Rachel's Up Contacts

SUMMARY: summarytext

I asked Rachel about using this method for up contacts, because I know that she's done it and because that's (currently) my main interest with Tika. This seminar didn't cover it, but Rachel said that the criteria and the training are different--for example, the criteria is one foot in--and she has worked with multiple dogs on this, too.

I'm convinced enough that she's come far enough with this that I'm going to schedule a time to go down to Atascadero some day soon (I hope) to work with her.

She did say, though, that she's not sure that one could use this method to teach BOTH a solid up contact AND a running down contact, because the criteria are different for a similar set-up. I said I'd be interested in doing that, though. She wasn't encouraging.

For Tika, if that's the case, I'll have to decide whether the missed Qs from the up contact are more relevant than the missed Qs from time--but here I'm talking about Steeplechases and Grand Prixs. Sure, we've missed some Standard Qs from up contacts, but in fact she has more Standard Qs (16) than any regular class except Snooker (22), so that's not a major concern at the moment. BUT the number of times that we've missed a Steeplechase Q by less than a second or two when we've dropped a bar, or the number of times we've missed getting into Round 2 of the Grand Prix by a second or two when we've had some fault, says that if I increased the reliable speed of her Aframe, maybe I'd get more Qs in St and more 2nd rounds in GP even WITH the fault.

On the other hand, it's also true that, when I really push her, she pops off the Aframe anyway so isn't wasting a lot of time there--although it might still waste a little time because I'm taken by surprise and because she knows she's likely to get called on it so might hesitate.

So, anyway, I have to decide, but I think a couple of hours with Rachel will help me with that.

Rachel's Running A-Frame

SUMMARY: Attended a half-day seminar with Rachel Sanders on running A-frames.

Disclaimer: This is a summary of what I heard. It is also my interpretation of what I thought was meant. Any errors are mine, not Rachel's. This is my first real exposure to this method. (Figured I had to say this before people start pointing out my mistakes!)
Jan 23: I've cut out a bunch from my original post, as it was too detailed to be fair to Rachel.

Goals

To get the dog to do the down ramp in two strides, hitting all four feet in the contact zone, and leave the A-frame without stopping. For dogs of any breed, any size.

Why? Rachel isn't doing this primarily for speed on the course; she's doing it because she believes that running contacts are much easier on the dogs physically than 2 on/2 off ("2o2o"). And she believes that this method will prove to be more reliable than several other methods of teaching running contacts, which she discussed. (She also discussed several of what she calls myths about running contacts, like dogs of only certain builds can do it, or dogs can learn to do it on only one height of A-frame, etc.)

She has now worked with more than 60 dogs with this method, quite a few of whom are competing. She's still refining it as she encounters more dogs with different responses to the method--which is, of course, completely typical for working out a new method.

After a 3-hour seminar, jam-packed with info, I am jazzed about the possibilities and realized very quickly that even the 3 hours could provide enough to get me started but not necessarily all trouble-shooting issues and a detailed training plan. I'm hoping to get some more work with Rachel in March.

Equipment

The box will be centered over the contact zone.

A "box" made out of PVC.

The corners are just standard PVC ells with a third "leg" where a riser would screw in.

Corner detail	Hold in place with plastic tie and bungie to chain underneath Aframe.

Training the box

Click to mark all four feet in the box by tossing the reward away from you.

Before you get to the A-frame, you work with the box on the ground, first teaching the dog to go into it with all four feet. First, when the dog shows any interest in the box, click and reward inside the box, away from you. Then reward for all four feet in the box.

Continuing box training

To get the dog moving out of the box, reward by tossing treat outside the box. (This box is slightly raised to make it easier for this dog.)

Eventually, reward motion that carries the dog out of the box opposite the side on which he entered. Toss the treat away from you across the dog's path so the dog doesn't look at you for the reward. Replace the treat with a toy as soon as possible.
By now you should lose the chair, but try to find a way to stand where you're not tempted to move, lean, etc.

Gradually you work further away from the box, always rewarding only if all four feet land inside the box. (Rachel emphasizes that the only way that you can train your eye to recognize it is by videotaping and watching your actions.) Then you'd gradually add motion. Same sort of thing as teaching any other obstacle.

Flat A-frame

Flat representation of an A-frame.

Rachel also discusses how to practice doing the A-frame without actually having one, using jumps to emulate the layout of an A-frame as shown in the photo. The middle jump represents the apex of the A-frame. The PVC box goes right where it would go on the Aframe.

Then work with the dog in the same way you did with just the box--first standing still at different positions, then adding motion from different positions. Goal is always all four feet in the box.

(I'll have to post more tomorrow--on working the A-frame itself and on breaking a 2o2o contact to move to a running contact.)

Update: Feb 27 2008
"Tomorrow" eventually came: Part 2

OK OK I'll get a new broom

SUMMARY: It's been, oh, I dunno, 20 years; I guess it could be retired.

Bored Buried Boost

SUMMARY: Cute factor.

When Boost gets bored, she starts rearranging things. I got up from my desk last night to discover that she had rearranged the dog-bed cushion on top of most of herself, and was lying there peacefully, peeking out over the top of the cushion, resting her chin among its folds.

Is that cute. Or what.




Tomorrow: Brief notes & photos from Rachel Sander's running contacts seminar.

Weaving Maniacs

SUMMARY: Boost and Tika show off.

I had such fun making that tricks video the other day, here's another one for you: Boost and Tika demonstrate sending out past 12 poles and wrapping into the far entrance. (Only a minute and a half.)

Tika's Soreness Status

SUMMARY: Seems fine to me.

Ran Tika in class last night, one round of jumpers at 16", several rounds at 20", and she seemed fine to me. Switched to Boost for the contacts portion of class. I'll start working Tika a bit more in the yard this week and edge up to 26" by class next week.

Updated Links

SUMMARY: Getting other places from here.

It's the beginning of the year, hence I'm trying to catch up on a 20-year backlog of Things To Do. Ha! Like the list will EVER get shorter instead of longer!

I added some Agility Blogs links for more that I visit regularly--Elite Forces of Fuzzy Destruction, Lucy and Walter, and Johann the Dog.

For my own use, I organized the list in roughly the order of frequency in which they typically post. Mind you, that is NOT a criticism. My day goes much more smoothly when there are only one or two short posts out there to read. I hate people like me, who post long and post often.

None-the-less, I learn oodles from reading others' posts, and not always what one might expect. Here's what I like about the blogs in my list.

Team Small Dog...Small Fast Kick Yer Ass

Added: Feb 28, 2008A local competitor whose dogs I actually know. This is a very different kind of blog. Stylish, funny, with a quirky mix of satire, agility, fashion, agility, TV, small black mixed-breed dogs, random train of thought, celebrities, politics, all tied in somehow, usually, to dogs and, yes, agility.

Elite Forces...

Blogs more regularly than even I do. Often makes me laugh. Covers lots of relevant topics, not just "I woke up with a hangnail today." In addition to the ubiquitous BCs, runs Staffies. Plus is a photography buff in an advanced amateur sort of way, as am I. Lots of people visit and comment, which broadens and enhances the scope of each post.

Johann the Dog

I've commented before that this is a money-making site. Johann is apparently becoming famous. But what I like about it is that it's also an honest diary of a real working agility dog and his family. In particular, good features are: Posts are always short (see above). Posts are cleverly slanted (always from Johann's point of view without being overly cutesy). Contains lots of info about events, issues, items, and activities that I truly might have an interest in, even if some of them are sponsored posts (which are clearly labeled as such), or simply click-through-to-earn-johann-some-pocket-change (not labeled as such, I just assume...but lots of sites do that--I would if I could get off my lazy butt to finish implementing it, because I actually signed up to be able to do it in a couple of places years ago).

And there ya go, now I've given Johann a bunch more free publicity.

Days of Speed...

I laugh out loud at Elayne's clever posts more often than at any other agility site. She's also a triathlete, which makes for some interesting posts outside my usual knowledge base. Unlike some of us, doesn't post daily just because she has a blog--has an eye for things that are particularly interesting or funny or noteworthy, so I know I'll always get a good read. Occasionally posts beautiful scenic photos from her Colorado location.

Yoshi and Trek

Updated URL: May 30, 2011 A friend with agility corgis. More like personal training notes than a blog intended for general public consumption (which, incidentally, is what Taj MuttHall was INTENDED to be). Still, sometimes there are tips and hints related to her specific issues. But Ellen's a friend, I'm interested in her dogs and how they're doing, so I peruse. If you want some really thought-provoking posts on a random assortment of topics, read her Non-Dog Blog (link at the top of her page). She's also very much into mountain climbing and general physical health.

Flirt and Bodhi's Blog

This was the first agility blog that I found and started reading regularly. Amy often ponders the deep meanings of life, agility, and everything, eliciting plenty of "ah-ha!" moments from my own psyche, ego, superego, or id. Plus good details on agility training. And human-health issues, since we seem occasionally to share the same "my body isn't what it used to be" concerns.

Training Journal for Devon and Jaime

Such cute dogs, who couldn't be hooked? Doesn't post often, which makes every post noteworthy as we get glimpses into "Cedarfield"'s life and thoughts. Sometimes expresses interesting views that might be unpopular, which has led her to make some posts available only to her friends list, which I believe that you can request, as I did, by signing up for LiveJournal and then clicking the appropriate link. Often posts questions rather than answers, which makes any blogger's heart sing ("Oh, boy, I can write about myself SOME MORE!") but also gets my brain working.

Lucy and Walter

These Canadian dogs are still relative newcomers to agility, so the perspectives are fresh and the newcomer's appreciation for the sport is rejuvenating. Plus they're dogs after my own heart--not purebred or Border Collies, so I love seeing them succeed. They also participate in several other sports, giving them a well-rounded view of the world and giving me an eye into places I've not gone--but nicely separate from the agility, so you don't have to feel obligated to read them if you're really not interested.

Raven and Cipher

Posts once a week or even less often. These seem to be very successful dogs in Australia, so it's fun to read about the differences in the sport. Lots of photos of her dogs. Plus Raven has recently been treated for lymphoma, so it's even more special to see her back competing and succeeding.

Team Fernandez-Lopez

Only occasional posts, but often useful to the larger agility world, not just posts about themselves. Plus they have a whole variety of breeds, including one of the top agility Rotties in the country.

Wishy the Writer

Another Amy, from Arizona. Hasn't been blogging much lately, as she has sensibly decided that Real Life is even better to pay attention to. When she posts, it might be about agility, it might be about motherhood (which admittedly is low on my interest list), or it might be about being a writer (which, for me, is even higher on my interest list than agility, although it's often suppressed while I tweak those damned contact performances). And it's all warm and from the heart.

Remington's Tricks Repertoire

SUMMARY: A ten-minute video of Remington's tricks.

Remington was my tricks dog. Before I'd ever heard of agility, before I started practicing for competition obedience (in which we never actually competed), it was tricks for us. He was so eager to learn--and so eager to get treats--and I could barely keep up with him. When I learned how to do clicker training, it sped up his learning process even more.

This is not a complete set of behaviors that he'd do on command, but it covers most of them. In my experience, simply executing the tricks is only half of the entertainment value; the rest is how to use the tricks unexpectedly with entertaining verbal patter.

This video was my attempt to quickly capture a dying dog's legacy. At the time, I regretted not having filmed them while he was healthy (but how was I to know? He was only nine), because the whole time I noticed how slow and low-key his responses were, where he usually danced, pranced, and bounced through his routines. A couple of weeks later, he was gone, so I'm glad to have anything at all.

This is the first time I've dared to view the videos. His death has always felt too recent and too raw; I've feared that I'd plunge into a bawling jag and ruin my whole day. It has just recently occurred to me that it has been five years. Five. Years.

So I pulled out the tapes last night and watched the whole hour. I didn't cry once, although a pocket of tears kept tapping me in the gut (what an image, huh?). I did kick myself for not moving those agility jumps out of the way of the cameraman. Where was my sense of artistry? (Probably completely exhausted, as was the rest of me, waiting for Remington's cancer to become irretrievably bad.) Mostly, while watching, I smiled and laughed. So then I sat down with iMovie and put together these highlights. This isn't a Performance as such; it's just an Inventory. But for what it's worth, here it is. (And here's a text list of Rem's tricks.)

(The original video, with subtitles--doesn't work so well any more)


(Video w/out subtitles, now on YouTube:)


(Thanks to my housemate-at-the-time, who offered encouragement in the background, and her teenage son, who did a lovely job of videotaping.)

Choosing a Dog

SUMMARY: There are so many ways to go about it, and so few of them have anything to do with anything but what feels right.

One fun thing about participating in the dog-agility blogging community is seeing recurring themes that transcend geographical location, breed of dog, general drift of a specific blog site, and so on.

Such as: Choosing your next dog. Here are some recent discussions on this topic in other dog-agility blogs:

• Training Journal for D&J
• Elite forces of fuzzy destruction

Here's how I've chosen my dogs:

• Amber: One night, coming home from the swing shift, I caught a prowler looking in my apartment window. It terrified me. The next morning, co-workers announced that their German Shepherd and their Golden Retriever were pregnant and they'd have puppies in a few weeks. Those were 2 of the breeds I thought I might want some day (Collie being the other). (Ah! Research!) I'd never heard of puppy testing. Puppies were just something that you picked one of and took home. So I did. Of the litter, four were black, but two were the same beautiful blonde as my family's mixed-breed dog, and I picked one for my own. I no longer remember how I chose one over the other; I did agonize for a while over whether to take BOTH.
• Sheba the Wonder-Husky: When I got married, I figured that my spouse needed a dog of his own. He thought Siberian Huskies were beautiful. I read a little about them in my dog books and agreed that they were beautiful. (Ah! Research!) So I haunted the humane society for several weeks, rejecting a variety of Siberians for a variety of reasons (should I have been suspicious that there were so many stray huskies?). Then I found one with a sign on her run saying something like "Lone Star is a sweet, wonderful, delightful dog. We have already held her two weeks past her euthanasia date because she really needs to go home with someone. Please help." (I have no idea where she'd been hiding during my previous trips.) She did indeed seem to be the sweetest, gentlest, calmest, most beautiful dog in the universe. My new spouse agreed, we took her home, and renamed her Sheba.
• Remington the Squirrelhund: Two years after Amber died, I had decided that I finally was ready for another dog. But now, 15 years after her birth, I knew a lot more about dogs. I did a lot of reading. We went to dog shows and talked to the breeders and owners of several breeds that we were interested in. I narrowed it down to probably Australian Shepherd or Border Collie (mind you, this was before I had ever heard of dog agility). Then, one day, we went to a pet store to buy food on sale, and NARF was having an adoption fair for their rescues, and I found Remington, and he looked just like Amber, and he went home with us right then. (Ah! Research!)
• Jake the SemiDachshund: He had belonged to a fellow club member who was also my obedience instructor, and Remington and Jake had been on a team together at a USDAA trial. For some reason I really liked him. (Ah! Research!) When he became available for adoption (this story is quite shortened for this post), our husky was barely on her dying legs and my spouse didn't want three dogs and felt it wasn't fair to an old, ailing dog to have a new dog in the house. I kept stalling Jake's current foster home and, finally, the inevitable happened and our 17-year-old husky died. Jake came home with me the following week.
• Tika: Remington was getting old. Jake was getting older. It was time to start looking for another dog to start training as my next agility dog. Rem was never big on tug of war or fetch, and I knew that I wanted a dog who liked those things. I wanted one with drive and intelligence for agility. I wanted one who would snuggle. I had recently divorced and was living in a rental. An agility acquaintance was fostering a beautiful Kelpie mix that I would have taken home with me, but the landlord was an idiot and I didn't want to risk anything by bringing in a third dog. But, with this discussion, the acquaintance became a friend and she kept me in mind as she got other foster dogs. She showed me two or three other dogs over the next few months, which I rejected. Shortly after I moved into my own home, she introduced me to Tika, who loved to tug, would stop immediately to snuggle, was a gorgeous blue merle (which I've wanted since I was a kid), an Australian Shepherd-type dog (see research before Remington came home), and yet different enough from standard Aussies to appeal to me (I liked the shorter-haired, longer-legged ones). I think it was the blue merle as much as anything that kept drawing me to her, because she barked barked barked barked BARKED, at anything and everything. Well--the friend made progress on that, and a couple of months after I first saw her, I finally decided to bring her home on a trial basis. She never left.
• Boost: OK, REALLY long story. Read it here.

USDAA rule updates for 2008

SUMMARY: Good news for Performance dogs

Friend and Bay Teammate Holly Newman sent this to the club and gave me permission to post verbatim here. Thanks, Holly!

If you have been paying close attention to the USDAA Performance Program changes for 2008, then this is redundant and you can delete it. But if you haven't, and you have a Performance or a split-Pf/Ch dog, the rule changes are VERY important as regards titling.

Here are the highlights from http://www.usdaa.com/article.cfm?newsID=793, with some confirmed interpretations.

RELAY AND TOURNAMENT REQUIREMENTS FOR TITLING

1. "...the Board has postponed the inclusion of Relay qualifications in the Performance Dog I, II and III titles (PD1, PD2 & PD3) to January 1, 2009."

This change was originally supposed to happen on January 1, 2008, but they found that in some areas, people were having trouble getting enough Performance dog entries to put together a meaningful Relay class. So they're giving an extra year for the program to grow. So the PD1,2,3 still only requires Standard, Jumpers, Gamblers, and Snooker classes.

2. "...Similarly, tournament qualification inclusion in the Accomplished Performance Dog title will be postponed until January 1, 2009."

This change is for the same reasons as #1. So the APD through 2008 requires 5 of each Standard and Games class, and 5 PNS legs but no Relay, VP or PSJ legs.

3. "...because the effective dates of implementation of the relay and tournament requirements in the versatility titles -[PDI, PDII, PDIII, and APD] - are being postponed for another full year to 2009, there will be no grandfathering of the old titling requirements for these awards once the new regulations become effective."

Wow, this means that if you don't finish your APD in 2008, you WILL have to meet all of the new Tournament and Relay requirements. When the ADCH changed to require tournaments and the MAD changed from 7 Standard to 5, there was a year of grandfathering when you could earn your ADCH under the old rules if you got your MAD by a certain date. NOT SO with the new APD requirements.

LAA REQUIREMENTS

1. "...beginning in 2008, the Lifetime Achievement Award will be calculated without regard to which program a qualification has been earned."

This one is a HUGE change for those of us with aging dogs. We still have to get 15 legs of everything (except Tournament) and 150 total, but the 15 legs NO LONGER have to be all in Championship. They can be any combination of Championship and Performance. Here's why this is huge: in the past, if you had a struggle for 15 in any Championship class, you had to decide whether to go for the LAA or the APD. In other words, you might have struggled for one or two last Ch Gamblers to get 15, which means you never had an opportunity to get the 5 Pf Gamblers you need for APD. Now, you can move to Pf and all of the Ch and Pf legs combine toward the 15 required in each class. This means that you can go for your APD without sacrificing your LAA goals. Woo hoo! I'm expecting this single change to move a lot of dogs to Performance, which will also help alleviate the problems that led to #1 and #2 above.

2. "In all cases, as in previous changes, any qualifications earned become a part of a competitor's permanent record, and such qualifications will be considered at such time a new titling requirement may become effective. For example, 2007 qualifications in Performance tournaments will count toward the Lifetime Achievement award under its new formula beginning January 1, 2008."

So if you had gone back and forth between Ch and Pf for any reason, you might have earned some Pf legs. Even if you earned these prior to this year, they will count under the new combo rules. This is GREAT news for the dogs that have re-entered in Pf after an injury, because the legs they have already earned will count toward the LAA minimums.

Tika's Doing Fine

SUMMARY: Nothing wrong that I can see.

Of course Tika has been fine since I took her in to the vet. However, she's also been on Rimadyl and I've also been taking it way easy on her, in particular no tug-of-war, since the vet thought that it was her neck that was sore.

But we've all been lolling around the house--it's been cold and blustery and rainy (major power outages in the area the last few days--as much rain in several days as all of the rest of the rain year so far, probably even more; snow on the nearby mountaintops). And the yard is a bit on the muddy side. And I don't want Tika slipping on mud or wet pavement on the patio and reinjuring something. And it's so hard to play with just Boost anyway.

I hate having a dog on restricted activity. Probably not as much as Tika hates it. But I'm still not keeping her in a crate, and trying to get out walking a little bit daily (on suggestion of vet).

Not nearly enough exercise for them or for me. Bleah.

New Year Follow-up and Back to Tika's Back

SUMMARY: Had a good time; Tika not better.

I had a lovely time with my 200 miles of driving on New Year's Eve/Day. Got a chance to visit a bit with friends whom I seldom see and talk to some interesting new folks. Plus eat tons of really good food everywhere I went. Sigh. Time to get out walking--really--

Took Tika to class last night. She started out, during warm-up, enthusiastically playing tug and then suddenly backing off of it and looking concerned. I ran her around a bit, put her over a couple of low jumps, then 22" jumps, then a couple of 26", and she looked OK. But when I actually ran her on a course, she was slow (for Tika) and looked like she was jumping oddly. The next course, I asked instructor J to please watch her. He said that she sure looked like she was jumping carefully, and it looked to me like she was sort of throwing herself over the jump and landing heavily on her front legs, taking all the weight in her shoulders. And usually she's a very smooth, lightly landing jumper.

I ran her in one more exercise at 16" instead of 26". She moved pretty quickly, but her turns were still slow and she was slow through curved tunnels.

We did almost no training until after Christmas, after she last came up sore on Dec 20. But in the meantime she ran full out playing fetch and tug in the yard. And we've been for walks and she's been her usually cheery pulling-at-the-leash self. Then, when I've cautiously done some work over the last few days, she looked fine to me, even going over a couple of full-height jumps.

I am in a bit of a funk over this. Because of her panic attacks at the vet's, I need to give her a sedative before going over there, and if I want x-rays--which I think I do--she's going to have to have anaesthesia probably because I doubt that they'd ever get her to lie still enough. Which then means staying there at the vet for half a day probably. And all of this is going to cost me. Argh. My poor doggie, I want to know what's going on, but since she's never gone out and gotten a job, it all comes out of my pocket.

Out next trial is supposed to be a one-day Masters-only USDAA, Jan 26. I've been assuming that she'll be fine for that, but now I don't know. Bleah.

Scaredy Dog and Vansetter

SUMMARY: Boost in a pet store and Ellen in her minivan.

Pet stores terrify The Booster. I don't entirely know why. Some of it is the intense smells--she has the same reaction to vendors at dog shows who sell rawhides, pig ears, and such. All my previous five dogs have considered a trip into the pet store to be a special treat akin to Doggie Candyland or maybe Doggy Disneyland--so much to sniff! Scraps of treats on the floor! Squeaky toys of all varieties!

But Boost is, and always has been, overwhelmed by the stimulus. Funny dog.

In another story, I am going to attempt to relive the lost road-trip extravagance of my youth in celebrating this New Year. Coincidentally, all my stops will be among doggie people. However, dogs are staying home.

There's a party in Petaluma this evening, just under 2 hours' drive from here, north past San Francisco. The friend is a dog owner and sometime activist: Worked hard to get the first dog park installed in the Petaluma area. She also now lives virtually next door to the Fairgrounds where my club has started holding a trial once a year, and I didn't realize it until I just looked up the driving directions.

I'll spend the night there, probably on the floor (although I'm taking my own bedding and mattress because I can no longer sleep comfortably on just soft carpeting). Then I'll rouse in the bright morning of a whole new year and drive 40 minutes east, across the top of the Bay, to Vallejo, to meet a long-time agility friend and her two cattle dogs for breakfast.

Then I'll bip 2 miles southeast to another dog-owning, professional-chef friend & family's place for an 11 a.m. hair-of-the-dog soupfest and puzzle relaxaparty--briefly, because then I have to return the hour-and-a-half home, whip up my zucchini/italian squash/tomatoes dish, and head up into the east foothills for my agility instructors' 3:00 New Year's Day open house.

My sister pointed out that, if I were doing this sort of thing across the country or continents, I'd be a jetsetter; however, since I'm doing it on a smaller scale in my Toyota Sienna, I'm a vansetter.

I like it.

Hope you all have a wonderful, peaceful, relaxing New Year celebration.

Retrospective Photos

SUMMARY: From my collection, one of each dog.

For the Power Paws new years party, Instructor N is gathering photos and video clips from students for a show. These agility photos aren't necessarily the best ones of my dogs, but they are distinctive in one way or another. For this blog, for completeness, I added photos of my first two (preagility) dogs. I have very few photos of them, turns out, and most of them are lying down. Wish I had tons more, but nooo--these are the best photos of the whole dogs.

	Amber, my first dog, German Shepherd/Golden Retriever. Here she's about a year old. Got her at 6 weeks; she lived to 13.
	Sheba, our Siberian Husky. Came to us at about 6-12 months just after we got married and barely predeceased our marriage (her: 17 years; us: 19).
	Remington. He was about 10 months when we adopted him, and 3 when he started agility. I chose this one for the presentation because it shows the whole dog and has me in it, and I realize that it's been almost 5 years since I lost him, so there may be many people who know me but don't remember him. Almost inconceivable that it's been that long--he was just lying on that bed in the corner only yesterday, wasn't it?
	This remains one of my favorite photos of Jake, who joined us when he was 6.
	Tika, adopted at about a year old. Picked this photo for the presentation because it's the funniest weave photo I've ever seen.
	Boost is only the second dog I've had as a real puppy--about 3 months when she came home. I don't have a lot of photos of her doing agility yet, but this surely shows off her teeter speed--although lately she's often been sliding into a slam-down, which is a joy to behold.

(Oh, by the way, here's a photo of Boost's mom, Tala. Nah, there's no family resemblance--)

About Those Comments You've Been Posting--

SUMMARY: My hosting service does it again.

I just realized that it isn't that no one has been posting comments on my blogs--it's that I haven't been getting email notification about them. Along with the "upgrade" that hosed my blog access a couple of weeks back, they also neglected to convert my list of email aliases, including the one for comment notification.

Sooo--I've fixed that manually, and I just ran down all the December posts looking for comments that I've missed, and responded to some. Sorry about the delay!

Merles Darken

SUMMARY: Some merles get darker.

I like blue merles when they have lots of nice, light gray.

Boost has been getting darker over time--compare, for example, the left ear:





In fact, Boost had a white spot on her nose as a puppy that I kept thinking was a flower petal and kept trying to brush off. That white spot has completely vanished.

But here's a really interesting extreme example of darkening.

(Thanks for the post idea, BrisbeeTheWhite aka Elite Forces of Fuzzy Destruction.)

Happy Boxing Day

SUMMARY: Another lovely holiday season.

Family and Friends

My sister and her spousal unit are hosting another Boxing Day open house--really just another excuse to eat to excess. I'm lucky enough to have a family and friends nearby with whom I enjoy spending the holidays. But I do have to leave the dogs at home most of the time.

Yesterday was gifting and feasting with my extended family (let's see--at its height, we had 21 people there simultaneously for about half an hour; people drifted in and out). Dinner at another friend's. Tonight at my sister's with a mob of people. Tomorrow night with some old friends from high school. Friday night some friends from San Diego are dropping by and so I've invited others of their friends to join us. Saturday and Sunday I have off. Monday is a New Year's Eve party in Petaluma (a 2-hour drive but I haven't seen these folks in a while).

Tuesday I finally have the option of taking the dogs when Power Paws has its potluck open house for students. Haven't decided whether I'll take them; we could do a little agility play but then they'd have to stay in the car while I eat (a recurring theme this time of year) and socialize.

Gifts

When I was younger (mostly as a minor), I enjoyed making Christmas gifts. In recent decades, I haven't felt that I had the skill(or time) to make things that people would actually appreciate, as I no longer have the cachet of being a cute kid from whom love provided ample excuse for misaligned, cheaply constructed, or amateurish efforts at gifts.

This year, though, inspiration struck. My parents are challenging to shop for--they have more than they need, they keep saying, and usually get themselves what they do need or want. Then I saw an ad for these cool signpost thingies-- and decided that I could do it better, for considerably less financial output, and have a whole lot more fun than by ordering. I created signposts for all the places that my Dad has lived and some other important places--fictional and otherwise--from his life. I had a great time researching and creating, and I think they turned out very nicely. (Not pictured--one for the Lake District (because of Swallows and Amazons) and 3 blank ones that I'll let him choose what to put.)

Dogs

The dogs got gourmet treats for Christmas--a neighbor baked them some home-made biscuits and my cousin brought them bags of Salmon treats all the way from her trip to Alaska. I just got chocolate. Dang! [grin]

Maybe I'll take the dogs for a hike today to make up for neglecting them yesterday and for eating all that chocolate--

Wishing you all the best of the season.

Merry Christmas from Taj MuttHall

Tika's Back Or What?

SUMMARY: Tika comes up sore, again.

Went to class last night with both dogs, intending to alternate runs. Did a little warm-up with each of them. Ran Boost one run. The next run I took Tika off her leash, played some tug, lined her up, and sent her over 2 jumps to make a U-turn to a teeter. She did the jumps slowly for her, turned wide, did the teeter correctly but slowly, and then when she left the teeter, she yelped and came towards me all hunched over, head down apologetically (or in pain).

I massaged her a bit, walked her around a bit, but she didn't even pull on the leash, so I knew she wasn't faking it. I put her away and just ran Boost the rest of the class.

This is the third time she's done this--previous two times she was in apparent misery for a while, and then suddenly with the right attention-getter was completely fine. This time, though, she was still sore when we got home. Tried to do her usual sproinging as I fed them dinner, but lifted only her front feet and only a couple of inches. Struggled to get upstairs to bed. Lay straight out all night, not curled up as usual, in my cold bedroom.

Still hunched over in the morning. A bit more massaging and gentle stretching. Still hunched over. Wouldn't play with Boost as usual while I dressed; didn't even shake her purple bedding violently which she does EVERY morning to get in the mood for the day.

I decided that, after I gave Boost some exercise, I'd call the vet. Out to the back yard, toss the toy--and Tika took off after it full speed, ears up, nubber tail up, pounced on it, brought it back, played tug of war--not a sign of soreness since then.

Argh. The incidents are far-enough apart (March 2007 and March 2006) that I'm not sure that I see a pattern, except that they ARE happening and maybe I should do something. It's just that she has such a panic attack when going to the vets that I hate to take her in if I don't have to. Is it arthritis or some other spinal problem? Muscle cramp? Plus she's such a drama queen; it could be something minor that she's overreacting to, based on how quickly she always suddenly "recovers."

Wednesday Night 8:15 Xmas Dinner

SUMMARY: The Gourmet Agility Class wraps up 2007.

In all the 13 years I've taken agility classes with 4 different dogs, I don't recall ever doing anything like this: We talked our instructor into joining us for an off-site Christmas dinner for our whole class instead of our last class session of the year, and we all showed up for Mexican food at On the Border for a 2-and-a-half hour evening of tattoo viewing, pepper spray stories, fun with clicker eyeballs, detailed descriptions of the birth of twins (I guess you had to be there--hysterical--), several pitchers of margaritas (I'm the only teetotaler in the group), and plenty of laughter.

Back row from left: Ashley, Jim, Ken. Front row from left: Cathy, Tracey, Lisa, Jennifer, Ellen, Bobbie (More photos, including eyeballs, here.)

My dogs, however, are going nuts--for the past 2 weeks, I've split a class between them because I haven't been there for the other class, and I'll be doing the same tonight. And there's been no agility on weekends. And I've been working on a deadline so ignoring them. They've just been hugging up to me, wandering around whining, finding artful ways to make nuisances of themselves. Poor puppers!

Disneyland Photos

SUMMARY: I posted photos with a little commentary here.

Disneyland and Dogs

SUMMARY: Dogs at Disneland

I don't ever remember seeing dogs at Disneyland before (except for Pluto and Goofy, of course). This week there seemed to be a tremendous number (OK, maybe 5 or 6) assistance-dogs-in-training whom we encountered at various places in the park. Maybe it was a special a-d-i-t weekend at the park.

Also met one dog in the security line before the park (yes, they check your bags now for bombs or maybe Food Brought In From Outside) who was on its way to the Dland kennel for the day. A Cocker Spaniel--a very very obese Cocker Spaniel. It's not just the human population of the U.S. that seems to need weight control--is it my imagination or are there more obese dogs now than ever before? You could've used this guy's back as an end table, it was so broad.

And speaking of Pluto--Friday night, I saw Pluto saunter out from backstage onto Main Street, and the first thing he did--surprising and amusing me--was to dash over to the nearest lamppost and start sniffing around the base. Typical dog. He did not, however, make any attempt to raise his leg, which was a relief.

Dog with keys in Pirates. This was my experiment with 1600 ISO setting. Even with the widest aperture, it was still a half-second exposure in a moving boat and although I tried 3 times, they all came out blurry.

Of course there's the dog in the Pirates of the Caribbean who holds the keys to the pirates' jail cells, and the ghost dog from Nightmare Before Christmas in the seasonally decorated Haunted Mansion. Nana, the Saint Bernard, in the Peter Pan ride. Hmm, thought I noticed dogs elsewhere, but don't recall any more offhand.

So, you see, I didn't have a weekend without dogs after all!

Disneyland and Life

SUMMARY: A brief blogging hiatus for Real Life.

I had a work deadline last week that kept me pretty busy, then I packed and headed off to Disneyland for four days with my sister and brother-in-law. It was a nice break from everything.

A Sad Week in The Bay Team

SUMMARY: Our club lost three dogs last week.

Sometimes it's hard having so many friends with dogs. And in particular, dogs who were The Firsts, who started their human teammates in agility and, thereby, changed agility, changed their lives, and changed mine, too.

	ADCH LAA-Platinum O-NATCH Mick, 1991-2007. If it hadn't been for Mick, Jim would never have started into agility, met his wife, moved to California, become a full-time agility trainer and USDAA board member. Jim has been one of my instructors since April, 1995. Mick was the first ever to earn agility Championships in two organizations. National Champion in both USDAA and NADAC. First dog to earn the LAA-Platinum. In all four Top Ten categories for seven years straight. But more than that, Jim adored him, and the feeling was mutual. (photo by ELF)
	ADCH-silver ATCH-OP MACH NATCH Chase CL4 (and some golds and plantinums), 1997-2007. A rescue dog for Erika, Chase led the whole family into agility, where they have excelled and judged and become part of the country-wide community. Erika and I often work score table together and talk about photography--many of the photos you see on my blog came from a camera that I got from her. Chase loved doing agility and loved to yell about it on course. USDAA Top Ten dog and national finalist, the tumors just discovered in his lungs couldn't keep him from competing in Scottsdale a month ago, but a bad reaction to chemo took him too soon. (photo by Sarah H)
	MACH2 Aira, 1998-2007. Came with Silvina from Argentina, and they reflected each others' personalities--bright, kind, energetic. Brought the whole family into an agility video business. Represented Argentina at the FCI World Championships. Loved chasing bubbles. I was lucky enough to do a photo shoot with Aira a year ago for a project for which Silvina got no payment but gladly took an hour out of her day to help me. A fast-acting cancer took Aira too soon. (photo by ELF)

Autumn--Oh, Wait, Winter

SUMMARY: California weather cools down finally.

(And at last my domain hosting service has fixed my FTP access, so Taj MuttHall is back!)

I finally turned on the furnace just a day before Thanksgiving, which is late late late; usually it seems I need it on by Halloween.

Just a week or so ago, I noticed that the trees in my yard still had most of their leaves, and that most of them were still green. Then, Thursday morning, I looked out my kitchen window, and this apple tree had metamorphosed seemingly overnight into a glowing, golden, magically brilliant canopy. "Wow," I thought to myself (it being hard to think to other people), "I need to take a picture of that!" But life intruded, and that night we had a huge windstorm, and the next morning, the gold lay spread across my lawn. Boom, just like that, we went from summer, through autumn and into winter.

Still, with the yellow contact zones, yellow tunnel, and yellow Mutt Xing sign hanging on the tree, it made a lovely photo anyway.

About That Scottsdale Thing

SUMMARY: Mixed experiences and emotions about Scottsdale--again--

A friend said (about USDAA's announcement about Scottsdale again): "At least there's a high probability that Scottsdale won't be rainy or snowy or just plain frickin' frigid in November."

That touched some sort of chord or pulled some sort of cord and here I went:

So far we've been lucky. The first year was very cold in the evenings. It had rained heavily the week before and, apparently, the fields were effectively flooded as they were trying to set up, but--being desert--it drained/dried up really fast and there were only some pools by the time we all got there, and the fields were fine for competing. That was also 2 weeks later than it has been the last 3 years; dunno whether that makes a big difference really.

The downside to it being in Scottsdale is that I'll want to go again. Boom, there goes another week's vacation and $1000 big ones--oh, more, because probably both dogs will be competing next year. Oh, except that they're making qualification harder & harder every year. Who knows. Maybe, unless both dogs do better locally, I won't bother. Because I'm such an inconsistent handler. Oh, except that last year Tika barely--and I mean really barely-- qualified in the team event, and then ended up in the finals at Scottsdale. So there's that random reward thing going...

2008 USDAA Nationals Announced

SUMMARY: They'll be in Scottsdale for the 5th year straight.

"The 2008 Cynosport World Games will be held October 29th through
November 2nd at WestWorld in Scottsdale."

http://usdaa.com/article.cfm?newsID=775

What to Feed a Performance Dog?

SUMMARY: I know next to nothing about nutrition, but it's always a hot topic when it comes up.

Backfill: Added one more section of links, Nov 30 noonish

I feed my dogs Nutro Natural Choice Chicken and Rice. I got here down a long path.

Grocery-store kibble

My first two dogs thrived on whatever name-brand kibble we could buy on sale at the grocery store. Amber, a Shepherd/Golden mix, lived to 13 1/2 with very few health problems, mostly apalling flea-related skin problems (this was before Advantage and that ilk). Sheba, a siberian husky, lived to 17 and I don't think had a sick day in her life, even when blood tests in her dotage said that she should've been at death's door.

Move to Science Diet for digestive reasons

Remington, my third dog, threw up or had diarrhea constantly. It wasn't just the kibble-- Pigs ears made him sick, where my first two dogs had ingested them with no problems. So did rawhide, sometimes. A very occasional can of dogfood gave him diarrhea. And so on. My vet suggested two or three varieties of kibble, and we tried them all, and then settled happily on Science Diet when it seemed to cure his intestinal ailments.

Move to Nutro for weight and performance reasons

When we added Jake to the family, we discovered that his love of fruit combined with our highly productive fig, plum, and apple trees meant that he was battling weight gain constantly. Not good for an agility dog, and I didn't want to cut out his kibble entirely--an all-fruit diet, I suspected, wasn't the healthiest nutrionally for any dog, let alone an active agility beastie. My agility instructor suggested Nutro Max as being a high-performance food that also helped keep the weight off. We switched both dogs, and Remington tolerated that as well, and it seemed to help. Eventually I switched to Natural Choice when weight-maintenance became less of an issue.

More high-powered kibble

These days, the same instructors have been feeding their dogs a couple of different products. One, Caribou Creek, is developed and used by sled-dog racers--they refer to it fondly as "rocket fuel." It's expensive and they buy it by the pallet-load for discounts and allow students to also buy it at cost. Lately, they say, "We are feeding Solid Gold's "Barking At The Moon" kibble. It is a high protein/fat, low carb food with salmon as the main ingredient. The dogs love it."

The Raw (BARF) diet

Meanwhile, it appears that large portions of the agility community have gone to the BARF diet (stands for various things), basically raw food, that is, largely uncooked meat and bones. I have several problems with this:

• Time. I'm stressed in my life without taking the time to shop for, preserve, and prepare this food. It's so much easier to buy a bag on my way past the neighborhood pet store, and to scoop a bowl of kibble.
• Expense: Nutro isn't cheap, but for a limited budget, it's much less expensive than a BARF diet.
• Quality. I don't trust the safety of raw meats in my grocery stores for *me*; why would I feed it to my dogs? Other people do. That's fine for them. Otherwise, you buy it from people who prepare the food for you from trusted sources. That's THEIR trusted sources.
• Storage: I have one large bin for 50 lbs of kibble. That lasts me a month. I don't know that I could fit even a week's worth of raw diet into my fridge or freezer--they're already full.
• Safety: Bones. I've had it drilled into me for so long that splintery and raw bones are dangerous for dogs that I can't buy into it. I think that most of the prepared foods are ground up, but I dunno. An agility acquaintance's dog died last year from a perforated something caused by eating a raw bone. OK, sure, sometimes dogs choke to death on kibble, too. Somehow that seems like less of a risk to me.
• Nutrition: Huh, OK, this is where my lack of expertise and knowledge comes in. I just don't know and have no good way of finding out. Read this excellent post by a veterinarian on the lack of data about this. I believe that, based on my dogs' general health, that any name brand dog food is probably nutritionally complete.
• Taste: I don't think my dogs care. You should see Tika leap into the air and salivate just before she gets her kibble. Not willing to put time, money, storage, etc. etc. into something that doesn't matter to them.

Links to more info

• Rawfed.com, pro-raw, has a "Myths" page and other info.
• BARFworld.com, a seller of packaged raw food, has a lot of info on their site promoting the raw diet and theirs in particular, just for comparison.
• Dogaware.com has tons of info related to dog food, recalls, nutrition, and so on. The site owner is a proponent of raw diet but it looks to me as if she has taken care to be sure that most of the info provided is generally useful and unbiased.
• Second Chance Ranch is anti-raw-food and has a second page with links to tons of vets and others who are also anti.
• Azmira.com, a holistic animal care site, also anti-raw.

(Thanks to Elayne for the anti- links for balance here, although she's pro-raw.)

Speed and Bars

SUMMARY: #7 and now REALLY probably final of several posts related to this weekend. Dogs' speed. Bar knocking.

Note: I'll be scanning in some course maps and posting in the previous posts probably sometime today. Check back later.

Tika's bars: In twelve runs this weekend (jumping 24"), Tika did not knock a single bar. Not one. Holy Toledo. Yet another argument for training her at 28" all the time because maybe it would fix the bar-knocking at 26" in USDAA. I'd just have to fix all the jumps in the universe to have 28". Or I could use 30"--lots of dogs (including Remington) did that for years before USDAA reduced the height. Several of the Power Paws jumps still have the 30" setting.

Boost's bars: She knocked fewer than she often does in practice, both at class and at home, but it's still an issue. I jumped her at 24", whereas she's at 22" in USDAA. I train her at 24" at home but 22" in class because all the other dogs are 22" and I just don't want to hassle with the height change, but they'd do it if I asked. Out of twelve classes: One double in Full House on a wrap; one bar in Standard, two bars in colors (where NONE are allowed), two singles in the next Full House.

Tika's speed. I don't THINK she's slowing down, but in the nonstrategy classes, she just wasn't #1 in speed even on her nicest, smoothest runs--of which we had several, with which I was very happy. The ones where you come off the course glowing with the sense of connectedness with your dog, no handling bobbles to kick yourself about, the dog moving fast and with excitement through the whole course. But even on these short courses (on half-size fields), several dogs beat her by a notable margin.

It's not like she's slow--e.g., in Saturday's challenging Jumpers course that everyone was moaning about while walking, we ran first and everyone was watching because of the challenging course, and we did it beautifully. I don't know how many people asked me (joking) right afterwards if I'd run *their* dogs on that course, and Art (the judge) yelled to the crowd, "See? It's EASY!" It felt good. And she WAS 4th fastest of 113 dogs who ran that course, all heights, levels 3/4/5/C. But Jag the aussie beat her time by a full second, and Suzy the wonderful little Danish Swedish Farm Dog beat her by over two seconds.

That means that, in a USDAA trial, there's have been many dogs faster than Tika. Of course, I know that already. I just wish I knew how to get that extra second out of her--I can tell by the way she chases squirrels that that overdrive button is in there somewhere.

Boost's speed: We had too many bobbles on all of our courses to be able to compare apples to apples. She was 3rd fastest in Saturday's colors of 105 3/4/5/C dogs, but she skipped a weave pole and knocked 2 bars. CPE's generous fault limits and generous Standard Course Times make for some funny placements: In Friday's Standard, Boost knocked a bar, so she took 2nd--but her time was HALF the time of the 1st place dog, who ran clean. In the opposite direction, in Saturday's Jumpers, Boost ran past the same serpentine jump twice AND she ran past a jump in the opening sequence, so I sat her behind the jump and led out mid-course--so I wasted a lot of time; but she still was fast enough to qualify...barely... showing that the score sheet doesn't show everything: She had no course faults but was 4.21 seconds over time (which Qs at that level in CPE). My fast little Border Collie, over time!

Challenging Jumpers Course

Here's the 3/4/5/C Jumpers course that everyone moaned about. It started with a very fast sweep around the outside of the course; it helped tremendously if you could lead out 3 jumps and let your dog handle his way around the jumps so that you could get into position for the serpentine. The second time through those same jumps to the tunnel, you had to do a threadle, and the third time, you did just a 180 in the opposite direction. I think that CPE people don't see challenges like this all that often. I had to drill into my head a mantra for remembering where I was in that triple loop; some people got through the serp and threadle OK but then forgot where to go after that.

When Will They Ever Learn?

SUMMARY: #6 (and final--I think) of several posts about this weekend. Ellen never learns her lesson.

How many times--HOW MANY--do I have to remind myself: To pull a dog off an obstacle and to a closer one, it's a reverse-flow-pivot plus "Tika!", NOT a turn with the dog and "COME!"? How many timesssssssss? How many times do I have to post about it here in my blog?

BOTH of Tika's non-Qs this weekend were the same dagnabbed thing, and BOTH of them I walked the correct way, and BOTH of them I did wrong when I got on course and got moving.

Crud crud crud.

But at least she was fast.

Standard Level 4/5/C, Saturday evening

Here's the Standard course where I blew it with Tika. (Boost didn't stick her start line--for the first time in 11 runs--so we left the course.) I walked it repeatedly with an RFP and "Tika!", but she didn't stick her dogwalk, so I was way behind her, so I reverted to doing the wrong thing. I think that an RFP and "Tika" would still have worked from way behind her.

This course presented lots of handling challenges:

• Opening #2-4. I have no idea why almost everyone handled it with the dog on their left. Almost no one got the dog into the #2 tunnel and still made it out to #3 to push them over the double. Some dogs were off-course to the Aframe because the handler moved too soon; many, many dogs came in past the double and had to be taken back around to get over it; some went past it into the #4 tunnel for an offcourse. A couple of people led out to the left of the #2 tunnel entrance, but not past the A-frame(!), so the dogs looked for them to their right as they came out of the tunnel. I led out on the left until I was past the plane of the Aframe. As Tika committed to the tunnel, I raced across the face of the Aframe, calling her name the instant she went into the tunnel, and front crossed between the tunnel and the double. It worked beautifully. You had to be able to hustle your buns, but much less than trying to go up the right side and push your dog over the double.
• #5/6: Offcourses from #5 to #7, or they called the dog back to them as the dog came off the dogwalk so that they could catch up with them. I tried to drive forward with my shoulders and focus towards the #6 jump; Tika didn't stick her dogwalk and flew over the correct #6, and this is where I was barely at the end of the dogwalk, turned my shoulders to the left, and yelled "Come!" She blew straight into the right side of the tunnel without hesitation. I KNOW that an RFP and/or "Tika!" would have gotten her to the right place, dagnabbit.
• #7/8/9: Dogs came out of the tunnel and back over #6 for an offcourse, or over #8 and straight up the dogwalk. People went through all kinds of gyrations to get through that space to the teeter. Because I was behind Tika and pissed off at myself, I ended up on the wrong side of #8 and we handled the path to the teeter by having her jump around my feet while I pushed her in front of me. Very professional-looking.
• #12/13: I watched team after team either take an offcourse to #20 after #12 or pull the dog off #13 to the right and have to go back for it, or the ones who got it, really push their dog OUT after #12. I couldn't figure it out when I walked the course--it was a straight line for the dog from the weaves across those three jumps. I think what happened is that the handlers had to go in to the very end of the weaves, so to get around #11 and #12, they had to veer outwards, which pulled their dog past #13 on the right if they were behind the dog, or if they were ahead of the dog, they had to go out around #12 and turn suddenly in towards #13, thereby pushing the dog over #20. If you were laterally out from the dog about 5 feet at the end of the weaves, you could run in a straight line lateral to the dog and go straight over those 3 jumps, and it worked great for those of us who did it.
• #13/14: Wide turns. To shave time off, it would've been nice to get a front cross in before #14. I couldn't get there with Tika. A couple of the fast handlers with fast dogs tried it and still got a wide turn, barely pulling their dogs in around them before getting into the weaves.