Tee Pee Progress - Geometry On The Web

What's my angle ?

Yesterday I blogged about building a paper model of my Tee Pee.  I left off going to find a silver tarp at least 8' x 15', which I found at Harbor Freight.  Today I moved all the den furniture aside, spread out the enormous 12' x 19' tarp, and cut it to the 8' x 15' dimensions I needed. 
Now I am ready to cut out my tee pee, but I think I have a geometry problem.  I need to know the angles at which to cut the bottom edges.  Uh-oh.

I could wait intermnably for John to get home and using my geometry book, in about 30 minutes, he could figure out the degrees using some cosign formula he found in the back of the book when we were building my A-frame.  But I'm impatient, so on a whim, I do a Google search on "Solve geometry problem", and came up with the coolest website ever!!!!!  It's called WEBMATH, and has a dropdown list of all sorts of problems, and how to solve them.  I chose "Right Triangle", plugged in my known quantitles, and it gave me the answer I needed -- in about 90 seconds.  Unbelievable!

I knew I needed a right triangle to get my answer, and knew enough to divide my isosceles triangle in half (green line) to get a 90 degree angle.  I knew the hypoteneuse was 8' and half the base was 1.75'.  I plugged those figures into the boxes provided on the web page, and it showed me the entire formulation it used to generate my answer of 77.364 degrees.  Unbelievable!  Totally amazing!

And all this, for free! 

Aside: Some people ask me why I bother with this blog, with my Wild Food Foragers of America project, and other volunteer things I do or have done, giving away a lot of hard won knowledge for free.  Well, this is why:  I get so much for free, and so much of it that I could not purchase for a king's ransom were it not for other people's generosity, it's my way of paying back, of not being a total mooch. I love feeling plugged into that ever-flowing stream of abundance, and the only way I know to stay plugged in is to live in a constant state of gratitude, and contribute what I can.  For so many years, while working my ass off full time, scrabbling to make ends meet, I couldn't afford to give anything away for free.  But now I'm making up for that, I hope. The business world certainly has its place, but so does the volunteer world. I want to maintanian balance --- one foot in each.

Anyway, back to the tee pee.  77.364 degrees.  Where's my damn protractor?  Oh hell, I can't find one.  Looks like I'll have to use the old fashioned method of "approximating". It's just a silly tee pee after all, not commercial housing.  Why am I even bothering with this?  Why?  Because it's fun.  It keeps me mentally challenged.  And besides English, geometry was my favorite subject in school.  My Geometry teacher said on the first day in 5th grade, "the whole world is made up of shapes", she sent us home to list how many rectangles, triangles and circles we could find in our houses, and I remember that revelation just blew me away.  I had never noticed them before!

More later, gotta go.

Lucky's Doghouse

Jonathan, Lucky, Max and Willow
and the completed dog house.

This morning it was 45 degrees at 6:30 a.m. when I took my dogs out to pottie.  Lucky immediately curled up in her dog house for warmth, which reminded me how it was about a year ago that my grandson and I built it.

Since Jonathan usually spends a long weekend with me at Thanksgiving, I'm always looking for short projects we can do that will develop his manual and thinking skills.  Something he can do besides texting his friends and playing video games. Something requiring planning, thinking, and a tangible result.
Since Lucky is technically HIS dog,  what better way for Jonathan to show responsibility than to build "his dog" a dog house.  I have tons of scrap wood and screws (one of the advantages of living on a large property is my ability to store stuff), so the project wouldn't cost us a dime.


Our plans on paper, and the pattern
for the upper curve of the door,
 of Jonathan's design.

It was glorious fall weather, great for being outdoors, no jacket required. We reviewed our materials, set up a table out by the shed, lined up all our fabulous battery-powered DeWalt tools, then sat down with paper and pencil to design a house.  I had a some exterior siding left over from the shed's construction that would not need painting, some 1"x1" remnants for the supports, and a neat wooden "counter top" I had salvaged off of someone's trash pile . . . . . (yep, I'm a certified dumpster diver with the T-shirt to prove it - but that's another story.)  I had been saving that plank for about 10 years, waiting for a perfect application.  The width of our doghouse was determined by that top.  The length and height were determined by how much siding we had to work with.

Granny (that's me) operating the skill saw.

There was only half a sheet of siding (about 4' x 4'), so we used up every square inch we could to make the doghouse as long and as tall as possible.  We drew the lines together, then I operated the skill saw myself to make the cuts.

Very important was the skeletal support. The frame had to be sturdy. Lucky is a powerhouse of a dog and would tear up anything weak. Based on the sides we had cut out, we determined the length and height the framing posts needed to be, then built the frame. That was an interesting project all in itself. Both Jonathan and I learned some things about structure from that.



Jonathan operates the battery powered drill.

Next, J operated the drill to secure the sides to the frame after I tacked it into position. He liked doing that, and good thing because we used over 50 screws.  We were extra careful that none of the pointy tips stuck out on the inside, which could have cut up a dog pretty badly.

Next was the door opening.  We needed that as big as possible.  I showed Jonathan how to make the upper arch symmetrical by folding a paper in half and cutting out one half.  Open it up and it's the same on both sides.



Jonathan's door pattern, and the finished product.

He of course said "I know" to every trick I showed him, and didn't seem surprised about anything.  Age 12.  I had forgotten, 12 year olds are on the cusp of knowing everything.  Of not being much impressed by anything.  Of being sure adults don't know anything.

Still, I KNOW he had a good time because when he forgot to be cool and bored, he was grinning and gigglish, posing for pictures, jumping in and out of the doghouse, barking, acting silly. I have many pictures to prove it (these are just a few).

Years from now when he reads this story, I hope it will help him remember the warm sun on his hair, the cool breeze on his skin, the rustling leaves, the fresh woodland air at Granny's house, the love, the laughter, and the fun we had with our dogs --  in "The Doghouse That Jonathan Built".



Coaxing Lucky into her house
with treats.
Our yard, camper in background.

 


After Lucky loses her fear of getting in,
Jonathan and Lucky take turns
jumping in and out. 

Jonathan hanging out with the Lucky, Willow and Maxie after the project is finished. 
Now all we have to do is pick up the tools and move the doghouse around to the back porch.
Nobody wanted to do that just yet, so we just relaxed and basked in a job well done.

P.S. J was concerned that Lucky wouldn't have enough room inside and would never use the dog house.  But the exact opposite is true.  I put a rug down under it to insulate her from the cold bricks, and she curls up in there just about every day.  I'm pretty sure all the dogs know it is hers, too, because nobody else goes in there, although Max and Willow still perch on top, as they did from the first day.

A most satisfying outcome, and my heart is still full of thanksgiving for yet another wonderful memory at Old Hammond Hideaway!

Go Outs

Sheryl and I met on the field today from 1:30 until about 4.  The weather was blustery, sky blue, temp around 68 degrees.  Leaves were swirling. Excitement was in the air and I felt energized.  We finished building a course I was working on last Sunday, ran a course several ways that was set up on Field 4.  One required a "go out" at either end.  Neither Sheryl nor I have a "go out" command so, I devised a way train our dogs to "go out".

"GO OUT" Defined:  That's when your dog needs to continue on in a straight line over 2 or more obstacles and you can't run fast enough to go along with them.  This usually happens at the end of a run, but it can happen in the middle, as it did in the Field 4 exercise.

"G-G-GO" Command:  I already have an "OUT" command, which means to veer out away from me, go around the back side of a jump, or take an obstacle that's out there.  Not wanting to confuse D, I decided on "G-G-GO" as my command instead of "GO OUT".  I already use GO to mean "run fast, keep going over the dog walk or see saw or thru the weaves", and since those both involve straight forward momentum and me lagging behind, I think GO can be broadened to mean, "go forward in a straight line".  I add a few G's, as in G-G-Go, to distinguish GO from the one syllable NO command.

Here's a link to a Susan Garrett YouTube video at 2011 World Agility Championships that beautifully illustrates the Go-Go-Go command.  This is very important in competition, when speed counts.

The diagram below shows how we trained our "go outs". It was a neat exercise and made Maxie, Charlie and Lucky run very fast.  Maxie especially, ran like a bullet!  They caught on quickly.

Here's how it works:
H takes D toT1, places a treat on the target where D can see it (on an upside down flower pot, something very visible from a distance), says "Leave It", then walks D to other end, sits D, then runs along side, arm closest to D pointing forward, as D takes each jump in turn all the way to T1.  "Over, over, over, over, get it."

Repeat, H running alongside D but stopping around 3rd jump and saying "Over, over, over, GO, get it". When D is successful heading straight for T1 without H running alongside the whole way, H can lag a few feet further behind at each turn until finally, H can stop forward mementum after 1st jump, saying "Over, G-G-GO".  D quickly understands that GO means "take the rest of the jumps ahead".  No need for H to say Jump, Hup, or Over for each jump.

As D catches on, H can also place a treat at T2 before D takes off for T1, then after treat is eaten at T1, H can call D back across jumps towards T2, saying "Over, HERE".

This kind of relay race can go on, back and forth, several times. Eventually, fade to less and less visible targets (smaller flower pots), a flat tile, intermittent treats placed on the target, then no target at all. Eventually you can reward a successful GO OUT by treating from your hand when D circles back to you.  If you have a partner stationed at each end, each one can lay out the next treat on the flower pot, take turns sending and calling their own dog, over and over.

For toy motivated D, you can substitute the target with a ball, but you have to be able to throw it far and straight.  This is very difficult and not recommended.

Variations:  Use 3 to 5 jumps, closer or further apart, different kinds of jumps, a straight tunnel, chute, see saw.  The only constant is they must be in a straight line, and everything in D's path must be taken all the way to the end. 

Caution:  In training, don't ever call D off of a GO OUT command, or it won't mean GO OUT any more.  Only after they have committed to the last obstacle in the straight-line sequence should you call them off towards you or another obstacle.  Here's a training quote from Jane Simmons-Moake's Sequence Training book:

"When I do (or say) this, you do that".

Straightforward.  Simple.  Easy to remember.  I like that.

If you want to play call-offs, another good game, don't say GO.

Tee Pee

Sun's out.  Should practice.  Darnit, I will practice this afternoon after the ground dries up a bit. Meanwhile, I have a new project in my head that just won't quit.  My Privacy Tent came in and it does not satisfy me.  Very flimsy, doubtful it will stand up to even a strong breeze.  Green, not the silver/blue pictured on the website.  This color scheme will clash with my camper and we mustn't have that!  I'm disappointed and am contacting the seller to return it.

Pentagonal tee pee paper model

So in the middle of the night I got the bright idea to make my own tee pee, couldn't sleep after that, and got up to make a paper model, scale 1" = 1', to see how big a tarp I need to buy, and how long to cut the bamboo poles (we have a huge bamboo patch in the woods), how tall to make it for a 5.5' footprint and so a 6' tall person can stand comfortably inside.  I often draw on my 5th grade geometry book for such projects, and it came in handy yet again!   I have some artist friends coming to stay with me next week, and have invited them to help me paint designs on the tarp.  This is exciting!  And Thanksgiving-y, too!  An Indian tee pee.  Whee!

Tee pee pattern

Here's a snapshot of my tee pee laid out flat, which gives me the dimensions and pattern I need to cut the tarp.  Looks like I'm going to need a 15' x 8' tarp, and 5 bamboo poles 9.5' tall. Now I'm off to find a suitable tarp.  Still a little fuzzy on how to do the door, how to anchor it to the ground, how to keep the rain out, how to deal with sloped ground, but that will come.  I'm sure it will provide privacy (my main goal), and I bet it will make my campsite look distinctive once I get some designs painted on it!

Later:  Eurika!  Harbor Freight was having a sale on 12' x 18' tarps, so I got one for $20, instead of the usual $30.  A good start.  Tomorrow I will figure out the angles and overlaps, and cut the fabric.  When Jonathan gets here next Tuesday (if I can wait that long), I'll send him and John out in the woods with machetes to chop down some bamboo.  That will be a great Thanksgiving project for a 13 year old boy -- a trek in the woods, chopping down stuff.  But I do doubt I can wait that long to see my tee pee take shape.

Meatball - Animal Control

"Meatball" is a 50 lb black pit bull that runs loose in the woods almost every day for the past 3 weeks or so. He loves visiting the back fences of all the yards in our subdivision, especially mine, which sets off a huge ruckus with all the dogs in the neighborhood.  When he comes by, Max and Willow go crazy with their high shrill barking, Fooh Fooh growls and barks like mad, and Lucky just sails over our 5 foot cow fence and runs off in the woods to chase Meatball away.  Whatever I'm doing at the moment, I have to quit immediately and go deal with "the Meatball issue".

How did I learn Meatball's name, you might wonder. Well, two days ago a young man sachets by looking for his dog -- about 24 years old, living with his grandmother about 5 houses down, with his girlfriend and baby, and of course, no job.  A seemingly intelligent young man, well spoken and mild mannered.  I had just put treats in my pocket, boots on my feet, gotten Fooh Fooh's slip leash, and was headed to the woods with Lucky at my side, to catch Meatball.  The man joined me, and we finally got control of his dog.  I asked him why he didn't bring a leash, and why Meatball wasn't wearing a collar.  He said he had a collar but leaves it attached to the chain around the tree, doesn't have a leash, doesn't have a fence, the dog is not neutered, doesn't have his rabies shots "because I can't afford it".  He chains the dog up, but either he keeps getting tangled up in the chain or he slips out of the collar, so he "doesn't like to use that".

I gave him my schpeal about "Responsible Pet Ownership" and sent him on his way, with the warning that if I saw Meatball roaming free again I would have to call Animal Control.

I had a one day reprieve.  Then today, the ruckus started again and before I knew it, Lucky was over the fence again and disappeared into the woods.  On with my boots, out the gate, into the woods, calling "Lucky, come".  She was already far, far off but she came to my call.  We've been practicing that. I couldn't fuss her for coming when called but I brought her in the yard and put her on her 10' wire.  About 10 minutes later the ruckus starts again, Lucky takes a running leap off the porch towards the fence without realizing she is tethered, gets caught by her collar and her whole body flips up about 3 feet in the air and around in a big circle.  I saw it happen and was afraid her neck would snap.  I bet she is bruised.  Then I saw Meatball along the fence line, still with no collar, and I was instantly furious.  Didn't I just warn that idiot what I would do?   I called Animal Control for directions.  They want me to find out the guy's address, they will send someone out to "talk to him". Or, I can capture the dog and they will come pick him up.

A few hours later, visiting with a neighbor on my front porch while pottying my dogs, here comes Meatball and all hell breaks loose again.  Had to crate Lucky in a hurry, and by the time I came back out with the slip leash Meatball was gone. But I learned from Laura that he had her and her kids pinned in their car a few nights while "a big black dog" without a collar circled around them.  Not knowing his demeanor, they played it safe.

I just want to slap this guy.  I hope Animal Control slaps a huge fine on him, and if he doesn't conform immediately, takes the dog away.  He said he had "rescued" Meatball from the pound about 3 weeks ago.  Some rescue, eh?  It doesn't tally. Doesn't the pound give shots and neuter all their dogs before letting them go?  Don't they screen prospective owners and charge them a fee?  My hunch is Meatball was found on the side of the road, like Lucky, and passed from owner to owner, and has not yet seen a vet, a clinic, or a pound.  He is probably full of worms.

People think they can just "have a dog".  First, a dog is an intelligent being. Second, there is a social responsibility.  Animal care has such a pivotal effect on civilized society, I think "responsible pet ownership" should be taught in grade school.  Isn't "civilization" what we teach in school?  You are taught to read, write and cipher so you can support yourself, vote, and serve your community?  We are taught how to sing, play an instrument, manage our computers, manage our tempers, calculate.  We learn about human rights.  What about animal rights? If they put me in charge, this course would not be "optional" or left to the private sector to teach.

This was not how I intended to spend my day.  But it has got me to thinking about the importance of Animal Control's job in a civilized society.  How nowadays we don't see packs of hungry dogs running the streets like in India, or individual mangy ones like I used to see when I was a child growing up in rural Slidell.  I bet the Romans had some version of Animal Control, though I've never read a thing about it.  Why not?

A Magical Sunday Night

It's always disappointing when Monday night class is cancelled, especially just before an upcoming trial.  So I was very glad I went out to the field Sunday night (last night)  at 5:30 to help set up a 50 x 100 course with Nedra and Polly.  On my way there Nedra called, said it was raining at her house, and they weren't going out.  I needed to put the Field 4 course map in the shed anyway, so I went on out for that.  On the drive down Airline Highway I noticed a pocket of white in the dark clouds up ahead and prayed that it would be right over the field, that it would not be raining, that I could set up the course and run my dogs.

My prayers were answered.  As soon as I got there, it quit raining right over the field -- not even a sprinkle.  It felt like magic.  The air looked kind of purple, too, you know that look.  I was in a protective bubble.  I had the course map, which required 10 wings.  I was alone.  Aha!  I could do an experiment!  Rather than dragging all the wings and jumps and poles all over Field 1, 1 or 2 at a time the way it's always been done, I stacked them all up, criss cross style, on the yellow wagon, then pulled the wagon around to where I needed to offload the various equipment.  Just as I suspected, it took very little effort and a lot less time.

I had offered all the instructors a few months back, via email, to build a wagon for this purpose, but that email was completely ignored. Not one response.  So I let it go.  I wasn't sure the big yellow wagon would work and I wouldn't dare try it with anyone else there for fear of ridicule or censure -- we need the exercise, they won't fit, don't be so lazy, come on forget about it -- but I learned just how to stack the wings so they fit perfect, and have cut the work load in half.

I wasn't able to set up the A-frame, dog walk, or see-saw by myself.  So I got to thinking about a solution for that, too.  The A-frame will need only 2 people instead of 4.  I think I have it, for next to no cost, but I'll need some more alone time on the field to play with that.

I didn't set up the tunnels either, because we have some 15', some 18', and some 20', and none are marked as to length.  I haven't yet learned to recognize them by appearance. I doubt there are many who know.

Meanwhile, it still wasn't raining so I took the time to run the exercises set up on Field 4, a 14 obstacle jumpers course with many twists and turns.  I didn't think either Maxie or Lucky would be able to do it, but Maxie made no errors, and Lucky only 2.  I was amazed.  Just as Lucky completed her 2nd run, it began to drizzle.   My bubble was popping. Time to go.

Nedra had invited me to come see her workshop's progress, but I had declined in favor of practicing in my magical bubble.  The invite was a bit of magic in itself, though, because we so rarely get invited to people's homes any more. John and I will go later in the week.  Since her retirement, Nedra is completely remodelling her workshop in her back yard, and we are very interested in seeing that.

I'm so glad I was able to squeeze off a practice at the Saturday night bonfire, and another one Sunday night, because the Lake Charles trial is in 10 days and tonight's class will most likely be cancelled.  It's been raining all night and most of this morning.  Maybe if I pray for another bubble?

P.S.  Didn't work this time.  Rained Monday night.  No class.  We sat around and watched TV, and I iced my knee.

Bonfire

Last Saturday night was our annual bonfire, a tradition I've kept up for over 30 years, mostly as a way to celebrate Halloween, get together with neighbors, introduce the neighborhood kids to  campfires, weiner roasts and semores, share food and scary stories, and also, and not least, to burn off a lot of the twigs and branches that fall from our trees all year.  With 2.25 acres of forrested yard, we have no shortage of wood to burn.

It's always fun, and since Portia was born on Halloween day, we usually have a cake for her and sing Happy Birthday.  She has come to think of my bonfire as her birthright.  This year it was 85 degrees on Halloween weekend, so she agreed I could put it off a few weeks hoping for cooler weather.  Turns out, it was still warm but at least an acceptable 70 degrees.

Jonathan couldn't come from New Orleans, the first bonfire he's missed since his first in 1998, but also missing were Christa, Garrett, and Schuyler.  But Alex, now 19, brought a friend, and Luis came.  He has missed the last 6 or so, so that was a real treat.

Laura also brought her friend, Lyn, who has moved up north so we haven't seen in 3 or 4 years, and that also was a treat.  We brought out her scarecrow boyfriend, Jack Spratt, whom I jokingly declared to be her "date" at her last 2 bonfires, and who has been in the shed "pining away after her" for 3 years, "without a single love letter or phone call".  We toyed with burning him up (he's old), but Jack looked so good, seemed so large and sturdy and happy to see her, everyone had so much fun adding their bits to the heartfelt love story, we finally decided to keep him.

Lyn has never met Maxie or Lucky, so at some point she asked for an agility demo. I quickly arranged the equipment into a sort of long course, everyone moved to the back yard, and I put both dogs thru their paces for about 10 minutes.  Max was rarin' to go, but he had screaming fits when I handed him to Audrey and gave Lucky her turn.  Lucky did okay, too, but at one point knocked me down.  I was able to roll, and catch myself, so no damage done. John said the comments were very positive.  I had a blast and it was the highlight of my evening.  I was really happy to be able to squeeze off a practice session.

Portia, age 8, took great interest in learning the hand signals for Maxie's tricks (sit, down, stay, go around, roll over), then even more interest in playing retrieve with Lucky.  She handled herself well and stuck with that for about 30 minutes in the side yard, all by herself.  I told her mom she showed great potential, that very few kids are that interested in training dogs.  Perhaps I could be interested in working with her, as I would with Jonathan if he were closer and more interested. 

We'll have to see what pans out next year. Yet another thing to look forward to.

"The Cognitive Edge" Online Course

In 5 more days I'll be 64. It's Michele's "birthday season", my friends say. So I bought myself another birthday present a few days ago (with my husband's blessing so we've agreed it's from him) -- Susan Garrett and John Cullen's joint venture in sports psychology -- to help atheletes develop a pre-game routine that sets up consistently calm, focused performances. The course has a 14 day money back guarantee, and it all comes to you online.

Just to recap. For the $197 price tag you get:

1) The "Pre Competition Routine for Big Events" video
2) The "Pre Competition Routine for Big Events" companion ebook
3) Access to the gurus: Three hour long webinar/coaching calls with John Cullen and Susan Garrett to really help you to unlock the power of your mental game.
4) Bonus #1: my "Without Pressure You Get No Diamonds" ebook.
5) Bonus #2: John's "Finding Your Ideal Performance State" ebook.
6) Bonus #3: The "Pre Competition Routine for Big Events" MP3 recording for your ipod.

So far I've received:

• Pre-competition Routines for Big Events,a 20 page e-book to download and print out, by John Cullen
• Pre-competition Routines for Big Events, a video you download which repeats verbatum the same thing,
• Without Pressure, We Get No Diamonds, a 10 page e-book to download and print out, by Susan Garrett
• Determining your Ideal Performance State (IPS) - a series of charts for studying and ranking your performances, by John Cullen.

Okay, so I woke up yesterday very excited to get this course. I downloaded everything, printed out everything, read everything, listened to everything, and did all the exercises.

My impression so far: it's good, but hardly worth $200. Susan's revolutionary 2x2 Weave Pole training DVD was $79 and am still studying and learning from it a year later. I bought her Success With 1 Jump DVD for $69 and the things I learned in there I use every training session and in my teaching. Will this course contain twice the value or just be twice as expensive?

I'm still waiting for the 3 hour-long webinars to show up. I don't need Bonus #3 as I don't have an ipod.

While I'm waiting, let me state my BIG GRIPE with e-book publishers.

• Color: Why do they insist on putting so much color in their E-books? We have to print this out! Why do they make their customers' use up their $75 color ink cartridges printing out stuff that doesn't look worth a crap on bond paper anyway, and conveys NO information? PLEASE, any of you e-book publishers out there, go light on the half-page color photos, full color backgrounds and borders, 72 point bold red letters in your headlines. A touch of color here and there is acceptable, but be respectful of your audience's purse.
• Fine print/grey print. Why all the fine print/light print? Not everybody has 20/20 vision. Some of us need a minimum of 10 point type to see it, even with our 2.75 reading glasses on. On some printers, the grey print prints out so faint it is barely visible. And ink jet printers tend to blur the edges just a bit so the smaller, tighter the letters the more they run together. It costs no more to send things over the internet in 12 point type, black ink, and using a font (Verdana for example) where the letters are spaced further apart than with Arial. Perhaps you sacrifice a bit of "design", but at least it is readable.

For $200 and all the hype about it, I expect a whole lot from this course. At this point and from other e-books I've purchased thru the years, I think it is worth about $29.  Let's see what the 3 Webinars bring me.  I'll post my notes as they come in.

Webinar #1 - Visualization

Webinar #2 - Pre-Competition Routine

Webinar #3 - Power Phrases,

Okay, it's December 28 and I just finished the 3rd webinar.  Based on the 3 of them, I do think the uique tips I received is worth the price I paid for it.  There is a lot of homework. I have taken notes on each webinar and saved them in my drafts on this blog, but am wrestling with the ethical question of whether I can share them with my readers (current and future), in effect, give the information away.  My notes from each webinar are linked to above, but the links won't work until I resolve this issue.

What I can share for now is, if I do even half the exercises they recommend, this course definitely will help me move upwards and onward!

Maxie's Worst Run Ever

So, today I'm playing with the "embed" feature from my new FoohMaxAgility YouTube Channel.  Of all the videos I took (and so far I've not missed one of Maxie's runs - 16 Q's out of 24 runs), all but the last 2 of them are off my computer and stored solely on my Picasa Web Albums.  I recently discovered I can't transport them to this blog, nor can I ever get them back on my computer!  As I said before, loudly and vociferously, BUMMER!  The only 2 videos I still have on my computer I uploaded to YouTube last night.  I embedded the best one in my last post, and the only one left, it turns out, is truly Maxie and my worst run ever (to date).  But, it's all I've got to work with until Lake Charles at the end of this month.

So, hey, I'm taking advantage of what I've got, and posting MAXIE'S WORST RUN EVER.  It will be a good one to comment on anyway, for all the things that went wrong.  It will help me analyze my problems and get better.  It will help me figure out the judge's calls as recorded on the Scribe Sheet. So here it is:

Maxie and Michele, XS, Saturday October 23, 2010, Kiln, MS
NQ, Eliminated, SCT 74 seconds, Dog's Time: 71.39 sec.
2 Refusals, 2 Wrong Courses, 2 Failure To Performs/Eliminations 

To start with, all 11 8" dogs were eliminated (you can see their videos and scores under my Links (Maxie's Competition Videos - Kiln).  There was not a single Q.  There were a few especially tricky spots:

1. the jump right before the table points straight to the chute (a trap), you have to call D hard to get that left turn to the table.  A lot of large dogs missed this turn and took the chute.
2. The jump right after the table is on a steep angle, easy for D to knock the bar that way, then requires a tight wrap to the chute.

The rest seemed pretty easy, except for those dreaded weaves with the deep divits.  Not all of our rough spots were faulted, and frankly I can't see all the faults that were listed on the scribe sheet.  But I shall comment on each mistake I can see.

1. Maxie broke his start line stay (very rare for him) and had to be repositioned.  I did have enough presence of mind not to cross back over the start line, or I would have had to take off with him from behind the line.
2. Maxie wouldn't come when I called him thru the 1st jump.  I had to move closer in.  What was he waiting for?  Where was his mind?
3. WC, E. Jump after the see-saw, Maxie ran a wide circle backwards, opposite direction of the chute/table problem I had anticipated, and opposite of my body cue.  To make matters worse, I panicked and instead of running behind the jump to pick him up, I ran in front and he took the jump backwards and knocked the bar besides.  My extremely dumb mistake. Where was my mind?
4. Maxie was making mighty wide turns, after the tunnel, after the dog walk.  What caused that?  Was I running too slow to keep him interested? 
5. R, R. Maxie would not do those weaves for anything.  Kept popping out.  They let you try 3 times, even though the run is already an NQ, I'm not sure why but guess it's because you paid $22 for the run and it's bad practice to let D get away with popping out of the weaves, ever.
6. I appear to be walking through half of the run.  Where was my get-up-and-go?

One of these days I'm going to have a more experienced person view this video and tell me where my 2 R's, 2 WC's, and 2 E/F's were.  I truly don't see them all.

And now, from Susan Garrett's blog:

"We are never as omnipotent as our biggest fan may envision– nor are we as incompetent as our worst critic would have us."

Not that I have any fans except a few family and friends rooting for us, but I am sure I have critics, myself included.

So much to learn. Upward and onwards!

YouTube Channel

I just discovered I can have my very own Video Channel on YouTube  and store my videos there for free!  AND, I can embed them in this blog any time I want.  I spent most of last evening poking around Youtube and learning the system - how to upload, set captions, etc., because I am very disappointed with my Picasa Web Albums at the moment.  I had uploaded all of Maxie's agility videos to date to Picasa (a good thing) -- then deleted them from my computer altogether (a bad thing).  Then I found out I can never download them back to my computer again.  They are up there for good.  I can't edit, combine, take a snippet, nothing. I am really bummed out with Google.

This morning I successfully watched my first uploaded video, and now I am going to try to embed it right here:

Michele and Maxie,
XJ, Saturday Oct. 23, 2010, Kiln, MS
Score: 100, 2nd Place, 2nd leg
SCT 46 sec, our time: 46.95 seconds (the visit with the photographer cost us 7 seconds).
A slow, wabbly run, but we made it. 

Okay, so it embedded and centered.  Great!  Now I can post detailed comments about my runs while they are still fresh in my mind.  Only thing is, I can't seem to size the video any larger or smaller.  Humm!  Still, pretty cool.

So in my next post I will embed my "Worst Run Ever" to date, and comment on it.  It's pretty sad, but we haven't had any brilliant runs yet, so I'll have to wait to post one of those. 

I am visualizing us running perfectly together, though -- a correographed ballet, perfectly timed, no wabbles, lots of speed and precision, no confusion such as "where the hell do I go next?", or "why did Maxie spin or run way out there and how do I get him back?", or "I'm so exhausted, please don't let me trip over myself or my dog and make a total fool of myself!"

It's harder than it looks, folks, so the bad runs (even if they are Q's) are, so far, far more commonplace than the wonderful ones.  I intend for that to change.