Of Mice and Men

SUMMARY: Mice in the kitchen, shoo, mice, shoo!

Rattus rattus vs mus musculus

Remember: I think rodents are cute. I don't like them in my house and will work to dispose of them but, frankly, I think they're cute. So I do not need men in my life to deal with rodents for me.

Except for The Rat Guy.

We finally seem to have licked the roof rat problem, thanks to the 3rd or 4th or 5th visit from The Rat Guy when he spent 2 hours on and under the roof patching teeny tiny nearly invisible holes the size of a quark. But apparently the rats were keeping the mice at bay, because for the last couple of months it has been mice mice mice everywhere, and I can assure you that they are not blind, or I'd consider running after them with a carving knife.

The dogs have never caught one, even when I can identify that there's one under the fridge and post the dogs there and chase the mouse out with a yardstick; much excitement ensues but not much catching types of activity--the dogs' first reaction is usually Ears up! Eyes open! Stand up straight! "OH!" By the time the frantic pouncing occurs, it's wayyyy too late.

I've been buying traps and traps and more traps and then there'll be a lull for a week or two and then the traps start filling up again. Garrrrgh. It's like they're reproducing like--er--mice. (Wikimouseia: "The gestation period is about 19–21 days, and they give birth to a litter of 3-14 young (average 6-8). One female can have some 5-10 litters per year.")

Close encounters of the mouse kind 1

A month ago, there was one under the sink constantly, rustling around, gnawing little holes in the trash bag, leaving its little mousie gifts all over the cabinet floor, vanishing when I'd sneak over and yank open the door.

One night, it was making quite a racket. I snuck over, flipped open the door, and there was silence. I closed the door, and moments later, huge amounts of rustling began again. Again, flipped open the door, and nothing. Close door. Rustling. Open door. I finally pulled out the sliding rack in which the garbage bag sits, and Lo! there was a poor little mousie looking up at me with bright eyes and wiggly nose and little front paws held up placatingly: Renter had tossed one of those impossible-to-rip chip bags into the trash and it had straightened itself out so that it became a tempting place for a mouse to get into but not to be able to climb out of again.

So now what? If I dumped it out for the dogs to catch, odds are that much excitement would ensue but not much catching types of activity.

I took him out to the front yard and let him go. (Even knowing that he'd probably end up in my house again.)

Tika explores the scene of the crime.

Mouse encounters of the 2nd kind

My dogs have their own heavy-duty expensive zip-up multipocket wide-mouth top-quality expensive gear bag made with soft yet strong nylon fabric that resists tears and abrasions and repels water (like this). Which I have converted to a place to store one ziplock full of dog food and a coupla bowls. Good use of resources.

Anyway.

I'd been keeping it in the car for a while to avoid having mice get into it in its usual garage-shelf storage spot. But we had a lull in mice a couple of weeks back, so it went back onto the shelf.

Garage shelf with mousetrap waiting to be set.

Packing for this last weekend, I peered at the mousetrap on the shelf--no sign of mice. Although there were a couple of pieces of dogfood loose on the shelf, which was odd and a little suspicious. I picked up the gear bag, figuring I ought to look at its various corners to see whether its soft yet strong nylon fabric had been gnawed into. The first side looked ok; I turned it around, and clinging to its multipocket strong yet soft side was a tiny gray mouse, feet spread and hanging on for dear mousey life as his perch rotated through the air, looking up at me. "OH!" I said. His little thought balloon said pretty much the same thing.

Gear bag examination reenactment (no actual mouse).

So now what?

I almost--almost!--grabbed him with my other hand. Fortunately the logical part of my brain ("this is not a hamster, it is a wild mouse, and it may bite") overrode the hindbrain ("mouse bad! must grab!") before I did so.

The dogs were in the house, so I couldn't very well release it to them.

While I stood there dumbfounded, turning the bag to get a better view, the mouse leaped off and skittered away under MUTT MVR. When I peered down, he was nowhere to be seen.

Yes, he (or they) had been slipping into the tiny space where the zipper isn't attached at the end so it can be a wide-mouth gear bag, and the zip-lock bags of food had been well moused.

What now indeed?

The Renter told me, when we got home Sunday night, that we definitely have mice in the house again. His theory is that the dogs might not actually catch the mice but that they intimidate them into mostly staying out. Sort of the block bullies. But when we're gone for a weekend, the meeces move in.

If I call The Rat Guy, all he can really do is put out more traps. Maybe he can dismantle the dishwasher and figure out where they're getting into the kitchen. But otherwise, I'm done with poison. And I can set traps. I guess it's time to go to the hardware store to get another few dozen traps. Let's see, how long have they been at it? A couple of months now? That could be (mumbles and calculates) a couple hundred mice. Better get to it.

Tournament Silver and other Tournament Statistics

SUMMARY: Tika's new title plus mining my database for tournament minutiae.

Oh, yeah: Because Tika Qed in Steeplechase, that completed her Performance Tournament Master Silver title (25 Qs with at least 5 in each of the 3 tournaments). It took her 4 years and 4 months to complete her Championship TM Silver; it has taken 1 year and 6 months for her Performance equivalent.

Tika's Grand Prix History

I felt a bit of a pang when admiring a friend's Bye certificate from winning Grand Prix this weekend. (For regular-weekend Grand Prixs like these, a Bye cert gets you into Round 2 at a Regional.) With all of Tika's Grand Prix Qs in her life--37 to date--she has never won a Grand Prix and never earned a Bye certificate.

Wellll, OK, neither of those are strictly true statements.

Because Tika *did* win one Grand Prix--Round 1 at a Regional. Which doesn't get you a **certificate** because you're at a regional so you just go on to round 2 the next day anyway.

Oh, and there is another way to get into Round 2 at a Regional, and that is by Qing in Round 1 at a Regional. Which, in fact, Tika has done 6 out of 8 times. So the result is exactly the same as having a cert from an earlier trial; it's just that--jeez--it would be nice to have one of those certificates on our record plus one of those fancy Grand Prix first-place ribbons (which you don't get by winning Round 1).

She's placed 2nd five times. (Three times in Championship, twice in Performance.)

Her Qing rate is odd recently. After she moved to performance last spring, she Qed in 6 out of her first 7 Grand Prixs. And since then--only 2 out of 10. Gotta pick up my game, obviously!

It's a little hard to compare to her Championship record: Virtually all the time she was in Championship, you could Q with 5 faults, and she Qed 29 out of 47 times. But 20 of those were with 5 faults--ouch!

So in Performance, those first 6 Qs were all clean runs, and since then she's had 2 more clean, which is just about as many in a year and a half as she had in 6 years in Championship! Meanwhile, 4 of her 9 performance NQs have been 5-faulters, so in the old days those would also have been Qs. Ah, well. Not too worried about it yet.

But just in case I WANT to worry about something--

Boost's Grand Prix History and other sad stories

To add to the general feeling that I'm rushing madly nowhere with Boost, she's earned only 3 Grand Prix Qs out of 41 tries.

Not quite as bad as 1 Jumpers Q out of 56 tries, or zero Snooker Super-Qs out of 52 tries, but the three of these combined makes for a good excuse to get depressed and give up the sport forever.

What it SHOULD do is serve as a motivator for me to more regularly do the things that I know I could probably do to probably improve the situation, but for some reason those all fall into the category of Not Interesting Enough. I know what Susan Garrett (and everyone else who's successful at this sport) would say about that, and I can say it in my own words: Do something about it or quit whining and just enjoy being out on the field with your dog doing what you're capable of doing.

Bleah. I hate good advice that makes sense but actually involves work or ceasing whining.

I mean, she DOES have 7 Steeplechase Qs, which Tika only ever got 11 of in Championship, and she has 22 Pairs Qs, which Tika only ever got 27 of in Championship.

And I'm not too unhappy with 10 out of 70ish Standard Qs or 10 out of 60ish Gamblers.

But, really, I was in despair over Remington's failure to get more than one Standard Q out of 41 attempts, and that pales in comparison to Boost's unachievements. Or his only-one Gamblers Q out of 29 attempts (between NADAC and USDAA) that had me sitting in a corner sobbing pathetically on more than one occasion.

Of course now I'm older and wiser and don't tend to go sob in a corner over missing Qs. But, frankly, if it weren't for Tika, I dunno whether I'd have the strength of will to keep going in agility at this rate with Boost. Or, conversely, whether that would in fact motivate me more to do something about it.

And in conclusion

Have you heard all this before? Probably. Like a broken record.

OK, this was supposed to be a 2-line post about Tika's Pf Tournament Silver. Now it's back to the real world.

Home Again

SUMMARY: Competition done, another 21 runs, another exhausted handler.

Welllll Boost didn't capitalize on September's two Jumpers runs, which were both sooooo cloooose to Qs; Jumpers today had a bar down early, a runout on a difficult pull (which I didn't go back and fix--no point to it, really and I want to just keep her running) and a couple of confused turns, so no Q. But her time was 26.02, only a second and a half slower than the winning time. She's got the speed, just not the execution, dang it.

Boost did get all the way through the Snooker course I planned--unfortunately knocking a bar in the opening on a 7-pointer and ANOTHER on a 5-pointer, but we eked out a Q with the minimum required 37 points. Another useless Q to add to our list of non-SuperQs.

She also Qed in Pairs Relay  on Saturday with Dave G and Killy, with whom we've managed to rack up quite a few Qs. Unfortunately one or the other of us usually has a fault, keeping us out of placements--Saturday, boost had a beautiful run but teammate had a tiny issue. Sunday (yes, 2 relays in one weekend), Killy had a drop-dead astonishing run but boost popped out of the weaves when I hung back to try to get a front cross on the next obstacle to avoid a refusal situation there. So I had to go in to the weaves to fix them (5 faults AND probably 5 seconds wasted time as well). And then I didn't get the front cross in and had the refusal problem I had been worried about (another 5 faults and several more wasted seconds). With all of that, our combined time plus faults had us .03 over qualifying time, argh!

And so much for practicing weaves with distractions two weeks ago and Boost being perfect.

Boost summary:

• Sat Pairs: Beautiful run, Q.
• Sat Gamblers: Lovely opening but did an odd thing in the gamble to the wrong end of the tunnel as if she thought I were rear crossing, when I wasn't. And the scribe didn't get our last 3 opening points, so we even lost the distinction of officially being the highest-scoring non-Qing dog (which were 22 out of the 30 22" dogs).
• Sat Standard: Yikes. Our scribe sheet read: SSSRSRRE. That's 4 bars in one run plus an assortment of refusals and runouts.
• Sat Snooker: (see above)
• Sat Steeplechase: Missed Qing by .4 seconds! Argh. But we did have a bar down, which was a 5-second penalty, plus she didn't keep going in a straight line at the end but instead turned back to me, wasting time. So I suppose it's not surprising that we didn't Q, but to be so close ANYWAY you know she was haulin'!
• Sun Grand Prix: Mostly nice, but a refusal on a rear cross, which she then backjumped for offcourse.
• Sun Gamblers: Nice opening until I ran out of obstacles and then I couldn't get her to send to anther random one, so I went in to fix it, so was out of position for what I thought was an easily doable serpentine gamble, oh well. 
• Sun Pairs:  (see above)
• Sun Standard: Bar and a refusal, but some nice parts.
• Sun Jumpers: (see above)

So these were Boost's ribbons, out of 10 runs:

But, on the other hand--she had a great weekend in the worker raffle, winning a bag of chocolate truffles on Saturday and a $50 certificate towards a future trial on Sunday! Good girl! (Plus you can see my hat hair with my experiment on seeing whether I like growing out my bangs after having had them for... gaghhh...25 years.)

By comparison, here was Tika's haul for the weekend (maroons are Qualifying scores; others are placements):

Tika summary: 8 Qs out of 10 plus won Steeplechase Round 2. Brief rundown:

• Sat Relay: Tika and perennial partner Brenn had lovely runs and a Q although a couple of handling bobbles knocked us to 3rd (out of 15 teams).
• Sat Gamblers: Fast and happy, no problem with the gamble, so a Q, but flew off one Aframe in the opening, costing us 5 points and an easy first place, so dropped to 2nd (out of 9 dogs).
• Sat Standard: Just a good girl! First and Q (out of 8 dogs).
• Sat Snooker: Knocked the 2nd red bar (the only bar she knocked all weekend, I believe) and then I couldn't call her off the next obstacle, so an 8-point run (37 required to Q). She wanted to run more, too! Bummer. The first of our only 2 non-Qs.
• Sat Steeplechase: Two Aframes and she got them both, but I didn't get in a front cross that I needed and she turned the wrong way after one jump, losing time and seeding us 3rd (instead of 1st) for Sunday's money Round 2. (Out of 10 dogs, 1.5 seconds out of 1st place.) 
• Sun Steeplechase Round 2: Flyin'! Won! (1.5 secs faster than our closest competitor.) $24 prize actually covers our Steeplechase entry fee for a change. But oh!--I have to tell you about the miracle on this one--right at the beginning she whanged a bar on a jump so loudly that I knew it had to have fallen--but it didn't. And then later in the run she actually hit the jump standard as she turned over it, again quite loudly, and again the bar didn't fall! Astonishing--so apparently The Fates had in mind that we win this Steeplechase, for whatever odd reason it might be. I'm grateful!
• Sun Grand Prix: I didn't get to where I needed to be and she bought the wrong side of a tunnel for elimination, but the rest was really beautiful. That was the 2nd of our only 2 non-Qs for the weekend.
• Sun Gamblers: I risked doing an opening with 6 contacts in it, nice for Boost but scary for Tika. She got feet in all the yellow zones but leaped forward each time when I needed her to turn each time, PLUS I was working the contacts so hard that it slowed her down quite a bit, and so we wasted enough time that she didn't finish her last 3-point obstacle (weaves, most of hte way through but close doesn't count), but did the gamble perfectly for a Q. So those 3 points put us in 3rd instead of 1st (out of 6 dogs).
• Sun Relay: Tika and Catahoula partner CateE both had blazing runs for a Q and I thought surely we'd won, but nooo; still, 2nd place (out of 13 teams).
• Sun Standard: Thought it was a pretty good run but Brenn edged us by a whole second, leaving Tika in 2nd place (of 6) with a Q. Is Tika getting tired and hot maybe?
• Sun Jumpers: Tika love jumper! Tika want more jumper! 1st place out of 10 dogs and quite a bit faster than anyone else, so I guess not that hot & tired. Nice final weekend Q for 1:30 on a very hot afternoon.

And it must've been in the mid to upper 80s this afternoon. I crated the dogs out of the car and today set up the canopy *over* MUTT MVR to keep things cooler for them.

For the first time--YAYYYY USDAA!--there were qualifying ribbons for Steeplechase AND placement ribbons! The argument has always been "you get a check, why would you want a ribbon?" But I guess they finally saw the light.

So I grabbed a passer-by to take our photo with our check, our qualifying ribbon from round 1, and our big fancy ribbon from round 2, but I accidentally grabbed just an ordinary first place ribbon, darnit; you can kinda see the big fancy 1st place in the photo of all her ribbons above.

So how do I remember all this? I often get comments when people see my own personal data-collection form and all the data I add to it over the weekend. Here's what it looked like for this weekend. Fun stuff, huh? Next, this will all go into my database and then I can do fun queries on it like how many Jumpers Boost has attempted without getting any Qs, that sort of thing. Which, incidentally, is now 56 with only one Q...sighhhhhhhhhhhh...

Anyway, it was a beautiful weekend, Tika ran great, Boost had some lovely moments, friends were abundant and cheerful and successful, what more could one ask?

Except for driving 15 minutes up to UC Davis where my oldest beautiful smart personable niece is now a freshman (incredible!) and taking her to dinner. I got to see her dorm room, reminisce endlessly about my college days in the dorms, hear about her experiences as we walked into downtown for an excellent meal at a crepe place (I had an omelette, she had pasta, go figure), and even briefly meet a couple of her friends.

Wonderful fun all around, and now I am--yes--exhausted and ready for bed.

(P.S. Tika's Top Ten points--which I am still not paying any attention to despite what you may think--are now updated with this weekend's additional points. Click the link above.)

No Excuse for Not Doing Agility This Weekend

SUMMARY: So many choices, so little time.

USDAA in Dixon.
CPE in Elk Grove.
AKC in Woodland.

It would take you less than an hour to drive to all three sites.

Maybe this is why attendance is down at so many trials!

Who Says the Suburbs Are Boring?

SUMMARY: Harvest moon, over my neighbor's house.

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USDAA Titles by Breed--Fun!

SUMMARY: Those unusual breeds in agility.

This morning, I'm STILL looking at the USDAA title stats by breed page. Although any minute now I'll get back to (a) packing, (b) billable work, (c) exercising the dogs, (d) procrastinating in some other pointless way.

You can pick some unusual breeds and check the info. Like:

American Foxhound? There's a huuuuuuuuuuge list of titles that have been won by this breed--from 1 to 4 of them for any title, and 3 of those four are Candy Gaiser's. (She's a Bay Area competitor.)

American Hairless Terrier? Bet you didn't even know there was such a breed! One young lady has actually put titles on three of them!

Barbets? No titles ever! (Might be different in AKC, dunno, but apparently USDAA's database is READY just in case any one of the 2 Barbet owners in the known universe decides to do agility.)

Basset Hound: Not a breed one can usually picture as being agile. But a couple of hardy souls have tried, although none progressed passed starters in the Championship track, and only a couple past starters in the Peformance track--in fact are doing well in some areas at the P3 (performance masters level) but have not yet managed to earn a championship. That's dedication!

Beauceron: Another uncommon breed, a big working dog. I thought to check only because Channan Fosty, Bay Teamer and National Champion and World Team member with her fabulous BC Icon, started out in agility with a Beauceron but didn't go far with him in USDAA; not sure why, as he in fact earned his championship in AKC agility. Only one Beauceron has ever earned a USDAA Championship, and I can't imagine there are many in AKC, either.

Bernese Mountain Dog: They're big dogs and can be kinda lumbering, but Bay Team's Katie Tolve ran hers to the only Berner ADCH in history to date, and man, could that dog run! Fast and eager and graceful! This breed is greatly handicapped by tending to die of cancer at 5 or 6 years of age. Kintla made it to 8.

Border Collie: 1,148 have earned their Jumpers Masters (5 Qs) titles to date. Hear that, O Boost who can't get more than one?! On the other hand, only 740 have earned their Gamblers Champion (10 Qs), and 427 their Relay Champion Bronze (15 Qs) and Boost managed those. Huh. I guess we're inside out, which makes Boost an unusual breed.

OK, really, one could look for interesting stories all through here, but--ahem--I'm rather busy and don't have time. The rest of the breeds are left as an exercise for the student.

So--what's your favorite breed and story or observation about their USDAA stats?

USDAA Titles by Breed

SUMMARY: Dinking around on the USDAA site again.

I'm not sure how I ended up here, but it's fun to see that, when Tika earned her Tournament Platinum, she was only the 10th-ever All-Breed (All-American, Mixed Breed, what have you) to do so, and now remains one of only 16 All-Breeds ever. Compare that to, say, only 321 dogs of any breed (205 of which are Border Collies).

(That's 50 Championship Tournament Qs, BTW.)

It's also interesting to note how the number of dogs dwindles as the titles get higher and require more (I suppose that's obvious, but still--). For example for *all* breeds, here's how many dogs have earned the Standard titles progression:

• Starters Standard: 4,948  (3 Starters Std Qs)
• Advanced Standard: 3,117 (3 Adv Qs)
• Standard Agility Master: 2,764 (5 masters Qs)
• Standard Champion: 1,559 (10 mast Qs)
• Standard Ch Bronze: 1,007 (15 mast Qs)
• Standard Ch Silver: 506 (25 mast Qs)
• Standard Ch Gold: 295 (35 mast Qs)
• Standard Ch Platinum: 157 (50 mast Qs)

Tika got up to Silver, but then I moved her over to Performance, so the count restarted at the Standard Agility Master level equivalent and she has to work her way up again. She's almost at Accomplished Standard Bronze. Maybe this year.  (Already has Gamblers, Snooker, and Relay Bronze in Performance, but not quite Standard or Jumpers.)

And have I ever mentioned that the first Australian Shepherd (which Tika was originally registered as) to earn her USDAA Agility Dog Championship was named Tika? (See this and use the "go to" to go to the last page.)

So anyway, back to Tika; among All-Americans, she's one of only:

• 21 to earn ADCH Silver
• 33 to earn Standard Champion Silver
• 55 to earn Snooker Champion Silver
• 25 to earn Relay Champion Silver
• 42 to earn Jumpers Champion Silver
• 26 to earn Gamblers Champion Silver
• 22 to earn Accomplished Gambler Bronze (that's the Performance version)
• 7 to earn Accomplished Relay Bronze (huh, why is performance relay so hard? Not enough dogs competing in some areas?)
• 51 to earn Accomplished Snooker Bronze (hey--why does everyone complain about Snooker being so hard?)
• 29 to earn Accomplished Tournament Bronze
• If she picks up a Steeplechase or Grand Prix this weekend, one of 10 Accomplished Tournament Silver

Compare to 366 who earned their Starters Standard or 356 who earned their P1 Standard.

And compare THAT to  1825 Border Collies who earned their Starters Standard or 360 who earned their P1 Standard.  Hm! Interesting that the P1 numbers are about the same as for All-Americans.

OK, I was going to go to bed early, but noooo, it was statistics suck (like tunnel suck for dogs). Now I'm off.

Agility Comin' Right Up!

SUMMARY: Weekend plans

So here it is again--another 3-weekend gap between trials, gone! And what have I done to improve my game? Uhhhh... attended the judging clinic? Hmm, nope, that won't likely help me on the field. Maybe hurt when I start watching the judge to see how they're moving around the course instead of watching my dog.

In the yard, mostly I've been taking the time off from agility. Gone for a few walks, but not many long ones. Have gone to class every week, but sharing one class between two dogs usually means that each gets only 3 or 4 runs a night if things go well. That's really not enough to make a big difference over time, although it might point out weaknesses that I need to go home and work on alone.

Whichhhhhhh brings me back to, so, what have I been doing?

This week I decided to just do a lot of full-out running, either in big circles or big easy arcs. Even Tika was starting to look back at me recently, so I just want both dogs to be thinking Go Forward Fast. Particularly Boost. If I can just get her to run fast in the yard with almost no checking in with me, I think that'll help on the competition field. It seems to have helped before.

So that's my story, and I'm sticking with it.

Also: I usually check whether we have any titles in sight. Not much coming up; if Tika gets either Steeplechase or Grand Prix, it'll be her Performance Tournament Silver--halfway to Performance Platinum in just a year and a half. (Took her 7 years to get her Championship Platinum.) And that's it--we've cleaned up all the round numbers on both dogs recently, so there will be a lull in titles even if we're perfect every run.

Mostly I want to get Jumpers Qs and SuperQs with Boost, same thing we want EVERY weekend, Brain!

Wordless Wednesday

SUMMARY: Recent celestial displays.

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I'm Givin'em Back

SUMMARY: Top Ten Updated

I updated the Tika Top Ten link (above) because (a) I suspect that, with the USDAA nationals around the corner, updating their site isn't going to be a top priority for a little while, and (b) I sent them email to let them know that there were a couple of errors in their database wherein they gave me 2 more Snooker and 1 more Gamblers point than I should have had.

I said, "You probably don't get many people telling you that you've given them too MANY Top Ten points." They said, "Nope, not many!" I gave them the specific runs in error and it's now fixed. Remember, kids, honesty is the best policy! (I'd feel quite uncomfortable if it had ended up that those points made the difference between Top Ten and not at the end of the year. Wouldn't have enjoyed the results nearly as much. Better to clean them up early and live with it. Of course, that's easy to say when I'm already fairly solidly in the Top Ten--but I've sent them corrections before, too.)

We have another USDAA trial this weekend, out in Dixon, so we'll hope Tika stays nonsore and everyone stays happy and healthy and eager to run.

Memorizing Numbers--Or Not

SUMMARY: A little more from the judging clinic.

Related posts: Judging/Course Building Clinic First Day of Judging Clinic Second Day of Judging Clinic Third Day of Judging Clinic

Fourth Day of Judging Clinic (Almost) Wordless Wednesday Yes I Was Really There Course Design Memorizing Numbers

Just a few notes on some of the numbers we were supposed to memorize for the written test. I didn't get nearly all of them (and some of my misses were just dumb--if you don't know by now that the Aframe contact is 42" and the others are 36", you're just not paying attention--and/or having a brain freeze on the test!).

But usually I remember patterns and exceptions better than I remember strictly bunches of numbers.

Here are some. Because I'm talking through the patterns, the discussions are long, but the ideas are fairly simple.

What are the height cutoffs for the various jump heights?
First, of course, you must know that the jump heights (championship) are 12", 16", 22", and 26". The height ranges at the shoulder for dogs are:

• Up to and including 12" for 12" jump height.
• Then through 16" for 16" jump height. (See the pattern?)
• Then through 21" for 22" jump height (there's the exception, it's one inch lower).
• Of course, anything over 21" jumps 26"

In performance, the ranges are exactly the same, but the jump heights are all one level lower (8", 12", 16", and 22").

What are the spread jump lengths?
I used to remember that it was twice the jump height, but that changed when they altered the jump heights way back when.

Old jump heights were 6" apart: 30", 24", 18", and 12". (There are 5 boards, 4 boards, 3 boards, and 2 boards. Easy to remember that.)

Old spread lengths were 60" (30"x2), 48" (24"x2), 36" (18"x2), and 20" (exception, not 2x12").

And--the NEW spread lengths are still exactly the same!--60", 48", 36", and 20" (for 26", 22", 18", and 12", respectively.)

For performance--take out the smallest board in all cases. So the spread distances drop by one height level--for 8" performance, it's only one board; for the others, it's 20", 36", and 48". (And 1, 2, 3, and 4 boards.)

What are the yards-per-second ranges (min and max) and absolute minimums for setting Standard course times?
Here's the patterns I figured out. I have to remember only 3 numbers, 3 patterns, and two exceptions, instead of 21 different numbers.

Starters: The range is 2.0 to 2.25 yps for all heights. (That's 2 of the numbers to remember.)

Advanced and Masters: The range sequence starts at 2.5 for advanced 12" dogs. (That's the other number.)

The normal minimums go like this:

Adv 12"	2.5
Adv 16"	2.6	(that's +.1 over 12")
Adv 22/26"	2.75	(+.15)
Mas 12"	2.75	(same as Adv 22/26 number)
Mas 16"	2.85	(+.1)
Mas 22/26	3.00	(+.15)

see the pattern--+.1 and +.15

The maximums go like this:

	min	max
Adv 12"	2.5	2.6	(that's +.1 over the min)
Adv 16"	2.6	2.8	(+.2 over)
Adv 22/26"	2.75	2.95	(I'd expect +.3, but noo--it's .2 over and an exception)
Mas 12"	2.75	2.85	(+.1 over the min)
Mas 16"	2.85	3.05	(+.2 over)
Mas 22/26	3.00	3.30	(+.3 over)

The absolute minimum is exactly the same as the normal minimum in all cases except they treat 16" masters dogs differently, so their absolute min is the same as the 12" dogs.

So my table looks something like this in patterns:

	min (add to previous min)	max (add to min)	abs min
Starters	2.0	2.25	same as min
Adv 12"	2.5	+.1	same as min
Adv 16"	+.1	+.2	same as min
Adv 22/26"	+.15	+.2*	same as min
Mas 12"	same as adv 22/26"	+.1	same as min
Mas 16"	+.1	+.2	same as 12"*
Mas 22/26	+.15	+.3	same as min

*=exceptions

OR you could memorize the numbers in this table:

	min	max	Abs min
Starters	2.0	2.25	2.0
Adv 12"	2.5	2.6	2.5
Adv 16"	2.6	2.8	2.6
Adv 22/26"	2.75	2.95	2.75
Mas 12"	2.75	2.85	2.75
Mas 16"	2.85	3.05	2.75
Mas 22/26	3.00	3.30	3.00

OK, then, I have answered three questions, and that is enough,
I fear that I'll give myself airs!
Do I think you can listen all day to such stuff?
Let's be off, or you'll kick me down stairs!

Course Design

SUMMARY: Masters versus Advanced versus Novice, notes from the clinic.

Related posts: Judging/Course Building Clinic First Day of Judging Clinic Second Day of Judging Clinic Third Day of Judging Clinic

Fourth Day of Judging Clinic (Almost) Wordless Wednesday Yes I Was Really There Course Design Memorizing Numbers

Jump angles

One thing that I had trouble grasping when designing courses was the angle of jumps to make them easier to take. Here's an example.


When getting from the table to the dogwalk over the intervening jump, I kept wanting to think of the dog's path as a smooth arc (dotted line), so therefore a jump at the height of that arc would be perpendicular to the line of the arc as shown in the first case above. I kept thinking that would be easier to do.

However, what one really needs to think about is how the obstacle is presented to the dog based on where the dog is coming from. If you look at the solid line showing the dog's approach, in fact you'll note that, in the first case, the dog is approaching at a very sharp angle, which makes it harder for the dog to see and harder for the dog to figure out how to jump it. This makes refusals and runouts (the dog runs past the plane of the jump) and even knocked bars much more likely.

Whereas, in the second case above, the dog clearly sees the jump face on, and the arc of the path doesn't really change much at all, so the approach to the dogwalk remains about the same.

Course design methods

So: How does one get started building a course? Some of the methods mentioned:

• Start with a scenario that you want to include and then build around it.
• Start with the obstacles that you need to get to (contacts, weaves, table), rearrange roughly for good access, and build around that.
• Draw a squiggly, crossing line (appropriate for the class level) and drop obstacles onto the path.
• Toss all the obstacles onto the course randomly and then rearrange until they turn into a course.

Course design considerations

Then you have to figure out your judging path (how can you get to where you need to be without taking your eye off the dog or running into anything) and the appropriate issues for the level.

Those issues were actually pretty simple. For starters, only one or two side changes and they should be fairly simple. Some off course opportunities that are peripheral, not directly on the dog's path. And flowing.

For Advanced, more side changes, and off-course opportunities that are on the dog's path (that is, if he goes straight or fairly straight from where he last was and is following with the handler). And flowing.

For Masters, same as advanced, with added potential for refusals and runouts. And, as noted in the example above, you can do that often just by changing the angle of some jumps on the course. And flowing!

They're trying to promoting fairly fast, flowing, courses, not with a lot of herky-jerky. Sure, you'll see herky-jerky courses, but they'd really like the dog to be excited and moving quickly through the course.

And, at all levels--this is key: Design for the dog who is properly prepared for *entering* that level, NOT for the "top ten dogs".

One also mustn't forget, though: They should be courses that YOU would like to run, too!

My course designs

Here you go, team: My very first-ever course designs!

I started by scrawling a curving, overlapping line on the paper, putting obstacles at the crosses that could be taken in multiple directions, placing the judgeable objects at appropriate places, and then tweaking things around until it looked kind of like a course.

We were limited to having only one tunnel and only 8 winged jumps, which had to be used to make the required spread jump as well. Here's my masters course.

I had trouble with the location of the #15 obstacle because I had to get from watching the weaves to watching the up contact on the dogwalk to the down contact, and #15 was in my path. I had fixated on keeping that 13-14-15-16 "loop" in my course because there was a loop in the original line I had drawn. Well--doh--the voices of experience showed that I could get rid of the #15, change the angle of the other jump, and not appreciably change the flow of the course.

Also, the position of the tire wasn't ideal for a safe execution, so we switched it to be #1.

The instructors particularly liked the 6-7-8-9 sequence for a masters course--can take it smoothly but at the same time it presents refusal and runout opportunities.

It was surprisingly easy to change this into an Advanced course simply by changing the angle of some jumps and a slight rearrangement of the chute. (I still got a correction to a jump angle--shown in red--still figuring that out.)



Now, I'm not saying that these are great courses or that I'd actually use them, but they turned out better than I had thought I could possibly do in about 2 hours in my first attempt.

(The second night, I started and discarded several Advanced courses before coming up with one I just sort of liked, and then it was agonizing changing it to Starters--I went through about 6 designs before finally getting one, and that was with last-minute help from the instructor, too.)

Yes I Was Really There

SUMMARY: Photos of me at the judging clinic.

Related posts: Judging/Course Building Clinic First Day of Judging Clinic Second Day of Judging Clinic Third Day of Judging Clinic

Fourth Day of Judging Clinic (Almost) Wordless Wednesday Yes I Was Really There Course Design Memorizing Numbers

In case you missed them on Susan P's facebook album or on Team Small Dog's post about the clinic, here I really am. Was. Whatever.

The following photos are captioned as they appeared on Team Small Dog's post.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

SUMMARY: Scenes from the judging clinic as trainees learn to do what judges do.

Related posts: Judging/Course Building Clinic First Day of Judging Clinic Second Day of Judging Clinic Third Day of Judging Clinic

Fourth Day of Judging Clinic (Almost) Wordless Wednesday Yes I Was Really There Course Design Memorizing Numbers

This is about half the photos; the others are here.

x

Fourth Day of Judging Clinic

SUMMARY: Done! Glad to be back to normal--probably--

Related posts: Judging/Course Building Clinic First Day of Judging Clinic Second Day of Judging Clinic Third Day of Judging Clinic

Fourth Day of Judging Clinic (Almost) Wordless Wednesday Yes I Was Really There Course Design Memorizing Numbers

We went only until 5:30ish today--longer than originally scheduled, but the material was useful and we had a good time going out to lunch as a group at Casa da Fruta.

I completely wimped out on photos--SO much already in my head that I needed to wrassle with, still pretty tired even after a decent night's sleep, and it was HOT! But Team Small Dog did post a photo of me doing my Advanced Standard briefing and then sitting around in the shade with my buds after I finished my course-judging evaluation.

I did kind of OK on the huge written test--I think I got about 85% correct over all, which translates to close to 100% on some sections and pretty crappy on others. I now know that I don't know the rules for designing nonstandard classes (Snooker, Jumpers, Gamblers, Relay) worth beans, despite reading them several times and trying to remember them (particularly what are the minimum number of this or that allowed or required at each level). And I do not have memorized that the center of a teeter must be 24-27" high, not "uhhh--maybe 28 inches" or other nonmemorized answers like that.

And not surprisingly I missed some questions on Starters and Advanced scoring--I think that I know the rules but I've just not been exposed to them much as a competitor as I have been to masters, so sometimes I just fumblebrained it.

Then there was that question about a set of 24 weave poles and all I read was "weave poles" and somehow missed that it was 24 of them--I'm tellin' ya, I was still pretty fried!

But I finished in 2 hours of the allowed 3, including reviewing the questions I wasn't too sure about and trying to read everything 2 or 3 times to be sure I wasn't missing anything. Some material I was very confident of, so that went quickly, and some material i realized right away that I just didn't know and so sitting and staring at it wasn't going to make the answer appear (e.g., the height of the center of the teeter), and so those went pretty quickly. Many questions definitely made me think. Drawing little pictures sometimes helped and sometimes not.

So I've learned a lot, got to meet some people I otherwise wouldn't have, had a great time, and really really need sleep. (Sorry, dogs, 15 minutes of twilight fetch is all I want to do this evening, especially with record-high temps for this time of year still keeping things hot.)

Instructor/Evaluators Tim Laubach and Frank Holik did a superior job of keeping things upbeat and positive. All that positive-training dog lessons came in handy for them, I guess. But it wasn't simply "attagirl," it was constant reminders of expectations, purposes, and goals, and also finding constructive ways to say pretty much everything. Like, there were no, "Your course design sucks"; instead, the comments would be like, "this part is great; this part is too hard for Advanced but here are a few ways you could tweak it slightly and fix it." Very helpful.

They kept us apprised of our scores, mistakes, and successes at every step of the weekend, so we really never had to sit and dread the results. The main thing they reinforced all through was that simply doing well on the tests at this clinic doesn't guarantee that you'll be a judge. There's other criteria that they look at as well--your references, your attitude through the weekend, whehter you have certain weak areas that need improving before you can start judging, and so on. And Tim told us that it could be up to a month from now before we hear anything more, but that we will eventually get the final word.

And Susan and Kraig, in whose home and yard the clinic took place, not only participated all the way through, but served as gracious host and hostess, keeping their cool and their pleasantness intact through all the stress and sleeplessness and people traipsing in and out and asking to borrow a pencil (tsk, I took only pens) and all that, meanwhile with these 90-100-degree temps going on. Don't know how they did it, but I'm grateful!

Anyway.

I might talk more about the clinic and some things we learned, or I might not--there was SO much material crammed into the four days.

Yeah, SO MUCH material--the big point that Tim made was: This clinic is not going to turn you into a judge if you're not already basically ready for it. What it does, however, is to point out the areas that need work, so you can focus on those to get ready to become a judge. Like working the score table more, or timing more, or working in the advanced ring more, or course building, or whatever else it might be.

I'm looking forward to hearing what my final evaluation will be, and meanwhile have more time to contemplate whether I actually want to become a judge. Meanwhile---zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

Third Day of Judging Clinic

SUMMARY: Thank the universe for showers! And what about that judge's path?

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Fourth Day of Judging Clinic (Almost) Wordless Wednesday Yes I Was Really There Course Design Memorizing Numbers

Hot day--in the 90s again--not enough sleep--before heading home this evening, I felt about ready to collapse. But home around 7:30, a little game of fetch with the dogs (in the near-dark), which I haven't done for 3 days, and a just-warm-enough shower--yeah, works wonders!

And dinner's in the microwave.

Apparently I have learned something about designing courses through the years just by competing and knowing how to walk courses looking for the challenges presented (so I can get through them with my dogs!). I got good marks for the dog's paths and challenges, but not so hot on designing a good judging path. Because, I mean, in all these years, it never occurred to me to even think about that. I admired judges because they always seemed to get to where they needed to be to judge the contacts and runout lines.

So who knew it was because they designed the courses so they could do so?! OK, probably lots of cleverer people than me figured that out. But doh! not Score Table Girl!

Basically, that's why you'll never see a 100x100 course with the dogwalk on one side, the aframe in the middle of the other side, the teeter in the middle of a 3rd side, and the weaves in the middle of the 4th side. Ya just can't get there to judge them all.

I also got top rating for my table count! Woohoo! (That's a joke--of all the zillions of things we're getting evaluated on, THAT'S what I did well on? OK, maybe I didn't have to explain that.)

Apparently I can do the on-course judging thing kinda OK, too. Just something else I've picked up by watching and paying attention. Raise the right kind of hand at the right time, keep my eye on the obstacles, get to where I need to be, and stay out of the dog's and handler's ways. Not as hard as I thought it would be, but I definitely need a lot more practice

I think I made a mistake on the score-table paperwork! Gah! Just a stupid thing that I forgot to mark (because the judge usually marks it, not the score table--and the thing is, I don't even NOTICE that stuff any more because, after seeing it at the score table and ignoring it for how many hundreds of classes, my brain apparently just filters it. Ah, well.

So I survived the day with decent ratings so far.

Tomorrow--the 3-hour written test. 80 questions, I believe. Jeez. I haven't done anything like that since college, which need I say was more than a couple of years ago.

And I have to STUDY! There are so many things I'm got only vaguely in my mind!

They told us: Even someone off the street can probably pass the Masters faults portion of the test--if it looks like a mistake, it's probably penalized. But Advanced and Starters? Pshewwww....

Now it's 8:15. Don't have to be there until 9 tomorrow, yeah!, but still gotta get up at 7:30 probably. SOoooooo---it's been fun, but now gotta go eat and study. Wish me luck!

P.S. Yesterday, I took some photos of some of the participants, but not all. Today, the over-the-hill paparazzi (santa cruz and vicinity, among others) were there in my judge's briefing test with their own cameras. I wonder if I'll make Team Small Dog this week?

Second Day of Judging Clinic

SUMMARY: Drooping...

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Fourth Day of Judging Clinic (Almost) Wordless Wednesday Yes I Was Really There Course Design Memorizing Numbers

It's now 12:15 a.m. on Sunday. I got up at 6:45 a.m. on Saturday. I'll be getting up about 7:00 a.m. tomorrow--er, today--that is, Sunday.

My Advanced Standard course is designed for tomorrow's testing stage 1. It's OK but there are a couple of things I don't like. I'm also supposed to be able to build a Starters Standard course off it, and I'm giving up. I have *a* course but it's not going to work because the dog is basicallyon the same side of the handler all the way and I ended up moving almost all the obstacles on the course. Gah.

So my testing might be over very early tomorrow if I fail miserably at this.

On the other hand--so many opportunities through all the testing phases tomorrow and monday to learn even more and to really focus in on what I don't know.

Sunday, in addition to my course design, there's the written scoring test (if I don't do well at that, I'll be disappointed in myself; after all, I am a Score Table Czar), the course-building test (you evaluate a real course set up in the field to figure out all the incorrect ways that they've tweaked it or left stuff lying around that shouldn't be there, safety issues, and so on)--I did pretty good on the practice on that one, so that should be OK, too; and the evaluation while judging actual dogs.

IF dogs show up and want to work! It was probably in the low 90s today and probably will be the same or warmer tomorrow.

Then Monday is the huge written test, the one that I keep hearing about is so hard.

I think I've memorized my yards-per-second numbers for all 3 Standard levels, and reviewed faulting, and ... oh, jeez, so much, I'm tired, off to bed.

First Day of Judging Clinic

SUMMARY: Wow.

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Fourth Day of Judging Clinic (Almost) Wordless Wednesday Yes I Was Really There Course Design Memorizing Numbers

It's 8:40 p.m. I've just gotten out of the shower, right after getting home. Dogs as expected are pestering pestering pestering. I still need to eat dinner (in the microwave) and--argh--design a masters standard course that nests into an Advanced course for tomorrow. And be back there by 8:30 (an hour's drive). I am going to be SO tired after 3-4 days of this!

But I'm learning so much! Very glad I'm there.

I don't have time to say much about it tonight--I should be memorizing the yards per second ranges for standard courses for all 3 levels in case I want to take the written judging test on Monday. We actually will do the nonwritten part tomorrow and Sunday-- as I understand it--where they check your on-course judging ability. Local people will come in with their dogs and run courses for us to try out our (often) fledgling skills.

I haven't aspired to be a judge in years. I'm still not sure I want to be one--my life is overly full and stressed enough. But, well, I dunno, maybe; there are parts of the job that could be fun.

But I must say that course design was *never* one of my interests and probably one of the biggest things to deter me from pursuing this. So I've competed in over 230 trials, most of which are 2-day events with 4-6 classes per day with 2 dogs each class, and have I absorbed *anything* about how to build a course? Not nearly as much as one might expect.

I have no clue whether I can actually create a master's course in the next hour and still get enough sleep tonight. But if I'm more or less on course with what others are doing by sunday afternoon, I'll probably go ahead and pay and take the rest of the test on Monday--I'll have invested all this time and money, and it seems silly not to take it if there's a glimmer of a chance I might pass. Or at least I'll know where I'm weak!

Dogs are going to have to wait until maybe Monday evening to get any attention from me. It's going to be a challenging next 3 days.

Judging/Course Building Clinic

SUMMARY: I be gonna git me some larnin'.

Related posts: Judging/Course Building Clinic First Day of Judging Clinic Second Day of Judging Clinic Third Day of Judging Clinic

Fourth Day of Judging Clinic (Almost) Wordless Wednesday Yes I Was Really There Course Design Memorizing Numbers

Four days of lecture and practice. I haven't done anything like this in a lonnnng time. Whole day Friday of lecture.

Less than an hour's drive from home, but a couple of the days are going to be lonnng.

I've prepared by reading through, and marking up, the entire lonnnng USDAA 2004 version of the rulebook (because, doh! they haven't updated it since 2004, instead just sending out periodic incomplete news releases that we have to piece together to come up with our own mental image of a rulebook).

I'm looking forward to this! What I'm not looking forward to is coming home to the dogs every day after a lonnnnng day and having them point out that I haven't played wif them or nuffin' alllll day.

NADAC Championships

SUMMARY: Live streaming.

Agilityvision is live streaming the NADAC championships, going on now through the weekend, I believe.

It's not like watching USDAA championships or the world team competitions. Used to be that, to qualify, you just had to Q half the classes each weekend for so many weekends (or something along those lines--it's been a while).

Interesting to see how so very many people stand in the middle and try to get their dogs to do obstacles. And I'm not talking about the specific distance-handling parts of the courses. It puzzles me; if you're herding sheep, OK, I can understand standing in one place and giving commands from a distance. But on a tight little course like this, seems to me that the ones who run with their dogs generally get more speed and more accuracy.

I haven't done a scientific evaluation on this, of course.

Also, you don't seem to see many Derrett followers here. It's all the arm-in-the-air and "switch" type handling. As long as you and the dog agree on what means what, any system works. Just interesting to note the prevalence of this one kind of handing.

Dang Weave Pole Surprises

SUMMARY: Broke Tika! Boost perfect!

Because Boost had a couple of weave pole problems the last couple of weeks--ok, really major major issues--I decided to work on weave poles this week.

I also had in mind that in grand prix on one of the recent weekends, Tika--my supposed weave pole expert--popped out as I angled away. And always in the back of my mind is the grand prix quarterfinals at Scottsdale the one year where the weaves aimed straight into the wall at the side of the ring but my perfect weave pole dog should be ok so I angled away and, of course, she popped out. Ruining an otherwise perfect run. (Funny the things we NEVER FORGOT THAT WILL HAUNT US FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES.)

First I set up the weaves and just practiced weave entries from different angles, sending the dog from my side. Discovered that aiming at the first pole on the entry side at a 90-degree angle (in other words, straight at the poles) made both dogs go into the 2nd pole. So we worked on that  until it was better.

Then I set up the weaves crosswise in my yard so that they're almost running into the shrubbery on either side, with jumps on both sides of both ends, to practice sharp angled entries and staying in until the bitter end. And, of course, I can practice distractions like dancing, dropping or throwing toys, reversing my direction, veering away--like that.

So: I sent Tika over the jump in the lower right corner of the photo (heading towards us) and into the weaves. Perfect entry, but then without me doing anything tricky, she popped out on the left side before #10 (whereas the correct exit would be on the left side before #12). I said "oopsies" or the usual thing and did it again. Same result. So I just put her back in where she popped out--which proved to be challenging when she greatly resisted wanting to do that--rewarded lavishly when I got her in and she did the one more pole to the end, then back to the beginning. Same result.  So I tried a small barrier where she popped out. She jumped over it. I tried a larger barrier. She jumped over it. I tried a larger and wider one. She popped out and went around it.

So I pulled out all but 6 poles. Same result. Now she's just coming out and stopping right there.

I went back to hand-in-the-collar to guide her through the 6 poles, just like when we started training, rewarded lavishly. Repeated 2 more times to be sure she got it. Back to the beginning with 12 poles--same result. Turned her around and weaved in the opposite direction (coming towards us): Perfect. Repeated 2 more times with ample reward. Back to the original plan--same result.

I knocked down all but the 4 poles closest to the far side, sent her in, and Lo! she did it! Rewarded lavishly and quit THAT for the day.

I tell you this just to point out how insane agility training can be. This is my good weaving dog. My dog of many years of experience. My top ten in all 4 categories dog. Who apparently doesn't want to weave into anything so close to the end of the poles.  And, voila, I have a challenge that I'd never imagined, and now I can train to that until she can weave into the tightest of spaces and do it correctly.

It will challenge me to figure out how to set it up with enough successes to make it work.

And as for my problem dog, Boost? Perfect every time. Oh--wait--I did once get her to pop out when I threw the toy in the middle, but the next few times she didn't fall for it.

Then in class last night we had some challenging weave-entry exercises. Both dogs did perfectly every time.  I particularly liked this one:


With the dog on my right, I released from the Aframe and pushed forward but let the dogs find their own entries into the weaves (rather than, say, running beyond the weaves and wrapping the dog around me). Perfect!

So the next time we're in the weaves in the grand prix quarterfinals at nationals, we will all be prepared. No excuses.

And for Those of You in Merced County--

SUMMARY: VAST members doing dog agility demo.

Info:

Sunday, September 26 · 10:00am - 1:00pm
Merced County Fairgrounds

VAST will be performing an agility demo. There will be several other demos: police dog, flyball, agility, meet the breeds, a childrens corner and several games and contests for all.

This event is real fun for the entire family and bring your dog too.

[This is all the info I have, sorry; no web site given.]

So Many Clever Dogs In One Place at One Time

SUMMARY: Fun music video.

Well, I can't understand most of what they're singing, but you KNOW this video took a lot of preparation and practice. (Sort of like agility for the rock-video crowd.) And watch for obedience sequence ending with a dog on a leash, cracked me up!

How it was done

Added: Same day, 3:45p.m. PDT.
Now read the amazing story. 72 takes before they got it right--and that's AFTER weeks of rehearsals. If I had that kind of dedication to working on my contacts or doing sequences, maybe I'd be as good in agility as this team is in the video!

You Know You're An Agility Addict When--

SUMMARY: New! Fun list; can you find a description that matches yourself?

New tab for easy finding! Click the "Addiction" link above. (Obviously you have to be on my site to do this, not reading via email or a reader.)

Maintenance Costs and Built-In Obsolescence

SUMMARY: Garden tools and dogs.

I have this newish lawn mower. Bought it just a few years ago, after discovering that the cost to sharpen my 25-year-old mower was more than half of what a new one cost (on sale). It was only a push mower, no engine parts, so really it could've gone on forever, and how much improvement could they really have made in a manual push mower? But some parts were having trouble staying in place, the height adjustment didn't adjust much at all, and I decided to replace. I freecycled the old one.

Now the new one needs sharpening--did you notice the long and ragged lawn in those weaving Boost photos last wednesday? Because I have to go over it 2 or 3 or 4 times, not a fun prospect. So I'll pay my $65 and wait a week and then hopefully it will once again coup de grace--er, cut the grass--as nicely as when it was new.

The hedge trimmer that I absconded with from friend Steph a few years back--hmm, did I ever pay her for it? think not--tsk--now needs either sharpening or new blades. Because, instead of cutting my shrubs, it's now mostly massaging them. I'm sure the hedges feel more relaxed, but I don't. But sharpening--several places won't do it, the only quote I got was for $75 but they'd "have to see it first". New blades--hard to find them on the web; don't know how old the trimmer is, but they're special order & take 2 weeks and cost almost $50 including postage (that's assuming that the company knows what it's talking about; a couple others said that they're obsolete and no longer available).

I also called the manufacturer for instructions on blade replacement (because it wasn't intuitively obvious). And the instruction manual for this model isn't on their regular web site. The very nice lady found me the manual online, but it has no blade-replacement instructions. Oh, no, she said, you won't find that kind of instruction in any of our manuals. But if you call the service center in Hayward (that is, it's a toll call), and ask for a technician, I'm sure they'd be glad to explain how to do it.

Sooooo I decided I'd spent enough time already on this, went down to Sears which is right down the street and which has some well-rated hedge trimmers, and bought a new equivalent one (on sale) for about what I'd have paid for blades for the old one.

And as for the dogs-- when they're asking you to tote up your annual costs for having household canines, I don't think they usually include vacuum cleaner bags. Mine fill up quickly! Have to replace them almost every time I vacuum. Which is, OK, not all that often, but I probably go through 20 bags a year.

...OK, OK, that's not a *huge* expense, but still--it's one of those hidden costs that just add up. On the other hand--letting the hair fall on the floor is a lot cheaper than taking them to the groomers.

But, if I were to spend some time this week combing, and then using my new hedge trimmer to defrazzle my hedges, and my newly sharpened lawnmower to trim my lawn, man, next week I should be able to get some really nice, well-maintained-looking photos! Looking forward to it.

Simple Truths of the Universe: The Agility Version

SUMMARY: From a friend's facebook status:

100 years from now it will not matter what kind of car you drove, how much money you had or what kind of house you lived in...but it will matter if your dog can hit an A-FRAME CONTACT!!!

OK, Lee E--had a rough weekend with the contacts, eh?

Bitey Bitey Bitey

SUMMARY: Open the door for your mystery bite.

(1) OK, can anyone name the thing that I'm parodying in my SUMMARY line?

(2) In camp, we used to sing a song with several verses about wishing you were various animals doing various naughty things, one of which went:

Oh I wish I were a little mos-qui-TOE (mos-qui-TOE)
Oh I wish I were a little mos-qui-TOE (mos-qui-TOE)
I'd go bitey bitey bitey
Under everybody's nightie
Oh I wish I were a little mos-qui-TOE.

(3) WARNING GROSS FACTOR AHEAD!

Mosquito bites haven't been acting properly for me for quite a few years. Instead of a smooth itchy raised thing, I get hard round pea-sized red painful lumps. And instead of itching, they just hurt. The first couple times, I thought it was red ant bites, since I slept out in an area known for red ants. But then they showed up many times when I slept outdoors in various random places. And mosquitoes are the only thing I can think that's in common.

I tried to explain my weird reaction to my MD a year or so ago; she said, "Mosquito bites do that." I tried to tell her that this wasn't normal. She seemed to think that I didn't know what mosquito bites looked like.

Which is like this:

Photo from http://www.rkm.com.au/PHOTOS/MOSQUITOS/MOSQUITOS.html

Anyway, last Saturday night I slept in MUTT MVR with the doors and windows open because it was too hot with them closed. But I did wear long underwear. So here's what I ended up with:

With about 17 or 18 on my left hand, another 7 or 8 on my other hand, and 3 on my face. They got harder and bigger and redder and more painful every day. Now, this seems to be sort of the typical reaction I get nowadays for mosquito bites. But I usually end up with only one or two. Not like this!

Then they started breaking open and oozing. So on Friday I finally called the doctor's office and asked to have someone look at them. My regular doctor wasn't there. The doctor I saw said, well, those sure don't look like mosquito bites, and took a bunch of photos and emailed them to the dermatologist to look at. What with waiting to get in and waiting for the analysis and all, I was there for about 2 hours.

The diagnosis: "Arthropod bites." That's high-falutin'-speak for "some insecty kind of thing bit you." The treatment: Cortisone cream.

Well, so, after 2 days of the cream, they're getting slowly better. But then--these lumps I've gotten in recent years *do* seem to eventually start getting better. So was the time and money spent on doctors and meds worth it? Guess I'll never know--I could've done my own test case and applied the cream to only half of them to see whether it made a difference, but I thought of that only just now, doh.

The other suggestion was to check and treat my dogs for infestations. Yeh--it happens only when I sleep in the open air, and my dogs aren't even sleeping as close to me as they normally do ON MY BED EVERY NIGHT, and you think there's a connection?!?

So anyhoo, glad I could share.

And, by the way:

Arr, shiver me timbers, a curse on thee, ya scurvy arthropod bites!

Avast ye scurvy agility dogs!

SUMMARY: Brush up on your piratical lingo.

Once again, me hearties, September 19 be International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Arr, ye be visitin' thar web site.

Hurricane Katrina Dog Rescue

SUMMARY: Stories of heartbreak, determination, delight, and the power of people who care.

For the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Agile Pooch (Holly N) has reposted the blogs that were posted originally day by day as Bay Teamers and friends of Bay Team donated money, materials, and even more amazing, time and energy to drop everything--their lives, their incomes--to go to Louisiana and try to find and rescue the pets that authorities had so cruelly forced people to leave behind or that people otherwise were unable to take along, perhaps expecting to be back soon.

It was sometimes hard to read the posts, but the successes also were many.

If you have time and inclination, these stories are amazing. I hope that she reposts the photos, too (at the moment the photo links seem to be out of date).

An amazing story from a sometimes surreal time:

Hurricane Katrina: The Lamar-Dixon Chronicles.