She is still not bleeding! This is impressive. Well, she was pretty impressive on the last one, too, but I thought sure she was going to mess with me this time. Later is actually better, so I'm happy to have her hold off, but how much longer can she?

I went ahead and called Wilsonville Vet and made an appointment for Tess on Wednesday to get the preliminaries done. I figure she'll probably be bleeding by then, and if not, she is sure to be bleeding before Monday, which would be the next day I could take her in. If necessary, I can swing by on Friday evening to get a blood draw for progesterone, but won't really have time for an appointment. (and I'd rather not, since it would mean Tess spending my 12-hr work shift in a crate in back of my truck, but it is doable)

Now I need to take the Invitational shirts up to Longview for the next leg on their journey.

I let the dogs out in the yard, and was cleaning some pee in the backroom. I heard a noise I wasn't happy about, and went outside to be sure that everything was secure. Tully was staring at the fence, behind which her nemesis lives. Suddenly she lunged forward, as the neighbor dog hit the fence. I yelled at her, and she didn't stop, there was a commotion. I ran over and saw that one of the fence boards had broken loose at the bottom, and the neighbor dog's hairy leg was through the gap, with Tully firmly attached and trying to pull the rest of the dog through. The neighbor dog was bellowing. So I grabbed Tully's scruff and yelled "NO" at her, she let go, and the neighbor dog took off. Tully shooed away from the fence and peed (oh, now she pees!), and Tess tried to go to the fence, so I yelled "NO" at her for good measure. Shooed everyone inside, and I went and found some nails and a hammer to resecure the fence board.

There was no blood around the fence, so I think no real harm done. It may well be that Tully only had a hold of hair. The neighbor was over there, and said he'd put some plywood over the fence in that area, which seems a good idea. He said he thought his dog just got her leg pinched, and I said that Tully had a hold of it. Maybe I shouldn't have admitted that, but I am not letting my dog take the blame! She wouldn't have been able to grab the leg if it hadn't been in her yard in the first place. The neighbor dog is the one that knocked the board out, since we foolishly attached them from my side of the fence.

I did not need that.

Still not in, but huge. Hold on, Tessie, hold on!

I got the proofs for the MACH ad we're putting in Staff Status for Tully & Zuma. It looks great! I've just passed them on to Zuma's owner to be sure she is happy, then I'll approve it. Zuma's page has a large photo of her coming out of a tunnel, with a smaller inset of the new MACH photo. Tully's has a large new MACH photo (the userpic one), with a smaller inset of her coming out of a chute. She looks rather serious coming out of the chute, if I'd had the photo of her jumping I got this weekend, I'd have used that one. She looks so happy! Anyway, I'd left it to the editor to decide which of the Tully photos should be the large one, and she went that way with it. I think it will look very nice.

Tess is still not in season, but is getting very, very close. I am still holding out forlorn hope that she will make it at least through the weekend- another week would be even better- but I tend to doubt it. Though as I recall, at the PAC trial in June she looked as though she were about in season, and held out another 10 days. So we'll see, but I really can't imagine it happening that way again. The least convenient time she could possibly come in would be in the next couple days, so I expect she will.

This would, of course, make Thanksgiving weekend an issue. The vet will of course be closed on Thanksgiving (I use Wilsonville for reproductive stuff), and I have to work the next 3 days (they're closed on Sunday too, of course, but it doesn't matter, since I'll be working) That makes a block of 4 days that I can't bring her in for progesterone testing and/or insemination, and if she comes in season in the next couple days, those 4 days will be a key time. Assuming she does, I suppose I'll have to see if there is any chance they'd let me leave her there for a few days. I would miss her, but it's the best possible solution. Otherwise, I suppose I could take her to work on Friday, leave her crated in my truck all day, and drive there straight after work, arriving about 5:30. Not real keen on that idea, or on the calling in sick on a holiday weekend idea.

Think for now I'll just keep crossing my fingers for her to hold out a little longer.

Tully, btw, is not moving to Preferred. I don't think I mentioned that here yet. I had completely made up my mind on that, and was just waiting until after the Invitational, but she was running so well at the last couple trials, and having such a good time, that I decided she can just damn well stay at 16" for now. I'll leave her in Performance in USDAA, but I'm not moving her down in AKC until she gives me a better reason to do so. She currently has, I believe, 152 points and 4 QQ's towards her MACH 2, and we might as well see if she can finish it. I'm not going to get too worked up about it, but Preferred just doesn't give us much to work towards... all the time I've spent trying to get more speed out of her, and once she's in Preferred, it won't matter. I imagine that if she finishes the MACH 2, she'll be about ready to move down. Of course, I'll move her sooner if she seems to lose her enthusiasm, but she has been a very happy agility dog lately!

There were toys given out for Q's at the trial this past weekend, so I picked up 6 new squeakies for destruction. My house is now carpeted in stuffy fluff, but oh well.

I picked the toys fairly randomly, since they wouldn't last long. The dogs, mostly Tess & Elmo, had a really good time demolishing them. I just dumped them all in the middle of the floor, while they were munching on their post-trial bison bones. At bed time Sunday evening, I called Tess to put her in her crate. She came trotting in and went into her crate, and suddenly there was a green elephant in front of the crate. I'm not sure if she brought it with her, or if it just happened to be there and she bumped it on the way in so it caught my eye. Whatever, I told her "if you want the elephant, go ahead and take it, you can have that with you." So she stuck her head back out and grabbed the elephant, bringing it into the crate.

It was still intact in the morning, and has been granted the longest lifespan of any of the stuffies. The rest were demolished by that time, but green elephant was allowed to live until this evening. It's actually still mostly intact, but gutted out the back of the head, and desqueaked.

Tess is still not in season, and I have my fingers crossed for her to keep holding out another 10 days at least, but that may be a vain hope. We shall see.

A few minutes ago, I started hearing a lot of rain noise. The level of noise had me concerned that the skylight in the back room was leaking or something, so I went back and looked. Aha, it's hailing. At least the hail is unlikely to knock down a fence. My fence did make it through the wind storm last night. A tree in the Safeway parking lot did not, but none of my property appears to have been damaged. I'm really getting a bit sick of weather, though. No more snow, no more blazing heat, no more torrential downpours, no more hailing, no more wind.... just stop already!

It's very windy, and my fence appears to be blowing down. I see this as a problem.

Since it was small to tall today, the order reversed, and I had to run Tess first. Not to add unnecessary suspense, she had a fabulous run in Standard, and got 1st place! Her very first first in Excellent B! I was so proud of her! The 16" BC's didn't Q on the course, but one very fast Sheltie that beat her all last weekend did. I watched her run, it was good, but about a second slower than Tess. I was a bit concerned about one spot on the course that involved a flip from the A-frame into the tunnel, but Tess handled it fine. Could have been a smidge faster there, but she was fast enough. 46 points. All contacts solid, and she held her start line.

I was so happy, she could have done almost anything in JWW and I'd have still been happy, but she was pretty much perfect again, and got her first QQ! 3rd place in JWW.

Tully, I handled wrong in Standard, since I tried to run her like Tess. It had worked well to send Tess into the chute then cut over and pick her up at the landing side of the next jump, so I tried to do that will Tully, and she came with me as I tried to cut away. Oops. Then I really let her down, not really trying for the next few obstacles. When we went in for JWW, I told her it didn't matter what she did, since her daughter had done so well, but she decided to be pretty much perfect again, and got a nice solid Q. Another 6 points, which at least makes her consistent; that's what we got every day this weekend.

I really wish I'd had Tess' runs taped today, but I didn't. Here's her Standard run from Friday, though, there was a professional videographer there, and she just happened to tape this, so I bought it:


Tess got called on a refusal during that dogwalk-tunnel section. ?? I think that part looks beautiful. She actually got called for 3 refusals, I'd assumed the other one was the spin at the end, but it really is too far back from the jump to be counted. I don't know what the judge was thinking. At least she didn't call anything on Tess' beautiful run today.

Here is a photo from the winning run:



And a photo of Tully that pleases me greatly, though it's a bit fuzzy:



Tully had so much fun this weekend!



Tess says chutes are serious business:



Tess & Heidi... handler & dog not in perfect sync. But look at the condition on that dog!



The better to raid the score table:

Apparently, I just can't Q in Standard.

Tully wasn't really with me for her Standard run today. She dropped a treat just before we went in, and I think she was still looking for it. Started sniffing when she came out of the tunnel, which was the first obstacle. I got her to start running with me, and she was doing alright, but wound up running right past the weave entry for some reason. She also went wide in a few spots where she seemed to just not notice my turning cues. Goofy girl.

Tess was fabulous for her Standard run. All her criteria were nicely performed. She wound up going out to the weave poles instead of taking the chute after the A-frame like she was supposed to, but it was a reasonable choice caused by a bad handling decision on my part. I told her she was good, though I did have her come over and take the chute.

The judge apparently called her up contact on the A-frame, which isn't supposed to be judged in AKC. I was told about it later, and was confused, but I was told that the call was made before Tess went down the frame, so it couldn't have been a call on the down contact (which she did hit, her performance was fine). Carole thought the judge might have been calling a knocked bar on the double, which was a couple jumps before, but I didn't think Tess knocked any bars. Who knows. Anyway, I was very happy with Tess. I had a hard time getting her into a sit on the table, though, she was pretty determined to hold that down! I finally got her up, and when the count was over, I led out a bit to see if I could.

JWW, both girls Q'd. Tully had a lovely run, which I was very happy with. I did a rear cross at a place I'd meant to do a blind cross, but she handled it fine. I was very pleased with her. 6 points. Tess had a fabulous run! She blew her start line, which I'm not too happy about, but this is her last weekend trialing for some months, so I didn't want to work on it. It didn't affect my handling plan in any way, and she ran well. A bit wide in a few places where she didn't fully understand where to go. 11 points, and no placement. Too wide, I guess.

I ended up not being able to leave without spending money, I bought Tully one of these body shirts. I didn't really mean to, it just happened. She doesn't have it yet, since I insisted that she needed purple or pink, and they didn't have that color in her size. She's getting a fabulous hot pink body shirt, which will be shipped to me as soon as it's ready. She will be adorable and warm in it.

Tully is still a superstar.

I've had a busy week at work and as a result, my foot is not doing very well. It had been improving dramatically, but not so much now. It hurts, which I could live with a lot easier if I wasn't worried about what that means about the healing process. Of course, that didn't stop me from running agility today.

Tully had a fabulous Standard run which I was just thrilled with. She missed the last jump, I don't think she saw it, so no Q,but a super good girl who was really happy and motivated to run. Her JWW run was a nice solid run, I was a little fuzzy on my handling during the most difficult part, but she made it work. 6 points. She'd have got 16 from Standard if she'd Q'd. Actually, she'd have gotten 24, since there was only one qualifier in 16" Standard, so she'd have been 2nd place.

There may have been only one qualifier because the judge was making weird calls. Tess got called for a refusal at one point and I have no idea why, I thought she was running beautifully. She did miss the weave entry, so she'd have NQ'd anyway, so I didn't bother trying to find out what the judge called. Tess was mostly good, she did blow her start line, and tried too skip the splat after the A-frame. I stood there and waited for her to offer a down before we went on, and her DW contact was lovely. Her teeter was also very solid, she was definitely waiting to be released there.

Due to my foot pain, I asked Heidi to run Tess, and they had their first run together in a trial. I thought it went pretty well, here's my bad job videoing:

I started late, and didn't video the part where she jumped on the score table, just the aftermath. I believe Dean was also videotaping, and probably did a better job. Tess didn't want to make that last loop, which may have been influenced by the next handler taking her dog in early. I think it was wise of Heidi to end there.

So I worked the girls over spread jumps today.  I didn't work on the weave entries I'm concerned about, as we weren't set up very well for that, and I didn't bother to bring the table out.  Tess had a really nice table last weekend, hopefully, she will this weekend too.  We did quite a bit of work over the spreads.  

It was almost impossible to get Tess to knock a bar.  I did finally get her to knock one on the double, which wasn't a real double, it was 2 jumps put together, and a bit wider than a real double.  I tried many things.  Hopefully, she gained something from the practice, even though she wasn't showing any signs of actually needing the practice.

Tully wouldn't really knock a bar either, but what she would do, was after jumping beautifully for a bit, she'd suddenly jump completely carelessly and crash the jump alarmingly, with her legs tangled in the bars.  I didn't like that very much, but hopefully, she learned something from it.  She is quite capable of keeping those bars up.  Working on it, she'd turn midair as she jumped, and pick up a foot to keep it from hitting a bar.  So she does seem to understand what's expected, and have the physical capability to do so, she just gets careless, I think.

We'll see how things go!

Tess is sort of meandering into season now, as she does.  A little bit puffy, but no telling when she'll actually come in.  Sometimes she draws it out for a long time, sometimes she surprises me by coming in quick.  I'd put it at anywhere from 1-4 weeks, most likely 2 or 3.

I intend to breed her on this season.  I don't want to put it off any more.  I'm a bit concerned, as the first week of February would be hard for me to get off of work, and it's possible that I could need that, if she comes in too quick.  I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope for the best, though, I might be able to get an exception.  And, of course, it might not be needful.  Depends on when she comes in, and how soon she ovulates, which I'm not sure, as I've never done progesterone testing.   With Tully, I kind of knew based on Elmo's level of interest, but Tess is apparently so sexy that Elmo's level of interest is high for the whole damn thing.

I emailed Tully's breeder to let her know that Tess is on her way in.  Since it's quite possible that Tess will be ready to breed during the time that I'm down there for the Invitational, I wanted to ask if I could board Tess at the kennel she works at and have her conduct the breeding there.  Tully's breeder insists that Tess can't possibly board, since she's family, and will have to stay with her at her parent's house.  Well, that's squared away, anyhow.  And she's ready to collect and send fresh chilled if Tess comes in too soon for that plan, which seems quite likely.  

Now I just hang out and watch to see what happens.  I really do hope that Tess comes in later rather than sooner, it works out better.  

While I was gone over the weekend, btw, my damn cat peed on my one remaining dog bed.  Now my poor dogs have no bed to snuggle in.  I'll have to see if I can find a new one that can hold up to Elmo.

...Tully is apparently one of those things.

This was in many ways not the most enjoyable agility trial I've been to.  Primary among those reasons was the weather!!  There was a whole lot of  heavy raining going on,  which made driving a bit scary and traffic bad; plus it made it very difficult to take dogs out.  At the trial, we were pretty crammed into the Argus arena, with not many people willing to brave the outdoors (that includes me), and back at the motel, the dogs & I were not much enjoying the potty walks.  No chance of staying out longer than absolutely necessary.  I was also having some trouble with my foot.  The gravel up there at Argus is hard for me to walk on right now.  The heel lifts did a really good job of allowing me to run without pain, but walking around was still a bit difficult.  And by today, my shins were hurting (still are), as well as my toe, and the Achilles started back in too.  I couldn't ice it, since the ice machine at the Motel 6 was broken, and that probably didn't help.

The judges were pleasant, though, and I enjoyed the courses.  And had quite a bit of success.  We started on Friday afternoon with Standard:



I ran this with Tully first (she ran 1st all weekend), and was doing well on it, until I called her to the weaves.  The dogs were tending to go for an offcourse on the #9 jump there, I called Tully to turn to the weaves, and started clapping to encourage her.  I clapped too much, and she came to me to join the party.  Oops.  I put her back in the weaves, which really wasn't fair, since it wasn't her fault.

The big dogs (who ran first) had to really work to get their dogs to turn from #11 to the table, they were wanting to go out to #14.  I didn't think this would be such a problem with smaller dogs.  It wasn't with Tully, I did a FC.  With Tess, I got cocky and decided to show off her "wrap" command, so she took the #14 offcourse.  This made me laugh at my own stupidity, so Tess got happy and launched herself into my chest from the table.  The judge found that pretty amusing.  So did I.  Tess did a beautiful table when I sent her back onto it, wrapped her paws over the edge to keep her elbows down, and I led out to the other side of #13, allowing me to get a much smoother FC than I had with Tully. (who had not wanted to stay down on the table)  Tess was otherwise fabulous, and I considered the offcourse to be my own cocky fault.



After walking this JWW course, I declared that I wanted to leave.  I was cold, I had a long wait until we ran, and I couldn't see us qualifying on this course.  I figured the girls would be making the straight line run from 7-9, see that tunnel in front of them, and I'd never get them turned to #10, not even Tully, who can normally call off of anything.  I figured that tunnel was going to eliminate a lot of dogs.  It did get some, but not nearly as many as I would have expected. (it was suggested that because it was a dark colored tunnel, it wasn't as much of a draw as it could have been)  I got some distance away from the weaves with both my girls; not too much, as there was no point in going past the triple, but I moved out laterally and ahead enough that they could see me decelerate between 8 & 9.  Tully read that beautifully, never looked at the tunnel, and got 10 points on the course.  Tess, despite my being as dramatic with the cues as I could; strong deceleration, shoulder crank, and "TESS!", still went for the tunnel, but stopped in time and came back for the #10 jump.  I started out scolding her for being slow:  32.23, I figured that she shouldn't take over 30 seconds on a JWW course.  But it turned out to be quite a long course, she was still over 5 yps on it, and got 2nd place, so I apologized to her.  21 points.

Saturday, due to the wacky schedule, we started with JWW.  They actually had to amend the wacky schedule, both weekend days, so that the same height class wasn't scheduled in both rings at the same time.  If a club is going to run all Excellent first, they have to do it that way.  Anyway, here's the course:



Tully was getting sniffy at the start line, which annoyed me a bit as she isn't usually like that.  I had to call her a bit sharply to start, at which point she ran beautifully.  10 more points.   Tess was having a stellar run until I pulled her past the #10 jump (easier to do than it looks here on the map).  I realized my mistake, and tried to send her back around, but she'd already crossed the plane.  So I decided at the end to leave her in the weaves and run for the finish to see if she'd stay in.  She did not (I had to ask someone, since I wasn't looking at the dog), so that's a move not to try in a trial yet.



The most amusing thing about this course with Tully was that she lost track of me after both the chute and the straight tunnel, and would come out the end looking around wildly "where'd she go?  where'd she go?" until she heard me call her from the contact, when she'd come running joyfully to me.  It was a really nice run, I was very pleased with her, except that despite my carefully working it, she wanted nothing to do with the DW contact.  I don't think she even touched the red.  However, the judge apparently managed to miss that fact.  When I checked the sheets for Tess' time, I saw that Tully had Q'd.  16 points.

Tess had a mostly nice run.  A sit on the table, so I couldn't lead out, but she did it nicely.  With Tully, I'd done a FC between the chute and A-frame, but some people were having trouble keeping their dogs away from the DW at that point, so with Tess, I ran for the down side of the A-frame and called her over.  Which seemed to wind her up, she had one of her extremely dramatic A-frame performances.  I was afraid she'd get called on it, actually, though I saw her back feet hit the yellow (I was facing it, since I was doing a FC), the judge didn't have much time to see them.  He didn't call Tully's actual missed contact, though, so I guess he's not picky.  Anyway, Tess did not splat after the A-frame, so I stood there and waited for it.  She did a spin or 2, and indicated to me that she knew she'd made a mistake, so we went on.  Knocked a bar on the triple.  I took it to be because she was driving after #14 to take the offcourse #19, and had to turn a bit sharp to take the triple, then realized she had to go left again for the tunnel (it wasn't directly ahead of the triple, they had to turn slightly to the left to get to it).  Her DW splat was beautiful, and I took a moment to tell her so before we completed the course.

That judge, btw, took a moment when I was looking at the scores to tell me that I have fabulous dogs, and that he remembered them from before.  Which I don't even remember showing to him before, but I guess I must have.  I do love hearing that from judges, though!

This morning, I didn't feel much like agility.  Which might have been because I was tired and my legs hurt, and might have had quite a bit do do with the Motel 6 running out of hot water in the middle of my shower!  Good thing my hair is short, I had to wash it in cold water.  And I was very sick of rain.  But of course, I ran some agility anyway.



Basically, neither of the girls put a foot wrong on this course.  Tully got 17 points... where is she pulling these 16 & 17 point runs out of?!   Tess... oh, it was a thing of beauty.   I got a little distance on the DW, so I could already be positioned for the FC between 3 & 4.  She did her contact just fine by herself, and though I thought I might be a bit too close to the weaves on my cross so she might have trouble seeing the entry, she dove in like she was born to weave.  Almost went wide & took the A-frame, but I got her in to the table without more than a step the wrong way.   A perfect table, she landed in a down.  Went up to a slouchy sit on command, and again, I didn't lead out because she really doesn't understand the sit.  I need to train that, I seem to have fixed the table.   It was all lovely, I was so thrilled with her.   4th place in a big 16" class, and 24 points for her first MX leg.



I knew I could get Tully through this.  This course was a lot of jumps rather close together, presenting a lot of offcourse possibilities, but that isn't something that is a problem with Tully.  She was getting a bit tired, so a little slower and needed a little more support, but she got through it without issue.  I don't think she was too happy about the 2 jump lead out I did, but my foot was bothering me, and I needed to be sure of getting the two FC's in (between 4 & 5 and 7 & 8), since otherwise it would get hairy.  She also thought we were done after #15, but finished it willingly enough.  7 points.   Tess was also a fabulous girl, and ran well.  She also thought she was done after #15, and knocked the top bar on the triple.  Possibly because of taking it at an angle and hurrying to catch up when she realized we weren't done, but I think I'd better practice some spreads with her.  Heather thought I should do so with Tully, and I think both my girls could benefit from such practice.

So, my 8-yr-old girl, who I've been planning to move to Preferred, just got 60 points and 2 QQ's in a weekend, and would have another QQ and 15 points or so if it weren't for me.  She now has 134 pts & 4 QQ's towards a MACH2, earned in just a few months of relatively light AKC trialing.  AGGHH!  She's going to tempt me into keeping her at 16".   She needs to screw up next weekend at the Dobie trial.

Tess only added 45 points (points are so not going to be a problem... she has 120 now), and still no QQs, but I am extremely pleased with her performance.  She just had the one contact that I was less than pleased with, and she hit all of them.  Start lines all there (a little woeful singing, but she stays).  Tables all perfect.  Beautiful weave entries.  She handled like a dream.   The NQ errors were either handler induced, or the 2 dropped triple bars, which is something I can easily train.  She is a lot of fun!  And, I'm really pleased to have finally broken our streak of not Q'ing in Ex B Standard.

Getting ready to leave for the trial, I just got out of the shower, and Tess was covered in white debris of some sort.  "What did you get into?" I asked her.  Went into the bedroom to discover that she had massacreed a feather pillow.  Feathers all over the bedding and floor.  That'll be a nice treat for me to clean up when we get back. (no time now, I know from experience that this is a time consuming job.)

I went to class last night and ran my dogs, possibly not the smartest thing since my foot hurt after practice.  I really need to work them, though.  They did fine at class, and had a good time.  Tess was a superstar!  I am trying to up my reinforcement rate with them, after watching Heidi work with her Poodles, and also with Tess, and seeing how well the higher reinforcement rate works for her.  They definitely seemed happy about it!

When I ran ahead of Tess while she was in the weaves, she lay down at the end, as she has in practice before, so that was really funny.  Actually, as I remember, in practice she lay down in the middle of the poles, so at least this time she waited to finish the obstacle.  I think it's because I've often run ahead while she's on a contact, as a proofing thing.  Anyway, it's hard to be anything but amused when she's trying so hard to be right.

Then I got home and dinked around a bit.  Got ready for bed, went to get my cell phone so I could set the alarm, and I couldn't find it!  I looked everywhere it could be, and it became pretty obvious that I lost it somewhere along the way.  I was a bit frantic about it, since I'm going out of town tomorrow, and didn't want to have to get a new phone anyway.  I held out some hope that it would turn up though, as it occurred to me that I had most likely lost it at the arena.  Probably in the parking area, since I thought Heather or I would have seen it inside.  I emailed Dwight, and asked him to keep an eye out for it.  He apparently went out first thing in the morning, and found it in the parking area before it started raining; so I was able to recover my phone undamaged.  Phew!  I am very grateful he was willing to go out and look for it!

My foot, unfortunately, is not doing so well.  It wasn't sore when I got up, but quite stiff.  I went for physical therapy, and it was made pretty clear to me that I wasn't supposed to be running on it yet.  A different PT worked on me today, though, and she said if I was going to run agility against medical advice, I should wear heel lifts, and found me a pair, so I'll be using those this weekend.  She was pretty understanding.  Not a big fan of the boot, either; I said that I was skeptical about it, and she said that PTs don't really approve of them, but some doctors insist on using them.  I don't think I'll be willing to use one again, unless something more serious happens. Hopefully, the physical therapy will resolve the issue.  I still might look into that cold laser, too, it can't hurt.

We went to the barn this morning to train.  Tess was a very good girl, and didn't really make any mistakes, not leaving me much to concentrate on.  She does still have an issue with right angle weave entries, but that will take more work.  Her contacts, table, and other weave entries were good.

I was using her newish wool toy to train, and noticed that it seemed slimy at one spot, I assumed she'd slobbered on it.  Then she started making faces and drooling, and I realized that I had put the toy in a plastic sack with a bottle of dog shampoo last week, which had opened and leaked out.  Parts of the toy were saturated with medicated shampoo.  Yuk!  Poor little Tess!  I did not mean to wash her mouth out with soap!  We changed toys, and ended with a happy Tess.  She does love the game!

Tully was less successful at distance work, possibly because I wasn't wearing the boot.  I decided to try flipping her into the tunnel off the DW, since that's a move she understands well.  From a distance, not so well.  After a couple times of just coming to me, she started coming towards me, then going back and entering the wrong end of the tunnel.  I rewarded that as being in the ballpark.  I got closer, and reminded her what a flip to the tunnel is like, then tried again with a bit of distance.  She still came towards me, but turned back around and went in the tunnel as requested.  I called that success, since she was getting frustrated.

My foot hurt when I started to run, but seemed less painful as we went on.  After I left, though, I did notice it being sore when I walked.  Running agility is probably not the best thing for it, but I have to run, so oh well.  I'm icing the foot now.  And Elmo is driving me nuts.

When I got home, first thing I did was take the dogs outside.  Tess peed.  Tully didn't need to pee, since she peed out front on the way in, so she ate some grass.  Elmo came out, stood there a second, then went back in the house.  After we all came in, and I got comfortable, he started getting restless and whining.   He was just out!!  He's been doing this lately, and I can't stand it.  If you gotta go, dog, go when you are outside!  So, I shut him outside for awhile.  The yard isn't super secure, but Elmo won't escape.  And he can't annoy me with the asking out if I just leave him out there.  I'll get him back in later, when I'm not so grumpy.  Or when Tully acting disgruntled annoys me too much. (she likes to keep the pack together)

At physical therapy, the PT now has me riding a stationary bike.  I asked him it it would be a good idea to assemble the one I had in a box at home and use it, and he said yes, so I finally got around to assembling the cheapo exercise bike I bought at Walmart a year or 2 ago.  Go, me.  It looks like this:

More or less.  The handlebars pump back and forth to give a full body workout.  You can actually detach them and just pedal, but I've been using them for more of a workout.  Though I do tend to hit myself in the boobs.  I do find myself liking the bike, and it seems fairly sturdy, though there were parts of it that I was concerned might succumb to wear.  We shall see.  I only paid like $70 for it, so it appears to be a decent value for the money.

The issue, though, is that the dogs find it freaky.  Partly the whirring noise (there's a fan that provides air resistance to improve the workout), and partly the fact that I'm sitting on the thing moving oddly.  Yesterday, I was also listening to music, singing along, which always confuses the dogs anyway.  Yesterday, I was riding the bike, which is in front of the couch in my living room, singing along to Dolly Parton.  Tully was standing on the couch, giving me Bambi eyes and wagging her tail anxiously.  Periodically, she'd try to put her paws up on my leg.  It wasn't working very well for her.

Anyway, I am now also cleared to not wear the boot unless I'm going to be walking a lot, so I am going to train without it today.  Running agility is not walking.  And I do need to see how it will hold up, I have 3-day trials the next 2 weekends.  The trial this coming weekend is obnoxiously scheduled, she decided to schedule all the Excellent classes first, so the Excellent people would get out of the way of the Open & Novice people.  So Standard starts in one ring, with JWW starting in the other ring an hour later; tall to small in one ring, small to tall in the other.  The current schedule shows the 16" dogs starting at about the same time in both rings.  WTF?!  This is the same trial that last year I had to fight for the right to move my dogs to allow at least 10 dogs between them.  I was crating over in the obedience building, which I'd like to do again this year, but if I'm going to have to get through 4 runs in an hour, after walking and memorizing both courses for both dogs, I'm not going to be able to do that.   And... will my foot hold up?

If the foot gives me trouble, I have thought about finding someone else to run Tess.  I'm pretty sure that Tess will run with anyone, considering how quick she was to forget I existed when Heidi was running her.  The problem is that she is such a little chunk of muscle, I'm afraid it would take a big dog owner to be prepared to handle her obnoxious lack of leash manners.  But a big dog person wouldn't be used to a dog like Tess that can and will turn almost in place.

Hopefully, my foot will hold out, and it won't be an issue.

^ Elmo, 3 years ago, trying out the cow costume.


The 4 of us in action, winning the costume contest:



It was challenging, the calf kept ripping the horns off of the adult cattle.

This is a story that was posted on an internet message board I frequent.  I got permission to crosspost it (with the dog's name removed for the owner's privacy), because I think it's a brilliant and well expressed look into what it might be like to be a dog with an inept trainer:

"Today my reactive X  and I had a stupendously terrible experience with a private trainer. The goal was to work at a distance with calm dogs, so that X  could stay under his threshold and work on paying attention to me, instead of shrieking, lunging, and doing his tasmanian devil imitation in his attempt to get to them (this is mostly in a desire to play, but it's inappropriate all the same).

But instead of a nice training session, it was the 20 minutes from hell. I arrived early, went to check in, and she was working with a class of trainers-in-training. The trainer did not ask permission to let her group observe or participate; she just said the class would be over soon. I said I'd be out in the outside field, walking with X  a little, while she got ready. X  and I were out there, working on a nice loose leash walk, when all 8 people suddenly walked out and starting clapping and calling him, as a distraction. Surprise! X  forgot his LLW and pulled toward them, in an attempt to lick them all. I got his attention (and he actually turned back to me for a sit and treat). Ah, but the very fact that my dog paid attention to them for a moment was proof of "the failure of our relationship". I should have left at that moment. But alas, I stayed.

All 8 came up to me and for the next 20 minutes proceeded to give endless amounts of punishment (to me, not X, whose leash was in my hand). All 8 seemed to be talking at once, telling me different things about what was wrong with what I was doing, what was wrong with X, what was wrong with the way I was doing a LLW, on and on and on. They were seriously all talking at once, but none of them gave me a clue about what they wanted me to do. (They were going on and on about how X's excitement was unacceptable in a mature dog, as if I thought he was perfect and they had to persuade me what a horrible dog he was. Um, yeah, if I thought he was perfect, you idiots, I wouldn't have come for a private training session.) I had no idea whatsoever how to turn their punishment off, because I didn't have a clue what they wanted from me. I kept trying to do what they seemed to be telling me to do, (ie, someone would say: "you shouldn't be talking so much to him," so I would get quieter, and then they would say "you need to tell him what you want from him." Everytime I did something, they would tell me I did it wrong and then go on and on and on about the dominance crap and the "flaws" in our relationship. I tried to focus on him, and they told me that was wrong, I should let him be a dog and not stay focused on him. So I released him to go say hi, and they told me I did that wrong. Then they all started telling each other what a smart dog he was, if only I wasn't training him all wrong with all that praise and treats I gave him (really!). Finally, the trainer told me a specific behavior she wanted from me: she wanted me not to look at my dog, and only look and talk at the people. I did that for a little while (but how long did she want me to do that? who knows.) Finally, I looked down at X. Then the trainer said: "See ! I can't help you. You're too focused on your dog."

So I left.

It was the most surreal experience. On the drive home, I thought maybe the trainer had planned this as one of those training games for her trainers-in-training: "look! I'm going to show you all that's wrong with negative punishment and negative reinforcement! We'll use this unsuspecting client as the animal. Watch carefully, class! You just keep punishing a critter without giving her any information about how to turn the punishment off, you never communicate clearly what you want, and look! she stresses out! she shuts down! Look carefully and you'll learn exactly what you should never do to a dog! Observe closely what the absence of positive reinforcement does in a training session. See--since we're never giving her any praise, she has no idea what we want from her. Remember this well when you go to train your clients and dogs!"

Oh well, I learned something useful, I guess: the importance of positive approaches. The punishment they were giving me conveyed no information whatsoever. I had no idea what they wanted. I had no idea how to shut them off. I'm a pretty confident, stable, happy person, but I still shut down under all that. If I were a dog, I would have bit them, they were freaking me out so much."

I'm sorry this person had to go through such a horrible experience, but it's an interesting view into what it might feel like to be a dog with a trainer who can't be clear about what behavior is desired.

Well, we went to class last night and Heidi agreed to run Tess, so Tess got to blow out some carbon.  She had a great time!  I'm not sure if Heidi did, bowling ball agility might be a bit intimidating for someone used to Poodles.   Tess didn't even want to come back to me, though, it was all about Heidi, I had to grab Tess and stuff a leash on her to haul her away.  I ran Tully for distance, and she did fabulous on the first course, I was so pleased with her!  No DW contact, but Heather said that contacts don't count for Tully. (kind of like when I was a kid, & would play basketball with the boy down the street, the rule was if I could get the ball to hit the rim, that counted as a basket.  Different rules for the differently abled.)  The 2nd course, Tully just didn't seem to have the confidence anymore, and didn't do that great.  Maybe because she wasn't jazzed up being jealous of Tess.  I love my Tully anyway.

Today, we went to Pup for some obedience work. We haven't lately, not since the meltdown.  Tully did pretty well, we had the go-outs back, though she almost melted down at one point.  She'd done a nice go-out without a target, and I tried to send her again, and it was more than she could take.  So, I put the target out and everything was sunshine & daisies again.  I was still pretty pleased.  Her signals looked decent, didn't go all the way down the first time, and then it was hard to get a sit.  She did her best signal recall ever, though!  Later, she did a down/sit perfectly, but she was quite aware of the ball in my pocket by then.

She did the funniest thing on her articles.  I put them between the jumps, which I've seen occasionally in the ring.  Sent for the first article (I use the send direct with Tully), she went out to the left, cleared the bar jump, and came around the pile from the back.  She seemed very confident, like she thought that was how it should be performed.  She brought me the wrong article, but I rewarded her anyway, for the creative interpretation. (it was the article next to the right article, I think her sensitive nose is a curse sometimes).  She didn't do the same thing on the 2nd article.  

She was working pretty happy, though, and I was pleased with her overall.  It having been awhile since our last obedience practice, I didn't expect too much.  Hasn't lost a trick at the food thieving, while I was switching her & Tess, Tully managed to somehow make off with a tendon and run around the store with it.  She must have taken it off the display table, but how she managed to do that unnoticed with 3 people in the room, I don't know.  Ah well, I was going to buy her one anyway.

Tess has really turned into a horrible heeler.  I worked on it, and figured out that if she heels for several minutes, she improves.  She was happy, and I had fun with her.  I put a table out, and worked our new table game.  She had fun with that, and figured it out, which she hadn't yesterday.  If she came off the table, and I removed the toy from her, she'd jump back onto the table, and even offer the "low" behavior which previously I had to ask for.  She wound up abrading some skin off a back pad, though, so I may need to rethink the tugging on the table thing.

The big plus, though, was that after playing tug for several minutes, she was able to stay quietly!!  Her best stays yet!