In Limbo

SUMMARY: Not much agility training.

It's weird, trying to give Boost a break from doing agility training (meaning seqences or obstacle performance in the yard). Makes me disinclined to practice with Tika, as well. And no classes for a while, since I'm taking a break while working on Boost's possible physical issues.

Just weird.

But my month off from competition ends soon. One more weekend off, then it's two weekends in March of CPE, from which I scratched Boost but left Tika in.

And the premiums are pouring in for USDAA trials coming up. Not sure whether to try to find pairs or team partners for Boost for any of them. If I wait too long, everyone's booked and I have to ask for a draw partner. Which I do sometimes anyway. But it's nice to team with people you know. And because I'm not filling out the entries for Boost, I feel disinclined to fill them out for Tika, either.

Meanwhile, last night we did a brisk 5-or-6-mile hike (2 hours anyway) with the Sierra Club group again, just through the sidewalks around Stanford. Wore shoes that I don't usually wear because I didn't put my light hiking boots back into the van after emptying it while it was at the body shop, and the bottoms of my heels have distinct sore spots this morning. Funny that I can walk a couple of miles in those shoes with no problem, but not 2 to 3 times as much.

Ah, me.

Life is soooooo hard.

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That Competitive Thang and Point Accrual

SUMMARY: #3 of several posts related to this weekend. I lose my head about training opportunities when I have a chance to win. Jackpot (Gamblers), Full House, and Snooker.

Rereading some of my old posts, I sound quite braggy. The thing is, especially after my first two dogs, it still astounds and delights me when we can outperform most of the other dogs. I'm not used to it! I don't take it for granted. And it thrills me to do it.

I love running with my dogs. Tika and Boost are bost so fast, it's quite a rush emotionally being out on a course with them. Like driving a race car might thrill one. But I do have several competitive bones in my body and I like excelling, too. CPE really gives me a chance to do it; I've commented on that before.

Fortunately, there are enough talented dogs and people in CPE to keep my head from becoming too inflated. Although not many dogs compete at 24" in CPE (where I run Tika because she's 26" in USDAA), several of the dogs who run 20" in CPE do compete directly against us at 26" when they do USDAA, and often whup our butts. It's just nice that, in CPE, it's not EVERYONE who regularly whups our butts.

In particular, I enjoy the strategy games (in USDAA and CPE) because I think I'm fairly good at figuring out good courses. My execution may leave something to be desired, and if something goes awry, I'm bad at thinking on my feet. But it's nice to have classes that rely on strategic thinking as much as speed.

Friday at the end of the day, Tika had earned Qs and 1sts in 5 out of her 5 classes. An auspicious start.

Boost was only 4 for 5, but still good for a babydog.

Saturday, 4p.m. Tika is now 9 for 9, and they're all really nice runs. I'm pretty happy. I'd have waited for class #10, but it was starting to get dark. Turns out she didn't Q in that one, anyway. Oh, well.

Boost, Saturday 4 p.m. Q rate is dropping; only 2 for 5 today.

Now, that doesn't mean that I don't want competition. I often tell the people who are likely to beat me (at CPE) what my courses are, if I think I have an especially good, high-point course. This isn't entirely altruistic, mind you--if we all run the same course and I still beat them, it gives my ego a boost. And if I don't beat them but they use my course instead of what they came up with, it gives my ego a boost for my ability to plan courses.

And, in CPE, I enjoy getting the first places--and they're well-earned, usually, even if Tika is competing directly against only a couple of other dogs, because she often has scores that are at the top of all dogs, all heights, all levels at the trials.

Maybe I just have a sagging ego that needs a lot of propping up, dunno.

We had five point-accruing classes this weekend: Two Full House, a Snooker, and two Jackpot.

Full House rules: You must get at least three one-point obstacles, two 3-pointers, and one 5-pointer, plus additional obstacles of your choice to make at least a minimum number of points within 30 seconds (35 for small dogs). If you take too long to get to the finish after the whistle blows, you start losing points. There are always three 5-point obstacles on the course, and they can be anything the judge chooses. If there are contacts on the course, they are 5-pointers, but the judge can designate others (weaves, doubles, combinations, etc.). Otherwise, it's like a gamblers opening--take each obstacle up to twice for points, standard kinds of obstacle points.

Friday Full House

I had a lovely plan, executed it beautifully with Tika, highest of all 137 dogs entered in the class. Two A-frames, neither of which she hit 2-on/2-off, but I was excited and wanted to go for it, so let them go. (Tsk. At least they were fast, not piddle down and THEN take off.)

Boost did the same course, and was lovely--DID stick her contacts, but she's just fast enough that we got through exactly the same course as Tika, except knocked the bar on the last 5-point obstacle, so she was merely the 3rd highest of 137 dogs. ;-)

Saturday Full House

This had no contacts; 5-pointers were 6-pole weaves, a double, and a broad jump. It was pretty easy to come up with a variety of loops that incorporated all of those obstacles twice for fast dogs, plus plenty of 3-pointer obstacles to supplement those. Once again, Tika executed beautifully; one time I wanted to do a tight wrap but she swept very wide, so at the end she was halfway through a tunnel when the whistle blew, so she didn't get those 3 points. She had the 2nd-highest score of all 130-some-odd dogs; the 3-pointer would've put her at the top.

Boost ran past a couple of jumps, ran OVER the broad jump, and knocked a bar, so she had fewer points than Tika, but still 8th highest of all dogs.

Friday Snooker

In this game in CPE, the highest points that you can get are 51, but it often takes some tricky maneuvering (and speed) to do it. Plus, if you make a mistake, you are whistled off and your point-accumulation ends. On this course, Tika was one of 8 out of about 95 dogs who got 51 points, but she was the 2nd fastest to do so, so only one dog beat her.

Boost sailed right into an offcourse at the beginning due to the handler misjudging the poor Border Collie's experience level.

Saturday Jackpot

This was a traditional gamble (wait for the whistle then do a gamble at a distance) with a tunnel to a teeter. I have a problem with Boost blasting out of a tunnel towards me rather than looking for the next obstacle, so I knew I'd have trouble with her in the gamble.

I had a nice opening-point course that I again really liked. Execution was the thing, though. Tika did not stick her Aframe, so I was behind her afterwards, and she turned back to me, getting in my way, to tell me that I was too slow, so I had to slow down and then get her turned back to where I had wanted her to go. As a result, she was just taking off for the piece-de-resistance final 3-point obstacle when the first whistle blew; therefore, we didn't get those points, and then we had some confusion before getting her into the gamble zone, but she did the gamble perfectly. Because of that "missing" 3-pointer, she was 8th highest overall of 105 dogs, 4th highest of big dogs (little dogs get 5 more seconds to accrue points); with those 3 points, she'd have tied for 2nd highest.

Boost just doesn't keep going when I'm behind her; she turns to see what I'm doing, then starts jumping around in front of me, FACING me, which makes it hard to get her going again. We ran into that twice in the opening, wasting a ton of time, so didn't get as far as Tika, and, as expected, although our timing was perfect for entry to the gamble, I could not in any way, shape, or form, get her to even take half a step in the direction of the teeter in the gamble. So she had respectable opening points but no Q.

Sunday Jackpot

This very nontraditional gamble had elements that made it very Snookerish, with mess-up opportunities for being whistled off the course. Once again, I came up with a course that I think had high-in-trial potential, but results weren't posted before I left, so I don't know--and I had forgotten about a 2-jump combo that was actually worth 5 points so didn't use it, which could have upped our score by at least 2 points without any effort, so maybe someone beat us.


Tika did everything I asked of her, except that she didn't stick the A-frames (duh--wasn't this one of my goals for this weekend?), resulting in long turns to where she needed to be, and as a result we ALMOST missed getting to the table in time--just half a second away from a non-Q.

The Booster had bobbles in several places, although her contacts were lovely, her tunnels are always superfast, and her weave poles were fast and correct. However, on the tunnel-under-the-Aframe bit, she TWICE popped out of the tunnel from the A-frame right when the first whistle blew, and while I stood there stewing about whether it was training in the ring to MAKE her do the damned tunnel or whether I should skip it and go to the finish, or what exactly I should do anyway, our time expired, so I got NEITHER the gamble score NOR the training opportunity. Brain freeze. Three days just too much agility for me.

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Sunday's Nontraditional Jackpot and Friendly Competition

SUMMARY: It's more fun when placements are for fun, so you can challenge each other. Sunday's Jackpot COULD have been that kind of run--

Friendly Competition in CPE and Motivation

One of several reasons why I enjoy CPE is that placements are irrelevant--unlike in USDAA, where they count for Top Ten points, so--although people are usually still willing to discuss their handling and strategies with their friends--those placements are important to many people.

Sometimes in CPE we actually go out of our way to ensure that our friendly, fast-dog friends have the same best course so that we can compare speed and execution rather than it being a test of our planning skills.

Not all my favorite CPE competitors were there Sunday, but we still always end up in height/level classes with dogs who can potentially beat us. Which is odd, because at the simplest veneer in CPE, there are 36 height/level classes: six levels and six heights in each level. It's not surprising that out of 125 dogs entered, only four dogs earned the highest-possible 51 points in Sunday's Snooker (as I told my housemate: "And two of them are in the kitchen with you.") But it's just strange odds that two of them (Tika and Brenn) are in exactly the same height/level class, and the other two (Boost and sister Bette) are in their own same height/level class. So we can't all take 1st places--one of us will beat the other.

OK, it's fun anyway, we tend to split the glory, and we still like to challenge each other. I find it motivational to handle cleaner and find smoother courses and to train my dog to better understand her job so that we can push our limits even further. Which will (in theory) help me to do better in USDAA, too, where we are almost never in the top tier. It's much more motivational to me in CPE to try to be at a point where I can earn 1st rather than 2nds, whereas in USDAA it's less motivational for me to try to move up to, say, 8th instead of 9th.

Tika's Sore Snooker

However, that 51-point Snooker barely happened for Tika. It was our second class of the day, after her lovely 1st-place Standard. She came out of her crate hunched over, wouldn't play with her toy. OK, fans, she did this once last summer right before a Steeplechase, and I ended up scratching her from the rest of that weekend; the on-site vet looked at her an hour later that time and confirmed soreness in lower back on one side. And then after packing up that day, when I opened her crate to let her hobble for a last potty, she flew out of the crate and blasted across the field full speed after gophers. I was so annoyed. It must've been a cramp or gas pains or something, and I wasn't going to let her do that to me again this time.

So I walked her around a bit. I massaged her a bit. I let her potty. I asked the gate steward to move us to the end of the order (which gave us 3 more dogs). I had her do some flat-work tricks and moves for treats. She was slow, but gradually warming up. At first, she wouldn't stretch out for me, but gradually, she stretched more and more, so I put her over a low jump. She want past it twice, then took it enthusiastically, then started bouncing and looking for her toy as usual.

I went ahead and put her in her sit-stay for Snooker. She wasn't wanting to wait, which is a good sign of enthusiasm. Boost had already done her 51-point run and I wanted to finally get both of them on a successful identical course so I could get some real idea of their relative speed. I suspect that Boost will be faster than Tika, but I can't yet prove it (there's so much more than flat-straight ground speed).

But when I released Tika, she hopped rather than blasted over the first jump, ran to but then barely more than trotted through the first tunnel, and I waited to see what she'd do in the first set of weaves, which she did cautiously (for Tika--still probably faster than, say, Remington or Jake ever did them). I was ready to pull her right then, but she had other ideas because she suddenly turned on the jet fuel coming out of the last pole and we had a beautiful, smooth, lovely snooker run--2 seconds slower than Boost, not surprising given the slow start. Not a fair comparison.

We went through the same routine for the third run of the day, Colors (basically half a standard course--we did no contacts). On coming out of the crate: Ooooh, mom, I'm sore... After the goodies came out: oh, no I'm not!

So on to the Jackpot story.

The Killer Jackpot Plan

Do you ever have a Jackpot (Gamblers) course where you suddenly realize that you have the killer plan and no one else is walking the same course? That happens to us more often in CPE than in USDAA, mostly because of the level of experience in CPE.

Sunday's nontraditional Jackpot was such an animal. I found a flow that I felt that both Boost and Tika could do easily. With a quick mental estimate, I that it was worth 80+ points. Here's the course layout for you to ponder:



We had 50 seconds in which to accrue points. That's an eternity for a fast dog! I walked my course three or four times with a couple of variations, and came up with one variant of 42 seconds and one of about 49--a little risky, but maybe...

I looked around for my favorite competitors so that I could say, hey, wait, I've got a wonderful course!--but Bette's mom was already gone, and although Brenn's mom was still there, the judge picked that moment to tell us to clear the course. So I couldn't share it with anyone.

Here's my plan. As labeled (when i finally counted it last night), it's 89 points. My option was, after the 20/21 jump sequence, to serpentine onto the teeter for another 5 points before going out to the 23/24 tunnel. But I was probably going to bag the teeter, because if you didn't get to the table before your 50 seconds were up, you wouldn't Q even if you had twice as many points as everyone else. So 89 points was just fine.

Boost's run and a moral and strategic dilemma

I ran first with Boost. She dropped the first bar going into the 25-point gamble, but much to my surprise the judge called out "25" as we completed the tunnel. So I continued on my plan, with my brain trying to process what to do even as I was trying to manage my green dog:

OK, do I say right now that we knocked the bar? But then what would I do after distracting myself and/or the judge? Ask for another run? That would be dumb? OK, I'll wait til I'm done and then mention it--but then in that case I should'nt do THREE Aframe-tunnel combos, because the last 2 wouldn't count because I blew the gamble so the first two counted for points not the gamble... But if she gave it to us anyway because it was her mistake and I DIDn't do my course then I'd be struggling towards the end to figure out what to do on course having skipped things I othewise would have done--

Oh, I don't know, let's just do my plan and deal with it afterwards.

But I was definitely flustered, and I did something odd after the first gamble--I think I was just not paying attention--so on Boost's first or second set of weaves she skipped the 4th pole. I walked her calmly back next to me, calmly lined her up at my side, and put her back into the weaves. But then on the 2nd gamble, she went in the left side of the "B" tunnel--legal but not the right line for me--and I managed to pull her past the "C" jump. So I walked her calmly back next to me, calmly lined her up at my side, and put her over the "C" jump to earn that gamble.

Because of all that wasted time, we can't do my whole plan. So I cut out the 18/19 and 23 tunnels and one 5-point combo and we ended up with 75 points. And that's WITH the gamble that the judge gave us erroneously. As soon as Boost hit the table, I said to the judge, "We knocked the first bar on that 25-point gamble," and pointed to it, and even though the bar was still on the ground, she said that, well, she hadn't seen it, and since she had given it to us while running, because of the type of gamble, she felt that she had to give us credit for it. So although there were some things about the judge that I wasn't happy with, that particular case was in our favor. Don't know how the other competitors felt about it--

So with Boost's high points even with those bobbles, I confirmed that my timing was absolutely right on and I should have no problem at all with Tika getting through my plan (assuming that she didn't knock any of the bars in the gambles or the 5-point combo). I was really looking forward to it, in fact.

But this time, when I opened her crate, she wouldn't even stand up (the dog who is usually pounding at the door to get out). She whined just a fraction of a second when she finally stood. She wouldn't turn or twist at first; same tiny whine when she did. She started to loosen up a little with some goodies and flat-work again, but her back wasn't curving at all--she was keeping it straight and using her feet to turn herself. And she whined again at some misstep, and I scratched her from the Jackpot and one other remaining round for the day.

In conclusion

So Brenn ended up with 83 points using her own course plan--which, I might point out, was 8 points higher than any of the other 82 dogs competing on that course. Which REALLY drives me nuts that I never got a chance to do my full 89-point plan. And simultaneously I feel weird about being annoyed about not running it when my dog is obviously sore. And simultaneously I'm worried about my dog. And simultaneously I'm not wanting to spend a lot of time on diagnosis & vets & chiropractors and such because she's only 6 and because I *did* let her play a lot more and a lot harder the previous evening and that morning than usual. And of course maybe we'd have knocked a bar or maybe even 2 and not beaten Brenn's points anyway. But isn't it mean of me to be downplaying Brenn's excellent accomplishment with a run I never even did?? And I feel a little in limbo about Tika. But she's fine this morning.

And why am I incapable of making a SHORT post?

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The Other Big Thing

SUMMARY: Tika brings home some USDAA placement ribbons, a rarity.

Way, way back in the ages dark, our instructor at the time (Rachel) suggested that we should all have goals for our agility that we reevaluate at the beginning of every year, along the lines of "qualify for the nationals in all three events" or "lick that dogwalk up contact problem for good". My stated goal was for Tika to "Take 1st regularly at USDAA trials among the usual gang of suspects."

That was a long time ago.

We hardly ever place in the top 4 in USDAA events. In fact--for those of you who just love the fact that I have a database where I can pull this info out in half a minute--in Tika's 179 Masters runs through last weekend, Tika has places in the top four for placement ribbons exactly 11 times:

• Two 2nds (her previous two Super-Qs)
• Five 3rds (2 gamblers, 2 standards, 1 jumper; 4 at trials with fewer than 20 dogs)
• Four 4ths (3 at trials with fewer than 20 dogs; 2 jumpers, 1 snooker, 1 standard)

We've never placed first in Masters. Never.

On Saturday, as the day drew to a close, it sank in that, not only had Tika earned her ADCH, but she had placed in three separate classes: 4th in pairs (and that's with an unknown 5-point fault; both I and my partner thought we were clean), and 3rd in both Standard and Snooker, all Qs. In one day, we had increased our lifetime number of Masters placements by over 25%.

It gave me an added cheery glow to the edges of the ADCH, but at the same time I couldn't help but note that there were still only between 20 and 24 dogs in our height class (our average Masters competition size over all this time is over 27 dogs, so this was a smallish trial this weekend), and even with the smaller number, we haven't managed to break the First Place Barrier.

This is in strong contrast to CPE trials, where it's unusual for Tika to NOT place first. As you might know if you've read some of my CPE posts, it is furthermore commonplace for Tika to have the fastest time or the highest number of points over *all* dogs competing on the same course, not just her own height class. I'm always a little disappointed when we can't pull off three or four of those in one CPE weekend. (It's just like, at at the CPE nationals, Tika takes 1st in most of her classes, 2nd in another, takes high in trial in Standard, and so on--but at the USDAA nationals I'm climbing all over myself with ecstasy when we place 10th or 11th in our height in even one event, let alone make it to the final round and place 22nd there over all heights in another event.) And there you have, in a nutshell, the difference in the competition between CPE and USDAA.

Sunday morning we started with Gamblers. Saturday's gamble was disappointing: Somehow in our opening sequence, Tika turned around on top of the Aframe and went back down the same side, negating a whole ton of points (and it wasn't a rear cross, either), and furthermore followed that by negating the gamble by taking a 2nd gamble obstacle in a row while I was trying to put on the skids and get back to her, so although she did the gamble flawlessly, we had very low opening points and no Q to show for it. So back to Sunday. Despite Saturday, Tika has lately proven to be a very good gamblin' dog, so there's been no stress, just fun for us.


The course presented lots of options in the opening, which meant that a clever course could possibly beat faster dogs whose handlers didn't think of that particular option. I like that, because sometimes I can come up with clever courses. And the gamble itself looked challenging and yet like one that I thought Tika and I had a good chance at while everyone else would crap out. I like that, too. (Being basically competitive.)

However, when we were told to clear the course, I hadn't come up with a course that I liked. My thought was jump, weaves, jump, tire, back through the tire, teeter, Aframe, jump, weaves, jump, teeter, aframe. But I wasn't thrilled with the back-to-back tire because Tika would be blasting at it after a wide-open run and it would be hard to make a tight turn; we had left the chute entirely undone, wasting a perfectly fine set of points; and I thought we'd have extra time left that we'd have to waste doing figure 8s on the two jumps this on this side of the Aframe while waiting for the gamble whistle.

I tried figuring out how to fit in weaves-chute-weaves-chute because it looked like a nice fast simple loop, and also teeter-tire-teeter-tire made a nice loop, but I couldn't manage to work them all in and also get two Aframes and still end up near the approach to the 1-2 instead of stuck in the back corner behind the aframe, teeter, and chute.

I chatted with our classmate, Ashley, who's always a good one for aggressive courses because he's regularly blowing everyone's socks off with his runs with Luka, so he always has lots of obstacles and covers lots of ground, plus he's in 16" so in no way in direct competition with us. (Although most friends will share their courses--even for super-Qs--it always feels weird to me to ask someone for ideas when you're both hoping for placements.)

He started with the jump-Aframe and went out to the tire, which I hadn't even thought of, duh-- Hence jump-aframe-tire-teeter-tire-teeter-aframe-jump-weave-weave but he couldn't figure out how to get the chute in. Duh, I thought, and said, "weave-chute-weave-chute", and we both departed with pleased excitement about that course. Had a nice flow to it and, if I released Tika from all four contacts immediately, I felt that we had a chance at it.

To wrap up what's again becoming a long story, Tika executed perfectly, the whistle blew as we were entering the last chute so we didn't get those last 2 points; she's really fast and sent out nicely for a change ahead of me across #1 and #2, caught my meaning immediately as she blasted out of #2 and pushed herself back out to #3 instead of continuing to veer towards me, got the up contact, did a fast dogwalk, stuck her down contact, and made it over the #4 before time ran out without having knocked any bars. Another Q.

The almost-end of the story is that, not only did she Q, but she placed 1st in the 26" class. And, sure, there were only 22 dogs, but we're still competing against perennial national finalists like Rachel Sanders and the amazing Fable, Greg Leal and Coty and Tala, Susan Cochrane and Aiko, Tania Chadwick and Kidd... So I was very pleased and proud.

But the real end to the story is that our score ended up being the highest of all 82 masters dogs, all heights, even Luka, who ran a modified opening that exchanged some points for a chance to do the dogwalk in the hopes that it would help Luka realize it was there and make the gamble. They did get the gamble, but who knows whether it was because of that or just because they know what they're doing anyway.'

The top left quadrant of the accumulator sheet. (Click for larger image.)

What a thrill! And I'm not being facetious. This was a bigger feat to me than the ADCH, of all things, maybe because I knew that, eventually, we'd just get that Dang Super-Q and finish the ADCH, but I wasn't convinced any longer that we'd ever get a 1st, let alone high score, in Masters.

But we drove all out on this one; I sacrificed later contact stability for an instant release, and pushed pushed pushed, and yet felt no major stress because nothing at all of any significance hinged on our Qing or placing. This reminds me of a comment made by, I believe, Jo Sermon, on more than one occasion: That the worst thing that happened to agility in the U.S. is titles. She says that, in the UK (at least until recently), you advanced to higher levels only by placing and there was no such thing as a Qualifying score/minimum acceptable level. You had to go all out all the time to try to beat other dogs, but because there are SO many dogs competing over there and so few placements to be had, the stress level was low, resulting in an attitude of, ah, what the heck, I'm not going to win anyway, I might as well get the best I possibly can out of me and my dog and just have a great time. She said that coming over here to the states, she sees people overhandling, overrestraining, undercompeting, and so on, and so often not letting their dogs be as good as they could be because they're so worried about doing things letter-perfect to get that minimal Q.

And I'm somewhat guilty of that. I almost always hold Tika on her contacts because, otherwise, she starts blowing them off entirely and then we get faults and lose our chances to Q. But, when it's important to me to finish among the top--such as in Snookers and Steeplechases--I release her as fast as I can and drive her as hard as I can and we do reasonably well most of the time. So I wonder what my agility life would be like if I drove her like that all the time?

And maybe it's time to find out. We have no reason left to hold it in. Sure, there are bronzes and silvers and golds and, maybe, someday, platinums if we Q enough, but really that ADCH is the plateau beyond which one's entire agility career stretches out beyond. Huh. Something to ponder.

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