Chains

SUMMARY: Tire chain, key chain, food chain, DNA chain, chain of thought, hair chainge

Tire Chain

At Sunday's practice, they set up last weekend's Grand Prix run. There's a sequence where the dog blasts through a chute, has to go out to take the tire at an oblique angle, and then pull in to hit the weaves, probably while the handler is behind them and/or working at a distance to set up for the next sequence. In competition, Boost handled this well. Sunday, she did the chute and the tire and then missed the weave entry completely. So I sent her back to the tire--and she ran under it. I sent her again, again she went under it, and I said "No!" I mean, she hasn't missed a tire entry in I don't know how long, certainly never in competition.

I started making the entry easier and easier for her (but the side of the tire was always what I saw), and every time she flew under it, I said "no!" and brought her back. It was on the 5th try where I put her in a sit directly facing the tire that I realized that the heavy (heavy!) tire chain was dangling down completely through the center of the tire. Curses on whoever set the tire! And curses on me for not noticing that my dog was trying not to kill herself. I felt terrible! After a break and some other activities, I put her back through the tire in both directions and she did fine, so I didn't break her permanently. Dogs are so resilient; handlers can be so stupid.

Chain of thought

Cirque du Soleil's Kooza had a fabulous juggler. For me, breathtakingly talented. However, the first thing that caught my eye when he walked out on stage was his breathtakingly glittery silver lame suit. When he took off the silver lame jacket to reveal a silver lame shirt, I was hooked. But he distracted me with 20 minutes of some of the finest juggling I've ever seen, and some of it was the sheer duration without ever missing. Ever. At the end of the act, my first reaction was, "Wow! What a spectacular juggler!" and my second reaction was--and I'm sure, as agility addicts, yours would be the same--"Where can I get an outfit like that to do agility in"? You can watch the first half minute of this video to see the suit, and if you're inclined, watch the rest for the first half of his act.

Key Chain

Agility friend #2 commented this weekend, wow! That's quite a key chain! I realized then that my keychain has gone beyond being a mere utilitarian ring--after all, I have only 3 keys--and has become sort of the Swiss Army/Smithsonian/Andy Warhol of keychains.

Besides the keys (my house key is tie-dyed blue/purple, although it's worn away mostly), I have a sturdy blue metal Maglite flashlight, handy for finding stray doggie deposits after dark, a green LED extremely bright spotlight, handy for blinding yourself if you're holding the wrong end, my Weight Watchers Lifetime Member keychain, a circlet that used to have an "E" attached", the lock/beeper for my car, an I Heart My Dog tag in case anyone doubted it and needed proof, and a dragon caribiner, reflecting my dragon collection, of which I have many more than I have dogs, by a factor of probably 200.

So now you know.

DNA Chain

Quick: Which is Boost? Which is her mom, Tala? Is there a slight resemblance?




And here's a token Tika photo with her favorite Tika Toy, so she won't feel left out:

Food Chain

I keep trying to get photos of the foxes that live in the field behind me. They come up close to the fence to taunt me into frenziedly finding my telephoto lens, only to fade into the distance. They are so CUTE when they leap into the air and plunge nose-first into a gopher hole. Here is the best I've done so far:


Think it's a little blurry? That's because it's enlarged from this original, which is the nearest I've gotten with my 300mm lens for crying out loud!

Hair Chain[ge]

Well, had to make this fit into the "chain" theme SOMEhow. The instructions warn that, if you let the chia grow for too long, they become embedded and you'll have to remove their roots with a WIRE BRUSH. Heaven forfend. So it is time for Mr. Chia Head to say a fond farewell to his copious tresses. Today, we have reduced him to a mohawk. It's pretty pathetic; he needs a better stylist.

A Busy Weekend

SUMMARY: Good thing I had a weekend off from dog agility so I could relax and catch up around the house. Not.

But I had fun.

Saturday Morning: Hiking

Got up to the alarm at 7 a.m. (This is a free weekend, right? No alarm? Argh. Remember: I'm doing this because I WANT to.) Left the house at 8:00 with Friend #1 for an hour's drive up into the hills to Henry Coe State Park, where we hiked leisurely for about 3 hours and took photos. Home about 1:30.

	A trail sign partway along our route; more trails visible just beyond. "Flat Frog" trail? Not a pretty image...
	Cool fungus, with the "pitcher" on the left maybe 8 inches tall, at the base of a tree. No clue what it is yet.

Saturday Afternoon: Kooza

Brief hello to dogs, quick shower, change clothes, and dashed off to meet Friend #2 (from agility) and her spouse for Cirque de Soleil's Kooza at 4:00. An amazing show of humor, skill, daredeviltry, and contortion (my favorites: the juggler and the contortionists). Afterwards, dinner at Elephant Bar, which I'd never heard of, but had good meals at reasonable prices and an interesting ambiance.

	For a temporary structure, the Cirque tents are HUGE! And their stripes stand out in the urban landscape. Friend and her spouse turn back to see what's keeping me.
	Elephant Bar: There's a life-sized African elephant emerging from the wall above the diners, and various pachydermous artifacts everywhere.

Sunday Morning: Practice

Home by maybe 9:30, and it's right to bed because I have to get up Sunday morning at 7:00 to the alarm (this IS a weekend off, right?) to bake brownies for the SMART agility club practice/meeting/potluck. Friend #3 meets up with me at 9:00 a.m. with her two dogs, and the six of us drive an hour down to Hollister for a couple of hours of practice, a lovely potluck, and a reasonably short meeting, then more practice, then home.

	Workin' Paws is in the back yard of these people's home. They've got TWO competition-sized fields! (Wouldn't that be grand? Twenty feet from your back door?) Here's field 1 with Friend #3 in the background. Look at the wide-open spaces!
	Here's field 2 complete with Team Small Dog leaving the practice field. What a lovely mountainous view to wake up to every day!
	Here I am, posing. The slightly-less-posed shot was blurry. Technology! Pah!
	This guy came in 2nd in a poker tournament and decided to spend his winnings on something that would help him to remember his victory and make him very happy: Meet Tex[as Hold'em]. Now there's a man with his priorities straight!

Sunday evening:Party

Then an hour's drive home, play with all the dogs in yard a bit (Hey! I'm already getting pretty tired! How come they want to play again? Dang herding dog endurance!), quick shower and change and head over to my parent's house for a family birthday celebration.

	Parents went to town decorating for the birthday party. We even got personalized Welcome letters.
	Eight of us have birthdays within a 2-month period, so they baked two cakes and put our initials on them. (I'm "ELF".)
	Plus we got Mardi Gras beads. In my fave colors.
	AND I got a cool new baseball cap from my sister that combines Disney with dogs (why do people think I like dogs?). I love how Pluto looks as if he's got a really clever, sneaky trick up his sleeve. Reminds me of a truth about dog agility--youth and enthusiasm will always be beaten by age and treachery. Or something like that.

Sunday Late Evening: Photos and Blog

Then...sighhhhhh...two hours transferring photos to the computer, doing a quick search and edit for a few that I can use on my blog (deal with the rest later. Maybe tomorrow. Who knows.) then upload them for the blog and type in some notes...

Sorry, K.A., it'll be yet another day at least for the rest of Rachel's seminar!

The End of A Wednesday Night Era

SUMMARY: I've resigned from the Wednesday night 8:15 class.

And my heart is breaking. I love that class. But, for various reasons related to finances, I have to cut back to one class, and, at the moment, I need Boost's particular class more.

More info: Feb 8, 11:15 a.m. Omigosh! How could I have left THAT out! Or THAT? Or THAT? (See below)

History

I've been in Wed. night 8:15 class for a very long time--don't ask me how long; it might give away how ancient I really am. I might have taken some time off while on disability with my back in early 2001, so Current Era might have started then, but it's also possible that I was in the class, then out, then back in again, for years before that.

Be that as it may, for a long time I had Jake in that class, with other old-timers who'd been doing agility since the dark ages: Gail and Flint the Corgi, Debbie and Reno the Corgi, Ellen and Cali the Corgi, Arlene and Scully the Little Black Dog (aka Verwende Princess). Hmm, lots of small dogs, where Jake jumped 22". And Gwen with Spike the Border Newf. We had all known each other a very long time, and we were friends. We had our own Wednesday-night email list (still do, in fact; still share our doggie and agility triumphs and sorrows with this same old list), we got together outside of class and outside of agility.

But, in two short and painful months or so in 2005, some of the old dogs were retired from class--Spike and Scully--and two dogs became ill and died very suddenly--Cali and Reno--and Flint moved to a different time that worked better for his handler, and all of a sudden Jake and I were the only ones in the class. I was a bit sad about that. We all got along well, and I just knew that anyone added to the class would be newcomers and not long-time bosom buddies with all those years of shared history. How could it ever possibly be as good?

A newer class

Over the next year or so, the class built up again. They added Ken with Apache the Terv--I didn't know them except as friendly competitors who often beat Tika's times in our novice classes (damn their eyes!). Along with Ken came Bobbie and her Golden, Jenny. Basically complete strangers.

Two AKC Sheltie ladies--Cathy with Trooper and Tracey with Flash--joined, and I wondered what I could possibly have in common with them. Our old classmate, Gail, who sometimes teaches novice classes, sent her promising new student, Ashley with Luka the Pyrenean Shepherd, to get a class with Jim, and he joined us and stayed.

And shortly after that, I retired Jake from class because I had Tika and Boost in classes as well, and three classes was too much for me. That's when Tika moved into Wednesday night 8:15. Later, Jennifer with Kye the Aussie, who reminded me a lot of Tika physically but whom I otherwise knew nothing about, joined. So, altogether, a whole bunch of strangers, most of whom didn't know each other from Adam Ant, thrown together randomly.

There was one late addition, in the middle of 2007, someone I had known for quite a while (and had had class with at other times): Lisa with her young Border Collie, Carson.

Results and Sayonara

I never would have dreamed how much I have come to love that class. We have laughed so hard, so often, at so many things. We've instigated running gags by the handful, without which any relationship is merely a shallow shadow of what it could be. There's the desperate race to pick up the most cones between runs--we elevated it to an art! or was it yet another sick competition?--and the invention of the Bars Sluts!

We have challenged each other to outdo the Cool Factor handling maneuvers--Ashley is absolutely fearless and became the King of the Serpentines, and Jenn and Ken run fast 26" dogs whose times are competitive with Tika's (and Lisa with Carson, too, but she's managed to avoid talking trash with us on a regular basis), and so we're always pushing each other to do better and better. Ken and Jenn and I in particular seem willing to try anything challenging if there's a chance that one of the others might try it and succeed, making them Cool and us Not.

Then there's Tracy and Flash, inexorably working their way towards MACH-37 and learning new moves in the meantime, even though they claim they don't really need them. And, of course, the influence of Instructor J, who drives us to run as fast as we can so the sound of the wind in our ears drowns out his puns, but also always points out the Cool Factor moves that we might not have thought of, or the challenging moves that "you probably can't get there," or "the Monday Night class had no trouble with this," or "everyone else had trouble with this," to which the response is always, "But this is the Wednesday Night 8:15 class!" and "Piece of cake!"

I don't think it's coincidence that Tika's Top Ten points went from 16 in 2005 to 76 in 2007. The mix of people in this class has been very good for me.

And we've become friends in an odd cliquish sort of way. There's always a Wednesday Night 8:15 party Saturday night at out-of-town trials (to which, incidentally, anyone dropping by is invited with wide-open arms; there's always too much food and plenty to drink). We skipped class and went out for Xmas dinner together this year. To my knowledge, that's never been done by any other Power Paws class, ever. And of course our nearly world-famous ABCs of food nights all last year made every night a celebration. Ken and Bobbie and Tracey in particular always had the most spectacular array of foods and were Party Meisters on all occasions, although Jennifer and Ashley were no slouches on upping the food-quality competition level. (My waistline doesn't thank them, but it was bonding and it was delicious and it was fun.)

But the fact remains that agility is a luxury for me and I have to pare back. And Boost and I need the kind of work that we're getting in the other class just a bit more than I need the kind of challenge that I'm getting in this class. They're both very important. But I have to choose. I waited until last night to say anything at all, because I really didn't want to go. I'd have burst into tears last night if I'd had to talk about it any more.

The funny/odd thing is that PP convinced Jennifer and Kye to move to Boost's Thursday class for various reasons, but in particular because another student needed Wed night 8:15 for his schedule, and there wasn't room for another student. But now I'm leaving, too, so there'll be an opening in Wed. night 8:15.

I'll tell ya, I'm so glad that Jennifer and Kye will still be in my class.

But, overall, I feel as if I have left a relationship, it's that kind of pain. Pretty sad, huh? I need another life--

Jennifer baked a Kye cake for the occasion of her last night in class. He even had a little Aussie nubber tail with a white tip. And he tasted very good, too.

Nose Touches

SUMMARY: Wow.

Nose-touch demo video.

Team, Team, Who's Got the Team?

SUMMARY: So many DAM events, so little coherence.

Remember back when you had maybe one DAM tournament every year or two somewhere in the general vicinity of a thousand miles? Those were the days.

In this USDAA-qualifying year, we have/have had five--FIVE!--DAM events within 2 hours of my home. I skipped the one in December because I wanted the time off. Leaves me with:

• Haute TRACS (HT)in April: A major 4-day event, 4 rings, and not even on a holiday weekend. Team has always been Thursday/Friday there, so I can't even wait for the weekend.
• NAF in June: A smaller trial--2 rings--by a small club but still popular because of the DAM.
• Bay Team in July (BT July): The maniacs in my club have now announced our 7th--or is it 8th?!--multiple-ring event of the year on a new weekend, but wait, let's make it 3, maybe 4 days, too!
• Bay Team SW Regional September (BT Regional): The big one. Three days, FIVE rings, can you believe it?

For the last 2 years, Tika has been teaming with Brenn and I like it. We don't have a steady partner yet since our original came up with glaucoma and can't really compete any more. But I abandoned her for Haute TRACS for a silly name--yes, I talked two other handlers into teaming up with us because our dogs' names, combined, sounded like "Tic-tac-toe". It was a total lark, although the dogs are good, too. So Brenn went off and found another team for HT.

Meanwhile, I had confirmed with Brenn that we'd team with our one-time teammate, Savanna (who came up with "Borderin' on K-Aus", which we used with a different dog at Nationals), at NAF and at BT July.

Boost's sister, Bette, had arranged by email for us to team with Trek for Haute TRACS, who we tried to team with last year but then Trek got injured; we had used the team name "Sisters on a Trek" anyway, with a different team, but now we were goood. Well, found out this weekend that some of the email never arrived, so two of us thought we had a team, and one of us thought we didn't, so Trek was scheduled to be with someone else at HT, leaving us short a teammate.

We both went off and asked other people if they'd be interested in teaming with us at HT--the sister-dog Beck and another blue merle, Fleet, but fortunately one didn't commit right away so I was able to back out of that one, so we think we now have a solid team there with Fleet.

But also I asked Bette's mom whether we wanted to team with Trek at NAF and BT July. Oh, she told me, maybe BT July, but Bette is teaming with Brenn (they're very good friends) for NAF. Well, if you recall from above, I thought that Tika was teaming with Brenn for NAF. So it turns out that Brenn's mom was having the same problem I was having with all these events and had promised to team with Tika and Savanna AND with Bette at NAF.

So I said, OK, how about if Savanna and Tika find someone else for NAF, then, and Boost & Bette & Brenn team for NAF, and then Boost/Bette/Trek for BT July and maybe BT regional. That was OK, so I went off and found Trek's mom and confirmed that we could team with her for NAF and for BT July. Trek's mom said, are you sure, so I went back to Bette's mom, who said yes, NAF and BT July, and I confirmed with Trek. (See, we're already confused about which 2 trials, and the conversations had been only an hour or two apart).

Then I went to Savanna's mom to tell her that oops, Brenn was already committed for NAF, but we're still OK for BT July, so we'd have to find a teammate for NAF. She happened to be standing with the handler for my other tic-tac-toe dog, who had teamed with Savanna at the December DAM, where they had qualified and then were splitting up because of these other promises. We agreed that "tac" would join us for NAF.

Then, at 11:30 Saturday night, I woke in a cold sweat, trying to remember who was teamed with whom and when, and had to get paper and pen to write it all down, and discovered that I had double-booked Boost & Bette for NAF and needed to talk to Trek's mom in the morning, which I did, and she was very nice about it.

But then Savanna's mom came by to say that she had thought we were talking about the BT regional, not BT July (and, actually, I had thought so too originally on all counts except that everyone kept saying, "you mean the July BT, not the regional, right? So then I thought I was the only confused one). In fact, she had planned that, if they qualified again at Haute TRACS, then they wouldn't need to do team again for BT July and could take a rest, especially since it would likely be very hot that weekend. But if we'd be willing to take her tentatively for BT July and reevaluate after HT, she's game, and meanwile would we be willing to commit firmly for the BT Regional? We said yes (so, OK, now I have to start thinking about Boost's team for the regional, and also who to approach as a tentative replacement for Savannah if needed for BT July).

So today I sent email to everyone on my "dance card" to confirm the teams. Turns out that the "toe" handler for "tic-tac-toe" thought that our plans were tentative, so while I've been telling everyone for 3 months about our clever team, she's been making plans to rest up her dog and not overdo it on the 4-day HT trial. And the "tac" part thought that it was tentative and never confirmed, so has her own team. I am apparently a total dork for not having confirmed this thoroughly! So, as of today, I don't have a team for Tika for HT--and pretty much everyone has already settled their teams, especially after the trial this last weekend when everyone could schmooze around. Curses!

Do you follow any of this? Neither do I. I am SO stressed trying to keep track of all of this! And, of course, now having committed to teams, if we DO qualify early-on, it would be awful for me to back out of future teams to save time and money and stress. Sighhhh.... at least additional Qs (I can only hope) will be useful for advanced titles.

Weekend Photos

SUMMARY: So many nice things to look at.

I hardly had my camera out at all this weekend (too busy, too much rain), but driving home Saturday early evening was too lovely to pass up.

	Driving due west on 132 into the sunset. In the middle of nowhere. "Vernalis"?? Really nowhere--it doesn't even currently have a Wikipedia article! Now that's a real nowhere, man! Rain puddles line the pavement, reflecting the sky's fading blue.
	It wasn't a drop-dead gorgeous sunset, rather, low-key dramatic. And very welcome, after two weeks of rain, to notice that the sky above these clouds was clear.
	Along the California Coastal Ranges, those hovering clouds are really the omnipresent coastal fog bank trying to pour over the crest into the Central Valley. ... And, of course, there's...
	...Mr Chia head, Day 14! Which does have a Wikipedia article.

Weekend Videos

SUMMARY: Successes and near-successes

A few videos from this weekend. Didn't get most of our runs, including (sigh) Tika's lovely Jumpers, but by putting the camera where I'd have to trip over it to get my next dog out, I managed to remember it maybe half the time.

Here are some runs. I feel like I'm out there zipping lightly around the course, but here it looks like I'm lumbering like someone whose knees are sore, and it looks like I'm running on my heels instead of digging in with my toes. More to work on... plus the pounds I've put on since Nationals really show. I hate winter! (Doesn't help that I'm wearing, what, 5 layers of clothing?)

Tika's Master Standard on Sunday was lovely. Her contacts were very fast, including the dogwalk, and she kept all her bars up. But she decided to come off the table a second too early, for a disqualifying 5 faults. So sad; subtracting the time she wasted, her course time would've been up in the placements (among twenty 26" dogs):


Boost on the same course was fast, but we're just not communicating, as you'll see multiple times here, once resulting in a knocked bar, which was our only called fault on that run:


Tika's Sunday Gamble was lovely, except that she was fast enough that I ran out of obstacles to do and, not thinking well on my feet, ran right past a perfectly available teeter, which would have given Tika 1st place instead of 3rd (among 21 dogs). But her gamble was lovely (it's jump/jump/weaves/jump after the buzzer).


When Boost ran, now I knew that I could fit in two teeters, and did so. Still can see some lack of communication on where I want her to go, including blowing the gamble entry, but the opening was pretty good, with high points equivalent to the 1st-place dog:

Birthday Girls

SUMMARY: Photo of Boost and sisters

I was lucky enough to catch Boost and three of her sisters at this weekend's trial, just 3 days after their third birthday. From left to right, Beck, Gina, Boost, and Bette. Missing is brother Derby, who just wasn't there this weekend (might try again at another trial), sister Kyna (?), whom I haven't seen or heard anything about in a couple of years, and the 7th sister who was mysteriously sold as a pet dog to Hawaii or something odd like that.


Update: Feb 5, 1:05 p.m. PST (comment from Tammy, the siblings' breeder): Derby was practicing being bad at an AKC trial last weekend, Caena has blown out her cruciate ligament, apparently badly enough that they couldn't do surgery to fix it, so it's physical therapy and rest for her. Blue girl (Tinker) lives in San Mateo as a happy pet. I don't think anyone has gone to Hawaii, that I am aware of. :)

The Vet Bill

SUMMARY: Ouch. There goes the tax refund--and more.

Tika's total bill for the tooth thang: $913, plus $389 for additional requested services. I'm guessing that there are less-expensive vets, but I really like mine and have been going to that facility for nearly 30 years; not inclined to try to find another. Maybe I'm foolish about that.

• Exam/consultation: $62
• Pills (10 days antibiotics, 7 days Rimadyl): $61
• Half a day hospitalization: $63
• Meds at hospital, injected (antibiotics, anti-inflammatory): $50
• Tech assistance: $45
• sedative: $37.50
• anesthetic procedure: $220
• surgery: $90
• surgical pack/etc.: $15.50
• Heart/oxygen/etc. monitors: $50
• Toxic waste/env. fee: $4
• Venipuncture: $14
• Lab fees for blood test: $124
• X-ray of tooth: $77

(I'll have to double-check on lab fees--blood test was presurgery to be sure she was healthy enough, but I don't know what all the test entailed for that $124!)

Additional services at the same time:

• X-ray consultation: $60
• 3 Xrays of neck, back, hips: $249
• Teeth cleaning: $80

(X-ray consultation--not sure whether that would've been charged for just the tooth, or whether that was only for the additional x-rays.)

Home From A Cold USDAA Weekend

SUMMARY: Quick wrap-up: Didn't get what I wanted, but it wasn't a total loss.

It was cold. As in: Saturday morning, all the water tubs and dishes had solid crusts of ice. This is the California Central Valley, remember: It's supposed to be HOT! It was also supposed to rain a lot, but it held off Saturday until the last hour or so, and this morning wee got only a few showers, and the field drained very, very nicely indeed, so it could have been much worse.

Tika needed: Steeplechase. Grand Prix. Jumpers.

What Tika got: Two gamblers (8th and 3rd of 22). Pairs (4th of 30). And--yes! Woohooo! A jumpers! (6th of 24, just one out of Top Ten-point-accrual range).

Boost needed: Steeplechase. Gamblers (had 2 chances). Standard (had 2 chances). Jumpers.

What Boost got: Pairs.

That's 3 Masters Gamblers in a row for Tika, which is cool because it ends a bit of a drought there. And she ran beautifully, fast, happily all weekend, setting aside my concerns about her physical health and age.

Boost looks more and more like a masters dog all the time. Sunday's Standard was lovely but for one bar. We went off course on only one of 9 runs, and that was a bad handling move as much as puppy inexperience. Her gambler's opening today was spot on; lots of points and fast and accurate and no bobbles.

I'm home, I'm finally almost warm, I think I'll go have dinner, shower, & go to my nice warm bed!

Happy Birthday To Us

SUMMARY: Boost and Ellen's day.

Today, Boost are 3. And I are a bit older than that. Amazing that she's three already! How is that possible?!

She ran in class last night instead of Tika, and she looks lovely! Is coming in to me nicely on serpentines, although still has a tendency to knock bars there and to fly across the face of a steeply angled jump, but SO much better than just a few months ago. And her contacts are so nice! Do I want to break that 2o2o stop on the Aframe to get a running contact? TBD.

Here's the birthday card from my mother-out-law--for some odd reason people think I like dogs!

Got Call From the Vet and Tika's Fine

SUMMARY: Lots to report.

Tika's awake and sitting up. One of the roots of the suspect tooth was "badly abscessed" but they were able to clean it out and don't think that I'll need to do any nursing care on it, just antibiotics and Rimadyl for pain & swelling.

Other damaged tooth looks fine at the moment. All her teeth looked pretty clean, although they found a couple little pockets of tartar to clean out.

She has about a 4" gash on her inner thigh (! I'm so observant--but she doesn't roll over all that often except on the bed, and then I'm lying down next to her) but it's not deep and they think it'll be fine; looks like it has been there for a few days. Who knows what she hit and when?!

Her ears look good. Her nails didn't need much trimming, but they topped them off anyway.

X-rays showed many interesting things. And they're a good baseline for later. Her neck looks fine (back to the suspicion that the most-recent complaint wasn't the left side of the neck but the tooth).

Her hips "aren't perfect." The right one has some pinhead-sized bone spurs that probably aren't affecting her now. The left hip is slightly shallow and could have some problems eventually (I think I remember that the on-site vet a year or two ago thought that her soreness was her left hip--if so, maybe it just popped a little out of place--luxated--and then popped back again and was fine. Jake's knee used to do this all the time as he got older).

She has some teeny bits of arthritis in her midback that also probably aren't bothering her now, but there is one disk space that's a bit narrow and has some calcification inside the spinal area--probably not normally a problem but just twisting the wrong way or hitting something the wrong way could give her a lot of (probably) brief pain. It actually sounds very much like my own problem back.

Vet wants me to come in next week to talk about all of this in more detail.

So--she's OK! And things are hunky dory. I'll go get her in about 3 hours.

Waiting For The Call

SUMMARY: While Tika's at the vet, we have to do something to keep our mind off it.

I get scared about my dogs going under anesthesia. Especially when we don't know 100% what the problem is. I've talked myself into being reasonably calm while a teeeeny wee voice in the back of my head is screeching "panic! panic!" It didn't help that Boost was up about every hour from 9:30 until 3:30 with diarrhea. Seems OK this morning; no obvious cause.

Funny, got email this morning from a friend whose agility dog was under anesthesia YESTERDAY to have the same tooth removed for the same reason (but no swelling in their case). The tooth is a "carnasial tooth"--the largest upper premolar closest to the molars. I've heard twice today that that's the most commonly broken tooth in dogs and that it is commonly removed due to such damage.


(Image from this site.)

Still, as I emailed another friend this morning: After Remington, every little thing now makes me think "cancer!" and then I find myself thinking, "why doesn't everyone just get cancer and die and then I don't have to worry about it any more!" and then I could just kick myself and this morning I was hugging Tika and bawling about I didn't mean it don't leave me, that sort of pathetic thing. She thought I was a little over the top and didn't want to have anything to do with it.

I'm fine now.

Really.

Just waiting for the vet to call.

So Boost and I went for a long, not-too-leisurely stroll along the Guadalupe River. She whuffed briefly at another dog, but by George, I was able to stop and actually chat with another dog owner--something that I cannot do with Tika along and it's so discouraging.

	My vet's pyracantha shrub. Those little tulip ears--surely it's a border collie?!
	Big white bird thing (my mother would be ashamed of me) standing in the Guadalupe. Even swollen with the recent rains, it's not much of a river any more. But it is dammed in a couple of places. The one we walked past shortly thereafter (maybe 20 feet high?) has a salmon ladder.
	Workers need to keep the blackberries cut back to allow flow and prevent flooding. It's a nice urban stroll along here.
	So pretty, so calming. Such a nice morning (but cold--my earlobes were developing icicles as I jogged). Maybe we'll actually have class tonight.
	--Or maybe not. (Back to the real world, waiting for the light rail to cross.)

And of course, where would we be without Mr. Chia Head, who has had a hair-raising experience!

Today in California

SUMMARY: Tidbits and updates of a random nature.

By late yesterday afternoon, the clouds had largely cleared away in my area, treating me to a hopeful sunset marked only by one stubborn phalanx of clouds hovering in the west.



To the east, I finally caught a glimpse of Mt. Hamilton, which has been rumored to be ensnowed for the last couple of weeks, as the sky faded through pale pink, to purple, to night.



But it was short-lived; although not rainy today in my part of the bay area, I haven't seen a molecule of sunlight all day. And it has dropped once again to temperatures reminding us that it's a straight shot down the pacific coast from Alaska to California; was still hovering around 39 when I popped Tika into the car this morning and not much warmer now. It smells like impending snow to me, but that just might be my nostrils freezing.

Even the joggers--usually clad in running shorts in the least clement weather--were out in gloves and hats today. I wasn't even sure that Californians even OWNED gloves and hats. I know for sure that no one outside of the rural counties possesses anything like galoshes or rubbers (for shoes, come on now).

In any case, what I'm trying to say is that I'm NOT going to sleep in the back of my van this weekend in this weather, even with two layers of down and a couple of 45-pound furred heat engines. Guess I need to call the hotel(s). There goes another $100.

On my drive, I passed a truck for the Pet Butler--"picking up where your dog left off"--I'd say "only in California" but apparently not.

Filled up the tank in my Toyota Sienna today at $3.09/gallon--not bad; the cheapest it's been since mid-October, when it surged suddenly from the $2.90 range well up into the $3-plus stratosphere. Good thing I get 23 mpg. Wish I got better. Good thing I telecommute. (Definition: "Blog all day and then work at night, cursing about not having worked during the day.")

Last month's PG&E bill was miserable, too--$350! And I use compact fluorescents; the furnace is on a set-back thermostat and isn't even on most of the day or night and is set for 66 from 6:30-10 in the morning and 6:30-10 at night. So I bumped it down to 65 and changed the 10:00s to 9:45s. AND I turned off my hot tub. We're talking real hardship, here; I mean, this IS California.

But then I also bought this little beauty that I've had my eye on for a while--only $18 plus postage on ebay, new. Have already started plugging things into it to see how many kwh they suck out of the grid. I'm hoping that I'll learn something new by doing this and can save myself even more.

Or else maybe it'll get warm again.

Meanwhile, of course, we'll have to satisfy our longing for summer with:

Mr. Chia Head!



His hair is light-starved, so I set him with his back to the window this morning, ergo on Day 7 he now sports that back-swept Isadora Duncan look, except without the bulging eyes and protruding tongue--oh, well, without the tongue, anyway.

Tika Tooth Update

SUMMARY: Tooth removal tomorrow.

The whole side of her face is swollen today. OK, I'm less convinced that it's been this all along, with the rapid progression of the swelling. I suppose it could have been working for a while, but there were an awful lot of signs that it was her back or neck. So we've got 2 problems working at once?!

Vet pointed out that she has broken off a point on each of her upper rear molars, but her teeth otherwise are healthy. He thinks it's possible that she damaged a root in that one tooth and that's what's happening now. He'll xray it before taking out the tooth to be sure it really is the tooth and really is the correct one.

He also said that it's unusual (but not unheard of) for the swelling to be out in the flesh of the cheek like that for a tooth, but since the gum by the tooth is sensitive, he's 90% sure it's the tooth. My deep fear of course is always cancer, and one of his 10%s was an older dog with swelling like this who had a tumor. But I think he also said that her lymph nodes felt good.

Took a blood test today to be sure she's up to anesthesia. Started antibiotics. Taking her in tomorrow at 8 a.m. to have the tooth removed (thanks, folks, for your comments and emails about this). Pick her up late afternoon. Vet says she should be fine to compete on Saturday, and in fact will probably feel better with the tooth out and the pain going down than if I waited until after the weekend.

While she's under, he'll also x-ray her neck and lower back. Doesn't want to keep her under any longer than necessary, but thinks that he can do those fairly quickly.

Sedation: Last two trip s to the vet, she's had a tranquilizer pill an hour before going. She's still not happy about being there, but she's definitely not as over-the-top frenzied get-me-out-of-here as usual. Better living through chemistry.

And she KNOWS. I pulled into the vet's parking lot; back of the car facing the road. Opened the back door, and Tika--usually pushing at the crate door to get out--is hunched in the back of the crate, giving me the hairy eyeball. Smell? Particular way a barking dog sounds here? Dunno--

OMG I've Figured It Out

SUMMARY: It's Tika's tooth.

At least for this time around, I've figured out why Tika suddenly acts miserable and sore when playing tug-of-war and becomes subdued and won't play. Why bending her neck to the left hurts. Why she'll be curled over to lick/nibble certain parts of her body and suddenly yelp and look miserable for a couple of minutes.

It's not her neck. Not her back. I just happened to look down at her from the correct angle just now, and noticed her left cheek (opposite my hand in this photo). I tried to put my finger inside to pull the cheek out to look, and she shrieked. Just touching the outside makes her yelp. I can't tell so much from wrestling her mouth open and looking inside, but that section of her gums does look a bit inflamed. Still, it looks like it's actually the skin on her cheek that's swollen--like the lump is NOT in her gums; when I do manage to pull the side of her mouth out, the lump seems to come with it. I've never had a dog with tooth problems or abscesses before, though, so don't know what to expect.

I don't think that this explains why, 4 weeks ago, she couldn't jump into her crate without yelping. But it fits everything else. I've got an appointment with the vet for tomorrow morning. I feel an ominously large vet bill coming.

Noah Would Feel Right At Home in Local Microclimates

SUMMARY: Rain, rain, go away, little doggies want to play.[1]

I'm not the only one underwhelmed by the pleasures of constant, dreary, steady rain. Yesterday's headline in the San Jose Mercury News was "When Will It Ever End?" (Subtitled "TOO WET TO GO OUT, TOO COLD TO PLAY BALL: RAIN THROUGH MONDAY, AND THAT'S NOT ALL", showing how much this country consists of Seussophiles[2].)

Gloomy

Sure, it stopped long enough for us to be lucky in our travel and agility yesterday, but within 20 minutes after we'd started driving home, we were encountering drizzle, and by the time we were home, I was dropping my traveling companion off in that same boring steady annoyingly wet but unexceptional in volume dang rain. Today's weather forecast in the Merc (click image for larger version):



Rain rain rain RAIN!

Keep in mind that San Jose averages only about 15 inches of rain a year, and we've gotten about 5 of that in the last couple of weeks. I'm not saying that this is a disaster area (although, now that the ground is fully saturated--finally!--the danger of landslides and floods begins to rise precipitously, so to speak). It's really about the Climatalogical Water Torture, a psychologically deadly device designed to reduce our psyches to blubbering gelatinous blobs.

Scholarly

However, amidst all this, students, we can take an interesting lesson in microclimates[3] in the San Francisco Bay Area. People in most of the US don't live among such amazing variances in such close proximity. The preceding map covers an area of about 120 miles, north to south. The map shows the rainfall from 4 p.m. Friday through 4 p.m. Saturday for each measured location. Samples:

• South San Jose (near where I live): 0.39 inches.
• Downtown San Jose (10 miles north in the same valley): 0.50 inches
• Los Gatos (forming a 10-mile triangle with two preceding): 0.89
• Boulder Creek (about 10 miles from Los Gatos, in the Santa Cruz mountains): 3.04
• Gilroy (about 20 miles south of South San Jose in the same valley): 0.0

It has been snowing in the mountains all around us most of the time (drive time to top--maybe an hour because of curvy roads), but we're just getting rain.

So, we can be gloomy, we can be scholarly, or--

Best Choice

We can check on Mr. Chia Head!

Successes and Challenges

SUMMARY: Post-game analysis from this weekend.

Tika

• Jumps taken: 52. Bars down: 0. Note: Big success!
• Aframes taken: 3. Performance: didn't wait on any, nearly flew off one. Note: Need to fix somehow.
• Dogwalks taken: 2. Performance: One slow, got a foot in but didn't stop; one fast & running but apparently didn't get a foot in (not flyoff though). Note: Fast is very good. Need consistency.
• Weaves taken: 1. Performance: Reliable as always but seemed slow. Note: No action at this time.
• Tables done: 1. Performance: Very slow. Note: Monitor in future.
• Gambles attempted: 1. Performance: Like a champ on a challenging gamble.Note: Success; she worked to help me out on this one.

Boost

• Jumps taken: 53. Bars down: 4. Refusals: 3? Note: Back to bar-knocking drills. Keep jumping her at 24"+ in class. Find ways to work on challenging jumps.
• Aframes taken: 3. Performance: Nice, but left early once. Note: Corrected early one (down stay); Success on fast front cross after aframe and she stuck it.
• Dogwalks taken: 2. Performance: Fast and solid Note: Success!
• Weaves taken: 1. Performance: Just lovely Note: Success!
• Tables done: 1. Performance: Fast and STAYED DOWN! Note: Success, although I stayed close and never took my eyes off her. Continue to monitor and try to proof in exciting situations.
• Serpentines attempted: 2?. Performance: Good. Note: Big success!
• Gambles attempted: 1. Performance: Did serp beautifully; came out of tunnel at me with no hint of "out".Note: Success on serps; really need to work on redirects out of a tunnel.

Handler

• Runs: 10. Performance: Misjudged same pull-through wrap for both dogs. Note: Practice wrap/pull-throughs.
• Attitude: Upbeat. Performance: Didn't stress out about ANY run, not even Snooker or the gamble that many people were missing even though it was a title I wanted. Note: Success! How did I achieve that inner calmness? Continue to monitor.

Mostly Better Than Feared

SUMMARY: USDAA trial went generally well for us, on many counts.

Here's what I had rattling around in the Things To Worry About Department of my brain before today:

• Tika has done almost no agility, and NO 26" jumps, in almost 4 weeks. She'd been sore (briefly) back then. Would a sudden rash of 5 classes in one day at 26" wipe her out? Would she be able to do them at all?
• How come we haven't been able to to get that danged 15th Gamblers leg for our Bronze Gamblers? And will I ever, since I haven't practice distance work with her for 3 months?
• Would the freeway between here & there still be closed due to flooding for our trip up this morning?
• Would the ground under the horse arena cover (for our trial) be flooded? Filled with goopy mud?
• Its been raining and gloomy and REALLY COLD (for rain) with bone-piercing arctic wind all week--this could be a miserable day, even with closing panels on half of the arena, because you still have to load & unload the car and potty the dogs and DRIVE in it.

But I needn't have spent the calories fretting. The freeway was still closed when I got up at 4 this morning, but by the time I picked up my friend with her dogs Scully and Sparkle, it was open. It wasn't raining at all, anywhere along the trip. The temps went all the way up into the mid-60s and there wasn't a breath of wind all day. The arena had one area maybe 10 feet by 3 feet that was floody & muddy, but it didn't really affect us much. The day started with a drop-dead gorgeous sunrise that started out awesome and just got better for the next 10 minutes.

Tika

Tika was SO excited to be doing agility, and no sign of soreness. Her first run of the day was gamblers, and MAN, she flew around that course! Even her dogwalk and teeters were super-fast, as we've been working on (before her medical and rain hiatus anyway). She was one of only about 10 of 76 Masters dogs who got the gamble. I thought that she had actually managed to beat everyone else (rare for Tika) by 2 points total, too, but apparently her fast dogwalk was not as accurate a dogwalk as it had looked to me, because we didn't get points for it, dropping us to 3rd of 19 26" dogs. But I know I shouldn't complain--she ran great, looked great, executed everything beautifully, got a hard gamble, and finished that Gamblers Bronze! (Now it's just the danged Jumpers...)

In fact, she Qed 3 of 5 for the weekend, also taking 3rd of 19 in Standard 26". Also had a nice pairs run, but the course was pretty easy and, so, many many many teams Qed and had very fast times. She and partner were 12th of 27 Open teams.

She knocked NO bars! Woooooo! Didn't Q in Jumpers because I tried to do a bit of a send-and-run, and managed to pull her past a jump for a refusal, dagnabbit.

And she backjumped on a wrap in the Snooker opening, but had successfully negotiated 11 jumps in a row up to that point without knocking any, so that was a bit of a victory.

Boost

Boost ran very nicely, looking more like a Master dog all the time, although the Q rate is still low. I knew that the gamble would be extremely difficult for her, and she failed exactly where I thought she would, but she DID do a serp leading into it with no effort at all--a big improvement. Her opening was nice but did the "THIS tire? You mean THIS tire? THIS one?" refusal in the opening and I just help my position and waited until she took it, so she didn't get all the way through our last Teeter (still in the air)--otherwise she'd have tied for highest opening points.

In Jumpers, she came past a sharply angled jump (my fault for not remembering what a babydog she is) AND knocked a bar, but otherwise she flew around that course without hesitations or bobbles. Looked good.

In Snooker, another babydog/overly assuming mom error--I thought she was with me while running for the next jump, and suddenly realized that there was no dog going over it--nor anywhere to be seen--and she had gone in a different direction than I thought we were going (took my eyes off her, in other words).

In Standard, oh, it was LOVELY, dang it, except for one "THIS jump? You mean THIS jump? THIS one?" refusal--but two in five runs compared to several per run like we were sometimes doing last year is a big improvement.

And in team--whoo!--she screamed around that course (figuratively, not literally--none of my dogs, thank goodness, have ever voiced while running) and her partner was pretty danged fast, too; they were 4th fastest of all 37 teams but she knocked a bar, so Q but no placement. But even with that 5-point fault added to their time, they were half a second faster than Tika's pair. Now, THAT's a fast team!

Overall

I had a good time with my friends, being score table supervisor and keeping busy, taking photos (an assortment shown here), playing a fast, challenging sport with my dogs-- let's hear it for a 2 month vacation from agility and for a 1-day trial. Even my failures as a handler didn't seem so galling today.

As much as it would slow down our Title Chase, maybe I really do need to take more time off from agility. WOuld certainly help my pocketbook, but maybe it would help my enjoyment of the basic experience of agility more, too.

New rescue sheltie, at a year and a half just joining a family dynasty of outstanding agility shelties.

Graffiti.

The photographer is caught at her foul work again.

The remnants of a favorite one of these (I've had some that look like this).

On the trial secretary's box, the added tag says, "How special can it be if there's no beer?"

Another Rainy Day

SUMMARY: Mr. C Head sprouts! On gray and windy Day 3, as promised!

Odd Dog-Related Things

SUMMARY: Rainbows and Chia Heads

The last several days have been just plain straight water-come-down-from-sky. Unusual for San Jose, where we often get the Camelot effect ("the rain may never all till after sundown; by 8 the morning fog must disappear"), or a big downpour and then clearing. It hasn't been downpouring; it's mostly been more than drizzling; a good pace for absorbing water into the ground, which is a Good Thing, but bad for doggie brains.

I now know why they called them bored-er collies. Someone has been getting into EVERYTHING and being quite a nuisance. But the yard is just too wet and muddy (and cold!, also unusual for rainy times) to go out into, and who wants to walk in this weather?

Instead--I'm growing a chia head! Yes, have always wanted to try one but never wanted to shell out the money for it. I stole this at our agility club's annual gift exchange; apparently everyone thought I was being nice to the guy I stole it from because who would REALLY want a chia head? Who knew that doing dog agility would lead directly into this fulfilling personal experience?

Three days to germination, it said; here we are at day 2. I can hardly wait!





So, meanwhile, what are we to do while waiting? Today I had a doctor's appointment, so I loaded the furballs into the van and, after the appointment, we went for a walk (yes, in the drizzly rainy stuff) all around the Kaiser campus. And just as we were returning to the parking lot, I looked up and saw this stunning reminder that life will not always be gray and dreary:



It was one of the most brilliant rainbows I've seen. I raced to the car, shoved in the sopping beasties, grabbed my cheapie camera (always carry one, always!), and raced backed to a good vantage point. Then I realized, hey, it's a DOUBLE!


Somehow managed to not take quite the right angles to be able to merge two snapshots into a smooth arc, but the whole thing looked something like this. It was already fading from my first glimpse of it, but note that the colors are reversed on the outer arc. (Click on the panorama to see a larger version.)

Something Stupid

SUMMARY: Aaaaaand one more post for today.

Something I did on MySpace for fun. (argh, hope this link works, I canNOT figure out myspace bblogging...

I Feel So Safe

SUMMARY: They're barking at--what?

This evening, while cleaning the shower in my bedroom, I hit one wall with the scrub brush. Tika apparently felt that this was indicative of someone trying to break into the house, sprang from the bed, and leaped into the hallway in full ferocious Tika barking mode and wouldn't shut up no matter what I yelled (but I'll admit that I didn't try "speak"-- which works SO much better with her than "quiet").

Boost, apparently startled by the noise and/or Tika's reaction, was in full Repelling Boarders outcry at SOMETHING IN THE CORNER OF MY ROOM when I emerged from the bathroom. I was pretty sure that nothing and no one dangerous had snuck into my bedroom in the two minutes I'd been in the bathroom, but seeing that behavior in your dog none-the-less makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

Until you realize that what she was protecting you against was the blue merle border collie on the other side of the...mirror. Same mirror that's been in that room, in the same place, for the last 2 years and 10 months since she arrived. And she can't spend more than, oh, 10 or 12 hours a day in that room.

I'm so glad that I have such brave dogs identifying such horrific threats in my home. I feel so safe!