Experiences of a late-comer to the agility competition scene -- our training, trials, life-style changes/challenges, RV adventures, and observations on the sport, the people, and dogs involved in it. Begun July 17, 2010.
I celebrated my birthday yesterday doing exactly what I wanted . . . attending a weekend long agility seminar hosted by our local dog club. Georgie Myers was our seminar organizer and did a fabulous job, and Tanya Lee from Shreveport was our instructor. They posed with me briefly for this photo, but it was a hard one to get because Tanya is so bubbling over with enthusiasm to share information that it's almost impossible to find a momentary pause in her teaching.
My husband, John, paid my seminar fee as my birthday present, and family/friends agreed to postpone my birthday celebration until a later date. Everyone who called with well wishes had to leave me a message because I didn't have time to answer my phone, and was so exhausted each evening I didn't even open my computer. Mom sent me a thick book on "Health Secrets For Seniors" by Bottom Line, which I suppose makes me an official "senior" now. Laura dropped off a vegan birthday cake and a vegan loaf of bread from Whole Foods Sunday evening, but I was soaking in the bathtub and missed her visit. Hopefully we'll share them on Wednesday night after going to the movies. I want to see Lincoln.
Another great gift, Laura and I are both so tired of feeling so tired all the time, we're both interested in exploring Nathan's new vegan diet. It's great having a friend with similar interests. Before the weekend I prepared a few recipes from the Forks Over Knives Thanksgiving collection, a butternut squash soup using Vegetable Broth and curry instead of my usual Chicken Broth, salt and pepper (and it tastes great). I made vegan sausage, took notes on how to vary it, and used it in place of Jimmy Dean's sausage in my usual smothered cabbage dish. Looks and tastes so good and the texture is so similar, I doubt I'll miss the meat. I made a cous cous dish using veggie broth, which was tasty. On the other hand, the next day I mixed the cous cous with a raw scrambled egg and fried up little pancakes in butter, which were scrumptous! And my friend Thom, who fries turkeys and caters parties, gave me the bones from 3 turkeys as per our usual Thanksgiving custom, so I boiled the bones, plucked off the meat, and made a huge vat of turkey soup. It's so yummy I don't know how I can back off of that tradition, or how I'll do without my eggs and butter. Another instance where many baby steps will be required.
I'll discuss what I learned at the seminar in my next post (before I forget it), because this upcoming weekend I'll be out of town again at the Lake Charles Agility Trial. Whoppie!
L to R: Michele, Nathan, Allison
Those hospital gowns make you look
sick even if you're feeling fine.
Yesterday Nathan had his gall bladder removed with a minimally invasive technique called the DiVinci Robot. Only a few surgeons in Baton Rouge are trained on this procedure. They only make one incision thru the belly button, inflate the abdominal cavity with gas so there's plenty of room to operate, and send minute robot hands in through the navel to cut the gall bladder away from the liver, clamp off the arteries, and remove the sac out through the navel. The whole procedure is visible to the surgeon through a lighted camera that goes in there too, and he watches a screen and manipulates the arms from a booth. For those who aren't too squeemish, there's a YouTube video of the equipment and procedure here. It's wonderful to know that somebody out there is really thinking and working hard to invent better medical procedures.
Typical surgery takes about an hour, 3-4 hours to sleep off the anesthesia and fight off nausea, and you go home same day with a few stitches and a skin patch over your navel. They say you can return to work in a few days. Swim, play golf, run in a week.
Nathan fasted overnight. Allison brought him to OLOL for 8 a.m., a reasonable hour. I arrived around 8:45. We hung around the prep room where they put him in hospital gown, laid him in a gurney, he signed a million forms, they poked his arm with an introvenous needle, took his blood pressure and temp several times, scanned his armband barcode, and answered his questions--his main and oft repeated question being "Can I get a video of the procedure?" And in the end, he got one.
Nathan and me.
They make him leave recovery
in a wheel chair.
Allison HAD to depart for work at 9, so when Nathan went in for surgery at 10, I began texting her updates every time I got one. While he slept it off in recovery, I poked around the gift shop and found him a cool helium balloon with an aquarium theme that says
"Get Better Soon"
And I mean it. It's totally weird to see your tall, healthy, atheletic son in a hospital gown and then a wheel chair. Made my stomach do several flips.
Allison picks Nathan up at the parking garage.
Allison got off in time to take him home around 4:30. Total of 8.5 hours at the hospital. The aide wheeled him to the 2nd floor parking garage, where his chariot awaited.
I headed to Walgreens near OLOL Hospital to fill his prescriptions. Man, I can't believe this Walgreens is so incompetent. Located right at the exit to the hospital, they had long lines of cars at the drive up window and people inside wanting prescriptions filled, but they only had one active pharmacist, one aide typing in data, and an aide in training doing something with the other pharmacist, who was also on the phone. And they are all back there joking around, hardly making eye contact with the customers. They said mine would fill in 30 minutes, but oops they never got around to typing in my info, so I had to wait another 30 minutes to get just 1 prescription filled. What poor business practices!
Nathan felt nauseus that whole evening but ate some pasta, and by next morning the nausea went away. His biggest complaint -- a feeling of extreme dehydration and like he'd been punched in the stomach with a jack hammer! And his throat hurt so he didn't feel like talking. They advised him to walk and move around to dispell the gas, not lay up in bed all day, prescribed an over the counter stool softener just in case, Gasex, Lortab for pain as needed or if he preferred, Extra Strength Tylenol. He is able to eat normally.
By the way, Nathan had no gall stones. The procedure was necessary because of a bile duct that had been malfunctioning for years and not expelling enough bile. I believe he attributed this to eating too much rich food for too many years. In the last 3 months, based on the incredible Forks Over Knives documentary and other sources, he's eliminated all animal products from his diet, has lost 25 lbs, and feels better than ever. He's learned to substitute other things for meat, such as the usual grains and beans, flax seed powder instead of egg as a binding agent, no-chicken boullion, Tofurkey for ground meat in chili, burgers, etc., which he says tastes good and has great texture, using more extensive spices for flavor, and he's experimenting with other products. He's become addicted to fresh fruits and veggies. His trek reminds me of my macrobiotic diet years ago, except that now the culture and the science is so much more supportive of meatless cuisine. He is inspiring me to reduce my own meat intake once again. The circle turns back on itself.
Because this is a dog blog, I suppose I need to say at least one thing about dogs. Nathan has 4 dachshunds and they all like to pounce on him. Doc advised Nathan to wear a pillow over his navel when the dogs are loose. Visualizing that makes me laugh.
The wonders of science give me faith in the human race! But before I get too euphoric, let's see how he recovers.
Upwards and onward!
P.S. Forks Over Knives streams on Netflix, and is available on DVD from Amazon.com and other sources. They also have a website: www.forksoverknives.com and have a couple of cookbooks out now.
My cousin Lois, the papillon breeder from whom I got Pepper, and whose puppies I sometimes bring to Louisiana to sell, was recently invited into the Professional Handlers Association Hall Of Fame. She asked me to make up a full page ad for their publication, which I was happy to do using photos she provided. Some of the photos were so faded, it took most of yesterday to spiff them up. Here's the ad:
Congratulations, Cousin Lois! When she submitted the ad, she received the following response back from PHA.
"Great job!! Love the photos
from then to now and your text is worded very nicely."
So there's at least one other serious dog fancier in my family, and a very talented one at that! And I have discovered another way to recompense her for my wonderful puppies in addition to working on her website. All of which makes me very happy.
In Kiln recently, with cold winds a-blowing, a fellow competitor was wearing a fur lined trapper's hat that covered her ears, strapped under her chin, and looked really warm. She said she got it from hats.com. I came home and perused the site, but was shocked at the prices between $100 and $260. So I googled "trappers hat" and came up with the one pictured, from this link at amazon.com, for only $19.99. I purchased a book and qualified for FREE shipping, too. It came in yesterday, fits and looks great, so I no longer fear freezing my ears off at winter trials, nor my knitted cap falling off mid-run as it did last year.
With the new gloves my son bought me last Christmas, and presuming I remember to pack them both, my extremities are ready to withstand the freezing temps at Lake Charles.
My 3 year old black cat, Kit Cat, went missing about a week ago. She came in from the woods at about 4 weeks of age, and often disappears for 3 or 4 days (she's tiny but quite a hunter), but never this long. At our neighborhood Halloween party someone mentioned that our new neighbor traps cats, so I should check the pound. They had found theirs at Animal Control twice this year. WHAT?!?!?!
On top of that, one of our dog club members had just posted notice that her 18 month old Belgian Malanois had disappeared on Halloween morning. I was now doubly concerned.
So a few days later began a new and horrifying adventure for me. . . . . . . . . . . a visit to the pound. I tried the lazy way first, calling, but ran into their voice messaging system that kept me going in circles. When I finally got a person, they said I had to come over and look. Okay, I live on the opposite side of town so that took me a whole afternoon. I didn't find my kitty or the dog, but learned they only have to hold animals for 3 days before euthanizing them. Shit! AND, to get Kit Cat out of there would have cost me up to $130!
While there, I asked for a tour of the area, and the volunteer seemed generous, almost zealous, to show me every nook and cranny of the facility, inside and out. In retrospect, I interpret her efforts as a cry to an outsider for help. I've never seen so many dogs, each held in 4' x 4' chain link cages, on concrete floors, with fluorescent lighting, with just a cot to lay on, no toys or blankets of course, no bones to chew on, fresh poop here and there. The constant barking was deafening, my eyes were watering from the urine, and the stench was overpowering. Of course there were plain dogs and pretty dogs, lots of labs and pit bulls, some pure but mostly mixed breeds, some friendly and pleading to be petted, a few aggressive dogs snarling as we walked by, a few mamma dogs nursing puppies. All of them were basically alive and hopeful, but miserable.
There were several volunteers on site, 3 LSU students preparing to walk some dogs on leashes. There were two fenced yards where hopefully all the dogs are allowed out in the sunshine for several hours a day. My guide told me the center had instantly lost all their cats a few months back to a disease that ran rampant through the whole facility! Was this another cry for help? It seemed so, for who on staff would dare admit to such a failure of a government run, taxpayer supported facility? It was not good PR.
On the way out the lobby was crowded and the phone was ringing, but nobody at the desk to answer it.
Louis, one of the happier healthier looking dogs.
While I took no pictures, I can't get the picture of the place out of my mind. I visited Animal Control's website when I got home and recognized several of the dogs I had just seen. One, a male Black Mouthed Cur named Louis Armstrong, caught my eye as he looks so much like Lucky and was so friendly and looked so healthy. The volunteer asked me to consider fostering him and others, that they are woefully overcrowded and new dogs coming in every day, and all are in peril. I was tempted, but woefully unprepared. My thoughts -- how can I bring strange dogs into my home? I'd need to convince my husband first. What if they are sick? I don't want my dogs getting sick. Plus, do I have the time or energy to manage my dogs going crazy with every intruder? Plus, I would go crazy not being able to give them each the full attention they need--like a bath, affection, grooming, training and playtime. What would I do with them when I leave town for the weekend? What if I never could find them a permanent home? Would I be stuck with 6 dogs (my 5 plus 1), then 7, then 10?????? For 20 more years???? I can't do that.
But my God, something needs to be done for all these poor suffering creatures. What if one of my dogs got stuck in there? There surely has to be a better way. It would be criminal for Louis Armstrong to be euthanized for lack of finding a forever home. My prayers are with him constantly as I find myself stewing in a big pot of "What Can I Do To Help" juices.
A few days later, after learning this shelter can euthanize after 3 days, and after talking it over with my husband, we decided we could try out the foster route with Louis. Alas, his photo was no longer on their website. I've called the pound repeatedly since then, and all I get is their voIce messaging system, and leave a message, but they have never called me back. I am just sick with worry over Louis's fate.
A rare 4 day trial for us, I usually only do 2 or 3 days and hang around the last day to rest, pack, watch and visit. But I felt up to this one being as it’s only 2 hours from home, my motor home is cozy, parking is close to the arena, October weather is generally cool and pleasant, the Kiln arena less intimidating with only 1 ring going at a time, the hosting club is very friendly, and I wanted to give myself enough cushion to meet my 2012 goals. I figured I could sit out a few runs if I felt too tired or stressed out. I made it through all 16 runs but came home exhausted.
Left out at 1 p.m. on Wednesday with a stop in Slidell to visit my Dad’s gravesite and take pictures that can help Mom and me choose some permanent grave markers. The gravesite was still dirt from Dad’s recent burial, but there were fresh flowers. Found out Thursday when my Mother called me (8 times before I checked my phone) that my brother Londo is visiting New Orleans from Tampa and put them there. Also discovered he had reported a poor site condition to Mom by phone, which upset her, so she had just called Forrest Lawn and ordered the slabs herself, sight unseen. Having originally assigned that job to me, I had visited to assess the situation envisioned how to make the area special, and now my efforts were trashed. I could have let that bother me, but instead decided to set it out of my mind until the trial was over. I had a few other opportunities to practice my mental game over the weekend, too (more on that later).
From a balmy 75 degrees to start, the weather turned cold and windy late Friday evening, down in the 40’s. The rest of the weekend was spent inside the motor home unless I was bringing Maxie or Lucky into the ring to run. The door was hard to open in the strong wind. My windows and fence whistled constantly. But it was my first time using the heater, and it works great. The dust was awful, grit in the mouth, eyes, and nostrils, especially on Sunday. The open air arena was like a wind tunnel, bits of weed fluff flying everywhere, very distracting to the dogs. You'll see in the video below, Maxie left the weaves at one point to follow a little white tuft of something blowing across his path. Still poor at my mental game, I was horrified and did something I never do. I put him through the weaves again. At least he succeeded the second time but I skewed our course time averages. Which is better? Still not sure.
Lucky does not like posing for pictures!
Her 1st QQ ribbon (purple) is quite a prize.
Two white rosettes are her 4th place wins.
Jumpers with 4.45 seconds to spare, Standard
with 8 seconds under SCT. Yahoo!
LUCKY LUCY: I attribute Lucky’s QQ on Saturday (after 4 NQ’s on Thurs and Fri.) to cold weather and her never once being crated in the arena. She stayed “home” until her time to run. I didn’t bribe her with treats, tugging, ball throwing or anything. We ran into the ring, did our run, and then afterwards I ran out with her, tossing her pieces of fried chicken, which she loved, we visited a few folks, lots of praise and pats, then back to the motor home. Also, I was jumping her at 24” this weekend as an experiment, to see if it increased her enthusiasm, and also because she jumps higher than that even at 20”, and 24” gives her an extra few seconds of course time. Of course somebody complained about me jumping her so high. No matter. It gave her just the edge of time she needed for those 2 QQ’s. I was thrilled to hear people cheer for her when she Q’d in Jumpers – her first since obtaining her AXJ Title in Kiln a whole year ago. By comparison, she leaves this trial with 8 Q’s in Standard, so we could possibly get her MX Title in Lake Charles next month. Only 2 Q’s to go for that title -- but only 3 chances unless I go to Pensacola over Christmas.
Maxie posing at home with his QQ ribbon
and his 4 clean runs, all with placement
ribbons - Blue = 1st place, Red = 2nd place,
Yellow = 3rd place.
MAXIE: Maxie is running a bit slower. Don’t know why. Maybe the dust and wind, as he was shivering in my arms at times. Also, the videos show Max certainly isn't chasing me like the famous pair, Tigger and Robin. If anything, we are running along side-by- side and I am setting the pace. If I ran faster, would he? He popped out of the weaves 3 times. But he is crazy for his turn, and barks his head off in complaint when I head towards crate or RV. He likes being in the thick of things, hanging with me. And he Q'd 4 out of 8 runs, all with placement, and his 10th QQ.
MENTAL GAME: I had to put my big girl panties on once again on Saturday when, just as I was about to enter the Jumpers ring with Maxie, a very self-confident clubmate/former instructor comes up and grabs me by both shoulders, looks me in the eye, shakes her finger in my face and chews me out for not taking Lucky “immediately to her crate for a huge jackpot” after her first successful run. My mental game went all to hell and Maxie knew it. We had our worst run of the weekend-- 5 seconds over course time, missed weaves, 2 refusals. I have to work on recovering from such shocks in 30, no 10, no 5 seconds flat! Instead I entered the ring thinking that gal has some nerve chastizing me to encourage my dog while she discourages me! I should have told her “How dare you accost me just as I’m going into the ring!”, and been done with it. But I don’t think that fast, my mouth doesn’t open that quickly, and my confusion turns to resentment slowly. I surmise that comes from being brought up in a household where the children could never speak their mind for fear of father’s wrath. We learned to zip our lips. Sometimes this serves me well, other times not so much.
WILLOW: Of course she tagged along. She has become noticeably more self confident lately, jealous for her pet/cuddle time, even looking to be included on training sessions at home. She usually just tolerates Pepper's playfulness like a Mamma dog, but doesn't react or participate. Here’s a short string of video snippets of her engaging in a rare bit of play in our RV yard, which also shows the fierce wind we experienced in Kiln. All chairs and tables were laid down most of the weekend so as not to blow over.
PEPPER: Pepper is enthusiastic and shows no fear of anything. He became “observant and tentative”, though, when I brought him to sit in the aisle between rings with all the feet tromping by and dogs barking, but he wasn’t cowering. In the field, on a 16” retractable leash, he romped and froliced like a colt. He tries to pee on everything and pulls hard on his leash! He can get tangled up in that leash within 5 seconds of tearing around, and his constant rear crossing makes it hard to walk all 4 dogs at once. The leashes are constantly tangled. I had forgotten to appreciate how well the other dogs have learned to walk on leash together.
Portia and the 4 dogs hang out before breakfast.
VISITORS: Laura and Portia came Friday night for the Pumpkin Carving and stayed Saturday thru about 2 p.m. Good thing, because Laura was able to bring me several items from home. While it was fun, there were issues with food, phone cords, game boys, socks and such forth left out where the dogs could get them, not enough warm clothing, clashing schedules, a child needing tending, TV on after my bedtime, blocked passageways in my narrow motor home, who gets to sleep with which dogs, etc. Just the nature of having company, I find once again that I really need my privacy at trials. As they hadn’t packed clothes for cold weather and the arena was freezing, Portia didn’t see any agility runs anyway and Laura only saw one of mine. Of course it was one of Maxie’s worst! My sister-in-law and niece, Carolyn and Heather, showed up Sunday afternoon, just in time to see Maxie’s last run of the weekend, another NQ and no video to study to see what went wrong. It was too cold for them in the arena as well, so after a brief tour of my RV, they also left.
The lucky Q pumpkin.
The RV’ers:
There were 19 RV’s in the park, about 10 more than my first Kiln trial with my pop up camper 2 years ago. Our regional group of agility RV’ers is clearly growing! They did the Pumpkin Carving party on Friday night, which was fun and the Q pumpkin could be rubbed all weekend for good luck, but they called off the “Whine & Cheesy” party Saturday night. Just too cold, too windy, and everyone too tired. I had made a double batch of chili, again, and again it was not eaten. John and I will be eating chili for awhile!
OUR CLUB: There were at least 20 competitors from our Baton Rouge club at this trial. I know 'cause Thursday morning early I counted the envelopes containing our badge numbers!
VIDEOS: Several different people took my videos, all with different styles and ideas on how to do this. One cut my head off, another got me but lost Maxie, another never zoomed in so Maxie is an invisible speck half the time, another zoomed in so much we were both lost, some tried to film the time clock at the end and never found it (I recommend the videographer just announce the time). Most never documented the date, time or place. Maxie's last run is missing. I despair of getting consistently good videos. Such as they are, I uploaded a composite of Maxie's runs to YouTube, with commentary.
Maxie:
One thing Maxie's videos brought to light this time, you can't accurately calculate your dog's average YPS if you include the time it takes to put them through the weaves again. If I want to track whether my dog is really running faster or slower this year than last, this month than last, I either gotta keep moving forward, or I have to subtract the repeat time in my records. It does help me to see that Maxie's average time has decreased from around 3.5 YPS last year to around 3 YPS this year. Why is he slowing down?
Also, if 8 runs have roughly 20 obstacles each, that's 160 obstacles taken over the weekend. With Maxie's 6 faults, that's a 96% accuracy rate. It helps me to count our success this way, not just in Q's.
Lucky: 4 of 8 of Lucky's runs were clean, but all but the 2 Q's were at least 5 seconds over course time. Only 2 Q's, which thankfully happened on the same day, resulting in her first QQ in a year's worth of trying, and her first Q in XJ in a year. Rather than bore myself with reviewing her ongoing lackluster performances, I choose to just focus on her 2 wins.
What is clearest to me about them is
She has no trouble jumping 24"
Her wins were a result of her speeding up, rather than barely walking, thru the weaves. The future has to be all about those weaves.
She does not like being crated up all day. It makes her sad, bored, stressed -- some combination of those things. She ran fastest and clean when going straight from the RV to the ring.
It truly breaks my heart that dog fanciers can't see her as I do -- a magnificent athelete chasing squirrel, armidillo, possum, birds, with tail up, nose up, cutting corners on a dime, explosive speed, total focus, indomitable will, fearless. Yet totally domesticated, cuddly in bed, a soft mouth that never nips, loving eyes, total devotion and willingness to please, quick to learn, etc. Over and over people ask me her breed. I say "Yes she is a breed, she's a "Southern Black Mouth Cur". And I often hear, well, if she wasn't a breed, she should be, she is so beautiful (great face markings, build, coat . . . . etc.)
I used my new Logitech H530 headset/microphone (from Office Depot and highly recommended by a professional audio tech person), and am pleased with the results. No more cutting out, volume easier to adjust. I was also pleased with the price, recently reduced from $50 to $30!
RV and OTHER PROBLEMS:
Only problem I had is while the LED guage said my black water tank was only 1/3 full (and I emptied it recently, too), still, when flushing the toilet I see water and paper just under the valve. Something is wrong. Rather than use it any more, I decided to treat it as a port-a-pottie. I lined the bowl with a kitchen trash bag stretched over the toilet bowl, put the seat down over that, and in the morning I stuff the bag and contents into a gallon zip lock and throw it out. Same as I used to do with the port-a-pottie in the pop-up camper. It worked fine then, and works fine now. But still I want my flushable sewerage!
Wednesday I managed to step my left foot in a puddle of water but was too busy to change shoes or socks. By Thursday morning the sole of my foot was textured and tender, by Friday morning a crack had appeared between two toes and was hurting. One thing I had forgotten to bring was Athelete’s Foot spray, Neosporin or Vitamin E oil. Laura brought me those but of course it was too late. So my foot was sore all weekend and I should have changed socks 2-3 times per day to keep it from being sticky. But of course I didn’t bring so many socks, so I just took off my shoe when I could and aired it out. Which wasn’t often! With 4 dogs and company, one is always on one’s feet.
Got home to John's surprise -- he prepared a few garden rows for me. Unfortunately by Tuesday he had a pinched sciatic nerve, by Wednesday he could barely walk. We went to the chiropractor on Wednesday, then Thursday, and today. Ice pack every hour, anit-inflammatories, bedrest. We're catching up on recorded shows and Netflix documentaries and I'm slowly getting this blog post together, interspursed with nursing my foot, Halloween festivities, cleaning out the RV, laundry, and Portia's birthday party.
GOALS MET/GOALS SET:
First time to try it out, and the heater in the RV works great. Since it works on both electricity and LP gas, I can take it to any trial in winter, even if they don't have RV hookups. I actually only need electricity to run the AC.
Maxie needs only 11 more MACH points to reach my goal of 550 by year end. We should get that easily in Lake Charles. We met our goal of 10 QQ's by year-end. Hopefully 10 next year will get us to MACH in 2013, but I realize this is a stretch as it took us 15 months to achieve the first 10.
I just counted, and to obtain the new Bronze MXB and MJB titles, Maxie needs 4 more Jumpers Q's and 4 more Standard Q's for 25 of each. With only 1 more trial scheduled this year (unless I go to Pensacola), I doubt I can attain that this year. Early in 2013 is likely.
Lucky finally got a Q in Jumpers. Her last Jumpers Q was a year ago, in Kiln, to earn her MXJ. Nothing since then. A whole year, and always over course time. Only 2 more Standard Q's to go to get her MXJ title, though. We might reach that in Lake Charles.
Run faster! Lean forward. Learn to enjoy exercise. Treat agility as a game of chase. Do more shadow handling and racing around the yard with my dogs trying to catch me. Learn to time my forward momentum so I don't get caught where I can't move forward.
COMPLETELY outfit my RV with everything I need – a different set of toiletries, medicines, camp chairs, jackets, than I keep at home. My goal is to never find myself without something I may need, and not have to cart things back and forth from the house, or risk forgetting something and being without. One thing about a Class C as opposed to a trailer, once you’re set up you can’t easily unhook everything and drive to the store.
Next trial, Thanksgiving Weekend in Lake Charles. A 3 day'er, and the weather there is usually freezing, rainy and windy. I must find another parachute suit with a hood, a trapper hat to keep my ears warm, and otherwise get myself prepared. And another way to celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends.
Today is Pepper's 1st Birthday. I picked a pet friendly restaurant, La Madeleine's Bakery, for his party, and called ahead so management expected us. It lasted about 45 minutes, took no prep time, and worked out great. Our closest circle of peeps came after work, about 5 p.m. Nathan secured us a lovely table on the porch, and John started snapping pix with my iPhone. I bought a fruit tart, and onlookers were amazed how the dogs sat and stayed with the tart under their noses while we lit the candle, sang Happy Birthday, divvied it up onto 3 separate plates, and waited for my "Okay" command before eating. I put this slide show together in Windows Live Photo Gallery, just to see how that works. Not so well, as I can't put the slides in the order I want. (Hit the "REFRESH" button if it doesn't show up the first time you open this page.)
Pepper at 8.5 weeks old.
Pepper at 6 months, with huge ears,
a long nose, and not much fur.
It's so hard to believe I brought Pepper home last January. Seems more like last month. Where has the time gone?
I never intended to keep the fat little fart with the huge ears and big feet, just sell him to raise money for my agility expenses and increase the Papillon population in our area. Did I really need a 3rd agility dog? When exactly did I decide to keep him? Don't know. He grew on us gradually, but neither John nor I would give him up for anything now.
Pepper at 1 year, growing into his ears and nose.
From day one, he just fit in. Everyone accepted him -- dogs, cats, family, friends. Going from 2 paps to 3 was no great effort. No extra crates or beds. He posed no problems, other than an extra vet visit and some puppy chow. Of course, there will be training expenses.
It's going to be a fun trip learning more and more about our new Birthday Boy, tracking his progress, training, and reaching for another gold ring.
Lucky is almost 4, Maxie is 5.4, Willow is 10, and FoohFooh is almost 13. And I'm about to turn 66. Time is flying by. Will I still be training dogs, running Pepper, at 76? Can I do right by this amazing little guy? I shall try.
Alas, when I went out Saturday to practice, I discovered they had picked up my course to mow the field. And they had set up new courses all over the place, including encroaching on my 40' x 50' space, despite the fact that I chose an out of the way spot that is rarely ever used, where the grass doesn't grow!
It feels like my project is being thwarted. No matter. I set it up again. I marked the fence with yellow rope to tell our yard man not to mow this spot. Then I received an email from a club member who complained that no one member can commandeer a spot all for themselves and she'll break it up whenever she wants. I need to get our Agility Director to put out a notice that this is a sanctioned experiment to benefit all our members, not just me.
Last night my tent stakes came in so I'll go ahead and prepare the holes for the tumblers. We'll see what happens next.
I finally finished a project I started last spring, getting permission and setting up a section of our club's field for PRACTICE DRILLS. I screwed a weather-proof letter box (like realtors use in front of houses for sale) to a tree, and the plan is each month or so I'll put a laminated copy of some Practice Drill in it for all our agility members to use. I found 4 sets of sturdy colored tumblers in blue, green, orange and pink (4 for $1) at Dollar General, and used 2" stick on numbers 1-12 on each set. I'm starting with Clean Run's series of the Back Yard Dog . . . . . I have 4 years worth of those so I won't run out soon. I color-coded each course on the article to match the tumblers. This is probably only doable in fall-early spring when the grass isn't growing and the course can stay up for awhile. I can recycle the laminated copies (I have a laminating machine so it's not that expensive) every few years if I run out of time to find new ones.
I tried the first 4 sequences myself a few days back, first with Maxie then changing the bar height for Lucky, in beautiful pre-fall weather, and it was quite a workout! The dogs enjoyed it and were jealous for their turns. Noticing that a little table would be convenient, I brought one of my plastic ones from home.
Alas, I went out there for class last night and someone had already removed the tunnel and knocked over/moved some of the numbers. When I got home I sent out notice to club members about the project, and added a polite line about not disturbing things. Today I ordered some tent stakes (which I found cheap on amazon.com) and I'm going to poke a hole in the bottom center of each tumbler (with a hot ice pick) and secure each tumbler to the ground. Hopefully this will deter dogs, wind, and people from moving them around.
And the little project keeps growing. I am now thinking of a way to keep track of who uses it. If it isn't much used, it won't be worth the effort.
Pinpaps Jonquil Of Skipnlena aka "Tigger" Photo by Jerry and Lois Photography” www.jerryandlois.com
AKC sent me their mid-year stats for agility dogs throughout America. I was shocked, I mean shocked, not to mention thrilled, to learn that an 8" papillon is the highest ranking agility dog in America, and this by a considerable amount. I cruized the internet and YouTube in a frenzy looking for any info, photos or videos of this dog, but all I can find so far are a few photos, copied here.
Below is a closeup of the stats showing the 20 Lifetime Top Overall Dogs, with this link if you want to see the whole report. What blows my mind isn't so much the 35 MACHs this dog has earned, with 55,952 MACH points and 710 QQ's, but the next nearest dog under him (a sheltie) has "only" 25 MACHs, with "only" 25,415 points and 513 QQ's. Points measure speed, and it's a 100%+ leap in points between 1st and 2nd place! My how that pap must run! And my how accurate he must be! And my how many trials must they attend each year! In fact, the stats page AKC put out in January showed Tigger with "only" 33 MACHs and 54,547 points, which means he earned 2 more MACH's, i.e., 40 QQ's, and 1,405 points in the last 6 months or so (and that without the doubler for 1st place). If he is capable of earning 4 MACHs a year, he'd have to have been doing that for the past 9 years or so.
There's even another pap at 9th place, with almost 28,000 points while earning 18 MACH's, beating out both top shelties for speed.
Robin Kletke & Robin Cohen,
with Tigger
1st Place 8" class
, AKC Nationals 2007
All this blows my mind. How can it all be true? There must be some mistake. How old is this superdog? How big is this dog? I need to know. So I did some more research.
Tigger has won AKC Agility Nationals many times.
His owners hail from Seattle, WA. West coast. Lots of trials out there. Lots of money. They compete with other dogs as well.
Recently I found www.dogshowscores.com where you can go punch in any AKC dog's registered name and it comes up with all the dog's scores back thru 1999. So I looked up "Pinpaps Jonquil Of Skipnlena" , and sure enough, scores all the way back to Tigger's first Novice Q on April 4, 2000. I saw he's been competing for 12.5 years, at 8". So he has to be at least 14 years old now, and still going strong. WOW! WOW! WOW! Between 2000 and 2006, with only a few exceptions, Tigger scored 1st place, and with the point doubler in place, racked up points quickly. Beginning 2007, he begins taking some 2nd and 3rd places, but still a vast majority of 1sts. By 2011 he's getting beat for 1st quite often but still places high on every run, and by 2012 he has no 1st places. He is slowing down. But not by much. His speed is still phenomenal, averaging over 4 yps.
NAC MACH35 Pinpaps Jonquil Of Skipnlena MXC8 MJC8 FTC1 MFC TQX T2B Photo by Jerry and Lois Photography www.jerryandlois.com
Laura and I tried figuring out how many trials this dog has had to go to every year, on average, to MACH 35 times in 12 years. 35 x 20 QQ = 700 days of trialing with no mistakes divided by 12 years = 58 1 day trials per year. Factoring in that no dogs QQ every single day, and giving Tigger a 70% Q rate (50% is about average) , and since dog's don't QQ every single day even when they Q, I guestimated up to 100 1 day trials per year. That tells me, and the list on dogshowscores.com confirms, that these folks are at trials approximately 40 weekends a year.
Reading his titles: NAC = National Agility Champion MXC8 = 100 Q's in Standard, 8 times MJC8 = 100 Q's in Jumpers, 8 times FTC1 = FAST Century:Requires the MXF title plus one hundred Excellent B FAST Q's of 60 points or greater. The FTC title initials are followed by a numeric designation indicating the quantity of times the dog has met the requirements of the FTC title. (e.g. FTC2, FTC3, etc.) Since the FAST class became a titling event in January 2007, and Tigger acquired the FTC1 title by September of 2009, it took him 2 years to earn it, and he has not competed in this class since then. MFC = 100 Q's in FAST TQX = means he's QQQ'd a lot! T2B = this class became a titling event in July 2011. Title requires 15 Q's and 100 points. Tigger earned his title in November 2011, in 5 months, and has not competed in this class since then.
Tigger has had to Q a minimum of 1,700 times to earn all these titles. Averaged over 12 years, that's about 141 Q's per year, or 3-5 per weekend. Nice ride!
On top of all that achievement, Tigger is beautiful! I am soooooooooo impressed with this little dog, and with the Papillon breed. I will continue to try digging up info on this dog. I want to talk to his handler, Robin, and meet the great Tigger.
Upwards and onward!
P.S. Since writing the above, I found a few more things on the internet:
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