Miko the WonderDog & Moxie

2011 in a Nutshell

2011-12-14T16:04:00.000-08:00

Here it is, almost the winter solstice -- another year flown by. A pretty good year too, in terms of agility anyway.

Firstly (drumroll, please!): Moxie got his PDCH (USDAA Performance championship, used to be called APD) in June. The trial was held at Nunes Agility Field in Turlock.

He'd been finished with everything but his Performance Versatility Pairs Tournament leg since February, but we had to fight for that last one. PVP consists of 5 classes, combining the scores of the 2 dogs that make up the pair. It's a full day's competition, and only offered a few times a year in each region -- maybe 4 times w/in a reasonable drive from Oakland. We tried for it in March and didn't get it; the NAF trial was our next opportunity. Our partners were Patti Poindexter and her BC Gus. They were rock-solid all day, and after a rough start Mox and I settled down too. We not only got the elusive PVP Q and Moxie's title, our little team finished 3rd overall, and won a medal!

With his PDCH under his belt, I decided to move Moxie from Performance to the Championship division. This meant he would jump 22" instead of 16", there would be spread jumps, and the A-frame would be higher -- none of which presented a problem. He would also have to start over in the "babydog" ring and work his way back up to Masters level. (You move laterally from Champs to Perf at whatever level you're in at the time of the move; I guess the reasoning is that since Perf is less demanding, the dogs need to prove themselves at the lower levels.) Not a problem either, except for the additional time and expense. I weighed my options and decided that since he was just turning 6 this fall, if I wanted to run him with the "big boys" for awhile, this was the time to do it.

He got his Starters title in August and his Advanced title at the BayTeam trial 12/11, and will run in Masters classes at least until he gets his MAD title (3 Masters Standards, 1 each in Gamblers, Jumpers, Pairs Relay and Snooker; no Super Q required). After that, I may move him back to Performance. Or, I may not!

Secondly (another drumroll, please!): Miko got his CT-ATCH at the FunPaws trial in October. He actually got the last leg he needed at BayTeam back in July, but I hadn't told anybody beforehand. It was going to come down to the last class of the last day, and I wanted there to be lots of people on hand to cheer for my handsome boy. It took him a long time to get that title because he enters so few classes. His Q rate is well above 90%... In USDAA he got his Performance MAD in September. I don't intend to try for a PDCH with him -- Super Q's would be difficult, to say the least. But that's okay. He can go for titles in jumpers and standard. And since he'll be 8 next year I can run him as a veteran at 16" if I want -- though I must say he bounces over the 22" jumps almost as if they weren't there.

Thirdly: 2011 was the year I discovered ASCA trials, and they are now my favorite venue. The courses are like "old NADAC," I'm told -- open and flowing, but with enough kinks and jinks to keep your attention. Several of my Aussie-owning agility friends have been insisting for several years that Mox is actually an Aussie, and I should get him registered with ASCA. I resisted for awhile, but finally had my friend Susan Bender take the required side and head-on photos, which I sent off to ASCA. And yep, they think he's an Aussie and sent me a piece of paper that says so! Fact is, he does look a lot like the "working" or "stock-dog" Aussies -- google stock-dog Aussie and you get lots of pix of my dog! I still think he's part Border Collie, but I've pretty much shut up about it.

Both dogs love ASCA. Fast Moxie can stretch out and run, and careful Miko can relax and gallop along without me constantly in his face telling him to turn this way or that.

Of the 4 ASCA trials we went to this year, Mox was High In Trial dog at 3 of them! PASA, the local club, gives Silver Buckle awards (tooled leather collar with a fancy silver badge/plaque thing) for highest points accumulated over their 4 shows. Mox got one of them. It's so heavy he could never wear it -- think prizefighter's championship belt! -- but it's really pretty.

End of report.

Here's an ASCA gambler's run

And here's a USDAA Performance Speed Jumping run in which i prove that an old broad can still bounce!

How time flies...

2010-12-10T12:25:00.003-08:00

... when you're havin' fun. It's been over a year since my last post. More like a year and a half. In that time, Moxie finished his C-ATCH, at Bay Team in early November, '09. He earned the equivalent of his C-ATCH 2 in May 2010 ... but we are going for C-ATE points, so no actual new pole and ribbon. We have largely transitioned over to USDAA, which is considerably more of a challenge.

Because of his slightly funky conformation, and a history of injuries early on, I have opted to run Moxie in the Performance division in USDAA, where he only has to jump 16". His Championship division jump height would be 22", and while he doesn't seem stressed at that height, I'm afraid that long-term it wouldn't be good for him. He is now closing in on his Performance championship title, which used to be called APD, but which by the time he gets it will be PADCH.

I haven't abandoned CPE altogether. Miko is only a few Q's away from his C-ATCH. He also does a little USDAA and has graduated from the starters/advanced classes to the Masters ring. Thank goodness -- no more ring conflicts! And especially, no more having to learn 2 separate sets of courses.

Here's a YouTube link.

More catch-up, more video

2009-06-26T15:20:00.000-07:00

I've fallen behind again! Since Bay Team Santa Rosa in March, we've been to WAG twice (Fun Paws and Haute Dawgs CPE trials), and Dixon once for another foray into USDAA. Last weekend we came full circle, with another Bay Team CPE trial, this time in Palo Alto.

Last things first. In Palo Alto, Moxie finally, FINALLY, got his last Level 4 Snooker leg! After who knows how many tries (I think at one point we were 0 for 9!) This finishes his Level 4 title at long last. He also got his final Level 5 Jackpot (with a gi-normous 67 point score) and Wildcard. This leaves him needing 5 L5 Snookers, 5 L5 Standards, and 2 L5 Colors ... a grand total of just 12 legs for his C-ATCH title. I can taste it :-P

Miko has almost completed the re-do of his L3 classes, necessitated by my switching him from the Regular to Enthusiast category. I had assumed that they would combine legs toward his title, but they don't, so we had to repeat about 50% of his classes he'd already qualified in. He's been marching steadily along in his unspectacular way since last fall, and now needs only 1 Standard leg to get back to Go.

Here's a link to video of a couple of Moxie's Snooker runs -- one (Fun Paws) godawful, one (Bay Team) pretty good.

Our second USDAA trial, in April, was pretty successful. Mox ran in Performance Level 1 (for babydogs) -- needed 1 Standard to move up, and got it; 1 Gambler (Jackpot) to move up and got it; needed 2 Jumpers and got 1, 3 Snookers and got 2. We entered the pairs relay with Tammy Damon and her Aussie, Simon Says. Neither dog was at his best and we NQ'd ... but we're trying again in Prudedale this weekend. Tammy and her partner, Elena, are also Ace students.

I still haven't made up my mind whether to switch to USDAA as my primary venue after Moxie gets his C-ATCH. CPE is much more casual and laid back. Also, Miko doesn't have the drive to do well in USDAA, so it would be pointless to enter him. Not that he'd care one way or the other. As long as he gets to go tracking, he's happy!

Finally, some video!

2009-03-31T09:22:00.000-07:00

But unfortunately, blogspot isn't allowing even the low-res ones to upload. They're on my Facebook page, so friend me if you want to see them!

Or, see low-res versions here.

Bay Team CPE, 3/21-2 09

2009-03-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

Video coming!! I was able to talk Elsa into coming to Santa Rosa with me for the Bay Team's spring CPE trial -- the idea was that, among other things, she could take some videos. A rash of battery failures squelched that plan. Oh well! Luckily, a professional video service was there to save the day, and Moxie's first-ever Level C Jumpers run has been captured in all its noisy barking glory for posterity. I also ordered one of his L5 Standard runs (the fastest run out of 80+ dogs, but a bar down, so a "dirty" 5-fault Q and no placement), Miko's Standard run, and Moxie's blazing 13-second Colors run. The neat thing about the video is that I could look at it and see exactly what I did that caused him to knock that bar.

In addition to Jumpers, Mox got his final L4 Colors leg, which completes his CL4-H category title. He also Q'd in L5 Jackpot (barely! not our finest run!), Fullhouse and Wildcard, going 6/8 for the weekend. Did I mention that we did NOT Q in Snooker ... again!?

Miko went 2 for 2. He seemed particularly up and happy all weekend (maybe he liked having Elsa there!), doing his boing-boing! jump-in-place routine while waiting his turn to run. Some guy was so taken with him that he kept snapping his picture, "What a cute dog!" Which he certainly is.

Catch-up

2009-03-24T14:04:00.000-07:00

Moxie at VAST CPE trial, Turlock CA 3/7-8

Mox and Miko have been to several trial since I last posted anything here. I've been sucked into the Facebook morass, and am trying to figure out if I want to keep this blog going or not. Meanwhile, here's what's been happening:

The Haute Dawgs CPE trial at WAG, 1/17-18, was another teeter-free trial for Mox. He Q'd in L4 Colors and Fullhouse, and got 2 more L5 Jumpers legs -- he only needs one more! Yet again I managed to blow our Snooker run :-(. It's all in my mind, I know ... but it's really stuck there, but good! You Suck At Snooker With This Dog! Emphasis on "with this dog," since Miko Q's regularly in Snooker. He's slower and less impetuous, and perhaps more forgiving of certain types of handler errors :-) Meex also got his final L3 and first L4 Jackpot Q's, going 4/4 again.

Oh, and I won a very cool prize in the workers' raffle: a $50 gift certificate toward my entries at my next Haute Dawgs trial (in May, I believe).

WAG CPE, 1/31-2/1: Moxie's return to Standard runs and the dreaded teeter obstacle. Huzzah! Huzzah! He had 4 teeter "opportunities," and all went pretty well. Twice he kind of shied away on the approach, but when I called him he scampered on up the board and rode it down without excessive crouching. He looked a little uncertain, but not scared. The other 2 times he didn't hesitate at all. Those Standard Qs finished his L4-R category title. He also got his last L4 Jackpot Q, plus L5 Qs in Fullhouse and Wildcard.

Miko entered only 2 classes. He Q'd in Moxie's nemesis, Snooker, which finished off his L3-S category title. (Snooker and Jackpot go together in the Strategy category.)

VAST CPE, Turlock, 3/7-8: Finally, Mox and I get a Snooker!!! Whoopeee! Will wonders never cease??!! He was 6 for 8 on the weekend, and got his last L5 Jumpers leg, with the fastest time out of 90+ dogs in the class! That was one of the best runs we've ever had -- I wasn't late a single time with my commands, and consequently I was able to get really tight turns and cut corners to shave off fractions of seconds. It felt good!!

What didn't feel so good was my butt when I slipped on frosty grass in Sunday's L5 Standard, and sat down, hard. That of course resulted in an NQ, but I was pleased that throughout the weekend the teeter was simply a non-issue. I found myself able to begin to relax, and actually send him to it instead of feeling like i had to babysit the approach.

Miko was 1 for 2, with a win in L4 Colors. The high point of his weekend was the horses in the paddock next to the dogs' exercise area. He didn't seem to want to chase them, exactly, but he was definitely interested. There was a big handsome quarter horse that at one point was galloping around, kicking up its heels. Meex ran along the fenceline beside it, not barking, just keeping an eye on it. I have no idea what he would have done if he'd found a gap in the fence.

Mini-post: Teeter success!

2009-01-16T11:46:00.000-08:00

It appears that Moxie's teeter fears are behind him. He's performed flawlessly in practice and in class, not to mention here at home, with the board at full height. Elsa went to Shamrock with me last weekend while her car was getting an oil change, and took some videos. I've got them on my computer but haven't had a spare second to edit them and put them online.

We're off to Elk Grove in a couple of hours for the HauteDawgz CPE trial. Both dogs will be running; with luck Miko can finish his Level 3 title. He needs 2 Snooker legs and 1 Jackpot; like I say, "with luck"! With equal luck Mox can finish his L4 Jackpot and L4 Fullhouse categories. Nothing he's entered in should require a teeter. He'd probably do it just fine, but I figure another couple of weeks just to get things rock-solid won't hurt.

(Note, 3/24) It also appears that I neglected to note results from the WAG trial, 1/03-04. No teeters for Mox, but plenty else for him to do. He Q'd in L4 Fullhouse, Jackpot and Wildcard, and got 2 L5 Jumpers Qs, for an almost-perfect 5 for 6 weekend. Miko got 2 L3 Jackpot Q's, plus L3 Snooker and L4 Colors - 4 for 4 for him! Good boys!

Bay Team CPE, 11/8-9, teeter meltdown

2008-12-27T18:16:00.000-08:00

We had a pretty good weekend at the Bay Team CPE in Santa Rosa. The trial was held under the roof at the Lyttle Cow Palace, which turned out to be a good thing since it rained on Sunday. Miko had a fine outing, Q/blueing all 4 of his classes. Moxie also got 4 Q's/blues, and was robbed (ROBBED, I tell you!) of a 5th. He finished his Level 4 jumpers legs with a fast, clean run.

However, a problem has developed. In class on Thursday before the trial weekend, he slid off the end of the teeter, which bounced up and whacked him in the butt. It had to hurt, but he went right back and did the obstacle properly. I stayed after class and sent him over it 3 or 4 more times, and he seemed fine.

He must have been fine at the trial on Saturday too, because though he had several NQs none of them involved the teeter. But on Sunday, in his otherwise lovely Standard run, he bailed off the board halfway up. This is a dog that had never, ever, bailed off of anything, but off he went. I brought him back around (which is a big no-no in CPE, and earned me a warning from the judge!) and on a 2nd try he did it without hesitation. I wondered if maybe I hadn't given him a good approach, or something -- not that that had ever mattered much to him before.

By class time the following Thursday, Mox had concluded that teeters are really monsters with huge jagged teeth and voracious appetites for little black dogs. He wouldn't even go near the one in our practice course. It's like he'd spent the week brooding over his initial mishap, blowing it up to gigantic proportions in his mind. In fact, just the sound of the teeter banging on the ground seemed to frighten him -- which it hadn't previously -- to the point that he kept trying to hide behind the hedge at the edge of the ring. Poor guy!

So, we're in teeter-retraining mode. I booked a couple of private lessons with my instructor, Sandy Rogers. We've gone all the way back to square 1, playing "the BANG! game" (jumping onto the teeter -- set to a low height -- from the side, so that the end slams down, BANG! followed of course by lots of very yummy treats), and running back and forth over the board in both directions. My friend Elissa let me borrow her teeter; I found a good place for it out by the storage shed under the fir tree. I also made a wobble board out of a piece of plywood I found in the garage. Unlike Miko, who mastered the wobble board early and easily in his training, Mox had never been comfortable on one. Now it took him several days to put both front paws on, and over a week before we got even one back paw.

Now, finally, he's hopping onto it with all four, looking quite pleased with himself (and the chicken chunks he gets as a reward). He's doing much better on the teeter as well. I've been raising it little by little and now it's at about half official trial height. I figure (hope!) that within a few weeks he'll be doing it with confidence at full height again.

We have a trial this weekend. I've entered Mox in classes where he won't have to perform the teeter at all -- Jackpot and Fullhouse, where you pick your own course, and Jumpers, which doesn't include any of the contact obstacles. No Standard runs for him for awhile. He's also entered in Wildcard this weekend, where there might or might not be a teeter required. If there is, I'll offer him the opportunity to do it, and however he responds will be fine with me; we'll just go on to the next obstacle. More of the same in 2 weeks -- and continued work at home and in class, of course -- and then we'll see how he's progressing. Never a dull moment!

Playing Catch-Up!

2008-11-03T16:42:00.000-08:00

Wow ... I'm falling down on the job here! Since my last entry, dawgz and I have been to agility trials in Eureka, Turlock (twice) and Elk Grove (twice). We're about to take off for Santa Rosa again, for our final outing of the season, Bay Team CPE.

Pictures if I ever get any!

But not to get ahead of myself: I made the long haul up to Eureka in mid-August for the HumDog CPE trial by myself this year. Last year Elsa went with me and she planned to again this year. I don't remember, now, exactly what came up, but something did and she stayed home. M,M & I had a very nice room with a Jacuzzi (I do draw the line at bathing with my dogs!) and I was able to visit several friends who live in the area -- one of the reasons for driving quite a ways out of my usual stomping grounds.

Assuming (correctly, as it turned out) that the weather would be fairly cool, I entered Miko in 4 classes. He Q'd and placed first in all of them, finishing his Level 3 Colors and Full House legs. Moxie also finished his L3 Full House and Wildcard legs, and got his first 2 L4 Standard legs. He had several NQ's that were almost really wonderful -- a non-traditional Jackpot where he did a really long send-away through a tunnel, exiting at the end of the dogwalk then coming back to me over the dogwalk. This was worth 30 points. Only 3 dogs attempted it, only one actually accomplished it. Moxie did everything perfectly but missed the down contact on the DW. Despite the fault, I was so thrilled with the gamble I forgot the rest of my plan and we ended up with time faults. I didn't care.

I also (almost) didn't care about his NQ in Jumpers. His run was so fast and pretty ... maybe i should have handled more and admired less! At any rate, he was perfect until the next to last jump, which I don't think he even saw. He just blew past it and went on to take the last one out of order.

Our Snooker woes continued. I was beginning to think we'd be stuck in L2 Snooker for the rest of our lives.

Since there weren't any CPE trials around here in September, I decided to give USDAA a try. Headed over to Nunes Agility Field in Turlock for a trial sponsored by VAST (Valley Agility Sports Team). I didn't run Miko. Moxie was entered in the Performance, rather than Championship division. His Championship jump height is 22", and that just seems like a lot for him. In Performance, he jumps his CPE height of 16".

He had a pretty good weekend: 5 Q's/7 classes, 2 firsts, 3 2nds, with the only NQ's being ... Snooker, both days.

Moving right along ...

WAG 10/4 - 5. A good weekend. Moxie Q'd in 7 of 10 classes, with 6 first places. And finally, make that FINALLY!! we got that elusive L2 Snooker leg, to FINALLY!!! finish his Level 2 Title. Everything else was in the bag in early April! Miko ran in 2 classes, Q'd/blued in one and had a fast, happy NQ in the other.

FunPaws at WAG 10/18 - 19. Another good weekend. We're the Snooker gods!! Mox not only Q'd both days, he also placed first! Another 7 for 10 weekend, 6 wins, one 2nd. Along the way, he got his last L3 Colors leg and his CL3-H title. Miko got his last L3 Wildcard leg and also finished his CL3-H title. (Wildcard and Colors are the 2 events that make up the "Handlers" title.)

VAST CPE 10/24-25. We had a great Saturday -- Mox was 4 for 4, with 3 firsts and a 2nd. AND in those 4 Q's was his last L3 Snooker, which finished his CL3 title! Miko won his class as well. Sunday started out auspiciously, with Miko winning his L4 Standard class and Mox having a really good Jackpot run that turned out to be NQ because we were late starting the gamble. (I have since bought a stopwatch; this isn't the first time I've ended up on the wrong side of the ring at the whistle.)

After that, things kind of came apart. I just wasn't with the program for some reason; stood around like a lawn jockey. Mox soon figured out that there was nobody home, and started making up his own courses.

Next stop, Santa Rosa!

Bay Team CPE, 7/18-19

2008-07-22T17:59:00.000-07:00

Thinking it would be too hot for Miko (July, right? Sonoma County, right?), I entered only Moxie in the Bay Team midsummer CPE trial. As it happened, the weather was cool all weekend, almost chilly on Sunday morning with the fog hanging in till after lunchtime. Miko probably would have enjoyed a couple of runs, but who knew???

The Mox came into the weekend still needing one Level 2 Snooker leg to finish his CL2 title. Piece of cake, thought I, since Snooker was offered both days. Two chances to get the one lonely Q we needed. Piece of cake ... did I just say that? He also needed just one Level 3 Jumpers leg -- 2 chances to get that as well.

First, the good news. He Q'd and won Saturday's Jumpers class, which meant he could do an overnight move-up and enter Level 4 Jumpers on Sunday. Saturday's run is on video at the end of this post. (Turn the sound down or off; he barks!!) I wish I had Sunday's run on video as well, because it was another Q-win (his first ever at Level 4), and a lovely fast run. Standard course time for 16" dogs was 45 seconds; his time was 24.5!

The rest of the good news: Q's in 7 of 10 classes, with 5 first places, 1 second and 1 third. He Q'd/won his Jackpot (Gamblers) both days, which moves him up to Level 4 in that class as well.

So what about the 3 non-Q's? you ask. Well, two of them were the 2 Snooker classes! Yep, 2 chances to get the one single solitary leg we still need to finish out his first title, and we blew them both. I should say I blew them both! Snooker is a strategy game, and I have no head for it. And Moxie's so fast, if I don't get info to him right now he's halfway across the ring merrily taking whatever jumps seem like the right course to him. This was something like our 4th and 5th tries to get that second leg ... I think he'll be in Level 2 Snooker for the rest of his life!

Our next competition will be HumDog CPE, up in Eureka, in mid-August. It's a long drive, especially with gas costing what it does these days, but we have friends in the area and are staying an extra day and calling it a mini-vacation. We went last year and had a great time.

Meanwhile, here are videos of Moxie's Saturday Jumpers and Jackpot runs. See Sara almost trip over the gamble line! Sorry about the quality ... I was getting pretty good with the old iMovie, but the new, improved version is quite different, and completely counter-intuitive. I'm just guessing...

Jumpers above, Jackpot below.

Miko continues to do exceptionally well in his tracking classes. I hope he'll get his TD title in February. He has made me promise that the next post here will have videos of him with his nose deep in the grass, following a trail of footsteps (and bits of hot dog!) in search of the elusive "Lost Object"!

NADAC Trial at WAG , 6/14 - 15

2008-06-20T11:03:00.000-07:00

Q: "Are you ready?

A: "I was born ready!"

This was a Games-only trial -- no Jumpers, Chances or Regular runs, just Weavers, Tunnelers and Touch N Go (tunnels and contacts). Oh, and Hoopers, which we don't do. Once again my plans for tent camping were foiled by hot weather and M,M & I enjoyed the refrigerated air of the Extended Stay Suites. It wasn't as hot as at the last trial we went to here, but hot enough -- high 90's.

Miko only ran in 2 classes -- the first one at his level each day. On Saturday this was TnG, with an easy course that should have been a piece of cake for him. But he hasn't been to a class since last October and all I do with him at practice is play, so he's rusty and he and I aren't fully in sync ... a roundabout way of saying he took an off-course obstacle and didn't Q. However, despite how easy the course was none of the other dogs Q'd either, so Miko got 2nd place. On Sunday he had a lovely smooth Tunnelers run for a first place Q.

Moxie was a wild man in his first TnG -- barking and spinning and taking off-course obstacles. But then he settled down and left the screwing-up for me to do! And I did plenty of that -- Tunnelers, in particular, are difficult for me, partly because I never have an opportunity to practice this type of course. Physically moving around among a bunch of tunnels poses a handling challenge -- get stuck on the wrong side of one of those things and you have to run 30' out of your way to get where you want to go. But the real challenge as far as I'm concerned is that there aren't any "landmarks" in the course. Everything is tunnels, so you can't remember "tunnel, tunnel, dogwalk; tunnel tunnel A-frame." It's just "tunnel tunnel tunnel tunnel tunnel..." and even though they aren't all the same color they're more alike than different. And I tend to get lost; did so twice last weekend.

Fortunately Moxie only needed one Tunnelers leg to finish his novice title in that class, and he got that, and a first place, on Sunday. On Saturday he picked up the 2 Weavers legs he needed for that title. I moved him up to open Weavers on Sunday. He had one first place Q and one off-course NQ -- another of those inexplicable (to me) adventures where he literally ran into me as I stood directly in front of the A-frame directing him as strongly as I knew how to Get Out! and Take The Damn Tunnel, dammit!! He hit me so hard he yelped! He did this at the fun-raiser in Santa Rosa in April, too. Of course I can't get him to do it in practice, and of course Sandy thinks I was late with my information or something. But I wasn't. His mind was firmly made up.

Moxie's grand total was 6 Q's out of 10 classes, with 5 firsts and a 2nd. He's now in Open everything except Chances, where he still needs one more Novice leg.

Now we have almost a month with no trials. Our next outing will be the Bay Team CPE trial in Petaluma, the middle of July.

That's my story and I'm stickin to it.

Distance Seminar, and Tracking

2008-06-11T19:42:00.000-07:00

On June 1, the Mox and I, and Elsa, drove to (you guessed it!) Elk Grove so Mox and I could take part in a Distance Handling seminar taught by Susan Rapillus. Susan runs Shelties, and she's one of only 2 or 3 people I've seen successfully complete the elite distance challenge in NADAC classes. It's so cool to watch the handlers basically standing at the start line and directing their dogs around the course with voice commands and body & hand cues. They remind me of kids with those radio-remote-control cars.

Because Moxie has so much drive he seems like a dog that could do pretty well at this, if I could ever learn to handle the distance correctly. Even if we never take it to that level, I figured I could use some help in communicating when he gets way out in front of me ... as he often does.

It was a beautiful day, and the seminar was very helpful. Mox been having trouble with tunnel/contact discrimination, and sometimes going into the wrong end of a curved tunnel. Susan showed me a couple of different body cues to give, and Moxie's improvement was dramatic. I went home feeling I'd gotten my money's worth, and more.

Meanwhile, looking around for something other than agility to do with Miko while the weather is hot, I signed up for tracking lessons with Debi Best. She's been teaching for years, and her Golden Retrievers have multiple AKC Obedience and Tracking titles. Miko seems to have a pretty good nose, and he loves to use it, so I figured he'd enjoy this activity.

We met yesterday for the first time; learned how to lay tracks, and then let our dogs follow the tracks (bits of food dropped every 3 paces, for us beginners) to find an object such as a glove or old wallet. Miko was thrilled by all the smells in the grass and it took him awhile to get the idea that he was supposed to track footsteps from one bit of hotdog to the next. He also did some "air scenting," where he lifted his nose and sniffed for the hotdog instead of keeping his nose low. He'll learn. I took him over to the Head-Royce School athletic field this morning and laid 4 tracks for him. Despite the distractions of dropped potato chips and candy in the grass (last Saturday was Commencement), he did better today than yesterday. I'll take him out tomorrow and Friday as well, and then we're off to WAG again for a NADAC specialty trial -- specialty in this case meaning no jumping classes at all. A weekend of tunnels, weave poles and contacts ... and hoopers, for them as indulge in such as that!.

Hot, Hot, HOT! CPE at WAG 5/17-18

2008-05-28T15:41:00.000-07:00

Hot? I'll show you hot!

AKA "Frying pan to fire." It was blistering in the Bay Area by mid-week; record temps in San Francisco Thursday and Friday. So what do I do? I head inland to the central valley, to a CPE trial at WAG, where temps are guaranteed to be 5 - 15 degrees higher. It was 105 in Elk Grove on Friday evening by the time I finished setting up, and about the same on Saturday. Sunday was a little less brutal, maybe mid-90's. Whatever, it was too hot for Miko, who spent the weekend asleep in the shade, but crazy little Moxie seemed to think that the faster he ran, the more breeze he'd create to cool himself off. He had a great weekend -- went 9 for 10 Q's, with 4 firsts, 2 2nds, 2 3rds and a 4th, and finished off his level 3 standard title. This means that next time he'll have to run the "big boys'" standard course, which will be a challenge!

High points:
1) 63 point jackpot run, in the top 10 out of all 130+ dogs in the class (all levels run the same course for most games). I had a smart plan and stuck to it for a change; he did every single thing I asked. Oh, and I managed not to step over the gamble line this time.
2) Jumpers run. Level 3 dogs jump with the higher levels. It was a nice flowy course with one tricky patch toward the end, followed by a long straight shot, 4 jumps the length of the ring to the finish. Mox was dazzling fast and clean until the very last jump -- because I had to monitor the tricky part I was at the far end of the ring when he started the run home, and because he was absolutely flying he very quickly got a long way ahead of me. I was running as hard as I could and yelling at him to go on, but it's a big ring; I might as well have been in another county! He went straight on over 3 of the 4 jumps, then seemed to realize he'd lost me, and turned back. When I almost caught up and yelled go on again he spun and took the jump the wrong way. We fixed it quickly and he got a nice round of applause. I figured he'd NQ'd but I didn't care -- 16/17ths of the run had been so fine. Turns out a back-jump is 5 faults, and at Level 3 there are 5-fault Q's. The cool thing was that even with the spin, the back-jump and correction, he had the 5th fastest time out of 130+ dogs.
3) Clean run and 2nd fastest time (130+ dogs, all levels) in Wildcard.
4) Perfect start-line stays, perfect weaves, no blown contacts.

Low point:
One standard course had one of those tunnel/dogwalk discriminations that have caused us trouble in the past. I left him "parked" at the teeter while I ran past 2 jumps and was right there hovering over the trouble spot before I released him. Damned if he didn't scoot under my outstretched arm and take the dogwalk anyway. Little stinker! We have some work to do.

On staying cool in this kind of heat: #1, a lot of people just didn't run their dogs. There were a lot of no-shows.

#2, The nice folks at WAG did everything possible to keep people and dogs from frying. They were passing out bottled water left and right. They had set up several misting stations, where you could stand with your dog under a fine spray of water. There were at least 3 hoses and 3 tubs (think kiddies' wading pools) for wetting down the dogs. They were also selling those water-retaining bandanas -- filled with some kind of crystals that turn into a gel when you soak them. I already had one, that i bought for Miko a couple of years ago but it didn't fit him properly and didn't seem to like it. So i wore it!! It really did help and made quite the fashion statement.

#3 Drink water, drink water, drink tea, drink water, drink juice. Don't forget to eat a little something too. I realized at about 1 o'clock that my knees felt rubbery. It was too hot for me to feel hungry but I'd had breakfast at 5:30, just a banana and some toast. So I ate an apple and then got a hot dog from Danny the food vendor and felt okay again.

#4, Shade, shade, shade. The woven silver-mesh reflecting sheets I bought last year weren't cheap, but they not only create shade, they bounce the heat back in the sun's face (take that!!). AND, because they're a loose weave, they allow for air movement. In addition to the dogs' crates, I had invested in an ex-pen. These are wire-grate fence panels that come in sets of 6 panels that fan-fold down flat for carrying and then you open them up and arrange them into a square (or rectangular or whatever) pen. I set up the 2 crates next to each other and then set up the ex-pen with the ends clipped to either side of the crates, creating 2 little dens side by side with a nice yard in front, everything underneath the shade canopy. It was pretty nice, actually. Miko preferred his crate but Moxie mostly slept on the grass in his yard.

#5, Fuggeddabout glamor! By noon, I was not only hosing Moxie down after his runs, I was turning the hose on myself. I wasn't the only one, either. Can we say "wet t-shirt contest"? I found that the best thing was to soak my hair/head. And my hat. And then put the wet hat on my wet hair; you can just imagine how it looked when it dried. :-) No biggie -- I just wet it down again.

#6, Things I noticed that other people did: some had battery-operated fans. There was a discussion of these on one of my agility lists awhile back; the consensus was that most of them had pretty poor battery life. But I talked to a woman who got hers at Wal-mart for about $30, and she loves it.

Some people kept damp mesh coats on their dogs even in their crates. I saw a few of the belly-packs that were designed for military dogs in Iraq. They're pretty expensive, but the maker donates part of the profit to providing the packs for soldier dogs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Our next competition will be a NADAC "specialty" trial in mid-June -- no jumps, just tunnels, weaves and contact obstacles. And hoops, though I'll be in spectator mode for those. Should be different, and fun. Meanwhile I'm taking Moxie to WAG on the 1st for a distance workshop with Susan Rapillus. {Drumroll} Watch this space for a report of how that goes.

Fun Paws CPE and a NADAC "fun raiser"

2008-04-16T14:36:00.000-07:00

Q: "Are you ready?

A: "I was born ready!"

April 5 and 6 found us at our favorite stomping grounds, WAG in Elk Grove, for a CPE trial sponsored by Fun Paws. I ran only Moxie, though Miko came along for the ride. Mox had a pretty good weekend, with 5 Q's in 10 classes, winning 3 firsts and 2 2nds. "Really" he was 6 for 10, since he had an excellent run in Sunday's Jackpot, but I screwed up and negated the gamble at the end. (If you are not a Dog Agility Person, I understand that I might as well be speaking Mandarin here!) I seem to be wired to make at least one colossal mistake in every trial!

He is now in Level 3 everything except Snooker, and he's halfway through his Level 3 Standard. So he has almost caught up with Miko!

I have to say it was relaxing to be running just one dog, and I don't think Miko was too bored. I had set up the tent, even though we stayed at the motel at night, and there was plenty of room for the dogs to hang out inside without having to be crated. Plus there were the exercise pens where I took him 3 or 4 times a day to stretch his legs and have a change of scene. Next time we go, I'll plan to camp (hoping the replacement air mattress has survived 5 months storage in the garage and doesn't dump me on the ground!). Incidentally, that was a windy weekend and I discovered that putting up that big tent by myself in the face of fairly strong gusts is, shall we say, a challenge. Taking it down would have been an adventure too, as the wind was if anything even stronger by then, but fortunately I had some help for that task.

I found out on Monday that in addition to the 2 prizes I won in Saturday's workers' raffle, I also won another. This one's exciting -- an 8 x 10 print of a photo by David Wong. So now I'm waiting to see the pix Dave took that weekend, to decide whether I want one of those, or one from the early-January NADAC trial.

Speaking of NADAC, I had entered Mox in a "fun-raiser" in Santa Rosa on Sunday 4/13. Elsa and I drove up for the day with both dogs. It was a small show and they were taking day of show entries, so I signed Miko up for the first 2 classes, before the day got too hot. He was in fine form; had 2 lovely clean runs, Q'd in both classes and won one of them. The other was strictly Q/NQ, with no placements.

Moxie's first few runs were pretty wild, but then he settled down and Q'd in his last 3 runs, with 2 firsts and a 2nd. He was the fastest dog in Novice Jumpers by over 12 seconds! That was his 3rd Jumpers leg at that level, so next time he moves up to Open. He's already joined Miko in Open Regular (Standard).

Elsa took some video ... if anything's worth looking at (really poor lighting conditions in the open-sided roofed arena) I'll get them posted before long.

Now we have about 4 weeks off. Time to head up to Portland to see my granddaughter!

Bay Team CPE, 3/22-3

2008-03-27T13:07:00.000-07:00

"'Scuse my dust!"

This was a big event held in Sunnyvale, considerably closer to home than our usual Elk Grove venue. There were 3 rings going at the same time, but things were so well organized and orchestrated that there were few to no SNAFUs. I took both dogs, and at the end of Saturday's events was hoping for a double "perfect weekend" -- 9 Q's/9 events for Mox, 7/7 for Miko. Miko had Q'd in all 3 of his Saturday classes, with a 1st and a 3rd place, and Moxie had Q'd in all 5 of his, with 2 1sts, a 3rd and a 4th.

However, this perfect weekend was not to be. On Sunday, Miko Q'd in his first class and then he had clearly had enough. I ran (okay, trotted) him in one more and then scratched from the final 2. He gets seasonal allergies and was on meds; I don't think he felt very good.

"I think I'll sit this one out, thanks."

"Not Me!!!"

Moxie ran either hot or ... not cold, maybe "too hot." He Q'd and finished 2nd (on accumulated points) in his Jackpot class with an excellent run that earned us compliments from total strangers, and he was absolutely brilliant in his Jumpers -- more than 5 1/2 seconds faster than any other Level 2 dog of any size! But in Full House we ran into some trouble, ended up not exactly where I intended, and I got flustered and patted him before sending him to the table to stop the clock. This constituted "touching the dog on course," which is elimination.

Our primo disaster, though, was Sunday's Standard class. The wheels came off, the boiler exploded, it rained rubber chickens and the stock market plummeted yet another 300 points. Everything that could go wrong, did. He broke his stay at the start (only time all weekend, and I was doing some lonnngggg lead-outs), which meant I was behind him from the gitgo. He took an off-course jump. Blew his weave entry. Blew his weave entry again. And again. And he barked -- at me, not just his usual "look! I'm running!" enthusiastic noise. Babysitting the weaves put me behind him again, out of position so I had to rear-cross the teeter. Apparently I cut it closer than I shoulda, because I tripped and went sprawling -- took most of the skin off my right knee (the one that works!).

Good going! In one class I "handle" my dog, in another I fall over an obstacle...

But I balance these mishaps against the truly excellent runs, and I feel pretty good. I have a private lesson set up with Sandy to help me teach him directional commands, so that when he gets ahead of me I don't lose him. I think that'll make a real difference. I certainly don't want to try to slow him down!

The photos included with this post were taken at the WAG NADAC trial 3/15-16. Dave Mills is the photographer, and yes, I have bought prints!

CPE, NADAC again, and finally some January pix

2008-03-17T20:36:00.000-07:00

It's a bird, it's a plane ...

... no, it's the flying Moxerati, catching serious air at the WAG NADAC trial in January (see earlier post). All the pictures here are from that trial. They were taken by David Wong, and though it took forever for them to get to me, they were definitely worth waiting for. I'm particularly glad to have pix of Mox in action, finally. He looks completely deranged when he's on-course, as these photos clearly show. Just imagine a soundtrack of non-stop barking as he hurtles past ... and take 3 Advil and lie down in a darkened room :-)

Seriously, he's an extremely promising young dog -- not only fast and talented, but dead honest and full of heart and enthusiasm. Our main challenges have more to do with my learning to be a better handler than anything else. If I can get info to him on time, he'll give me everything I ask for, and then some. He has recently moved up into one of Sandy Rogers' competition classes, and is thriving there.

Since that January trial we've been to 2 more, also at WAG. We hit a CPE event in mid-February, then gave trialing a rest for a few weeks so I could do little things like fly up to Portland to visit my too-adorable-for-words granddaughter, Evelyn.

Both dogs did well despite cold wind and rain at the CPE trial, with Miko Q-ing in 6 of his 9 classes and finishing his Level 3 Standard title. Moxie went 8 for 9, with only a mental lapse on my part keeping him from a perfect weekend. He was having a brilliant run in his second jumpers class, and then my mind went blank and I forgot the course. Running 2 dogs, with events taking place simultaneously in 2 arenas, is hard on my aging brain. I scratched both dogs from one of their classes on Sunday, which took a little of the pressure off and frankly I had more fun.

Running With My Boys

Comin' Through!!!

This past weekend we hit another NADAC trial. Moxie had a stellar weekend, Q-ing in 8 of his 10 classes. Okay, officially he Q'd in 7 of 10; I managed to get us eliminated after his very nice Touch/n/Go run because I had forgotten to take off the treat-bag I had buckled around my waist. No treats or toys in the ring! Them's the rules, and it didn't matter that Mox didn't even know the bag was there. Shame on me! Ironically, Sandy (my instructor) had been giving me a hard time about that bag in class just last week. "People forget and wear them into the ring and get eliminated," she said. And I went, "I'd never do that." Yeah right. Betcha it won't happen again, though. I'm-a sell that sucker on EBay!

Why let weave-poles slow you down???

Miko's weekend left a bit to be desired. He did have a couple of good runs, and won one of his classes, but his heart wasn't in it and he just didn't seem to be having any fun in the ring. He seemed to feel okay; when I let him loose in the exercise field he ran around and played with Moxie, he just didn't want to do agility. He's been less and less enthusiastic about it lately, and if I can't find a way to make it enjoyable for him again I'll find another activity that he and I can do that he'll like better. Meanwhile, both dogs are entered in another CPE trial this coming weekend, enough closer to home that we won't need to stay overnight. We'll see how it goes.

I've discovered a pretty nifty place to stay when I'm competing at WAG and don't want to tent-camp because of cold weather -- Extended Stay America is less than 15 minutes from the WAG facility. It's one of those suites deals, very basic but with a stove, refrigerator, microwave, desk and table with chairs, queen bed, comfy armchair, wi-fi and funky old-fashioned tv that gets basic cable + Showtime. There's a Starbux practically next door, and a Safeway and various restaurants nearby. It's reasonable, too. A lot of agility people seem to stay there. My dogs seem to like it just fine. They just seem a little confused about why they don't get to stay in the same room every time. When we arrive each time they go right to the door where we stayed last.

Cold January weather calls for a warm cap from Peru!

NADAC Trial at WAG , 1/12 - 13

2008-01-14T11:48:00.000-08:00

Both dogs piled into the back of the 300 hp turbocharged Dogmobile on Friday, and off we drove in a chilly rain to what's becoming our home away from home, the Western Agility Group's dog-sports facility in Elk Grove. Fortunately, I had booked a room in a motel there, because it would have been pretty miserable sleeping in my tent, even with 2 dogs as foot-warmers. Plus, I'd had a cold all week and was worried it might get worse. It didn't; despite off and on drizzle on Saturday it went away!

This weekend's trial was affiliated with the North American Dog Agility Council -- my first experience with their rules and classes. Unlike the CPE trials that Miko entered last year, NADAC doesn't use the teeter or the tire jump. The A-frame is lower and doesn't have slats for the dogs to stub their toes on. The courses tend to be open and flowing, so the dogs can really stretch out and run. I figured this would be right up Moxie's alley, which turned out to be the case. He Q'd and placed first in 3 of his 4 Regular (standard) runs, one of his 2 Jumpers runs and his Tunnelers run. In each of his other classes, one mistake caused him to NQ -- once he knocked a bar, 5 faults. The other times it was handler error; I just didn't get information to him in time so he took a jump out of order and had to come back and correct it -- 10 faults.

Because of all the emphasis on speed I was a little worried about Miko, who had been kind of a slug in practice lately, but he had his game face on for sure. He motored right along and had a perfect weekend -- 8 Q's out of 8 classes, 7 first places and 1 2nd. We don't call him St Miko the Good for nothing!

One of the things I like about NADAC is the emphasis on distance handling. It was a trip to watch the elite-level dogs and handlers run, with the handlers having to stay behind a line and send the dogs halfway across the arena. The best of them made it look effortless, as if the dogs were remote-controlled ... which in a way they were! I'd love to be able to do that! It's nice to have a goal :-)

NADAC even offers classes with no jumping -- just tunnels, or tunnels and weaves ... and they're introducing a new class called Hoopers, where the dogs run a course through upright hula hoops. When I arrived on Friday they were setting up a hoopers course so I stayed to watch. The jury (mine anyway) is out ... it just seemed sort of weird to me. On the other hand, I can see that it would be a good test of handling, and a good, fun activity for a dog that was unable to jump.

David Wong the photographer was there again all weekend and got some great shots of both my guys. Moxie looks completely demented, wild-eyed and mouth wide open. Miko looks his usual handsome self, but finally I'll have some pix of him doing weave poles. When I've got 'em I'll post 'em.

Pix from 10/20-21 WAG CPE Agility Trial

2007-11-24T16:28:00.000-08:00

Well, it took a while, but the CD from David Wong, the photographer who shot the Oct 21-22 CPE trial at Elk Grove, arrived last week. Well worth waiting for! There were over 100 photos, most of them in sequences of 3 - 5, giving me a good look at Miko at several points along the approach-airtime-landing continuum. When you shoot this way, not all of the pix are aesthetically pleasing, but all are instructional and there were plenty of "pretty" ones to choose from too. Here are a few of the best.

You can read an account of Miko's fabulous exploits at this event in an earlier post. However, I see that I forgot to brag that he finished all of his Level 2 titles, which makes him officially Miko, CL-2, CGC. And he's halfway to his Level 3 Standard title (CL3-R).

The A-Frame and the Teeter-totter are 2 of the 3 contact obstacles in agility (well, 4 I guess, if you count the pause table); the other one is the Dog Walk. The dogs must put at least 1 paw in the yellow "contact zone" both going up and coming down. Otherwise it's 15 faults.

Moxie's debut

2007-11-02T15:54:00.000-07:00

On 10/28, the Moxerati made his agility debut at a fun run at WAG. Fun runs are for practice only; they aren't competitions. I wanted to see how he'd do in a completely new situation, and I wanted to see if he'd be any more comfortable on NADAC style slatless contacts (specifically, the A-frame) than he seems to be in practice at Ace. His A-frame performance is a mystery -- he's so fast and so fearless about everything but that. I thought it might be something physical -- his shoulders, perhaps, but he's been x-rayed and all looks normal. I ask myself if he's worried about "stubbing his toes" on the slats ... one reason for wanting to try the slatless equipment. (And a reason to give him a pedicure, too.)

Slats or not, his A-frames weren't exactly stellar, but all in all I was extremely pleased with his performance. He had never run a full course before; the most we'd ever done in class was maybe 5 or 6 obstacles at a time. I had no idea whether I'd have any control over him at all! As you can see in the movies below, control wasn't our strong suite, but we were able to correct our mistakes pretty easily, and a good time was definitely had by all.

One of the things I was working on specifically was his start-line stays. He's not supposed to move off the line till I tell him to, and he's so eager to run that it's hard for him to sit still. Another focal area was solid down-side contacts on the teeter, dog walk etc. If it looks like he's just standing there, half-on, half-off while i dance around and pretend to run away, he's doing exactly what he's been trained to do -- wait for me to release him.

Something I *should* have been working on, and will work on in 2 weeks when we go to another fun run, is getting myself properly positioned as we run the courses. He's so much faster than Miko -- I kept finding myself in the wrong place, except that it would have been just the right place for my other dog! Gotta work on the timing...

Jumpers, round 1 ... a little wild!

Jumpers, round 2 ... a little better.

Standard, round 2, with a few extra trips over the A-frame. Note: he doesn't usually blow his weaves! Honest!

Tunnelers, round 2. This was a lot of fun!

Miko strikes again!

2007-11-02T15:36:00.000-07:00

I'm waiting for a CD of photos from the Fun Paws CPE agility trial 10/20 -21 at WAG (and yes, it does seem as if I'm wearing a deep rut between Oakland and Elk Grove!). David Wong was there all weekend, taking pictures in the outdoor ring. He uses a motor drive, so there are multiple shots of your dog at each obstacle. Not only a great way to be sure you get just the right shot -- studying the series is also very instructional, almost like viewing a film. I'm tapping my fingers impatiently, and keeping a sharp eye on the mailbox.

Meanwhile, boring ol' text: Mr Meex had another perfect weekend. He Q'd in all 8 of his classes, got 4 blue ribbons, 3 reds and a yellow (that should have been blue, if I hadn't completely blown it at the end). Maybe the high point of the weekend was racking up 66 points in the jackpot (gamblers). Not only was this nearly 3 times the points we needed to Q, it was *almost* the high score out of all the 80+ dogs (all levels ran the same gamblers course). I didn't see anything higher on the score sheets posted after the class, but when the results were actually published there was a 68, earned by a very experienced handler and champion-level dog. Didn't make me any less proud of my boy!

I camped in my tent again; spent Friday night re-pumping my brand new air bed, which turned out to have a slow leak. Found a replacement for it Saturday and expected to sleep soundly that night. Instead, I watched the sides of the tent belly and ripple in the gusting wind and listened to the sound of other people's shade canopies being blown over, too close to me for comfort, so got up at about 1 a.m., found the extra tent pegs, guy lines and a hammer, and battened down the hatches. I don't really think the tent was going anywhere. On the other hand, I wasn't 100% sure it wasn't going to try. I'm used to little backpacking tents with low profiles. My "dog tent" is over 6' high in the center -- nice for moving around in, and airy in hot weather. But not designed for wind, no way.

More when the pix come...

CPE Agility Trial at WAG

2007-10-10T20:33:00.000-07:00

Miko, the Mox and I had a lot of fun last weekend (Oct. 6 & 7). On Friday, we drove the hour and a half to the WAG (Western Agility Group) facility near Elk Grove. Miko was competing and Mox was along for the experience and socialization. We set up camp in my wonderful new REI tent, which is big enough for crates for both dogs, plus my sleeping bag and all our stuff, with room left over. A BIG tent! but easy for me to set up by myself, at least when there isn't much wind.

I had brought along the camping stove and some propane bottles, planning to at least make coffee and breakfast each morning, but after learning that there was a Starbucks less than 3 miles away, that opened at 5 a.m., I quickly bagged the camp kitchen idea. The Starbucks, plus a Round Table Pizza (Friday nite dinner) and a Chinese restaurant (Saturday nite dinner) and a bunch of other businesses were grouped around the perimeter of a huge parking lot that was nearly empty every time I went there. Until pretty recently I guess the area was mainly ranchland -- the streets have names like Machado Ranch Blvd, etc -- but now is subdivided; big houses on tiny lots. Not many people, or maybe they were all inside. For sure they weren't having pizza, Chinese food, or lattes!

Miko had a fabulous weekend. He qualified in all 6 of the classes he entered, with 4 first places and 2 seconds. He earned his very first agility titles in the process -- his Level 2 Standard (CL2-R), and Level 2 "Handlers" (CL2-H, which involves obstacle-discrimination games).

Moxie had a pretty good weekend too. He didn't bark or whine AT ALL, he walked (fairly) calmly on leash all around the arenas and crowded warm-up areas, and when I worked him he was focused and attentive. The first couple of times I took Miko out to the ring to compete, I put Mox in his crate. But then I figured he'd behaved so well I'd try just leaving him loose in the tent. So I gave him a chew toy, crossed my fingers, and off Miko and I went. Golden silence :-) Even when the dog in the tent next to ours started to fuss, he didn't join in.

This is the first time I've been camping since I took myself off to Tuolumne Meadows for a week in September 2002 or 2003. One thing that's changed is that my older bones no longer care for sleeping on an Ensolite foam pad. Before the next trip 2 weeks from now, I'm buying an air mattress!

Just one last quick note on Moxie -- he's been doing really well in class, and in his practice sessions between classes, so the plan at this moment is to take him to a fun match at WAG on Nov. 17.

HumDog CPE Agility Trial, 8/18-19/07

2007-08-27T16:54:00.000-07:00

Tunnels! I love tunnels!

We hauled up the coast on Thursday 8/16, spending the night in ridiculous luxury in Mendocino. Then on to Eureka for 2 days of competition interspersed with visits with friends I don't get to see nearly often enough. Miko the WonderDog had an excellent trial -- Q'd (qualified) in 4 of his 5 classes, with 3 first places and a 2nd. It was my fault, totally and utterly, that he wasn't 5 for 5. We ended up taking the Moxerati with us at the last minute. He barked and whined some at the trial, especially when other dogs were being exercised in the field behind our tent, but he wasn't nearly as bad as I'd thought he would be. When I took him out to work, he focused on me pretty well. All in all, I think it was a good experience for him.

This was my first experience competing in agility games (as opposed to standard and jumpers type classes, where there's a set course that everyone runs). I tried "snooker," "colors" and "wildcard," fully expecting a complete mental meltdown as I tried to work out the best/fastest way to sequence the obstacles. To my great surprise, all went smoothly and Miko Q'd in all 3 games.

Here's a little video of our weekend. It was made with the Canon Elph; I couldn't find the battery charger for the real and actual video cam :-( Not great, but maybe you can get the idea...

Moxie gets a new name, sort of

2007-07-31T00:16:00.000-07:00

Our long, low little speedster is now known as the Moxerati. He's that quick! He's had two 6-wk sessions of beginning agility at Ace DogSports, and is ready to move up. He still has mental meltdowns occasionally, but he's way better than he was -- just thinks every turn should be his turn, and all the other dogs and their handlers should just get the hell outta his way.

Here's a link to some movie footage of last week's agility lesson.

Meanwhile, he would like it known that on occasion he makes Elsa a pretty good lapdog too!

Skunked again

2007-07-09T17:20:00.000-07:00

Another slightly tweaked email...

So last Thursday night, or rather very early that morning, I'm deep in the land of zzzzzzzz's when all of a sudden the dogs started going crazy, and then somehow they were outside on the patio. It had been hot that day, and I had left the bedroom sliding door open, but the screen was supposed to be locked. Anyway. The screen was open and the dogs were outside. I got them back in, closed the screen, lay back down, and then realized that a dense, oily cloud of stink was rolling in thru the screen door and the windows. Not to mention that Miko was making this weird yurking noise and sort of scraping his tongue
with his front teeth, and part of the dense, oily cloud of stink in the room was rising up off of him. Uh-oh, thought I -- I'm not the sharpest tack in the wall when I've just woken up -- uh-oh, I think we just might have a Skunk Issue here. By this time, Miko was blowing frothy bubbles. Stinky frothy bubbles. He looked like he'd eaten a tube of skunk toothpaste! I guess he got sprayed in the face.

I don't know why he didn't just invite the critter into the house so it could stench up the last few corners that weren't already reeking. And I can't imagine how Moxie managed to avoid getting sprayed. I am grateful for favors, small and not-so!

Fortunately I had kept an old email from a friend with the Kansas State vet college recipe of peroxide and baking soda. This is the 2nd time I've had to use it on Miko, and it does work quite well. Unfortunately, the back of the house was full of Pepe le Pew's "perfume" so nothing to do but set our fans in the window facing out, and turn them to high. We slept in the living room. :-(

Friday there was a strong breeze, which helped to clear things out. So did the baths I gave both dogs. I threw away the old dog bed that Miko rolled and blew bubbles on, likewise his leather collar, which apparently received a direct hit. The house really doesn't smell too bad now (she said hopefully). I'm supposed to have an editorial meeting here on Sunday....

The thing about skunk stink is once it gets inside your nose it stays there -- takes up residence in your sinuses, or nose-hairs or something. I kept smelling it all day Friday, even at the gym. I even asked someone in the locker room if she smelled it too (what I meant, of course, was "do I smell like skunk?"). She said no. And then she launched into a story about the time her dog had gotten sprayed a few weeks ago.

Once was enough, i told Miko. "You're supposed to learn from your mistakes!"

He gave me a pained look. Didn't I realize that he had protected the house from a vicious predator?!?

At the dacha

2007-06-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

Several times recently we've spent weekends at our friends' "dacha" (friends are Russian) in the wine country. This entry is a slightly-tweaked version of an email I sent to other friends after the first visit, with Moxie's misadventures on the 2nd tacked on at the end.

Our dogs and our friends' dog get along just fine, and ours pretty much ignored the 2 cats, tho I did catch Miko standing at the foot of the stairs a few times, looking up and wagging his tail at a grumpy little grey face scowling down at him from a ledge on the landing :-)

We had a thoroughly relaxing 2 days doing nothing much (I recommend it!). Elsa and her friend Helen drove out to a nearby fruit stand where the strawberries were in full season and came home with a flat of the most delicious berries I ever put in my mouth. They were minutes off the plant, still warm from the sun.

The dacha is a rambling, much-added-onto house that started out long ago as a little 2 story box and expanded to accommodate family and visiting friends. There are now about 5 bedrooms and at least 3 baths, on 5 fenced acres of fruit trees, scrub oak and garden. Helen is a serious Rose Person -- has about 40 different varieties, from pure white to deep purple, palest lemon yellow to rich orange and of course red, redder and reddest. I helped her for a couple of hours on Sunday, deadheading blossoms and cutting back suckers, and she sent us home with a wastebasket filled with blooms. No, not thrown away -- a plastic wastebasket was all we could find to put water in that would hold all those flowers!

Perhaps the thing I enjoyed most, other than having a chance to hang out in a relaxed setting away from home, was watching the dogs do their doggie thing. not surprisingly, Miko's and Moxie's doggie things turn out to be quite different. Of course they both had to tear around for awhile, after being cooped up in the car for nearly 2 hours, and they had to get sorted out with Reggie, Helen's dog. Then Miko went on patrol. He checked the fenceline. He checked the brushpile where the groundsquirrels live. He checked the fenceline some more and dug under a fallen tree to get at whatever was under there. Then he checked the fenceline yet again. Then he checked the entire orchard, nose down, "quartering" the field the way i've seen hounds and pointers do. Then he re-checked the brushpile. etc etc etc. Even when he came in the house, he sat or lay in the doorway, facing out, keeping an eye on things.

Moxie, meanwhile, did a lot of plain ol' running around. He found things to play with -- a pinecone, a big stick -- and when I wouldn't throw them for him he figured out how to do it himself. He followed Miko on some of his (Miko's) forays, but he seemed to be along more just to be in on the action than because he was really looking for anything. From time to time he'd approach Elsa or me, offering a toy or a paw, wanting human interaction. The difference between them was fascinating.

We had to bring the dogs in at dusk, because there are a lot of deer in the area and both Miko and Helen's dog are confirmed deer-chasers. Also, there are coyotes. That night we slept so soundly, dogs included, that we didn't hear the coyote chorus that Helen told us the next morning had gone on just under the windows for quite some time. I'm astonished the dogs didn't wake up, but they didn't.

Our 2nd visit was more of the same, except that poor Moxie got a foxtail up his nose and spent Sunday afternoon at the emergency vet clinic in Santa Rosa. Foxtail removal involves a general anesthetic and set us back $270, but those things are nasty! The vet showed me what he took out of Mox's nose -- 3 hard, sharp, barbed-shaft little spears, each close to 3/4 inch long. Good riddance.

Foxtails seem to be unusually bad this year. A friend's dog got one embedded between 2 toes; it worked its way in and then got infected. Several trips to the vet and many hundreds of dollars later, he's okay again. Our beloved park, Pt. Isabel, is undergoing serious renovation, a project that will take until the end of the year, at least. Meanwhile, big sections are fenced off and unavailable to the dogs while work is being done. The largest field that is still open is, unfortunately, overgrown with foxtails. It'll be great when the work is finished, but meanwhile some of the pleasure has gone out of the park. I took Miko and Mox there yesterday evening. It was lovely and warm; the water was high in the channel so they got to go swimming. But Miko prefers the gopher population on the far side of the bridge, AKA Foxtail City, and I had to keep calling him back.

Updates & brags...

2007-06-27T19:06:00.000-07:00

.. but no pix.

Since my last post, Miko has been to his first 2 agility trials; Moxie has begun formal agility training AND passed his CGC (canine good citizen) test.

In late May, Miko and I made the 90 minute drive to Elk Grove, near Sacramento, for a DOCNA trial at WAG (DOCNA = Dogs on Course North America; WAG = Western Agility Group). I drove up by myself on Saturday, to scope things out -- I'd never been to an agility trial before and wanted to get a sense of things. I volunteered to set jump poles, and run leashes from the start line to the finish, which got me entered in the workers' raffle -- I went home with some very nice prizes! On Sunday, Miko and I left the house at the crack of dawn, because he had to be measured by the judge before the first class. He's 21 1/2", which is about an inch smaller than when I measured him myself but makes no difference in jump height.

My goal for this competition was to complete at least one course without getting lost and wandering off into the desert. I entertained no thought whatever of Q-ing (having a clean run w/in the allotted time). Miko was entered in 4 classes -- 2 "standard," with the full complement of jumps, weave poles and contact obstacles, and 2 "jumpers," with nothing but jumps. I decided against any of the games, figuring it would be hard enough to negotiate regular 16-jump courses when I could study the maps beforehand. Do you get the idea that mental lapses are a major concern for me? :-)

Anway ... brace yourself for a major brag! Miko Q'd and finished in 1st place in 3 of his 4 classes. In the 4th, I got momentarily confused and just stopped dead: where now? Miko stopped too and looked at me in confusion. Then he turned and jumped the nearest jump. The rest of the course then reappeared in my brain and on we went. He was clean but had .04 time fault. No Q, but still good enough for a blue ribbon, so we went home covered with glory.

I can't say enough about the WAG facility and the people who run it. Everyone is so friendly and helpful, it's just a pleasure to go there.

Miko's 2nd trial was another DOCNA at PDIA (Performance Dogs in Action) in Pleasant Grove, on the other side of Sacramento from WAG, on June 2nd. It was a hot day that probably seemed hotter to those of us from the Bay Area than to the "natives." Miko's a low-melting-point dog and I was worried about working him in the heat. Long story short, we entered 2 standards and 1 jumpers. Miko Q'd and placed 2nd in the jumpers and first standard run. By the time the 2nd standard rolled around it was 85 degrees and rising. Due to some start-line confusion, I wasn't ready when Miko's name was called, which meant he wasn't ready either. He was clean, but just loafing along, and picked up .5 time fault. Good enough for 3rd place, but no Q.

Our next outing will be the Bay Team's CPE trial in mid-July. (CPE = Canine Performance Events.) It will be in Petaluma, and probably HOT. After that, we ride out the heat until mid-August, when we head for the (hopefully) foggy, cool north coast for a CPE trial in Arcata. Elsa will go with me to that one -- we'll make a little mini-vacation out of it. I guess Moxie will go too, for socialization. Everyone bring ear-plugs!

Speaking of Moxie, to nobody's surprise he's taken to agility training like he was born to it -- and maybe he was! He did a foundation course with Sandy Rogers at ACE (Miko's teacher), and now is at about week 12 of an ongoing beginners class taught by Blancett Reynolds. He's wildly enthusiastic about everything, including the nasty weave poles. I have to be careful when I'm practicing not to get carried away and ask him for things he's not really prepared for, just because I think he'll probably do them. He gets really amped up, and he has a low frustration threshhold. If I'm not absolutely clear about what I ask him to do, or if I'm out of position on the course, he lets me know about it -- throws a barking fit. So I'm learning all about that fine line between high drive and hysterical melt-down.

Ah well. Keeps me off the street and outta trouble (except with my wallet!)

What a difference 8 months make!

2007-04-14T09:18:00.000-07:00

We just found this picture taken of Moxie a day or 2 after we adopted him last September. Contrast this with the one below, taken in late March, while we were taking a few days' vacation on the Russian River.

Sheep, water sports & other fun stuff

2007-04-14T01:48:00.000-07:00

Last week Moxie got to meet some sheep. We went with our friend Susan and her dogs out to a ranch near Pleasanton. Susan's dogs had worked sheep before; Moxie had come along for an instinct test. Not surprisingly, he knew just what to do. It really was amazing to see the genetics kick in. This probably isn't something I'll pursue, at least not in the near future, but it it was enormous fun, for me as well as the Mox.

After sitting on my hands for a couple of years, I finally broke down and bought a digital SLR camera -- a Canon Digital Rebel XTI. It was sitting right there on the front seat of the Forester while Moxie was in the pen with the sheep, but I forgot to tell Elsa, who was using her trusty, venerable Olympus point'n'shoot. No shutter lag, a longer zoom and way higher megapixels would have been nice! (I'm not dissing Olympus cameras, please understand; Elsa's is 7 years old and still does a good job, but it wasn't the tool for this particular activity!)

Okay, new subject:

Those of us who live in the San Francisco Bay Area are lucky enough to have access to a number of nice dog parks where our critters can play off-leash. I like Cesar Chavez Park in Berkeley and the Alameda dog park. But Point Isabel, in Richmond, may just be the best dog park in the country -- 21 acres of grassy fields bordered on one side by the San Francisco Bay (killer views!) and bisected by a tidal channel. There's a café that serves good espresso, pastries, homemade soups and sandwiches, and Mudpuppy's Tub & Scrub, where you can bathe your dog or buy treats and toys. If you don't feel like paying for a clean dog, there's a rinse-off hose where you can get the salt and mud off for free. The park is about 16 miles from where I live, but Miko, Moxie and I find our way out there 3 or 4 times a week -- there's a Costco right next door, with the cheapest gas in the area; I use that as a partial justification. But mainly, I love Pt. Isabel and so do the dogs. Moxie only wants me to throw the ball for him, but Miko, rennaissance boy that he is, not only chases the ball, he also hunts gophers, digs holes, climbs trees and swims. Yes, that's right. I said he climbs trees. The proof is below.

Depending on the tide, there may or may not be stretches of rocky beach on the Bay side of the park. (One of the little beaches gained notoriety a few years back because that's where Lacy Peterson's body washed up!) At low tide, even non-swimming dogs can venture quite a ways from shore without having to paddle, or they can play in the thick black muck in the channel. When the tide comes in, though, the swimming is great. Moxie is only beginning to enjoy swimming; the one time he won't fetch a ball is out of the water. He kind of paddles around in circles -- maybe he's herding fish and I just can't see them! Miko, on the other hand, is a swimming fool. The one place he absolutely reliably will retrieve the ball from is out of the water.

Did I mention that he dives?

You've seen those bumperstickers that say "A bad day fishing is better than a good day at the office" -- that's how I feel about Pt. Isabel. I've been out there in the pouring rain, and when the wind off the bay just about knocked me flat. Doesn't matter. It's beautiful. Even when it's crowded it's peaceful. (Dogfights are really rare, and nearly all the people who come to the park are pleasant.) I used to listen to music or podcasts, but rarely do anymore. I go there and walk a couple of miles and just ... be. And the dogs have a blast and get a good workout at the same time.

Next week Moxie starts beginning agility classes at ACE, and Miko and I go to PowerPaws agility camp. I dreamed I was sent home from camp in disgrace, for being such a klutzy handler. Miko got to stay, of course. In my dream he was sitting on a table wearing a gold cardboard crown, like for a kids' birthday party. I woke up sweating! Miko swears he'll take good care of me, though ... and I expect he will!

Uh-oh, this is getting serious!

2007-03-17T09:34:00.000-07:00

Miko has been in school, of one sort or another, pretty steadily since we got him in Sept. '04. He had basic and intermediate obedience, several sessions of rally obedience (a fun and interesting sport) and a class in tricks and utility skills at the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society, where we got him. He started agility classes offered through the city of Albany's rec department. This served to introduce him to the equipment, and me to the idea that this could be a lot of fun. We moved on to classes with Kathryn Horn, and then to Sandra Rogers at Ace DogSports, across the bay in Brisbane (indoor facility) or Pacifica (outdoors), depending on the weather. Sandy is very successful with her own dogs, and she's a terrific teacher. Miko has flourished under her tutelage ... even I, world's klutziest handler, am improving!

Next month (April), we'll be going to PowerPaws Agility Camp! I never went away to camp as a kid -- too busy with horse shows every weekend -- and this isn't sleep-over camp, but it'll be 3 days of intense activity, plus I'll get a Power Paws T-shirt!

Meanwhile, Moxie has had basic obedience and a trick class at the Oakland SPCA. He has recently started foundation work with Sandy. Foundation work is the training you do to get a dog ready to start actual agility training -- a lot of heel-work, stays, getting the dog to stand on different things (box, teeter-board, etc). Moxie was born to do this stuff. He literally drags me from one obstacle to the next so he can try them all. If he had his way, he'd get to climb on the "real" obstacles -- the dogwalk and A-frame -- that are shoved out of the way against the wall. His attitude is ME! LET ME!!! EVERYBODY GET OUTTA MY WAY!!!!!

So here's what my life looks like: 3 times a week I'm driving across the bay bridge, either to lessons or practice. Let's see -- the toll recently went up to $4, so that's $12/wk, plus about 2.5 gallons of gas per round trip in my Subie ... premium gas is now back up to $3.25/gallon AT COSTCO! Somebody else do the math; it makes my head hurt!

Might as Well Meet the Cats Too :-)

2007-03-16T22:12:00.000-07:00

Scrabble, AKA Enormo-Fluff wants it known that he is Numero Uno in this household. Sky the Kitty From Hell doesn't care what I say or don't say about him. He's too busy hatching plots to make life miserable for Fantan, our housemate's cat who lives in the apartment downstairs.

Scrabble came into my life on August 26, 1996 -- a slightly belated birthday present maybe. He was maybe 6 weeks old, a ball of black and white tuxedo fluff sitting under the downspout by the patio gate, watching a parade of ants. I picked him up, he purred, that's all she wrote. I've had a lot of nice cats over the years, but Mr. Scrabs is the best. He's my guy. (Don't tell Miko, but it's true.)

When I got him, Elsa had 3 cats, and I sort of had one too, a semi-feral tabby called Bandit (cuz he had a striped tail like a racoon, sorta) who slept in a little doghouse outside on the porch, kept the ivy-covered back hillside free of rats, and wouldn't let anyone touch him but me. Elsa's cats were old, and one by one they died; Bandit met a sad and untimely end, and that left Scrabble as the only cat -- the only animal -- for a number of years. He grew into a 16-pound fluffy handsome fellow, an old soul with a sense of humor. Things strike him as funny -- I can tell.

He was horrified when we brought Miko home, and Miko wasn't quite sure what to make of the idea of sharing space with a cat. We kept them completely separated for a week, let them smell each other under the door and check out each other's scent in the living room, one at a time. Later, we blocked doorways with chairs so Scrabble could come and go while Miko was more confined. I kept dog treats in my pockets at all times, and whenever Miko would start in with the "that thing looks good to eat" stare I'd toss kibble on the ground in front of him to redirect his attention. It didn't really take long -- within a month and a half I felt confident about leaving them alone together. They get along fine, but I can't say they've ever become friends.

There was never any question: Scrabble was "Sara's cat." Wherever I went, within a few minutes there he'd be as well. Not wanting to sit in my lap, not demanding that I pet him; he'd just be there, feather-boa tail wrapped neatly around his front paws, watching me.

Enter Sky, the Kitty From Hell. What can I say? He's Frank Sinatra reincarnated, with gorgeous blue eyes. Since Scrabble's such a one-person cat, Elsa decided to get one of her own. Sky was about 9 months old when we got him from the Feral Cat Foundation, and the very clear message I take away from this experience is that the "socialization window" of kittens and puppies is even more important than I thought.

Sky was born to a feral mother and lived the first 5 or 6 months of his life in a community of stray and feral cats that an elderly woman was feeding. When she became ill, the FCF people stepped in, socializing and finding homes for as many of the cats as they could. Sky had been adopted and returned before we got him. The story was that his first family had a 2 year old, and Sky was afraid of the child. At any rate, he spent his first 2 weeks with us hiding under a dresser. We'd been told that he loved other cats, and indeed he did want to make friends with Scrabble. Unfortunately, Scrabble wasn't having any. So Sky turned his attention to Miko, and the 2 of them became great pals. They'd sleep together and groom each other -- it was really cute.

Scrabble's nose was definitely out of joint; he had enjoyed being the only cat. He and Sky had several noisy fights and then came to an accommodation of sorts. But Scrabble clearly holds me responsible for this disruption to his idyllic life.

And then, of course, we got Moxie. Cat's don't have particularly expressive faces, but I'm here to tell you that when Scrabble saw "another one of those things" coming through the patio gate, he looked aghast. And then, perhaps thinking of Miko's lengthy break-in period, he puffed himself up to twice his considerable size, unsheathed his front claws, stood up on his back feet and advanced toward Moxie, hissing. The poor dog was terrified and hid behind my legs. Satisfied he'd made his point, Scrabble sat down and gave himself a thorough grooming.

From Sky's point of view the addition of Moxie was not such a great thing either. Moxie monopolizes Miko's attention, so the sweet Sky-Miko friendship has been back-burnered somewhat. They still like each other, though. If Sky hasn't come in by the time we want to go to bed, I leash up Miko and we walk around the corner to the neighbor's yard where Sky hangs out. Sky wears a bell and we can always hear him coming, running up to his old buddy to say hello. And then he'll follow us home.

Sky's an odd one. He has a kind of street-urchin charm. I wish we'd gotten him when he was younger and could have socialized him better. Or maybe it doesn't matter; maybe he'd never have been the lap cat Elsa wanted. Several times we were at the point of taking him back to the FCF people because he was so aggressive with our housemate's cat. But he's getting better -- at least Fantan hasn't had any unexpected trips to the vet lately!

The final word of this post has to be Scrabble's. It is "Hrrrrumph!!

Take Two, They're Small!

2007-01-19T18:15:00.000-08:00

I'm the non-dog person, remember? The one who was persuaded by a TV program on Animal Planet to get a dog, after not having had one for more than 35 years -- after never having had one of my own, that wasn't "the family dog." The one who wandered into a beginning agility class with Miko the WonderDog just to see what it was like and did her best to resist the appeal and the challenge and is still doing her best to keep from getting caught up in the competition end of it all because BT,DT with the horses, and didn't much like the person I was back then.

So yeah, that person. So what happens? We go for a drive on Labor Day weekend (hey, why not?!), with the vague notion of looking at a miniature poodle at a shelter in Santa Rosa. Really, it was just a destination. We wanted to get out of the house for the day. We took Miko; maybe we'd drop in on friends in Guerneville, let him swim in the river. Or maybe we'd go to the beach.

The poodle was a cute little dog, but some other people were there first, and besides he didn't like cats. Oh well. But while Elsa was looking at some other small dogs, one of the shelter workers found out that I did agility with Miko. Weren't Border Collies supposed to be good agility dogs? Yes indeed, said I. "You got a BeeCee?" They did, or anyway a BC/Australian Shepherd mix. Cat friendly, people super-friendly; he and Miko played happily together in the field behind the shelter. And so, although I'd said I didn't want a border collie (too OCD for me! the best thing about Miko is that he isn't a BC!), I went home that day with one in the back of the car.

He was pretty skinny because he'd been in the hospital with kennel cough (and later turned out to be giardia positive -- yikes!), and had really, really bad hair. I expect his coat had been badly matted and maybe full of burrs, so someone took the kitchen shears to him. In the pictures on this page, he's gained nearly 4 lbs (bringing him up to just a little over 40), and while his coat isn't exactly great, it's much better than it was. I'm hoping that in the spring when he sheds out, his summer coat will look shiny and nice.

All we were told about Miko's life before we got him was that he'd been picked up as a stray. He was housebroken and pretty well socialized, so he'd been some(careless)body's dog at some point in his young life. We don't know much about Moxie's past, either, except that it must have been sad. How he came to be in the shelter was like this: One night in July '06, a car was observed driving slowly down a road. It stopped. A door opened. A dog came flying out head over heels, over a fence into a back yard. The door closed, the car sped away. There were witnesses, but no one got the license number. As it happened, the owner of the backyard sometimes fostered dogs for the shelter. She kept her sudden visitor for 2 weeks, during which she learned that he was sweet tempered, affectionate, housebroken, crate-trained, and would sit and lie down on command. Who on earth would literally throw away such a great little dog?

I imagine it was a case of someone being beguiled by a cute little black puppy, and having no idea what an adolescent border collie would be like in an apartment, or house with small yard -- not enough exercise, not enough mental challenge ... Moxie is a handful even now.

He is not the small couch-potato 2nd dog we probably should have gotten. But Miko would probably have made that dog's life miserable. He and Moxie are well matched, size and energy-wise. Try as they might, they can't quite tire each other out, but they do take the edge off till it's time for a training session or a trip to the park.

Come on and throw the freakin ball, wouldja??!!

Moxie hasn't started formal agility training yet, but I take him to the practice field with Miko most weekends and he's gonna be a pistol. He's fast, of course, and focused, and fearless. Best of all, he loves the whole process. His favorite things are the contact obstacles, especially the dogwalk; he'll self-reward by running back and forth over that 6 or 8 times if I let him (not that I always have much choice!) He likes the tunnels too, and even the teeter, which a lot of dogs hate. I think he'll be a good jumper too, though right now he tends to run so fast that he flattens out. We're working on it.

How this all came to be...

2007-01-02T17:45:00.000-08:00

Everyone who knows anything about me at all, knows that I'm a Cat Person who used to be a Horse (and Cat) person, who has no use whatever for dogs. None. So how on earth did I end up with not one but two high-energy canines of the train me and give me jobs to do or I'll destroy your house variety? I swear it's from watching Animal Planet! There was a program, kind of a mini-series, on late at night a few years ago, called "Cell Dogs." Maybe you saw it. The show highlighted inmates in various prisons who were in a program in which they learned to train dogs rescued from animal shelters to be service dogs for the disabled, or in some cases just good companion animals. In the first show I watched, 6 or 8 guys with little or no experience in dog training were paired with dogs straight from the pound, with the goal of turning those dogs into helpers for disabled people. The dogs learned to open and close doors, turn lights off and on, pick up dropped objects, take laundry out of the dryer and all manner of other useful activities. I thought it was about the coolest thing I'd seen in a long time, and I knew there was no way I was going to get Scrabble, my cat, to lift a paw to help me. Maybe I should get a ... dog?

But where? How big and what kind? Male or female? My cats have pretty much all simply found their way into my life, kittens dumped on my doorstep. They appeared. I fed them. They stayed. About dogs, though, all I knew was to avoid the puppy mills. There are a number of excellent rescue organizations around here, so we went to a mobile adoption one Saturday in September of 2004. We were charmed by a comical-looking corgi-german shepherd (?) mix, but he had some health issues and by the next morning when we had decided we wanted to take him anyway, someone else had given him a home. I was surprised at how disappointed I felt.

Long story short, we ended up that afternoon at the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society,where Miko was waiting. He was about 9 months old, a maybe shepherd mix, maybe dobie mix, the shelter people said. Later we learned he's an Australian Kelpie mix. (I'd never heard of kelpies -- they herd cattle and sheep in the outback. We don't know what the not-kelpie part is; some kind of hunting dog -- pointer or hound, perhaps, because of his talented sniffer and high prey drive.) About 45 lbs, a bit bigger than we'd planned, playful and energetic but sweet tempered. We jumped through all the necessary hoops (BEBHS is really careful about where they place their animals), and the following Tuesday our new dog came home with us.

Getting him and Scrabble to co-exist took some time, and is worth an entry of its own.

Miko started basic obedience classes immediately after we got him, and he's been in school one way or another pretty steadily ever since. He's an exceptionally smart and very willing dog. But while he as learned a few utility skills -- he'll pick up things I drop, he'll bring me my shoes, turn on a pressure-sensitive light with his paw etc -- and some cute tricks, for the past year or a little more we've been concentrating on the sport of agility. This seems like a natural progression to me, since when I had horses, they were jumpers. Makes sense to train my dog to jump too! And run through tunnels and climb A-frames and do all that other fun stuff.

And here we are.