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.

Sunscreen, Sweat and Sundogs

A day in January with temp’s. in the 60’s is a rare thing and to have that day off work is an even rarer treat. I decided to stay away from the agility field today. Cody & Lola have a trial this weekend and I don’t like to work them the day before a trial. I took Strum yesterday to work on the dogwalk and I’m trying to restrain myself from working him out there 2 days in a row since it seems to be counterproductive. Less is more, less is more, less is more…must keep drilling that into my head.

Instead I decided to seize the opportunity for a bike ride on the trails by my house. All the trails were plenty dry except for Ice Hill which had, duh, a mix of ice and slush and mud. Well, there’s a reason it’s called Ice Hill. There are ways to avoid Ice Hill but they involve riding on the road and you miss out on a bunch of trails and that’s no good, it’s well worth the slog through the muck and the cleaning of your cleats.

As I was riding along I was thinking about the sundogs I've seen in Telluride and Ouray and how I’ve only every seen them once in Boulder. Then about 20 minutes later I looked up to watch some kind of hawk or eagle swooping through the blue sky and I noticed the most amazing sundogs. Freaky I tell you. But so beautiful, bright vibrant streaks of rainbow colors smeared across some cloud formations and merely tingeing the edges of others. I had to keep stopping for a moment of whimsy so I wouldn't crash my bike trying to look at them while riding. What amazing luck to be out on the trails on such a gorgeous day. In January. I love Colorado.

To top it all off I was nearly home and a big sassy coyote ran across the trail right in front of me. He was running along a creek bed trying to sneak up on a prairie dog town. Sure enough a moment later the dog town erupted in a chorus of squeaks. A perfect ending to a fabulous ride.

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Tomorrow winter weather returns and I'm off to a USDAA trial. Only one standard run and one Snooker Super Q stand between Cody and his Champ title. I'm not feeling confident about the table for him or Lola. We've been practicing but when I took him to course run throughs at Boulder County Fairgrounds the other week he took one look at the table and took off in the other direction stress sniffing. I did manage to get him on and gave him boatloads of treats and after that he went on happily 3 more times, a good thing in the end but it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. If Lola has any faults before the table I'm not even going to try to get her on. Other than the table though both dogs looked great at practice last weekend, fit and full of themselves and hitting all contacts, weaves, etc. Hopefully they can keep it up for the trial.

I only have Standard for Cody tomorrow and Standard and the Grand Prix for Lola. For some inexplicable reason the club offered regular titling Gamblers today but all the other classes were Team and Steeplechase then tomorrow they'll have Team Gamblers and the Team Relay. Makes no sense to me, why not put all the Team events on the same day? I didn't want to enter Grand Prix, SO expensive and I have no plans to go to Nationals. USDAA is yanking the local club around again so they don't know if they'll have a Regionals to try to qualify for. She has boatloads of GP Q's so she doesn't need any more for her title. Normally there's no way I'd spend $22 on this class but I didn't want to drive all the way down to Castle Rock (1 1/4 hours) for just Standard but it's the only titling class offered because of the Team events. If Cody wasn't so close to his title I wouldn't have bothered going at all but I want to give it a shot. I love the GP though so it'll be fun and it's probably the only time I'll enter this year. I'm hoping to cut down on $$ for trials this year and not entering the tournaments saves a huge chunk of change.

Cody is first up in the Snooker line-up on Sunday so I'll have to pick the best course for us and hope it's good enough. In a way this is better for me, I hate watching everybody else and double thinking my course. Lola runs last but there's no pressure on her, she has all her Super Q's and her Snooker title. She's also got Pairs and another round of Standard. No Pairs for Cody, he finished his title and it's easier for me to have only one dog in that class. If Lola gets a Q she's done with that class too. We have a great partner, we just have to hold up our end of the bargain.

Strum is sitting this one out. It's a 2 ring trial and I'd like him to get some more ring experience before he has to deal with the distraction of a second ring. Plus it's hard to deal with 3 dogs and I want to focus on Cody this weekend. He doesn't need the extra stress of the little upstart.

Should be a fun trial, great venue and one of my favorite judges (Paul Stoltzenbug). Now to get some sleep. I'm not looking forward to that 5:00 a.m. wake-up call.

Snot or lung butter?

How about both? I managed to catch Jonny's super fun illness and spent Friday expelling a fair amount of both. I found out that's it's possible to sneeze and cough simultaneously and repeatedly. Thankfully today is better, still hacking stuff up but not nearly as much and not simultaneously. Should be able to hike tomorrow, maybe even taste food again soon.

USDAA trial this morning in Albuquerque, just Standard and Snooker. Unfortunately Cody didn't pick up any Q's. Snooker was especially a heart breaker. He was the last dog to run of the 16" and 22" dogs and I knew that all we had to do was make it through the course I had planned and we'd get a Super Q, only had to do one set of weaves in the opening too, totally doable. Silly boy had one of his flaky moments and wandered off to make up his own course. I held it together until the closing then he went off again to take an off course jump. Also had a most bizarre run by in his standard run then had table issues again. I got him into a down then ran out of the ring to reward. Lola also had a bizarre moment in her standard run, came out of a tunnel then turned around and went right back in. I don't think I could have gotten her to do that if I tried. Then she flat out refused to lay down on the table so we left the ring. We've been practicing fast happy tables in the backyard on an almost daily basis but of course the trial is not the same. She had a great snooker run though and got a Q. I ran her off the course after the #6 obstacle, no point in making her do more weave poles which were #7 of course and she has all her Super Q's but had I run her through the weaves she would have had a Super Q.

We made it to Flagstaff by dinner time. Thankfully that's the bulk of the driving done. Our hotel is near the Northern University of AZ campus so we stretched our legs and had a nice tour of the campus. Cody strutted about like he was Big Man on Campus while Strummy flirted with all the co-eds. Lola thinks that actually Skateboaring is a Crime thank you very much and had some words for the skateboarders. Plus lots of rolling around in the ample amounts of nice lush grass.

Hopefully I'll have some photos of the San Francisco mountains tomorrow.

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'How right you are dear Paul
That we hear of famous people's deaths
while on vacation'
-Algebra Suicide

A celebrity dies every single time I go on vacation. Last year was George Carlin, this year Paul Newman. A few years ago we skipped celebrity deaths and had Hurricane Katrina instead. I can't remember the rest but the list is long and impressive. Maybe I should send a warning to Hollywood before I leave for vacation from now on.

All's fair in love and Super Q's

I got up at 4 am yesterday morning to drive up to Laramie, WY for a USDAA trial. I decided to sign up for only one day for a variety of reasons and I'm glad I did because when we got there the dogs were full of beans and eager to go. I had fast, happy, motivated, non-stressed dogs all day and Cody was even pulling me into the ring! Cody needed 2 snooker Super Q's, a pairs leg and a standard leg for his Perf. ADCH title. I don't care all that much about masters titles, the earlier levels are fun to get because it means you get to move up a level but once you're in masters there's no where to go and the piece of paper I get in the mail doesn't mean all that much to me. Except for the big champ. title for Cody, that one would be special. Part of me always had this dumb stubborn faith that we would get it eventually and another part of me thought, 'Yeah, you just keep reaching for the stars miss little engine that could girl and give me a call when you finally snap out of it and come down to earth'. As 10 year old Cody gets closer to retirement the title has meant less and less to me and the focus has been on enjoying each run as much as possible because who knows how many he has left. And he's come so far, way farther than the doubter in me thought he ever would so if we're a few legs short of the big fancy ribbon what's the big deal? Still, if he gets the big fancy ribbon I promise you there will be tears. And I'm not a crier, especially not over a stupid slip of satin and a piece of paper.

We were entered in pairs, standard and snooker so we had a chance to make a little dent in what little is left. I hate pairs, what a stupid concept for an agility class, so I was thrilled to pieces when both dogs had beautiful clean runs and their teams Q'ed. No more pairs for Cody and Lola needs only one more Q, yeeha. Part of the reason I hate it is that there are so few teams that it's always a rush for me, I have to hurry one dog into the crate then scramble back to the line with the other dog. Warm-ups are always a challenge. We had only one team between this time but thankfully both the judge and the gate steward were nice about it and told me to catch my breath and go when I was ready. It's also a hassle to find partners and you have to negotiate what part of the course you're going to run plus feeling extra specially bad about it if you screw up. But after thinking about it I realized I've met quite a few people I probably wouldn't have if it wasn't for pairs relay and team so maybe it's not all too terribly bad. Still, I'm so glad to have only one dog left to run in it, it will be so much easier.

Standard did not go well for either dog. I mishandled the course early on for both dogs (will have to set that part up and practice it) and had off courses so I thought I'd take the opportunity to leave the ring early to reward the table if things went well. Cody flat out refused to lay down and eventually I excused ourselves from the ring and put him in his crate with no celebration and just a few bits treats. I felt terrible about it but was unsure what else to do. Lola also refused to lay down and had a barking fit at me, got off the table and tried to continue on the course but I wouldn't let her. Finally she laid down and I rushed her out of the ring for a big party and treats. Not sure what the problem was today, it was an indoor trial, not hot, judge was standing miles away and the table was in the quietest, farthest corner of the ring from the ring gates and bleachers. I was working with Lola on her down out in the field today and got a few insights into the problem but I'll write about that in a separate post. On the plus side both dogs hit all their A-frame contacts. We never got to the dogwalk in standard. In fact the table was obstacle 10 or so so we didn't get to do the other challenging parts of the course which was a shame but oh well.

Finally it was time for Snooker. I was a bit dismayed when I saw the course map-the weave poles were the 7 point obstacle. Why do judges do that so frequently? Plus the reds were set up perfectly for three 7's and not for much else. I'll try to post a course map tomorrow. I couldn't see making Cody do 4 sets of weaves. And what was the chance he would pop out or miss at least one entry? But Snooker is all about strategy right? So I took a look at the gate sheet and realised that there was only one dog, a fast BC, with faster weaves than Cody, all the other dogs probably would do only one set of weaves if they did them at all. Also there were 2 Super Q's up for grabs so even if the faster dog did multiple sets we still had a shot at the second Q. So I settled on doing one set of weaves for 7 points and the number 6 obstacle was a single jump so we'd do that twice and head for the closing. We had the option to do 4 reds but it would have been cutting it close and opened up the chance for more errors and I didn't think I needed it. I doubted any of the other dogs except maybe the fast BC would go for all 4 reds because that 4th one was so far out of the way and if I was worried about time certainly they would be too.

Cody was the first dog on the line of the entire Snooker class so I couldn't change my plan or see how the course would run, we had to step up to the line and go for it. And it was a fabulous run, everything went according to plan, turns weren't too loopy wide (though there's always room for improvement), Cody hit those weaves and plowed right through to the end in both the opening and closing. I sprinted to the finish and made sure to bring him with me. I couldn't watch the class because I had to get Lola out and warmed up but I heard the fast BC going for the 4 reds but got hit by the buzzer before he finished the number 7 weaves. The crowd groaned in sympathy but I actually heard myself utter a 'Yes!' then felt instantly bad. I HATE how snooker pits you up against other people. I HATE feeling good about other people screwing up. Anyway, I knew Cody had a good shot at the SQ so I decided to do three 6's with Lola so she wouldn't steal it from him just in case someone else managed to beat him and why make her do a set of weaves when she doesn't need the extra points for a regular Q (she has all her SQ's)? I never walked this though so I had to make it up on the fly but the opening went well and it wasn't until the closing that I lost her. I was a bit too wound up and sprinted far ahead of her to start the closing and she sneaked behind me to take an off course jump. Still, it was a nice run up to that point and she was running her buns off and having a blast. In the end Cody got 1st place by 4 seconds and was 12 seconds under course time. One more Super Q and one more Standard Q is all he needs now. Funny to think that mathematically he could do it in one trial. Now if only we can get his table fixed.

Where the dogs and the antelope play

Jonny and I took a little stealth vacation to Utah for a USDAA trial and then a trip through Medicine Bow National Forest in Wyoming on the way home. I have photos, I have video, I have lots to write about but dangit I'm tired after all that so it will take me a while and maybe multiple posts to get it all out.

One of the cool things about Wyoming is all the antelope.





It's a 7 1/2 hour drive to Salt Lake City but we took maybe 9 1/2 hours with all our stops. We stopped for a photo op with the creepy gigantic statue of Lincoln at a rest stop off of I-80 just east of Laramie, WY. This statue sent Lola into a tantrum the first time she saw it.



Yeah, I know, I'm shooting into the sun and the photo is crappy but I can hardly ask the statue to move and I'm an idiot with my camera so if there's a way to compensate I have no idea. In any case you get the idea of the monstrosity of this thing. I'm oddly fascinated with it.

We stopped again in Laramie for lunch at a great vegetarian cafe which has fabulous food but takes for freaking ever so by the time we left Laramie we were 3 1/2 hours into our trip and Laramie is only 2 hours away. Oh well, we were in no hurry.

The drive from the western end of WY through the canyon to UT is amazingly beautiful. I had no idea. SLC is a beautiful city as well though I didn't go right into the city itself but it's got mountains coming right up to it's eastern suburbs. The trial was at a horse facility in a southeastern suburb that was probably out in the middle of nowhere no too long ago but is now heavily engulfed in sprawl. Strip mall city. But still it felt like the mountains were towering right next to us and even the view from the hotel parking lot was beautiful.

The trial site was wonderful, lots of shade to crate in and the mountains in the background for scenic effect.





If you continue up the road past the trial site you get a spectacular unobstructed view of the mountains. Of course I discovered this when I didn't have my camera with me and I meant to go back there to take a photo but in all the hubbub of the trial it didn't quite happen.

So you want to know how the trial went? Ugh, I knew we'd get to that sooner or later. We drove up on Saturday while they were doing Team and I figured I'd wake up Sunday all rested up from the drive and ready to go. Unfortunately I didn't fall asleep until nearly 11 pm and Cody startled me out of a sound sleep and disturbing dream at 5:15 am or so by pouncing on me with his front feet. He almost never does anything like that so I figured he needed out like now. I barely fell back to sleep when the alarm woke me up. I started the day in a groggy, dizzy, disoriented haze and never quite came out of it. Thus, you can imagine how the day went. It was such a comedy of errors that really all I could do was laugh at the end of it all.

One of the Q's I cared most about was Snooker for Cody. He has a zillion regular snooker Q's still needs 3 super Q's. Oh, and we have a former world team dog in our class who's really good at snooker so I have to really go for it. Snooker is a bad thing for first thing in the morning anyway, at least give me a chance to let the fog clear before I have to think. This snooker course was particularly challenging with a threadle for the #6 obstacle in the closing and no good way to get ahead of your dog to manage it. Then of course there's a jump/weave combination for the #7 obstacle. I was still puzzling over my opening and how to handle the threadle when the judge called 'first dog on the line in 1 minute'. Oh yes folks, that would be me and Cody. And I was crated at the opposite end of the field, at least a 1-2 minute walk each way if I hustled which is fun when you have a sore foot and knee. It was only 7:52 and I figured we'd have until 8:00 to walk the course so I was a bit surprised to say the least. I scrambled from the ring and warmed Cody up as best I could, meanwhile trying to go over my plan in my head. Needless to say I made it through 3 reds and then something somewhere went oh so wrong. I then had to hoof it back to the set up to get Lola since there weren't all that many dogs in the class. I handled Lola much better and she was having a lovely run until I sent her over a red and the judge blew his whistle. Actually it was not a red I had sent her over but rather the finish line jump. I had walked the course thinking the finish line jump was a red. This pretty much set the tone for the rest of the day.

It turned out to be a hot day, low to mid 90's, which is never a great thing for my dogs especially when it comes to the table. Both dogs flat out refused to lie down on the table so both our Standard runs ended there. I was hoping to get a quick down so I could release and run out of the ring to reward but no dice.

I thought for sure we would redeem ourselves in pairs. I can usually keep it together for 10-11 obstacles and we usually do o.k. in that class. First off one of my partners was out with an injured dog so the gate steward told me to pick a partner off the gate sheet. I stood there ummmming for a minute because I'm from out of town and don't know most of these people and then thankfully Stacy Peardot happened to be standing there and offered up her husband who is also a really incredible handler to run as accommodating dog. I balked at that until I realized that he's not getting a Q anyway so I can't screw him up so hey, yeah, I will accept that very generous offer. Still, it's a bit intimidating to run with the top handler and the impeccably trained dog when you have a Cody Baloney for a partner and you're not so coordinated and easily confused yourself. Plus you're clearly having 'one of those days'.

Lola's run was first and we made it through the tricky opening only to have me forget a jump on a fairly straightforward sequence to a tunnel. Why oh why did I have to do that for pairs? Isn't it embarrassing enough to forget the course when it's only you?

Cody & I made it through the tricky opening then he ran right past the weaves. Yes, I gave him plenty of warning, yes he was set up with a nice path, yes we've been practicing this very thing most mornings before work in the backyard. Still, he ran right past them. But I got him back in and we're fast enough that maybe we'll be o.k. This time I remembered the jump but I was way too late cuing a turn and he took off for an off course tire that only Cody would spot. I noticed this when I walked the course but didn't manage it during the run as I was rattled from missing the jump during Lola's run and focused too much on that. It's extra fun to screw up when you have the fabulous dog & handler team helping you out.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had that agility dream where you're chilling out at your tent well away from the ring and next thing you know there are loud screams from the ring calling you to the line. You don't even know what class is running and you sure didn't get your walk through. I pinched myself repeatedly but unfortunately this time it was not a dream. I thought they were running Steeplechase Finals which is what was listed in the running order and I was so far from the ring that I couldn't see or hear what was going on. I had made so many trips back and forth from the ring and it was so hot and my knee was getting sore so I was trying no to neurotically go back & forth too much. It turns out they'd run the finals yesterday on the same day as Round 1. I've never ever heard of this but there you go. So it was in fact master jumpers running and I had in fact missed the walk-through and was being summoned to the line. I grabbed Cody & ran to the ring. They had started without me and the gate steward was so nice and said I could run one dog at the end of the 22's then run the other at the end of the Perf. 16' and right before the Champ. 22's. I couldn't walk of course and I didn't even have a course map on me but pffffbbbttt we don't need no stinkin' walk through, we'll just watch the few remaining dogs and wing it. Which might have been a doable plan if this was standard (I did that once no problem when Cody was in starters) but master jumpers?? Yeah, you can imagine how that went. Trying to run and handle a tricky jumpers course while reading the number cones is not a recommended style of handling. I made it through about 10 obstacles then sent Cody off course while trying to read a number cone. We kept going like we knew what we were doing and I made it up as we went along. Cody was none the wiser and we had a fast fun run. By the time it was Lola's turn I had a better idea of the course and I think I ran it properly but she ran past a jump somewhere and I didn't go back to fix it so no Q but it sure looked & felt smooth. Q's are overrated anyway. Jonny spotted that bumper sticker in the parking lot and kept pointing it out to me. Anybody else with a sarcastic spouse feel my pain? No no, I'm not complaining. He took vacation days and drove all that way to sit around an agility trial in 95 degree heat so I can hardly complain. The woman crated next to me told me I had such nice smooth runs but it was a shame I'd walked the course incorrectly. All I could do was laugh.

I think that's the first time ever that both dogs were completely shut out of Q's on the same day. What a flaky day and the dogs seemed a bit out of sorts as well. Maybe they were tired from the trip and loopy with the heat as well. Lola in particular did not seem all that happy during her standard run which was the second class. I thought I might pull her from jumpers but she seemed o.k. during pairs and I wanted to end the day on a high note as she usually likes jumpers. Ah well, what can you do but laugh?

I didn't sleep all that well Sunday night but I woke up Monday determined to keep my wits about me and have a serious, focused kick ass day of dog agility. I had Jonny bring me a mocha when he went for coffee for himself. I usually ban myself from having caffeine of any kind during agility trials because it makes me nervous & jittery and all sorts of other bad things that don't typically lead to a good day of focused kick ass dog agility. But I thought maybe the sugar & caffeine would jolt me awake and jump start my brain a bit.

I felt plenty awake for Gamblers which was the first class and thankfully I was not first dog on the line. It was an easy gamble for both my dogs so all I had to do was pick a simple opening and time it properly. Unfortunately Cody took an extra jump which happened to be 2 gamble obstacles in reverse order so even though I timed it perfectly and he got the gamble we got no Q. Lola missed her dogwalk and A-frame contact so again even though I timed it perfectly and she got the gamble we ended up one stinkin' point short of the required opening points so no Q. But at least I felt like my brain was working and the dogs seemed more relaxed than yesterday.

Standard again was all about the table. Cody had a beautiful clean run going up until the table. I did eventually get him into a down but he was wound up after that and ended up with an off course the details of which I will spare you. Lola took one look at the table, pinned back her ears and ran around it so I said to heck with it, no way I'm getting into an argument over it in 95 degree heat so I didn't even try to get her on it. Poor thing looked so upset about it. I got her going for the rest of her run though and she ended it up fast & happy. I realize I'm teaching her that she can avoid the table and get to keep going but I was more concerned with her motivation and getting her fast & happy in the ring so I didn't want to take her out right at the table. I did that yesterday and obviously it did no good, in fact might have made things worse.

Grand Prix was the final class of the trial and this was the other Q that I cared most about. Lola still needed a Q to qualify for Regionals and this was her last chance. The course looked fast and fun, a good course for both my dogs if only I could keep my head about me. My heart was racing and I was jittery from all the caffeine and sugar and I was wondering if I'd made a good decision there but it was too late to do anything about it. I felt confident about my plan, watched the CH dogs for trouble spots and the only one I saw was something someone had pointed out during the walk-through so I'd planned for it. The only part I wasn't sure about was the last 2 obstacles, the dreaded dogwalk to jump at the end. I think our success rate on that particular challenge during a trial is something like 8% (NADAC loves that particular challenge for some reason and we've had plenty of practice blowing it). I think both dogs have only ever got it once.

Cody was up first and had a beautiful, smooth clean run. He got that contact at the end, just. I'll have to watch the video but I'm guessing it was super close. I hung way way back behind and told him 'ease up there buddy' which doesn't mean anything to him but I thought maybe some calm words would calm him down and for once he slowed & collected himself instead of launching from mid-plank.

Lola was up next and she popped out of the weaves poles (3rd obstacle). She was zooming through them no problem then about halfway through came to a stop and ran off the sniff at something. I finally had my head enough about me to remember that in USDAA you can have the dog re-enter the poles wherever they left so I called her to me, sent her back in and she continued on no problem. The rest of the run was beautiful and she hit all her contacts. She was plenty fast so even with the detour she was still well under time and got her Q just by the hair of her chinny chin chin.

The icing on the cake was that Cody won the Grand Prix so he's got a bye into the finals at Regionals. I'm excited about that. Lola ended up in 2nd place. We ended the trial with only 2 Q's but they were the ones that counted. Plus the last runs of the day finally felt connected and good.

I've got video and photos from our drive through Medicine Bow but those will have to wait for another post.

Pueblo Trial

I wish I would keep better notes during trials. Or at least notes period. By the end of the thing it's all a blur and I'm lucky if I can remember what we Q'ed in.

We've been having such a nice, unseasonably cool spring but of course as soon as it's an agility weekend the temps. climb freakishly high. Saturday was windy again, not as bad as the weekend before but it was hotter, into the 80's then 90's for Sunday. Poor dogs, they always seem to melt down during at least one standard run at this trial and true to form both of them did on Sunday. Both standard runs ended when they refused to lie down on the table, not even for a second or two so I could leave the ring with something to reward. They'd been doing so well with their tables up until last weekend. The heat and being outside makes such a difference. Cody had a nice standard run going on Saturday until the table, then got a refusal when he ran around it. I finally got him on and into a down, again fooling him into thinking I had treats then ran out of the ring to reward when he finally did it. Lola did manage a decent table on Saturday and picked up her very first masters standard Q. How we're going to get 4 more good tables with nothing else wrong is anyone's guess.

We managed to get a bunch of Q's we didn't need and none of the ones we did. Cody popped his weaves during Snooker so no Super Q for him. Lola did get a Snooker Q but already has her title. She was just got shut out of the Super Q's too and since I'd had the same plan for Cody he wouldn't have gotten it even if he'd done his weaves. Unfortunately the 7 was the weaves and there was no way I was going to ask him to do 4 sets of weaves in that heat on the very last run of the trial. I picked a fun flowing course and hoped for the best but it didn't pan out this time. Why are weaves so often the 7? We'll just have to hope for a better course next time, this one just wasn't strategic enough (only 3 reds).

Cody picked up 2 more gamblers legs that he doesn't need (both first places, go Cody man) and Lo who has only 1 got shut out. Both gambles were easy, the test was whether your dog could hit the A-frame contact at a distance. Lola missed both times plus she melted down so badly that she didn't even get enough opening points.

Cody again got a 5 fault Grand Prix Q and 4th place, Lola who still doesn't have her Q for Regionals got nothing. She was running nicely but had a refusal at the weaves due to a handling error on my part then missed her dogwalk down contact. After that I lost my concentration and I think we had an off course somewhere. She was running much better in general this weekend, heat aside, once I realized that I needed to keep moving and give her an excited 'let's go' every once in a while to keep her moving. We've been down this road before with me running her while not being able to move properly and it never goes well. At least she didn't get totally shut out this weekend, that standard run was really nice. She had a beautiful pairs run too, her partner went off course so no Q but so what, it felt good for her to have a nice run if only for half a course. I think once we get practicing and maybe some lessons with Joy things will be fine again.

Cody's dogwalks were terrible this weekend but I think he hit all his A-frames. Lola missed some dogwalks too, unusual for her I think. I think she got most of her A-frames except the ones in the gamble. I've got a month to sort out what to do about Cody and I've not got a plan. He's so old I don't want to do anything that requires a lot of reps. Maybe I'll sign up for one day of the ASCA trial since they allow training. Do the dogwalk over & over until he gets it right then run out of the ring to reward, that's all I can think of for now. Taking him out of the ring of a USDAA trial or otherwise marking it when he blows it is not an option with him.

My foot still hurts but I think I was moving better this weekend, at least by the end of the trial. The start of the trial is always worse for some reason. I don't have another trial for a month and I'm hoping by that time I'll be moving a bit better.

Stacy Peardot announced one of her rare workshops on Monday and I just happened to be checking the Colorado list at just the right time so I snagged a spot. It's just a half day masters handling workshop next month so hopefully that will be a nice tune-up before Regionals.

It was a fun trial despite the weather, a nice venue and well run. Was fun to meet fellow blogger 'Wishy' who had come up all the way from AZ for the trial. She gave me some good info. about Susan Garrett and I've decided to sign up for the dog training seminar as opposed to the agility handling. We'll see if I can pay attention for 2 whole days.

Now I get to spend the week playing catch up. Two weekends of no house or yard work, seriously, you don't even want to know what I found tonight but it involved bugs. Inside the house. There are some advantages to having a small house & yard though. I managed to mow the lawn and vacuum the house tonight in just under an hour or so. Let's hear it for compact living. Or maybe it's because my motto when it comes to cleaning is 'close enough'.

Does This Jump Make My Butt Look Big?

Two jumps into my first run after a 2 month layoff I managed to bring down a jump standard plus wing with my big ol’ butt. At least I think that’s what happened. Cody took the first 2 jumps and went sailing of into the hinterlands rather than doing the nice tight wrap I was hoping for. In an attempt to bring him back to my general location I crashed into the jump while running the opposite direction from which I was looking which I think was backwards. This is not recommended standard agility practice. I’m pretty sure none of the fancy new fangled handling systems have this move. The run didn’t get any better from there. I’m pretty sure that this time we did have every single possible mistake you can have, including a knocked bar. Cody was running around crazy again and there’s not much I can do about him when he gets in that state. The good news is that was our worst run of the trial.

Next run up was master gamblers where he ran very nicely in the opening, hitting all contacts and listening to me perfectly, then showed off his crazy mad distance skilz and pulled off the gamble. Good enough for a Q, 1st place and his master gamblers title. Only 3 dogs in all of Performance Q’ed and Cody had the most points of all, plus I had done the dogwalk 3 times because I had sort of forgotten my course so time wise we could have had even more points but somethin’ happened that got me off my course or maybe Cody decided he wanted another shot on the dogwalk ‘cause he’s like that sometimes. Then he got another Q in Grand Prix. 5 faults for running past the weaves, an ongoing problem. It was an easy weave entry too, I think it was a stress issue because he was headed right for the poles until I said ‘weave’ then he took off for the hinterlands again. Did the same thing at Nationals plus took an off course jump on the way back. We’ve been practicing weaves nearly every morning, all kinds of crazy entries, distance, what have you. Oh well, another Q but fourth place won’t earn us a bye to the finals at Regionals. Yeah, o.k., you can laugh but Lola won 2 a couple of years ago so you never know. Those were all my classes for Saturday and I was glad. My foot hurt after my very first run and by the time I got home I was very happy to be able to put my foot up with an icepack and down some Vitamin I. I had my bike with me which proved to be a huge help but still it was a bit much on my foot. Today it feels fine but that could be the Ibuprofin talking.

Sunday looked promising for a Super Q for Cody. The course was perfect for him, all jumps & tunnels plus they ran Perf. first so it was nice & cool. I wussed out and opted for two 7’s and a 6 instead of three 7’s since the former option was a much nicer flowing course. In the end my strategizing didn’t matter because Cody decided the 4 provided an even more flowing course to the closing (he was right) then he came out of the #2 tunnel too wide and took an off course jump. The Super Q's went to teams that went for all 7's so we would have been out of it anyway. I need to go for it on courses with only 3 reds and just jumps/tunnels.

He redeemed himself in standard though with an almost excellent run good enough for a Q by the skin of our teeth and 2nd place. He refused to lie down on the table at first and I knew it would be a problem because he came onto the table facing the crowd. I guessed it might freak him out and I’m supposing it did. I finally got him to lie down by putting my hand in my pocket and pretending he was going to get a treat. He eventually laid down but he’d wasted a ton of time. We made course time by less than a second. Didn’t feel like it should have been a Q but then there are all those that feel like Q’s that you don’t get so oh well, we’ll take it. Those standard Q’s are tough to come by.

He now needs 1 Standard Q, 2 Pairs Q’s and those 3 dang Super Q’s for his Perf. ADCH. Anybody know of a trial with triple Snooker?

Poor Lola was completely shut out this weekend and it was all my fault. I couldn’t seem to get in sync with her and mishandled all her runs. Most disappointing was Grand Prix since it was a fast fun course, perfect for Lola and I cued a turn too soon pulling her off a jump and sending her off course I think. I wish I could give her Cody’s Grand Prix Q because so far she doesn’t have one to qualify for Regionals. One more chance to qualify locally next weekend then maybe one more in June if we decide to go to Utah. It’s funny, in 2006 she had something like 5 Grand Prix Q’s and 2 were first places. She hasn’t had one since 2006 though. She was out with injuries and I’ve been out but still. I’m going to practice with her this week to try to get my handling down with her, nearly all the errors were handling problems. Our only non-handling problem was the table. She refused to lie down on the table at first on Sat., I finally got her down and she popped up after 3 seconds then refused to lay back down. I tried but she looked so stressed I thought it was unkind to keep trying so we went on. Then Sunday she refused to lie down at all. Again, she was facing the big crowd of people & dogs and she was so freaked out. I tried laying her down next to the table which she did no problem then got her on the table in hopes she’d lay down so I could take her out and reward her but no luck. Finally I pulled her from the ring. I’d wasted so much time working on the table I didn’t feel right continuing on with the course plus I didn’t want her to think she could refuse to down then I’d let her go on.

There were some interesting weather challenges on Saturday with cloudy cold weather (way too cold for lucky paw print socks) and high winds that went on all day. At one point we had a little hail storm. Then there was the very loud mariachi band that started up during the Grand Prix. I prefer the cool cloudy weather to hot weather and I bundled up well enough that I can’t say I was ever that cold, and I’m always cold but plenty of people were complaining. The wind didn’t bother me that much but I think it grated on many people’s (and dog's) nerves, esp. after many hours of it. I think my problems were due to being to out of practice but I suppose I can’t discount the conditions. The courses were really nice, fast & flowing with challenging bits thrown in then more running. They’re normally the sort of courses that are perfect for my dogs but since my running was iffy they were a bit more challenging for me. I think part of the reason I had such a hard time with Lola was that for all but one run she ran second of my 2 dogs so I was tired and my foot hurt by the time her turn came around. I couldn’t quite keep up and be where I wanted to be, very frustrating for me. I can’t wait until my foot is properly healed. Still, overall it was fun and way better than moping on the couch. And boy am I glad I didn't sign up for that DOCNA trial in 2 weeks, there's no way I could handle all the running those courses have.