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.

Ooooh Noooo!

SUMMARY: Agility trial angst.

Wait--how is it possible that I'm already almost at this weekend's 3-day USDAA trial in Prunedale? Starting FRIDAY morning! Ack! Have we practiced ANYTHING that we need to practice? No! None! Nothing!

And I just realized that of COURSE we're not having class Thursday night this week because half the class will already be down there camping out and the rest of us will be going to bed very early.

Need to practice Tika jumping at 26"! Need to work on Boost's bar-knocking exercises! Ack! No time! Too hot! Boring! [wait--subtract that last one--one is supposed to MAKE the things that you have to do FUN so that you do them. ... OK, BORING!]

Ack ack ack!

Sister's Family and their Really Big Jumping Dogs

SUMMARY: In which my nieces and sister do some fun stuff with their animals in the heat, and I watch.

Saturday morning, I tossed my borrowed SLR camera into MUTT MVR and swooped up to Portola Valley to finally (after meaning to do it for years) watch my nieces and sister ride their horses. It was wayyyy too hot to consider taking my own beasties along, so they stayed home.

It amused me to see how very similar to agility class their jumping classes are, talking about the line that you use to get from one jump to the next, what lead the animals are on, how your body affects the critter's actions, how many strides the dog--er--whatever--should take between obstacles, being careful about memorizing the obstacle sequence so you don't go off course, whether they should be bounce jumping (well--sort of--), watching the instructor change the jump heights (I'm tellin' ya, those are REALLY big dogs they have up there)--

I espied these nifty but humongous jumps in one of the fields.



In dog agility, it's the *humans* who wear the ankle and knee braces. (My sister's jumping animal.)
My sister didn't actually tell me that she was jumping *before* my nieces' classes, so I got to admire her animal up close and quiet after they were already done. He had to sniff my hands very carefully, just like normal dogs, except with nostrils about the size of some dogs' heads.

Here are my nieces, cantering their really big horse-sized dogs:


What ranch would be complete without a ranch dog? (Shaved just in time for the summer heat wave.)

Or a rambunctious lab puppy helping with the grooming?

Or a visiting dog, watching his human practice her horsework, and expressing his opinion about the whole thing (in between bouts of being a cute corgi)? (Owner claims this dog is sitting. With corgis, who can tell?)

I took a squillion photos of the riders and jumpers and will get around to posting the rest on my photo site sometime very soon. Really. Any day now.

We're Havin' A Heat Wave

SUMMARY: In which we attempt to get the TMH dogs to go swimming in an actual swimming pool.

106 F (41 C) today on my back deck. Yeesh. (Although the official temp, at the airport, closer to the bay, was a mere 94, the Los Gatos temperature, which is farther up the valley, more or less parallel to where I am, came in at 105. What a difference 10 miles makes!)

So we invited ourselves over to my sister's yard, in which they have a swimming pool. I know for a fact that Tika likes to get into water where she can swim a bit; likes getting into the ponds here in my yard (one ankle deep, one chest-deep when full). Figured that she, at least, would like the pool, especially if I were in it with her.

Boost isn't keen on getting into the ponds unless there's a toy there, and even so she attempts to get as little wet as possible. But she loves playing in the hose spray. And her sister can't be kept out of the water. And there are so many Border Collies around who love water. I figured that with a little frisbee, she'd be in, especially in this heat.

Didn't work that way.

Worked slowly at coaxing each onto a shallow step, then a medium step. Actually lifted them, I think. It's all a little fuzzy now. Spent about 2 hours trying to gradually get them to where they'd actually swim. Coaxing, lifting, holding, praising. It was quite an exhausting experience on all our parts. Finally got boost to hop in from a step under her own power--once--to get the frisbee. First time that I took her in and held her until she was making swimming motions, she wanted nothing to do with the frisbee and instead wanted out. By that time, had a decent but not perfect idea of where the various steps were. After that, though, she wanted the frisbee badly enough that I was able to lower her into the pool in my arms, aim her at the frisbee, and she'd get it and make a beeline for the exit.

Tika came down to the deeper step for food, but she wasn't happy about it.

Ah, well. I think we all got a good workout. I took a camera but didn't actually put it into someone's hands and say "take photos of this!" Oh, well.

Photo: Why you shouldn't slack off on trimming your dogs' toenails if you're going to carry them into the pool.



Photo: Afterwards, lying in the shade and drying off.

Dog-Food Eating Zombies!

SUMMARY: In the dark, they come and steal our food.

We know that we have night-walking, flesh-eating zombies in our yard in the dark of night from time to time, because I often find plums from my tree that's on the west side of my house in the pond over on the east side of my house with some of their flesh eaten away.

We keep our dogfood in a giant garbage-can-like bin on the back porch next to the kitchen door because there's no room in the kitchen and, even though it's a nice bright kitcheny white color, really garbage can decor is out. Haven't had any troubles with that, except for one year when the really desperate rats chewed through the lid. (Had to have been desperate; who would eat dogfood when there were plums available? And oranges? And apples? And lobelia flowers? OK, I don't know who's eating all my lobelia flowers.)


Thanks to the miracle of white plastic tape--all the versatility of duct tape, except bright kitcheny white--I repaired the lid, so then they chewed under it, so then I had to repair that and also scare them away by putting rat traps in and on the bin for several nights running. Didn't catch anything, just scared them off. Clever rats.


But, to no one's surprise, I digress.

Yesterday morning, I came downstairs to discover the dogfood bin tipped over on its side with food cascaded out across the deck. I don't know whether Tika was more excited about smelling the zombies who were responsible, or about scarfing down the food. Wait--I do know. It was the food. But then, after we had collectively cleaned up the food, tremendous quantities of zombie-odor sniffing occurred.

Last night, after agility class and before bed, I latched down the lid on the bin. It latches pretty good; it is such a secure latching that I have to call a knowledgeable expert, like maybe a desperate 5-year-old, to unlatch it; I personally have to struggle with it for most of the morning to get it open after latching it.

Plus it is a heavy bin with all that dogfood (40 pound bags of food, you know; it takes almost 2 bags. Although admittedly it is now down to maybe 20 pounds) so I know that, with the lid latched, it is one secure mother-feeder.

So, at around 1:00 this morning, Tika informed me in no uncertain terms that zombies were afoot and she needed to go do something about them. Human Mom, however, was very tired and didn't want to get out of the toasty bed and argued with Tika about it for about 5 minutes and finally had to shut all the upstairs windows before Tika gave up and settled back to bed with an indignant Huff.

This morning, the bin was on the opposite side of the deck, beyond the cute little wrought iron table and chair, tipped over, lid off, with food cascading across the deck and over the side into the garden. Tika spent a good 10 minutes checking for food and zombie clues.

Maybe tonight, if Tika tells me about zombies, we'll come downstairs and give them some really good Woofs to scare them off. Might not let Tika loose in the yard; Remington tangled with a zombie one night and we both regretted it for weeks caring for his wounds. We just want to scare them a bit. Of course, these could just be giant mutant angry rats about TMH having wiped out their cousins in the attic. I wonder whether rat traps would scare them off? Or the zombies, either?

---

Of course, if I were a *useful* blogger who didn't want to take up all of your time, and mine, too, snapping photos and digressing along, I COULD have had a post that read simply, "Coons getting into dogfood on deck. Must do something." Better luck next time.

No Training. But Walking.

SUMMARY: Busy but active.

Have been too busy with work (and other important things, like photos) to have the energy to do some actual dog training. Need to get back to the bar-knocking work, as there's a 3-day USDAA trial coming up 4th of July weekend.

However, I've tried to be sure that I get out with the dogs for at least a mile-long stroll every day (except the day after last weekend's trial, when my knee was painful and slightly swollen. Lots of ice ensued).

Yesterday I walked with and without the dogs. Took MUTT MVR in for an oil change. While they're doing their dirty work, the dogs and I walk. We got in a mile and a half before it looked like they were almost done, then we sat in the waiting room and--well, what else do you do in the waiting room?

They have magazines for people who want to sit there for half an hour burning NO calories and getting NO exercise when it's a perfectly lovely day out and there are sidewalks in every direction. Danged lazy Americans!

Knee felt fine, so I left the dogs home (many trails in our area do not allow even leashed dogs) and hiked up Black Mountain with the Wednesday Sierra Club group. Five miles or so, several hundred feet up. Small group this time, not sure why.


But it was OK to have a small group and no dogs because we saw wildlife everywhere, enjoying the evening. Saw several deer, including mom and fawn. Little lizards skittering everywhere across our path. California quail. Quite a few jackrabbits (two in this photo--one taking off down the left branch of the road, one dark sitting near the junction).

It was perfect weather, and sunset time always produces such glorious light. Watched fingers of fog from the Pacific slowly grasp the coastal mountains.

Saw Lick Observatory shining brightly on Mount Hamilton across the very hazy Santa Clara valley. (Might have to click photo to see the larger version.)


Knee did just fine; still fine today. Class tonight. Back to work.