, I'm also on the wrong side for the rest of the course. We get through the rest of it with several spins and bobbles, but no other faults. Still, it's NOT that hard for most dogs to Q in Colors, and indeed we're the only ones who don't in a class of 5 dogs.

I run a different course with Jake (I used the course with the dogwalk for Tika because I liked the flow better for a long-strided, fast dog; I used the course with the Aframe for Jake because he often gets a fly-of on the dogwalk). Jake takes off from the start line at only a slow run. We get through the first couple of turns but then he again does that turn-away-from-me bit and I yell yell yell to get him to come back. He looks hard at the wrong obstacle but finally STOPS, turns, and kind of trots back to me. We get back on course and now he's barely trotting. This is the speed he uses when we go out for a walk in the morning! This is not agility speed! We're almost to the last obstacle and we merely have to go in a straight line to the final jump--and again he veers off at a right angle towards the wrong jump. I'm standing there, calling, calling; he slows gradually, almost to a stop, then resumes that miserably slow trot in the right direction. We are, in fact, completely clean. But the course time is NOT that generous when you have only 8 obstacles! Indeed, when the results come up, he is one blankety second over time. No Q. But someone must have done worse than we did, because he's 3rd of 4 dogs.

And that was my first day. One Q with Tika, no blue ribbons. We are probably out of the running, unless things go very badly for everyone else, but we can still get 6 out of 6 for the next 2 days and maybe, just maybe... Jake has a slightly better chance, since he has 2 Qs, but I don't know why he's slowed down so much, and missing a Q by a second is damned depressing. Is he not feeling well? No, half an hour later he's playing frisbee like a madman. Is it something I'm doing? I've been warming him up before his runs with tricks and treats. But I *know* he runs faster if I can get him to play tug of war beforehand. It's just that that takes SO much more work on my part, and then I'm tired when I get into the ring.

Thank the gods Tika is self-propelled. I don't know whether she'd be faster if I played tug before we went in. She couldn't be much faster! I'm more concerned with her about keeping her focused on me before we go into the ring.

All of my friends have all Qs for the day. Or maybe one or 2 of them (we have 25 Bay Teamers there plus of course lots of other people I know fairly well) have missed a Q. But there are Qs and blue ribbons all around me. I am not happy with my day.

SATURDAY

It's going to be a hot day. Warm already when we get up. First run of the day is--

Snooker

This game is also a point-accumulation game, with 2 parts: In the opening, you must take a red 1-pointer followed by a higher-point obstacle, then a different red followed by a higher-pt obstacle (could be the same one), then another different red and another higher-pt obstacle. In the closing, you do the obstacles numbered 2 thru 7 in the correct order. With this kind of set-up, the highest points that you can earn are 51 (1-7-1-7 in the opening and 2-3-4-5-6-7 in the closing). But it depends on where the 7-pointer is located how easy it is to get higher points in the opening.

On this particular course, the 7 is a sequence of 2 jumps and a 6-pole weave pole. The 6 is a combination of a jump and a tunnel. This is going to be a very tricky one, because the jump that's part of 6 is *also* one of the red jumps. So you could do that jump twice followed by the tunnel, which would give you a red and the #6. But you have to remember whehter you were using the jump as a red or as part of #6! The judge also says that if you knock the jump in the opening, it will count as 0 points for the #6 in the closing. Could be an issue with Tika, but ya gotta go for it.

Jake is never fast in competition in the weaves, and he was so slow yesterday. So I don't really want to try #7 in the opening for fear we won't have time to get through the whole thing. But I see almost everyone walking the course with three #6 in the opening because it's fast and flows fairly well. So I decide to start with one #7 and then go into two #6s. I walk several different combinations of all 6s or two 6s and a 7, finally pick a flow that I like, and walk it over and over because the tricky thing with that multipurpose jump. I get him revved up beforehand by playing tug. I have to really work at it, but he looks excited. Sure enough, he blasts away from the startline, whips through #7, and we're on our way to what I know will be a great snooker run. He's very responsive, running quite well, looking at me instead of turning away and looking at other obstacles. We blast through #6 and I suddenly panice, thinking I've already taken the red that we're heading for, so I swerve and take a different red on the way back to our second #6. Jake responds perfectly and happily and quickly--and the judge blows the whistle. Sure enough, I should have taken the red that I was originally aiming for, because I used one of the other reds twice in my sudden panic. Jeez, I've been doing this game for years and I always try to run it as a NUMBERED course (that is, I don't have options on the course--I pick the course, I learn it, I run it that way so I DON'T have to think on course).

So Jake was running beautifully but we were whistled off without even enough points to qualify. And because I stopped and looked baffled when the judge whistled, he called me over to tell me what we did wrong. And as a result I forgot to get to the finish before petting my dog. So we got a no-time and couldn't even get a placement ribbon (even if we'd have had enough points to place).

With Tika, who does lovely weaves and is always fast, I picked a nice flowing opening with two 7s and one 6. She stayed at the start line as I led out. She didn't knock the first red--which is good because then I would've had to try to get to another red instead of the #7 and I'd have never made it on that course. BUT then she knocked the first bar of #7, so I knew we wouldn't get credit for that occurrence. But normally in snooker you can fault an obstacle only once--in other words, if you knock the bar the first time, you don't get credit for that, but you do get credit for it the rest of the time.

She was flying and SO responsive and hit her weave pole entries perfectly. We swooped around for our 2nd #7--and the judge called 0 points a second time! It dawns on me that when the judge was talking about knocked bars, he was talking about ANY bars on ANY obstacle not counting EVER after you've knocked it. Now I know I'm doomed because there's no way I can get enough points to qualify, because I also won't get credit for the #7 in the closing. Tika runs beautifully, knocks no other bars, has no bobbles, gets all the way through the course many seconds faster than the next best dog. But indeed we fail to qualify. I'm in tears--again-- Even if I had realized that I wouldn't have gotten credit for the 2nd 7 in the opening, I would never have been able to make up another course on the fly that took her into, say, #6 instead of back into the #7 I walked. And she ran SO nicely.

Standard

A numbered course of between 14 (minimum at lower levels) and 22 (max at higher levels) obstacles, including all of the contacts, jumps, tunnels, chutes, double jumps, and so on.

Now it's time for the first Standard run of the weekend. Even if we can't get overall high in trial, we could get high in the 3 standard runs and earn an award there. The course is challenging but not as challenging as many we've run and succeeded at.

Again I warm up Jake with tug of war. Again he's pretty darned fast. He even gets his dogwalk contact. But the final stretch has a challenging right-angle entrance to the Aframe that is complicated by the tunnel underneath the Aframe facing the dog. Jake gets a little bit ahead of me, moving very fast, and doesn't react at all to my attempts to call him in my direction and takes the tunnel for an offcourse and there goes our Q.

Tika lies down at the start line after I have led out, so there is nothing I can do about it. Not too happy, because from there she often knocks the first bar. I release her--and she knocks the first bar. This would still be a qualifying run, although only half a Q. She runs it beautifully, including a lovely smooth handling of the threading around the obstacles where Jake went off course. We zoom towards the finish line, just 2 straight jumps, no offcourses possible, and I let up and drop my arm and say "good girl" or some such as she takes the last jump--and she knocks the bar.

Now we don't qualify at all. It was a hard enough course that Tika still places 2nd of 4 dogs. But I wanted the Qs.

Standard Round 2--Another chance at standard, although by now we're probably completely out of the running for any awards.

Again I warm up Jake with tug. Again he's super fast and happy. No bobbles. Challenging course but he handles wonderfully--until in the homestrech, where he has to push away from me to go up the Aframe and avoid going into the tunnel underneath (dang tunnel-under-the-aframe thing this weekend)--and he just isn't PUSHing and sure enough I run out of room and have to veer away and he goes into the tunnel. There goes our Q. But I still want to complete the course correctly. So I call him back, push him out towads the Aframe (he used to have a LOVELY "out") and at the last moment he veers into the tunnel. Repeat a third time. Dagnabbit. At least he looks happy and he's still running at speed.

Tika has a beautiful, nearly flawless run, but then for some reason turns back to me before the last jump (she used to do this often but not in a long time) and when she finally spins to take the jump, she knocks the bar. Half a Q for a 2nd out of 4 dogs, but that's not going to be good enough to save us.

Reno the Corgi, one of our friends with 6 Qs after the first day and the eventual winner of the Standard Final championship

I'm just about ready to pack everything up and go home. One half Q for the whole day. What a sucky weekend. This is quite below our overall average and WAY below our CPE average (Jake's is nearly 70% Qs). Can you say bummed? I know I'm supposed to be having fun, but I *so* believed that we could have been a contender, and we are doing SO badly, and my friends are doing SO well. Even the little dog who isn't built for running and also has a flat pushed in face so finds it hard to breathe has decided that THIS is HIS weekend and is hauling his butt and already has 3 Qs for the weekend! And they earned their Qs and really deserved them, too Most of my friends have 6 for each of their dogs. Not everyone, but all of my Wed classmates anyway. Or maybe they've missed 1. But I just suck. Self-flaggellation continues unabated.

SUNDAY

I am slightly more cheery today. Now I know that I am so far out of the running that it doesn't matter. In fact, I am almost too relaxed. As in, who gives a f**** if we Q, we are so f***** this weekend and f**** it anyway. I am probably not pleasant to be around.

Gamblers

A point-accumulation game with 2 parts. In the first part, you just take as many obstacles as you can to earn points. The trick is to be in a good running position when the whistle blows for the 2nd part, the "gamble", where you have to manage your dog over 4 or 5 obstacles up to 20 feet away from you without crossing the gamble line taped on the ground.

This one is a tough but doable gamble. There are 2 tunnels in U shapes facing each other with a jump in the middle. There is a table back behind the line of those 3 obstacles, between one tunnel and a jump. Dog goes into near side of the first tunnel, so he's coming out the FAR side of that tunnel, over the jump, then into the FAR side of the 2nd tunnel. This is tough because coming out of the first tunnel he's facing the NEAR side of the 2nd tunnel and he's running full speed. So you need to be way out ahead of him as he's going over the jump so you can turn and PUSH him with a good "OUT" command into the far side of the tunnel. Then when he comes out of the near side of the tunnel, you have to get him to turn directly away from you and go out to the table. Both of my dogs are capable of this if *I* handle it correctly.

Tika is first. I've picked an aggressive opening with lots of points. We just get started, and she lawn-darts her Aframe contact! (That is, takes off from up high and lands straight down on the groudn without ever getting her feet in the contact zone.) She hasn't missed a contact in maybe 8 months! We are both surprised, I think. It's not a fault in gamblers, but we do miss 5 points, and I don't want her doing it again, so we do sort of a standing-time-out (I go nowhere, she goes nowhere, which she hates). We go back and do the Aframe again and it's perfect.

But we've lost some time and some points, so I'm going to have to adjust the rest of my opening to make up for the time so I'm in the right place for the gamble. I try to send her *out* to another high-point obstacle instead of running with her, and she goes *around* it! And then she's growfing at me for being unclear and I have trouble turning her to try to get her to try it again, and we're bobbling around in the corenr between a jump and the beginning of the gamble, getting NO points, and the whistle blows. I manage somehow to give her a signal such that she goes OVER the gamble tunnel. That's still not a fault, and I somehow get her into the tunnel, but I'm in a very bad position and furthermore I hesitate as I start to run and look back over my shoulder to be sure she's---ZOOOM! She goes right past me and into the wrong end of the other tunnel, despite my feeble attempts at "OUT"--I'm just not in the right position.

Jake has a lovely opening. Usually he gets quite a few fewer points than Tika because she's so fast and has such good contacts. But he gets his contacts, and alhtough his turns are very wide, I don't actually lose him anywhere on the course and we are in absolutely the most perfect position you could imagine when the whistle blows and he goes into the tunnel and I run like heck and I am in the exact perfect spot and I turn towards him as he heads for the jump and I give a big "OUT!" and a very strong body, arm, and leg signal and I HOLD it so the pressure stays on and he starts to veer towards the var end of the tunnel--and then at the last mmoment turns back and takes the wrong end. Sigh. Maybe if I had REAPEATED the "OUT!" and pushed AGAIN, but sometimes that backfires...

In fact, Jake ends u with *8*!! more points than Tika in the opening.

No Qs again.

We're getting down to the end of the weekend and I feel that I have nothing to show for it. The placement ribbons are lovely huge rosettes, but I don't really care much because they're not coming with the Qs, which are what count.

Jumpers

A very fast numbered course consisting only of jumps of various kinds and tunnels.

But now it's time for Jumpers, which Jake almost always Qs if I can keep him on course these days, and Tika abosolutely LOVES and flies around the course although she does have a history of knocked bars--still, 5 out of her last 6 jumpers runs have been clean. And if she's clean, nobody beats her. It's a very fast course with essentially figure 8s made up of tunnels and jumps, but you have to do some serious call-offs as the dog is flying and there's one nifty 180-degree turn after a 3-obstacle straight run.

We get a chance to watch dozens of dogs on the course ahead of us. A lot of the fast dogs are crashing and burning, but a few are hanging in there. Most of the slower dogs, with times of 30 seconds or more, are doing fine. Tika won't have that kind of time, guaranteed. One dog finished the course clean in something under 23 seconds. A couple of very fast, smooth border collies are at 24 something seconds. We're wondering whether anyone can break 20 seconds on that course.

Sooooooo Tika stays at the start line until released and starts flying. At that danged 180, I call TOO early and call her off the last straight obstacle, and she responds PERFECTLY but I have to spin her around and get her to go out over that jump. That kind of maneuver is usually about 3 seconds. We get back on target and she is FLYING. I almost hardly have to move from the center of the course and she reponds BEAUTIFULLY. But then the last 2 jumps are a sharp 90-degree turn, and--cautious from the last call-off, I call too LATE and she knocks the next-to-last bar. Sighhhh...

She ends up with a course time of 23.52 even WITH that spin-around-missed-obstacle, and at her level she can still Q with a knocked bar, but it also drops her to a mere 2nd place out of about 5 dogs.

Again I warm up Jake with tug. This is working very well. Not only is he faster, but he seems to pay more attention to *me* instead of to obstacles. But, halfway through the course, he *crashes* a jump. Someone said afterwards that it's as if he didnt' see it until the last moment (it was a turn after a tunnel with me between him and it). He slowed down a lot, and I thought he might have hurt himself, but he picked up speed again and finished beautifully.

See, in Jake's ENTIRE agility career, he has knocked a bar in jumpers maybe 5 times, ever. EVER. So WHY at the d***ed NATIONALS is when he knocks a bar? Because, at his level, that is NOT a Q.

Standard Round 3

Taking us to our final Standard run of the weekend. I really feel kind of sick. I really feel humilated. My friends are still racking up the Qs. Most have now missed one Q for the weekend, but still... I just want to pack up and go home. But there's always that quest for MAYBE I'll Q THIS round.

It was another challenging course. Jake was happy and fast and, although he somehow fell off the side of the teeter when it hit the ground instead of running off the front end, he bounced right back up and rann ran ran and YAY we had a clean fast run for a Q. A couple of very wide turns, but no real struggles for control or veers away from me. Still, we were 3 seconds slower than that darned Max, who is also about 6 years younger than Jake. So again it was only a 2nd.

Tika was slowing down, of all things. It was pretty hot and the end of a long weekend. (But we did 18 runs each dog Memorial Weekend over 3 days, so this was nuthin'.) But still she ran beautifully, got all her contacts, kept all her bars up--and then, just before the last sequence of jumps to the finish, I forgot to cross in front of the weaves to handle a turn/turn over the last jumps--don't know why, I WALKED it correctly and I did it right with JAKE, but NOOOO I couldn't do it right with her--and so when I did a cross to make up for it, it was in the wrong place, pulld Tika past the next-to-last jump, and when I stopped, she was in such a position and angle that she backjumped the jump. Arghhhhh--!! There went my final possibility for a Q for the weekend.


Argh I immediately started packing up. I just wanted to get out of there. I couldn't stand the thought of watching everyone I knew in the final round and getting their awards and not being part of it. What a rotten attitude, huh? But of course I wasn't done packing before they started the final round, so I thought I'd just watch a couple, and then the people I knew ran SO nicely and they were SO much fun to watch, and I just stayed for a couple more... And by the time the final round was done, they were ready to hand out awards, so I went to sit and watch my friends get all of their trophies.

I hadn't realized that they were handing out trophies for 2nd place over the 3 standard runs--so I was quite surprised (in cynical and depressed sort of way) when they called our name to receive our trophy! I have been pointing out that there were only 2 16" championship-level dogs running standard, but I guess we do have to take credit for earning our way up to C level. Stilll... it's even less than anticlimactic.

Tika's Agility Adventure

I went on at length about *one run* in Jake's weekend; now here's Tika's info.

Tika is doing *so* well in agility! She Qed 7 out of 18 at Memorial weekend's NADAC, which isn't great, but I can attribute several of the non-Qs to really stupid handler tricks (it wasn't one of my greatest weekends--e.g., I left Jake's collar on for one lovely run!). And she Qed 7 out of 10 at this weekend's CPE, blasting away the competition with 9 first places (usually beating out all the other dogs, any height, any level), including a beautiful gamble that only 2 out of all of the dogs got. OK, it was a small, low-level trial, but still there were some pretty good dogs there.

She had perfect start-line stays this weekend; previous weekend she stood up once and I told her to sit & she did, and she lay down twice after I had walked away from the startline. Out of 18 runs, that's not bad.

All of her contacts have been beautiful. A couple of times she has left before the "OK" and I've done the standing-time-out thing and then she's been good.

She is so responsive and happy and fast. What a joy!

Here's the adventure, though. She has grown up and matured so much that I sometimes let her hang out around the canopy off-leash with me and Jake. Saturday afternoon she was snoozing on the grass while I rubbed her tummy. I got involved in writing notes about some of my runs. She suddenly leaped to her feet, all a-quiver, and just out of arm's reach. I said her name, and she took off in full squirrel-chasing mode across the crating area and towards the kennels next to the site.

It was then that I realized that a dog in the kennel had started shrieking and yowling, yipping and doing that thing that I don't know what to call--deep in the throat sort of howling/grinding sound that is SO grating... in fact, doing *exactly* the horrific noises that Tika does when I leave her in the house while walking Jake, or sometimes when there's a cat or a loose dog outside. Godawful piercing noises.

Anyway, she was trying desperately to get into the building where the noise was (like she runs back & forth trying to get thru the fence at class when she sees a cat or squirrel). I was right behind her as fast as I could go. I called her 3 or 4 times; about the fourth time, while I waited in one spot and tried to sound nonthreatening (I really didn't want her taking off in some other direction and didn't think I could chase her down) she decided that she couldn't get into the building and, instead of taking off around the other side, she actually came back to me. Very stressed looking, ears pointed back at the building, but she actually came. I told her briefly that she was good for coming back, and walked her on collar back to the crates.

In her crate, she went ape-shit. SHE started doing the same shrieking and that grinding/moaning sound, spinning and spinning and crashing around in her crate. I tried bitter apple a couple of times and it stopped it for about 10 seconds. Each time I walked away to go walk a course or whatever, she'd start all over again. You could hear her all the way to Timbuktu.

I took her out (on leash) and practiced just having her do things with me--walking at my side on a "Close" command, doing tricks, just massaging her and talking calmly to her, and more attention games and more tricks. She did them, but very agitatedly, her ears turned all the time towards the building (even after the dog finally stopped, she continued), and every time after I'd say OK or give her a goodie, she'd spin back immediately towards the building and lunge out on the leash.

She had to run a course about 10 minutes after the dog had stopped, but she was *still* frantic, still spinning in her crate, still shrieking, still totally wired when out on her leash. Before I went into the ring, I told Diane Blackman, "Here's my bet: She'll stay at the start line until I say ok, then she'll run straight at that building" (the shrieking dog had been RIGHT at the far side of the agility course we were about to run)--that's what she does in class with the squirrels and cats, right?

I sat her at the start line, and sure enough she tweaked herself to face the building. I moved her back to face the first obstacle and again she tweaked to face the building. I left her, waited briefly (she was looking at the building, not at me), then said OK. Here's the weird thing--

SHE CAME RIGHT WITH ME and did the obstacles! I was so startled that I crossed when I meant to push, and so then I had to call her AROUND the wrong obstacle, and she STAYED with me! And then I pushed when I meant to cross, and AGAIN had to call her off the wrong thing and spin her around, and now she was paying COMPLETE attention to me and sticking with me (although a couple of woof/growls for that "mom, you're messing up" thing), and when we had to leave the course, I just praised her like crazy and she was FINE after that.

Small victories... OK, actually I felt that was a BIG victory...

But I don't understand her behavior in response to that other dog. There were a few other dogs who seemed slightly agitated by it, but got over it quickly, but none that I was aware of who reacted like she did.

Jake's Sixth Championship!

Wow. We had a great CPE agility weekend. Tika Qed 7 out of 10, Jake Qed 8 out of 10.

Furthermore, we went into the weekend with Jake needing two Snooker Qs for his CATCH (CPE Agility Trial Champion title). The club just happened to be offering two Snooker runs, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. I had thought that I was viewing the whole thing as somewhat of an entertainment--after all, Jake has already earned his ADCH and APD (Performance equivalent of ADCH) in USDAA, his NATCH and O-NATCH (double NATCH) in NADAC, and in the process of the latter, his ATCH in ASCA-- and it seemed that way all the way through even Saturday's snooker run, which we got (and took 1st place, too) despite some hanging-by-the-hair-on-our-toenails turns and goofs.

In which Ellen discovers that she actually cares a great deal. But by Sunday morning my stomach was tied in gargantuan Wow This Is Big kinds of knots. Snooker wouldn't be until the third run of the day, and my tension grew by the minute. Snooker is, really, among Jake's best overall classes. And I knew I'd be looking for the most conservative possible course for the two of us, so it *shouldn't* be any big deal to simply go out there and run it. But I discovered that I really DID care and it really WAS a big deal to me.

How many CATCHes are there anyway? When the first CPE trial took place in CA just over 2 years ago, there were no CATCHes anywhere in the U.S.; the venue was just too new. A year ago, there were only about a dozen CATCHes. Now, of course, there are enough clubs offering CPE trials and dogs have been competing long enough that there were 48 CATCHes in existence after last weekend. And there have already been 2 CATCHes on California dogs this spring, so Jake wouldn't even be the first from CA. But he would be the first All-American from CA (and the first Semidachshund ANYWHERE, but unfortunately they just lump him in with all the other ORDINARY All-Americans). And being 3rd is still way better than being 200th or 400th or whatever we were for ADCHes and NATCHes. (Hmmm, I'll have to see whether I can track down those numbers....)

Several others are working on theirs, too...be the first on my block... As of a couple of months ago, when we all started counting how many Qs we needed for our CATCHes, there were 3 or 4 of us who could conceivably earn enough legs before the CPE nationals (next weekend) to have our CATCHes. Then Spike cut his foot open and was out of commission for several weeks, missing at least 2 CPE trials. Scully and Arlene had to pick and choose weekends because she normally works weekends, which meant that they had to earn *every* possible leg. And the odds are against that, and indeed a few fell by the wayside. But Jake kept racking up the legs he needed. Turns out that, at this weekend's trial, there were one or 2 other dogs who needed just one or 2 legs for their CATCHes. Although it's a blast to see other people earn their titles--sometimes I think it's more thrilling for the audience than for the handler--none-the-less it's nice to not have to share the weekend with others earning theirs, or to be the first if there's more than one. I dunno--just one of those ego things, i guess.

No Pressure, Nossir. In the past, I've mostly been low-key about telling people how close we were to key titles. I put enough pressure on myself, without thinking that everyone else is watching, too, and seeing my FAILURES if I don't get it. This time, though, Arlene has been quite the cheerleader, asking us all constantly about our status and coaching us through things and letting everyone within a 6,000-mile radius know how close we were... So people--including the Judge, who coincidentally happened to be the VP of CPE, first time any of the Big Muckitys from Back Easterly have been out to CA to judge--were asking me all weekend, Is This The Run? I Heard You're Really Close? Is THIS the Run? And it was a small trial (VERY small for a CA trial--only 200 runs a day! Bay Team's big trials can be up to 1400 runs a day!), so it seemed that everyone there knew by Sunday afternoon, even novice people I'd never had a chance to meet.

That is one nice thing about agility--everyone is so friendly and supportive.


Snooker course; actual course had about 20 feet of open space on all sides. The #7 obstacle consisted of 2 jumps that had to be taken in flow (up or down in the opening) but no wraps or other tricky stuff.
In which Ellen's friends take her under their wings. ANYWAY, it's Sunday morning. My friends, Arlene in particular, grabbed their Snooker course maps first thing in the morning and started sketching out possible snooker courses for us. "Conservative!" Arlene kept saying. She was quite miffed at us a month ago at our last CPE, where I had picked a low-scoring (but not perfect) opening and then at the last minute changed to a more aggressive, higher-scoring (and probably just about as doable) opening and then muffed it. The thing is, with Jake's difficulties hearing (and, I am believing more and more as he misses toys that I kick or toss in the back yard, and seeing well), if I want to guarantee to qualify, I can't pick a course where he can get ahead of me OR where he could turn away from me (which he has been doing more often) and find an obstacle that's easy to do.

Unlike Saturday's course, where there really was only one conservative (but high-scoring) path--which almost all the dogs used--Sunday's had many options for reasonable paths through the opening. On paper, my pals picked 2 or 3 options and explained them to me. Personally, I hate picking courses before I see the way that it really looks on the field. There are too many slips twixt the cup and the lip. Or some other appropriate aphorism. So I glanced at it to get a feel for what would be out there, but reserved judgement until I got there.

The options are almost overwhelming. By the time we get out there, the number of possibilities has blossomed. And as we start walking, my coaches present even more possibilities. I do a quick walk on each of them to see how they feel. Mind you, I not only have to pick one, but walk it enough times to feel completely comfortable with it so I don't have to think on course. This is what we always do, but at that moment the number of options was getting to be a bit on the high side.

(a) I could do lower-right red to #7 to upper-right red to #6 to lower-left red to #5 and into the closing (starting with #2). I didn't like this because we'd have to sneak from the bottom of #6 around #5 and the bottom of #7 and the red I'd already used to get to the lower-left red, plus then there was the wrap through #5 to get to #2, which just didn't look comfy.

(b) I could start with the lower-left red, do a big lead-out to #7, and then proceed as before (switching lower reds). Jake does an excellent lead-out for snooker and comes straight to me, ignoring equipment on either side. However, every once in a blue moon when I do a long lead-out, he either knocks the bar (in which case I'd have to scramble to figure out a replacement course on the spur of the moment) or even, lately, goes *around* the first jump. I didn't want to take those very slim chances this time.

(c) Lower-right red to #6 to upper-left red to either #4 or far end of #2 to lower-left red to #5. Still have that nasty wrap to #5. Plus going #6 to the upper-left red--Jake has lately been doing this weird thing of turning AWAY from me and taking an obstacle, so he could possibly have turned away and taken the upper-right red after the upper-left. AND I'd have had to keep him away from the #3 tunnel, which would be hard because I'd have to be on the inside of the course to get to 2 or 4. AND with #2 he could have gotten out ahead of me and taken a wrong obstacle. AND with #4 he sometimes pops that Aframe. I'd rather deal with that only in the closing, not the opening.


Handler path dotted line; dog's path solid line

My final choice was to be on his left side (his starting position (A) on course map), take the lower-right red to #6, push out ((B) on course map) to upper-right red towards the top and pull him, me still on his left side, into the right end of #3; then I could be in front of him as he came out #3 ((C) on map), pull to the upper-left red and cross in front of the red ((D) on map, me on his left again) to pull him into the weaves , and push hard just as his head comes around the last pole of #6 ((E) on map) into the #2 for the closing sequence.

In the closing, my concerns were getting from #4 to #5 (when he leaps off the Aframe, even if he gets toes in the contact zone, he can get way out ahead of me and I think that the lower-left red was closer than it appears), then from 5 to 6 instead of heading straight out to #7. I'd have to be on the inside (his left) of #6 to keep him away from 7, so then I figured I'd do a "turn" command as he came out of weaves to get him to 7A.

It seemed good. Fortunately Tika was up first, so she was my course beta-tester. Everything worked like a charm, except that when I said "turn" after the weaves in the closing, she turned sharply and tried to go right back into the weaves! I managed to push her away from them and get her out over the 7, but it gave me something to think about.

And here we go-- Stepping up to the start line with Jake, I could hear people talking about us all around the course. I put Jake in a sit, stretched my arms way out, took a deep breath, and cried out, "No pressure! None at all!" I led out almost to the weaves, and then released him. We were off and running. Once again, it worked beautifully. He did indeed fly off the Aframe in the closing a little early, but I heard the judge call out "4!", so I knew he got his toes in. I called called called, and he slowed gradually and turned towards me, fortunately long before he got to that offside red. The #5 to #6 was actually very nice because he had carried out from the Aframe so far that it was pretty much a straight line.

Then, from the weaves, I PUSHED his head out to #7 just as I had pushed to #2 in the opening and then crossed behind, and it worked beautifully. In truth, we needed only to get through the #5 to earn enough points, but of course you want to finish in style!

Wahooooo--stress gone! Jake's latest championship now official! VAST (host club) members were standing by ringside with our official Jump Bar and a big fancy purple ribbon for me to carry while we did a victory lap around the field. It didn't occur to me until afterwards to remember that, if I hadn't crossed the finish line with Jake before stopping to celebrate, I could have NQed the run and not gotten credit for it! Thank goodness that Jake carried out all by himself past the finish line.

Then they took our photos, then later I had a friend take our photos, then later again we had our photo taken with the judge. Arlene made me take off my sunglasses, and the breeze was briskly blowing my bangs back, plus I have a giant spaniel exploding out of the top of my head, so I'm not sure that I look quite like me, but I guess I'm recognizable.

Casey is a Handsome Beast

Backfill: June 7 '04 While my housemate was out of town last weekend, her friends Susan and Dave took Casey with their dogs up to the Sierras to have a scintillating high-sierra doggie hike or two. Dave is an aspiring Real Photographer to the Dogs, and he took some beautiful photos. I am awed by the quality, color, and clarity of the photos. Here is a low-resolution version of his portrait of Casey, He Who Can Usually Do a Jump-Tunnel-Jump In Sequence.

Allowing Comments Now--I Think--

OK, all youse out there. I have enabled commenting on this blog site. I think. This will test it. If it appears, I'd be delighted to see dog-related thoughts or responses to my posts. Here we go-- Format not great but that's for another day.

An above-average agility weekend

Statistics are so much--um--fun? Trouble? Pointless trivia? I figured out that, over my entire agility career with all 3 dogs, my qualification average is 40%. That is, out of every 10 runs we do in competition, we get qualifying scores in 4 of them. That feels like it sucks. Although I'm sure we do better then some.

One friend runs a French Bulldog. He's a game little guy, who for some inexplicable reason has been getting faster and more enthusiastic about doing agility the older he gets, and he's getting up there! But even when he's running full out, his body just isn't built for doing agility. I'm sure that there are some Frenchies who can manage to make time more often--just as there's at least one Basset Hound who can whup the Corgis' butts in this area--but I'm guessing it's rare. Still, they keep competing and they keep improving and she keeps having fun (which, after all, is SUPPOSED to be why we're here). I try to remember that when I'm annoyed at myself for doing something dunderheaded in the ring.

Seemed as though my head had more than its share of dunders this weekend. Still, I see that we Qed 16 out of 36 runs (sheesh! no WONDER I could barely move last night!), which is 44%, so I guess that makes it above average. If Saturday hadn't been so gawdawful--1 Q per dog out of 6 runs each--I'd have felt better about things.

If I hadn't left Jake's collar on during a perfectly executed, very complicated jumpers course that most dogs mucked up, I'd have felt better about things.

If I had Kept Up The Pressure when sending Tika out to--the Tunnel on Saturday, the Jump on Monday, the _______ (fill in obstacle) on __________ (fill in day), I'd have felt better about things.

The dogs were actually very good. People keep commenting on how good Tika has turned out after all of last year's challenges. And she is SO fast! In her Weavers course on Saturday, she missed the entrance to TWO sets of weave poles (and we've been working SO hard on that!) so I had to spin her around and restart them both--and she still beat all 16 dogs in her class by 2 seconds or more. Someone said to me "She's too fast to be in Novice!" (only in the "new games" that haven't been around for long).

Speed has nothing to do with it. I'm blown away over and over by the speed and skill of so many novice dogs these days. This is not your father's novice agility! (If your father was doing agility when it started here in northern CA 12 years ago, or when I started 9 years ago--)

And of course Jake is 12 1/2 and people marvel at his energy level. By Sunday afternoon on a danged hot day when I was drooping like 10-day old celery, even the driven Tika dog slowed down on her last run and then bailed off the Aframe! Only reason we could figure was that she just was hot and tired. But I got Jake out for his last 2 runs, and he was the superball of semidachshunds, leaping straight into the air to try to get me to give him more doggie junk food, wagging his tail, perky perky perky. Ran two runs and his tongue was barely hanging out, his eyes sparkling, dancing in circles asking for more.

I pray to the Gods In Charge of Such Stuff that I have that kind of stamina and energy when I'm his equivalent in dog years. Or human years. Whichever.

Ramble ramble ramble.

Not That Things Have Been Quiet--

Just way too busy. We're off for 3 days of agility for the Memorial Day weekend. Then 2 days next weekend. Then the CPE Nationals for 3 days the following weekend. That's 8 days in 3 weekends! If that doesn't satisfy the dawgs, nuthing will! Then I think I actually will be taking 4-5 weekends off. Hard to imagine--but I *am* trying to do stuff other than agility.

Think I'll drop in to London for a few days.

Nationals Competitions, just a thought or two

If Tika qualifies one more time in a Grand Prix before the end of September, she'd be qualified for the USDAA Nationals in AZ in November. This would be Tika's first time at the USDAA Nationals. Jake and Remington both went 2 years in a row when it was in San Diego. (My first year my goal was to go. The 2nd time the goal was not to be eliminated in the first round. Met both goals.) They qualified to go in other years but I've been in no mood to go to TX when there's been no chance in heck for us to make it to the finals. But I'll go to AZ with the same chance.

Actually Jake & Tika both qualified for the CPE nationals this year and that's in June near Sacramento this year, so that'll really be Tika's first Nationals competition ever.

What Are People Thinking, Follow-up

When I picked up those 2 little strays the other day, one of the people I talked to in the neighborhood said that they looked something like the 2 dogs who belonged to one of the Asian families nearby and who had gotten out once before, but he was pretty sure the Asian family had moved.

When I dropped them off at the SPCA, they gave me their case #s so that I could call and see whether they'd been claimed. When I called 2 days later, the person I talked to said that a note had been entered (she wasn't permitted to tell me where the info came from) that the owners of the dogs had moved. I wonder whether the folks I talked to over here called the pound to check on them, too, and told them the same thing?

Anyway, I called again today and they're still unclaimed, so now they're going through the process of being up for adoption. The woman told me that they had passed their medical exams and tomorrow they'd do behavioral testing and then, if they passed, they'd be available.

Interesting how it works. When I dropped them off, I could have put a deposit of $60 each to reserve adoption rights if no one else claimed them. I didn't really want to do that.

It turns out that you can also put down a $50 deposit for a chance at specific breeds of dogs if they come in. And since we listed one of them as a sheltie mix, and shelties are a commonly requested breed, there would be people in line behind me if I went up and said I wanted to adopt one of them.

Where are the owners? Why would they get a dog spayed and then not be looking for it?

The little blond sheltie mix was very cute, agile, strong.

Nononono I don't need another dog right now.

Why I Never Do Anything But Agility

A friend asked about plans for November. I said, "Here's what I'm doing in agility in Nov--"
She said, "I thought I was planning so far ahead that no one would have plans yet!!! Yeesh!!! :-)"

So here's the thing about agility in California. Most of the agility clubs have standard weekends on which they hold their events. For example, our club (The Bay Team) always has a trial on the last weekend of March and of July, the 1st weekend of May, and Labor Day weekend. Multiply by a couple or 3 dozen clubs in (reasonable) driving distance-- I just got a 4-year planning calendar showing exactly which dates things will probably fall on.

Challenge is that not everything stays put--most of the various national finals (there's the AKC nationals, the USDAA nationals, the NADAC nationals, the CPE nationals. First 2 are the big ones) move around. Which really screws up everyone else's schedules. Then sometimes new clubs start up and they claim various weekends. Then sometimes various venues become unavailable so events have to change dates to accomodate new venues. Or e.g., our club used to do 1st weekend in November but it rained too often so we switched to July.

But mostly I can predict what I'll be doing 4 years from next weekend...argh.

What Are People Thinking?

I took 2 stray dogs to the humane society this morning. Cute little things, very friendly, quite overweight, one a sheltie mix, one a spaniel mix. Both terribly overweight. One recently spayed, still has stitches.

One was wearing a collar but had no tags. The other one had no collar. They almost got run over twice--once by me backing out of my driveway and once when they ran across the street to say hi to a man walking by, who checked them for tags and then turned them loose again. Someone else thought they recognized them and suggested some houses to try; I drove them there but no one recognized them. I walked them all around the neighborhood (a mile and a half), talking to people, hoping they'd be recognized or would take me to their home, but no such luck. Drove them to the local vet to get them scanned for microchips, but no such luck.

Dropped them off at the humane society in Santa Clara this morning. They hold them for 5 days for the owners and then put them up for adoption if there are no health or personality problems and they haven't been claimed.

Why don't people ID their dogs? I think I've ranted about this before. Yet another friend told me once when the dog got out of the yard that the dog never wore tags when unsupervised in the yard because they were afraid the dog would catch the collar on something and strangle to death. Let's see, how many dozens of stray dogs with no IDs have I taken to the pound? (OK, probably only about a dozen, really.) How many people do I know or have met whose dogs have been strangled in the yard while wearing a collar? None. I'm sure it happens. I've heard that that kind of accident is more common with slip collars, which I never would leave on my dog unsupervised.

And why do people let their dogs get so overweight? OK, now I know better... Amber and Sheba both put on weight when they got to be 8 or 9 or so, and it crept on so that I hardly noticed it, then realized one day, "gee! My dog is getting fat!" and then had to put them on a diet to get the weight off again.

It's not like I had 2 available hours to do this this weekend. Thanks, idiots whose dogs don't have IDs!

Thought for the Day

Being woken up at 2 in the morning by a wrong number isn't the worst thing in the world. It could be the right number.
(Courtesy Uncle John's Bathroom Readers)

Toenails that Make You Weep

I don't remember ever having to trim Amber's or Sheba's toenails. Remington's I trimmed occasionally as he got older--also after we moved away from The Old Big Yard, where we had a 150-foot asphalt driveway on which we played every day, his nails all grew faster than he could wear them away. Jake's never seemed to need trimming, even after we left the driveway trimmer behind.

I hated using nail clippers, even the guillotine type that had a guard that prevented them from going very far at one chop. Sooner or later I always ended up cutting into the quick, which I just absolutely hated. The books suggested always having Styptic (?) powder on hand so you could quickly stop the bleeding when you cut the quick, which tells me that everyone has this problem, but I still don't like it. I bought some of that stuff a few years back and it seemed to do the job but it didn't solve the problem of torturing my poor dogs.

About 3 years ago, some friends at a show were trimming their dogs' nails by filing down with a Dremel tool. It seemed very cool. I tried it on Remington and he didn't object nearly as much as he did with the cutters, and I could stop anywhere I wanted much more easily.

So I went out and bought a Dremel tool specifically for trimming my dogs' nails; how extravagant is *that*?

Jake's nails still virtually never need trimming, *except* that the dew claw on his right front foot gets longer and sharper and longer and sharper--go figure. What's his left foot doing that his right foot isn't?

Most of Tika's nails keep themselves well filed down, including her dew claws--but the two middle toes on both front feet keep getting longer and sharper and sharper and longer... How can that be? I wonder if any of this tells me anything about their gait and stride--?

I can tell I've waited too long between Dremellings when Tika's claws leave little indents or fine-lined scratches on my skin. And Jake has ripped off that dew nail once before when I didn't keep an eye on it. Talk about ouches.

Stories that Make You Weep

The only problem with hanging around with lots of people with lots of dogs is that you hear the worst stories as well as the best. One of the shelties in our club was a regular in the USDAA top-10 16"-agility list. Owner came home one day and found him pretty much paralyzed. Apparently suffered a stroke in the spine. Is walking now, but stiffly. Agility days are gone.

Another friend works at a vet clinic. She said someone came in on Wednesday with a dog he thought was dying and didn't know why. Came home and found him sprawled and struggling in the yard under a tree. Broke his spine. Best guess is he was jumping up after squirrels and came down wrong. Had to be put to sleep.

I watch Jake's legs, knowing he's got arthritis in the lower spine. He seems to sort of stumble over his back legs or lose his equilibrium briefly there, but always corrects within a step or two and keeps going. Last night in agility class, while we were practicing aggressive Snooker moves, he turned into SuperJake, which I haven't entirely seen in quite a while on the agility field. Then once in a while I hear him drag his back toenails as he walks, but then he stops doing it as soon as I pay attention.

Amber had such arthritis as she got older, with the dragging back feet and sometimes she couldn't stand up to go to the bathroom. And Sheba of course had horrid times standing the last couple of months, dragging those back toenails again all the time, although it's not clear whether it was arthritis or something else going on in her spine. But she was about 17 (and we knew it because she lived with us for all but the first 6 months or so), so that's not unexpected. But that was why we finally had to put her to sleep--couldn't stand up on her own. Nothing wrong with her mind or her will to keep going.

Things That You Can Do Nothing About But That Can Hurt You In The Middle Of The Night Just Thinking About Them.

Stiff Knee

Stiff knees are so much more annoying than stiff upper lips. Unless you're trying to sip soup.

Noticed on Monday afternoon, while sitting and talking to an engineer on my new project, that my right knee stiffened up considerably between each move. Had to hobble a bit when first standing up again until it worked itself loose. Finally checked yesterday, and yes indeed it is somewhat swollen.

OK, who snuck around Sunday night injecting stiffeners and swolleners into my knee? I have no idea what the deal is. I didn't fall all weekend doing agility; I hardly even went near any heavy equipment so I'm pretty sure I didn't whack it with anything. I didn't twist anything while running OR walking (the latter of which has always proven more dangerous to me).

Pondering this for two days, I do recall that there was a Snooker run with Tika on Saturday in which I was thinking we were going east south east and she thought we were going northwest and our paths intersected probably on my right leg, but I don't recall it being a particularly hard crash--in fact at the time I remember thinking loudly to myself "Incidental contact!" (to prevent the judge from thinking that I was actually trying to change Tika's direction by crashing into her, which believe me would not be my first choice of methodology).

It's still a bit stiff and slightly puffy today. Very weird. It doesn't hurt much except when I'm first working the stiffness out when I stand up.

Another Decent USDAA Weekend

Backfill: May 7
This USDAA weekend was between the two previous; Tika got three Qs again and so did Jake.

Tika in Masters: This was her first weekend in any masters class: Standard. On Saturday, she took an offcourse in a difficult obstacle discrimination that caught about half the dogs, and otherwise she was a fine example of a Masters dog. On Sunday, she knocked the first bar (oh, well, at least the pressure was off early!) and otherwise ran a course that would've been qualifying. Except she was over time by a second and a half! However, that's because I relaxed and took a long time on the contacts, two of which she left before I said "OK", so I did my usual "standing time out," which is simply me standing there until she comes back to me and has to hang out for a moment instead of continuing. And she also was slow into her Down on the table (as in "Down? How about a Sit instead?" which I haven't encountered with her before). Not something I'm concerned about!

Tika in Advanced Jumpers: This was her first weekend in Advanced Jumpers, in which we knocked a couple of bars and had an offcourse. This was a deadly course for fast dogs with long strides. Other handlers with more skill than me crashed and burned on this course, too. But she made some nice moves, too.
Tika in Advanced Snooker: Also her first weekend in Advanced Snooker, and she had two oppportunities to earn a Q. On Saturday, she did a lovely job but knocked both bars in the two-obstacle #5 in the closing, so we didn't have enough points for the Q. On Sunday, the course required us to do four reds in the opening. We did three 6s and a 7 along with the reds, but she knocked a bar on one of the 6s so we didn't get the points. In the closing, we got all the way through 6 and then she backjumped on her way to #7. Still plenty of points on a tough course for a Q and 2nd place. (She didn't knock ANY of the reds this time! That's progress!)

Tika Advanced Gamblers: Her second weekend in Advanced Gamblers. We rocked! What a good girl! Got more points than *any* other Advanced dog of any height, for a first place and a Q.

Tika Advanced Pairs: Second weekend in this, too, and her second Q. So summarize: She now has at least one Q in all Advanced games except Jumpers, so if we can get a Jumpers Q, she can move to Masters in everything! I hope it doesn't take us as long to get the Advanced jumpers Q as it took to get our Novice--

Relaxing after a good run

Jake the Snookerman: I don't know why Jake has turned out to be such an excellent Snooker dog. He gets more excited for this than for any other game. I don't know whether it's because every scrap of handling has to be tight and focused, or whether my tension (not stress) is higher, or because we shoot through long distances without doing obstacles, or what it is. He has a great lead-out for snooker: I can lead out all the way across the field, turn, and call him, and he comes straight to me, ignoring all obstacles on either side. This allows me to do more aggressive and interesting opening sequences. When he can hear me, he turns on a dime, allowing more of the same. And he sends out ahead of me beautifully, allowing me to throw him out, say, to a Red in one corner of the field and then beat feet to something in an entirely different direction.

It has gotten harder lately because the "when he can hear me" part makes it challenging to get him *back* from a long send-out or to make tight or challenging turns.

Still, this weekend he did good. (Oh, sorry--he done well.) Two Snookers. I picked opening courses that allowed me to stay with him or in front of him so I didn't have to rely on calling him. In the regular Snooker competition, these would've been very good qualifying scores but probably not Super-Qs (top 15% of those competing). However, in Performance, with only 12 dogs competing, he managed to be the highest-scoring dog both days, for two Super-Qs. This also earned him his Accomplished Snooker Dog title (10 P3-level snooker legs; the equivalent of the Snooker Champion in regular competition). I'm pretty pleased with that.

Jake the Jumper: And, once again, for the last run of the weekend, he took first and Qed in his jumpers class.

Jake the noncontactman: Both of his standard runs were very nice EXCEPT he flew off his contacts again while I was standing still waiting for him to stop. He usually gets a paw into the yellow on the Aframe, but lands so far ahead of me towards the next obstacle, and then can't hear me when I yell, that he takes an offcourse. And he usually does NOT get a paw into the yellow on the dogwalk. He is SO perfect in class! How can he NOT do it in competition? I said within Kathie Leggett's hearing that I ought to pull him off the course when he does that, because otherwise how else will he figure out that it's not OK to do that? She said WHY? --He's 12 and a half, he's earned several championships, why not just let him run and have fun? I said it's because I want more Qs for him to make it into the Top 200 Lifetime Earners before he retires, so it's all about ME, not about HIM. Harrumph.

I'm thinking about it.

Ol' Fuzzheado (Sprayed down after a hot run on a hot day)

Jake other stuff: Gambling--Lost Jake on the gamble approach--he got ahead of me and took his own course. I think that he does hear me sometimes, but with the background noise and the wide-open spaces, I think that he cannot hear me well and probably my voice gets higher again. Pairs Relay--there's no official Performance pairs relay, but in the just-for-fun one, Jake ran fast and clean and they took 2nd among 11 pairs.

Steeplechase: Tika did OK but had a funny offcourse into a tunnel when I crossed behind the Aframe. Didn't enter Jake. This makes 16 attempts at Steeplechase Qs in my career, with 3 different dogs, over 8 years. One Q with Rem, one with Jake, and that's it. Sighhhh--

I am so far behind! As usual--

I have so much to say, and not enough time to say it. Just been busy, having a good time, playing with the dogs and doing agility and, um, probably some other stuff. So I'm going to try to backfill the last two weeks, using the notation: Backfill: BACKFILLDATE to indicate the date on which I backfilled that particular entry.

If you're confused by this--OK, you're in about my mental state now!

Jake's Hardness of Hearing

Backfill: May 7
OK, it's clearer now that Jake *is* hearing more of what I'm saying than I had thought. I don't know why, in a quiet room, when I say his name directly behind his head in a variety of tones and loudnesses, I get no response. But on the agility field, when I say it loudly and in a low voice (not the usual high-pitched excited voice I use in agility, not necessarily intentionally), he often responds perfectly.

Karey pointed out the first day of camp when she saw Jake run that he seemed to be responding to my voice commands.

Rachel had told me before camp about a vibrating collar that she used with her agility dog, Spinner, when he showed signs of losing his hearing. She took it to camp to loan to me to try it out, but the battery was dead. Today I got new batteries for the transmitter and collar and started playing with it. Not clear what Jake thinks about it--he had no reaction to it at all as I started loading it up like you'd load up a clicker. He was too excited about the junk food to really pay much attention to a little vibrating whoosie thingie.

I'm going to try using it like I'd use a clicker normally, to mark desired behaviors. Especially & particularly, I want to mark him looking at me while doing agility obstacles. We'll see how persistent I am with this...

Power Paws Camp, Day Zero

Backfill: May 7
Thursday morning and time to head for the hills--or for Turlock, whichever comes second. I mostly packed the car over the week, so it was ready to go this morning after I did some actual billable work. Decided to take everything with me, even stuff I don't usually take, because what-the-heck I'll be there for 5 days, 4 nights.

• Canopy
• sun shades for its sides
• 3 floor mats
• sun umbrella (forgot the umbrella stand so never actually used it)
• both crates plus Remington's larger crate, figuring I'd bump both dogs up one size for this extended stay
• tent and groundcloth
• air mattress and 2 pumps (yes there's a reason)
• Mattress pad, flannel sheets, pillow, down comforter with comforter cover, wool blanket, two extra blankets just in case
• 3 ensulite pads for me and the dogs
• dog beds for the tent
• dog mats for the crates
• water buckets for the crates
• Tika's metal crate, mat, and bowl that always stay in the car
• hammer (always in the car)
• dog emergency kit and spare misc supplies bag (always in the car)
• Current training/competing gear, including stopwatch, 2 rubber frisbees, 3 Riot Tugs of various colors and sizes, squeakies, stopwatch, clear acrylic targets, clickers of 2 kinds up the wazoo, WetOnes cannister, 3 slip leads (for 2 dogs, well, you never know when one will spring an extra neck)
• Bag o'clips for attaching sun screens and other random stuff
• paperwork bag--lists of titles & legs, notepads, pens, name-and-photo tags for crates
• Tent light and extra flashlight for those midnight potty runs
• Suitcase-duffle with 8 changes of clothes and a little extra (in case I should get, say, hot and sweaty or if it rains)
• Rain gear just in case
• Collapsing chair
• Collapsing table
• Snacks for me for emergencies and tasty fresh bread for Thursday dinner
• "Real" camera and gear in case I have time for "real" photography, digital snapshot camera, and camcorder
• Tons of pooper-bag refills
• Dog food bowls and food for 5 days
• Tons of chopped-up dog junk food goodies for training, plus belt-clip goodie bag plus Tug'N'Treat
• Pedometer
• X-pen, which I don't usually use any more, but thought it might come in handy
• Two bags of stuff that I'm delivering to various people who'll be there, some from myself and some from other people
• Camp map, list of instructors, preliminary schedule, all that sort of paperwork
• Gallon jug of water
• Beach towels for covering chair or misc
• Rags in case of muddy feet
• Bungies of various sizes and shapes
• At least 4 or 5 different mesh & zipper bags, mostly purple and/or black, to haul dog stuff in
• Plenty of spare toys of various ilk
• Probably more I'm not thinking of at the moment

I actually get out the door around noon, arriving there before 2:00, giving me time to park the van, potty the dogs, and head over to the Dining Hall to check in.

In case I didn't bring enough stuff with me, check-in provides a truckload of gifts from various vendors and Friends Of Camp:

• Camp t-shirt (OK, that's 156 T-shirts in my dresser devoted exclusively to t-shirts; just read that "the average American owns 25 t-shirts." Ha! I've just covered 5 others who own *none*, thank you very much.)
• Duffle with zipper and velcro pocket for hauling camp stuff around. Of course I brought my draw-string duffle from *last* year's camp to haul stuff around--oh, well, you can never have too much stuff stuffed in various bags
• SPF 30 lip ointment on neck rope. Keep forgetting to carry it around. (Have my own in my suitcase AND in my glove compartment. You can never have too much SPF 30 lip ointment. Oh--wait--yes, you can.)
• Sealable plastic coffee mug. For the coffee I don't drink.
• Nifty shoulder-strapped insulated bag for hauling around a bottle of cold water. Hmm. I was planning on carrying my bottles of cold water in my duffle. Good plan. Stick to it.
• Two varieties of clickers--the old-fashioned kind and the new kind with the extended plastic button that you can click with your foot.
• The Camp Book, with all of the instructors' courses and course notes and articles.
• My badge.
• Some goodies for the dogs.

Meanwhile, the friend next to whom I'm camping arrives. Chitchat. Discuss whether to set up in shade under tree with birds next to dumpster or out in the sun. Discuss some more. And some more. Ooops, dash over to the shade of the nearby giant oak with my chair and 6,000 other people to watch Wendy Pape's 2:30-4:00 excellent lecture on training contacts.

I come away with pages of notes, many of which I can probably apply to my current dogs and which I'm dying to try on a new dog.


Finally a break to set up my dogs' crates under tree in shade of dumpster, chat with various people about who's setting up where, briefly frisbee the dogs, toss my tent out of the car. I bought a large container of Enteman's chocolate chip cookies to tide us over during emergencies. Discover that Karey has brought a large container of chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips to tide us over during emergencies. Good thing we're exercising this week.

Back to the Dining Hall for the mandatory 6:00 Camper Meeting to get all the rules and changes and exciting info and be introduced to the instructors.

Finally I can hurriedly set up my tent before it gets dark (sunset around 8:00). It is VERY windy. This will be challenging if it keeps up all four days. And it's pretty chilly, too, as the sun goes down. And I didn't bring my long underwear. Feels like a change is blowing in, though. It's supposed to be warm. Then we prepare a nice chicken salad with bread for dinner. My brand new lantern lights up when I put the batteries in, turns off when I turn it off to put the shade on, and never turns on again. Dagnabbit.

It's Time For Camp!

Backfill: May 1 '04
And tomorrow morning we're on our way to 5 days at Power Paws Agility Camp! I'm excited; I'm exhausted; so much to do, so little time.

What a wonderful weekend at USDAA: Jake's turn

Backfill: May 1 '04
Jake's weekend was much better, too--only 3 for 7, but better than nuthin', for sure! (And--holy Toledo-smacking gumshoes--that was his 100th Masters/P3-level qualifying leg. Blows me away, thinking about it. I remember busting my buttons when he finished his MAD way back when--first masters-level title I ever put on a dog in USDAA, and that required all of 7 Qs. What a good boy he's been. )

Anyway, this weekend he almost had a fourth one--he did much better in Snooker than the other Performance dogs, but he was half a second short of completing the #7 obstacle in the closing, and because of the opening I chose, he had to get all the way through the closing to qualify. Had a bunch of wide turns, comes from his deafness and me still not being able to figure out how to avoid him getting in front of me and deciding to keep going in a straight line.

For the last run of the weekend, he had a wonderful Jumpers run; that was Jake's 10th Performance-3 jumpers leg, giving him the AJD title. (P3 equiv of Jumper Champion.) I'm quite proud of him!

He qualified on a challenging Grand Prix course for the Performance Grand Prix; he now needs one more to be eligible for Perf. GP in AZ in Nov. Like Tika, after a zillion GP qualifications over the last 4-5 years, he had been 0 for 4 up until this weekend. The GP Nationals actually has 3 versions now: The "championship" track, for which Tika qualified (the "real" GP); the Peformance GP, which is the same thing but with dogs at lower heights, lower A-frame, and no double or triple jumps (plus a little extra time); and the Veterans GP, which is the same thing as the GP but the only eligible dogs are those who have--at any time previously in their career--competed in the GP Nationals, which Jake did twice, the 2 years it was in CA.

Jake missed both Standard Qs due to running across the table instead of stopping on it. Back to practicing in the back yard, relarnin' him that tables are to *down* on, not to run across as if doing a gamble at all times. Sigh.

Since I"m backfilling and don't have my papers here, I don't remember his 3rd Q. Will get back to you.

What a wonderful weekend at USDAA: Tika's Turn

Backfill: May 1 '04
Tika was 7 for 9 this weekend at the USDAA in Elk Grove--a bit better than the previous weekend, indeed. She didn't Q in either Advanced Gamblers class (her first time in Advanced Gmbl); she did one of them beautifully but knocked a bar; the other one she did the sendout to the 2nd obstacle perfectly but didn't do any sign of an "out" to the 3rd--something to work on.

She had two MOST lovely Starters Jumpers Qs, taking 1st place in both--which finished her AD (finally!). No spins or hesitations anywhere. That's after *20*(!) starters jumpers Qs without a clean run among them. Probably not a record, but that covers a year and a half of jumpers runs. What a relief! Now she'll be in Advanced in everything--except, oh, wait--

She had two VERY lovely Advanced standard Qs, taking 1st and 3rd--which means that she finished her Advanced Standard title in 2 weekends! So she's now a Masters Standard dog...yikes...

She Qed in the Grand Prix on a course that eliminated about 50% of the 22" and 26" dogs, for 9th place of 37 26" dogs (of all things, she missed her weave entry!). Now we need one more Grand Prix Q to be able to go to the Nationals in Arizona in November. Now, finally, it's in sight. (She Qed her 1st 2 GPs ever, last year, but was 0 for 4 for this year until now.)

She & partner Qed & took 3rd in Advanced relay--delay was largely that she missed the weave entry *twice*.

And she Qed and took 3rd in Starters Snooker--she knocked the first bar but I've learned my lesson and have been planning for *every* red jump "what do I do if she knocks *this* bar?", which I never had to do with my other dogs. -- This finished her starters Snooker title.

Start line: Stayed every time; lay down once but otherwise didn't have to repeat the "sit".

Contacts: Oh. My. Goodness. She is so good! I still need more speed on the descent. And why all of a sudden is she getting the dogwalk up. Luck? We've practiced casually with the little yellow contact board our instructor loaned us but not *on* the dogwalk, so maybe that or maybe not? I stopped running her up the side that's in a depression in my yard so that she was always flying onto it. Maybe that or maybe not? Probably luck.

Weave poles. This was the word for the weekend. BObbled in GP, in Pairs, and in both gamblers opening sequences. Sheesh.

Flat-out speed: Sunday's jumpers was a way hauling fast course where the dogs could go wide open. I'm still trying to figure out where she fits with the "big dogs" on ground speed:

• Of all 22" and 26" dogs (43 dogs) who completed the course without spins or other bobbles, Lark Plummer was one second faster but knocked a bar; Annie (?not sure who this is) was .4 faster but knocked a bar; Kobe Cutherbertson was .1 faster but knocked a bar and has an AWFUL stutter-step--if Bill could fix that, he'd be dynamite! And Ty Rodgers was .2 slower but he knocked 2 bars...hmm, actually I wonder whether he actually ran past a jump and had to go back for it? I'll have to ask Sandy.
  
  
• Anyway, I don't know whether I could have coaxed an extra second out of Tika any way in the world. But the fact that I'm thinking about that instead of how to avoid knocked bars is a nice change. :-) That was 145 yards at 6.75 YPS.

And why isn't she knocking bars all of a sudden? I've been doing some of the Susan Salo exercises but not all of them and maybe only a couple of times a week. Been trying to do circles with her in both directions over jumps. And jumping her at home and in class at a mixture of jump heights. Luck? Progress?

I'm repeating over and over "don't get cocky!"

So, after all that--last trial, Tika was in all Starters except had just moved to Advanced Standard. This trial she was in Advanced Standard, Pairs, and Gamblers and still in Starters Gamblers and Snooker. For the Bay Team trial in 2 weeks, she'll be in Masters Standard and Advanced everything else. Quite a shift in quite a short time-- (I had thought that USDAA had "versatility" titles if you finished all of your titles at a given level--but noooo; versatility is just about getting your 3 std legs and at least 1 of each of the 4 games. You get nada extra for getting 3 of each of the games other than the games titles. So Tika finished (because she couldn't move up) her Starters Snooker, Gamblers, and Pairs titles, and had 2 of the 3 legs for her Jumpers title. Pretty dang good, actually. But no reason to stay in Starters for that 3rd jumpers leg. I can be knockin' bars in Advanced as well as I can in Starters!)

The Latest Case of Down Syndrome

At Wikipedia, there is a discussion about whether the main entry for a certain genetic mutation should be Down's Syndrome or Down Syndrome. I thought I'd look it up in the dictionaries to see what I could see. Webster's had only the former. Someone suggested that it might be a British English thing, so I pulled out my OED, condensed version, and popped it open to the Ds. It's in really small print.

So I plopped onto the floor, which all three dogs thought was great fun and they came leaping in to see what great game I was offering to play. Fending them off, I pulled out the super-duper magnifying glass that comes with the OED, set the volume on the floor, and leaned over it on my elbows. There were pages of Ds, including several (condensed) pages of "down". Trying to find all of the appropriate entries, I mumbled out loud to myself as I often do when I'm trying to concentrate. "Down," I mumbled, running a finger and the magnifying glass along the pages, "down....down...down...down..." I gradually became aware that the dogs had all slowly and quietly sunk into reclining positions around me. Well--they ARE well-trained dogs, right? Although Jake lay down, too, and he claims to be completely deaf. But he also claims to read lips. So who knows.

Tika's Toy Auto-return Facility

I've heard of some friends' dogs who take a ball to the top of the stairs, drop it, then chase it down with great delight, grab it, and repeat endlessly.

Tika has figured out a similar maneuver that requires less expenditure of energy.

She has always wanted to have something in her mouth to shake around violently while I'm getting dressed in the morning. This was originally my bedding. I scolded her over & over, used bitter apple, put her into a down stay, all that stuff, for months. (Maybe only 2-3 months; I don't recall exactly now.) Then, perhaps after attending a John Rogerson seminar, in which he talked about *substituting* acceptable behaviors (which I already knew about but hadn't thought about much), I decided that the thing to do would be to keep a nice, floppy Rope toy in the bedroom that I could cram into her mouth every morning. Works like a charm. She shakes the bejeezus out of it, flings it into the air, pounces on it. Tries to get me to play a little tug of war, which I do--a very little (since I'm trying to get dressed). She prefers to do all of this on the bed. Understandable, since there's much more room on the king-sized bed than there is in the spaces on the floor around it. And no chance of whacking your head on something hard while you're doing the death-shake on the toy with half your body involved. Sometimes while shaking or flinging, the toy flies off the bed. So I pick it up and give it back to her to protect my bedding.

Fast-forward to 2 years later. Just recently realized that it goes like this: Tika gets toy, gets on bed. Shakes it a little. Shoves it against me to see whether I'll play tug of war. If not, walk to the edge, drop it on the floor, and stare at it. Mom picks it up and tosses it back on the bed. Pounce! Shake! Walk to the edge of the bed. Drop it on the floor. Stare at it. Mom picks it up and tosses it back on the bed. Pounce! Shake! Walk to the edge of the bed...

So someone managed to train *someone* quite thoroughly, but the someones somehow changed roles--

The Jake Weekend Report

Not nearly as good as with Tika. This is the first week in class and the first weekend of competition where I have been completely certain that Jake is deaf. He did very well in class Wed. night, fast and happy and we didn't mess up more than usual, I don't think. But in competition this weekend, he seemed slow and uncertain at many times. I tried very hard to plan courses where I could get in front of him or cross in front of him on difficult passages, and it occurred to me to wonder, after a while, whether I'm overhandling in an attempt to compensate, when in fact he had been doing quite well in previous weekends considering that I didn't *know* that he was deaf.

We got 0 for 7 Qs this weekend, and it is very rare for Jake to get zero Qualifying scores in a weekend. Admittedly, the Masters classes and the Grand Prix Qualifier were among the tougher ones I've seen in a while, but still--

In the Snooker class, he did much better than any other Performance dog, but we were half a leap away from finishing obstacle 7 in the closing, which is what we needed to get a Qualifying score. He'd have made it in time if he hadn't kept charging straight ahead on 2 occasions when i needed him to to make a u-turn and come with me, and I do blame that on his deafness--he's not looking at me, he seems to be waiting to hear my voice commands.

Both of his Standard runs were nice except for snafus with the table, which is not usually a problem for us. The first day, he ran onto and then right off the table instead of doing a Down, thinking, I believe, that it was a gamble and we were done with the run. The second day he stopped before the table and turned and looked at me, for a refusal fault. I don't know whether I can blame either of those on overhandling or on deafness; they just seemed like weird mix-ups.

Saturday's Gamblers class was, coincidentally, almost exactly the same gamble that we had practiced in class last Wednesday night--dog goes into a U-shaped tunnel to your right and blasts out parallel to you at the gamble line, then you have to flip them into weave poles going straight away from you. He flipped very nicely into the poles but then turned back to look at me--probably because he couldn't hear me saying "weaveweaveweave" which has always been the accompanyment to finishing the poles.

Sunday's Gambler's class was probably doable except that in the opening he flew off the dogwalk while I was waiting for him to stop at the bottom and proceded to land on the table, which was part of the gamble, which meant that my planned navigation path through a gamble tunnel could no longer be used without negating the gamble, so we went back over the dogwalk--and he flew off the other end, and at that point I just wanted him to get a da**ed dogwalk contact (plus our options were pretty limited by then, too), so I tried again, and he blasted off of it for a 3rd time. By then, we didn't have anywhere near enough opening points even if we had gotten the gamble and I tried an approach to the gamble that let him get ahead of me a little and when I tried to turn him it took too long because he wasn't looking at me and then when he came back to me he had no momentum. Popping the dogwalk contacts has nothing to do with him being deaf. But having trouble turning into the gamble had a little to do with it.

In the Grand Prix he also blew off a dogwalk contact and continued straight out over an incorrect obstacle of an offcourse elimination.

But he did some very nice moves on the standard and GP courses that caught a lot of other dogs.

Actually in the run after the Gamblers run, I backed way off on the dogwalk, rather than pushing him through it and pointing down and yelling "Contact!", which is what I've been doing in class and he's been getting them almost perfectly. Instead I ran a little behind him and away from the dogwalk and he slowed down and stopped at the bottom like he's supposed to (well, he's not supposed to slow down, but he is supposed to stop) and then looked up at me. Danged dog. So that particular style of driving & overhandling, which I had used in Gamblers, apparently is counterproductive.

The Tika Weekend Report

Another weekend, another USDAA trial, in Dixon this time.

Tika was an excellent girl. She stayed in a sit at the start line every time but once, when she lay down after I walked away. But the judge stopped to talk to the scribe, so I was able to put Tika back into a sit. Worked nicely! And I didn't even have to pay the judge extra.

She had lovely contacts--except for the dogwalk-up in the Grand Prix regional qualifier, which she jumped *over*. 2nd USDAA in a row where we've had a straight side-on approach to the dogwalk, and she did the same thing last time. So today I got out my pole in the yard and had her wrapping around it and onto the dogwalk like our instructor showed us in class a few months back; I never faded it when she first showed it to us and I practiced it only a little for a couple of weeks.

That'll learn me. Was discussing this with a co-student & competitor this weekend, noting how I've worked so hard on getting Tika to be able to enter the weave poles & tunnels from any direction, and she said that nowadays she figures the dogs have to be able to independently do *any* of the obstacles around the clock (that is, from any approach angle) because the challenges keep getting harder as the competitors get better. This ain't your daddy's agilitymobile!

She was focused and fast, except the down side on at least one dogwalk, where she just trotted.

She carried out over final obstacles just beautifully (which has been a problem at times where she turns and comes back to me, wasting time).

In Sat's Standard class, there were several places where she spun and and was obviously unclear about where to go next and knocked 3 bars in the process--all stupid handling things although I don't exactly remember what I did/didn't do--but she didn't get frustrated with me, kept working, didn't grab my feet or let her attention wander.

Other than that, she had no bars down this weekend (oh, wait, no, she had one in pairs) --

But I still couldn't get a jumpers leg! In the Grand Prix, she veered towards me as I was running towards the teeter and cut in front of me to take the tire for an off course. In her jumpers run, we had a straight-away heading for a U-shaped tunnel and she was looking at me and starting to veer towards me--I was afraid she was going to cut in front of me and take an off-course on a jump the same way she did in the GP, so I said "OUT through!", and she very nicely did a perfect out, veered *away* from me and took the wrong end of the tunnel. Sighhhh. She was still about the 3rd fastest starters dog even with the extra tunnel. And it was a *beautiful* run otherwise; I was just about heartbroken at my mistake. (You'd think someone with so many years of experience & runs & dogs wouldn't let a little jumpers run get her down...)

That's now 20 USDAA jumpers legs that have had either faults or an E. Unbelievable. I didn't realize that it had been so many!

She took 1st and Q on Sunday in Advanced standard, Starters snooker, and Starters gamblers. She took 2nd and Q Saturday in starters gamblers and Qed in pairs--5 of 8 for the weekend. BUT what I WANTED was a Q in Jumpers to get out of starters and a Q in the GP! (But she did finish her Starters Pairs & Gamblers titles, and she has 2 snooker legs, so she's almost all out of starters anyway except for jumpers.)

Really, she was a wonderful, wonderful dog this weekend.

...But Nothin's Wrong With the Sniffer

I was using food treats (doggie sausage cut into roughly 1/4" cubes) in the yard while practicing some agility moves with Tika. One piece popped out of my hand and landed among the wood-chip mulch in front of the U-shaped tunnel. The ends of the tunnel are about 8 feet apart and the food dropped probably about 4 feet in front of and roughly between the two ends. I couldn't find it and Tika didn't notice that I dropped it, so I ignored it.

I got Jake out a bit later. Got him riled up with his toy and sent him charging into the tunnel. He blasted in, charged out, skidded to a halt about 6 feet beyond the end of the tunnel, made a 180-degree turn led by his nose, bee-lined to within about 4 inches of where the food had dropped, zeroed in on it quickly, scarfed it down, then turned and zoomed on in his original direction as if nothing had happened.

Wish my nose was that good!

Agility With A Newly Deaf Dog

I'm working on my handling of Jake in agility training realizing that he's deaf. It's weird to be thinking "he's deaf" because I find myself saying things quietly or not at all while I'm concentrating on my body language and on getting the heck out in front of him so he can see me (and I thought I had to move fast with Tika!), but I think that--as I and others have noticed-- my body language includes my face and mouth movement and I think he does still hear *some* things, so I have to remember to say everything I used to *and* to do more and different body language. It's very odd to remember to do both. Or maybe it's odd that I have to work hard to remember to do what I've been doing all along!

What Jake Hears

I keep experimenting to see what he hears. (See what he hears?) I think I've seen a twitch in one ear when I do a clicker behind his head, sometimes, but the twitch muscle apparently doesn't connect to his brain because he doesn't look up to see what's happening. Tried a bunch of the sounds on the computer. Nothing. And that lovely squeakie-toy sound used to keep him entertained for hours. Ah, the joy of dumb animals! Sitting and staring at various parts of a computer for hours on end trying to figure out where the sound was coming from! Not that I was sitting there for hours, clicking the "play" button, and watching Jake watch the computer...

OK, I inadvertently found something that he heard. Picture Jake lying sacked out & apparently sound asleep on his side on the office floor, head pointed away from me. Now go here. (If you can play a .wav file.) At the climax of "towering over your head," Jake lifted his head abruptly and looked over his shoulder at the computer in what was clearly horror, then shifted his gaze to me with severe remonstrance.

I'm sorry, but even to get Jake's attention I will not stroll the agility field imitating William Shatner performing Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds--