Rainy Days and Fridays....

We had a trail at Purina today. The day started out okay... everything was damp, but the temperature was warm enough that we considered changing into shorts. But as the day went by, it got wetter and colder, and the grass got slicker. Poor Maggie (and the other fast dogs) struggled to stay on their feet. To make matters worse, these course had some pretty hard turns in them... usually after a couple of jumps in a row, so the dogs had built up some speed, only to slide around when they tried the hard turn. Add that to the fact that I got lost on the jumpers course and that equals no ribbons for today. I sure hope we do better tomorrow... I'm beginning to feel a little bummed. : (

Guilty Guilty Guilty

Maggie is having a serious guilt attack this morning and won't look at me. But you'll never believe why she is feeling so bad. "Someone" got into the trash last night. Not Maggie... Mopsy and/or Jake did it... but they are not the least bit bothered. Maggie is feeling bad because she couldn't stop them. Okay, I know you are wondering how I know all this, but believe me, we've had this for years.

The first time Maggie was about 18 months old and she would not settle down for the night. For hours she paced, whined, scratched to get out... and we tried everything to settle her down. Finally, I went outside thinking she was getting sick, and she ran right to the back gate that was standing open. I shut it and you could hear her sigh and she ran inside and went to bed. She couldn't sleep with the gate open! That summer we realized that we could leave the gate open while she was outside because she would not let the other two cross out of the yard.

If I leave a cabinet door ajar, she will stand guard and prevent the two ruffians from going on a midnight raid. When we leave the house we put a baby gate across the spare bedroom and leave them there. However, if Maggie leaves with us, the other two easily jump the short gate that holds them when Maggie is home. Bottom line, she has taken it upon herself to be the babysitter for the other two, and they don't make it easy for her.

Somehow last night the other two got a few pieces of trash out of the can before she was able to end their party and she is curled up in the back of my closet and doesn't want to come out. The only way to perk her up is to get her back to work so I think I'll put some cheese in the trash and encourage the brats to try to get it out. She won't let it happen twice in the same day.

Not this weekend!

Yikes, I don't remember when we've had a worse agility trial. I keep trying to remind myself that it isn't easy and that you can't expect to win all the time, but we are sort of spoiled and this was hard to take. The courses were exceptionally difficult for dogs with long strides... this judge shows toy breeds and it was obvious in his courses. As usual, Maggie and I were able to do all the really hard things in the courses but then would make one itty, bitty, tiny mistake that would cost us our Q. You know what I don't understand? Why is it that we take 19 obstacles perfectly and make one mistake? Why can't we run the entire course perfectly for 19 trials and then have one where we mess up everything? It would still be the same percentage of mistakes...
But, on a happier note, I did get to spend the weekend with Sarah at her apartment, and we went to doggy restaurants and the dog park and had a great time despite our disappointing performace in the ring. And of course, ribbons or not, spending time with our dog friends is always a winner!

Do you know what time it is?

... Time to hit the road!!!

Maggie and I are off for an agility show. This weekend we are in Columbia, so we not only get to have fun in the agility ring, but we get to visit Sarah. We are so excited! I'll try to log on to the web over the weekend for updates. Wish us luck!

JibJab

If you've never played with JibJab (www.jibjab.com), for the sake of getting anything done today, DON'T. I could play with this for hours... I've even uploaded my dog's photos and watched them dance together.

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Susan Boyle

To any of you that have been living under a rock for the last week: if you have not already seen the Britain's Got Talent contestant, Susan Boyle, stop what you are doing at this instant and go watch her youtube video. Go listen right now. I'll wait.
Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Okay, did that bring tears to your eyes or what? It reminds me of Paul Pots from a few years ago, also on Britain's Got Talent. He stands up before the judges, rumpled, with crooked teeth, a cellular phone salesman and says he wants to sing opera. The performance was nearly as shocking. Paul Potts is making megabucks these days touring the world, singing opera... still has crooked teeth though. I wonder how much Susan Boyle will change...

Air Maggie!

This month's Clean Run (magazine devoted to agility) had an article about "bar suck." This is a theoretical phenomenon usually associated with border collies. The theory is that BCs shape their bodies much like an airplane wing when they jump, creating a vacuum under their body which will actually lift the jump and displace it, without touching it. Sounds incredible, but careful testing has shown that they do indeed produce enough of a vacuum to do this, and the article went on to suggest that handlers can put hair gel on the dog's underside to break up the air flow and disrupt the lift. I've never actually seen Maggie "suck" a bar, perhaps because she jumps WAY higher than is necessary. [note to my family engineers, what do you think? possible? or something for Mythbusters?]
I thought I would take a close look at a recent run to see if I could recognize any of the things the article talked about (I didn't). But I did notice something else... that Maggie takes off the ground an incredible distance from the jump. In fact, I reviewed the course map (which has a measurement grid) and estimate that it was about 16 to 18 feet from takeoff to landing on the jump after the 2nd tunnel. No wonder is seems like she's flying... she is!
But before you watch, one disclaimer... this is not a run to brag about. My bad cues just before the 2nd tunnel could easily have cost us a qualification, and certainly cost us at least a couple seconds. But, a Q is a Q, and even with the lost seconds, we still took 1st place!