Aberrant Prose

Match amiss

Our first fun agility match with Paris yesterday turned out to be quite the debacle. Sure enough she decided she would much rather run out of the ring and sniff the grounds than run the course. The worse part was, once she left the ring, she would not come back immediately when I called her. I had to yell, “come” several times before she decided she was ready to return. The whole being outdoors in an area she had never seen before was just too stimulating. Her nose got the better of her (and me).

I did enter her in all six runs I signed on for and even one game. Before the runs opened, there was a musical warm up. Up to one hundred dogs and their handlers gathered in a grassy area to walk dogs left, right, forward, back and about-turns all to music. I didn’t keep Paris in the group long. I could see right away it was stressing her when other dogs and handlers kept bumping into us.

After the warm up we did the tunnel challenge, one of three games. I had tickets for the other two games but they were send to table and send to weave pole challenges, which I knew for sure Paris wouldn’t do. I decided the tunnel challenge would be a nice intro for her to get into a running mode. It proved to be a preview of how she was going to handle the rest of the day: she ran away a number of times before finally figuring out she was suppose to keep running in a circle. The goal of the game was to run through a tunnel, over a jump, through a second tunnel, over a second jump and repeat this going around in a circle until the steward blew a whistle. If the steward had been scoring, Paris would have received a score of 3 out of 10—that is how poorly she did.

I then ran her in the jumpers ring, which consisted of a variety of jumps and included two tunnels. Out of all the runs we entered, she actually did this one the best even though she ran off course several times. Again it wasn’t until the very end she figured out what was expected of her.

The next ring, “touch and go,” was a total disaster. This one consisted of tunnels, one walk and one A-Frame, all favorite obstacles for her. I really thought she would do well. Wrong! She just had no interest in anything and kept running out of the ring. The steward yelled at me over and over telling us we were done. I just ignored him and coaxed Paris back on course until about the fifth time she ran off. That is when I decided she and I were done. I was so frustrated I was ready to call it quits for the day.

Instead Robert and I decided a break would help. We put Paris in her soft crate. She was pretty worn out both from running and from stress and easily took a nap. We then ate the sandwiches we brought.

After the break I was ready to try Paris in the jumpers ring again. I decided to run her with her leash on this time. That worked to keep her from running off and she cooperated quite well. The problem was the tunnels. She lost her momentum because her leash dragged behind her through the tunnel. She didn’t like that at all! We also knocked one jump over because the leash got caught on an edge.

So much for the leash—the next time I ran her I tried using treats, something I didn’t realize was allowed until I saw other people using them. Turns out the treats, even though they were a favorite, didn’t make any difference anyway. Running off to smell the grass was much more interesting than the special treats I brought.

Still having tickets for two more runs I decided I would run her in the touch and go ring one more time. This time I grabbed her as she came out or off of each obstacle and guided her to the next obstacle. She only had the opportunity to run off at the very end and of course she did.

By the time we finished this fifth run stewards had run in and changed the jumpers ring to an excellent level ring. I had one ticket left and decided what the heck, even if she only does a few obstacles the experience would be good for both of us. After I walked it I decided it was probably too hard to expect her to do it. When I told Robert this he said he had already signed us up!

So off we were again. The first thing she does is to refuse to go over the first jump and runs out of the ring! I retrieve her and get her to go over the first jump. She then goes over three obstacles, skips the fourth, goes over another and is on her way to the weave poles. I really hoped she would actually weave. Nope. She ran right around them. I knew that was the end of trying to get her to run the entire course so I brought her around and got her to do the second to last obstacle, the A-Frame, which she did enthusiastically. When she came down the other side for the contact she smelled leftover scent from treats someone had thrown on the ground. She had to stop and sniff. So much for going over the final jump for a nice finish! Earlier I had seen the handler who had thrown those treats on the ground and thought, “How inconsiderate is that? Why doesn’t she feed the treats directly to her dog like everyone else?”

I was exhausted after that final run, a lot of my tiredness came from dealing with such a stinker. Even though I expected Paris to wander I did not expect her to be so defiant. On the positive side, when we were walking around, she did walk in heel position most of the time and waited patiently by sitting or laying down when we were in line waiting our turn. She was also very sweet to people and behaved well around other dogs.

On another note, we enjoyed seeing and talking to Debbie, (wife of Robert’s cousin, David)! She was in charge of the raffle. When we first arrived I spotted her and immediately headed her way to say hello. She was totally caught off guard and did not know who we were at first because, like she said, we were out of our element. It was fun to see her in her element and how much fun she was having running the raffle.

On yet another note, while I was waiting in line or running in a ring, Robert was busy shooting pictures. Not just of Paris and I—one of the event organizers saw him with a camera and asked him to help out by taking pictures of the event!

All in all our day was quite the experience for Robert, Paris and I. It is obvious Paris and I are still a long ways from entering a real competition. After arriving home, all three of us took a nap even though Dakota, who didn’t get to go this time, wanted to play.

Graduation, trialing,
trucks, bankruptcy and pills

First off, congratulations to Melissa! She is graduating from high school this Friday!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I bit the bullet. I entered Paris in her first agility match in Rohnert Park this coming Saturday. I have no idea how she will do. Well, actually I do. She will refuse to go over the first jump and if I do convince her to go over it she will decide to run ahead of me and run the course the way she wants to run it. When she sees a tunnel she will head straight to it even if it is not the next obstacle on the course. If she does a sit or down on the pause table and sees she isn’t getting a treat for doing it right (since no treats will be allowed) she will say the heck with it and run off course to chase a scent (because, she will tell me later, she is a hunting dog after all).

Since this event in Rohnert Park is a fun match it doesn’t really matter if she doesn’t do everything right. I just hope she does well enough to run all six matches I signed her up for, well okay at least four of them. Actually I will be happy if she does two. All right, the truth is, I will be elated if she does one! The main mission this time around is to expose her to the world of trialing so it really doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t matter. It REALLY…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gary now has a new truck. Last Thursday Robert drove his Mom and Gary to Carmel to pick it up. Gary’s previous truck (SUV) bit the dust the end of May. The timing belt broke and ruined the engine. This all happened when Gary and Fely were on their way home from Benicia. The two of them had to walk the rest of the way to Watsonville. They didn’t get home until two in the morning!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last week we received notice of a bankruptcy filing from the City of Vallejo. Why would this mean anything to us? Because we just finished designing and printing Vallejo’s water quality reports and billed them several thousand dollars. We knew going in that Vallejo was talking about filing bankruptcy. However, our contact at the water department assured me we would be paid, that the money would come from different and unrelated funds. Just the same, the notice made us very anxious. We even received a call from an attorney offering to buy our debt. Happy to say the check arrived in the mail a couple of days ago. Whew! We were somersaulting in the air when it came!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I went in for a physical yesterday, you know that annual exam we are all supposed to do when we get older. Except apparently I don’t really know what annual means, the last time I had one was in 2005. When I made the appointment, lab orders were sent to me in the mail. When I saw the doctor she had all my results on hand—very efficient!

I was shocked to find out how much my cholesterol was up. I have always had a good report. Without asking about my diet or my lifestyle, my doctor just listed the reasons as being hereditary and possibly stress. My ratio is now higher than Robert’s (of course he has been working on lowering his for a couple of years now)! My doctor prescribed fish oil capsules, same as what Robert is taking. With so much hype about high cholesterol and over medicating, I am having a hard time dealing with this. Taking fish oil is good for body, mind, and heart though so I guess I will just grin and swallow my medicine.

My blood panel also revealed I am low in Vitamin D. My level is 27.6 and it should be between 50 and 100; my doctor translated this to mean I am mildly insufficient. This is another surprise to me. I always thought I drank plenty of milk and spent enough time outdoors. So along with the fish oil I will also be taking Vitamin D supplements.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today Robert went in for his annual exam. His doctor and my doctor (who is married to Robert’s doctor) appear to be in cahoots. He is recommending Robert take vitamin D too (even without an indication of a below normal level)! Did those two just go to a seminar or what? On top of that Robert’s doctor prescribed Robert a much bigger variety of pills than me. Two are for what he has been taking for cholesterol all along but then he added a third one for cholesterol. The others are an array of vitamins and supplements; one of them is for the prevention of Alzheimer’s. I am thinking, since my doctor didn’t prescribe so many pills for me she must have played hooky during the vitamins and supplements portion of the seminar!

What is crazy about Robert getting yet a third pill for his cholesterol is that his ratio is down! He has been working so very hard maintaining a low cholesterol diet. He’s ratio is 2.6, which is only one tenth of a point above the recommended 2.5 (compare that to mine which is 4.0!). Trying to figure out if what the doctors are telling us is right, what we should take and what we can ignore is all quite trying.

After not taking much more than a daily multi-vitamin for years (and being healthy) it appears Robert and I have entered the pill-popping phase of our lives. Are we now at this point because we are senior citizens or are we at the beck and call of an overzealous medical community? I have to wonder how much do all these pills really help and whose pocketbook is getting fatter from the sale of so many pills? I know whose pocketbook will be thinner.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And the answer is...

Refresh your browser window to repeat slideshow.

Any guesses?

This could be an easel, a bike rack, a tire holder, a wood rack, a hay fodder, a yard light base, a chicken roost…or it could be for storing hoses, TV trays, or gardening tools…or it could be…

She weaves and she teeters

This is major! After countless hours of agility classes, Paris now runs through 12 weave poles and goes on the teeter without guidance. Although she does not have either perfected yet (the weave poles are set at 4 inches and someone has to hold the teeter on the down side for her) this is an ENORMOUS accomplishment.

The turning point for the weave obstacle was buying six step-down stakes to use as weave poles in the field. After running Paris through them about ten times, she got it! She will soon have the same opportunity for the teeter. Stand by.