You asked for boring, here it is, but with peppy beach photos.

OK. You're out there. We all just have the winter blahs. Tight pants and scowly faces and freaking out over money. Maybe if Barack wore a funny hat next time he gives a speech on tv? Or gets a border collie? And hires Heather from Elite Forces of Fuzzy Destruction to train it and bring it back and forth from her house to the White House on Airforce 1. And she'll take pictures and we'll all be super entertained and agility explodes and is no longer a fringe sport of the weird dog training ladies! Because then we will all have Blackberries!


So since you're ok with boring, at least those Norwegiens among you from the Midwest, here's some nice boring for you. Boring but I included beach photos from after work yesterday.

Old news that is new again:

Ruby is lame. Poor Ruby, Hinky Dog of Hinky Town. I have no idea what is wrong with her. She's been pretty darn sound for, like a year? You guys remember? There was that time I tried to run her after her getting kicked by the deer. Oops. Danger prone Daphne.

She looks sound at the trot and canter (I forget what we call this in dog language) but when she canters down to a jump (in dog language, hauls ass down to the jump), she looks all hinky (we say this in horse language too) and then flings herself over from even longer (horses are not ever allowed to fling, saints preserve us, give me more gray hairs) than she normally would with her unorthodox, bar hitting jump style (hang a leg and knock a rail in horse language). And there were a couple times when she was just running around the last couple days when all of a sudden she screeches out a random yelpie sound (would be seriously disturbing if a hinky horse ever made a random yelpie sound).

The good dog owners would have her in the chiro and the vet and the massage therapist and the xrays and the ultrasound and swim therapy. Hi! Team Small Dog here! We just put the hinky one in a crate for a while with a bone and if it stays hinky for too long then jack her up on the Metacam again, and no running for you, missy. We've been down this road before.

She was only entered in a couple things this weekend when we are at beautiful...Turlock! for the dog show. Hi Turlock friends! Turlock, where you will see cows and hear the train and the freeway and did I mention some cows? Come visit Ruby in my car, which is always parked super far from the ring and most of the dog show you see me running back and forth out to the car swapping black dogs in and out. Got herself a free pass out of another agility trial.

New News for the First Time:

Our Gustavo is going to run Standard for the Very First Time! With super weave poles and outstanding contacts JUST LIKE YOU PRACTICED TODAY GOO! Went allcaps on you for a minute just in case he can hear that. Boy o boy did he have a good practice. All speedy and focused. So maybe this is totally weirdo, but I brought a crate out on the field and reverted to the Space Pod game.

You remember that?

I sort of invented it yet actually, no, I stole it from Susan Garrett when he was but a pup.

This is a weak version of crate games where you use a crate as mission control center and send the dog from far off places across the field into the crate, and then release them out of it into a sequence. Also a super funny party trick. This was a huge element of his foundation, Space Pod Foundation. This is what happens when you teach a dog yourself and you get bored easily. I am pretty sure Moe Strenfel does not feature this on her dvd yet I could be wrong. It makes them go really fast though! Since he's been having to sit in a crate for less insane barking during practice, I thought why not make the crate fun again like when he was a teensy, shrieky, out of control little monster. I dunno. Still works good as a blast off station, and makes him happier and quieter in his crate when he thinks it is a piece of agility equipment.

And this is helping us prepare for the trial how?

And anyways. Well, was just trying to think of some news and that's how we practiced yesterday.

Unpleasant, Crabby News:

Otterpop, gets a try Sunday at Masters Gamblers for one of those pesky last Q's that stands between her and her ADCh. She's been extra unpleasant lately. Doesn't bode well for being a cheerful, well mannered lover of judges running near her this weekend. Send happy unicorn thoughts to Otterpop this week and bring her out of her funk. Like where unicorns stab you in the eye and leave you for dead in the desert covered with tar. For some reason she was been all rainbow brite ears for a while, and really is just back to her Bright Eyes Loving Emo unpleasant crabapple.

Don't bother saying hi to her at Turlock.

She's just send you the stink eye and think super mean things about how your pants fit.

In this episode, we had a nice dog show over the weekend.

So yesterday, we drove up to a CPE dog show in Petaluma. CPE dog shows, my non agility friends, are sort of like the flip flops to your vintage Frye engineer boots. Not to be confused with non vintage ones purchased at full price through some swishy online retailer that sells the Perfect Belt for $340. Sort of like the Mazda to the F-250 truck. Your basic tract ranch with wall to wall berber to your sculpturally restored Eichler. Like it gets you where you want to go. Just has sort of a different vibe than USDAA. Kind of agility for the rest of us.

So when kicking back in a tract house in your flip flops, 6 year old Mazda parked in the pretty clean driveway, there's not a bunch of cares in your world. Crack a beer, turn on the tv, flop back in the slightly stained couch with a polar fleece throw to hide it and you hang out. Sort of like at CPE. USDAA show, you got your boots that are so perfect broken in and you had to make sure to do the truck maintenance to keep that big truck running good and running strong and there's always stuff to attack on that Eichler at all times to keep it stunning and better than the other ones on the block.

So you get it. Just different strokes in these dog shows. I go to both. One way, not so stressful, one way more of by way of aspiration work in progress. I think that makes me a slip on navy blue Vans wearer driving a 1999 Honda CRV living in a vintage wood paneled 1940's beach bungalow that still needs work. We took our friend Mary and her dog who live down the street so we carpooled and how green is that and her big dog had to sit sort of smashed up against my small dogs. I think they all had a nice time of it anyways. Is fun to bring a pal to the dogshow! Thanks Mary! She tore up the Level 3 CPE stuff this weekend.

My dogs had a swell time. Really can't complain. I know that they were all Qs, all the time. Now it's all a little foggy, I know there were some weirdo start lines for Ruby in the morning that went away by the afternoon. Cost her some time, cost me some concern, but she never looked sore and by the end of the day was running like that finely tuned big truck I always hope her to be. Just tried to keep her out of weave poles where I could. One bar late in the day at a double jump out of a blasty tunnel. One bar, whole day. Hey Ruby thanks! Our big goal here was testing out her super fast and CONSISTENT running dogwalk contact we've been working away at but this was nearly a dogwalk free dog show for some reason of mystery not figured out by me other than CPE judges not dogwalk fans? Is somewhere in the rules? Dunno. The one she did in her Standard was fast and feet ran straight to the bottom of the yellow like we've been practicing practicing practicing but no way to tell was it fluke or fact.

Otterpop continued in her newly scrubbed off brain idea of it is not so bad out there in that ring. Loped around like in the hunters. Can't say she's looking like the fastest dog in town like she does when she practices in a ring she deems safe and sane. She only likes sheep and horses to watch her. And have beloved frisbee there. But had a nice working canter, like if they had a hunter division for scrappy little Otterpops she'd be right in there. Would have to braid her tail somehow though. But just a steady, confident dog out there and I see her getting nothing but better and easier out there and not searching so desperately for zombies at every turn. In the world of CPE, this means she wins prizes and such, although I still need to check and see what they were. I kind of don't actually care though, so maybe tomorow. Or the next day.

Agility Planner for my life.

We have been straying from the Super Important World of Dog Agility lately, and, as you all know and can hardly wait for, Show Season is upon us. Soon. Coming up. In a little bit.

First of all, you should know that even though I call dog shows Dog Shows, they are actually referred to as Agility Trials in the dog agility world. A Dog Show generally refers to the kind of dog show like Best in Show where there are tiny little choker chains and polyester suits worn with hose and sneakers and prancing about in a circle. And much brushing of the dogs. An agility trial is nothing like this. First of all, you wear Sporty Clothes! And there is no prancing about, just flat out running and doing highly skilled feats of danger and demolition over jumps, contacts, tunnels, and so forth. There are 18ish obastacles out there usually on a course and you are always done in less than a minute! Hopefully. Otherwise you are looking at a nasty time fault. There is much keeping in shape for dog agility!

I am not sure why it is called a trial. I think this is the case in other dog sports as well. That word sort of gives me the creeps because of LA Law and Law and Order and I think lawyer show when I hear trial. I am so used to the world of Horse Shows and a Dog Show seems very much like a horse show (you wait and wait and wait and then all of a sudden you have all these turns all at once in different rings at the same time and you are Freaking out! and sweaty and hot and dirty) that this is just what I call them. Also, in agility, you do not really need to brush your dog. Even if your dog rolled in carcass the morning you are leaving, you are not required to bathe them. I probably would though, due to the car ride to the Dog Show.

So, in other posts in other months you have learned about the USDAA and the CPE and the ASCA and AKC and all the venues. So you understand that now. This is what we are gearing up and practicing for and marking our calendars. Because I have a binder and I have organization when it comes to Dog Agility, I can easily find this on a post it.

August 5-USDAA in Camarillo. Maybe. If it can combine with going to visit my parents. A long drive. Must figure out in 2 days because entries will close!

August 25/26-USDAA in Prunedale aka Prunetucky. This can even be 2 days, if I only enter in the morning for Saturday and can go to work in the afternoon. Because it is put on by my dog club and Prunetucky is right around the corner from Watsonville!

Sept 1/2/3-USDAA in San Jose. We can go to this one Sunday and Monday. It is a Regional! Big, huge giant event with dogs from all over trying to get last minute Q's to go to the Nationals. Lots of stressed out freaking out at the one. Big Steeplechase.

Sept 16-USDAA in Turlock. Maybe go to this. I hate Turlock. It is the central valley. It is hot and right by trains and Ruby, who also talks to witches in her spare time, freaks out at train noise and is getting worse in her old age of almost 7. These ones are always done like at 8pm at night and I just do not love the Turlock.

Sept 23-USDAA in Woodland. This is sort of far, almost 2.5 hours. It is near UCDavis. I would rather drive there than Turlock though. I am programmed to drive to UCDavis in my sleep from grad school days.

Oct 7-we have a choice here! Look at all that USDAA we have been doing. We can go again, to Dixon, also known as the spot where Otterpop first freaked out at a dog show and doesn't like it there and Ruby always seems to come up lame partway thru Sunday, or take a break and go to a fun, partially indoors CPE in covered arena which makes the dogs go Super Fast, at WAG in Elkgrove. Yes, the place is named WAG. These dog agility people bought an old cow ranch just for the sake of Dog Agility!

Nov 23-25 Thanksgiving Weekend, and if we so choose, a CPE in Elkgrove.

This would mark the end of our season until I think March or maybe February. Now you know where we will be every weekend! That's not so bad. I need to check and see if there is anything else to enter in October because this is a good time for dog agility, that sucks that there are 2 good shows on the same weekend. I have to research what happened there.