My 3 Dogs: Agility Update

We all went up to Pinetop over Labor Day weekend for an agility trial.

GEORGIE: Georgie doesn't do agility. She got to hang out in the x-pen all day, whining and crying and being a pain in the ass.

MO:
This trial was Mo's big debut! Our hopes were high! She'd been doing great at Jim's. Her confidence was up. We were doing full advanced courses, very slowly of course, but completing them! I thought she might be ready.

I was wrong.

She didn't like it at all. She was nervous with all the people and all the activity. She acted as if she had NEVER seen a contact obstacle EVER before in her life. This is the furthest she went on any of the equipment:

No amount of cheerleading, begging, pleading or fake-treating would get her to go another step. This picture actually shows her at her bravest. Most of the time she wouldn't even touch the obstacle. She did a whole lot of the standing still, staring into space and pretending she was invisible like she did when we very first started classes. She did do a few jumps and perhaps a tunnel in every run, but we didn't complete more than 6 obstacles in any run on the first day.

Nevertheless, she was a hit with the crowd. Everyone loved her! After her first run, when I finally gave up and took her over the end jump, the whole crowd cheered for her....which had the unintended effect of scaring the bejeezus out of her. She tucked her tail and tried to run. After that, everyone realized what a "special" dog Mo is. They were super nice and gave her lots of room, moved slowly when near her and took their time trying to befriend her. Though I did have the feeling that people were tsk-tsking me behind my back for starting her in trials before she was ready. I was tsk-tsking myself, too.

I was hopeful that the second day would be better for her. She'd be a little more accustomed to the surroundings and she'd realize that all I was asking her to do was the same things we've worked on over and over again at Jim's house. I knew she could do it, I just needed to convince her that she could do it.

Yeah...not so much. She still refused all contacts, she refused some jumps, even. I tried to keep a positive attitude - maybe she'd do well in jumpers, which was our last run of the day. No contacts or tunnels! Perfect.

Here is her final run:


She started out so great - I thought for sure she was going to get a Q. Then at jump 4 and 5, she realized there were people around! And they were moving! YIKES! How can she be expected to go over a jump when there are moving people around?!?! But, finally....she finished a course! About an hour over time, but she did the whole thing! It wasn't anywhere close to how she does in class, but she did it.

FRANKIE:
I also had high hopes for Frankie to do well at this trial. He, too, has been doing great at Jim's, doing perfectly in fact! He is now SIX years old and should be outgrowing his crack-baby ways. I thought for sure he would qualify in more than half of his runs.

Again, I was wrong.

We only got 1 Q out of 10 runs. It was very depressing. He got all cracked out on every run! People enjoyed his antics, but I didn't. I even tried having Pat run him once to see if that would get him to pay attention. It almost worked - he completed 3/4 of the obstacles - which was a record for the weekend, but he still lost it and went zooming around the ring for awhile.

Even when he's on crack, Frankie still excels at Jumpers. We always qualify. Except at this trial. Ergh. I must have been leading too far out because the jump I'm pointing at here:
was completely skipped:
and he took the next jump instead:
Ergh.

I have to admit that by the end of the trial, I was completely disheartened. I have put four years and thousands of dollars into Frankie - to no use. The dog definitely has a screw loose and I am a terrible handler.

Pat and I were supposed to stay Sunday night so we could hike and explore the area on Monday, but instead I insisted that we just load up and go home. I was too grumpy to stay. :(

PABLO:

Huh? We already went through My 3 Dogs. Who is Pablo??

My friend Vickie found a chihuahua puppy a few months back. No owner was located so she named him Pablo and let him stay. Pablo looks out of place with her pack of Aussies, but he fits right in with my pack of tan dogs! They are like a little family of tan:

Vain

I have a free night tonight. Well, not a whole free night, but a bunch of free hours in a row anyway. I got home from work at 4:30 and I don't have soccer until 9:00. I would really have liked to go to bed early since I've been up before 5:00 am two days in a row (flights to and from Albuquerque), but I don't want to miss soccer. I thought about a nap, but if I start that, there is no way I'll get up and go play.

So, with four consecutive hours of free time, I could have done so many things on my to-do list, such as: input all my receipts and payments into my Town Treks budget worksheet, read The Godfather for book club, read Home for the other book club, take the dogs for a much-needed walk or take myself for a much-needed run (CitySolve and Great Urban Race nationals are next weekend and the weekend after!) or even (gasp!) update my sadly neglected blog.

But no. None of that got accomplished. Why? Because I got on facebook and got stuck there ....for a really long time!! I did some cyberstalking of people, read lots of posts (my cousin is selling both Gopher football tickets and her house...anyone interested??), tried to interpret the vague ones (why exactly do suppose that Elizabeth's day did a 180?) and looked at pictures of my roommate's trip to the Grand Canyon and Elaine's baby.

And here's where the vanity part comes in. I checked out my own profile page, too. Cuz I'm vain. And cuz it's fun to read people's comments on my postings and my pictures. This is my current profile picture - taken last week while Travel Troupe was cruising the Caribbean:
I am vainly proud of the comments that my facebook friends have posted. One comment: "You should take on a second career of doing fitness competitions. I think you could bring in some cash. Just don't tell them what you eat." Another: "Like a fitness model!" Awww...so nice. Keep 'em coming, people! I do love a good compliment. :) And with less than a year before I am no longer in my 30's (oh my god, how I hate getting old!!!), compliments on my looks are more pleasing than they were 10 years ago.

Someone also asked me if this picture was photoshopped. Come on! You don't believe that a 39 year old whose main (only?) food group is Tootsie Rolls and KitKats can take a decent photo? But I have to admit - that yes - I did edit it a bit...but only because that woman who is perfectly framed between my legs is a little off-putting. :)
Ok then...vain girl checking out. I've got some sushi waiting for me and some Coyotes hockey to watch for an hour before I go play soccer.

Lotsa Doggies

Buster came to stay for a week while Karissa was out of town. Bruiser and Chico came to stay for the next week while Chris' sister was out of town. Their visits overlapped by a day ...and this is what that day looked like:

Sayonara Sarah

My super-smart, super-pretty, super-talented and super-awesome friend, Sarah, moved away. This makes me sad.

Me and Sarah:
Sarah and I were both part of the old-school book club crowd. Why do my book club girls keep leaving me? (Lili and Grace - I'm giving you the evil eye right now!)

Book club girls wearing black in mourning for the loss of Sarah:
She moved to St. Louis to take a big, fat promotion. Hurray, Sarah! We are very proud of her.

Proud though we may be, we have not had a book club social event since she left! This is just wrong!! It's obvious that we need her here to rev us up and get us out. So sad. We are all going to turn into dullards without her around. (I've always wanted to use the word "dullard")

Wait! We did have one sort-of social event. We had a "Hazing Of The All-New Actual Lesbian" to find her replacement. The All-New Actual Lesbian is going to be a good addition to book club, but if she really wants to be Sarah's replacement, she'd better be scheduling a happy hour damn quick.

In memory of our dearly departed Sarah...some random pictures from the glory days...

At Frank and Albert's:

At Trader Vic's:At Kristen's house:
Thanksgiving at my house:

At Heather's Hazing night:

A few months ago, Kiri hosted what turned out to be the "Last Supper". I meant to blog about it at the time, but (no surprise) I never did. There was something about feral llamas that had Sarah laughing a lot...but the story escapes me. So instead of a story, you just get dinner pictures.

Pat and Wayne:
Robyn, Kiri, Mari:
Jimmy and Tom:
And the best for last...my friend Sarah. We are already planning book club reunion to get her back here!

3-Legged Agility

I'm taking Mo to her first agility trial over Labor Day. I'm not sure if she's ready to trial, but I guess we'll see.

It's been hard this summer because she really hates the heat. Frankie couldn't care less if it's hot...he'll play all day long. But Mo, she shuts down when it gets too hot. I was practicing with her on a course that went out and back and out again. Mo went out with me, she went back with me, but when I went out again, Mo ran right into her x-pen in the shade instead. :) I hope it's the heat and not a dislike of agility. I guess we'll see that, too. The trial is up north in Pinetop so it should be nice and cool.

She's already super-slow to begin with, but add in the heat and she slows down to barely a walk. However, last night we got to practice when it was fairly cool out and she did so well! She was almost running even. Check it out (I hope you've got some time because even at an almost-run, she is still Slo-Mo):




You can tell she is still afraid of the noise of the teeter. And I forgot in the middle of the run that she still doesn't do off-side weaves so I had to stop her so I could get on the right side. It sure is a different experience running Mo compared to Frankie!!

And here is Frankie doing the same course in half the time: