The Trouble Twins Take Loveland

Or, 'How to lose 10 pounds and take 10 years off your life in one weekend'.

(Photos are by the most awesome Ken Gee)

Despite keeping Lola's entry to 1-2 classes each day I still ended up running back and forth between the rings like a crazy person for most of the day.  The highlight of the madness was when during my run with Strummer in one ring the lady organizing the volunteers starts yelling at me in a not so nice voice over the loudspeaker for not showing up to work my job in the other ring even though I had informed someone of the conflict and been told it was no problem.  I'm working hard on my handling skills but I don't think I'm up to the level yet of being able to run Mister Speedy McCrazypants in one ring while setting jumps in another.  Maybe there are some NADAC distance handlers that are close to being able to pull that one off but so far my distance handling skills are not up to that level.  It all worked out in the end though and I didn't end up having to hold up any rings this year or miss any walk-thrus.  But I'm sure that between all the running around and then getting roped into leash running for Steeplechase at the end of the day that I must have worked off at least 10 lbs.  Well, maybe 1 lb anyway.  All I know for sure is that I could barely move Saturday night and was considering an ice bath which I only consider when the situation is dire.  I'm not sure how the people with zillions of dogs in all 3 levels manage it.

Lola
Lola started off the day with a nice opening in Gamblers but just as the horn blew she took the dogwalk going the wrong way and when I called her to me thinking she'd turn around and come back down the walk like she normally does she jumped off the walk from the middle of the flat top plank and took about 10 years off my life.  If you think I gave a rat's ass about the gamble after that you'd be sorely mistaken.  Once I assured myself I would not be needing a defibrillator I did attempt the gamble and though it was easy I wasn't positioned quite right and didn't have my heart in it so she didn't pull it off.  It was a shame too because it was such an easy gamble for her.

Her Standard run was nice but fell victim to a knocked bar which shook me up a bit because she rarely knocks bars and I was worried she'd hurt herself during her dogwalk fiasco but looking at the video she was moving pretty fast and nothing looked off so I think it was a fluke.  Joy was taping for me and afterwards she said she couldn't see why the bar came down either and she's good at spotting that sort of thing.  I think I pulled away from her laterally and maybe it distracted her a bit.  Also I was behind her at that point and maybe she wasn't sure where to go so she looked at me and took her attention off her jumping.

She got on the table no problem, all happy face and waggy tail but during the table count she lost it and sat up and started barking.  Maybe nervous about the judge, maybe nervous in general and wanted to get going, who knows.  I didn't argue the point because she's already got enough issues and she did get on the table happily enough.  I haven't been working enough duration during our table training so that's my fault, not hers.  This has been on purpose but now I think it's time to add it in.

I thought Sunday's run was a Q but the scribe sheet said otherwise and as I said before I suspect it was the up contact on the dogwalk.  It was the only time during the run that I took my eye off of her.  She got on the table no problem then hesitated a bit before laying down but she did lay down and hold it for the count so I was pleased with that.  Of course I don't have that run on tape.

Strummer
Strum had a good trial, was mostly calm-for-him and focused with the exception of waiting his turn for his Snooker run.  I'm not sure what was setting him off but of all the classes to lose your head.  It was the only A-frame he missed all weekend and after missing the A-frame he sort of took off on his own taking an obstacle after a red that was the opposite direction of where we needed to go but I was able to call him to me and save the run somehow for a Q.  Gamblers had an easy gamble and he picked up a Q there. Did you know you can Q in Starters Pairs with an off course?  We had an off course but our partner was clean and we still Q'ed with 10 seconds to spare somehow.  Strum kept his head waiting his turn and I was able to get his leash of while my partner brought me the baton.

Jumpers was funny because during the walk-through this woman was freaking that she was going to get lost and I told her don't be ridiculous, once you're through the opening/tunnel/front cross it's just a big loop, no way you'll get lost and if you think you will then for sure you will so get that idea out of your head right now.  Then of course I proceed to come out of the front cross, see a sea of jumps ahead of me and forget which one starts the loop.  But refusals don't count in Starters so I regrouped and got us through no problem for a Q and 1st place even with the bobble.

Both Standard runs saw problems with the weaves, still need to put in some work on those.  He'd had no problem at class on Thursday with an unfamiliar set of poles and picked up some impressive entries, did the full set no problem.  I guess it's a matter of more practice.  Other than the weaves I think between his 2 runs he had one knocked bar, one missed dogwalk and a hop off the table but he got back on and held his stay.  Again, I've not been working on stay/duration with the table so need to practice more of that.  His nicer run was on Sunday but of course that's the one I don't have a tape of.  The person taping thought she'd turned the camera on but in fact she'd turned it off.  There's something funny with the camera because I've had that problem myself several times now at practice.  I'll have to play around with it and see what's up.  So I only have Saturday's run which was the first run of the trial for him and probably his worst run other than that crazy Snooker run.

Standard Runs for Strummer & Lola
USDAA-STRUMMER & LOLA-STANDARD RUNS from colliebrains on Vimeo.

Strummer's Pairs run

USDAA-APRIL 2010- STRUMMER, PAIRS from colliebrains on Vimeo.

Overall it was a fun trial.  The Border Collie rescue group that I do some volunteer work for was there and I got to chat with a few of the people that I usually only 'talk' to via email.  The last thing the dogs need is more dog toys but the rescue was selling those stupid squeaky rubber balls with the feet at a price way cheaper than what the store sells them for and Strummer loves those stupid things when he finds them at the training field so I thought I'd get him one and give some support to the rescue.  The one on display was a regular round ball with feet but the woman selling them told me I could have a different color so I asked for red.  I didn't notice right away but after playing with it with the dogs for a bit I noticed it had devil horns unlike the one on display.

I'm not sure if it had the horns when she gave it to me and she knew Strummer was a devil boy so that was the toy for him or if the thing sprouted horns after realizing it was going to be Strummy's toy.  And even though I bought it with Strummer in mind it turns out Lola is even more crazy for the stupid thing.  I think it's something about the texture of the rubber and the squeaking sound that sounds like small animals being tortured.

The other weird souvenir  that I cane home with came from the worker's raffle.  The woman running the raffle came up to me at some point during the day and said, 'Elayne, I don't think you heard your name called but you won a peanut', in a voice like I should be excited about this so I'm guessing it's not an actual peanut but I can't get my brain around what this could possibly mean.  Finally the fog clears a bit and I remember seeing some vendors selling those giant inflatable workout balls but they're for dogs and you could maybe say they kind of look like a peanut but really mine looks more like a maggot.  Sure enough this is what I've won and apparently these things are worth $79.

I'm not sure what is more disturbing, the fact that my husband came home from his bike ride on Sunday to find me in the garage using a 'plug in the cigarette lighter' air pump to blow up a giant inflatable maggot or the fact that he didn't even so much as bat an eyelash at me.  Here is something you need to know about these maggot balls if you decide to buy one-they take a freaking huge amount of air, especially if you have the gigantic jumbo size for your big pony dog.  Actually this thing is so big it probably could hold a pony.  Or it could if I could blow it up to its proper size but the thing is so huge it burned out the motor in the air pump.  They gave me a little hand pump for blowing up soccer balls in the bag with my maggot ball and this has got to be the most hilarious joke ever.  I took maggot ball to the chiropractor in the hopes that they'd have a proper air compressor since they have a bunch of the fit balls for people but it turns out they blow theirs up with a hand pump so they were no help and now I'm driving around town with a giant yellow rubber maggot in the back of my car in hopes of finding someone with a lot of hot air and I'm not at all sure how my life has come to this or what I'm going to do with said rubber maggot once I do get it properly inflated or perhaps most importantly of all where this monstrous thing is going to live in my little house.  Riddle me that Batman.

What, you mean you don't all drive around town with a giant rubber maggot in the back of your car?

What kind of crazy dog person are you?

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.

USDAA trial this weekend

I smirk to that

I can't believe I have a trial this weekend.  I can't even remember the last time I trialed, maybe DOCNA in mid-February.  On the one hand I was hoping Strum's weave poles would be further along but on the other hand they're looking pretty fabulous so maybe I'm worrying over nothing.  Multiple snow storms this past month put a damper on our training but still we got to the point of one jump rotating around the clock and 6 poles.  We've done this exercise ad nauseum, with sends, recalls, me on both sides, rear crosses previously but Strummer would sometimes struggle with the more difficult entries, especially onside entries, and after starting out o.k. at trials for some reason had a complete meltdown with them in January/February.  So I've been retraining using Mary Ellen Barry's twist on the 2x2 method and so far it's worked great.  Strum now seems to have an understanding of entries that he didn't have before and couldn't quite get with the regular 2x2 method.  Apparently something about those rotated poles was blowing his brain because he breezed through the training with the straight poles.  I was hoping to be further along in the proofing process before this April trial but Mother Nature had other ideas.

We ran a few dogwalks and A-frames this past week and he was great, I'm not too worried about that.  Again would like to have done some more dogwalk proofing but can't worry about it now.

He's running a full slate of classes in P1 (no tournaments though).  I even entered Pairs.  I harassed this poor woman with a nice calm Aussie all the way back in January to team up with Strum.  He knows the dog from classes and practice so I'm hoping he'll behave.  This will probably be his last USDAA trial for a while.  I'm irritated with USDAA for a slew of reasons, the main one being the whole hassle they've put me through over measuring.  I wanted to go down to Pueblo last May to run Lola and have Strum measured by the CMJ on Sunday but they won't let an unentered dog be measured and I couldn't enter him because of the 2 rings/no barriers issue.  Despite 3 measurements under 21", the CMJ in August measured him at 21 1/4" so now I need 2 more CMJ's to measure him under.  So far this year there are no CMJ's scheduled, next possible one is in August again.  And who knows if they'll have one.  So I've had to wait a minimum of a year for another measurement, who knows how long for the second if the first measures him under.  What a pain, this could have been settled in either May or August of last year but now who knows how long it'll drag on and all for a stupid rule.  USDAA sure doesn't like to make it easy for their customers.  So I can spend the year hoping he measures into CH 22" (and what happens if he doesn't?) on a per trial basis or put him in Performance and start from scratch in Championship if he ever gets the lower measurements.  Jumping him at 26" is out of the question, I refuse to do it, USDAA can bite me on that one.  If he ends up in Performance then there's no vet program for him.  I guess I  can bite USDAA on that one.  I'm also having issues with them dragging their feet on equipment/safety issues (24" poles, displaceable tire).  Given my limited funds these days I've decided we'll be focusing on DOCNA.  I'll enter Lola in Gamblers and Standard at the local (40-50 minutes away) trials to try to finish up her championship but I'm not traveling for USDAA this year and I'm probably not going to spend the money entering Strummer at all.

Lola is only entered in 3 classes at this trial.  I don't want to deal with conflicts again between the 2 rings.  I may have at least one on Saturday but none for sure on Sunday.  I've been practicing her table in the backyard but little else.  She's come up limping at least once in the past 6 weeks for no apparent reason so I've been resting her and then building her up again with walking/off leash running but no equipment.  I'm sure she'll be fine for 3 runs over 2 days.

There will be sardines?

Yes my dear, there will be sardines for good little girls who lay down on the table all smiles and grins and waggy tails and stay there until instructed otherwise.

Would be great to pick up those 2 Standard legs for her Perf. MAD but no big deal if we don't.  For now we enjoy every run we have left.

Fasten Your Seatbelt-USDAA Trial Castle Rock

A fellow agility competitor and sometimes blog reader said that to me when she saw that I was getting ready to run Strummer today and it made me laugh.  So true.  Now I'll think of it every time I step to the start line with Mr. Crazypants.

I've been a bad blogger, I know.  It snowed so we dusted off the back country skis and went skiing on trails for the first time in years then we decided to paint the kitchen then next thing I knew it was the weekend and time for a USDAA trial.

Did somebody say agility??!!

I entered a very limited number of classes in the interest of saving money and my sanity since both dogs are in different levels and I didn't want to be running from ring to ring.  Lola ran on Saturday in Masters Standard and Gamblers and on Sunday in Standard and Strummer ran only on Sunday in Starters Standard and Jumpers.  No Q's for Lo but both her Standard runs were so close, just a little handling/timing glitch in each on some darn tricky courses.  So frustrating on one level but on the other hand she was running so nicely, had awesome tables for both runs, hit a difficult weave entry after drifting away from the poles towards a tempting off course trap then coming back at a terrible entry angle and nailing it, and generally running with her happy face on so I can hardly complain.  She turned 9 last month and I don't know how much longer she'll keep going so I'm thankful for every run I have with her.

Damn straight.

Strummer had a beautiful Jumpers run, Q and a 1st place, 6.02 yps.  There were a couple wide-ish turns, otherwise he would have been faster but all the bars stayed up and he stayed focused and on course, can't complain about that.  I had to run my butt off too, there was only one change of side after obstacle 3 and the rest of the course was a series of loops with no side change.

Standard probably didn't look all that great to the innocent bystander but I was so pleased with him.  Hit all his contacts, nice teeter, weaved the full set of poles no problemo, and he was focusing nicely.  I'm finally starting to have some confidence in our teamwork.  Still a long ways to go but today as well as the last DOCNA trial felt like some good progress.

He was also so well behaved in the indoor arena.  He had a few moments but for the most part, such a good boy and a huge improvement over his first time at this arena 3 years ago when he was up on his hind legs screaming and lunging and I had to take him out almost immediately.  It was a 2 ring trial too but there was metal fencing with paper taped to it to form a nice visual barrier and the 2 equimpment trailers in between the rings so I felt like it wouldn't be a problem and it wasn't.  He never even noticed the other ring when it was his turn to run.

Kind of a bittersweet weekend for me since this was Cody's last USDAA trial last year.  He went on to do a DOCNA trial in February and that was the end of his agility career.  He's been gradually losing strength in his rear legs and a few months ago I made the decision to stop taking him running with me.  He came up lame in his front shoulder (can't remember if it's the one he had surgery on) a few months ago but after some brief rest and a slow return to activity he seems to be doing fine.  Jonny had him running off leash at a park today and said he looked great.  But it looks like mostly leash walks and easy off leash running for him from now on.  I've also been working on tricks with him since he loves clicker training and some easy playing in the house and yard.  He's looking so old to me these days though, especially at night when he curls up next me on the couch.

My sweet boy.

Next trial is DOCNA in February only 20 minutes from home.  Hopefully some of this snow will melt so we can get some practice in.  Both dogs had one day of practice at the field and one day of indoor course run-throughs for the entire month of December due to the agility field and my yard being snowed in.  It's unusual for it to hang around for so long and there's talk of more of it on Wednesday so maybe training will be on hold yet a little bit longer.  Guess I'll have to get started on painting the living. room.

USDAA Trial, Oct. 2009

Photo by the awesome Ken Gee.

Can we please have cloudy, 39 degree weather all the time for agility trials? I'm probably in the minority here but Lola was so happy and ran so nicely, mostly. I've been at this trial when it's been a sunny, roasting 85 degrees and the dogs and I were melting into little puddles. You can always throw on a warm fleecy hat and another layer of clothes and run scribe sheets or leashes to keep warm but there's only so many layers you can take off before people start groaning and shielding their eyes and maybe involving the authorities.

We were only entered in Masters Gamblers and Standard each day and there were no Q's for us which was a little bit of a let down after our perfect 4/4 day at the last DOCNA trial but such is the sport of agility. These 2 classes are our most difficult and the only ones we have left for her championship so it's not all that surprising. I'm sure if we'd entered more we would have eked out a few more Q's but Lo will be 9 this December and I'm trying to keep her sound by not overdoing the agility thing. It's humbling entering only the things you're not so great at but I know it'll feel amazing when we finally do succeed.

The gambles were not great for Lola. They required the dog to move out ahead of or turn away and move laterally away from you while you were at a stand still and that's not something I teach. She did do one fabulous thing and that was to move ahead of me and finish her weaves while I had to stop at the gamble line behind her. I do work on obstacle independence and I was so happy she was able to do that. She was pretty happy with herself as well and immediately turned back to me with a silly happy grin on her face but the gamble required her to turn away and move away laterally to take the chute so our gamble ended there but I wasn't upset about it since it's not a skill I teach. She had a beautiful opening run on Sunday when it was so cloudy and cold. Saturday was cool, 40's or maybe low to mid 50's for our runs, but the sun was out so it felt warmer than Sunday. In her opening on Saturday she went part way up the A-frame then came off and ran off to sniff at a particular spot then had to go say hi to the judge and I'm wondering is she sore, is she somehow stressed out or what? I do worry about her shoulder and the A-frame. It's possible she was stiff from the cold and the long car ride. I gave her a nice long warm-up and did all her stretches. The world will never know and she didn't run off for any of her other runs so maybe she simply smelled something really good.

Her Standard runs were mostly really nice but for a run-by a jump on Saturday and a missed dogwalk contact on Sunday (seems like ages since she's done that). The only real downer was that the table came after both errors and she had table troubles for the first time since last January. She's been perfect since April after her retrain so I wasn't happy about that. On Saturday she got on the table and stood there staring at me. I had her get off and put her back on and she went into her down no problem. On Sunday she went into her down, then got up and refused to down so I took her off the table then put her back on and she went down then got up again then finally got down again and finished out the count. We'd practiced in the yard on Sat. night as well, one of the advantages of driving home in between, but it didn't help all that much. Guess I'll have to step her training up a bit. I've got 3 months until her next USDAA trial so I'll have plenty of time to experiment with some things.

Other than those glitches she was running great, barking and sassing me, I love running Lola. She may not be the fastest any more but she's such a character and she still loves to play as long as it's cold and there's no table.

I'm back to running both dogs at a DOCNA trial in 2 weeks. Guess I'd better get Strummer back on that running dogwalk thing and maybe think about some weave pole training.

USDAA Laramie 2009

I know, Thursday already and I'm only now getting to a trial report. The lice panic threw me for a loop and last night I spent most of the night doing more laundry and vacuuming the spongy guts of the dog beds and crate pads. It's a bit overboard I know but it makes me feel better and I can't believe the amount of dirt and dog hair that's come up in my dryer's lint filter. I was probably better off before when I was living in denial of all the dirt and dog hair in everything. It's a good thing I'm working and busy all the time and have no time to dwell on it or I'd probably go mad.

The Laramie USDAA trial is one of my favorites. It's indoors so heat is not an issue and one ring so you can relax and watch other people's runs and not have to work every class and run between rings tearing your hair out over the conflicts. I like driving through WY, so pretty and wild and wide open. It's a 2 hour drive but it feels like a different world.

Lola had some nice runs and even picked up an elusive Gamblers Q. Her last one was a million years ago and she needs 3 more for her Perf. ADCH. At this rate she'll finish them off at age 37. I also ran her in Snooker, Jumpers and Standard, all of them really nice runs but for one little thing or another. I was particularly sad about missing that Standard run, she was going so nicely through all the tricky bits, got her table, weaves, contacts and simply ran past the teeter for a refusal. She was on a nice line to it too, I took my eye off her because I thought it was so obvious. I'll bet she was the only Masters dog to make that mistake, my creative little girl. But otherwise such a nice, fun run.

Strummer had mostly nice runs with one train wreck thrown in to keep me humble. I had a lot of total strangers, really good handlers, come up and introduce themselves and tell me what a nice dog Strum is. It was both nice and a little strange. One guy said he remembered on of Strum's runs from last February! I think it's because of the one ring trial, more people are able to watch and have time for socializing or something. It's always nice to meet new people though and of course it's nice when people tell you what a great dog you have.

Thanks to Julie we have super fancypants HD video of Strummer's crazy antics. She's got Strummer's twin brother. He's the nice one while Strummer of course is the one with the devil horns.

Strum had a pretty Speed Jumping run except for the weaves. This was puzzling to me since he's been doing good with the weaves in the trials. Weird. He couldn't do them in Standard either. Wonderful running A-frame though and I pulled off a front cross, yeah baby. He was 100% for 4 A-frames this trial.
(Click on link to view)
Steeplechase

Had a little bobble at the start of his Jumpers run then got momentarily lost after a front cross but pulled it together for his first USDAA Q and 1st place.

Jumpers

Standard was the train wreck. After his Jumpers run a really good handler I know who knows a lot about jumping was telling me what a nice Jumper Strummer is, how he's jumping off his rear and judging take-offs nicely and he's 'scopey' (I had to look that one up) and probably a bunch of other things I can't remember right now. She and all these really good, top handlers were watching him and discussing him in the stands. Which isn't too intimidating. Then he proceeded to crash through the second jump of his Standard run like it wasn't even there. Poor guy, it looks worse on video than I realized. If I'd seen how bad it was I would have stopped his run right then and there. I'm not even sure what happened, it looks as if he didn't see it until the last second. I was frustrated with my handling as well but on the plus side I noticed my arm flying up about halfway through and stopped myself from doing it the rest of the run. It was the only time all weekend where it felt like he was running wild out of control so I suppose that's something. It was the last class of the second day and I think he was starting to get a little fried. A fly was winding him up right before he went in the ring and that didn't help matters.

Standard

No video for Gamblers but he had a beautiful run. The judge gave him credit for his dogwalk but he failed my criteria. Then we had to stop and re-run about 1/3 of the way through due to a timer malfunction and on the re-run he totally blew the contact. That was the only bad part though, got both his A-frames and handled nicely. Didn't get the gamble but was so fast and amassed so many points that he had more points in his opening than the first place dog had with its Gamble points. Silly crazy boy.

He was bad in his crate at the start of the trial, barking his fool head off despite being covered and as far away from the ring as possible. Unfortunately the noise of the other dogs running sets him off as well as the visual. I couldn't put him in the car Friday night because it was too hot but he spent Saturday morning in the car. I worked with him a little when I had to bring him back in and by the later classes he was finally quiet.

We slept in the car on Friday night in an effort to save money and it was so much nicer than a hotel room. I have a nice comfy air mattress so my back was fine. I didn't miss having a shower since I'd driven up on Friday afternoon and only had 3 runs. It was so much quieter than a hotel and it was nice waking up and being right at the trial site. The dogs alarm barked a few times during the night and at one point I looked out and saw what was probably a coyote but otherwise they were good and I don't mind them barking to scare the wildlife away. Strummer couldn't relax sleeping with me & Lola so I put a crate pad on one of the front seats and Mr. Fidgetpants finally settled in for the night. I had way too many blankets and layers on and had to shed some before the night was done so cold was not a problem. Overall much better than the expensive scary hotels in Laramie. I'm just glad I didn't know about the lice at the time or the night would have gone a whole different way.

I didn't enter for Sunday and drove back Saturday night because I wanted to relax and get one more bike ride in before my race next weekend. Just as well because Lola was limping on Sunday. Not a big limp but still. It's probably her bicep tendonitis flaring up as it sometimes does or maybe the arthritis in her feet flaring up or both. Of course it was the day after closing for a DOCNA trial she's entered in over Labor Day. When this stuff flares up I typically give her 2 days of Rymadil and 4 days of rest then gradually ease her back up to activity with leash walks. She might be fine for the trial, we'll see how she handles the return to activity. She's not handling her rest period well but tomorrow she can finally walk for a bit. Poor girl, sucks getting old, I know all about it. My knee was acting up Friday night and was sore on Saturday for the first time in weeks then was fine again on Sunday. We gimp along as best we can when we get old, I guess it's all we can do.

Do I even want to know what this is for?

Silence of the pigs, Elvis, tractor parades and, uh, yeah I think there was some agility in there somewhere

Can you say distractions?



It was an interesting day of agility, that's for sure. We were sandwiched between the carnival and the 4-H building which of course had its doors wide open because OMG people the smell. I had to go in there to use the bathrooms which unfortunately were next to the pigs and I'm telling you my eyes were starting to water and the next day I still can't get that smell out of my brain. And these pigs were all freshly scrubbed and laying in pens with nice fresh shavings and all gussied up for the show ring. I cannot begin to imagine what it must smell like on the little local farm let alone those big industrial hog farms. Seriously, it was something special. And the screaming... Maybe you've heard a chorus of 100 pigs all squealing/screaming at the same time but that was a new one on me. It was like when a group of dogs start howling in unison but a hundred million times louder and higher pitched. Somehow my dogs didn't seem the least bit bothered even though we were crated maybe 50 yards away. There was also Elvis music and other country favorites coming from the 4-H building because no pig contest would be complete without. BTW, Elvis plus dog agility, it doesn't get much cooler than that.

I had to go in the arena to see the pigs being judged. Don't worry, I cut through the area where the sheep were being penned to avoid the pig smell. The pig contest consisted of a bunch of teenagers whacking their pigs on the sides with sticks to make them trot around the ring. I couldn't figure out what they were being judged on-maybe whoever has the least amount of poop smeared across their butts wins? It certainly wasn't personality because the feistiest pig that had Strummer ears and Strummer attitude got ushered out of the ring right away. I finally worked up the nerve to ask one of the judges. There were lots of judges and this one didn't seem too busy. It turns out pig shows are kind of like dog conformation shows. The judge watches them trot around and decides which one will be the tastiest based on how they move and their structure. Or maybe the judge made that up to mess with me, who knows. But the main judge gave a little speech about why that pig when he made his decision and it seemed to back up what the other judge told me. You see, agility trials are educational.

The big rule to remember about agility trials at the County Fair is that you should carry your camera with you at all times because you never know when the tractor parade may go by.





There were some cool tractors there.



I was developing a case of tractor envy even though I'm not sure what you do with a tractor. Jonny's always talking about moving out of Boulder to some land out east so we could have donkeys and so far I've been firmly against this plan but maybe I'd reconsider if I could have a tractor. And maybe some horses.



Another thing to remember when you go to the County Fair is that you should wear your awesome pink pirate skull socks that your equally awesome husband got for you.



And make sure you let everyone know where they are in case there was any doubt.




How did the agility go you ask what with the 'Ring of Fire' roller coaster and the people screaming on the 'Ring of Fire' roller coaster right next to the start line for the baby dog classes? So loud that you can't even hear the 'Go' announcement on the speaker?

Are we barfing yet?



As it turns out this was a great set-up for Strummer because he wasn't too bothered with the coaster and the screaming and it was so loud that he couldn't hear the dog in the ring. Crazy freak dog, he was much calmer than normal. Can we please have big noisy roller coasters at all our agility trials? Sure my ears were ringing well into the night but calm dog at the start line, so worth it.

He ran in the only 3 classes offered-Gamblers, Standard and Jumpers-as did Lola and he didn't pick up any Q's but he was running nicely and most of our problems were run-bys/handling issues and baby dog stuff. He had great weaves, hit all 3 A-frames, great teeters, no knocked bars that I can remember (though I could be wrong about that), missed his dogwalk contact and had some trouble on straight runs of jumps. Don't know why but that seems to be such a hard skill for him. We've practiced it but not recently and he's so freakin' fast on a straight line of jumps mid-course or in a gamble that it's hard for me to keep up to handle him. He had an off course in Jumpers due to this and despite taking an extra tunnel and me settling him to continue on he still did 15 obtacles in 14.xx seconds. Whee, that was fun!

Lola was more distracted by the ample amount of poop in the arena dirt than the roaring coasters and screaming pigs. She started out with a nice strong run in Gamblers. Didn't get the gamble of course, the easiest gamble you could possibly imagine-out to a jump from a tunnel, teeter, jump, jump all in a straight line-easy peasy, but her opening was wonderful. She started getting a little flaky in Standard probably due to the heat but she laid down on the table despite the blaring sun (woo hoo for that!) and had an o.k. run with a missed A-frame contact and run-by/refusal. By the afternoon Jumpers class she'd had enough. It didn't help that I got lost by the 7th jump, the kind of lost where you're standing there like an idiot going, 'I'm lost, I'm lost'. As I stood there pondering the sea of jumps I lost her to the poop. I got her going again for a wee bit but it was hot and she'd had enough so I decided screw the course and ran her out of the ring over the last few jumps. This was super fun because it happened in front of a huge audience of people and there was an announcer giving the crowd a play by play over the loudspeaker. She tried to put a good spin on it for the crowd and had them cheering us on out of the ring but not exactly a crowd pleasing performance I'm afraid.

Overall it was a fun trial, small entry, nice courses, and one ring. What a luxury to not have to work classes that I'm also entered in as well as not having to run from ring to ring like a crazy person. It was a great opportunity for Strummer to get some ring experience with some huge distractions and who doesn't love a good pig contest?

SO Close

A little bit of USDAA trialing for us this holiday weekend. I only ran Lola and only in Standard and Gamblers on Friday and Standard today since those were the earliest classes. Last year this trial was a Regional and it was mostly blazing hot in the 90's so this year I only entered early classes and of course it was much cooler and cloudy at times.

Today's Standard was our best run and Jonny came with us so we have video. It was a tough course but Lola did a lovely job. Look at that table people!!! I was so pleased with that. And she hit all her contacts despite being freaked out by the judge on the dogwalk. Unlike yesterday-ahem. I was so sure we'd have it but I pushed her waaay too far out into the hinterlands on a tough weave pole entry and there was no way she could make the entry from where I'd placed her so we got a refusal darn-it but still it was a great run on a tough course and I was so pleased with her.

Of course the obvious choice of background music would be '4th of July' by X but apparently I only have it on vinyl and I'm too lazy to transfer it to CD just for doggie background music so you'll have to make do with Elvis Costello. I think I go through this every year. One of these days I'll get the dang thing on mp3.



Yesterday did not go nearly as well. I picked a very boring, easy course for Gamblers and still somehow managed to muck it up a bit. Then I thought maybe she had a shot at the gamble but it was not meant to be. When I got home Cody said he could have done it easy peasy. In Standard the little stinker blew her dogwalk contact on an otherwise lovely run. When we got to the table she did a fabulous fast happy down so I immediately released her and ran her over a few obstacles on the shortest path out of the ring so I could reward her. Judge thought I was nuts when I excused myself before she finished her table count but oh well. She had a beautiful table today and held it for the whole count so it was worth it.

Lola loved being the only dog and she especially loved it today when Jonny came. I think she had such a nice run to show off for him. It was relaxing for me as well since she's so easy to deal with and I didn't have to run like a crazy person between 2 rings. I loved being able to focus all my attention on her. I love running her and hanging out with her and who knows how many trials she has left? Plus she was by far the most gorgeous dog there. I'm constantly amazed that she never gets some special award for that. She always leaves the trial wondering where is her diamond studded tiara and I have no good explanation for her.

On the way to and from the trial site I pass a coffee/tattoo shop that I've been dying to stop at but I'm always either on my way there and have no time to stop or on my way home and it's too late and hot and tired for coffee. But today it was plenty early and we had plenty of time on our way home so finally I got to sample the wares of the Bananalope Coffee House which shares a space with the Smoky Banana Tattoo shop. Personally I don't think I'd want a case of the jitters while someone was coming at me with needles but that's just me. The coffee is all organic and free trade and the nice lady behind the counter said the place is very dog friendly, next time bring the poochies in for special biscuits. Lola was mad that she didn't get a mocha or biscuits but I didn't want to unbelt her from her seatbelt harness and start a big fuss in the place.




The trial continues on tomorrow but not for us. I'm hitting the trails on my mountain bike and Lola gets the day off.

I'm only happy when it rains

Saturday at 5:30 a.m. I had another one of those moments where I marveled over the weird and unlikely course my life has taken as I inspected an unusually foul smelling pile of poop to see is it liquid or solid or what. I think poor Jonny must have been having similar thoughts at 2:30 a.m. when he was up cooking rice for her. Rice is Jonny's cure all for all things runny and stinky. No, I did not suggest he cook rice for her at such an unspeakable hour and in fact I lost an hour's sleep or so because the kitchen is right across the hall from the bedroom which does not have a closeable door thanks to Strummer's crate. I gave Lola a marrow bone on Wednesday knowing full well that the consequences might not be happy but I figured whatever the outcome, so to speak, she'd be fine by trial morning. Unfortunately her stomach was not running on my schedule. Fortunately whatever gymnastics her stomach and associated digestive tubes were going through did not effect her mood or performance but of course it added some worry to my day.

We had a nice cloudy, cool weekend, a bit of drizzle and light rain on Sunday but not while I was running any classes. Perfect weather for dogs running and jumping and carrying on, especially if your name is Lola. Throw on some fleece and Gore-tex and it's no problem but I heard a lot of grousing. Me, I'll take that kind of weather any day for agility.

Lola only ran 2 runs per day and we were done by just past noon both days which was perfect. I think I see a lot of half days in my agility future. Both of us had plenty of energy and enthusiasm for our runs and I didn't feel like I'd been run over by a truck when I woke up Monday morning. Well, no more so than usual anyway. No Q's to speak of but we had some fun out there and best news of the day was that she did her tables for both Standard runs no problemo. Next thing to work on is getting her to understand what releases her because she broke her stay both times on my motion which led to NQ's further down the course.

Saturday's Master Standard class was hilarious, it was so crazy there were no Q's in the entire Performance class, all heights, and only 1 for the entire 26"/22" Champ classes (31 dogs I think). I was scoring so I know. I think there were a couple more Q's for the wee Champ dogs but I didn't score them since I had to warm Lola up for her run. The course was deemed unsafe by some and there were a number of injuries caused by an unsafe teeter approach. One poor woman had driven 9 hours only to have her dog injured in the first class of the day so had to turn around and drive right back. I knew about the problem area and was careful handling Lola through it but there's no way I would have attempted that course with Strummer. I wish USDAA would be more strict about their course design requirements. There's no reason to have unsafe contact approaches, ever, there are plenty of other ways to challenge us. And that crazy course was full of them. I'll post it if I can find my course map.

Gamblers was easy peasy but somehow Lola wasn't for doing the gamble. I guess I'll have to do something drastic and start practising distance or something. Or maybe not. I don't practice much with her any more in hopes of keeping her sound. Snooker was a beautiful run until I forgot to redo the #2 obstacle in the closing after doing it for my last color in the opening. Doh. Standard run #2 was a more reasonable course and looked very do-able for Miss Lola but she broke her table stay when I moved after the table count and I couldn't quite pull off the front cross I was planning which led to some not so successful creative handling on the fly.

Below is the Masters Standard course map from Sunday which had some interesting challenges.



I handled the opening for Lola by leading out to just before jump #2 with her on my right and front crossing before the #3 tunnel. If I was running Strummer I'd lead out to between 2 & 3 and send him into the tunnel on my left but Lola doesn't know how to do that and she would have skipped both jumps and run right to me. I only watched some of the 12" and 16" Perf. class and some of the 22" & 26" Champ class (if you can call 1 dog in the 26" class a class) so I don't know how most of the big dog people handled the course. Of the people I did see quite a few started with their dog on their right and pulled to the #3 tunnel which typically worked o.k. except then they had to rush to get the front cross in between #3 and #4 and ended up blocking their dog a bit. Having your dog on your left as it entered the #3 tunnel was definitely an advantage.

I front crossed between #3 and #4 then did another front cross between #6 and #7 and pushed Lola over the #8 jump after the dogwalk. Some opted to stay on the left side of the dogwalk which sometimes led to an off course at the A-frame which is what I feared with Lola. Of those that stayed on the left, some fronted the dogwalk which is what I would have done while others did a rear/flip.

The course was set with the #10 jump in line with #9 and #11. The judge did this supposedly because of the wet grass conditions but I think there would have been a mutiny if there was yet another course with a bad entry to the teeter. I kept Lola on my left all the way to the table which was also more in line with the #12 tire than is indicated on the map. Quite a few people front crossed the #11 teeter and I'm not sure why. All that did was switch the dogs lead and draw them to the A-frame. Some dogs made a straight line for the table but some drifted toward the frame and had to be called back though I don't think I saw any actually take the frame.

My intention was to front cross the table so Lo would be on my left going over the A-frame then I'd rear between #14 and #15, front between #16 and #17, front again between #17 and #18 then keep her on my left through the chute since the #20 jump was actually set more in a straight line with the chute. Instead she broke her stay when I moved after the table count so I was forced to keep her on my right and push over the #15 jump and since I wasn't prepared for this I botched it and she went straight between the #15 and #16 jumps. Some people handled this way on purpose and it worked nicely for them.

Since I had a refusal and NQ anyway I decided I'd try a pull between #17 and #18 instead of my planned front cross just for laughs. This strategy worked for a lot of the small dogs but Miss Lo was committed to that tunnel before she took the #17 jump and there was no convincing her otherwise. That was a tricky section and I think a lot of Champ dogs fell victim to it since they had a triple and if you had a fast dog there was no way a front was happening. The one 26" dog handler with a super fast dog used a rear cross between #16 and #17 and it worked nicely but that didn't work for all handlers. If I had it to do again and I had to do the triple (no spreads in Perf. so Lola had a single jump) I think I'd try a rear. Definitely one to set up and practice with Strummer.

2-Ring Circus

I made it to both days of the USDAA trial this past weekend despite the blizzard. It was weird, some places got slammed hard but the roads were mostly dry for me both days. 50 mph winds but not much blowing snow and I made it to and fro both days without incident. Conditions at the trial site Sat. morning were terrible though and as I stood throwing a filthy tennis ball for dogs in a full on blizzard at some ungodly hour when normal folks were tucked up all warm in their beds I had a full on soul searching questioning of my sanity. Because people who spend their precious weekend mornings pleading with dogs to poop while the 50 mph winds are blowing stinging snow sideways in your face are simply not right in the head. I know this and yet somehow I'm powerless to stop myself from signing up for these things.

The other side effect of the weather was that both dogs were off their heads with energy and excitement and while I thought this might work to Lola's advantage I surely didn't need Strummer to be any higher than he normally is. In the end though both dogs had a good weekend overall. Lola picked up her first ever Masters Standard Q and second place (she's only been in Masters what, nearly 3 years?) and had beautiful tables for both her Standard runs. I was nearly in tears with those tables and she was amply rewarded with sardines for both runs. Her second run was already an NQ by the time we got to the table so I rushed her out of the ring right after the table for her vile treats. Judge looked at me like I was crazy when I excused myself but it was worth it, Lola was so happy to get her stinky fishies. Jonny complained of her sardine breath and the scary thing is that I didn't even notice it. I think I'm turning into the equivalent of those parents who walk around smelling of baby barf and don't even realize it anymore.

Strum's Standard run on Sat. went much better in that there was no running amok and he finished up with no off courses. The downside was that he blew both his A-frame and dogwalk contacts, or so the judge said. During the run I was sure he got them both which is worrying because maybe in practice I'm rewarding misses. I've been getting lazy with using the video to keep myself honest so I'll have to be better about that but from the video I had shot lately I was 100% with my rewarding correctly for quite a few practices. Could be the judge made incorrect calls but that tells me I need to make his performances more obvious so there is no room for doubt. His weaves and table were perfect and his teeter was iffy and not at all what I wanted. He went flying to the end, slammed it down and went sailing off of his own accord. It's possible he didn't realize it was the teeter until it tipped or maybe he was too excited. The run went so quickly, I felt like I'd barely blinked and it was done. I checked his time against the rest of the class just for laughs and he was second fastest and within .09 of the fastest dog who was being run by a top handler. That team also had faults though so maybe they had some wide turns/refusals.

He had a nice Gamblers run too, got both his A-frames that time and his weaves. I did a really bad thing and inadvertently pulled him out of the weave poles the second time when the whistle blew. I got impatient and ran ahead of him without thinking about what I was doing and he popped out. At some point I plan to have him proofed for that so the weaves are totally independent but he's certainly not there yet. We didn't get the gamble and it was a tricky one for baby dogs I thought. I've not been training distance skills at all with him because that's not a priority right now and because of the whole handling system thing I'm not sure how much I will end up teaching him.

Snooker was a crazy course for baby dogs, even for masters dogs and I wasn't the only one who thought so. I managed to come up with as flowing a plan as I could but Strum was a bit wound up and we were off course after the second red. It was probably for the best.

Sunday's Standard was a bit more crazy. The weave pole entry was too challenging for him and the weaves had a wall on 2 sides which I'm supposing is the reason he popped out near the end. Lola completely freaked out at the weaves during her Standard run and I didn't even bother trying to make her do them. I've tried a little bit of weaving into walls in practice with Strummer but he's not ready for that yet so I didn't try to make him redo them when he popped out. He really blew the dogwalk this time. He got his A-frame but had a little leap over the apex which I wasn't thrilled about. He hit o.k. on the other side but I'd prefer no leap at all since that could ugly quickly especially in a trial situation. His teeter was better but still not quite what I wanted. Table was great. There was a bit of running amok but that could have due to some poor handling on my part. It wasn't a horrible disaster, certainly better than anything he's done at the fun matches, but not as nice at Sat's. run.

Sunday's Jumpers run was nice though especially considering he'd had no warm up. Somehow after sitting around for 3 hours I managed to need to defy the laws of physics and be in the 2 jumpers rings at exactly the same time. To make matters worse I had to crate Strummer in the car because the little stinker had figured out how to undo the zipper on his soft crate. I took Lola out of her crate and was on my way outside to take her for a walk when who do I see strut by but Mr. Guaranteed Personality off to sign autographs for his adoring crowd (he loves mugging everyone for attention) or maybe to join the dog in the ring. Thankfully when I called him he came right away, a big stupid grin on his face. I put him back in his crate, clipped the zippers together and he immediately starts clawing at the mesh door. So that was that, into the car he went and we were parked roughly in Zimbabwe so I had a good workout running Lola out to the car and getting Strummer back to the ring. They had to hold the ring up for me because they'd run out of dogs. I came to the line all red faced and no proper warm up for Strummer other than the jog from the car but he did great. I had the same handling mistake I had at the NADAC trial-sending him to a jump then rushing somewhere else to get in position for a front cross and the bar came down. I noticed that during the walk-through too (oh and they had both Jumpers walk-throughs going at the same time which might have gone o.k. if I wasn't going half senile but you try being my age and memorizing 2 Jumpers courses at the end of the weekend) and made note to be careful but got caught up in the moment during the run. Rather than worry about handling around that I think we should train it better. I've worked on it a little but obviously not enough. Again he had the second fastest time in the whole class, all heights.

I managed to remember Lola's Jumpers course as well and she had a nice run and a Q. She didn't get her Gamblers Q which she needed more than jumpers. It was an easy gamble if you have independent weave poles but it was too much for Miss Lola. She now needs 4 Gamblers and 4 Standard Q's for her championship. We'll keep plugging away and hopefully one day we'll get there. I feel a lot better now that I seem to have her table problem solved. I'll need to see it in a few more trials and different conditions, especially outside when it's hot, but I feel like we're on the right track and I'm going to continue on with what I'm doing. Phew, what a relief that is, I hate watching her stress out over things and she's such a little drama queen.

One last highlight of the trial was that Strummer measured 20 3/4". I was thrilled with that, it means there's a chance he can run in Championship if I can get 2 more measurements. I'd been working with him for weeks, shaping him to stand still under whatever straight object I could find. I used a whole bunch of different things hoping he would eventually generalize it to the wicket since obviously I don't have my own wicket. Is it unprofessional to ask your coworkers to play at dog agility judge? I know, crazy dog lady in the office workplace strikes again. It worked though, he was so good for the judge and stood still for his measurement no problemo. One down, 2 to go. Would be fun to be able to compete in the really competitive 22" class. I don't care all that much about beating other people but it would be fun nonetheless to be able to compete in Championship for once.

No more USDAA for Strummer for awhile, we'll have some DOCNA in May if I can get off my butt and get my entry in before the trials close. Gonna spend the next few weeks on those contacts, I will have a successful running dogwalk darn it!

That's All She Wrote

I had fun at the USDAA trial this weekend, Cody & Lola's first trial since DOCNA Champs. at the start of October. They didn't have much practice, maybe 3-4 sessions in the past 3 months but I don't want to work either of them all that much anymore because of their ages. Cody is 10 1/2 and Lola turned 8 last month. Hard to think of either of them as vet dogs.

The main thing I was hoping for this weekend was for Cody to finish his Perf. ADCH with a Super Q in Snooker and a Standard Q. I wish I had some great story to tell full of drama about how he pulled it all off despite the issues he's been having with the table . The reality though is that he had a beautiful Standard run going on Saturday, jumped on the table then jumped right off and ran into a tunnel, which was a nice thought and the correct obstacle if only he'd bothered to do the table first. I did get him to lie down and we immediately left the ring where I made up for all the celebrating I did not do on New Year's Eve. On Sunday he once again had a beautiful Standard run going and did in fact lie down on the table and hold it for what seemed like 9 million years and I was SO sure we had it but then the stinker blew the dogwalk contact. The dogwalk was heading into a wall which may have been part of the problem but with Cody who can tell. After that I was a bit distracted and late with a front cross causing an off course. Snooker was a perfect course for Cody, a tunnel/jump combo for the 7 and an obvious easy, flowy course for getting all three 7's. The unfortunate thing is that there is no strategy involved, only speed but I thought we still had a chance if I got some tight turns and pushed for speed. Also the pressure was off since he'd already blown his Standard runs. He could still pick up his Snooker title (and the next Snooker title too I think) but I didn't care all that much about it. In the end it didn't matter because after the third red I told him 'here' (7 point obstacle) and he went 'there' (2 point obstacle) and the whistle didn't go right away because I still could have saved it if I'd brought him back to start the closing (no Super Q of course) but as I stood there going, 'Duh uh which way do I go?' he decided the nearby #3 tunnel looked nice and who cares where the judge wanted me to go, I am so Punk Rock. So that was that.

I've decided to retire him from USDAA because when he was lying down on the table today his rear legs were trembling. I've noticed this in training the table at home, it comes and goes and sometimes is a lot of trembling, sometimes very little or none at all. It's the first time it's been that bad in a trial and I don't want to ask him to go through that again. I don't know what it's about whether a weakness in his rear legs or more likely something up with his back and I doubt it's painful but I can't ask him to do something that might bring it on. Every trial I watch him carefully and look for signs from him that it's time to stop trialing and today felt like he was telling me loud and clear. I'll still run him in DOCNA where there is no table and he can jump 16" because otherwise he looked great this weekend, perfect weaves, confident on the contacts, nice jumping, no stress. But no more USDAA. Yeah it's disappointing not to get the big bad title but it felt good to get so close and I can hardly be disappointed overall with his agility career. He's the first dog I ever seriously trained for anything and he was not the easiest first dog ever but he taught me so much and each little milestone along the way felt so huge and satisfying. Those last 2 missing Q's seem so insignificant in the face of how far he came.

As for Lola, she had a mostly fabulous weekend. She and her Pairs partner had lovely clean runs and took first place finishing up her Pairs title (yay! no more pairs!!!). She also picked up another Snooker Q with a wonderful run. She almost had her first Masters Standard Q on Saturday with a beautiful run but she missed the dogwalk contact. I even got her to lie down on the table and I'll write more about that later when I'm not so tired. Thanks for the table suggestions in the comments below, BTW. Today's Standard run started with her running circles around the table and refusing to get on. I got her on and got her down but she got up after 3 seconds and I decided that was enough of that torture. We were both a bit rattled after that and the run went downhill from there. And yes, she blew another dogwalk contact. Darn it, she was near perfect for 4 days at DOCNA Champs. Argh. But overall she was a dream to run this weekend, my timing with her was good and she was happy and full of herself.

I experimented a bit with running the various courses different ways with the different dogs, using a rear cross for Cody and a front for Lola. Both places that I tried to force a front with Lola did not work out so great. I pulled them off but I was way late. Hard to say if the rears would have been any better with her or if the fronts would have been better if I hadn't been so late. It was fun to play around with it though.

The one really bad part of the weekend was my knee. It was sore Saturday night despite icing it twice. Tonight I can't straighten it. I will spare you the moaning about the pain. I even broke down and took some Vitamin I. Was eyeing up the leftover Vicodyn but decided I'd rather suffer (cue violins). I'll stay off it as much as I can tomorrow and ice it a bunch and hopefully will be back to dog walking duties on Tuesday. Getting old is a blast.