WordPlay

Trialing the weekend before this last was…intense.

Exhaustion and fried nerves/cracked tooth are not a good recipe for a focused handler; the dogs did well, but it was in spite of me.

Connery finished his just-started Novice FAST title (the third of three legs in a row) and earned two of his three Open legs.  Belle blew through three critical Double Qs toward her PAX2, with one left to complete.  We ended up with 13/15 possible Qs (did I say, in spite of me?).

Here is their ribbon loot!  Because Ellie Beagle asked for it.

Connery and Belle with the previous weekend's Ribbon Loot. Belle sports a charmingly scabby nose from her lizard-hunting activities.

A word about Belle and this whole PAX thing. A PAX requires 20 QQs (double Q = qualifying in standard and jumpers on the same day), and is the most prestigious title available to a dog running in Belle’s classes.  (Why a PAX and not a MACH such as Connery earns?  That’s a blog in of itself…)

Of all the trials I’ve attended in the past eight years, I’ve only personally seen one PAX  completed.  Sort of.  Because it was two years ago…and it was us!   This is in contrast to MACHs–because in this area of talented people, MACHs do happen.  In fact, two wonderful handler-dog teams earned their first MACHs at last weekend’s trial.  W00t!

(This means lots of cake! Around here, earn a MACH (or PAX), and bring a cake to the trial the next day!)

A word about Belle.

At age five, Belle was partially paralyzed with a disk condition unrelated to agility–inflammation severe enough that the swelling compressed her spinal cord.

I was told she wouldn’t run agility again.

But it was agility that saved her, because daily training meant I saw the trouble signs early, and her strength protected her back through the following days.  Massage, supplements, trial and error, careful reintroduction of activity after 6 weeks of complete crate rest…

Six months later, she did run again. And although the ongoing condition flared every 5-6 months, starting the whole cycle over again, and though she’s weak in her right hind, she kept running.  A reduced schedule, oft-interrupted by extended periods of down-time, meant that opportunities to build Qs were scarce, in an area where the nearest trial was three hours away and opportunities were already scarce.

She had a very, very long road to that first PAX.

But now only two years later, her retirement crowds close, a score of QQ opportunities lost to the side trip to her Excellent FAST title–and her confidence now shattered due to…???  Moving twice in a year?  Jean-Luc’s decline?  Encroaching age issues?  It’s hard to say.  She’s a sweet, soft-hearted dog, and she blames herself for things in her life that can’t possibly be her fault.

So I really didn’t know if she would make it to that PAX2. Or if I should simply retire her, accepting this change as age-related and permanent.  But I  kept trying to find her happies again.

So, then, you remember last weekend? She started giggling again!  Three QQs in quick succession! And wow!  Suddenly the PAX2 was in sight!

And so here we are with this past weekend’s report:

Saturday:

• Meet up with fellow Backlist Ebook-er & dog lover Julie Ortolon, who traveled into the city for a Real Life Hello!
• D’Artagnan Beagle: “I am getting the hang of this whole trial site experience!”
• ConneryBeagle: QQ #20 for his MACH2 (and a slew of speed points left to earn)!
• ConneryBeagle:  Open FAST Title! Move up to Excellent for Sunday!
• Belle Cardigan:  YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!
• Belle Cardigan:  QQ#20!!!!!!!!!!!
• Belle Cardigan:  PAX2!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(insert victory lap, PAX Pole, hugs, squeals, cheers, fun!)

I wish I could say this stupendous day ended idyllically. What I can say is that friends tried to help us jump the van and Triple AAA finally used their superwhooper jumping system to get it started but the battery-selling folks said, “Wasn’t the battery” and we managed to borrow a vehicle for the next day and to tear down our shade shelter to accommodate diminished packing space and to brainstorm ways we could keep the dogs if not ourselves in the shade the next hot hot day and arrange for the van to make it into a shop.

But hey, then we had a Sunday:

• No cake for the celebration due to the car misadventures.  I assure everyone that it would have been REALLY GOOD CAKE.
• D’Artagnan Beagle:  “I still measure under 14″ and I am a GOOD BOY practicing my trial manners.”
• ConneryBeagle:  Another QQ! And a hugely intimidating first Excellent FAST course conquered with such heroic effort on his part that I partied him as if we’d just won nationals!
• Belle Cardigan:  Runs her very last Standard course EVER.  Qs.  Runs a gleeful jumpers course and says she would like to continue with Jumpers classes for a while yet.
• Belle Cardigan: Goes into Standard Course retirement on the very first QQ for a never-to-be-earned PAX3.
• Borrowed vehicle: cleaned and returned.
  
• Weekend Q tally: 10 of 10.  Combined weekend tallies: 23 of 25 Qs. (In spite of handler, did I say?)

DogMom:  Hugs dogs and cries at their wonderfulness.

Connery's Start Line Song: YES! I AM READY! WOULD YOU GO DO THE LEAD-OUT OR WHAT!?

Cheysuli's Silver Belle, CD RE PAX2 MXP5 MJP4 XFP EAC EJC CGC: PAX ribbon and bar and dog (slightly less scabby nose this week) and handler and judge Tim Pinneri

This is Belle's Victory Lap--and such a bounce in her stride! How proud her neck! Good dog!

Agility people take “trials” and “trialing” so for granted that it sometimes surprises me when I mention “I have a trial this weekend,” and people become concerned that I’m tangled in some legal issue.

No, no.  It means packing up the van, sometimes driving a day, sometimes just for forty-five minutes to an hour–and spending two to three days getting up at 0-dark-thirty (usually 4:30, sometimes 4am) to arrive on site at 6:30 and spend the next eleven hours memorizing courses, walking courses, walking dogs, doing emotional and environmental management of dogs (huge!) and of course, those intense thirty to sixty second blasts through the course while–hopefully–grooving with the dog.

If you’ve never done this, you probably can’t imagine how all this effort is worth 90-180 seconds on the agility course.

The only answer I can give you is a big goofy grin.

Plus, of course, there’s the training. Lots and lots of that.  And it’s all time spent with the dogs.

This past AKC trial weekend?

Friday:

• It is HOT.
• Connery finishes his Novice FAST title!
• Belle earns Double Q  17/20 for her PAX2*!
• Dart Puppy learns what it means to be at a trial site!  He practices socialization!
• See neat people!
• My jaw goes WTF, that hurts!
• While juggling emergency dental appointment, begging indulgence from trial committee and affected judge to shift my jumpers runs back-to-back a couple hours ahead of schedule and simultaneously trying to prepare dogs for same, brain explodes, too.
• Brain explodes all over Connery’s jumpers run.  Ugly sight.
• Late to dentist.  Xrays, $$$, cracked tooth, inflamed toothbed…turns out if you lose a dog and don’t have the chance to grieve due to work stress, your body will find its way.  Nothing can be fixed immediately…plans are made for same.

Saturday:

• It is HOTTER.
• Fallout from brain explosion wipes out another run for ConneryBeagle, who begins to wonder where his real mom went.  Because he’s running first in each class today, he bears the brunt of the Stupids.
• Connery nails his other two runs in spite of his handler!
• Belle earns Double Q 18/20 for her PAX2!
• Dart Puppy shares his most mournful hound howl with the entire assembled trial contingent.  “Woe!” cries everyone within earshot.  “So sad!”
• Dart Puppy receives unofficial measurement by AKC rep and is found to (currently) be under 14″, a most exciting discovering!  (It is a critical determination of his agility career jump height.)
• See neat people!  Friend earns MACH!
• Jaw does not get any worse.

Sunday:

• We have MELTED.
• Brain returns!  One major Stupid Moment, compensated for.
• Connery nails all three of his runs, including a stupendous standard run!  Now has 2/3 of his Open FAST title!  Now has Double Q 19/20 for his MACH2!  (still needs lots of speed points, though)  That’s 7/9 runs for the weekend, totally in spite of Yours Truly.
• Belle earns Double Q 19/20 for her PAX2! She is six for six this weekend, with a great comeback after a season of increasing worries triggered by the stress of the January move.
• Dart Puppy is a Most Excellent Boy.  He loves his BONE.
• See neat people!  (sense a theme, there?)
• Jaw does not get any worse.  It ponders the dentist-filled week ahead.  I pretend not to know.

Sunday Evening:

• Come home, unload van with a mind to the two-day trial next weekend, feed annoyed horse, and sit stupidly in front of TV for the first time in a week.
• Best part?  Dog at my feet, dog at my side, dog in my lap.  All very happily exhausted.

Sunday PM not nearly as late as usual:

• My turn now.  Good night!

Monday Morning:

• What?  Already?

I think I’ll hit the rewind button to the part where I’m surrounded by happy, sleeping dogs…  And oh, yeah.  Just ignore this big goofy grin!

But wait! I’m doing this again next weekend!  It must be trialing season!

Belle (in late '07), by Doghouse Arts -- driving across the dogwalk

*PAX Title: The highest available title for a dog in Belle’s running class, earned even less frequently than the vaunted MACH.  In fact, clubs often don’t even bother to have the PAX poles and ribbons available; Belle was given a MACH pole & ribbon for her first PAX, and I’m guessing the same if we get this one.

…Monday

Yup, this is what we’ve been doing the past couple weekends.  Flying dogs.

Seriously!

Sometimes they don’t fly. Sometimes they get cocky, and crash and burn.  Sometimes they get worried, and then it’s more like a “meander” around the course–that happens to both of them, as Belle is a natural worrier and Connery still stresses when he’s not sure he’s safe (due to those horrifying giant-breed attacks when he was younger).

And then there are the courses. Sometimes the timing is awfully tight. Sometimes it’s just not physically possible to get from Here to There as a handler, when There is the spot that will tell the dog exactly what to do. Sometimes they’re just wicked, twisty, tricky…you look at the course map and go, “Buh..?” And maybe drool a little in stupefaction.

So on a course like that, I’ve got to handle on time, with my feet in exactly the right place, my hands in the right place (hands indicate a myriad of things, from direction to distance from handler), my verbals just soon enough to give guidance while not distracting the dog from obstacle performance. And the dog has to be appropriately focused–a balance of handler and obstacle focus–ready to listen while at the same time committing to the next obstacle with enough energy to navigate it.

All as fast as possible, of course. (PS and don’t get LOST!)

My guys tend to be careful and attentive, which means we Q on accuracy more than we blow out on speed. But every now and then it all comes together and we get the right course and the right level of canine cockiness and the right handler timing…

And that’s when dogs fly.

Belle takes on the tire with her little legs flung high out of the way. You can just see the glint of the blue speck inside her left brown eye. (This, and all of these pics, were taken by Bruce at BAMFoto)

She's not panting here--that's her happy running mouth. You can see it in most of her photos.

This one's got it all--the little blue eye dot, the happy mouth, the little front leg fling... Go, Belle, Go!

Connery hits those same weaves with fierce concentration (and the cutest little face!)

Typical Connery waiting at the start line. "HURRY MYMOM HURRY!"

…Friday

So hey.

I’m not really here.

I’m in a car heading for Santa Fe (again!), where we’re traveling out to our first “away” agility trial of the year. Whee!

Thanks to the move in January (a year after the previous move, pant pant pant), we’ve already missed a couple that might be considered within decent reach; the dogs will be very, very lucky to get anywhere near Nationals qualification this year, even though both qualified last year. But one does have to go to a certain number of trials to even have a chance…

Today, all of that is neither here nor there. Today we’re making the dogs feel special, preparing ourselves to explore a new trial venue, and hoping–oh please–that whatever we left behind this time, it isn’t too important.

Also, we’re steeling ourselves for that 4am alarm. Oh, seriously. An alarm shouldn’t even allow itself to be set for that time.

So I got clever! I wrote this up early in the week–I’ve no idea if I’ll have internet access at the hotel, because I never bother to check ahead. Not that I’ll be thinking about blogging on these days.

Nope. It’s all about the WHEE!

But hey! To put you in the mood, here are some piccies taken at Connery’s USDAA trial in March! We can thank Bruce McClelland at BAMfoto for these goodies–always nice to see him at a trial, because I know the pics will be good ones. (Bruce! Get a web site!).

posted on Monday

A week ago, we had our first agility trial since last fall.  That means we missed a number of good opportunities, but…hey.  You move for the second time in a year and see how fast you get your act back together…

Especially when moving into deep winter and utter mud.  Bleagh.

However, I’ve finally gotten some practices in, and reached the trial past the one where my entry was lost in the mail (*sob*), and hoo boy did we have some nice weather for it!

Miss Belle thought so, too.

Belle with her "I can do this!" face in the strong shadows of the trial (Moment in Time Photography)

In fact, I got to thinking about the fact that she’s ten and a half now–a venerable age for a competitive agility dog.  And I got to thinking about how amazing that is, under the circumstances.

What circumstances, you ask?  (Okay, if you didn’t, just go with me on this one.)

Here’s an abridged version of  a blog I wrote for Belle back in ’08…

Of all my dogs, Belle is the quiet one.  While Connery Beagle bays his Song of Self at agility course start and finish–everyone knows when the Beagle is running!–Belle often gets the job done before anyone quite notices the trial has even started (short-legged Belle is commonly the first dog on the line for the entire trial). Everyone else is still setting up, still settling in…not paying much attention. And off she goes, sticking the course and bringing it in at fifteen to twenty seconds under time, along with the blue ribbons and “high score in class” ribbons (fastest dog of any jump height in her class) to prove it.

When she runs, I rarely raise my voice loud enough for anyone outside the course to hear. There are no gasping call-offs, no last-minute saves, no dramatic windmilling gestures on the course. She’s smooth and accurate, and her tail often wags madly in the  fashion that earned her “Propeller Butt” nickname.  As long as I do my job as a handler, she does her job as an athlete; she’s a reliable Double Q dog.

What makes this all the more remarkable is that Belle, a Cardigan Welsh Corgi, has spinal disk disease. It’s not from the agility–it’s because she’s a dwarf breed, and all dwarf dogs are prone to this calcification of the spinal disks. Not most of them, of course. But some of them.

Belle first went down when she was just shy of six years old.

The agility probably saved her–because when you’ve got a dog in regular training, you know instantly when something’s not quite right. Still, due to a substitute vet, diagnosis was slow in coming–resulting in partial paralysis and sending us off on an adventure of  slow, slow rehab, with absolutely no expectations. That she might return to competition was theoretically possible–even desirable, as it would keep her strong and protect her–but no one knew of a dog who had come back to full activity from this disease.

So I added supplements, and I found a massage therapist, and I cried a lot. Not just for me…for Belle, who so loved to run agility that she, too, sobbed in confinement whenever I trained young Connery. But with the crate rest and rehab…slowly…very slowly…Belle came back.

Six months later, as Connery debuted in his first trial ever, she returned to competition and finished her AKC Excellent Jumpers title with a High Score in Class.

Not that it was all easy from there. She needs a very specific regiment to to avoid muscle cramps and reoccurences: supplements, exercise, massage, specific padding in her beds. It was a full two years before she was running a regular trial schedule alongside Connery. Until then, she ran a minimal schedule with flare-ups that lost us months of time in additional rehab.

But finally, she was running two days of two courses each, which gave her the opportunity to gather Double Qs for her PAX title (the highest title she can earn, an accumulation of Double Qs at the highest level of competition)–and she started racking up the necessary Double Qs–qualifying in both courses on the same day with a perfect score under course time.

However, every trial I went to, I told myself it could be the last.  I told myself I was lucky to have her there.  I prepared myself. And indeed, as she approached the 20th Double Q, she went down again, and hard. A middle-aged dog, looking for another miracle…wailing with grief from her mandated crate rest as Connery practiced outside…
——————–

What I wrote at the time, when I first dedicated this blog to Belle:

“So here’s to Belle, and everything she’s given me, and all the glee and little blue dog giggles she’s put into our time together so far. We may not get a second miracle, but if anyone deserves one, it’s my little blue Belle.”

But you know what?

We did get it.

Belle came back, and she ran straight through to her PAX. And since then? She’s had flares, but nothing major. I’ve got them at her first wince and treated her aggressively, but I’m not sure that’s the only reason. I think that beyond all expectation, she’s stuck with it long enough so the calcification period has calmed. Damage was done, but I think agility kept her strong enough to make it through.

I hope I’m right. I was kind of afraid to say that out loud.

And hey, guess what!

We’re more than halfway to her PAX2. I wasn’t expecting it–I even took time off from that goal to earn some FAST titles (an AKC agility game). But whether she earns it or not, as she reaches the middle of her 10th year and starts to slow…

Well, every trial we go to, I tell myself I’m lucky she’s there…

============

However, as you can see…Connery’s got no respect!

posted on Monday

This past weekend, the dogs and I were at an agility trial. Super fun!

Also, getting up super early for super long, super exhausting days. Ready to sleep now! So what have we here? As a weekend stand-in, a photo essay of dogs HAVING FUN!

(AKA, Connery and Belle had a big tennie day a while ago, and I did the one-handed camera-while-tennie-tossing thing.)

posted on Monday

Oh, dogs and the things they do to their teeth…

Well, first there are the things WE do to their teeth. Or don’t do.

We feed them dog food, which creates a different mouth balance checmically, which creates tartar. And then we do–or don’t–do things to offset that situation.

My guys get knuckle bones once a week, which go a very long way to keeping things sorted out; they get Nylabones around the house..

They do, when necessary, get various tooth gels applied, with or without toothbrush.

They get their teeth scaled by yours truly as is necessary.

All those things generally create enough of a balance so tartar is under decent control. I’ve only had one dog who’s needed an actual cleaning, and that would be because of the other factors she introduces and yes I’m talking about you, Miss Belle!

Because Belle Cardigan reminds me now and then: if a dog adores her chewing so VERY much, she will break teeth on whatever she puts in there to chew. Sometimes this is done rather slyly, so the human never knows.

Especially if it doesn’t particularly bother the Belle dog, which somehow, it never does.

So every now and then, I get an unpleasant surprise.

“It was shattered,” the vet informed me of the latest tooth to go–the giant carnassial, of which she only had one left. Of course, it was infected, too, because it had shattered in place and then just sat there that way.

It costs an astonishing amount of money to remove a shattered carnassial, that’s all I have to say about it.

But Belle is recovering nicely–antibiotics, a $pecial tooth gel, and her dog food specially pureed into gruel–and during the process she also had her teethies cleaned, and boy do they gleam.

Until that swelling goes down, of course, I’m in worry mode, but Belle doesn’t seem to be. She’s ready to be off restrictions and cause trouble with her brothers.

And she thinks the salmon-flavored $pecial tooth gel is just FINE.

Miss Belle on her sun-warmed railroad tie in the yard

The Monday Post

Oh, we are so full of fetch!  So full of happy!  Here goes!

(We are also taking pictures while crouching in the snow, balancing the honkin’ big camera with one hand, and tossing the tennie with the other…so, no promises!)

The Big Dive!

Graceful Agility Dogs, returning from the chase

Connery would really, REALLY like that tennie ball

Belle: O the Happy!

Belle:  O the REALLY Happy!

posted on Friday

What’re you gonna do. The dogs are clamoring for training, and the road is pure muck, and the agility yard is hovering somewhere between knee-deep in snow and melted into sludge.

Not to mention the next trial is looming, in the big scheme of things–when you’ve got dogs to condition and tune up.

So out we go into the arroyo. It’s more like a pre-arroyo–it has some really steep parts but is mainly more gentle, and it’s within the horse pasture. Now, just the other side of the horse fence, that’s where we’ve got a several-story drop and sheer verticals, a tangle of junipers growing out with no visible purchase, deadfalls, and gutted-out soil.

We’ll stick to this side, I think.

We head out the north side, loop around the back…running leaping happy dogs, sniff sniff sniff *wag* BAWH! And we play the Come Game, which means I wait until Connery has found the very best most interesting SNIFFY thing and I call him, and there are cookies.  (Belle doesn’t really  need this game, but she gets a cookie anyway.)

Along the fenceline, through the arroyo, and climb back up out, where we emerge into the agility yard south of barn. Not much there now–a few half-buried jumps, set low. The dogwalk; the teeter. The table, half obliterated by snow.

Connery, of course, throws himself over the dogwalk, all full of BAWH, and then we play with handling in the little jumping square. Wraps, turns, switches, front crosses…drive out to that far jump and pull around to the teeter. None of it’s very fast, but it doesn’t matter. They’re having fun, and they’re learning to work agility under conditions that will leave them unphased by inclement weather at trials.

Half of the obstacles they perform in tandem; they head for the table together; they run the dogwalk in single file…Belle watches while Connery works the jumping square, and she’s thinking, “I’d rather keep my feet tidy right at this moment.”

Then we cut through the arroyo to skim behind the house and hit the gate we used to get out, and towel off, and if it’s not agility…well, it’s snowgility.

Here he comes to save the day!

Racing for it…

Wuh-oh

“No, really. Pick me up.”

Obligatory artsy piccie

End of the Day: Hat hair and happy Beagle

Posted on Monday

Snowmageddon, New Mexico style!  I guess I’d better get used to it:

Although to judge by the reaction of folks who have lived here for a while, the weekly and bi-weekly succession of storms this winter is hardly standard operating procedure. It’s just the area’s way of greeting us in our new home, and giving us a really steep learning curve…

(Those are both cholla cactus, by the way. The yellow bits on the end are the fruit.)

Back to Miss Belle
Thanks to comments from Belle’s previous piccie, I am inspired to explain what all that alphabet soup after her name really means.  Details aside, it means this:  A little girl who tries so very hard! All she really cares about is to know she’s a good girl–she always is!–and to be with me.

Here’s the soup!  (Or, you know, just scroll down for the latest piccie)

Cheysuli’s Silver Belle, CD RE PAX MXP4 MJP3 OFP EAC EJC CGC

CD: Companion Dog.  The AKC novice obedience title, first of three levels.  Belle melted anxiously for her first stand-for-exam, then blew through her next three legs  in the ribbons.

RE: Rally Obedience Excellent.  The AKC Rally Excellent title, the highest of the three levels.  Belle went straight through, mostly with reds and blues.

PAX: Belle’s crowning achievement, AKC Preferred Agility Excellent.  This takes extended, consistent excellence at the highest level of agility performance, with twenty double-qualifying runs (Qs in both standard and jumpers agility for that day).  Belle competes in the Preferred classes because her legs are so short and her body so long, and I refuse to jump her any higher for her own safety; I think AKC fails the long-bodied dogs in this way.  Belle is a blue-ribbon double-Q girl, very consistent, and earned this title in spite of many months of repeated down time due to health issues and limited runs per weekend for the same reason.

MXP4: AKC  Masters Excellent Preferred is for the standard agility class.  It takes ten qualifying runs (Qs) to earn one MXP.  Belle is on her way to #5.

MJP3: AKC Masters Jumpers Preferred is as above, only for the jumpers class.  Belle is close to #4.

OFP: AKC Open FAST.  FAST is a fairly recent class offering not held at every trial; we only started running it last fall, at the trade-off of not entering in the regular classes (I don’t push her on entries).  It involves strategy and distance work.  Belle went straight through her runs from Novice to Open titles, blue ribbon girl.  We haven’t had an opportunity to work toward Excellent yet.

EAC: NADAC Excellent Agility Certificate.  NADAC is an alternative agility venue for us, and one in which we don’t currently compete.

EAJ: NADAC Excellent Jumpers Certificate.  Same as above…

CGC: AKC Canine Good Citizen certified.  This isn’t a title, per se; it’s a certification.  It means Belle has demonstrated to a tester that she has the social and obedience skills to be considered a canine good citizen.

And here she is again!  If you look closely, you can see her grinning…