In this episode, Gustavo goes to his very first dog show.

And kicks ass. OK. I was so nervous to run him. Only in Starters Jumpers. Keeping him out of rings with weave poles til those things are DONE. Did you guys see me all freaky over there? Was a late class, other dogs were done. Had to keep remembering to check over in that Starters and Advanced Ring to make sure to, ahem, actually walk his course because, well just because. Not used to going over there. How many times did Otterpop ever get her Starters courses walked? Let's just say not too many.

This is at a nice, small USDAA in Woodland. 2 rings. Kick back. Near Davis, where I went to grad school. Near the pound where Timmy came from. Far enough away that I went up Saturday night and brought Black Beauty and we all stayed in Motel 6, the one with no toilet seats. Motel 6, why can't you spring for toilet seats? And a shower drain that Otterpop was obsessed with and wanted to rub her body all over. Eeeeewww. Bring you own sheets and wear socks at all times so that you can keep 4 dogs in your motel room with you and no one cares.

Black Beauty, totally one of the gang. I think she deserves better in life than sidekick of Team Small Dog. Gary wants her gone. I happen to adore her and tried to sell her at the dog show but no one wants a lap dog chihuahua at dog agility. I love you Black Beauty! She just does whatever you want. This is one grateful little dog. Doesn't someone have a cool auntie that will dote on this dog and buy it sweaters? Little collars with faux diamonds and a matching tote bag? Come on you guys, it's a CHIHUAHUA!

Yeah so anyways. The shower drain. No! The Starters Jumpers. Gustavo was like, why you so nervous? He's been to a million agility trials, was no sweat for him. I had no idea what he would do. Run away? Act like he's never done this? Go slow? Bark at a judge? Just run around in circles like a squirrel?

Hell No! Acted like a trained dog! Just flew around, had a super fast time, and that was that. 18 seconds of Super Fun! Like did just what we practice at home! Like felt flawless and fast and FABULOUS!

* sing along now, Sonic Youth friends:
My friend Goo!
Your first Q!
You knew exact-aly what to do!
Your dirty hair.
Flies everywhere.
Cuz you are running like you actually care.
*wow Sorry Kim Gordon that I am a geek. Do you like dogs Kim Gordon?

Other dogs? I think Otterpop may have won all her classes. No one got the gamble. Was one of those freak hard ones which Makes Us More Thoughtful Dog Trainers. Everyone said, "Oh you should have been at the dog show last weekend with the EASY gambles." Oh well. We only have so many buckets of money to throw at these dog shows. Good runs all around. Otterpop, rocked. No judge issues. Thanks Judge Peggy that doesn't crowd dogs. Actually pretty darn fast and accurate and had a good day.

Ruby, was old Ruby back! Just ran her on 2 runs, didn't get the gamble and had a weird handling mishap in jumpers for a 5 faulter but still. Maybe likes the relaxed 5 hrs between runs? Dunno what it was but she was happy and easy and super fast and just no issues at all. Well hey. She just wanted to be semi retired? Whatever. Me too. We keep doing this easy schedule with her and see how it goes.

If she can walk. Because bonehead leaped up to the contraband zone called Kitty Area to eat cat food when I got home, ended up hanging upside down by her right hind leg stuck in a gap and as I write this, can't walk. Doesn't seem painful enough to rush to emergency vet, but was hanging upside down with her back leg bent behind her for like 10 seconds. Much dog screaming involved by this. Poor Ruby. Cross your fingers for her. She can be one helluva diva about things, so we'll see. Do I seem pretty blase for having a possibly very lame dog? Can I tell you how many times this dog has been lame? Yeah. Take a rimadyl and call me in the morning.

When agility also includes a trip to the eye doctor.

Like I would take her to a dogpthamologist? And make her wear prescription doggles?

I know. I bitch because I'm too busy to train the dogs, then 5 minutes later I'll tell you about training the dogs. I just want more time to train the dogs. See one thing of dog agility is, you meet some retired folks. They are genuinely, positively, retired. With enough money somehow to take their rv somewhere like a vacaton, train the dogs, go out to lunch, pretty much whatever they want and not go to work. This is the lifestyle I aspire to! The retired person lifestyle! Except for the little issue of, being self employed and all, I might be working my fingers down to milkbones like forever til I kick it. With my boots on.

I would be a very busy retired person, just would not have to constantly ensure that people are writing me checks on time and for ideally large amounts of money. I would actually probably do all the things I do now except with way different hours and proportions of time allotted to things. Like my ranch would be at my house and I wouldn't have to have a gazillion customers, just a few that are nice. And dog agility would be at my house so I could practice whenever I wanted. And the art studio is at my house and clean so I can go in there and work on projects and always find the fresh xacto blades. And so on. And so forth. I just didn't do the right prep work to be a retired wealthy person, like I am picturing here. Let me go watch the Secret again.

But I did practice with the dogs some today. And 2 of the dogs kept hitting a double jump, from wherever we were jumping it. Otterpop is bad with spread jumps, aka oxers for you horse folk. She is just not scopey. Ruby just leaves long and exuberantly to cause her bar knocking. Otterpop is just plain old not built to jump. If she were a car, she'd have big fat hotrod tires in back and little teensy tiny ones up front and purple fur on her dash and little pompoms jingling and candy apple red glittersparkle paint and a shiney chrome chain steering wheel better for her hippity hop otterpop down the road. Yeah, you make that clear those spread jumps without knocking a rail every time. A scopey horse feels aethletic, and has an arc and a great hind end push off the ground. Otterpop is just a solid little tank built for low to the ground for speed but not really jump style. I'll speak to my breeder about that.

Ruby is now and always has been a chronic bar knocker. I did a lot with groundpoles and spread jumps in our younger days and nothing really helped except moving her down to Performance. The switch from being the tiniest 16" dog to an average size 12" performance dog helped, and my ego is pretty much over that switch. Let's just say it all together. There is nothing to be ashamed of having a Performance Dog. She is a lot happier with lower jump height and rarely knocks bars (but sometimes does). She just always has left long-like there is another stride left in there and she doesn't take it. That's what I'd say if she were a horse. Jim never could figure it out. He always asks how her eyesight is. Damned if I know. Like I'm going to get her glasses? If I remember to regulate her pace (ie, slow her down-sucks) I can sort of get that stride in, like when it is Very Important to Get Out of the Ring Clean. But if she is just hauling ass and I sorta forget this, chance of bar. But way less chance as 12". And in Performance, no triple bar!

The horse trainer has the dogs that jump bad. Fantastic!

I can't really say much about Gustavo's jump style. I keep the bars really low right now and he either does little grids, learning to look forward and balance himself (my little pony) or is learning to focus ahead and hold a start line stay then DRIVE at a single jump that he has actually looked at. That's all he's doing. We go REAL SLOW with my special ed pup. It will work, and he will be fantastic but just have to pick one thing and work that til he gets it before moving on. And I guess you could say I have a bit of a bar knocking paranoia now so this fella is going to have a little bit more attention to how he jumps.