Sunrise in the Agility Yard

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday

>>  Visit the Wordless Wednesday site; lots of blogs. <<

Fitbit

SUMMARY: Cool thing!

I won a fitbit in an agility friend's fitness participation raffle! It's the Fitbit Flex, and there's a lot about it that I like.

That's it, next to my big black watch. Did my friend pick the perfect teal color for me, or what?

It looks imposing here, but it's soft, light, and flexible, and I don't even notice that I'm wearing it. That's good, because I've been sleeping in it, and THAT's because it tracks how restless or awake I am during the night, and tells me how many hours I actually slept. Very cool.

It also tracks numbers of steps taken, minutes of very active movement, and floors climbed (a "floor" is another way of saying 10 feet gain in elevation). It translates that into miles walked and calories burned.  I can view the current daily numbers on the wristband display. Also, it connects to the fitbit web site, where my dashboard syncs with the wristband to get the current data and displays my goals, accomplishments, and so on. It apparently also can help you track food eaten; my friend uses hers for that, but I don't.

So far--after 5 days--I'm liking it. It has been much more accurate in step counting than the brand new pedometer that I bought a couple of months ago, which adds so many imaginary steps to my count that I really have no idea how much I've walked.

I don't much like the clasp, which is very hard to fasten. (Not that, not only do the online reviews almost all agree with me, but there are lots of complaints about people losing their fitbits because they pop open when they brush against things and the people didn't notice). I hope they change it in future versions.

The only time that it seems to have failed me is yesterday.

Yesterday morning I did the usual various things around the house, then drove in to my client site, walked through the parking garage and down a long corridor to a meeting, sat in the meeting for an hour with a little bit of getting up and moving around, walked back to my car, drove to my dentist's office, walked into the office to check in, walked back outside. At that point, it said that I had walked about 1.4 miles, or about 2800 steps. Perfectly reasonable.

Because I was early for the dentist, I went for a walk. Walked 35 minutes briskly without stopping, and at that point I hit 3 miles (6000 steps). So far so good.

Then I drove home, walked around the yard (not a big yard) to pick up poop, threw the toy for the dogs a few times and played a little tug, watered the potted plants along the back wall of the house. Fed the dogs dinner, drove out to the movie theater, parked at the far side of the parking lot (maybe a couple hundred feet from the theater entrance). Walked to the theater to check the line for the movie, walked back to my car to get my stuff. Back to the theater, sat on a chair in line for 45 minutes until my friend showed up.

Walked my stuff back to the car and rejoined my friend in line. Stood there talking for 15 minutes, then walked into the theater, which was right off the lobby. Got a seat, walked out to the lobby to buy food (no waiting in line), back into the theater, back out to the girls' room (across the hall from the theater door), back into the theater. After the movie, walked back out to my car, drove home. Walked into the house, greeted the dogs a bit and threw a toy for Boost, sat down.

Fitbit now said that I had walked 10,000 steps (5 miles) for the day. There is NO WAY that that minimal activity added up to two miles, if 35 minutes of very brisk walking was only 1.6 miles.

So maybe it does track bumpy road bounces. Dunno.  Dang California's crumbling freeways. Anyway, something to watch for and figure out so that I'm aware of what's going on.

But I love having the info on my computer, I love its general accuracy, how easy it is to view the data throughout the day on my wrist, how comfortable it is to wear. AND I've found that I know lots of other people with fitbits. You can become "fitbit friends", which means that  their weekly totals of steps taken are then displayed on your dashboard, nifty for cross-motivation and for pushing to make your goals.

My current goals--I'm starting low-ish--are to walk 5 miles a day (first 3 days I aimed at 3 miles, but I made that easily, so I upped it) and climb 20 stories (still pretty easy, but I'm still pretty out of shape).

Fitbit, I'm sure, will be glad to help me. It's already flirting with me: After I recharged it for the first time, it displayed "LOVEU." Isn't that sweet?

Context Is Everything

SUMMARY: Even newspaper-fetching dogs really don't generalize well

One thing that I've heard trainers say repeatedly through the years is that dogs do not generalize well. Maybe he sits perfectly every time you say "Sit" in the kitchen, but not when you move to the living room. So you practice in the living room and then he'll sit there or in the kitchen, but not when you go into the bedroom. So you practice there until he gets it, but he won't sit out on the back porch. So you practice all those places until he's good at it, but then he won't do it when out in the yard.  Then maybe he sits on command in the yard every morning when you got outside to practice, but not if the wind is blowing. Or the neighbor is using a leaf blower. Or you're wearing sunglasses and a hat. So you practice all these things, but then won't sit in the same place in the same yard after dark.

It's not surprising that he won't then sit on command when he goes to the park or into a stranger's house.

In agility, dogs might go over your PVC jumps with no problems, but the first time that they encounter solid wood-winged jumps at the Nationals, they don't know what to do. Or your weave poles are plain white, and the first time they encounter striped ones, they pop out left and right. (Or the poles are randomly striped. Or one leans slightly to the left.) Or the first time they run on dirt. Or the first time you go to a particular new site. Or when the judge wears a big floppy hat.

Dogs DO place an amazing emphasis on context; this is why you have to practice everything that's important to you everywhere every time under every circumstance that you can think of before you can claim that the dog really understands the command independent of the context in which it's uttered. (Oh, by the way, does you dog understand the command when someone else gives it?) As you do something a thousand, 2 thousand times in dozens of different places and circumstances, the dog gets better and better at generalizing -- meaning this human noise means the same thing no matter what the rest of the world looks, smells, or sounds like.

Which brings me to this.

Every morning for almost 9 years, Boost has gone out to the end of the driveway and brought in the newspaper. Rain or wind or shine; dark or light; plastic bags or uncovered paper; gigantic ad-filled sunday edition or 20-page Tuesday edition; at the very end of the driveway, up towards the cars, over under the shrub, closer to the sidewalk; squirrels or cats (a momentary distraction only); garbage trucks or neighbors (of some concern, but not too terrifying any more). Doesn't matter.

First thing in the morning, I let the dogs out back. Then, if I don't immediately go to the front door after she comes in, she sits in the front hall and waits for me. SOOOO predictable.

As I approach the front door, she's dancing and barking with excitement. I stand in the front doorway and send her with "Go get the newspaper!" and she blasts out of the house, down the steps, around the corner, down the driveway, finds the paper and comes happily back, carries the paper all the way into the kitchen, drops it on the dog bed next to my chair, and waits for her treat. Sometimes for various reasons I step all the way out on the porch as she heads down the driveway and close the door behind me. When she comes back with the paper, she holds it until I open the door and then proceeds as normal.

Boost DIVES for the paper, her rear feet in the air and her tail flying forward at the abrupt pounce!

She is perfect at it and she loves it.

Sure, we're out of town from time to time, so maybe 20 times a year she doesn't actually go out and get the newspaper, but over all, I calculate that she has done this about 3,100 times in her life.

The other morning, for the first time in many years, I got dressed and took the dogs for a walk immediately after I got up--no breakfast, no newspaper fetch.  On the way home from the walk, as we arrived at our driveway, the paper was still sitting there. I unclipped her leash and said, "Get the newspaper!" Mass confusion--she darted this way and that, trying to figure out what it was that I wanted her to do or get.

So I called her back to me and we walked to the top of the driveway near the house, and I again said, "Get the newspaper!" I tried not to laugh--she was SO eager to get SOMETHING but she just simply did not understand WHAT I was asking. She headed towards the paper a couple of times and then veered away again, bouncing back and forth in that frenzied demonstration of "come on come on come on me want job me want do job ME NOT UNDERSTAND JOB!"

I repeated the command several times and finally she saw paper, identified paper, picked up paper, ran up steps toward door--dropped paper halfway there and waited for me to open the door and let her in. The paper stayed on the front step.

 I knew immediately what had happened: We had practiced doing this 3,100 times with exactly the same situation: She's in the house, I step out through the door, then I send her from there. No wonder she does *that* perfectly. But we've never practiced sending her from other places at other times of the day or with me in different locations.

Dog brains are so strange. Good thing they're cute.

At the Groomer's

SUMMARY: Actually at home in our driveway.

I am not a dedicated dog bather or brusher. Dogs usually get rinsed down with the hose if they're muddy. Bathed only if they get into something particularly awful (I typed "offal" originally, probably apt) that won't rinse off. They often get hosed down on warm days when they're exercising heavily (e.g., agility). But that's it--their coats remain pretty clean; dirt brushes off.

I live with hair everywhere when they're shedding, which sometimes seems like "always." When they look too scraggly, I'll spend half an hour brushing them, but my excuse is that, with my current knees and back, it's not comfortable for me to do much more than that. And it barely makes a dent, despite the pile of fur that can accrue.

I found out just a couple of weeks back that Tika's foster mom has started a mobile dog-grooming business, Campi's Mobile Pet Services (she has a facebook page but not a regular web site yet).

Since I hadn't seen her in ages and my dogs' coats were just too embedded with an overstock of fur, I decided, what the heck, and made an appointment for her to groom my dogs.

So, yesterday evening, the Merle Girls had their first pro groomings EVAH!

Tika, of course was absolutely delighted to see Gina again. (I took a video but it didn't turn out well, so here's a frame from that.)

I had no idea how they'd react to the grooming--being held in a standing position on the grooming table, and bathed, and blow-dried, and brushed enthusiastically...

But they were both absolute angels! No struggling or fighting or complaining... mostly... Didn't much like the part about getting wet, but didn't struggle much, either. Just looked SOOOO pathetic while wet, hoping for mercy or a quick death.

Tika looks like a hefty dog with her puffy coat, but when she's wet, you can see (a) how slender she really is and (b) all the tan in her coat that's usually mostly hidden by the black and gray tips!

I stood around, feeding them treats regularly, and Gina was so calm and in control that I think it made them calmer, too.

The blow-drying went very well indeed. Both dogs even seemed to enjoy parts of it, and you could see their coats becoming beautiful right before your eyes. That is, if your eyes weren't blinded by the fur flurries coming out of Tika's coat and coating everything, leaving a 6-inch carpet of fur on the floor that floated up with every movement.

I don't exaggerate much. Should've taken photos of THAT. Gina had to stop twice during Tika's drying/brushing and vacuum the whole floor.

Here are two Boost blow-dry shots.

And the results--don't know whether you can see it, but to me, these look like entirely new dogs. And they are SOOOO soft! And their coats are so even (no random attempts at shedding sticking out everywhere).  But the event tired us all out, too, and we slept well last night.

Please don't ever do this to us again.

PLEASE!

Another Hike

SUMMARY: January 2, with friends.

This time, from the Mendoza Ranch entrance to Coyote Lake-Harvey Bear Ranch County Park. I'd never been there before, and the day was lovely--somewhat chilly air but sunny, looking to be a record high for this date (upper 60s (~20C)).

A friend organized this, including 8 people and 10 dogs (2 Whippets, 2 Border Collies, one Great Pyrenees puppy who was bigger than any of the adult dogs, and a slew of Aussies). I thought I'd get a photo of everyone at some point, but I had to turn around after 45 minutes to be able to make a noon meeting. Then I realized that I didn't even have a photo of myself, so I set up the little camera on the little Gorillapod, and voila. (I think that's Loma Prieta peak again, towards the right in the farthest range; saw it from the north in yesterday's photo.)

Tika stayed home, which made me sad every time I thought about it. However, after yesterday, I knew that she wouldn't be able to keep up with a herd of younger, healthier people and dogs. She doesn't seem to mind so much when I take Boost somewhere in the car, but boy, try to take Boost for a walk out the front door without her, and look out world!

It was a bit hazy, but still the views were nice enough looking across the Gilroy area. And, sure, it was a weekday rather than a weekend, but in the 3 hours I was there, I saw only one biker and only one other hiker.

Looking pretty much due west, with the trail wrapping out around the grassy slope.

Looking northwest from another spot.

Looking mostly south towards southern Gilroy and Hollister. Still a lot of farm land here.

Lines! Probably cattle trails; the ranch still hosts tons of yellow-white cattle. We saw only one up close, and she and Boost eyed each other suspiciously as we walked by. (But you can see how dry things still are. The lack of rain is becoming an omnipresent topic of discussion here.)

I almost missed my meeting anyway. Got back to the car and discovered that my camera was no longer in my pocket. The last place I remembered having it was at a pair of memorial benches where I sat to give Boost a drink, and it had been a bit uncomfortable so I reached back and adjusted it a little. Those benches had to be at least half a mile from the parking lot, maybe more. I confirmed for sure that the camera wasn't in my pack or other pockets, and looked for my friend's cell phone number but didn't find it, so was in a bit of a panic. Put Boost's leash back on and headed towards the trail to go back.

Now, here's the good luck-- I commented to the park folks (who had just finished working on repairing a water valve by the gate) that the reason I came back early was to leave for a meeting and now I don't have my camera, just to ask them how far back they thought the benches were--and the ranger had a truck, and offered to race back and look for it. Off he went in a cloud of dust, came back the same way in probably a lot less than 5 minutes, and I was on my way! Had I gotten back 5 minutes later, the crew would've been gone and I'd have had to go back for the camera myself. Whew! I was a little late as a result, but all's good.

Two days in a row of hiking with some uphill after so much time off was a little much (even though it was only about 4.5 miles today with mild ups & downs)--the muscle in my right front thigh is sore, and ditto for my left ankle front,  I noticed after my post-meeting nap. So I bagged on class for Boost for tonight and I promise not to go hiking tomorrow. Maybe just a short walk.  Generally feeling good, though; it is SO nice to be back out in the hills!

New Year's Morning Hike

SUMMARY: Two aging, out-of-condition gals and a border collie.

With my foot injury followed by my back misery, I've not gone hiking up a hill in several months. Therefore, neither have the Merle Girls.

Tika with her heart disease, arthritis, meds, and out-of-condition body (any or all of the above; not sure which is the largest contributing factor) has been doing barely OK on our daily walks on the flat now that I'm up to 2 or more miles a day.

I wasn't sure whether she could make it up Coyote Peak at Santa Teresa Park at all, let alone the additional miles that we'd usually hike to get there.  So we started in the parking lot a third of the way up the mountain--so only 600 feet to climb instead of 1000--and started the 1-mile trip up.

It looks so close from the parking lot.

In the shade, the cold chilled through to the bone, so I began all bundled up.

I estimated that temps sat in the low 40s (4.4C-ish) until I noticed some of the leaves along the trail. Yes, that's frost.

We left the parking lot about 8:30.

I let Tika take her sweet time and sniff at anything that she wanted to sniff at. She did quite a bit of it.

Time changes all things.  What's wrong with the following photo? Hint: There's only one dog forging ahead and keeping tension on the leash. For many years, this view has always included two.

Tika stayed alongside or lagged a bit, her leash hanging loose. A clear sign for Tika that all is not perfect.

California's 2013 has been the driest year on record since they started keeping track in the 1800s.  And not just by a little bit, either.  For example, San Jose's rainfall for the year was about 4 inches, which is only about half of the previous driest year on record--and about a quarter of an average year's rainfall. And the long-range forecast has no precipitation, either. The hills, which are normally green at this time of year, aren't.

This pond partway up Coyote Peak should be full at this time of year, but it's bone dry.

It's a little scary.

Dry, dry, dry grass everywhere.

We paused at one trail junction for a little drinkie and rest. The peak's antennas tease us ahead.

Boost was pretty sure that something interesting was hiding in these rocks. She streeeeeeetched and streeeetched.

And here we are, at the summit! Yay!

They really shouldn't let people go into our parks unless they can pass a test in which (a) they can identify a garbage can and (b) they can explain what it's used for.

Spread along the ground here: Two sandwich wrappers, one empty chip bag, one candy bar wrapper, several water bottle caps. Makes me crazy. So I picked all that up and tossed it.

Now let's move on to the second bench. How unfortunate--a gorgeous view, a beautiful park, well-maintained trails, and not a garbage can in sight  just when someone wants to throw in a banana peel or a snack bag!  (And I'm sure that it would have been far too onerous for them to carry them down in whatever conveyance they used to carry up the items when they still had actual food in them.)

We actually got to the top about 9:25 (indicated by the time on my photos); I just forgot to take the watch shot. So about an hour to do a mile and 600 feet up. Not a great time, but I did want to let Tika set the pace. In fact, there were two places going up where she just kept churning those slow legs and I had to ask her to wait while I let the burning in my thighs subside. Definitely out of condition for uphill.

Looking west, Loma Prieta Peak with its radio towers rises on the south end of this range and Mount Umunhum with its controversial historic radar tower on the north end.

The traditional photo with Mount Hamilton, to the east, behind us. It surprised me immensely to discover that the bench on which I planned to perch my camera no longer existed, so I had to use a rock, meaning that we are about 30 feet to the left of the shrub by which we normally perch for this photo.

Heading back downhill. Quite a bit warmer in the sun, although the chill kept the edge off the temperature. I unzipped and took off the mittens, but the fleece stayed on.

Off towards the left in the distance is a flat open area--looks like a light-colored line about an inch wide here. That is, I believe, Martial Cottle Park, which is the 300-plus-acre park being developed behind my house. Wave to me!

Merle Girls


And here we are, back in the parking lot, and it's time to drop off the girls at home and head for my first party of the day--don't even need to change or shower, as it's a post-marathon party at a friend's house, come as you are after the race!

Later--a nap (I did wake up early, after all), THEN shower and change and head to the 2nd party of the day, up in the hills. I took both cameras, just in case something like this happened while I was there--and it did.

What a lovely day it has been, filled with activity, beautiful views, good friends, and wonderful food, most of which I successfully avoided eating (soon to be told: The DietBet story).

Happy New Year to all.

Christmas Debris

SUMMARY: Gifts and wrapping

Christmas Day came and went with the usual sudden flurry of unwrapping and laughing and sharing somewhere in the middle. The pile o'gifts under the tree wasn't nearly as large as it has been at times in the past, when more family have been in town or before we started drawing names rather than gifting willy-nilly. That's probably just as well--most of us don't need more things, but we want the "kids" (one of whom is nearly a college graduate, hard to believe) to get a lot of joy from it.

Before:

After:

Things were also more subdued because my dad started to feel unwell on the evening of the 23rd, vowed that he didn't need to see a doctor until after Christmas, but changed his mind the morning of Christmas Eve. He ended up in the hospital for about 4 days, to his dismay including Christmas Eve and Christmas, fighting an infection. We weren't sure whether he'd be released Christmas day, but he wasn't, so after his various relations got back from the hospital, then we did the gifting and laughing and chaos that we know as Christmas day. Wasn't really quite the same, knowing that he was there and not with us, but we enjoyed the day anyway and mentioned his name many times over. He's home now, still tired, but happy to be there.

Now it's almost New Year's Eve. I think that the dogs need a walk, and so do I.