Cool Things

SUMMARY: Day 1 of USDAA agility.

It was 100 at my house in San Jose again today, per the renter--but we didn't care! It was cool and breezy in Carmel at Quail Lodge! Day started a bit foggy but cleared up quickly.


The site is really lovely--I have never seen a more perfect lawn in all my decades of existence. Denser and more even than some carpeting I've encountered in my day! We'll see how it holds up to two days of a 3-ring agility trial.

The Quail Lodge folks turned this into a major production; they promote their dog-friendliness and their high-quality event capabilities. Man, they really did everything up in amazing detail! Instead of stickers printed at home with the work "Lunch" for workers, they handed out these amazing laminated cards. All their work was like that. Hamburgers at lunch were excellent, with tons of fresh add-ons (lettuce, tomato, etc.)

The only thing about the site was that, even though the rings were arranged in a square, it seemed like I was doing a ton more walking than usual. At 9:00, I already had over 3 miles on my pedometer. Right now (end of day), 9.7 miles.

Of course there were the occasional mandatory adorable Boxer puppy experiences.

I worked at the score table (as usual) most of the day. Erika did, too. She claims that I'm dangerous with a camera.

We're now using whiteboards at each ring to schedule workers on the fly (prescheduled workers filled in, then replaced as needed as the day goes on).

The day started well, with both dogs Qing in Gamblers. Tika won hers and had the 2nd highest score of 43 Performance dogs all heights.

Here's the cool thing: Boost placed 6th of 45 dogs in her height class; her littermate Gina placed 2nd, and her littermate Beck placed 5th. Is that cool, or what?

Also, Boost qualified in Steeplechase with a lovely clean run--only one turn back to me before the final jump. That's only her 3rd Steeplechase Q in her 3 years of competing, and two of them have been this summer already. I like that trend.

Tika ran her Steeplechase perfectly; the problem was that *I* didn't, having a brain hiccup halfway through the course where I put her over an extra jump that wasn't actually part of the course. Sighhhhhh--

Things mostly deteriorated from there. Boost's Standard run was also lovely except for a serpentine move that I botched so that she both knocked the bar and missed the following jump. Tika's Standard run was lovely except that--shortly after a conversation with friends about how Tika doesn't do 2 on/2 off but most of the time gets her contacts--she FLEW off the aframe despite me plowing in front of her to try to prevent it.

Boost's Round 2 of Steeplechase was a thing of absolute beauty; her time was only a second slower that the winning dog, half a second slower than 2nd place...hold that thought... The course had 2 Aframes and I decided to release her quickly For Greater Glory and then worry later about about repairing what would likely be the ensuing damage to contacts that have been almost rock solid the last two weekends.

Learning experience #1: Release early on the first Aframe, and that's all it takes for the Border Collie to not bother doing 2o/2o on the 2nd aframe! (Got feet in yellow but no bothering to stop at the bottom.)

Learning experience #2--on a teeny weeny lead-out pivot, I didn't give her enough info, I guess, because she ran NEXT to the 2nd jump instead of going over it. No point in going back and fixing it, because it's all about the speed, so we just blasted through the rest of the course and it was SOOOOOOO lovely! I really like the trend of her running instead of waiting for me (still doing it, but not quite as disastrously), and mostly keeping her bars up.

Pairs relay: Boost's partner needed the Q for her bronze title and ran clean. Boost popped out of the weaves, knocked a bar, and ran past the next to the last jump for an offcourse. I felt bad about that.

Tika was paired with a pretty slow dog, perhaps in the hopes that Tika's speed and reliability would get her a Q. And the other dog was SLOOWWW... never more than a walk or trot. Tika started out great, but then there was this big wide turn that I didn't worry about because there was NOTHING out in that part of the field that she could go off course on. Except, when we came around the turn, there was a JUDGE out in that big empty spot, and Tika went over to see what was going on, wasting time AND going past the next jump for an additional 5-second penalty.

Tika never does this. I can't EVER remember her paying any attention to the judge, even in her crazy novice days. The result: Our team missed qualifying by 5 and a fraction seconds. Arghhhh!

Jumpers: Tika helped me finish the day not feeling too badly as she earned one more 26" Jumpers Q! Huzzah! One more to go to 25. Only 4.5 seconds slower than the Amazing Icon, World Team member, which is pretty good I'm thinkin'.

Boost's Jumpers was more of a mess, back to looking at me instead of at obstacles, so she crashed the upright of a triple, ran past 2 jumps, knocked 3 bars--back to the old-style Boost for the last 2 runs of the day.

Drive home had some traffic, so the 5:00 AM drive of 1 hr and 15 minutes turned into an afternoon drive of 1 hr 30 minutes, but stopped only in this one merging section and mostly not awful.

OMG, look at the time. Off to bed, then another early day at cool Carmel while San Jose swelters some more!

A Brief Moment of Fame

SUMMARY: Remington's cast revisited--

Remington made animal-in-a-cast Of The Day for July 14.

We're Ready

SUMMARY: Friday night thoughts for the weekend.

It was still 88F outside at 7:00 Friday evening. Strawberries & whipped cream for dinner.

Reports from early arrivals at the trial site, Quail Lodge in Carmel, report that the site is gorgeous and the temp was 65 and slighty foggy. Awesome.

Both dogs did some bar-knocking drills and some serpentine drills. Too hot to do much else, or for very long.

Tika seems fine in most respects today, except that certain things make her yelp. :-( Still, she's running full out, jumping cleanly, tugging of war in her most fervent manner. More rimadyl, more massaging.

My showerhead just broke. Aughhh! In a heat wave on a friday night before an agility weekend! Sheesh. I have a hand-held sprayer alternative, but I have just learned that one must be coordinated to avoid continually spraying oneself in the face. Sputttppfff!

Tomorrow: Gamblers, Standard, Jumpers (both dogs need Qs! Really!), Steeplechase round 1 and 2, and Pairs.

Sunday: Snooker, Grand Prix, and Standard. And home early? One can dream.

It's 8 p.m. as I write this, and I need to be in bed *now* for that 4 a.m. arising. It will be to *#&@ hot for me to get to sleep right now. I would be lying there, oozing sweat into my sheets. Eh, sleep is overrated.

Boost's ears occasionally start to stand up, giving her a puppyish charm. Never lasts long. Maybe the heat makes them rise.

Training Progress

SUMMARY: As usual, some things get better and some get worse.

Yesterday morning, we went for a long walk, played frisbee in the park, and did our usual chase-the-toy games in the yard. More of the same in the late afternoon, with some running/jumping exercises.

Because we're doing USDAA this weekend, and because Tika needs Jumpers legs #24 and #25 at 26" (while everything else she's in is a Performance 22"), she ran last night in class mostly at 26". I warmed her up pretty good, got her pretty excited. We've been doing the same bar-knocking drills as for Boost, and she's been just about perfect. Last night in class, she knocked several bars and seemed slow to me (but maybe that's in comparison to Boost).

We got home, had dinner, relaxed a bit--and when I got out the prunes for their evening treats, she grabbed one, hunched over, and exited rapidly upstairs to the bedroom. Zounds! (a) Tika never leaves the vicinity of food except in dire straits. (b) the sign of not feeling well or being in pain is beelining for the bedroom.

So she got some rimadyl and a nice massage.

As for Boost, who desperately needs Jumpers leg #1 (!!! still !!!), she knocked bars but not so badly (I know, I know, a knocked bar is a knocked bar), BUT (a) instructor said, wow, she's really working to avoid knocking them, and they're mostly because you're talking to her when she's right on top of the obstacle, and she didn't knock any with her hock (which was the main perceived "lazy" problem); and (b) she was really running, not doing runouts and refusals while looking at me the whole time, continuing the trend from last weekend's trial.

Our biggest remaining runout issue is coming in to me on *#&@ serpentines! Back to work on those, too.

This weekend: Should be near 90s in San Jose. Should be near mid-70s at the coast in Carmel, which is where the trial is. Whew! It's a 75-minute drive (per mapquest; I've never been there before), and I'm going to hoof it home overnight rather than spending the night there. So: Up at 4 a.m. or thereabouts once again Saturday morning, an hour later Sunday.

Better pack! And get some real work in! And one final bar-knocking practice!

It Was Like a Fairy Tale Come True

SUMMARY: ...except the magic was the power of space flight and each hero's success was in coming back alive.

When I was born, no manmade object--let alone a human--had ever gone up into space. It wasn't until I was nearly two that the first satellite, Russia's Sputnik, woke the world to the realization that we had crossed a threshold: Before, we were a species locked to the ground, to a single planet, with the universe beyond our thin layer of atmosphere forbidden to us. And then, now, we stepped into a reality in which Infinity and Beyond were suddenly within our reach.

(Telstar was about the size of one of those inflatable exercise balls--34 inches across. Wikipedia photo source.)

My first recollections of our conquest of The Darkness Beyond were twofold: First, standing in the darkened driveway of our apartment complex with my parents and the neighbors, standing, eager, waiting, eyes heavenward, straining to see the tiny speck of light of Telstar on its scheduled pass across the heavens. I was six, and I knew from the excitement around me that something magical had happened.

(Wikipedia photo source.)
And, second, we knew all about the Mercury capsules, tiny tin cans barely big enough for a human, barely popping into space and dropping back to the sea, whence they were plucked by helicopter from the waters and deposited on the deck of a military vessel nearby. These were always suspenseful--would they burn up on reentry? Would they find that tiny speck in the ocean? The first American into space reached that goal for a mere 15 minutes the year I turned 5. Nine months later, the first American ever--and almost the first human ever--orbited Earth...a mere 3 times over a four-hour period. We must have seen these on TV (we had a TV in our house by then), because when my parents gifted me with a tiny plastic Mercury space capsule and bright orange helicopter with a skyhook dangling from a string, I knew all about how they were used. I loved that toy.(Wikimedia image source.)

This was my world as a child: Space travel was a miracle and our first steps into space were tiny, halting, fragile, risky things.

We watched every rocket launch on TV--and every one played out on TV for hours, broadcast live. We watched the countdown-- "T minus two hours and counting" said the man in the background--and sometimes you could see activity on the ground or watch the astronaut (with Gemini, two astronauts; with Apollo, finally, three) make his way into the tiny capsule. "T minus 10 seconds...9...8...7..." and I'd feel my heart rise with the rocket as it ponderously rose, ever so slowly, amazingly slowly for the tremendous power and fury of the fires and smoke erupting from its base, finally, magically, into the air, and the cameras watched it, the light of its rocket flickering, flickering, growing ever smaller, until it was out of sight.

A miracle. Every flight had simulations broadcast so that you could see what the rocket stages were doing as they separated, how the capsule maneuvered in space. And then, always at the end, that terrifying, burning, racing plunge into the sea, with no control; they dropped from orbit and fell, a flaming stone, through the atmosphere to the water below.

Forty years ago today--I was thirteen--men walked on the moon. Everyone talked about it. Everyone watched the broadcasts coming back live--Live!--from another planet. Astounding, just...astounding. The solar system now seemed within our reach, it felt like there was nowhere we couldn't go, places we couldn't explore, resources we couldn't find: Now--we could do it all! And yet, for all that we could land on the moon under control, and leave its surface again, back home to Earth and there was still that uncontrolled plummet to the vast, cold sea. (Wikipedia image source.)

I was fully an adult--out of college, married, owned my first home and then my second, before that changed. We watched the launch of the first space shuttle on TV, all of us, waiting to see whether it would even fly. And then, two days later, the suspenseful time as it descended from orbit back through the atmosphere and those dreadful minutes of silence where communication was impossible--

And, by all the Gods, it came through! We might have cheered when we heard the astronaut's voices as radio contact was reestablished. And then we waited with bated breath, begging silently, fists clenched, waiting to see whether it was possible for it to actually land again, under control, on the ground, safely and predictably. Then Lo!, it did! And I cried from the joy of it.

(Wikipedia photo source)

Not long after that, as we who remembered how it had been sat around the TV for yet another blast-off, still as astounding as it had always been, my youngest sister (9 years younger), wandered into the living room, said, "Oh, another rocket launch," and wandered out again. And that was the first I truly realized that the magic of it all was lost to those who hadn't grown up with it, for whom space flight was a matter of fact, shuttles landing under a pilot's control an everyday occurrence.

I hope that, within my lifetime, we will find the magic again and find our way out to our moon, our neighboring planets, and their moons. Because it seems so sad that we should be imprisoned here, on a single planet, our little castle with nowhere to go if it should burn, when we have had the magic in our hands and shown that we could use it. I hope.

Bloomin' Yard

SUMMARY: If you like flower photos, this is for you.

I tried to do a complete inventory of everything blooming in my yard on June 15 (oops, didn't get to it until the 27th) and today, July 15.

Browse the photos, with very brief comments, here for June, here for July.

Hot and Stuff

SUMMARY: Heat, hammers, walkies, training.

I've carried a hammer in my car since forever. Comes in handy at every agility trial for pounding in canopy stakes and pulling them out afterward. After our June CPE trial, my hammer vanished. Looked everywhere I could think of. I'm half convinced that, someday, I'll open some box or bag or whatever and there it'll be, tucked absent-mindedly away for transport back to the van from where I was set up. Meanwhile--gots no hammer in MUTT MVR.

Dropped in to Orchard Supply & Hardware today to pick up another one. I mean, how much could a hammer cost, anyway. Twenty bucks! For a basic, reasonably heavy, wood-handled claw hammer! Sheesh! Bought it anyway.

It's been hot again, up in the high 90s (32C+) & low 100s (38+). No A/C in this house. Last couple of nights it hasn't cooled down overnight; tonight it's doing better. At 6 this evening, I got up to go out to the yard with the dogs; Tika would have none of it. Did she want to stay inside? No! She wanted to go for a walk! Straight out to the front hall, eager, prancing, bright-eyed. Wouldn't come out to the yard, wanted a Walk. So we went for about a 2-mile walk. It was danged still hot, and humid, too (not compared to some places in this country, but still--), and I was very hot when we got home.

Have been working on some of the jumping drills for Boost and, what the heck, Tika, too. They're both doing very well.

USDAA trial this weekend, and Tika has to jump 26" in just the Jumpers class. Only 2 more Jumpers legs to ADCH-Silver. Everything else at 22" performance.

Hope it's cooler this weekend! Site is closer to the ocean, so often is cooler than here in the summer-miserable San Jose desert.

Time to go to bed and practice sweating all over the sheets. Ta.

I Heart My Dog Heads and Fruit

SUMMARY: All the misappropriated lyrics you could want at K-TMH, plus fruit news.

Remember when you used to see "I heart my dog head" on everything? Yeah, like this notepad, which I got because at the time I had a Siberian Husky a long long time ago, like, she's been dead for 12 years, which shows you how long a fad pad can last: Even today, when I'm expressing affection for my dogs, I say "I heart my dog heads!" It's such a catchy phrase.

And with that comes today's song, developed after many long seconds out in the yard playing tunnel/fetch, sung to the tune of "Fish Heads":
Dog heads, dog heads, Fluffy woofy dog heads,
Dog heads, dog heads, I heart them!

In the morning, happy waggy dog heads.
In the evening, dog hair in my soup!

Dog heads, dog heads [etc.]

Ask your dog head anything you want to
When they answer, they will bark!

Dog heads, dog heads [etc.]

Sent my dog heads out to do a tunnel
Didn't have to yell to get them in!

Dog heads, dog heads [etc.]

OK, but enough of operatic tension; it's time for a non sequitur, so let's talk about fruit. Jake was the consummate fruit dog, if I may make a tiny pun; would do anything to get a banana; ate figs until he'd put on about 15-20% of additional weight within a few short weeks; pigged out on apples faster than I could pick up the fallen ones daily; even ate oranges from time to time. He particularly used to eat plums until he had pretty much a steady stream going in one end and out the other, if you know what I mean. Wish Tika would eat more plums, because her anal glands have gone bad a couple of times (May 2007, July 2008), and one simple advice was to feed her 3 prunes a couple of times a week or daily or whenever I remember. Have been doing that--she likes prunes--and so far, so good.

Neither of my current dogs seem interested in oranges, apples, or plums, but they are apparently into pears. I have been finding pear stems lying in the oddest places in the house; apparently, they are not an edible part. Here's the culprit, nibbling off the last minuscule portions of actual fruit:
Tika apparently likes them enough to not merely wait for some to fall to the ground (or disdains those because they're now soiled--after all, who knows what those other dogs have been doing on the ground around that tree), but leaps at the tree to pull fresh ones off. Sadly I have not been able to get to a camera fast enough to record this.
This year, the usually profuse plums were small and nonprofuse; usually we make at least a couple of batches of plum sorbet, but not this year. We rescued barely enough to eat a few a day for a couple of weeks, and that's it. Hardly any went into the compost pile.

The blackberries were disappointing, too. Again, normally I haul in a quart or two a day during the time that they're ripe, but this year the beast depredation was awful, the berries were small and sparse, and a lot of them ripened oddly--half ripe and the other half not ripe, staying red and hard and tart. Very disappointing; I think I had enough for about 4 bowls of morning cereal, and that was it. No blackberry ice cream or sorbet this year, either. Sighhhh

However, the lemon tree, which last year had few, teeny, dry lemons, this year is back to its profusity, as are the orange trees. But check out this orange: Looks like someone neatly sliced a quarter out of it and grafted in part of a lemon, which grew right into place. I wonder if it's possible for a quarter of an orange blossom to be pollinated with lemon-tree pollen and produce this oddity? (I didn't cut it open to see what it was like inside.)

Meanwhile, I've been practicing the "find the obstacle" game. Play tug, take toy away, point body in general direction of the agility obstacle I want them to take, say name of obstacle, praise if they take the correct one. It seems to be very true that, for my dogs, "any noun will do" for whatever the nearest obstacle is. I need to do much much more of training by obstacle name.

And for now, farewell.

Cyborgification

SUMMARY: Another pointless exercise.

Are these interpretations accurate? You decide:

Get Your Cyborg Name
	Get Your Cyborg Name

Fun With Course Maps

SUMMARY: Detailed comments on some courses from this past weekend's USDAA trial.

For you course-a-holics, you'll be delighted to know that our tireless KK has put ALL the course maps from all 3 days up on the Bay Team site.

Masters Standard Sunday

I didn't run this course with Tika; did run it with Boost and our only notable flaw was on the turn from 9 to 10. I front crossed between the weaves and #9, sent her over #9, then--worried about the back side of #16--I did a silly thing: I gave a threadle cue. The result was, yup, she threadled right between 9 and 10 (which is what a threadle cue is SUPPOSED to do, but I didn't mean it this time!).
But, working the score table, I was able to watch parts or all of many dogs run this course. It ended up with a 25% Qualifying rate, but I've seldom seen a course that ends up taking people out in so many ways. Here are some observations:

• 1-2-3: Didn't see any off courses 1-2-4. Some people led out next to the tunnel on the inside; some people did a lead-out pivot and had the dog on their right going into the tunnel and rear crossed the tunnel. Most people had the dog on their right all the way through the loop. I led out just beyond 1 so that I could take a couple of steps forward and then slow and start lateral motion as the dog approached 2 to pull her in towards me to the tunnel.
• There were off courses from 4 to the back side of 1. I did basically the same thing as starting; waited for them to exit from the tunnel, took just a step towards 4, then slowed and moved laterally (also signalling verbally).
• There were off courses from 8 to 10, from 9 to back side of 16, or 10 to 18.
• Some folks front crossed between 10 and the Aframe, but I wanted to be on the side towards 12 rather being on the far side and having my motion towards 12--either a longer front cross or a push--propel the dog out to the back side of 4. There were several off courses 12 to 4. I either pulled to 12 and rear crossed it, or front crossed as the dog descended the Aframe, so that I had no motion towards the 12-4 line by the time they were off the frame.
• The bar at #12 came down a LOT.
• The surprising offcourses were some 13 to the right side of 19, or quite a few 13-14-19. Everyone that I remember had the dog on their left for 13-14-15, and if the handler wasn't careful about the line they were running, they were basically pushing the dog into the tunnel rather than pulling the dog towards the chute. Ideally, you'd be at least to the tire as your dog left the teeter. Don't recall seeing any 14-to-18 offcourses, but I think that most dogs' momentum did not bring them towards the 18, even if the handler fell behind.
• 16 through 20 presented some huge challenges. There were some off courses 16-17-Aframe. With the dog on your right 14-15-16-17--which was really your only option--you had to hang back a bit to keep the dog from going up the Aframe after 17, but then the dog's path 17 to 18 took them to the wrong end of the tunnel. If you hung back to pull them into the correct end of the tunnel, the dog would most likely beat you out of the tunnel and could end up running past or refusing the last jump, which I saw with several dogs. Most people did pull the dog to the tunnel, and most dogs turned towards the handler coming out of the tunnel, wasting a couple of seconds.
• Since we were already NQed, I decided to try what a very few people tried (some successfully)--sending the dog out to 16 and then racing for a front cross between 18 and 19. Boost almost ended up with a foot on the Aframe that way, and although she missed that, her momentum combined with my motion pulled her past 18 for a runout.

Masters Snooker Saturday

I misjudged this one while walking it. With 54 seconds in the opening, and with only 3 reds, there was no question about there being plenty of time to get three 7s in the opening, and the closing course struck me as being smooth and flowing, so I figured that it would be a speed course: Everyone doing three 7s in the opening and easily doing the closing and then it would just be all about the speed.

The only things that I didn't like about three 7s was that I'd have to run out around a couple of obstacles at one point, which Tika has never been thrilled about (that's about the only place on course where she's likely to go for my feet or jump on me), and with Tika's "modified running contacts", I had to get my hand in front of her face for 4 Aframes in one course. With Boost, the issue was a long lead-out and her propensity for knocking the first bar, which would have made the rest of the course a bit challenging.

However, with two dogs with known bar-knocking issues, I wanted to stay away from as many bars in the opening as possible--which mean I had to do Aframes. What can ya do?

My plan (using "E" for east/right of the center line, N for north of the bottom of the map): Set dog at the 25N-35E (near the (F) in the lower right). Lead out to about 10E40N and call the dog to my left side, moving about 3 steps towards the W as the dog approached, then swinging them around on my left side (slapping my leg with "Close!" command, which means come to my left side) and shooting them up the Aframe. Worked perfectly.

End up at about 10E 55N, calling the dog to my left side past the tunnel opening, then pulling the dog in close to me and running towards (my) right side of the middle #1 jump, front crossing between the 1 and the Aframe, and sending them back up the A. Worked perfectly.

End up at about 5 yards south of the lower end of #3 and pull the dog past the tunnel on my left, now, running at the (my) right side of the western red, shoot the dog over the red (so they're aimed southwest) and then pull the dog, still on my left, out around past 2 and 3. Pull the dog in CLOSE on my left side until I'm at about 5W70N, where I can then safely line up the dog for the Aframe. WOrked perfectly, in part because both dogs were uncertain where they were going as we raced past 2 and 3, so it was easy to keep them with me for the approach to the A.

Then push the dog over 2, break for a front cross between 3 and 4, holding back far enough so that as soon as the dog is committed to 4, haul butt to get myself far enough to keep the dog off 6A and going straight into the #5, but hold back enough to do an easy front cross between 5B and 6A, then hang back as the dog does 6B and do a little RFP (or threadle) to get the dog onto the Aframe instead of back into 4 and there you go. Worked perfectly. Both dogs took about 40 seconds to do it.

The problem was that Boost brushed 5B with a toenail and the bar came down. Sigh. Since we were already on our way over 6, I just completed the course as planned.

However, I was wrong in that not everyone tried the three 7s, although quite a few did. Three 5s proved to also be popular, or two 5s and a 6 or two 7s and either a 5 or a 6.

And I was wrong in it being just a speed course with 51 points: Out of 46 22" championship dogs (Boost's group), only six managed the full 51 points, and the 7th super-Q went to a 48 pointer. In Performance 22" (Tika's group) only 3 of 13 got the full 51 points, and for a change Tika was fastest of those. Out of 8 16", only one got 51 and no others were higher than 46.

There were a few others like us who blew it with knocked bars or popped contacts, but not many--there were lots and lots of wrong obstacle-whistle-goodbyes, which surprised me.

Masters Gamblers Sunday

This was a tough gamble; for example, only 6 of 43 22" dogs Qed.

As usual, the drawing doesn't entirely reflect reality; one could exit the tunnel near the upper right and be aimed comfortably at the dogwalk; in fact, that challenge was really to get them up the dogwalk and keep them out of the chute. So imagine that change in the layout. :-) And notice the special rules in the box at the top.


The most popular opening started with tunnel-teeter on the right. Several variations after that. I was one of a few who started jump-Aframe. We continued with jump, weave, weave, tire, left side of tunnel, right side of tunnel, dogwalk, and the whistle blew right on or after the end of the dogwalk for both dogs (Tika running through but not as fast; boost faster but held on both of her contacts briefly). This proved to be high opening points of all 37 Performance dogs, and 7th highest of 84 championship dogs. I don't know the paths for the higher-scoring dogs, but I believe they all had running contacts.

Ending on the left side of the dogwalk lined us up perfectly for the start of the gamble. Boost did 1-2-3 but knocked the #3 and then came in towards me; Tika I just ASSUMED would keep going out over the #2 and so I started running towards the end too soon and she pulled off the 2 just a stride early.

I don't know what the successful strategies were for getting dogs over #4. I tried "right" with Boost, which she sometimes gets and sometimes results in "let me come closer and look at you so I can see what you mean!"



Photos by Sarah Hitzeman from our June CPE trial.

Groaning In So Many Ways

SUMMARY: Waking up to dogs, groceries, and death, and groaning in a major way at the very end.

I love waking up in the morning with my dogs. It's one of the few times of the day when they'll snuggle, and they're [mostly] so gentle at that time. Boost might stretch out while I'm stroking her face or her tummy, eyes closing blissfully. Tika for some reason will curl up right against my body until I'm fully awake, then move to where I can barely reach her with my fingertips and glare at me reproachfully if I don't pet her. She particularly likes having her face rubbed--I put my palm over her eyes, one thumb near one ear, middle finger near the other, and push and rub, and she presses her head into my hand and moves it around to get everything rubbed--or she wants her ears massaged, and leans into it, groaning. Ahhhh! That's the life.

Today was Michael Jackson's memorial service. Apparently millions of people, literally, tried to get tickets to be in the actual stadium for the 2-hour performance/service, and the whole thing was broadcast live over TV and radio. I groaned. Sad celebrity death, very talented but very odd man. Only 50. There have been four major untimely deaths in my lifetime that I remember clearly as being media circuses during and after, with worldwide outpouring of grief and dismay and coverage that went on for weeks afterward: John F. Kennedy (at 46), Elvis Presley (only 42), Princess Di (a mere 36), and now Michael Jackson, the old man in the crowd at 50, which, darn it, is younger than I am, and I still think of myself as young. Well--young enough.

I decided to hit the grocery stores, since there seemed to be a huge number of people (judging by their FaceBook entries) glued to the TV for the service. I tried to be efficient in 2 ways:

(1) First, I tried Safeway.com to pay to get my groceries delivered so I wouldn't have to drive 5 minutes to the store, go up and down the aisles, stand in line, and drive back. Would've probably taken 45 minutes for this trip. My past experience has been that it takes as long or longer to order online as to just find the stuff in the store, but every year or 2 I decide to try it again.

First, the interface wouldn't work with my browser. Took a while to figure that out, let's say 10 minutes. Switched to another browser.

Search for dairy. There, search for nonfat milk. There, scroll through the choices, of which there are a couple dozen, to find mine. Faster than going directly to the shelf where I always get my milk and popping it into the cart? Maybe not. AND I can't check the "use by date" but have to rely on their shopper to get me the freshest bottle. Search for "whole wheat sourdough bread". Only one choice comes up, no photo. Not sure it's the one I usually get. Waffle about whether to select it, but OK. Want some small bananas. Have to choose between regular and organic. have to type a note in a separate window saying "please choose really really small ones" except I apparently have only about 20 characters for "custom order info," so have to experiment with phrasing.

Am I saving time? OK, half an hour into this event, I've got 7 things in my shopping cart and I'm not done yet. Groaannnnn! Abandon ship!

(2) Drive to the store--Lucky's is next to my bank, so that's where I end up. Fill my cart halfway within about 10 minutes. There's only one checkout line open with 3 people standing in it, so I go to the self-checkout lanes, all of which are open. Figure it'll be faster, right?

To ensure that you aren't cheating, you swipe the item and then MUST put it onto the bagging area shelf, where it weighs it to be sure you're not sneaking in some unpaid extras. So what happens when I put my own shopping bag onto the shelf? Error! Clerk has to come clear it. I foolishly don't put all 4 bags onto the shelf to sit there and wait, so the clerk has to clear it again and then again when I add more of my own bags. Doh!

Next, you have to put each item onto the shelf before swiping the next one. So, sure, you can pick up 4 small items, but you must swipe, set it down, wait for acknowledgment, swipe, set it down, wait, etc. Not efficient. And you can't just put the big items like boxes of soda back into your cart; it won't progress until they're on the shelf with everything else.

Thirdly, for produce, you have to find the info in the database. Bananas are easy, they come up as "common items" on the first screen. But the cantaloupe? The clerk has to come tell me that it's under "melon", not under "cantaloupe." I have to search for Kiwi, then type in how many I've got. And so on.

Then I have to rearrange everything in the bags because I couldn't bag them in the most effective combinations while scanning them. Then into the cart. Not efficient. I groaned when the clerk had to come over to do special processing when I wanted to write a check; OK, I said to her, I guess this wasn't the wisest thing to do with this many items.

By the time I'm done with my 30 items or so, the one open checkout lane has processed probably 4 or 5 people. OK, I love the self-checkout for half a dozen or fewer items, but from now on, with more than that, it's the regular check-out lane.

Usually I take the merle girls with me when I go to the bank or shopping, and then we walk for 10 or 15 minutes in that area for something new to scratch and sniff. Today I didn't because it was a tad warm and I wasn't sure there'd be shade. There wasn't, and it took me long enough that I'm glad they stayed home. Dogs were happy to see me; annoyed that I then sat down at my computer again.

And now, I just wanted to share with you what some dogs have to put up with to get their four square meals a day, because it made my morning when I read it in the paper: Don't say I didn't warn you about the groaning.(Source: July 7 2009 strip at http://www.gocomics.com/duplex/.)

Updates

SUMMARY: Random things, agility, blog, life, and a Boost shocker.

• Still waiting for my final insurance check from the MUTT MVR break-in. I think they said that they have 60 days to "conclude their investigation" or something like that. THEN I can go camera shopping.
• Boost just gave me quite a shock--because she gave herself one! She was lying there quietly next to my desk, chewing on a stick, when she suddenly yelped and leaped away, tail down, to hide under the desk. I looked--and she had given up on the stick and had switched to the end of my extension cord, for crying out loud! That thing has been there all winter for my heater to plug into. Why now? Isn't that supposed to be a puppy kind of thing, not a 4-year-old dog kind of thing? Jeez, Boost! Well, maybe that taught her--
• I try to keep my "Complete Archive of Posts" (link under Archives on the right side) but sometimes forget. Just updated from May through today.
• I also forget to update my "Complete list of labels" (link at bottom of each post). Just updated for the last year! Ooops!
• Maybe I'll get around to updating the photo album sometime soon, too.
• In this post, I uploaded actual digital versions of the photos rather than scanned from the prints. They look better; thanks again, Erika.
• In this post, I added a couple of other clarifying comments in [square brackets].
• Updated this post with the course map of the course in my yard that I was using last week (just now got my updated CourseDesigner activation code).
• I just realized that Tika has now competed in 7 Performance tournament events (3 each Steeplechase and Grand Prix, 1 DAM Team) and has qualified in every single one of them--AND placed 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in all except one (competing against 10-20 dogs usually)! How amazing is that? She really likes that 22" jump height!
• My knee held up beautifully all weekend despite my pedometer showing about 8.5 miles covered each of the 3 days, 15 courses walked repeatedly (but not obsessively), and 28 runs with my dogs. So it's not just the activity that sometimes aggravates it; it's got to be how I'm moving it, and I'm suspecting more and more that it's certain kinds of twists, turns, torques, pushes, or pulls.
• Tika looked fine all weekend, and I never even gave her any rimadyl! We middle-aged ladies are hanging in there.
• On the other hand, Tika never gets up into the 6 yards per second range any more, even on jumpers courses, so I know that she's slowing down gradually. This weekend's smooth, lovely jumpers was at just 5.2 yps; winner's time (the amazing World Team tryouts winner Icon) came in at 6.12.

Are Some Things More Important Than Agility?

SUMMARY: Weddings? Graduations? Death's Door? Amusement parks? Hmm.

Update: 6/6/09 3p.m.: Two parenthetical observations in [square brackets].

Team Small Dog today got me going on the observation that they attended a wedding this weekend "because some things are more important than agility." I found that I had lots to say, hence this yere post.

I'd agree that some things are more important than agility, but what if I am already entered in an agility trial and I have paid my money and I am all ready to go? Hmmmm.

So I started thinking about me and some things that might be more important than agility.

I once missed a wedding for an agility trial, but it was a stealth wedding. My cousin sneaked off to Las Vegas or Morocco or somewhere and got married with no one there, and then came home and told us very quietly. A while later, they invited us to a BBQ at their place, and I said, sorry, already entered in an agility trial for that weekend, because BBQs are definitely not on the list of things more important than agility, even though free food is involved.

Well, it turned out that they invited all family members from all around the universe and actually did a real wedding ceremony and had a cake and everything. So I missed it. But I'd have blown off at least half a day of agility to go if they had bothered to tell me what it was for! Because wedding cake is definitely more important than agility.

I once missed one whole run in agility to go to my nephew's graduation, because he had the courtesy to graduate from a college in Turlock first thing in the morning on a weekend where there was agility in Turlock. What a considerate nephew. Turns out that I was almost the only one in the family who got there in time to take photos. Because I was already there for agility. What a considerate agility show.

So there are some things more important than agility, but we get back to agility as quickly as we can, like in time for the 2nd walk-through.

Conversely, there was the time I *didn't* do agility because it was wayyy to far to drive in the remote mountains past Lake Tahoe, and some agility friends got married at the agility trial and so I missed it, although I knew about it in advance. But they didn't promise wedding cake, so what could I do? [And besides, some things are more important than agility, like not driving 5 hours each way on mountain roads for a basic weekend agility trial.]

And one other time when I *didn't* do agility at a fairly local trial, maybe for some odd reason didn't want to do 6 straight weekends of agility, and some agility friends hosted their huge wedding reception AT the trial, with white tablecloths and a huge banquet and dancing and everything, and I missed that. But that was also a stealth reception, in that I never heard about it until afterwards, or you can be sure I'd have gone. [And besides, some things are more important than agility, like not exhausting myself, my dogs, and my checkbook.]

Then there was the time--twice actually--when my mom went into the hospital right immediately before an agility trial, and I fretted tremendously and the angst flowing from my brain could have filled the Metrodome, but my #1 sister was being a superb mom-hospital-health-manager plus I had 2 additional emergency backup sisters right there in the area, and I was providing no useful services whatsoever except periodically sending emails to all known relatives. So I said I guess I'd go to agility anyway, if they thought they could manage without me, since it was only 2 hours away and I actually do own a cell phone although I try not to admit it. One of the very few times in known history when I carried a turned-on cell phone with me for 2 days, even at the score table, and my excellent #1 sister called me periodically to give me cheery updates so that I could indulge my agility fantasy unencumbered by family worries.

So you can see that, of all the things that are more important than agility, in fact I have no photos of because I wasn't there. Hrm. I have SEEN photos, but can't now find the links to them. Ah, well.

But here's the thing: I am blowing off an actual Bay Team agility trial in November to go to Disneyland. Because some things just ARE more important than dog agility.

Very Good Indeed

SUMMARY: It wasn't a perfect weekend, but it was pretty darned close.

Boost had so many nice smooth runs this weekend; almost like I'm running a different dog. For example, in her Standard round today, we were *there* until I gave a threadle cue when all I wanted was to pull her over a jump, and dagnabbit she threadled! So then, already faulted, I decided to try a risky front cross later in the course and pushed her past another jump. But she was so good!

Her contacts have been lovely all weekend, and the problems with weaves that were partially manifesting Fri & Sat vanished today.

She and her littermate sister Beck teamed for the Relay and had lovely runs, both of them, Boost just blazing fast. I thought we might place, but for whatever reason we were several seconds out of 1st place. Still, it was our 10th Q in Relay, giving Boost her Relay Champion title. Woohoo! (And her only Q for the weekend.)

Jumpers was lovely and fast and exciting, just one bar down I think.

Her opening gamblers points today were 8th highest out of 84 championship dogs (and I think that most or all of those have running contacts, where I'm still holding boost on her 2 on/2 off)--plan executed to perfection--but knocked the 3rd bar in a difficult gamble (only 6 of 43 22" dogs Qed!).

Tika ran the same gamblers opening course, which managed to be *the* highest opening score of all 27 Performance dogs--but I moved too quickly in the gamble and pulled her off the 2nd obstacle. Ah, well.

In Steeplechase Round 2, Tika ran the course in the fastest time of all Performance dogs... er... except that she didn't stick her start line, so when I led out and turned around to face her, discovered that she was blasting towards me full speed just a few feet away. Ergo I couldn't signal the turn over the broad jump correctly, so she whacked it going over, for a 5-second penalty. Even so, she placed 3rd among the 22" performance dogs of the 7 who ran, to bring home a small check. Less than the entry fee for Steeplechase, but, hey, I'll take it anyway. It was such a pretty run! And she got feet solidly into both her A-frames. I wanted total speed out of her, so had warmed her up lots, massaged her, really hit all her hot buttons to get her excited--and apparently got her so riled up that she just couldn't wait on the start line for my permission to go! Of all the times to decide to break her stay--

Tika also Qed in Championship (26") Jumpers, leaving only 2 more to go for that Silver, after which she'll be entirely in Performance. She didn't look comfortable jumping 26", though--landing heavily, it seemed to me, although she was less than 4 seconds off the winning dog, which isn't bad at all in this crowd. It might have been because it's the 3rd day of competition, she'd already run 11 runs for the weekend, it was getting pretty warm, and she's 8 and a half.

I actually scratched her from 26" Standard earlier in the day. Since she finished her 25th Standard yesterday, this one really wouldn't count for anything, and she just didn't look enthused when I took her out of her crate, and she hit the 26" practice jump bar 2 out of 4 tries while warming up, and I wanted to save her for Jumpers and Steeplechase. Seemed to work--her usual perkiness at being out of the crate resurfaced for the rest of the runs.

She and her partner took 2nd in Perf Pairs Relay out of 11 teams--missing first by .05 (five one hundredths) of a second! That's, like, a blink of her eye or one slightly faster step on my 2nd-dog lead-out. But I'm not unhappy with that lovely run, either.

I am exceptionally pleased with our weekend, for both dogs, and you all probably know that more often than not I come home saying "there were good things and bad," but this time I feel wonderful. Tika Qed in everything this weekend except the 2 gambles (so 11 for 13--great for USDAA), and Boost's runs felt consistently like Masters-level runs and not like Remedial Agility Candidacy. Go you merle girls!

I had all kinds of things I wanted to write about, but I'm tired and showered and fed and I think just about done with being awake for today.
(Photos by Erika from the May Turlock trial. Thanks, Erika!)

I Like the Way Things Are Going

SUMMARY: Lots of good, not much bad, at this weekend's USDAA trial so far.

No agility photos today, but I pulled over during my drive to Prunedale to capture the early glowing, pink light on the fog peering over the coastal range. Subtle but all the more beautiful because of it.

In DAM Team, new rules allow Qs for the individual classes; they don't count toward regular titles but do count towards your Lifetime Award totals. The trick is that you have to be within about 15% of the average of the top 3 dogs in your class, rather than meeting a minimum standard to which you must adhere. Makes those Qs a bit harder to get.

But I double-checked Tika's numbers from yesterday, and she Qed in all 4 individual classes plus the Team overall, so 5 for 5 yesterday. What a good dog. She is surely liking being in Performance at 22"!

Today she Qed 4 for 5 very nicely--she's keeping those bars up at 22" and I like it, too!--

• Standard: Still at 26", she finally kept all the bars up to earn her 25th Masters Standard leg, earning her Standard Silver title, and now I will move her down to 22" performance in this class. (Now only 3 26" jumpers legs stand between us and ADCH-Silver.)
• Performance Steeplechase: A lovely run indeed and easily qualifying, although we came in only 5th this time (out of 15?) But here's the interesting thing: With times between about 34 and 36 seconds, the top 5 dogs covered a range of only about 2 seconds. Furthermore, the 4th place dog squeaked past Tika by a teeny two one-hundredths (.02) of a second! And even more furthermore, the 3rd place dog beat 4th by .02 as well. Very close! Had I taken one faster step somewhere, had Tika not blinked at the wrong moment somewhere, we could've been in 3rd instead of 5th. But at any rate, it's a Q and we're in the money round for tomorrow.
• Performance Grand Prix: Another smooth, clean run for Q, 4th place, and a fancy ribbon.
• Snooker at 22": One of only 3 dogs her height (and I think one of only about 14 or 15 of around 90 in all Masters and P3) who earned the maximum 51 points, and she did it faster than the others, so a 1st place and a Super-Q, her first in P3!

Boost has no Qs to show for today, but we had some really, really nice runs. Very little of the "what jump? this one? this one? this one?" sort of thing, and not many knocked bars. Some issues with weaves, but really I am pleased with her contacts--ALL perfect so far!-- and thrilled with the smooth, flowing, fast performances that we achieved and came EVER SO CLOSE to success with:

• Steeplechase--a very nice run with only one tiny weave pole bobble--but unfortunately I didn't call her quickly enough on a turn and she cut THROUGH the broad jump for an Elimination, but I didn't go back and try to fix it because our run was sensational and I didn't want to break the stride.
• Snooker: With a plan that many people found difficult, we actually executed it perfectly and had gotten to the easy ending when she BARELY-- like a little breeze from one toenail--knocked a bar 3 obstacles from the end. But it was just lovely, she was so good on a weird course!
• Standard--I thought we were actually going to Q and it looked so nice up til I think a runout on a danged serpentine maneuver; she so hates coming in on those fast Serps! And then weave issues. (I'll have to check my notes on weave issues from today.) But otherwise nice.
• Gamblers: A beautiful opening, executed completely to spec, only a couple of points less in the opening than the winning dog, but we still need work on sending out to gambles ... sigh ...
• Grand Prix: Hmm, didn't bring home my notes. We definitely had issues with weaves in this one, but I seem to remember that most of it was nice.

It has been *so long* since I've been able to say that I felt that one of Boost's runs was really nice, and today all of them felt so much nicer than what we've unfortunately more often experienced.

AND we won a free entry through the worker's raffle.

And I am very tired. I might not even check facebook before heading for bed...

Oh, yeah, right.

Tomorrow: Steeplechase Round 2 for Tika, Jumpers (hope for another 26" Q for tika), standard, and Pairs Relay.

If boost can come up with a Q in Pairs, that'll be her 10th for her Relay Champion title.

And that's all I'll say about that, because if I even bother to mention that Boost STILL needs just one Jumpers Q for her MAD, I'm sure I'll set my own expectations too high again. I mean, really--28 attempts in 21 months and not a single Q to show for it? And I thought it was bad when Tika took 13 attempts before she got her first Masters Jumpers leg to complete her MAD! It's just nuts.

Hope everyone's having as much fun this weekend as I am, doing whatever it is that you're doing. Happy Independence day, U. S. of A., my favorite country!

Shiny Happy Tika

SUMMARY: Day 1: Team Tournament--we won, we won!

Today was all team, all day. The Dog Agility Masters (DAM) tournament consists of four individual events and the 3-dog relay--or, for Performance dogs, 2-dog relay. Boost was in regular, one among 27 teams, and Tika ran in Performance, one among 15 teams.

Our first run of the day, Standard, set the pattern. Tika and Brenn both ran nice, smooth, clean runs. No bars down, no missed contacts, reasonably fast. We didn't win the Standard event, but we were I think 2nd or 3rd combined. ALL THREE DOGS in Boost's team popped out of the weaves early and then took off courses for Elimination. Sheesh! In Team, the penalty for off-course is very high. We landed at the bottom of the 27 teams (with at least a couple of others who E'ed with all 3 dogs), and determinedly held that position all through the day.

Second run, Gamblers, had some interesting nonstandard rules. Tika did well except that I mishandled her going into the weaves in the opening and I went back and redid them, meaning that we didn't quite finish our last 5-point obstacle before the whistle, so ended in 5th[?] instead of 2nd individually; Brenn did better than that, and combining our scores after the first 2 classes landed us at the top of the 15 teams, and we determinedly held that position all through the day.

I've always liked how Tika and Brenn complement each other. Brenn did better than Tika in Standard and Gamblers; Tika did better than Brenn in Snooker and Jumpers, in fact taking 2nd place (of 10 in her height group) in the Jumpers class with a very nice, fast, smooth run.

Boost also had an amazingly smooth and fast Jumpers run, although she had 2 bars down. No refusals, no runouts, not even significant hesitations. It was a joy to run her there.

I messed up Boost's very short Snooker run; she did her part in keeping the bars up (yay!) but I didn't handle her well; I also am mostly to blame for messing up the gamble run because I changed my course at the last minute which turned out to be a mistake.

When we got to the relay, Tika and Brenn had only about a 25-point lead over the 2nd place team. Relay *really* counts heavily against your team if you off-course--150 points. So if either one of us were to go off course, we'd plummet through the rankings like a boulder dropped from a cliff. We could *conceivably* earn enough 5-point faults between us--knocked bars, popped contacts, like that--to drop below the 2nd place team, but it seemed unlikely. And, indeed, Brenn ran clean and Tika's only fault was ticking the broad jump with a toenail as she went by; it's metal and boy could you hear it!

We celebrated enthusiastically--neither of us have ever been on a team that even placed in a team event, and this time we won gold medals. Yeeha! (Dang, medal is turned sideways in my snapshot:)

[A friend took photos of all of us; will get them eventually.]

It's funny to see how DAM team works: You don't have to win everything (or even anything), but if you do WELL and do so CONSISTENTLY, you beat out everyone who had issues of any kind with any of their team. So--neither of us won any individual class; our combined scores didn't win any of the classes (although I think we were 2nd & 3rd in a couple), and we came in pretty low in the relay based on our speeds plus Tika's 5 faults--but we had enough of a lead that, since we held it together, no one could really expect to catch us at that point.

Meanwhile, Boost's 1st teammate ran very nice Snooker, Gamblers, and Jumpers rounds; the 2nd teammate was having a lot of problems and ended up scratching from the rest of the day over concern that the dog might be ill or injured.

So we went into the finals--in last place--with one "E" automatically against us because we were missing one dog. We both ran fairly nicely, though--we might have pulled out of last place, but I didn't get a good look at the scores.

Sooo the day went well, I am a happy TMH Human Mom, weather was just about perfect, dogs are healthy, friends are fun to hang around with--OK, I'm up for another 2 days of this!

Exercise and preparation

SUMMARY: How the dogs and I are preparing for our long agility weekend.

Updated July 6 2009: Added course map for yard layout.

Seems to me that Tika tires out faster than she used to. OK, sure, she's 8 and a half now, but it also occurs to me that, since I'm now combining 2 dogs into one class and mostly focusing on Boost, she hardly ever gets a lot of long agility sequences to do. In the yard, we tend to focus on maybe 3 or 4 or 5 obstacles for some particular thing we're focusing on.

I've been getting better again about getting out for a mile-or-more brisk walk with the dogs nearly every day, but that's not the same as running.

It was just wayyy too hot over the weekend to want to do anything--here's my indoor/outdoor temps midafternoon on Saturday; I missed the 105 and 106 showings Sat and Sun!-- but on Monday I set up a sort of course in my little crowded yard that allows us to do 16 or more obstacles over & over to get into shape. Discovered some interesting handling & performance issues with both dogs, so we got to do some actual practice on stuff as well as doing 16-obst courses several times each day.

Here's what one layout looks like, showing the challenges of laying out a big course in my yard. Notice how very tight the spacing is on the path between some of the obstacles. The "tr" circles are tree trunks.



I'll probably do once around today with each dog, plus bar-knocking drills, because we're coming up on a 3-day USDAA trial starting bright and early tomorrow morning. Fortunately the heat has dropped way back, and so last night I got my Wednesday hike in with the Sierra Club for my own physical conditioning (it's still not running, jogging, or wind sprints, but it gets my heart & lungs & legs working for sure).
Hike started at about 2300' above sea level (long drive up from the valley), dropped to below 2000', and peaked at 2572, so we got some good ups and downs.

As is typical on hot summer days, it's hazy looking out across the coastal range.

And as the sun sets, we had this intriguing view of the top of Mount Diablo, 100 miles away, floating disembodied above the (cough cough) haze that hides all the mountains between us and it, with just a bit of gleam of the san francisco bay upper center (you'll want to click to see the larger image on this one for sure).
Parts of the trail that were fire roads, and well-traveled by vehicles and bikes, were incredibly dusty, with that superfine dust with texture finer than talcum powder, so no matter how gently you set down your foot, a puff of dust rose. And we were hiking in a large group. Stayed well back from the people ahead!

OK, so this weekend: Team on Friday. Tika's first Performance team, and we're teaming with our ofttimes partner Brenn (from our one appearance in the finals at Scottsdale). How can these dogs be old enough to be in Performance? Gah. Brenn has arthritis in her feet, Tika in her neck. Me in my knees. Pfooey.

Saturday and Sunday is everything else plus Steeplechase and Grand Prix. You know that I'm getting my expectations set high for Tika in those in Performance--her first two times out, she won 1st round steeplechase (and 2nd round, too, the one time we stayed for it) and came in 2nd in grand prix. I'm going to try not to expect too much, but it's hard to avoid.

Mind you, there's a difference between expectations and goals. My goal is to win. But if I *expect* to do well and don't, I have trouble letting that go.

Tika still needs a Standard and 3 Jumpers at 26" for her ADCH-Silver. We've been practicing the last 2 weeks at 24" and 26", so hopefully she can keep her bars up, although mixed with the 22" classes all day friday and some the other days--dunno. We'll see.

Boost still needs one--just one, dangit!--Jumpers leg for her MAD... funny to see that she also just needs one pairs leg for her Relay Bronze! Of course, that's the only course where knocked bars and refusals don't wipe you out. I won't even go into looking for the ADCH--Snooker Super-Qs and Jumpers legs evade us at every turn.

But the weather should be nice, the friends should be nice, and we'll just see what happens.

Dog Agility Goes Mainstream

SUMMARY: We're in the funny papers!

Hard to believe my eyes: A mainstream syndicated comic strip (Rhymes with Orange) today featured agility dogs!

View the page I found this on; view the comic's home page.