Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Guess I'm not going to the Rez for awhile

Due to it being closed off by all the festive yellow 'Do Not Cross' police tape because of the University crew coach finding a dead body 4' off the shore where I normally play with the dogs.  Ick ick ick.  It so easily could have been me or the dogs that found the body.  Luckily it was snowing this morning and I had an 8:00 meeting so I didn't go.  Was planning to go tomorrow but I guess I'll have to find somewhere else for the dogs to run out their monkeys.  Weird thing is they said the guy was wearing 'clothing appropriate for going into the water'.  I would like to know exactly what kind of clothing that would be.  The Rez only recently melted, water temps. are in the low 40's and I can't imagine a regular wetsuit being sufficient.  I know some pretty crazy hardcore triathletes but nobody crazy enough to brave the Rez in those temps.  I didn't even let Strummer swim in there the other day.

It was freaky watching the news reports and seeing the investigators combing over our beloved stomping ground.  Not sure when we'll be allowed back in.

Oh, you wanted to hear about the agility trial?  I'll get there, really I will, but I'm crazy busy with the contract work I'm doing, been in a big long meeting for the past 3 days and finally got to come up for air today and priority goes to my poor neglected pups.  I have a little video and some photos but will probably be a few days until I can get it all together.  In short, Strum was 4/6 getting Q's in Jumpers and all the games, trouble with weaves in Standard, 6/7 on his A-frame, 1/2 on his dogwalk, only one run where I felt he was getting the crazies waiting his turn, survived his pairs run (just). 

Lola was 0/3, I thought she'd Q'ed one of her Standard runs but there was a Standard fault on her scribe sheet.  I can't imagine what it was so I'm guessing it was likely the stupid dogwalk up contact, that's the only contact I didn't see, which is aNOTHer thing that irks me about USDAA.  I refuse to slow her down and jack with her stride so we takes what we gets on the upside.  I've tried to train this, believe me, it's simply not worth it, I'd rather just do DOCNA.  USDAA is not a very 'big dog friendly' venue that's for sure.  It's a great place to compete if you have an 18"-20 7/8" Border Collie (or whatever kind of dog) but for the rest of us, well, I guess it's Festivus for the rest of us, or DOCNA or something.  Nonetheless I had a good time at the trial and won an interesting prize in the worker's raffle.  I'll write more when I get a chance.

6 comments:

  1. Oh, how creepy, ugh. Poor fellow. At least foul play isn't suspected.

    Wow, way to go Strum, 4/6! Sounds like great contacts too. What a man!

    I can't imagine how many Standard runs Walter would have blown if AAC judged the up contact on dogwalks. What an annoying thing to have to try to train.

    Looking forward to video / more details but contract work? Congrats! That definitely takes priority.

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  2. Look forward to hearing the trial details when you get time. Rift is 20 7/8 so I maybe in for a shock when we go to get our last measurement. I won't jump him at 26in either I don't think. Hope he still measures into 22in. I hate the up contact call too. Cash got called for it a lot too. Sounds like you are busy with work so that is a good thing. Sorry about the dead body YUK.

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  3. Wow, how unnerving about the Rez. Glad it wasn't you and your dogs who found the poor guy. Looking forward to the agility update but glad you're busy with some work at the moment!

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  4. Yeah, I've been working for a couple of weeks now on a short term project but it's very good money and maybe hopefully will lead to more work in the future.

    I hope Rift gets a good CMJ. The one that measured Strummer kept trying to force him into a more upright position, something the regular measuring judges didn't do.

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  5. Sage's first USDAA measurement was 21 inches even. I freaked out about it and worried about her next two measurements. Her second measurement, the judge showed me how to back up from her and crouch down so she was looking down at me. It worked. Her next two measurements were 20.25" and 20.5".

    HATE that USDAA judges the up contact. It's so not fair to the big dogs (and unsafe to try and change their stride). Although I really like the competition at USDAA, you get to see more variety of breeds in AKC vs. just BC's in USDAA.

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  6. Glad you got a contract; money coming in is always a good thing. Bummer about the Rez being off limits for the moment (well, OK, even bigger bummer for the poor guy who didn't survive The Rez). We found a body once when I was camping with the girl scouts. It was weird. But a well-aged body, so more like a stack of rotting clothing and sticks, not like a recently deceased thing. Someone else who was done in with inappropriate clothing in bad weather.

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