and how it relates to your whole life.
I may be preaching to the choir here, but this is a great talk about positive reinforcement training, dominance theory, dogs, and human relationships. Well worth the ten or eleven minutes it takes to watch.
In USDAA agility there is a kind of competition called Dog Agility Masters (or for those of us running our dogs at a lower jump height, Performance Versatility Pairs – PVP) where two handlers form a team. Each handler/dog team runs courses of Gamblers, Snooker, Jumpers, and Standard. The two handlers that make the team, their scores for each class are combined, and the top five teams run a Pairs course to determine the winners. My impression is that the courses are hard ones, because there’s no levels, it’s where people go when the regular stuff isn’t challenging enough. Or that’s my understanding of it all from reading the rules.
And since it’s hard, I can go out there with no expectations for us, and that’s often when we have the most fun. So, I’ve kind of wanted to try it but didn’t have a partner.
Then, this morning, I got an email from the trial secretary of a trial we’re entered in on May 9. The email asked if I would like to do PVP because someone without a partner signed up, and there is an odd number of dogs entered, so they need to fill the “draw” spot. Well, gee … heck yes. So, I don’t have to wait until the trial in June I was thinking of. And if we like it, I don’t need to find a partner in advance, I can sign up without one and the trial secretary has the ability to find me one.
So cool.
Chico’s eye lid healed beautifully, we’re keeping busy planning things for the house, we’re taking an on-line dog training course that I haven’t even had time to talk about at all, the flying bugs haven’t come out yet so outdoors is pretty wonderful, if starting to be plentiful with ticks. Nothing’s perfect, right?
On Saturday I learned that it isn’t possible, at least for us, to look at a wood stove in northwestern Vermont and also run agility in northwestern Massachusetts on the same day. It looked so much closer on the map, really it did.
On Sunday, we actually made it to the trial we thought we were headed for on Saturday. And I almost managed to walk the Standard and PSJ courses*, but Chico had a tummy emergency that pretty much ate up the walk time. Chico had two, no, three (though one was not “perfect”), sets of great weave poles in the ring; and some great adventures (three different times!) socializing successfully with other dogs outside the ring. I walked, according to my FitBit, almost eight miles and won a certificate for one free class in the worker raffle. Whatever we did today, and I don’t think it was the ring time, made Chico very, very tired. He slept, flat out on the front seat of the truck, almost all the way home. Like this:
*At a well subscribed event like the one today competitors walk a couple different courses in groups and then run in groups. It’s a little complicated and details don’t really matter to the general reader, the point is that I had fifteen minutes to look at the two courses (or a map) and I spent that fifteen minutes tending to my dog’s needs, so once again managed to run without walking. Sigh. Someday we’ll get this right.
Last weekend Chico and I did two days of AKC agility at an Agility Club of New Hampshire sponsored trial. Tons of fun and lots of familiar faces, as usual. Lots of good things happened. I was late again on Saturday, but got to run Jumpers anyhow. My friend Nancy came see what all this agility stuff was about and spent most of Saturday with us. In Standard Chico gave me one of the best sets of weave poles in competition in ages, maybe ever. Not correct, but he just went faster and faster as he progressed. No way I was pulling him out to start again and “make him do it right.” For our purposes, they were right; right as rain. Great start line; good connection between us, except for one place where he was maybe headed for the exit when he needed to turn and follow me to the see-saw and he kinda took the long way around the jump, but wasn’t off course. My send was a bit strong and I wasn’t already turning my feet in the new direction when I sent him, so it’s probably me – as usual – but that’s minor fine tuning to fix.
And on Sunday I was so early I had to wait for the Jumpers walk through. Let me tell you, I received a fair amount of good natured ribbing about that. Walking didn’t get me a Q, there was something at the weaves no doubt. But I do have the Standard run, and it’s pretty nice. I pulled him out of the last weave pole by moving too fast too soon, and I might have accelerated too soon at the end of the dog walk because he missed the down contact, but those are minor. Remembering where the next jump after the table is, that’s something to work on too. You can see me looking around, and moving one way then another, trying to real-quick-remember what’s next.
And, as is so often the case, some of the best stuff happened outside the ring. There’s a dog named Maggie that trains at Julie’s, a sweet mixed-breed of Chico’s basic type, though colored more like a spaniel, and I’ve had a feeling that she and Chico would like each other. Before Sunday, they had sniffed at each other under strict supervision when they meet as Maggie’s class ends and ours begins, and had played a few rounds of Chico’s favorite “meet a new dog game” – Treats by Turn. Well, on Sunday Maggie’s people brought her to the trial, just to see what agility trials are all about*. When they arrived, Chico and I were outside and the two dogs met face to face. Maggie started to drool little spitty bubbles like Chico was a big piece of chicken, she licked his mouth. He went immediately into play bow and asked her to romp. He likes her. I’m not sure we’ve ever met a dog that Chico liked. Tolerated, yes, sometimes. Said “go the hell away” to – plenty of times. But this? Immediately initiating play? That was a first for my eyes. It was so sweet for him and so happy making for me.
*And I am living proof – that’s exactly how it starts. You go look, you think, “Hmmm, maybe we could do that. It’s only 25 bucks to try it once, what the heck?” My money is on “Maggie and her lady-person (well, Maggie has a man-person too, it’s a real pack) will be trying trialing before ya know it.”
My niece just sent me a picture of Chico when he was first with their family.
Yes, that’s a toy sword. I don’t know the story either. But look how much thinner he was then. He has a waist. His little weenie sticks down into view. These days that is, ummm, better hidden by, ummm, belly fat.
I challenge us to get the weight off him.
Chico’s eyelid is much better, he started to scratch at it yesterday and when I looked, the stitches were starting to dissolve and fly around his eye and into his field of vision, so I quick pulled out the remaining thread and he hasn’t bothered with it again.
My ankle is much better, I’m on an exercise plan to strengthen it, and we seem to have success – I ran this weekend without a brace and everything was fine. At least, I didn’t fall down or anything.
Two weeks ago, we went to get cleared to run by my exercise coach, and were so late to an AKC trial that we missed the walk through AND our turn in Jumpers. They very kindly put us in at the end of the class. I watched others run and knew the opening and the closing but was shade unsure about the middle. Went to the start line, caught the judge’s eye, said, “I don’t know the course, and I have a bum ankle, but we’re gonna give it a try.” It was amusing, and successful. Number 12 was a tunnel, and they say while Chico was in the tunnel my wondering “Now, where’s 13?” was done aloud. Nice one. Good thing I don’t have a really fast dog. Yet we had a perfect, if not speedy, run. Made course time, got a Q, finished our Excellent Jumpers title. Go figure. My classmates present said I should never walk a course again. I’m not going for it, but it did illustrate that over preparation is not my friend. And that weekend we got our P2 Standard title in USDAA too.
No video of those runs, what I can offer is our first try at P1 Snooker. Someone much more experienced than I, when asked for a little help, took charge and designed me a course (I wish she’d helped me instead because I would have learned more about the strategy, oh well be careful what you ask for) but it was a course that worked and that we could execute, so we did well.
All the errands on the list, and more things, were accomplished. Then in the middle of the afternoon, things went wrong, and we ended up at the vet.
That left eye isn’t looking so great.
Chico put a hole in his eyelid, thankfully there was no damage to the eye itself. Our wonderful vet, Amanda Rizner, didn’t get back to her office from a farm visit until after 4, and she and her tech Brian stayed until almost 6 to patch Chico up. He was too stressed to go into the office willingly, so she came out into the parking lot to do the initial exam, and she gave him his first dose of anesthetic – his “happy puppy shot” – out there and let him rest in his crate while it took effect.
She let me watch her clean the wound, examined his eye and found no damage, and put in one stitch to the wound in the lid. A dissolving-thread stitch. Home with some pain killers and oral (this is no time to teach acceptance of funny-smelling things coming at your face) anti-biotics.
I am thanking the universe it turned out as well as it did, feeding Chico anything he wants to keep the antibiotics from hitting an empty tummy (yes, he’s playing “what else have you got?” and today I am buying it), and headed for a good night’s sleep. For both of us.
Last weekend we went and did AKC agility on Friday (two Qs, one of which was the final leg for our Excellent Jumpers title) and then to Eva’s for Friday night, Saturday and Saturday night, then to USDAA agility on Sunday (two Qs, one of which was our P2 Standard title).
Om Saturday evening we went to a holiday dinner at the home of a dog loving family. I did not know them at all before I got there, and when they invited me to see the yard and I asked if Chico could see it too, they invited him in for the dinner. And when we sang parts of the Passover service, he joined in and they all took it in stride. Chico is loved.
And then there’s Dogger. Dogger’s owner is moving away from Eva’s farm, so this was likely the two dogs last visit. As usual, Chico acted like he wanted to kill Dogger, and Dogger, who has the big square head of a dog that can lock on to the throat of something (and his hueveos, as they say in Mexico), absolutely refused to believe a word of the terrible stuff Chico said. Scares me still, but Dogger’s person swears that Dogger is obsessed with making Chico like him because of he wasn’t (since he didn’t attack Chico the first time they met) he’d just go away, and that Chico can’t press him into attacking. And after some time, they achieved a truce. Dogger let Chico explore, Dogger following, and when he got too close Chico told him so, and Dogger hoped that meant Chico was ready to play, and took it with a sloppy, tongue and tail wagging grin when he realized that was not yet the case.
And when his person takes Dogger back to their cabin, he gets out and comes to the door and does this:
for minutes on end. Chico is loved.
I’m not sure that I have mentioned that I twisted my ankle pretty badly a week ago Friday, so I was pretty sure that I couldn’t run very well this weekend. On the way to the trial Friday morning, I stopped to see my motion coach and either get taped or get cleared for the lace-up brace. Well, the brace won, but I was late leaving and when I got to the trial, I had missed the walk of the course, I had even missed our turn, but not the whole class. They gate steward kindly put us in at the end of the running order, I watched a few folks run and mastered the beginning and end of the course, and my classmate Sylvia said the whole thing was flowing and logical, so I went out and ran it. On the start line I looked at the judge and said “I have a bum ankle and I don’t know the course, but we’re going to give it a try.” And we ran clean. Not super fast, but clean. They say that when I was looking for jump 12, I actually said aloud “Now, where’s twelve?” You gotta love it.
Some say that I should be late and miss the walk more often.
In retrospect, we have had several qualifying runs under just those conditions. Doesn’t give me time to get nervous, to over think, to get bored waiting…makes it more like class. Class is where we can do almost anything.
On Sunday we had a nice moment – someone I recognize but don’t know told me just before run to remember to “keep moving. That dog needs motion.” I thanked her and said she was dead right and must have expressed some surprise that she knew us so well, and she said, “Oh, I’ve watched him a lot of times.” Chico is loved.
And today, at Paris Farmer’s Union not only do they know Chico by name and welcome him, they send us home with four – count ’em four – plastic eggs filled with dog treats: leftovers from their canine Easter egg hunt last Sunday. And when I looked at my receipt, the pelletized lime is on there, the 10-10-10 fertilizer is on there, but the dog bones I got for Chico are not. Chico is loved.
In the beginning of our time together I told him often that the world is a kind and loving place (OK, it is a bit of a fib, but I was looking out for him and making his world that way as much as I could) and that he could let down his guard. The nicer he has gotten, the nicer the world around him has been back to him. Chico is loved.
We haven’t seen green grass for months. I found this little video of Chico ignoring the weed eater, taken last July, and it’s so nice and green, and the birds are chirping. It was like that before, and will be again, I just know it.
Can I Bring the Dog? 