Secret = Search & Rescue dog? Not quite, but we try.

 It's been a tiring few days here. Earlier this week we got word that there was a Klee Kai brought into my local shelter (in Monroe County -- not the one where I work in La Crosse County). Well that's fine and dandy, but she ESCAPED from the play yard when she was left out there unsupervised shortly after she arrived. Sigh. Just goes to show they know nothing about the breed.

They had managed to scan the dog and found a chip before she disappeared, only to find out that the chip was never registered and was traced to a vet clinic in California. We were able to figure out who bred the dog with that information and therefore track down the owner, but it's just been a very odd situation... Let's just say at this point our main concern is to find Lucy and then we'll deal with the rest.

The lost poster above just has a generic Klee Kai photo, as we hadn't yet managed to make contact with the owner for an actual current picture. She provided one today, so this picture is actually Lucy. For those who aren't familiar, she's more of a "Dark" Klee Kai, which isn't a color we see as often.

We went out searching last night, which the dogs thought was great fun! We parked at a gas station just west of the shelter and took off walking on a road going north. We ran into a snowmobile trail, so I followed it and came across a really old trail of some sort, which we then followed back to the highway at a point east of the shelter -- so we covered a lot of ground! Thankfully Luke helped to find the way back to the car. The path back was pretty thick and obscured and we would have missed the turn if not for him. Secret had gone running right past it.

We heard lots of rustling, but there was a lot of wildlife. We saw several deer on our way out of the woods and thankfully I got Secret back on leash before she registered what they were.

Tonight we went out again, but hit up the area across the highway from the shelter. The first positive sign I encountered was when I discovered a business had placed a water dish and a food dish (that was empty) out on their front sidewalk. Hmm, I thought that was interesting. We explored the land all around the business and didn't find anything, so we continued on our way.

We found this really interesting trail system that apparently belongs to some hunting store nearby. I thought it would be a good place for a Klee Kai to explore and hide out! We followed the trail to the end and then hit the road and continued until we hit the next highway before turning around to go back to the car.

I decided to go back up to the business where I'd found the dishes before throwing in the towel for the night. It was almost dark, so there wasn't much more I could do. As we were walking up the drive towards the dishes I spotted a small figure in the parking lot about 100 yards away or so. My eyes didn't register it well at first and it wasn't moving. As we started to walk towards it the animal took off. I called out, "Lucy!!" and she stopped, looked back at me and then ran into the woods. I think it was her!!

Long story short, my dad brought a live trap over and we set it at the entrance to the woods where she ran off. I called and left a message at the business to let them know what is going on and hopefully get some information from someone there if there have been sightings.

I am exhausted. I really hope we find Lucy soon. I torture Kaiser and squeeze him extra hard because I can't imagine if he was out there scared and alone.

We brought Nationals to us!

While I am wallowing in sorrow at not being able to attend any fun national agility events this year, I had a super fun time cheering on all of my agility friends from home as they rocked Cynosport in Colorado this past week. Several of the local agility crowd did super awesome! I had fun tracking Nari's progress as well -- we always have to root for the Klee Kai! They ended up in the Grand Prix finals!

There was quite a bit of buzz online when the Team Jumpers course was posted on Friday. The Team events don't have the same "rules" as the traditional classes, so the judges tend to throw fun stuff at everyone. The main chatter for this course centered around the pull between jumps after the last tunnel. I thought it looked super fun, so I printed it out hoping that one of these days I'd actually have the energy to play with it.

Well, I didn't have the energy, but I pushed through tonight anyhow. I spent about as much time/energy filling Secret's STUPID HOLES in the yard as I did setting the course. I've taken to locking the dog door after we are in for the night to keep her in, as that's when she tends to go out and do the most damage. She is, of course, also ripping up landscape fabric on a near daily basis, but she isn't doing quite so much damage there anymore (probably because we are running low on landscape fabric at this point).

Secret did a great job with this Jumpers course! She tended towards being sticky at the third jump and I found I really needed to support it to get her over it smoothly -- she wasn't so keen on the Ketchkers there today.

I also had to be sure to support jump nine (the wrap) or she'd stop short. Secret has always been good at reminding me to support obstacles. I can tend to get lazy since Kaiser & Luke both tend to be "point and shoot" because their momentum carries them over.

The sequence following the broad jump was fairly embarrassing for me. I thought front crosses were the obvious choice, but lord help me I could NOT get there for Secret (typically because I was stuck supporting the wrap, whereas I could send Kaiser and run). Thankfully, though, she handled the sequence really nicely with rear crosses and other odd combinations I threw at her.

Secret's weaves were lovely tonight, I'll give her that! My course only had six weaves because I couldn't squeeze all 12 in for whatever reason. Partially due to the difference caused by the 24" spacing, but I must have set the right side of the field a little tight. Oh well. I also ran out of jumps, so the two "jumps" after the weave poles (that you can't see on camera) are hoops.

We were 50/50 on that pull through the jumps at the end. When we missed it, it was all my fault (ie: lean towards the jump and expect your dog to take it!). For sure we started to get worse as I got more and more tired. We did take a break around the 7 minute mark and then I brought Secret out for a second go after Kaiser was done. This always recharges us both!



Kaiser was a good little Klee Kai tonight, if you don't count the fact that he wouldn't hold his start line for anything. I edited out the NUMEROUS times I went back and reset him when he broke (and of course, I'm sure all of the times I let him break and kept running helped this so much...).

Kaiser did better than usual with the wraps, but he wouldn't let me Ketschker on him. lol He only crashed one jump on one of the first runs and thankfully he didn't seem to let it bother him too much.

I expected the ending to be nearly impossible for Kaiser because he seems to have it in his head that if there is an obstacle within eyesight, he should take it on his way to me. That said, he did REALLY well! Now, would he do this well in a trial? Probably not -- so who is to blame? Oh yes, probably me.  :o)



I am not leaving Luke's video out this time -- Luke didn't get to play tonight.  :o(  I'm not sure what happened, but this morning he "couldn't" run when we went out to play fetch before work. He wasn't limping, but he was gaiting oddly. He was not reactive to any poking and prodding, so I decided to just let him be and see how he does. He was NOT happy that I didn't let him play tonight. He was running around the yard like a fruit loop while I set up and tore down, though, so he seems to be feeling better. My first thought was Lyme or Anaplasmosis again, but we'll see. I'll keep an eye on him and see if it crops up again.

Taking advantage of the nice weather!

Autumn is officially on us, but thankfully I was able to take advantage of another beautiful day that we have been blessed with -- This afternoon it was in the mid-70's, a welcome warmth after recent days with highs in the 50's and low 60's.  I figured I couldn't NOT set up something for the dogs, and the open September issue of Clean Run laying on the table seemed like the most obvious choice.

Secret did great, when her handler wasn't a moron.  There was even one point where I managed to almost get my finger bit off when I stuck it right in her mouth.  Brilliant, I tell you.  She got me with a back molar, so I'm lucky it wasn't worse than it was.  I tried to get a picture but my camera phone wouldn't focus -- But I did get a good shot of it on video that I included at the end of her runs.



The purpose of these drills was to work the dog around a tunnel while keeping them in focus -- ie: Not tunnel sucking.  Surprisingly, that turned out to not be a problem for any of them.  This was most shocking for Kaiser, who, at one point, ran PAST the tunnel when I expected him to take it.  lol  Lesson learned, support your obstacles.

Secret had more dropped bars than typical (of course, "typical" is none), but every single one of them was my fault.  In a way, though, it's nice to see her being more efficient over the jumps, too.  So often she's over-jumping and getting way too much air.



Kaiser was a good little man, but that's pretty normal at home.  ;o)  He wasn't quite so zippy as I like to see him, but these drills required quite a bit of handling and he tends to be more careful in those cases.  No knocked bars for the wee one tonight, which is nice, especially considering the jumps were set at 12".  I'll be interested to see what he does at New Berlin next month for USDAA.  I thought he jumped okay the last time we were there, but now I sit and stress about lighting for him...  Showing outside made it obvious that his jumping issues are largely related to indoor lighting, but there isn't much we can do living and showing in the upper midwest.



Check it out, I made Luke his own video!  Normally I just skip him on these drills or throw him in with Kaiser, but the old man kind of rocked tonight, so I thought he deserved his own video.  :o)  These exercises are not his cup of tea, but he did awesome.  Maybe he's starting to get used to all the weird stuff I've thrown at him this year?

In addition to the beautiful evening, I suppose I'm also inspired by my jealousy of all the teams headed off to USDAA Cynosport this week and NADAC Champs next week.  Sniff.  I am stuck at home, without even a trial to attend until the middle of next month.  There is a NADAC trial in Zumbro Falls -- one of my favorite trials -- but I can't go because I have to work.  Sigh.

I can haz ALL the toys

 I did something nice for the dogs today. PetSmart donated a crap load of toys to the shelter (seriously, like eight boxes full of them), so I bought a bundle for the dogs. At $1 each, I figured it didn't matter much if Secret destroyed them in five minutes like she usually does.

Her mind was a little blown and she just went into hoard mode. Kaiser did zoom off with a yellow duck and took it outside to avoid the wrath of Secret, but before I started this post she went out to get it and added it to her pile. And just to spite Kaiser, I'm sure, she decapitated his yellow duck first.

I figured I owed Secret some fun, since life is so crappy and dull for her lately. I mean, it can't be THAT bad -- We now play ball in the morning and frisbee at night, so that's more "fetching fun" than she used to experience. But I'm still gone 7 days a week for like 10 hours or more at a time, so that kind of sucks for the dogs. Okay, it sucks for me, too.

And now we don't even have a trial until the middle of October, so BOO on that. We haven't done any sort of agility work since our NADAC trial last weekend, though, so I shouldn't whine too much... OH, speaking of -- Super exciting, the results were uploaded to the NADAC web site already and Secret had a run index of 90.16 for her Jumpers run on Sunday!  Wheee!!!  It's her highest DRI ever!

Secret is making her own fun these days, another reason I figured it wouldn't hurt to throw a passel of toys at her. She continues to sporadically play tug with the landscape fabric under the rock. I've reached the point where I've given up and just cut it off and reorganize the rock when this happens. I tried once to "fix" it and decided this is an impossible task. In addition to the tugging fun, Secret is digging holes as fast as I can fill them these days. I'm almost looking forward to the ground freezing so that fun game stops at least.

This would be why we tell people with busy lifestyles that a border collie probably isn't their best choice for a house pet.....

Loads of fun (but still no NATCH)

 I almost gave up on trying to get all three dogs in one shot with their ribbons.  Oh my lord, Secret is such a bitch.  This is as close as I could get Kaiser and Luke to her.  lol  Poor boys, having to live with her.

Today wrapped up a fun-filled weekend at Family Dog Center here in La Crosse!  The courses this weekend weren't that bad.  The Jumpers courses, as usual, were certainly the most fun/interesting to run.  The Regular runs had their ups and downs, but the dogs had fun and that's surely what matters most.  No matter what, I'll never be able to say that my dogs dislike NADAC courses.  It's always good to have fun trial experiences!

Secret was a happy girl in general this weekend.  She was also a very BARKY girl in her crate, despite being covered up at all times.  In addition to barking at what seemed like any dog that went by (especially herding breeds), she also has begun to bark when I take the boys out to run.  Jealous?  Or just likes to bark?  Probably both, but I do think she's starting to WANT to be out there playing with me.  That's wonderful!

Secret started out the morning with a WONDERFUL Jumpers run.  She had the 2nd fastest time of all dogs in Elite (behind Flint, the world's most amazing Australian Shepherd) and clocked 5.9 yps.  I do believe that's probably her best ever!  There was one hitch when I over-handled a turn with a tight off course possibility, but after that it was smooth sailing with lots of pretty front crosses and a blind thrown in for fun.  I love watching this run on video, she's really moving nicely!

The baby dog was the only one of my three to get Chances today.  It wasn't nearly so easy as yesterday's course, but nor was it one of the hardest we've seen.  Secret was a GOOD DOG and redirected perfectly after I called her too hard and pulled her past the jump.  For real, she's now just FOUR Chances Q's from NATCH.

Secret saved my butt and ran clean despite my super crappy handling in the first round of Regular.  There was this nasty hoop box that just called for an off course moment, so I was way over-handling.  I also ran like a freak in the opening sequence because everything was all squished in one place and I didn't know where to put myself.  lol  Secret almost went off course to the weaves and then kind of lost trust in me for a bit after that.  Thankfully I convinced her I wasn't a nutcase, until I almost shoved her off course again.  ;o)  Man, I'm glad she's becoming so forgiving of my mistakes.

Round two of Regular was much better, though, and Secret was a champ.  She went Q/1st in that class, for a PERFECT DAY!  Yay!!  Good girl, Secret.


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So yup, Secret bumped Luke off his "perfect day throne."  And apparently Luke gladly relinquished it, as he was lucky to squeak out a 5 pt Q in Regular today and that's it!!  I hate those darn half Q's, but in cases like this I guess I'm glad to get anything. lol  Plus it balances out the one he got at the MMBC trial, so it's all good.

Jumpers was my fault for sure.  I caused a knocked bar and then just did all sorts of stupid things because I tend to mentally quit at that point with Luke.  I don't know why I do that with him more than the others, but I don't think he cares and at that point all I care is that he's having fun out there.

Chances was just kind of naughty.  I called, perhaps a smidge late, Luke looked at me, looked at the tunnel, looked at me and took the tunnel.  You darn dog.  You're lucky I love you so much.  :o)

I was trying to stay way lateral in Regular 1 because of the crowded landscape and apparently to Luke this meant, "jump off the side of the dog walk right above the yellow."  We held it together nicely for Round 2, but my mistimed flailing arm totally caused the knocked bar.


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 Kaiser, Kaiser, Kaiser.  He started his day with a great Jumpers run!  I think he was probably third fastest behind Secret, and that was with a fairly quirky bobble at the wonky turn.  He's Kaiser, after all.  The course had a super fun zippy ending, which always makes him happy.

I swear I didn't psych myself out today for Chances like I did yesterday.  I don't even think I screwed up the run.  I called him WAY early, but he could see that off course tunnel while he was in the other tunnel and I guess that's just what he wanted to do.  He is a Klee Kai, after all.  ;o)  The course he made up was very pretty, even if it wasn't the right one.  Several dogs actually took that route -- I joked that if that would have been the designed course, you know we would have had dogs sucking in to the jump left and right!

We still couldn't manage a Regular Q today.  We got close, though!  Apparently Kaiser didn't like my front cross following a jump after the weave poles and he took a detour to the dog walk.  And he'd gotten his dog walk contact prior to that, so we should have been golden.  Oh well.  It wasn't the dog walk that got us on the 2nd round, either.  Kaiser hit the a-frame wonky at the start and just didn't have quite the necessary "oomph" to pop into the yellow, so he got called there and then took the darn tunnel under the dog walk that he'd just taken as an off course option in the last round.  Leave it to Kaiser!

We ended on a high note, though, with a lovely Hoopers run for a Q and his Open title (yay, I can fill in that spot on his record sheet and leave Open behind!).  It wasn't his fastest run by a long shot, clocking 5.5 yps, but it was a nice steady run with a zippy and fun finish.


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After the last trial where Kaiser didn't get his NATCH, I ordered a shirt from GreatDanePhotos to make myself feel better.  This time my consolation prize was a new tire.  :o)

Family Dog Center randomly has agility equipment set off to the side at trials which is for sale.  I saw the tire laying there yesterday and pondered it for a while.  It's a small tire (I measured it today, it's 18") and I thought it would be good to have the dogs practice on a USDAA-sized tire.  At the last trial Secret over jumped and plowed her head into the top of the tire.  Hopefully practicing on a smaller tire (vs. the stretched out 24" one I have) will help the dogs to stay thoughtful about their tire performance.  I have no plans of asking Luke to even attempt the small tire, though....

I think most people have a 20" tire by now, but this will do. And look how pretty it is!  Mine is starting to look pretty beat up.

The only surprise I had was that my side lines apparently don't come off my other tire because the hanger hooks don't fit through the rings.  Whoops.  Well, there goes that idea.  My tire also has the hanger hook attached to it that loops through the adjustable cord on top -- the new tire just has an open ring.  Whoops again.

Carabiner hooks to the rescue!  Thankfully I had several spares laying around.  Five hooks and some parachute cord later and I have a functional (albeit not terribly "safe") hanging tire.  Sweet.

Great dog, shame about the handler

I think I'll put that saying on my next shirt design.  ;o)  But this is the latest wonderful creation from Amy at GreatDanePhotos.  Amy got so many wonderful pictures of the dogs at the MMBC trial over Labor Day weekend that I knew I needed to do something.  Since I never do anything with prints, I figured another shirt was my best bet.  No, I don't need another shirt, but it was my consolation prize for Kaiser not getting his NATCH.

Speaking of....  :o(   Nope, the little man did not get his NATCH at today's trial, either.  I totally psyched myself out.  In Chances terms, it was an *easy* course that all three of my dogs should be able to do in their sleep.  However, those are the courses you have to watch out for, as they seem to be the easiest to screw up.  I had it in my head that Kaiser could easily screw up in two spots -- he could miss the turn away into the pinwheel and shoot off course towards the tunnel or he would come blasting out of the tunnel so fast that he'd run past the a-frame, as he has been known to do.  He did both.  Totally my fault.

Secret was a good girl today!  She was running with good speed -- so good that I was totally late with a turn command out of a tunnel and she took an off course hoop.  It would help if I would handle my dog, not just watch her, you think?

The second round of Regular went much better for a Q.  Secret wasn't single stepping her weaves or anything today, but they were good trial speed for her!

I knew Secret could handle this Chances run no problem, and I was right.  What a good girl.  I do need to start being careful, though, because her contacts are getting sloppy....  That said, when I looked at my records tonight I see that the baby dog is now just FIVE Chances Q's from her NATCH!  Holy cow, how did that happen?

Luke was a superstar today.  It has felt like we just haven't "clicked" at the last several trials, but today we felt like a real team again.  Luke had a perfect day, going four for four!  Yay, old man!  He's looking great at 12".  There were no bonus line opportunities to tempt me and I shouldn't be trying them anyhow.  Maybe some day we'll start to train for that again....

Aside from not getting Chances, Kaiser didn't get either Regular run, either.  BUT, it was not for getting his dog walk called.  ;o)  Hey, I have to appreciate the little things here.  He did have a lovely Jumpers run at the end of the day for his only Q, though.  Hopefully we can improve on that tomorrow.  And, fingers crossed, maybe I won't totally psych myself out over that darn Chances run.

Video!

Secret


Luke


Kaiser


And a super fun highlight of my day -- My friend, Colleen, let me run her baby dog, Jet.  Jet just started trialing a few months ago and so far nobody else has tried to run him.  Colleen didn't think he would run for me, but she was game to let me try.  It was a giant thrill, as I've always wanted to try my hand at running a "really fast" dog.  What a rush, he's an awesome dog!

The least motivating course ever?

First of all, holy cow, I actually set a course and trained the dogs tonight!  That seems to happen once in a blue moon these days.  Perhaps I'm motivated by the beautiful stretch of weather we've been blessed with recently?  I'm on day two of testing the waters of giving up caffeine, so surely THAT can't be motivation. lol  If anything, that might be part of the reason I ended up getting so frustrated (with myself).

I don't get completely skunked on a Chances course all that often.  Usually I'll get lucky with at least one of the dogs, so the course at our most recent NADAC trial really threw me for a loop.  As I mentioned in that post, all three dogs faulted in a different part of the course, so it was a deceptively difficult course.  Namely because of the "box of doom."

I set the course at home tonight, minus the a-frame at the beginning.  Yes, my contacts still haven't made it out of the garage this year (I'm not seeing much point now) and since nobody faulted the discrimination at the start I wasn't going to worry about it.  The rest of the course was going to be enough...

Secret's first problem area was exactly where it was at the trial -- getting the furthest "out" jump before the 180 turn.  As she did at the trial, I was able to redirect her over the jump, which left us no room to send to the tunnel.  Even when I thought I was able to shape the turn better, it still was next to impossible to get the send to the tunnel -- even Kaiser, my tunnel sucker extraordinaire (to the point where he will jump in tunnels that I'm carrying!), struggled mightily with that part.  Oh, and of course he also did exactly what he did at the trial and ran straight into the off course tunnel after the first turn.

I know Secret doesn't have 8 million repetitions in her and I could feel her shutting down every time we screwed up.  I was frustrated with myself and then I got frustrated because Secret was giving up on me.  At one point I just walked away and she stood and watched me (which I felt bad for doing, obviously).  We tried once more after that and I decided to just run with her the whole way.  Still, though, when we reached that evil box where she had been corrected too many times she just stopped.  So I did, too.  I put her away and worked the boys.

When I finished up with Luke, Secret acted like she still wanted to play, so I brought her out to try again.  I switched toys from the rubber stick to a squeaky Wubba and she seemed a bit more jazzed.  On the first go-round I didn't worry so much about the line and just ran with her to keep her happy.  During our first session we'd never even made it to the weaves at the end of the course, so that was the main goal.  :o)

She was much happier this time and I pushed for a bit more distance on each subsequent run.  After a few tries we were hitting the Elite distance from the trial.  I would hoot and holler every time Secret got the send to the tunnel, which really jazzed her up and made her weave fast. lol  It also built up her confidence so that she was less hesitant through the box.

There is no doubt, this course really uncovered our weaknesses.  This is one, even without a dog walk, that I don't know that I'd care to try again at a trial.  It was just so demotivating for all of the dogs.  Even Luke, though he got it fairly quickly tonight, just didn't seem to be a fan.

I got all three dogs on video, but only Secret's has been edited thus far.  If I get around to the boys' video I'll add it later.

Our whirlwind outdoor weekend!

We survived our crazy trip to the Cities, attending two different outdoor trials in two days!  And while I still feel it was a somewhat silly thing to do, I can at least say that I wasn't the only one.  A surprising number of people opted to "divide their loyalties" between trials this weekend.  There were a minimum of four of us who were at NADAC on Saturday and USDAA on Sunday -- one friend decided to stay and do another day of NADAC, or there would have been five.

The whole business of setting up/tearing down wasn't that bad.  The Alimagnet Dog Park where the NADAC trial was located this weekend was wonderful.  Minnesota Mixed Breed Club used to hold their outdoor trials at a park in Savage, which was a nice park, but no matter how you looked at it the parking was horrible.  I was able to park fairly close to my tenting area at the new park, so it wasn't that bad of a haul.  I also minimized as much as possible, bringing only the soft x-pen for the boys and the soft crate for Secret -- all surrounded/contained by two metal x-pens so they could be loose when I was there.  All told, I think I made equal (or fewer!) trips than I do for indoor trials and it was a closer set-up.  On Sunday, at Washington County Fairgrounds, I set the tent up directly out the back of my car, so definitely no complaining there.

Saturday was a super long day.  The alarm went off at 4 a.m. and even the dogs just looked at me like, "You're kidding, right?"  They all enjoyed snoozing in the back of the car on the ride up while I tried to keep from having one of the panic attacks that seems to be plaguing me on long drives these days...  Seriously, I don't know what the heck is going on, but all of my car problems this year have just built on top of each other and I'm convinced that my car is trying to kill me or something.  Oh, since I last posted I had another car issue -- following the break-in, my car was dead the next morning.  That was a fun day.  A fun day with a 2012 Chevy Traverse loaner car.  :o)  So yeah, driving is giving me bad anxiety issues....  I'm thankful for the Xanax prescription I got last month from my doctor.

We got to the trial site in plenty of time on Saturday, giving the dogs time to potty and settle in.  Elite Jumpers started the day.  Kaiser was up first, running small to tall -- The little stinker shot off like a cannon over the first jump and then just ran off yonder with the ye-haws and eventually landed himself in an off course tunnel.  I called him back to me, re-set him at the start (for an E) and then, of course, he ran a lovely & speedy course.  Stinker.  Luke slipped and completely took out the entire jump, but otherwise ran well.  Secret was not terribly focused and dropped her head to check out the grass a time or two (several dogs were having big problems in that ring with smell issues), but she made it through the course clean -- and get this, somehow managed to get 1st in a fairly good-sized group (I counted at least 7).  There must have been a lot of faults, because she only clocked 5.2 yps, which is slow even for her in Jumpers.

Chances was up next and it was Kaiser's big moment to shine!  I was hopeful that he would get his NATCH at this trial because our favorite photographer, Amy, was shooting this weekend.  She did Luke's first NATCH picture and I hoped to get one of hers for Kaiser, too.  Sadly, it was not meant to be.  I said, "out" and Kaiser went OUT -- way out to an off course tunnel that I hadn't even seen as an issue.  Neither Luke nor Secret got it, either.  It's a bad course to skunk all three of my dogs!  They all faulted in different spots, which is interesting.  Secret was doing well, but my poor handling landed me right against the line at a very bad spot.  We actually got OUT of that little mess, but then I was still stuck at the line and we didn't have the momentum to send back out to a tunnel and she took the nearer jump option instead.  Oh well.

The Elite Regular courses weren't much to write home about.  Secret made it through them cleanly with no issues, which is more than I can say for the boys.  The tunnel discriminations got Kaiser once (my crappy handling got him in the other).  Luke also took one of the tunnels (that one was totally my fault, though) and in his second round I guess he knocked a bar that I didn't see and brought home one of those godforsaken 5 point Q's. I wish I could just say, "No thanks, I don't want it."  I hate those things.  The only quirk in Secret's performance was in Round 1 where I totally left her in the weaves and she decided that was rather unmotivating and almost completely stopped.  I made sure to stick with her for the rest of the weekend....

The dogs were done at that point for the day, but I stuck around to work a few more classes since we were just going to be stuck at the hotel all night anyhow.  We packed up and left around 4:30 or so, before they started running Tunnelers.  We stayed at another La Quinta, but we will NOT be staying at the Bloomington location again if I can help it...  There was nothing wrong with the facility itself, but it is just not set up well for dogs.  There was hardly any grass to speak of and the parking/exit door situation is just crazy.  It was like a maze!  I know there were a few other LQ's in that area, so we'll keep that in mind for next time.

Thankfully there was a Starbucks nearby for our 30 minute drive to Lake Elmo/Washington County Fairgrounds.  I was none too early, though, and didn't even get to set anything up before the briefing/walk-through.  Secret was up first in P2 Gamblers.  She had a really nice opening, earning 20 points before the buzzer sounded, but then she faulted in the gamble by refusing the teeter.  :o(  After the whistle blew I stepped over the line and did manage to get her over the teeter before leaving the ring.

Kaiser!!  What a little turd.  lol  Let's point out the good stuff -- he was running awesome and jumping just like he does at home.  This leads me to believe that a very large portion of his jumping issues ARE related to eyesight and lighting issues.  He was just spunky and full of himself, which meant he was a bit of a loon.  He would have Q'd easily IF he would have gotten EITHER of his dog walk contacts....  His two sets of weaves and the bonus tire he threw in only netted him 14 points, though, and I think he needed 18 in the opening.  Of course, for once he even managed to stop on the teeter in the gamble.  Figures.

Secret's P2 Standard run started out with a bobble right away, but that was all my fault.  She was actually jumping in extension down the opening line and I failed to properly cue the slight turn to the a-frame, causing a run-out.  In Advanced, refusals are only counted on, you got it, contact obstacles.  From there it was a lovely run, until the second obstacle from the end.  Do you remember how she got on the dog walk in Chicago and jumped off before she hit the top?  Yup, she did it again.  What the heck?  She didn't have ANY dog walk issues at the NADAC trial on Saturday.  This tells me that we MUST plan a Gamblers course that includes the dog walk at our next trial....

Kaiser, Kaiser, Kaiser...  With his new-found confidence he was off like a rocket at the start, which put me behind him at the a-frame (which I was approaching hesitantly due to his habit of running around the first one at USDAA trials).  He sailed right up and over that baby -- and launched over the contact.  Sigh.  The rest of his run was GREAT, including a fabulous teeter AND a stop on the dog walk.

Pairs was up next -- Secret was entered; Kaiser was not.  For the first time ever, Secret actually had a Pairs partner and wasn't a draw!  I cannot, therefore, tell you how sorry I was for the person in our group who was a draw.  Nobody would volunteer to run with her, and there were at least six, possibly eight, people who could have stepped forward.  I apologized and said that I didn't feel Secret WOULD run twice in a row, plus she would then be required to do the dog walk and the odds weren't looking so hot.  As it was, my partner ended up volunteering and ran with her.  We had a great partner with a young Terv.  It worked out perfectly, as she was hoping to get the first part with fewer jumps and I was glad to avoid the dog walk after what happened in Standard.  Our partner knocked one bar, but we were still a good 10 seconds under time for 1st place.  Secret had her fastest weaves of the weekend in that run -- of course, because I was holding "a toy."  I was proud of her for holding her stay while I got the baton from our partner (who was not sure what her dog would do out there and was happy to learn that I could have Secret stay well out of the way).

I planned a very conservative Snooker run for Secret.  The 7 was a set of six weaves and a jump and I just didn't feel like throwing it at her.  It was hot, she was melting and I just wanted to get enough points to Q.  That said, we did go for all four reds because it worked out that way.  We did 1-2, 1-6, 1-4, 1-3 and then the buzzer sounded as we were going over the last 7 jump, so we got credit through six.  And that's fine, I think I had it figured out that we needed to get through six and we did!

Kaiser's weaves are his strong point and I couldn't find a different plan that I felt I could prevent him from taking an off course jump, so I went for all sevens with him.  P1 only had the option of three reds, so with him I went 1-7 (7 was still the same combination), 1-7, 1-7 and we got through six before the buzzer sounded.  With his plan we only needed to get through five to Q.  We impressed the judge, though -- Aside from being the only pair to attempt three 7's in P1/Starters, Kaiser had a little turd moment and shot past the weaves on the first approach.  BUT, and I wish I had it on video, he took the weaves from the opposite direction on his recall to me, so I was able to continue on with the plan. lol  I heard a few murmurs when he did that -- Heck, I was surprised, too, as I stood and watched him weave towards me!  I just laughed and ran with it.

Our day ended with Jumpers.  It was a very nice course for both dogs.  Secret was getting pretty blah in the heat, so I spent a good 10 minutes rubbing down her belly with ice cubes prior to her run and I think it helped.  She also spent some time that afternoon wearing Luke's (much too large for her) Cool Coat that I soaked in ice water from the cooler.  She put in a lovely and smooth run for a Q/1st and her P2 Jumpers title!!  That means on to P3 for the baby dog!!!  I can't wait to attack those Masters courses.

With his lovely outdoor jumping, Kaiser had no issues and sailed through his P1 course -- also earning Q/1st and his very first USDAA title!  Doesn't that work out just grand?  Secret moves out of P2 and Kaiser moves in.  :o)  Works for me.

We were all ever so thankful to have a lazy day off at home today.  Yay for Labor Day!  And we are enjoying the treat we came home to -- my parents came on Saturday and laid down the pea gravel in the dog yard!  The dogs were super interested in it when we arrived home.  I don't know that anyone has "used" it yet, but they'll get their chance tomorrow.

The best news of all is that I only have one more week/weekend of work and then we get to play again!  We have NADAC in La Crosse in two weeks and hopefully with TWO shots at it, Kaiser will get that final Chances run for his NATCH....

But he IS a Klee Kai so you never know.....  lol

For Kaiser's sake, I am going to keep my options open and add more outdoor trials to our calendar.  Unfortunately for him, we appear to be out of opportunities until next spring.  The lighting at Think Pawsitive in New Berlin seems to be fairly good for him, though, so we'll see how it goes in October.  I'm happy to have somewhat of an "answer" on his jumping issues.  But mostly I was just so happy to see how much fun he was having without the stress of his vision issues.

We got mail! :o)

I love getting mail that isn't bills.  I especially love getting title certificates without even asking for them!

Secret is now "official."  We received her Performance Dog certificate in the mail along with her P1 Gamblers and P1 Standard titles.  I think it's humorous that I get so excited over Starters titles on a dog that nearly has her NATCH, but it is what it is.  I'm sure I'll be equally excited when Kaiser earns his first USDAA titles (which sadly has yet to happen....).

I've gone a week without updating my blog because there really isn't much to update.  The poor dogs are settling in to their new boring lifestyle.  I am so not digging the routine of leaving them for five days during the week only to leave them on the weekends, too.  :o(  I just feel terribly guilty about the whole thing and feel bad that I pretty much see my dogs four hours a day, seven days a week.  It's making the decision to cut down to one job much easier, I'll put it that way.....  I haven't made any official statement, but I do think I have to do it or I'll go crazy.  The new job is a lot more mentally taxing than my position with the family business was, so I think I've reached the point where I *need* a weekend.  And thankfully my new job puts me in a position where this is actually possible.

I figure I should commit to the published September schedule -- which hopefully won't be too bad since I'm off this weekend and then again on the 15th/16th for the NADAC trial in La Crosse.  That two week stretch after that is going to blow, though, and I hardly feel like I can ask off the first weekend in October because I'm off the two weekends after that.  So yes, the end of September does seem like the best timing.  The shelter has put out word that they are hiring another part time weekend/evening caregiver, so hopefully that happens soon so that I don't have to feel too guilty.  I'm going to feel bad enough leaving the great group of people that I've gotten to know over the last two years.  I can't tell you, though, how awesome it will be to have weekends again.

Speaking of weekends, we are off to Minnesota this weekend!  Yay!!  Of course, though, wouldn't you know that the weather report kind of stinks.  After being blessed with lovely, cooler weather the last couple of weeks, we are on our way back up.  The forecast for this weekend is back in the 90's, currently with a chance of storms on Sunday.  Figures.  It's the only outdoor trial(s) I sign up for this entire year.  Oh well, it is what it is.  We'll just try to stay cool and have fun.  :o)  It's better than working, right?!

Crappy news of the day -- Someone broke into my car at work today.  :o(  The only thing of "value" in my car is a crappy super old Garmin that takes me 10 minutes to get plugged in because the connectors are worn out.  So of course that's what they took, along with the super annoying electronics splicer that glows bright blue and gives me a headache when it's dark outside.  They left the window hanger suction cup (which they had to physically remove, so I don't get it) and didn't take my phone car charger, my CDs or my nifty digital tire pressure gauge (yay, I love that thing).  Losers.  Guess that's what I get for leaving my windows cracked in a parking ramp.  It could surely be worse, but it kind of blows to lose my Garmin right before a trip up to the Cities.  Thank goodness my dad has several (for whatever reason) and I can borrow one of his.  But seriously, people suck.

Weave video

Doesn't Secret look ever so fetching when I wake her up to go to bed?  When she's not going completely loony running around in the yard, I swear she's the laziest dog on the planet.  When Secret crashes, she CRASHES.

Looking at her ear set in this photo, maybe it's not so bad that Secret didn't end up with prick ears.  lol

Tonight when I got home from work (!!) I set up the video camera to try to catch Secret's progress with her speed work through the weaves.  As is customary when I set up the camera for this sort of thing, I inevitably ended up pushing her to go too long and this shows in her footwork.  The first few repetitions were super awesome and after that she starts to do some funky things.  I used the half-time feature to slow it down and study this.  I'm not worried about it -- I think it's a combination of getting tired and still figuring out this footwork thing.  Like I said before, she didn't used to really single step on closed poles AT ALL --- so the fact that she's offering it at all is a huge bonus.  :o)

Five hours later, the video is finally done processing....



My first day of work went well!  It will be interesting to see what happens when I actually get to start, you know, working.  ;o)

Big News, Big Changes

Well, a lot has happened since I last posted almost a full week ago.  Whoops, where did time go?  Very little happened, training-wise.  I have been avoiding course work and have instead continued on speed building exercises by combining Secret's play time with agility equipment with the hope that some of that enthusiasm will stick when it comes to trialing.  She continues to do well with figuring out how to keep herself together and negotiate obstacles at speed, so that's a good thing!  Her weaves (all 12) have been absolutely phenomenal.  This evening she sent ahead with me in a stationary position and completed all twelve poles WITH SPEED.  She is even, get this, pushing the unstaked 2x2 poles out of position!  Miss Pris has always been known for weaving in her oh-so-delicate manner, not liking to push the poles with her body.  I was excited to see that tonight.  She was displacing the poles about as much as Luke does!

What else has happened?  Well, Wes (and Lexie) came by for half the day on Friday while my parents made a trip down to Madison.  Secret decided to claim him straight away that morning, which was to Wes' benefit as it kept Kaiser away from him.  Secret had to go and get distracted by playing with Luke, though, which left poor Wes wide open to an "attack" from Kaiser.  Kaiser then got to spend some time in a crate and in his harness with a leash on.  Everyone does really well in the house, but Kaiser is just the play police outside and pounces on Wes when he starts getting playful.  We went through the same thing with Lexie, so hopefully it will pass quickly.  Secret thinks he's a pretty fun play thing, but Wes isn't so thrilled with the way Secret bats at her playmates.  lol

What else.  OH YES.  ;o)  I got a job!  A real, honest-to-goodness professional-type job.  The only downside is that it requires that I drive all the way to downtown La Crosse every day (about 45 minutes in decent traffic), but the upsides far outweigh that.  One upside would be the offer they made me -- an offer that should allow me to eventually cut back to ONE JOB in the near future, should I choose to do so.  Either way, I'm cutting back on hours at the Humane Society.  I won't be able to do the weeknight shifts any longer and I hope to cut back to only about two weekends per month, max.  I figure I should continue to work myself to the bone for a bit longer to try to get some bills paid off.

But now it's time to celebrate!  And how do I celebrate?  By spending copious amounts of money....  Aside from all the money I've been giving to Goodwill lately to build up a semi-professional wardrobe (shelter shirts won't cut it!), I've decided to splurge and add a day of fun to my Labor Day weekend trial trip to the Cities.  It's too late to add Saturday to my USDAA entries that weekend, but it's not too late to enter a NADAC trial in Burnsville.  Because I am not any definition of responsible, the entries are in an envelope next to me and the hotel room is booked!

This should be interesting, going from NADAC on Saturday to USDAA on Sunday.  I don't think Secret will have a problem going from 16" to 22" one day to the next, but I do worry a bit about Kaiser going from 8" to 12" with his jumping issues.  Both trials are outdoors on grass -- another negative, as I don't really want to set up my tent and take it down two days in a row.  Maybe I'll get lucky and get to crate out of the car.  Luke will enjoy getting to come along to play, and hopefully he'll be fine with sitting it out on Sunday since he gets four runs on Saturday.

Either way, I'm totally looking forward to a full weekend of agility playing in both organizations!  :o)

A big life change for the dogs starts tomorrow.  I've been home with them for two weeks now, but starting tomorrow morning they are on their own for full days seven days a week.  Poor dogs.  I see lots and lots of ball & frisbee play in their future....  And Kongs; they will be happy to see those return.

You want me to run fast And jump AND turn?!

Secret's mind is a little blown right now.  This new stupid "rule" that Mom dreamed up has just put a giant crimp in her "let's go outside and just run around like loons" plans.

Yes, I have remained hardcore in my persistence to bring Secret's speed (which I *know* she has when chasing after frisbees and balls) into her agility life.  In doing so, one thing has become abundantly clear.  Secret doesn't know how to make her body do these things at speed.  It's practically like starting at square one.

The other night the exercise was simple -- A lightly curved tunnel leading into a straight line of two jumps set at 22" and spaced roughly 15' or so.  At extension, it was an easy bounce for Secret, if not slightly cramped.  In addition, the first jump was located only about 15'-17' from the tunnel, so she had to be aware and on her toes when she came blasting out looking for her ball.

That second jump in the bounce required a fair bit of effort and oomph to snap up in time -- So much so that Secret quite frequently tried the option of running past it.  We worked through this issue, but it reared its ugly head the next night when I decided to throw TURNS into the equation.  I set up a jump on a ninety-degree turn into the set of two jumps and you would have thought keeping her line to the last jump was darn near impossible for as many tries as it took.  The absolute last thing I wanted to do was to slow her down to get it, but after enough repetitions she began to throw in a short stride between the jumps anyhow.  But still today, this whole turning and jumping while running fast is obviously pretty new stuff for her.  Training Fail.

Today I also dragged all 12 weaves out into the yard to focus on good speed and footwork through the long set.  We had a little less single stepping than we experienced with the six poles, but she was still driving nicely through (only leaving early once).  I am trying very, very hard to keep play sessions short so that I don't have to resort to rewarding less than speedy performances.  Today we went out twice -- Once for her (now broken) Jolly Ball and the second time for her frisbee.  I imagine tomorrow will be more of the same, although I will alter the set-up some to focus on this turning issue.

She has knocked a few bars in her rush, but I believe this to be a GOOD THING.  Historically, knocking a bar horrifies Secret and sets her back on her butt, slowing her down even more.  At this stage of things, I wouldn't mind a few knocked bars here and there if it was for the greater good.  I have no delusions of Secret turning into the next Zing (a *super* fast border collie that is pretty darn amazing), but I sure would be happy to see her run in true extension at a trial every now and then.

Continuing with Backyard Dogs...

With the cooler weather that has blessed us with its presence (yesterday was a high of 69, today has been mid 70's), the dogs are definitely overflowing with energy.  Kaiser and Secret spend a huge majority of their waking hours running around outside together -- more than I can ever recall in the past!  Secret's rise in energy has also been increasing her naughty, naughty habit of digging....

So I figured we may as well put that energy to good use and train again today.  I know, two days in a row, isn't it crazy!

I left the jumps up from yesterday in the event that we'd be able to continue on with the drill today.  Instead of the tunnel, though (which always gets removed because Mr. Peabody can't help but relieve himself on them), I opted to go with the suggestion at the end of the Backyard Dogs (Clean Run, July 2012) drill that said to try replacing the tunnel with a set of weave poles to up the difficulty.

Since we did 1-3 yesterday, I opted to keep it simple and continue on with 4-6 today.  They were fun yet challenging exercises that really worked our weave entries at times.  I was very happy with how well Secret kept up her energy level with all that weaving -- although you can tell in the video that she starts to wane towards the end, which is likely more related to my own exhaustion levels than her own.  Considering how much free time I have right now I should start running.  Or something.  Yeah, I've been home all week and my house isn't even clean.  Ha!

I included some weaving clips at the end of the video to prove that --WOW -- Secret is actually capable of single-stepping her weave poles.  Actually, I was surprised to see just how much she was single-stepping.  She always weaves faster at home than at trials, but she's been pretty set in her hopping ways from day one.  Not entirely sure where all the single-step action came from, but I'm happy to see it.  Now if ONLY we could see this kind of drive at trials.  Like, ever.

I return to the working world this weekend at the shelter.  I imagine the dogs will be happy to be rid of me for a couple of days.  :o)

Happy 3rd Birthday, Secret!

Happy, Happy Day to Secret!  Today she turns three years old!  (Based on the day I chose to celebrate her birthday, at least!)

 Last night I whipped up a batch of pumpkin, yogurt, banana & peanut butter frozen treats -- Topped with leftover chicken from our trial.  Mmmmm.   The dogs were drooling all over the place when I popped these babies into the freezer.  They got a pre-birthday treat when they got to lick the bowl.

By the way, I skipped the Dixie cups this time because they made for an awfully small treat and the dogs just ate the paper cup.  I greased the muffin tins, but holy heck those things still don't come out all that easy...  Just a word of warning in case you decide to do this yourself.  Some pop right out, others make you curse and throw stuff at the wall.

Secret enjoyed her birthday, although the weather has not cooperated at all.  I wanted to take the troupe out for a nice walk on the bike trail today but it has been raining ALL DAY.  Don't get me wrong, we need the rain, but it has kept us stuck inside the majority of the day.

We did get to go play outside for a bit when my mom stopped by with Wes & Lexie to show off Wes' new Westie-do.  He looks so much better now!  No more bushy ears or horrendous bushy tail!  Secret did better with him today; Kaiser was still a turd and was kept on leash.

The rain broke for a bit again this afternoon, so I decided to take everyone outside and actually do agility again for a change.  It's been a good month since we've done any sort of real practice.  I set up the Backyard Dogs drill from the July 2012 issue of Clean Run.  No particular reason why -- it was handy -- but interestingly enough the focus was on "straight tunnels," which we just encountered at Regionals.  Apparently the judge, Dave Grubel, is famous for them or something.  Maybe they are more difficult for people with fast dogs....?

The grass was still a little wet, which meant I was running conservatively -- which means, yup, so was Secret.  Oh well.  She was her usual steady self and only screwed up when I did.  Enjoy the little birthday party at the end of her video.  :o)



I have continued with the mission of combining play time with some aspect of training.  Yesterday I brought out six weave poles and combined it with frisbee time.  Great energy, great speed, great enthusiasm!  It was nice to see.  Even more awesome was that I could set her up between my legs and send her forward into the weaves by herself.  Rock on, Secret!  Let's continue to tap into that enthusiasm.

The boys played today, too, of course -- Here's their video:



Oh!  I decided to enter one day of the USDAA trial in Lake Elmo over Labor Day weekend.  It's outside.....  I'd kind of sworn off outdoor trials because of the horrible weather this year, but I really want to do it as sort of a comparison.  Secret has only done one trial outside -- it was right when she first started, it was three NADAC games classes and it was storming outside.  I'd like to see where she's at now and if she runs any more like she does at home.  I also decided to enter Kaiser for the same reason, to see if he jumps any better outside vs. inside.  We are going on Sunday, when they will both run a full slate of baby classes (minus putting Kaiser in P1 Pairs because he doesn't need it).  No Tournament classes this time -- we need to just work on the basic titles right now!

Today's fun is brought to you by the letter "S"

I have quite a bit of time on my hands to think about stuff at the moment.  During one of my spare moments of pondering when I wasn't playing bingo online (yes, my days are full of fun...), it occurred to me that while we have been doing little to no agility during the heat of this brutal summer, this also means that Secret has had precious little value-building time when it comes to agility equipment.

For dogs who find agility itself highly motivating this is surely not an issue.  I have not worried about a lack of agility training this summer because the dogs are more or less "trained" to the point where we don't need to drill, drill, drill.  Where I have failed, however, is to continue finding ways to link Secret's ever growing crazy toy drive to the agility equipment.

While it has been a hot, hot summer, I guarantee you there has been plenty of ball and frisbee play going on in our backyard.  It has more or less been out of sheer laziness that I have failed to connect this fun time to agility training.

If I wish for my dog to show more speed on the agility course, I need to continue to work on building that speed -- not just wish for it to magically show itself one day (although you have to admit, that sure would be nice).

So tonight I set up the dreaded S-shaped tunnel and Secret had to run through it (with speed) every time she wished to chase her ball.  The S-shaped tunnel wasn't so bad when there was a tennis ball attached to its performance, imagine that.

Now if only I could get my hands on a 20' tunnel to work on that issue -- although today (again in one of my many moments of free time) I watched video from our last NADAC trial and Secret didn't trot through THOSE 20' tunnels...

Going forward I need to make the commitment to cut way back on the "free play time" every day and instead try to once again put forth the effort to connect play to agility with the goal of building more value into the equipment itself.  We used to do this a lot, I simply got lazy.  This goes double for the weave poles, which haven't come out of the garage in ages....

A funny thing happened on the way to Regionals...

 It happened again.

Can you even BELIEVE it?!?!  Well okay, maybe some would say that it shouldn't come as that big of a surprise.  After all, considering that one of the tires in this particular set already blew on me, it should be considered highly plausible that it could happen again.  That would be why I *was* planning to replace the two remaining old tires eventually -- likely at my next oil change.  I just had an oil change on Thursday before our trip and my tires checked out a-okay, so it's not like I thought I had anything worry about.

We left home at 6:00 a.m.  We had just over three hours to travel on our trip to the Chicago Regionals in Crystal Lake, IL.  There were a million team Jumpers runs in our ring to start the day, so I felt pretty comfortable with the idea of getting there between 9:30 and 10:00 a.m.

Very much unlike the last blown tire scenario where, looking back, I had a LOT of warning that there was something going wrong, this time it just was gone in an instant.  ONCE AGAIN I was incredibly, incredibly lucky.  I was traveling at just under 75 mph when I heard the loud roaring noise coming from my back end accompanied by some shaking (although not nearly as bad as last time when it was on the front).  I was able to quickly and safely pull over to the side of the road.  The time was nearly exactly the same as last time -- 6:48 a.m. -- although this time I wasn't nearly as far from home and was stuck along the freeway near New Lisbon.

Long story short, I called AAA, waited OVER AN HOUR for our tow truck driver to arrive (he was a nice guy, but not comparable to the last one we had), then found out that *nobody* nearby had our size tire in stock.  I have to give the tow driver kudos here because he did call everyone he knew to check before settling on Walmart -- 30 miles down the road in Wisconsin Dells.  Our AAA account only covers the first 5 miles of towing.  The rest was on me at $3.50 per mile.  Yay for a $70 tow bill.

Walmart was cool, though.  They welcomed the dogs inside and even offered water if we needed it (I had my own in the car).  I had them just put two tires on the back to get it over with.  The last thing I needed was to worry that the final crappy tire would blow on our trip.  Their prices weren't unreasonable, but unfortunately they were pretty backed up that day and we waited.  And waited.  And waited.  When Kaiser assumes the position in the above picture, you know we were stuck there a while....  I was very proud when the manager complimented the behavior of my dogs when we checked out!!

All told, our little side adventure put us about FIVE HOURS behind schedule.  I figured all hope was completely lost for us making it to the sports center in time for our runs.  I finally was able to get hold of a friend at the event and he took care of moving us from group A to group B just in case a miracle occurred, but I still had two hours of driving ahead of me and wasn't going to hold my breath.

When I was about 40 minutes out my friend called me back and said he thought I'd probably make it in plenty of time to run in Group B.  The Performance dogs were *just* starting to run in Group A at that time.  No, I wouldn't get to walk the course, but we would be able to run in the other group if we got there in time.

Group A was finishing up as I walked through the door with my crates.  I'd parked as near to the doors as I could and left the dogs in the car with the air running (it was mid-90's again, of course!).  I was able to take the time while they reset bars and put spreads back in for Championship dogs to familiarize myself with the layout of the course one time.  I'd had a chance to look at the course map that USDAA had posted online earlier in the day, so at least I had some idea of where I was going.

The dogs had already had quite the day, so I didn't know what to expect.  Secret was up first and she was ready to go!  Lots of barking and she acted like she really wanted to play.  I'm very happy with her run!  Unfortunately only the last few obstacles made it on film... But oh well.  It was a very good run!

They were having a technical issue with the computer that was delaying results.  They started to write results out by hand and I was disappointed to see that Secret's clean run didn't make it into the Finals.  I decided to stick around to wait for the full results to be posted so that I could see how close she was time-wise to making it.  There was a huge storm going on outside by that point, so we were stuck there anyhow.

When the results were posted, there was just a blank space by Secret's name.  Uhhhh...  We were there!  We ran it!  We should have a time!  I went to the score table and they started digging through piles to try to find her slip.  Switching groups likely was a large part of the issue, but Kaiser's slip was in there....  FINALLY they found it.  They input her information into the computer and did another printout.  I held my breath, still not knowing if she'd been fast enough.

Tenth place!  She squeaked in!  She ended up two or three seconds faster than the qualifying cut-off, so YAY for Secret!  She got her 2nd Tournament Q and got into the PSJ at a Regional event.  I was very proud of her.

Kaiser, oh Kaiser.  Kaiser was having a wonderful warm-up.  I don't usually spend much time at the warm-up jump, but I decided to send him over it a few times to get him going after our long day and to remind him that the jumps were taller here.  He was jumping just lovely and giving me really great lead-outs (which I wanted for this course!).  Then all of the sudden he crashed the bar.  :o(  I knew that was the end of any good jumping performance for him for the weekend.  He just completely shuts down after he crashes a bar.

He crashed the first bar on his PSJ run.  There was a lot of stuttering and wonky jumping throughout the run.  Then he skirted around the side of the first a-frame and came back to me through the tunnel, earning himself a whistle from the judge.  As he came over the a-frame the judge made me laugh by saying, "But he sure is cute!"  Yes, that he is.

 That night the dogs totally crashed at the hotel.  We stayed at a La Quinta a good half hour away from the trial site.  It was a nice place, though, and worth the drive.  No food anywhere nearby, unfortunately, so we waited almost an hour for a pizza to be delivered....  I didn't feel like going anywhere else after our very, very long day.

Sunday started with a P2 Gamblers run for Secret.  She had a magnificent opening.  We went for back-to-back a-frames in the opening (the 5 point obstacle) and even did TWO teeters before the whistle sounded.  The joker was to send out to a tunnel under the a-frame and I set her up at a very bad angle.  Secret stood there and barked at me while I tried to redirect her out to the tunnel.  Just before the buzzer went off she offered me the chute instead.  Oh well.

Because of how the judging assignments worked out, P2 Standard was up next (instead of running P1 Gamblers as you traditionally would).  During the course walk I just could not come up with a solid plan for how I was going to handle the sequence from the table through the tire to the tunnel.  This bit me in the butt during our run, as Secret read my hesitancy and refused the tire.  This put me in a bad position and she ended up going in the wrong end of the tunnel.  After that she got to the top of the dog walk ramp and then turned around and jumped off!  What the heck?!  The run was already a NQ and we weren't going to see any more dog walks that day, so I decided to just finish the run without fixing the dog walk.  I have no idea what that was about and didn't want to stress her out before her PSJ Finals run.  I think all of my shouting, "Out! Tunnel!" during Gamblers is part of what caused her stressing during Standard anyhow.

Kaiser's P1 Gamblers run was next.  We had a judge in training for all of the P1 classes and I think Kaiser just ended up waiting way too long before his runs.  He was the first or second dog on the line so we had to be there, but because of all of the training/mentoring stuff going on between the judges it just took forever.  Kaiser doesn't wait well.  I don't think the judge called our points correctly and I don't think she gave him credit for the a-frame, but by my count we still would have only had 14 of the 15 required points in the opening (we were credited with 6 points).  We would have been better off without Kaiser's spectacular flyoff on the teeter, which I then took the time to correct so that he would stick it in Standard.  The buzzer went off while he was on the teeter.  He did the joker easily, finally managing to not knock a bar in the gamble.  Figures.

Secret was up next in her PSJ run.  I tried to get her as jazzed up as I could.  Following that Standard run, I just didn't know what to expect.  It was about as motivating as I could hope for -- The only tunnel on course was just a straight cannon shot.  It was long (she has this thing against 20' tunnels...), but I hoped that since she could see the end it wouldn't shut her down.  The weave entry was a little demotivating, requiring pretty strong management to avoid an off course.  Secret ran the course clean and aside from weaving pretty slowly I was quite happy with her run!

And then the depression sunk in.  When one runs a slow(er) dog, going to a Regional USDAA event is not the place to compare your dog to others.  The dog that won the P22" class was a full ten seconds faster than Secret.  Several dogs placed ahead of us with a fault or bobble.  Secret ended up in 7th place of 10 dogs thanks to two E's and one dog who's bar put their total time past ours.

I admit, I was bummed.  I was not going for a Regional Bye here -- Let's be serious.  I have no plans to go to Cynosport.  I thought it would be fun to take home a little bit of cash, though, and my hopes were high with a clean run that had decent speed -- for Secret.  I believe she was like three or four seconds over the cut-off for payouts.  It was just depressing.  It didn't help when my friend kept telling me she has to run faster.  Uhh....  Have I not spent HER ENTIRE LIFE attempting to achieve that goal?  She has come SO FAR in the last year.  Like I said, I was *very happy* with that run when we came off the course.  It was just deflating to see her time so far out of the rest of the pack.

But whatever.  It is what it is.

Kaiser's P1 Standard run was a disaster.  He just needs one more Q to finish his title and my hopes were high on this pretty simple course.  It was downhill from the start.  The a-frame was the second obstacle on the course and he ran around it.  I got him back and he did it, only to run around the next jump and take it from behind.  He did do the teeter next, followed by a jump to a tunnel.  I didn't support his weaves at all and he entered at the third pole, which I didn't bother to correct.  I think he by-passed the next jump to the table, where I was hoping we could regroup.  Then he ran past the tire to the tunnel and then ran right past the dog walk.  I figured we'd had enough by that point and I picked him up and carried him out of the ring.

I was more or less planning to scratch him from his P1 Jumpers run at that point.  He was miserable, I was miserable, why not just cut our losses and go home?  I despise that attitude, though.  It was a short, fairly simple course that I knew he should be able to do in his sleep, though, so I decided to push through.  I spent the entire EXTRAORDINARILY LONG TIME waiting for our run playing with him, sitting on the floor asking him to do tricks.  The goal was to stay connected with him, keep him relaxed and not stressing on everything around him.  Well, apparently it worked.  He went in and had a great run!  There were still a few wonky jumps and stutter stepping, but he was playing with me and having a good time.  I was glad that we stuck it out and were able to end on a good run.  Of course, neither of the Jumpers runs made it on video...

Secret's P2 Jumpers was not super speedy, but she was her usual steady self and didn't put a foot wrong.  She got her 2nd P2 Jumpers Q with a first place (thanks to the other dog getting 25 faults) and was something like 8 or 10 seconds under time.  One more Q and we get to play in Masters/P3!



And that, in a nutshell, was our trip to USDAA Regionals.  We made it home without mishap, although I am now paranoid about driving anywhere and believe that my car will fall apart at any given moment.

Today all of the dogs came with me to my parent's house where I ran the final payroll for Coulee Region Enterprises -- Our family business where I have been employed for over 14 years.  It's all done now.  The good news is that I heard from Kaplan today and there are still opportunities to consider there (although it sounds like they went with someone else for the position I interviewed for) and then this afternoon I got a call from Western Technical College regarding an application I put in for a position at their Sparta campus.  That could be a great opportunity!

Oh yes, my reason for mentioning that we went to my parent's house....  The dogs need to get used to the newest family member!  Meet Wesley the Westie.  :o)  My parents adopted Wes last week.  He was surrendered to the shelter where I work because he was "dominating" the eight week old Yorkie puppy that the family just bought.  Sigh.  He is a FANTASTIC dog and I'm so happy my parents were able to adopt him.  He brings such joy at what could otherwise be considered a fairly depressing time.  He also has so many characteristics of our last Westie, Buddy, which also brings a smile to my face.  It's nice having a Westie in the family again.

My dogs did better with Wes up at my parent's house.  When they visited our yard last Friday it was a little more hairy -- because my dogs are jerks.  Off their home turf today they were much better.  Kaiser really didn't do anything to him at all.  Secret started off all wiggly and whiny towards him, then decided it was her job to keep Wes away from me.  Not cool, but she wasn't terrible about it and took correction well.

Luke is fine with Wes -- and was all weekend while my parents watched him.  But Luke was very naughty today and ran the cows through the fence....