Pepper's Conformation Qualities

Pepper, March 2013, 17 months old

At the recent Monroe trial I met up with some Papillon folks who show in Conformation.  Dawn graciously offered to assess Pepper's conformation qualities.  I trotted him back and forth, she watched with a professional eye, and made an informal assessment. 

I got home and stacked him, which he does beautifully from just the few weeks conformation training we had way back, then I took a bunch of photos.  He was so patient! This one is my favorites.  Here's what Dawn saw:

• A bit long in the body
• A bit tall at 11 3/8", though not a fault unless over 12"
• Ears set a bit low
• Nose a bit long
• Stop a bit shallow
• Great back leg placement, straight and strong
• Good front leg alignment, turned out just a bit
• Good bone structure
• Nice long legs, dainty yet strong
• Beautiful markings
• Nice coat and full ear feathers
• Correct weight for his size, 8#

Some judges are looking for the longer body and longer nose, Dawn said, and don't mind the higher height.  She says I could try to show him.  I doubt I will, but it's nice to know and I'll probably keep him intact awhile longer. 

He grows more and more handsome in my eyes as he gets older (now 17 months).  And what I like most, he is getting more hooked on me and more receptive to training.  With Maxie being my biggest heart throb for so long and so attuned to me, I am having to make a conscious effort to gush as much affection on Pepper as I have always done to Maxie.  It is making a difference, I think, in how Pepper interacts with me.
In case you're wondering, that's a frosted glass table he's standing on, with azeleas both over and under the table.  I thought that was kinda cool.  Here's a few more shots I like:

.

Upwards and onward!

Maxie's Bronze Titles

Maxie indulging Mommy in yet another photo session,
this one to commemorate his BRONZE AGILITY TITLES.

Q = Qualifying Score (no mistakes)
Bronze Title = 25 Q's in either Standard or Jumpers
QQ = two Q's in one day, both Standard and Jumpers courses
MACH (Master Agility CHampion) = 20 QQ's

Maxie's Bronze Lifetime Achievement AKC titles in Standard (MXB) and Jumpers (MJB) both came in this past week and are a very welcome acknowledgement along our way towards MACH.  Interestingly, he got his 25th Q in both Standard and Jumpers in New Iberia this past February 15 and 16, just one day apart. That tells me he is equally skilled in both venues.

These awards are so new to AKC, it never crossed my mind until the certificates came in to pick up ribbons for those titles. I won't be able to get them from the hosting club until next year's trial.  Lacking the rosettes, I decided to take a commemorative picture today, of him amongst our beautiful azeleas, and I couldn't resist sharing one or two of him with our other Paps as well.

Maxie and Pepper doing their "cross your paws" trick.

Maxie acquired his Master's titles (10 Q's) in both Standard and Jumpers almost 18 months ago (my, how time files) and we've been inching up the laddar towards MACH since then, with only 12 QQ's under our belt so far and a long ways to go to Championship.  I'm finding out, it can be long way from a Masters title (10 Q's), to MACH (20 QQ's).  He's had a reasonable 50% Q rate, but rarely 2 clean runs in one day, and doing only about 10 trials a year, it could take a good while longer.

I have reason to hope we can quicken the pace now, as his NQ's (non-qualifying scores) are almost always due to one single fault per run.   I see no scientific or psychological reason why there should be one fault every 19 or 20 obstacles?  In fact, it's absurd for Maxie and me not to Q almost every time!  Yes, yes, that's right, we shall simply quit making errors!!

Master Bronze (25 Q's) in either Standard or Jumpers is, of course, more achievable than MACH.  For slower dogs like Lucky Lucy, who rarely Q's in the fast paced Jumpers courses due to exceeding course time, Bronze and Silver Standard titles may be the only advanced titles she ever earns.  For her to MACH could take years (unless I can speed her up).  So I must say that even though they don't carry the same prestige as MACH, I appreciate the interim Bronze titles.  They give teams some acknowledgement for their hard work, and goals to strive for that can keep us reaching for the gold ring.



L to R:  Willow, Maxie, Pepper
Willow wants no part of those crossed paws.

Upwards and onward,

Cataract Surgery - Part 3

It's been almost a year since my Cataract Surgery on my left eye (March 15, 2012), and the botched job is finally getting so much worse I need to do something.  Studying my videos from the recent Monroe trial, I was horrified to see my handling getting worse.  I know it's because my depth perception is off, as though I'm blathering drunk or seriously hung over all the time.  I have a hard time distinguishing obstacle distances and all the horizontal bars blend together.  I can't rely on vision to judge the distances.  Sometimes the jumps are farther away than they seem, sometimes closer.  I run in halting fashion like I'm confused, surprised, nearly lost.  No wonder my dogs are slowing down despite them becoming better agility dogs.

Worse handling has resolved me to at last do something about my eyesight.  I haven't wanted to think about it, much less deal with it.  But now I see I must.  I can't go thru life seeing things in a blur, not taking stairs unless I have a rail to hold onto, much less run my dogs with confidence.

Taking action on this fills me with fear.  I have no confidence in doctors.  They deal with your most vital parts, but don't know you from Adam.  They make their money and toss you out to fend for yourself.  The highly respected specialist who did my cataract surgery made me feel like a slab of cow meat.  A few months after the surgery I attempted to write a followup post, but I couldn't finish it.  I've finally posted it today, unedited, unpolished, a stream of conscious rambling account of my surgery and aftermath, entitled Cataract Surgery - Part 2.  The upshot of which is . . . . when I told that doctor something wasn't right, his reaction was "I've done over 30,000 of these operations and I've done my job right.  The tests show you have 20/20 vision in that eye.  I don't know what else you expect me to do." 

I don't either.  But you're the specialist.  Do something.  Show interest in my case.  Find out why my left eye is still swollen, it feels like a pin pricking the inside corner when I look left, like a blast of cold air hitting the surface when I look right, and my eye cries all the time. Plus, I'm still looking through a fog, and little brown squigglies float through the eye. My new eye sees things one size, the old eye sees them smaller. Very disorienting. I can't go back to that same pompous jackass, but I can't go on like this.  So now I have to figure out my next move.  What will it be?  Guess I'll confer with a few different specialists and see what they suggest.  I'll keep you posted.

Upwards and onward!

Blog Event #6 - "Internationalization"

Agility bloggers are submitting their opinions on March 6th about the "internationalization" of dog agility, all articles linked to here, which means the effect of the European influence on our sport.  Clearly agility is taught and practiced differently in different countries.

NOTE:  I originally put comments in this post more suited to an upcoming Blog Event about improving our sport, so I removed them and will repost later.  My apologies for being too broad on the subject of Internationalization, which apparently refers only to handling and course design . . . . . not anomalies in classes, jump height, judging, trial situations and growing the sport.

That apology said, I'll reveal that competing on the international or even the national plane is not my game -- yet.   But challenging and improving myself as much as possible and exploring the limits of what dogs and handlers can do, is my game.  So I'm interested.  I have no way to compare systems except to listen to the voices of others thru articles, blogs and podcasts, and watch videos of the FCI worlds and other YouTube videos.

My observations are thus:

The Internet:  With the advent of the internet, (YouTube, Facebook, search engines, key words, cloud storage, free blog space and podcasts where individuals can share what they know for free, and without the necessity for "position" or "credentials"), and with a universal language most people can speak (lets thank the English for something) the world is opening up to allow humans to display their inately generous spirit.  We all want to share what we know, and learn what others know.  We are no longer trapped by our locale.  We are less provincial.  Education has exploded as we watch a wider world explore and interpret their experiences. It's a Yahoo time to be alive, and this flows into our sport!  Let's keep it Yahoo.

Things I've learned recently:

Running Contacts are elegant, beautiful, and efficient.  Watching dogs creep down the boards or stick the bottom of the A-frame and Dog Walk, or worse, back up and stretch a back leg backwards to touch the board, looks stupid.  So I've quit training 2O2O, though I still don't know how to train Running Contacts.  I'm looking for an online teacher because nobody locally teaches it yet, and I hope Running Contacts becoming the standard way we train those obstacles.  Whoever came up with it, it's a great advance.

The Moves: All the various crosses, (front, rear, blind, blended, reverse flow, ketchker, etc.) and the other moves (reverse flow pivot, backy uppy, etc) are very cool, fun to practice, important to know. Bring them on. Add new ones. Just don't include them in the novice level courses. And don't forget the newbies.  One of the problems I've seen with "experts" is they get bored with teaching the simpler moves and rules.

Distance Handling vs. Close Handling - Europeans seem to favor close handling and fast running, whereas in the US we have been in love with distance handling.  I have spent hours teaching my dogs to "go out" so as not to be chided for "babysitting" my dogs.  I love DH because as an older, less atheletic person I need my dogs to work away. And it's thrilling to watch when done correctly, especially by handlers with infirmities who can't move well.   I love to review a course map and draw a line of what I call the "handler's corridor", the minimum space a handler might traverse to efficiently direct his dog over all the obstacles.  But DH can also be an excuse not to learn to move your carcass! I love that we are beginning to realize we need to train handlers to move and developing exercise strategies for our human atheletes!  It's not just about the dogs' agility and atheleticism.  It's awe inspiring to see young people getting into the sport who can run fast.

Commentators:  For our sport to grow, we will need commentators building interest and educating viewers like every football game has.   I believe the challenges introduced by European-style courses and handling maneuvers builds far more excitement into the sport for spectators.  They are far more amazing to watch.

Well, now I'm going to hang back and listen to what everyone else has to say.  I expect to have my eyes opened wide.

Upwards and onward!

Monroe Agility Trial March 1, 2, 3 2013

Maxie: 4 runs 3 Q's 1 QQ, 3 2nd places, 30 MACH points, 4 videos
Lucky Lucy: 4 runs, 2 Q's, 2 3rd places, 6 MACH points, 4 videos

Left BR Thursday at 1:30 planning to arrive West Monroe before dark.  Oops, before I got on I-10 I noticed my gas peddle was flopping around.  I whipped into Firestone, they did a “curb side” check and sure enough, the pin holding the pedal onto the shaft had broken.  They rigged up a nut and bolt to get me going.  That put me 1/2 hour later on the road.  Didn’t bother me.  Uneventful trip, beautiful drive, little traffic.



RV park at the IKE Convention Center.  I'm on the left.

First time RV’ing at the IKE Center, a vast asphalt parking lot with no shade, no beauty, little grass to potty the dogs, and a 4 minute hike to the arena from my spot up close to the back.  Arrived, picked a spot way back by the grassy area, backed in, leveled the RV, then discovered the electric was 50V, which I didn’t have an adapter for.  S#%T!  By the time I went looking for a 30V it was pitch dark and no night lighting whatsoever.  Running around with my flash light, I found most of the boxes were locked down.  I finally found a 30V connection open close to the arena, then leveled the RV in the dark in 35 degree weather.  So much for picking my favorite spot!  And with all my strength I could not open the water valve, so I did without city water all weekend. Somehow, none of that stressed me out either.
 

Only 2 channels came in on my dinky little AIR antennae, but I got to watch Jay Leno for a change.  He’s gotten funnier over the years.  I opened up my couch and used it as a bed for the first time.  It’s so comfortable, I fell asleep watching TV and woke up there in the morning!  But I noticed the RV walls got cold. Heater worked great after I directed all the vents towards the center of the rooms – they were all facing the floor.  Heater ran almost continuously with temps ranging from 28-55 all weekend (4 days), and used up about 3/4 of my LP tank.   Also learned I don’t need to bother with connecting up the water line.  1/2 tank is plenty for all my flushing needs, and I bring 4 gallons of drinking water for coffee, cooking and dogs.

Our crate space -- daytime home for 3 days.

It was too cold to set up my outdoor yard, and since the arena was far away I set up my crate space indoors. It’s easy as pie to set up if all you do is drive up, level up and plug in. Yahoo!  (But first, be sure you can plug in.)

Now, on to the trial: I only got in for Friday and Sunday, so Saturday I just hung out and tinkered. Dogs ran tall to small all weekend, making Lucky the 6th dog on the line in each class, and Maxie was second to last! Only one ring, which went smoothly and Tanya Lee, Trial Sec, says it goes just as fast as with 2 rings if the judges nest the courses properly.

GOALS SET/GOALS MET:
Maxie:  1 QQ, at least 20 MACH points, and running weaves/got my QQ plus another Q and 30 MACH points, but no running weaves which helped cause his 4th clean run to be 3 seconds over time.
Lucky Lucy:  1 jumpers Q, 1 standard Q, at least 5 MACH points, and running weaves/got both Q's and 6 MACH points, but no running weaves.
Pepper:  better leash behavior, off leash sit/stays in arena at practice bar, attentiveness to me, ease with other people and trial environment/got all except better leash behavior.

Theresa and Breeze, a tiny sheltie

FRIDAY:  Maxie QQ’d with 2 2nd places, placing that high only because Breeze, who usually beats Maxie by 10 seconds or so and working on his 4th MACH, got pulled.  The little 8” sheltie took off from the start line walking– by the 3rd obstacle Theresa picked him up and pulled him out for the weekend – they’re supposed to compete in Nationals in 2 weeks.  She reported he had given a yelp at the practice jump just before his turn.  Musta pulled something. How heartbreaking is that?  Lucky Q’d in Standard by 5 seconds despite walking her weaves, but scratched in Jumpers by walking her weaves plus a refusal in a threadle and taking the table twice. Someone just had to comment that she doesn’t have a good “work ethic”.  I guess that means she lacks drive?  Another chimed in saying I’ve slowed both Lucky and Maxie down by demanding perfection, over-practicing, and not making it fun.  That’s all such bulls#%t, I hardly practice and don't demand perfection, but I wish they’d apply their “make it fun” standards to encouraging me.  I’m going to follow Joe’s advice (who had overheard their comments) –  “Don’t listen to anybody.”

Found out that some clubs comp the runs of their Trial Secretary, Chief Course Builder and Gate Steward, confirming what a few of us have been thinking/talking about recently -- It’s too darn much work to expect key positions of a trial to be filled by volunteers for free, especially when trials are netting thousands of dollars.  We are outgrowing our "hobby" status.  AKC trials have CUSTOMERS who expect competent SERVICE for the thousands of dollars they spend each year.

Tanya Lee studies her club's new tire.

Saw a breakaway tire for the first time, and several of us studied how it worked, with electromagnets holding the bottom sections together. The tire did break apart for several dogs, but Judge Mary Mullens didn't fault that because nobody was sure how to set the tension.  It's clear, several dogs do nick the tire.

Here's a video that explains AKC's new requirement and shows how the breakaway tire works.

Here’s a link to a collection of YouTube videos showing Scary Tyre Accidents, which I’m sure contributed to AKC’s new rule.

Mary Mullens was the most pleasant judge I've encountered so far. She was gracious, supportive, clear, concise, kept things running smoothly, her courses flowed, she nested the courses well.

Dawn in pink with her new pap puppy, Theresa in green
with her new pap, me in red with Maxie & Pepper.

SATURDAY:
Didn’t make it off the waiting list to run Maxie and Lucky, so Saturday was Pepper’s day.  We hung out all over the place. I had several people hold him while I walked away. We stayed in the bleachers awhile, ringside awhile, alone in the crate awhile, did some heel work, and I worked him off leash in the warm up area.  He sniffed a lot but didn't run away. For those who don't know, this is called "proofing the dog", i.e., desensitizing them to the trial environment long before they ever compete.  It's very important because arenas are very noisy, busy and stressful.   Talked with 2 new papillon owners and we had a little party. Theresa helped me measure him and he's definitely going to jump 12" with his 11 3/8" height.  Sorry, boy, you're going to have to run with much larger, faster dogs.  I hope I can learn to keep up with you.

SUNDAY:  Maxie had 2 clean runs and I really thought he had QQ'd a second time with a 1st place as no other dogs in his class qualified.  Much to my dismay, when the results of the last run were posted, he was 3 seconds over course time.  A first for him. In fact, his YPS all weekend were down, in the 2.8 - 3.2 range whereas he's usually in the 3.25 - 3.8 range.  He seemed to run with nose to the ground a lot, and he never once ran his weaves.  This despite running weaves every day at home for the last week and him begging for more turns.  He sits at the end of the weaves or on the see-saw and refuses to budge.   I literally have to fetch him out of the yard to end his turn. Lucky's Q in Jumpers was icing on the day, with her fastest run time all weekend at 3.68 YPS.

RAFFLE:  Great raffle karma this weekend.
 

Bought my usual $10 worth, got 15 tickets, and put 5 into each of 3 choices.  I knew I'd win the Addidas baseball shoes because mine were the only tickets in the bag.  I tried them on, they fit perfect, and I have been wanting cleats for training in wet grass or muddy conditions, and the leather cover over the tied shoe laces means they can't come undone while I'm running around.  Worth between $30-$60.

My other two choices had lots of other bidders, so I didn't expect to win.  I was surprised, then, to win a WOOF Leash Rack and assorted dog toys in a plastic sterlite tub.  The rack and tub will go in the RV. We chew through toys quickly so those are always welcome.

And while I didn't win the little plush dog bed, I did congratulate the lady who won it and to my amazement she said she didn't want the bed, just the stuff in it.  I offered her $5 for it and she agreed!  Said it paid for her raffle tickets! Willow is sure I brought this incredible bed home just for her, but they all take turns nestling in. It is very very plush and very very soft, unlike the other cotton, terry cloth or velveteen lined beds around my house. Can they really feel the difference?  The bed seems always occupied, even by Lucky who barely fits.  Except for FoohFooh the dingo, who doesn't go for such froo froo.  In 12 years I don't think I've ever seen him go in a dog bed!  He prefers the hard floor.

L to R:  Willow, Pepper, Maxie, Lucky Lucy

And as I write my last paragraph, I look over and see this vision of adorableness -- Pepper and Maxie curled up together.  Whipped my iPhone out and snapped another pic to show you.  Couldn't resist. It reminds me what the lady said who gave me the bed:  "It wouldn't suit my dog" (a mid size dog but not sure what kind), "but is perfect for your Papillons."  She was right! Before this, I would never have gone out and purchased a plush bed or blanket for my Paps, but by gum, they really can tell the difference and prefer plush to plain!!!

 

Another bonus: While packing up to leave the arena, I sought out the manager, told him about the dark parking lot on Thursday night, the locked electric boxes and no water, and he refunded me Thursday night's reservation fee -- $20. More details on IKE’s RV accommodations available on my Trial Site Summaries page.  Got home about 8 p.m. and John had dinner cooking for me -- spaghetti and meat sauce, french bread and a big green salad.  Plus he helped me potty and feed the dogs, and unload the RV.  I was quite tired by then, and really appreciated the warm welcome home!

 

Monday morning I noticed the azeleas had popped open all down my driveway. Picked some for my window sill and used them for Maxie's QQ photo. He didn't much like posing amidst those flowers. Lucky would barely pose. I never could get her ears up and she kept looking at me with those huge brown eyes one is always in danger of falling into, as if to say "how much longer must I endure this torture".

Still have my videos to watch and study, so the trial isn't over yet for me.  I look forward to that, but tomorrow is another Agility Bloggers Event so I have to concentrate on that right now.  I also need to catch up on the 2 courses I'm auditing from the Daisy Peel Online Classroom. Not to mention the rest of my life, which is in a state of complete neglect because it is nowhere near as much fun!

Upwards and onward!

 

Eating Out at Chili's

I took my dog sitters out to dinner a few nights back, using the two $25 Chili's gift cards I won at the New Iberia trial last weekend. My guests included John, Audrey, Laura and her 10 year old daughter, Portia.  We decided to take advantage of the "2 entrees and an appetizer for $20" plan, plus an order of chicken fingers for Portia.  I kinda thought $50 would cover that, but by the time we added drinks, tax and tip, the bill was $70!

$70?????????  I was livid by the time I got home.  How can people spend so much money on restaurant food?  Burn thru $70 in 1.5 hours.  Of course my people are worth that and more, and I had gift coupons, but I got to thinking what else one could buy for $70 that would last a lot longer -- like a new pair of Gortex tennies, 6 weeks of agility lessons for my dogs, a half tank of gas in my RV, enough groceries to feed me and John for a week.  But there it was, a Thursday, and Chili's was jam packed, with a full waiting room and quite a few families with children.  How especially do young families afford to spend so much money eating out?  Me, I prefer home cooking and a big fat savings account.

And I was disappointed in the food.  They no longer bring chips and salsa to the table. Portions were small. Broccoli was frozen. Chicken fingers had a weird batter and the corn on the cob was mushy.  My mango/tilapia had one cube of mango on a thin filet about the size of a coaster.  John's chicken fajita meat looked boiled, not grilled and his bell peppers were overcooked.  Audrey's salad had no green leaves.  It was all iceberg lettuce.  The service was mediocre.  We had to go looking for the waiter several times.



L to R:  Lucky Lucy as a puppy, Maxie,
Pepper propped up over Maxie's back (he does that),
Willow with her "pom pom" tail.

The best thing that came out of the event is that Portia brought her crayons and entertained herself by drawing a composite picture of my dogs, cut it out and presented it to me.  I intended to make a refrigerator magnet, but my laminating machine ate it and I've just spent an hour disassembling the machine and prying the plastic off the roller then trying to iron it back flat.  Here's a photo of the crumpled up piece.  Sorry, Portia but it's still the first time anybody drew my dogs, is mighty cute and I'm keeping it.

Upwards and onward!

My Valentines Week Celebration

L to R:  John, FoohFooh, Maxie, Pepper, Willow, Lucky Lucy
with a dozen long stem roses, cards, tea and cake.

I have 6 valentines, and we all mostly spend each evening together in our cozy LR watching our favorite TV shows.  Getting all 6 of them to face the camera at the same time, with Red Velvet cake behind them, was quite a feat, and the pose only lasted for one nano-second. I can't believe I got all eyes on me.

This Valentines Day Maxie, Pepper, Lucky and I were at a trial in New Iberia, so we didn't celebrate until I returned.  John brought home a dozen red roses Monday night, I got out the Old Country Roses English tea set we reserve for very special occasions, and we exchanged mushy cards over some red velvet cake and Tiesta Fireberry Tea which a friend had given us for Christmas.  Each dog got a bite of cake, of course.  Fittingly, we watched the latest episode of Downton Abbey, a series we've followed for quite some time now, and sipped our tea with Maggie Smith playing the part of the ancient English dowager, always full of opinions and snippy comments delivered over her teacup.  We love her.

Now, each evening for the next week, I'll brew tea of various kinds that various people have given us and we'll sip that and dip cookies of various sorts each evening rather than sitting down with a big mug of coffee.  We keep the Valentine's celebration going for a whole week, and experience some different tastes as well as sampling the diverse Christmas cookies people brought our way in December.  I don't even take my Christmas decorations down until after Valentine's Week because it doesn't seem over until we've properly explored our Christmas goodies.  We prolong Christmas as long as possible.

A word about Long Stem Roses:  They are expensive, but even so they don't come scented any more, unless you pay a lot extra.  I frown on such added expense (told John I'd rather spend it on a new iPad so I can take and study my agility videos on the spot), but I do miss the delightful smell of roses.  No matter, I devised a solution.  Years ago I bought a bottle of "Tea Rose Eau De Toilette Spray" from Marshalls, for about $13.  After arranging my roses and ferns in a vase, I spritz one or two squirts on the leaves (not the roses themselves), and my roses smell fantastic for a week.  Cost:  about 5 cents.  I also have some silk roses at the end of my hall, and if I'm having a party I'll spritz those.  They make the hall smell wonderful.

 

A word about Old Country Rose:  I've had my tea set for over 25 years.  It is full of wonderful memories.  When momma brings the tea pot out, you know it's a special occasion. If my teapot broke for any reason, I'd have to go out and buy another one immediately no matter the cost.  I don't think I could bear to be without my ceremonial tea set.  I have 6 tea cups and saucers, 6 6" pie plates, 2 11" dinner plates & 2 8" plates I use as trays, a sugar and creamer, and the tea pot.  I don't need any of the other pieces, as it's not for serving dinner, just for having tea.  Between times, it lives in a glass case in my living room, and there's not a single chip on it yet!

So, Happy Valentine's Day to all!  May you feel loved, and may your heart be filled with love for your partner, your kids, your family & friends, your pets, your car, your house, your hobbies, your garden, your dishes, pots, pans, meds, toiletries, rugs, TV, and most of all, yourself.

Upwards and onward!

New Iberia Agility Trial

Maxie: 6 runs, 4 Q’s, 1 QQ, 2 2nd place, 2 3rd place, 49 MACH points, MXB and MAB TITLES, 6 videos
Lucky Lucy: 6 runs, 3 Q’s, 1 QQ, 5 MACH points, 6 videos



Our setup, right at the entrance. 
Each support beam has a 30 amp hookup and water.
Unfortunately,
the asphalt parking lot was studded with limestone rocks,
which is going to hurt us later.

It's Valentine's Day weekend and I'm off to a trial, leaving my sweetheart at home. We agreed to postpone our celebration til Monday night. After a 1.5 hour drive, and another 1.5 hours to set up the RV including my fenced yard, I was completely settled in 3 hours.

The Sugarena has electric and water hookups on every metal beam front and rear of the arena.  I was one of the first to arrive at 4 p.m. Thursday so I got my pick of spots right at the entrance, not far from the rings. No need to set up a crate space, which saved me lots of effort, and the dogs were warm and comfy between runs.  Sweet!  These hookups are new. The weather was cool, crisp, and dry.    Furthermore, most other RV'ers parked in the back or way to the side, so I had the whole front to myself.  The dogs seemed calm and happy.

I got several compliments on my fenced yard, and discovered that by bungying my 2 little wooden tables to the outer corners, was able to increase it's stability when Lucky lunges against it.  So much so, I didn't mind leaving them alone outdoors for short periods. It's always been bungied to the awning uprights and the 2' x 4' table, plus the white strips on top keep it mostly stable, but it needed more.

Temps in the low 40’s with wind early mornings and evenings, in the 60’s during the day. So glad to have my Trapper’s Hat! Still need to work on looser layered clothing that doesn’t make me feel stuffed in a sausage skin. Also need warmer, looser lounging clothes for evenings when taking the dogs out. I had to stay dressed in my day clothes for enough warmth.

Dogs ran small to tall all weekend, and Maxie was the 1st 8” dog on the line all 3 days, Lucky the 2nd 24" dog.

Friday, Feb 15, - Trial started at noon so I stayed up til almost midnight Thursday night, and slept in til the dogs woke me up for breakfast at 8. I'm on vacation!  Maxie's first run wasn't until 2 p.m. He Q’d in Jumpers with a 2nd place win and pretty fast times.  NQ'd in Standard by entering the weaves on the wrong side. Otherwise a nice run.  Lucky miraculously Q’d in Jumpers -- with 2 seconds to spare, then scratched in Standard with several WC's and R's, like she didn't want to be in the ring.  Curious.  I earned 1 raffle ticket for gate keeping T2B, and won a $25 gift card to Chilis’.

Maxie with his placement ribbons, and a
purple ribbon from Mommy for his 11th QQ.

Saturday, Feb 16 -  Up at 6 a.m. Maxie on the line at 8 a.m.  Maxie QQ’d, with a 2nd and 3rd place win.  Darnit, the hosting club offered no purple QQ ribbons!  Lucky scratched both runs, one with so many errors I removed her from the ring. She was totally distracted. I had noticed her licking her right front paw incessantly Friday night and all thru Saturday, leaving wet pools of slobber on the couch and bed.  When we did our traditional hand shake and she gave a cry, I felt sure a lodged stone or bruized paw accounted for her dismal performance Friday afternoon and Saturday.   She would not let me examine it, but by Sunday she wasn't licking it any more, which is maybe why her performance improved significantly with a QQ.

Lucky Lucy's 3 Q's and a purple scarf from
Mommy for her 3rd QQ.

Sunday, Feb 17 – Up at 6 a.m. Maxie on the line at 8 a.m. Q’d in XJ with a 2nd place.  Lucky, to my absolute amazement, QQ’d!  She barely made course time both times, one with only 2 one hundredths of a second to spare, but walked/ran clean and made it. I earned1 raffle ticket on Saturday for gate keeping but too late for the raffle.  They gave it to me for the Sunday raffle plus another, and I won another $25 gift card to Chilis’.  I'll use these cards to take my husband and our dog sitters out to dinner.

Composite videos, with commentary, will be posted when I get enough time.

GOALS SET/GOALS MET:

• a QQ for Maxie and 35 MACH points, which earns him both bronze titles: MAB, MJB.  All that and more accomplished - 4 Q's, 4 placements, 1 QQ, 49 MACH points.
• a Jumpers Q for Lucky.  We did a QQ, and 2 Jumpers Q's, which was beyond what I expected.
• get all my videos taken without stress.  That happened thanks largely to Karen Des Roches and others who stepped up and offered to help willingly.
• Get Pepper used to the trialing environment.  He seemed OK with the noise, let several people hold him, sat in the bleachers a long time, and pranced about like the wild man he is.  He doesn't mind the noisy, bouncy motor home, a great relief as he used to throw up in the car as a young puppy.
• Relax and have fun.  Yes, one of my best trials ever in that regard.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Rhonda Crane was a very pleasant judge.  Her courses were "melodic".  They flowed beautifully and while challenging, were not tortuous. She nested her Open and Novice courses so they could be built with just a few changes from the Excellent setup, making the course builders' jobs much easier.
2. I'm always trepidatious about those limestone parking lots.  How can the dogs not get bruised paws? I must try to avoid them whenever possible.
3. I came home with the outside of my shins aching something terrible.  Someone speculated it's because the hard packed dirt had no "give", like running on concrete.  Do I need to train for that?
4. Gift Cards: I really like the way this club gave out a raffle ticket for each class worked, with a drawing near the end of each day.  (Plus, they also gave out a $5 lunch ticket to spend at Concessions.) They had a range of gift cards from Starbucks $25, Burger King $10, Subway $15, Chili's $25, plus an assortment of agility books and T-shirts.  At other trials I've also seen gift cards offered instead of raffle items, where you purchase tickets for $1, or 6 tickets for $5, or 15 tickets for $10, etc., with cards for Home Depot, Pet Smart, and others included. Much easier for the hosting club to pull cards together (and possibly members would donate cards) in lieu of the extreme hassle of hauling and assembling hundreds of raffle items.
5. Maxie would easily have 20 QQ's by now if it weren't for his hesitation in those darn weaves!  Lucky would make course time way more often.  I've begun to suspect it's the white metal spacer bar that throws them off at trials.  We don't have those at home.  I'm going to paint my spacers white and see if that helps.
6. Most interesting maneuver I learned was in MS on Sunday, second to last obstacle was a 20' tunnel going under the dog walk and pointing straight to the exit.  Very few handlers reached the end of the tunnel before their dogs did, resulting in D veering left to find H (like Maxie did), and taking a WC at worst.  Only way to do this well was to cross before the tunnel and run like hell, which few did.  I noticed it from the stands, and corrected my own performance by the time Lucky ran and she Q'd by 2/100th of a second. A bobble there would have killed her Q. I analyzed video snippets of several people doing this below.

LESSONS LEARNED:

• The road to Lafayette is bumpy as hell in Lafayette and I-10 out of Lafayette towards BR.  They need to fix that road. Good thing I had my cabinets bungied shut because 2 of them popped open slightly and scared Lucky so badly she raced up and jumped over my gate to hide under my drivers seat, with her butt almost touching my gas peddle and I could not budge her, and me on the Atchafalya bridge.  I managed to pull off at the Atchafalya Welcome Center a few miles up the road and calm her down, then chained her up so she couldn't reach me, but that could have been a disaster.
• Label everything.  I left my new Trappers Hat and gloves on the workers table.  By the time I remembered, the crew had packed up and left.  I hadn't labeled them but I emailed the trial sec and she has them.  She'll bring them to me in Monroe.  If I'd have labeled them, someone would have found me and delivered them.
• I'm comfortable as Gate Keeper, but on Saturday I was handed the gate list and envelope of scribe sheets for a large T2B class.  I taped up the list and people began checking in, but when the scribe was nowhere in sight and only 5 minutes to go, I began to sort the the big stack of sheets according to the list as best I could (never done it before).  Many people hadn't checked in.  Those marked ABS I pulled those sheets.  Oops, I was just supposed to mark them ABS and leave in correct order.  Those Moved I moved into the new order.  The unchecked people I left in order and waited to see if they showed up.  If they didn't by their turn I  ran over to the scribe telling her to mark them ABS.  It was controlled chaos.  Next day I was visited by the Trial Sec, who very nicely thanked me for a good job but in future please do it differently . . . . . . . Yes Ma'am!
• Next day I asked the Gate Keeper to move Lucky from 2nd to last (about 5 dogs down) on the 24" running order so I could film a friend running late in the 20" jump height. The gate keeper happened to be a judge, and OMG, how she fussed me for that! "Oh No, you don't get to move because you want to film somebody. You have to have a real excuse, like a conflict getting your 1st dog put away and your 2nd dog on the line on time. If you miss your run in the correct order, you will just miss your turn."  Again, Yes Ma'am!  But then, I'm glad she wasn't gate keeper on Saturday when I didn't get Lucky to the gate on time and the friendly Gate Keeper just moved her to the bottom, as I've done for numerous people in the past. Didn't know that was a wrong thing, especially in a friendly game.  I've seen people move themselves to the bottom and never give a reason why.

So I continue to ask, how hard would it be to teach a little class or write an instruction sheet on how to change your place on the list?  How to put scribe sheets in order??????  Gate keep??????  Time??????   Scribe??????  I hear over and over people say they'll "do anything but scribe", including this weekend.  Getting it wrong affects a team's score, so it's serious stuff.  Learning to watch the judge instead of the dog is hard for some, and scribing what the judge signals instead of what you think you saw is another level of difficulty.  Marking the wrong sheet with faults and time would be a sin.  I propose at the very least providing a laminated chart on every scribe table showing the judge's hand signals. Who knows those starting out?  AKC provides such a chart, shown here, and linked to here. I'm going to print up and laminate a few for our club, plus give them out to Gate Stewards at every trial I go to from now on!  Enough of this nonsense of not systematically training people, then fussing over not having enough volunteers and/or fussing them for getting it wrong.

 

Despite all this complaining, the Acadiana Kennel Club did an outstanding job rounding up volunteers.  I know it was a tough haul for them, but they enlisted some outstanding helpers from other clubs.  If not yet, I hope future Trial Secretaries, Chief Course Builders and Gate Stewards get comped for their trial entry fees or other financial compensation.  They work very very hard all weekend on top of trying to run their dogs.

Next trial in 2 weeks, in Monroe, LA. I look forward to another cool weather trial.

Upwards and onward!

Dog Club Newsletters

Several months back our club's newsletter editor quit.  There being no other volunteers, I took on the job. Temporarily at first, but here I am still doing it.   It's not much different than writing this blog, which I enjoy and I had made contributions to the newsletter already.  I don't mind it.   Since then, I have tried to get other members to contribute write-ups and photos on club news but found that is close akin to dentistry, prying and pulling things out of people.  Club members don't seem to want to report on their activities, brag on their achievements, share in building our club's history.  I think sharing what we go through is helpful to all.  But it seems I'm alone in that sentiment.

Despite all this, I proceed forward.  I feel confident.  This issue I ran into a new problem.  The club's biggest news is about our two big publicity events of the year, and since I'm the Publicity Chair and ran both events, I'm basically reporting on myself. That feels weird. I run the risk someone will say I'm patting myself on the back.  Well, I am.  But I interview myself and compliment my efforts the same as I would if someone else had done the job.  That's the only way I know to cover the events.

I often wear multiple hats.  It reminds me how in college I sometimes used to play all 4 hands at bridge, and actually bid and played each hand as if I didn't know what was in the other hands.  It's compartmentalized thinking, a peculiar mind set that I'm oddly good at, and this feels much like that.

Our club does good stuff and I'm proud of everyone who works so hard to make it happen.  Want to see the newsletter?  Here it is.  Long Sit, February 2013 - Community Involvement.

Upwards and onward!

RV Improvements - Geico Insurance Comes Through

Several weeks ago I turned my RV into an older neighborhood here in town to make a simple U-turn.  Big mistake.  An old oak tree reaching out over the road scraped my roof up pretty bad.  I didn't notice much of a scrape or think much of it until weeks later when it rained for 10 days and my master bed got soaked (down to the waterproof mattress cover, that is).  I dried my bedding and took it to a trial that weekend, then brought the RV to the shop where it's been for the last 3 weeks.  Picked it up a few days back.

Much to my amazement, Geico insurance covered a whole new roof to the tune of $6,000.  All I had to pay was my $500 deductible, and I didn't even pay that.  Sweet.

While they were at taking off the old A/C and skylights to install the new roof, I had those replaced with a larger (15,000 BTU) A/C and thermostatically controlled overhead vents.  Of course I had to buy those, but the labor to remove the old and install the new items was included in the insurance.  And when the old roof was stripped off the workmen noticed some rotten wood near the front, which I paid to have replaced while it was exposed.  It ended up being a much bigger job but the cost was far, far less than if I hadn't incurred damage from that oak branch.

While it was in the shop, I had the 22' electric cord replaced with a 35' cord, had them replace all the plastic seals around the cargo bins (the old plastic was brittle and falling apart), seal the windows, fix the generator (the air filter was filthy and the carborator needed a good cleaning but the Onan unit, they said, is still strong and one of the best on the market), and repair the drain pipe in the fridge.  So now everything is supposedly ship-shape.

John picked up the tab for our part of the repairs as my Christmas present, and ended up spending only half what he thought it would cost when he was planning to pay only for a new roof.  Now that is a very, very, very sweet deal.  I was doubly gifted!  And so was he.

One thing I can say about motor homes, from past and present experience, is DON'T GET ONE unless you have considerable savings set aside for repairs.  And realize they aren't designed to save you money over hotel costs.  Their attractiveness is simply in comfort and convenience, and staying in places where you could not stay otherwise.  You pull into a rest area or commercial parking lot and fix a sandwich or take a nap or pottie break any time you want.  You don't have to bother checking in or out, or unloading your stuff into a hotel room then packing the car up again the next day.  You don't have to drive 5-10 miles to and from hotels at trials. You sleep in your own linens, sit on your own pottie, and eat inexpensive meals from your own fridge.  For a home body like me, and with dogs along that few hotels will accept, that's an enormous convenience.  Plus, the RV community that shows up at trial after trial, becomes a sort of RV family that shares communal meals and helps you out when you run into a problem.  That's a real plus for me.  I like my time alone doing my own things, but I don't like being stranded.

So now I'm packing up the unit, ready to head out this weekend for New Iberia, then two weeks later to Monroe for more trialing.

Upwards and onward!