Tika Status and Chasing That Steeple

SUMMARY: How Tika's feeling and Why we didn't qualify.

After 24 hours of drugs (Monday evening), Tika's feeling better enough to play plenty of fetch, but jumping hurts (e.g., bouncy tug-of-war, jumping for joy at dinnertime). Still licking. But eating fine. Definitely subdued from the painkiller between bouts of playing. Have an appointment with my regular vet Tuesday morning at 8:30 to decide what to do next. In theory, this post will magically post itself while I'm gone.

Meanwhile--more from this weekend. It's interesting to dissect what I can specifically work on with each dog, after rewatching the videos of their Round 1 Steeplechase. Boost: the slightest lateral lead-out. Getting her to look ahead for obstacles instead of back at me, which is in some part what seems to cause missed obstacles. (But I already knew both those things.)

For Tika, she was 4.5 seconds under time but had a knocked bar, preventing her from Qing. But as I watch, I see all kinds of places where she's turning a little wider or a little slower, or both, than she needs to, and taking an extra step or two before jumps, and I'm thinking while watching and listening to myself, that it's because she's not getting the info that she needs from me in a timely fashion. Probably the same thing with Boost, just exhibiting it differently. There was plenty of room for Tika to run a couple of seconds faster on that course.

And me: I look like I'm running to protect my knees, kind of sliding along on the flats of my feet. Among other things. I've been trying to practice staying on my toes and pumping my arms forward and back, not side to side, but it doesn't seem to stick during a run. And I'm just not getting to where I need to be! Plus there are those extra 15 pounds from this last winter...

Anyway, if you're interested, you can watch for things like that (although I realize it's hard with this small video image).

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