Can you identify Team Small Dog?

Today I tried to practice some challenging distance challenges with my dogs.


Boy did we suck. There is no gamblers teeter for Otterpop anywhere in her near future. Let's just leave it at that. Long story of teeter heartbreak. However you can send her to the weaves from bizarre places like relaxing in a lawn chair or a parked car. Very useful for those gamblers Q's. Ruby, little bit more of a wildcard. I thought that I had spent lots of time working on tunnel and contact discriminations with her, like YEARS, but today she proved me wrong. Such is life when you train dogs the team small dog way.

It was just kind of one of those days. You've had them.


But I thought perhaps our distance issues are a problem that could be retrained overlooked by sporty outfits?

We've been down this path before. We liked Jillian's sporty Project Runway coats and sweaters for dog agility wear. But for spring and summer, I saw these golf pictures and I thought, that is the face of dog agility! Lady golfers! They have spikey shoes. With tassels! The ladies looked so nice and friendly with smooth pony tails and this mysterious one glove. There were plaid knee shorts and shirts with collars and little skirts with things to stick your things you balance your golfing balls on. Before you whack it into some bushes or a giant windmill filled with broken beer bottles.

I've got some good news and some bad news.

Hello and welcome back from Turlock, February USDAA.


Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first?


It was that kind of day.


The good news is, look at this birdhouse I bought from an old lady selling them in front of her house on one of the highways in Turlock. It's the stable. Her disabled husband who ignores you through their front picture window builds them. There are apartments for 4 birds on the other side. I love my new birdhouse.

The bad news was, a huge rain storm came in Saturday evening and I almost just bagged the whole dog show and just didn't go. Had no inkling to drive to Turlock in the rain at night and hang out in the rain all day.

The good news is, I saved a Motel 6 bill and had less of a glamorous evening than previously planned. I watched some episodes of Big Love, slept in my own bed, and drove out to the dog show at 4:30 in the morning instead. And I took a new way to get there which was faster, more scenic, and easier roads to drive.

The good news is, Otterpop finally got that elusive Advanced Gamblers Q that she's been trying to get for, um, a really long time. Because she's been in Masters for a while. In everything except Gamblers.

The bad news was, she was still paranoid about judges near her and did that whole looking over her shoulder for machetes whilst running over contact equipment with judges nearby. They just want to see you step in the yellow Otterpop. That's it. But she thinks the first time she looks away from there and just where she's going, out comes machete.

The good news was, her teeters were exempt from machete watching and the paranoia did not result in any barking attacks.

The bad news was, she ran kinda pokey in Jumpers and this made me so sad.

The good news was, she was pretty fast in Standard but had a refusal and got a 2nd in her Grand Prix with a decent but not outstanding time. She was super fast once past the dog walk and a-frame where the judge was closely watching the contacts.

The good news is, Ruby seems perky and happy to play let's attack all the couch pillows with 3 sets of small dog teeth now that we are home.

The bad news was, she had a terrible Standard and I pulled her out of Grand Prix after half a course, and the rest of the day she walked like she was 100 years old and wouldn't jump in or out of the car. I scratched all the rest of her classes and still have NO idea what is wrong with her. If it's in her mind, if she's actually sore somewhere, or it's both. And just now, she wouldn't jump out of a chair to get a treat with everyone else.

The good news is, Hobbes had a beautiful Standard run with a stunning table.

The bad news was, he knocked a bar in it and didn't get the LAST Q for his LAA Platinum, the highest thing you can get in USDAA agility. So we didn't get to drink the champagne I brought for just in case.

The good news is, I tried to see if I could just haul ass with him as fast as I could in the Steeplechase finals and not get him to knock any bars. And I am having a momosa right now.

The bad news was, he hit a bar in Steeplechase (and I just blew him by his a-frame contact) and bars with Rob in other stuff and he is sore and that is probably why he is knocking all these bars. Maybe. So he got scratched from all the rest of his runs.

The good news is, Mary and Michelle from our dirt night classes ran in their first USDAA trial and did smashing. I saw with my own bloodshot eyes. And Mary was even wearing her Team Small Dog Shirt! And it did not rain and was actually a lovely day. And it was a nice crowd and all my dog agility friends were there and no one was in a mean mood. And Gustavo got to play a lot and was perfectly happy to sit in the car. I met Ellen who has the Taj Mutthall Agility Blog. (our blogs are of a very different nature, we agreed.) There. That's a lot of good news. Even though, all in all, it was a little bit of a crappy day dog wise, I am being very glass half full. Gonna fill it up again right now with momosa. Will bring a fresh bottle to Madera for just in case.

Quick, creative dog training solutions for a rain based time crunch!

In a little break in the rain, I actually got to practice with the dogs for a little bit on the way to work. A miracle! A neccessity, since we are going to Turlock this Sunday and we all feel out of shape and tiredy.

It was damp. It was muddy. It was freezing. We are so tough, me and Team Small Dog.

So how do you get the most bang for your buck when it's about to rain, it's freezing cold, and you have a whole buncha horses needing rides before that rain actually starts and you gotta practice fast?

I made a little gamble of a teeter, poles, jump and tire.

Otterpop STILL NEEDS an Advanced Gamblers Q, please agility gods, just grant us one and let us move on with our lives. Gamblers is hardly ever, ever on a Sunday, and every time it is, it's either got a teeter (paranoia attack unless I am oh-so-near at a dog show), or I make some hair-brained, capital E Error (like, remember the time I body slammed the kindly yet slow moving judge?) and in Turlock there is Advanced Gamblers on Sunday.

Needless to say, you've all heard this old story a million times, when she practices, Otterpop sends out from the moon. Yes, I still can't send her to weave poles from inside a parked car while drunk, but at least I have a goal.

So I set up what would look like a horrible, gnarly gamble, with a teeter and poles, and backchained that until she was flying through with flying colors. If only dog practice Otterpop was dog show Otterpop.

Ruby likes to send out to things. Sometimes too much-if she is feeling spry and sassy, you say out and you get like WAY out. So she was mostly practicing getting these huge rewards for doing her poles fast. When we practice, her poles are still really fast IF I am close by. They are slow if I am sending her out far to them. A new part of the clue! Agility Detective! So I just practiced fast poles with me in there and her fast giving her giant, freakout AWARDS OF JOYFULNESS and frisbee attacking string cheese eating. Oh sorry, goodbye my non agility readers. I just lost you. Really, agility is the new black, it is fun and cool, I really am not lying!

Gustavo, he doesn't even do sequences. He is learning how to run up the teeter super fast and slide into a down on the yellow end and ride down to the bottom eating some cheese, and having it bang around with him holding a down. Disneyland should take note. Kids would love this. Because agility is the new black, just wait and see how popular it is in 5 years from now and everyone is DYING to capitalize on it and you are saying, damn, Laura TOLD US this would happen, and the Teeter ride becomes a theme park hit. Then the kids run off as fast as they can after it's been banging around when they are holding their stays to their target. For some weird reason, I made a target jumping onto a black bucket and laying down like it's a table. I was not drunk. It just happened and it was funny so that's what we did. A black bucket might not be that exciting for kids, how about they can run to a mud pit full of nerf weapons?

Gustavo practiced his Success With One Jump. He ran down the dogwalk a bunch. He is getting it! He also woke us all up at 4am to alert us to the impending danger from a pair of pants hanging over a chair. Remember his pumpkin freakout? Not much freaks out Gustavo except for pumpkins, and apparently, pants. UPS guys and people breaking into my car, you are safe from Gustavo but pants and pumpkins, you look out.

Hey and lookedy, got done quick, everyone got a few turns, and still got to work and horses done before the rain!

Clutter and Gambling, together at last.

There's Magnolia. She's a deer fortune telling booth that is dry docked in my garage. We used to call the garage the Studio, connoting an artist used it for working in, then during the Former Artist period it became coverted to a garage. Now it holds things like the bikes. The house paint. The tools. Magnolia. The horrificly heavy, antique wood couch that didn't fit in the front door from my parents when they were selling their house. I just felt like putting that picture in, since I have been on mess patrol and run around my house at night throwing stuff away into brown paper bags.

I just signed the dogs up for a Gambler's Seminar with Jim Basic. He is my favorite agility teacher, he is Power Paws, along with his wife Nancy Gyes. I am so lucky to have him just 45 minutes away in San Jose. He is one of the top guys teaching agility anywhere. Both he and his wife are big high muckety mucks of championship winning at everything. It's next Sunday, all day, and will likely be hot and full of people with fast border collies who are already good at gamblers.

We are not talking poker game or how to better pull the slot arm in reno.

Gamblers is an agility event or "game". The object is to go around a course, taking whatever obstacles you want, as fast as you can in a short time period-usually 25 seconds or 30 seconds. Each obstacle has a point value, and you want a lot of points, so you make up your course accordingly. This is usually fast and furious with some oddball courses designed to max out the points. At the end of the time period, a whistle blows or there is a buzz from the electric timer and you have to complete a fixed sequence of about 4-5 obstacles from a distance. There's a line of tape on the ground you cannot pass. The trick is that dogs like to have you somewhat near them to do a sequence and you have to either sort of trick your dog to think you are right there, or have such a perfectly trained dog it easily handles sequences at a distance.

I fall into the somewhat tricking your dog category, although we are both working on the perfectly trained part.

Ruby actually has an accumulation of Masters Gamblers Q's now. I never thought we would get it but somehow we did. We miss sometimes. Otterpop still runs in Advanced, and needs to Q out to move up to Masters. We have a hard time getting the Q's because a lot of the time Gamblers is only held on Saturday and we hardly ever show on Saturday, so when we do run it we really need to get it!

Master's means you are working from like 30' away. It seems far. There are some that, when I walk the course, make me feel like the biggest loser knowing Ruby will never get it. And then she does. And there are some that, when I walk the course, I think, oh yeah. We have this one. We have practice it a million times. Then I make some kind of error like turning away too quick or moving my hand, and in that flash of a second, I pull her off the thing and that's it. No Q.

Otterpop doesn't even like to be an inch a way from me running on anything at show, but if she's in a fast mood and flying, she will. So her gamblers Q's have been dependant on how she is running that day. If it's a slow day, forget it. I need a bit of strategy for her, making up a course of obstacles and moves that don't make her nervous so that she's fast and speedy when the whistle blows and I can send her off away from me and she doesn't feel Sad and Abandoned. Poor Otterpop. Agility is a game of moods for her.