catching up...

Sorry I have been so far behind in posts. Obviously I can't blame my knee injury because I don't type with my knees. ANYWAY...., following last Tuesday's incident, by leg had to be kept completely straight. Any bending caused great pain, and it wouldn't hold any weight. And with a three day show in Paducah that weekend, I was crushed. But rather than sit home with ice packs, Sarah loaded up the car and we headed off to Kentucky with me providing Agility 101 instruction along the entire route. Seeing me on crutches, several other handlers took pity on her and helped her walk the course... then they made jokes about throwing her into this situation. She would be running a super-fast dog in Excellent against experienced handlers-and she'd never run a dog before. She should have been freaked out, but if she was, she didn't show it. In fact, her first run went so well that-even with a slight mistake and no Q-strangers came to congratulate her on her nice run. It was somewhere around that point that she got infected with the "agility bug" and from that point was addicted. The rest of the weekend (in the ring) went about the same... she had 99.9% correct runs with little errors that stole the Q. Maggie ran well for her, and Sarah did a nice job.
Thankfully, my knee started getting better and by Sunday I could hobble slowly with no crutches. Hopefully, I can get back to running soon- before Sarah steals my dog and I have to get a new one!
- more about Paducah to come....

Disaster strikes

Last tuesday I was giving it my all to beat the dog to the next jump. I lost. More to come....

Kickin' back after the seminar

Drinking buddies Dustin, Maggie and Madison.

Uh oh. Busted!

Keeping your dog cool... a physics lesson.

This weekend was one of the first where we had to worry about keeping our dogs cool. On the black dogs especially, you could feel the effects of the sunshine, as they were hot to the touch. However, I continue to see people whose only effort to cool their dog is putting them in front of a fan-which has limited benefits for dogs. But to explain, I'll start with a quick physics lesson.
Fans feel "cool" to us because of "evaporative cooling," the physical phenomenon in which objects cool (or lose heat) when the liquid on or inside evaporates into the surrounding air, taking energy with it. To demonstrate this phenomenon, take a dry kitchen or hand towel and twirl it above your head for 15-20 seconds, then stop and feel the towel. If it was dry, you shouldn't feel any difference in temperature. Now, wet the towel with lukewarm water, wring it out and twirl again. This time you should feel a big difference in temperature! This is because the water molecules on the towel evaporated into the air taking energy (heat) along with them. When you twirled the towel, you were simulating a fan, exciting the molecules and making it easier for them to evaporate. This is why a fan feels so good when we are sweaty and hot.
But back to dogs.... dog do not sweat except for the pads of their feet. So turning a fan on a dog is like twirling the DRY towel. There is a minimal benefit of exchanging the air if they are in a tightly enclosed area that is warmer than the outside air due to their own body heat, but this is nothing like what we experience by sitting in front of a fan. To simulate the cooling effect we get from fans, you have to simulate persperation as well. So keep a spray bottle handy, or find a place to get your dog wet. Or buy/make a dog "cool coat" which works on this same principle by placing a moist fabric on the dog to provide evaporative cooling. Most importantly, when YOU are sweating, your dog is probably hot also and remember that recirculating air with a fan alone really does very little to cool your dog.

JOAN KICKED MY BUTT

I just finished a 2 day agility seminar run by Joan Meyer. Anyone involved in agility recognizes her name from AKC National and International Agility, USDAA Agility Grand Prix, Purina Incredible Dog Challenge etc., etc. I don't think there is an agility competition she hasn't won. Anyway, she set up one big course and kept rearranging the numbers to create extraordinarily difficult challenges for us and the dogs. And after we struggled, she give us tips on how to make it easier... often coming up with ideas that NONE of us had thought of. And what makes Joan really unique is that for each of us, she would have specific recommendations based on how we and our dogs run.
But, by day 2 in the sun that "gentle slope" on Purina's agility field began to feel like the Grand Canyon. When I got home last night I had to stand by the car for a few minutes to give my legs a chance to unbend. My face is burnt to a crisp, my muscles are screaming and I have not unpacked the car yet.
Remind me why I do this again? Oh yes, it's FUN! .... and Maggie had a great time. But Joan really kicked my butt... I feel like I've been run over. Thanks Joan (I think).

Hooray for Peoria Training Club!

I want to say a few thing about the trial in Peoria, but frankly, I almost want to keep it my own little secret. This was a very small trial.... less than 1/2 the number of dogs we are used to for a one judge show. But because it was small, it had some definite advantages. First, and most obviously, there were not 5 hours of 20 inch dogs. There were not 5 hours of any size dogs. Nevertheless, they ran the show with a great deal of organization so that it went quickly. We ran FAST, JWW, and then STD; we were done by 12:30 on Saturday, 11:30 on Sunday. But there was no rushing or tension, there was plenty of time for walk-thrus, time to get your dog, no stress over anything. The facility was nice-good (shady) parking, crate in or close to your car if you want, indoor restrooms, and the club even furnished a nice lunch. And to top it off, everyone was nice. The club members not only cheered one another on, but they applauded and congratulated strangers. This is a trial that I will return to again and again. Tell your friends, but not too many of them, okay?

Peoria

The Peoria show was nice, and I'll give details on it later, but first I wanted to post these photos of my buddy coming to visit our hotel pool. What a time he had splashing and laughing. And if mom and dad had not had a death grip on him, he would have tried swimming on his own. In fact, several times he got a little irritated that they wouldn't turn him loose!
What a good time we had!


This one reminds me of the scene from Lion King...

If you'd like to see more of Julian, check out his blog at: http://sturmette.blogspot.com/