and they're off!

As much as I love agility, even I have to admit that I got carried away signing up for shows, and it seems like we have not been home in forever. Yes, we have another show this weekend, but I'm finally reaching the end of my "show circuit" and we'll be home for a while.

You'll know where to find us...

These photos were from the Evansville trial, May 17th. She is so excited waiting for her turn.

I love this photo because you can see the bottoms of both of her back feet. Isn't that cute?

Maggie flies through the chute so fast, a couple times I've turned around thinking she'd missed it, and she had already gone through and I never heard the fabric snap.

This photo reminds me of a comment from this past weekend. One of the people we were competing with happened to be the AKC judge who was at the Columbia show. I teased him a little about his difficult courses and he said "it isn't my fault that you are trying to run a black and white rocket in a dog event."

(Jim, don't look at this photo.)

Yes, my dog kisses me on the lips. And sometimes she does it without me knowing it's coming.

We choked.

Though I try to stay off the rescue soapbox as much as possible, most of you know that both of my border collies are rescues. Many of the handlers that we respect are running some very nice dogs that they have paid a lot of money for, and traveled great distances to get. Yet when push comes to shove, few (if any) of those dogs are any better at agility than Maggie. She has great jumping height, quick turns, lots of drive and a fast flat run (her only issue is her handler). This weekend at Lawrence, KS, Maggie's foster family came to watch her run for the first time. We wanted so much to impress them, but we both choked. In the first run, Maggie was her blazing and accurate self and she landed the table in a quick sit while the judge did the 5 count. "Five and four and three and two and one and g....." But she never got to say "go" because Maggie was anticipating the "go" and she left on the "and". I had just been telling our friends that Maggie had learned the count and I needed to start giving her a "stay" on the "one and...", but I'd forgotten and she was excited, so we were disqualified. Other than that, the run was flawless, but that didn't make up for our embarassment.
Maggie's "first family" stayed several hours to watch our second run and we hoped to do better. Her adrenaline must have been cranked up, because she didn't wait at the start line, but started creeping up before I gave her a release. Ordinarily, I would have pulled her from the run "no stay, no play" but I was thinking about her fans waiting hours to watch her go. So, I let her run. We did okay until a jump near the middle which I had practiced a couple times in the walk-thru, reminding myself not to move forward until she took the jump. But, in the excitement, I forgot and took one little step making Maggie think she was headed the wrong way and she quickly changed course, getting a "refusal" call from the judge.
Anyway, it just goes to show you why getting those double Q's are so hard... both dog and handler have to work together without a mistake, twice in the same day. And as long as Maggie is stuck with me, those days will be rare!

Stacey, Mark, Molly... I hope we didn't disappoint you! We'll try harder next time.

Our Rivals

I mentioned a few weeks ago that there are teams I have always made a point to watch, and Lili and Max are one of those teams. Max has a running style very similar to Maggie's and we have always had difficulty with the same portions of a course. So, when Max runs before us, we pay particular attention, hoping that we can learn from their successes and their mistakes. When we both qualify, Maggie's and Max's times are usually very close. On this run, Max took first place, nudging Maggie aside with about 1.3 seconds speedier run. Since I have not reviewed the video from Maggie's run, I'm not sure where we lost the time, but it was probably someplace where my butt was dragging!

home again

Only time for a quick update because I am seriously dragging butt and fighting a headache...

The two day trial in Evansville went extremely well. Saturday we took first place in Standard for 38 MACH points but we NQ'd (non-qualify) in Jumpers. Saturday night we (Addie's Mom and me) went to the Log Inn (which is the oldest restaurant in Indiana- Abraham Lincoln ate there). We sat in the bar and watched the Preakness, but the best part is that the customer next to us trained race horses, so she was able to fill us in on some of the less obvious details. It made for a really enjoyable evening- good dinner, good conversation.
Sunday started with a good (not great) standard run. We Q'd and got third place. Then we had a PHENOMENAL jumpers run for our second dbl Q and 48 more MACH points. She really flew.
But, here is the best part.... another handler came over and asked me where I had gotten Maggie... if the breeder was in Missouri. I told her that Maggie was a rescue and her brows went up and all she said was "wow."
Sometimes when I think about what a great dog she is, all I can say is "wow" also.
Great job this weekend Maggie-Mae....wow.

how much stuff can one dog need?

I remember when my kids were babies, I was always in shock at how much stuff we had to pack for even the shortest trip. Car seat, stroller, high chair, portacrib, toys, diaper bags, etc. We used to even make jokes about it. But the amount of stuff I just put in my car rivels even the most prepared moms.
Maggie and I are headed to Evansville Indiana tomorrow for an agility show (what else). It is only a two day show, so you wouldn't think we would need all that much, but YIKES! My Honda Pilot is filling up! Crate, bedding, chair, dolly, dog food, dog toys, ground cover, towels... holy cow- and I havn't pack anything for me! It is times like this that I miss my old conversion van... big 'ol Alice would have carried it all and had room to spare. Of course it only got 12 miles to the gallon, but hey, you can't have everything.

Mother's Love

Okay, this post isn't about dogs... it's about love. I was just glancing through my photos from Sunday and I came across this:

I was thinking that there is nothing else in the world like baby love-especially from mom and grandma. Isn't this the scene that William Ross Wallace had in mind when he wrote:

Blessings on the hand of women!
Angels guard its strength and grace,
In the palace, cottage, hovel,
Oh, no matter where the place;
Would that never storms assailed it,
Rainbows ever gently curled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.

What a joy to watch (and be!) a mom this Sunday with a little baby to fuss over.

But the humans weren't the only ones that enjoyed watching over little Julian... Gertie was never far away and ready to lend a paw to help.

(you didn't really think I could make it through an entire entry without a dog, did you?)