Summer's End

After Perri earned her Coursing Ability title, we turned our attention to Fast CAT. This is a straight 100 yard, timed test. Whatever your dog's MPH is for each run is how many points they've earned. As I have said in posts past, Perri had some worrying issues with the Fast CAT. I figured out that as long as somebody else was releasing her and I was the one to catch her at the end of the 100 yards, she did not have any issues.

That "Perri policy" changed when we went to our next Fast CAT event in June and discovered a new challenge. "Continuous loop" system. The lure is on a closed pulley system, much like regular CAT, but since it is a Fast CAT the 100 yard strip is a narrow snow fenced bowling alley type area instead of a wide open field. (always the case with Fast CAT) Bottom line: with continuous loop, the line that the lure is attached to is always on the ground. Years and years ago when I first introduced Perri to coursing, she was afraid of that line and shut down. Over the years, her prey drive to chase has helped her to overcome that and in regular coursing / CAT events she can keep a bit of lateral distance while still coursing. She cannot do that in Fast CAT. The coursing line is directly on the ground in front of her and at this June event I saw a lot of conflict for Perri. It was a double trial so she did get to do two runs that day, but her first run was sub 20mph because she hesitated nearly at the end of the 100 yards and came through only when I encouraged her. The pause was not long but it was enough to affect her time as well as her enjoyment. Her second run that day I could see her running but there was a lot of conflict and concern about the line on the ground.

"Drag Lure" style Fast CAT

So, drag lure only for Perri. With drag lure, the lure is actually drug along the ground with a four wheeler/gold cart lateral to the fast CAT track and the dog only sees the lure racing up ahead of them. No line on the ground. I don't know the exact mechanics of how Drag Lure operates but I do know it is what Perri prefers! And the only club I have seen offer this style is nearly a two hour drive for us.  (it is more time consuming to run an event with drag lure style.) Thankfully, I love that trial site! We returned last weekend to earn the final points Perri needed for her "BCAT" title. 150 points earned at Fast CAT events and the first title opportunity. There are titles available to be earned at higher point levels but I am unsure if we will be pursuing those.

Perri had two nice runs in the low 20s mph and enjoyed herself, she earned her BCAT title on the first run. She only needed 13 points, I believe.

Overall, Perri enjoys the 600 yard CAT far more than the 100 yard Fast Cat. She likes the wide open field and the turns, she takes them with ease and she barks while she courses and is able to really "open up". We may do more coursing events in the future, as our travels take us to our beloved Freehold Fairgrounds. It has been long since I have been able to play agility there and I have missed it. It is one of the few opportunities to play agility outdoors as trials move more and more to indoor venues.

My favorite coursing photo of Perri! Looking mighty insane while earning her CA title earlier this year.

The closest that I got to agility was having Zorro's AKC measurement done! This will save me from having to show up super super early at his first AKC trial, whenever that may be. He will still need to have another measurement done when he turns two years old. Perhaps we will not even trial in AKC Agility until after he is two, but perhaps we will. That is all up to Zorro and how his training progresses. In any case, Zorro measured 18 3/8" and will be a 20 inch jumping dog in AKC, as I expected. The judge was wonderful and took much time with Zorro, letting him settle down into the measurement and trying to get him under 18". I appreciate judges who are patient and take their time with young dogs.

The last part of our day at Freehold was that the hosting club added dock diving to their cluster of events so Molly got to enjoy that! Two jumps in the Junior division. I had bought a new pack of chuckit balls for her as the Dock season began this year but that pack had been sitting unused due to Molly being on rest for her biceps injury. I couldn't bear the thought of using them for any of my dogs but Molly. We finally got to open the new pack up and I used one new ball for each Splash. Made us both happy!

We have had a fun summer for sure even if it was not entirely what I thought it would be! Not as much Dock but plenty of coursing and Scent Work fun. Zorro's first agility trials. And plenty of hiking. We end our summer trialing season with a sweet day at Freehold. Can't ask for more than that. Here is a final photo of me capturing Perri to get her off the lure. Not the most flattering one of me but I know that one day I will treasure every together photo I have of Perri and I, perfectly imperfect.

Weekend Report

Who is back in the lake.   This girl!

I knew it was a bit naughty of me but I took Molly for our lake swim after my work shift on Saturday.  I was very pleased that she did not do any paw holding up or any limping, even though I let her "run it into the ground" with many speed retrieves.   Her one rear foot was bloody afterwards but that's a normal day of lake fetch with Molly!

Ein thinks we should stop talking about Molly and throwtheball!throwtheball!

Perri could not agree more!

Perri is happy that I brought Molly to the lake, because she loves to pest her!

Ein says if you pest me I'll knock you into next year!

Everyone was kept too busy for pesting most of the time

A break was needed for an on-land family photo

Wheeeeeeee!  Let's get back to swimming!

Not Ein, he loves posing for the camera

Perri does too but she's mostly too weird to pull off a good portrait

Speaking of weird, Perri got weird again at the agility trial on Sunday.   After her wild-girl power run in Jumpers last Sunday when she should have been hot and tired, I wasn't concerned about her attitude in today's Jumpers.   She was perky enough ringside, excited about her treats and not staring at anything in particular.    .....In the ring she came off the start line in negative slow motion and we slogged through about 7 obstacles in complete misery before I thanked the judge for her time, and excited the ring.    ..... Huh???

This frustrates me and honestly, it makes me a bit angry and I am getting to a place where I do not need to be with Perri.  Because of agility.   Because of a game.  Perri is an excellent agility dog, and I know it.   Unfortunately, she is also very unpredictable, very sensitive and can be thrown off by things that I do not even notice.   For whatever reason, Perri is not feeling very secure in the world right now...not for the last few months and so she is even more sensitive to her surroundings.   

A lot of people stepped up to Perri's defense saying, "It was hot."   It was not that hot at 9am inside of a well ventilated building.   In fact, later in the day...at almost 1pm in the dead 90 plus degree heat, I hosed Perri down and revved her up and acted silly with her and she threw down a beautiful Gamblers run.   Happy to have P2 Gamblers out of the way!   She even did the teeter at a distance and did not fool around wasting time and she stayed out on the gamble line and took the final jump afterwards.  

When we had the shut down in Jumpers, I knew I still wanted to stay and play Gamblers.    I love Gamblers, I do not love Standard.   No weaves in Gamblers, no numbered course in Gamblers.   All a very good chance that I could focus 100% on just keeping Perri happy and not worrying much about handling correctly and strictly.   We did all of that: we had a nice time in the ring working as a team both giving equal effort and I wanted our day to end on that and so I scratched Standard.   Ending the day on a good note.   

I don't know how to reach Perri.   I feel completely frustrated and drained of ideas and so for both of our sakes, we may need a long break from agility.   A month wasn't enough.   This crushes me because with Molly's soundness being uncertain, this could mean the dreaded No Agility.  I never realized how much this game means to me, how much I enjoy filling my time with it and dreaming agility dreams and always imagining that the sky is the limit.  We are entered in a CPE Trial in two weeks, all three dogs.   If it was anywhere except our favorite arena on dirt footing that makes Perri zoom and stay happy! I would scratch her.    

Will Molly stay sound running agility at this trial?   Will Perri stay happy?   We all know Ein will be awesome.   

Oh yeah, I'm the best!    I'm going to do the Agilities better than anybody.  Why don't you sell that poodle to the circus since she makes you so sad?

"Sell me to the circus??"

No, Perri Pop.   I would never sell you to the circus.   Oh how I love you.   I love how you snuggle, I love the sound you make when you reach for a treat.   I love your yodels.   I love how you will hike 12 miles with me and would hike 12 more if I asked you to.   I love how you always want to come along in the car with me.   You would ride shotgun if I told you we were driving to Jupiter.   I love your pounces and your paw smacks.   I love your snarkle smile every day when I get home from work and how you jump like a pogo stick on your rear legs and how you hug me like a human.   I love how you push your head into my body so hard you almost knock me over.   I love how you learned to be safe alone when it used to terrify you, learned to be calm in a crate without mutilating yourself, learned to walk on a leash, learned to have a collar put on you.  You learned to swim, you learned to fetch a ball, you learned to love toys.   You try and try and give me everything you have.   You have come so very, very far and I know you can go even further.  You frustrate me and you fall short of everything I know you are capable of  but you are a Good Girl and damn the people who think I do not know all of these things about you.   "People" think that if I am disappointed Perri does not perform in the ring that I love her less or that I don't have the right priorities.   You people, you are wrong.   I love her more and because of that my heart aches at my own shortcomings and it aches that I am failing her.

And despite it all.   Ein's hip dysplasia, spondylosis and fear of people.   Molly's cancer and possible career-ending foot arthritis.   Perri's poor sweet broken brain.   Despite it all, we have this lake and these dogs who love to fetch and bark and roll in dead carcasses and smile at me.   I know what is important and I treasure it.   It's all right here.

May Bark Boxing

I have indulged in a new guilty pleasure: a Bark Box subscription!   Logically, I know that I could order toys and treats for less money.   Logically, I know Molly is going to destroy all of the toys in two seconds.   But...I always find myself going to the website and getting thisclose to a subscription and finally I just went ahead and subscribed for 6 months!

Ein says: SCORE.

If you're going to flake out of your competition obedience career, at least that "hold" training was good for humiliating photos.

But then you get to play pounce games with your "peas". (BarkBox sent a "three peas in a pod" toy and Perri just loves tiny little toys.)

Molly wasn't allowed to have the Peas since she is a brute, so she busied herself rolling in death earthworms. 

Perri wasn't allowed to roll in dead earthworms since she was just groomed for this weekend's agility trials, so she returned to the Peas.

We all envy what we cannot have!

Whoah, wait....Molly gets the Tea Pot??

Ah well, I've got the PEA.

Then we opened up one of the two bags of included treats for funny "catching treats in middair photos."

Professional #1:

Professional #2:

And....our "A for Effort":

By Land and Sea

Yesterday found us out on the Gamelands walking the trails and actually repeating a multi-cache that I had enjoyed in the past.   I repeated it because it took you on a nice loop-tour of this particular Gamelands and that was what I was interested in doing.

Bonus: there was not a single soul out hiking except for me and the dogs.   And on a gorgeous Sunday on Memorial Day weekend, that was exactly what I was hoping for.   Perri got to be off leash the entire time and is doing well with recalling off of crittering - another new project for us since over the last year we have had a handful of (new behavior for Perri.) incidences of completely disappearing.   I have started filling the treat pouch with very high value food and giving Perri some every time she checks in with me on her own, and bonus for recalling off of chipmunks or other crittering expeditions.   Initially it took her a while to respond, and I still rewarded her.   Twice yesterday she made me laugh by actually recalling and sitting in front position!   We still had some slow-to-respond recalls but I'm definitely noticing a faster response - especially when I immediately release her back to the critters after feeding her.

Molly had her second hike on the Flexi leash and that is going well for us.   Molly just stays on the leash and that's how we roll, but the Flexi leash is making that nicer for us.   I hate dealing with long lines - and this particular Flexi is probably an elderly fifteen years old and has not snapped, lacerated anybody's flesh or failed to lock when I want it to.   Imagine that!    It's working well for us.

And then we finished a good two hours and the girls were hot and thirsty.   I'm not kidding, this was the only water source in the whole Gamelands besides the Nalgene water bottles I had brought along.

Perri gave it a good SMACK! with her smackin' paw to try to bring forth more, but nothing happened.   Molly wouldn't even think about drinking out of it.   But then, Molly isn't very smart about staying hydrated while hiking.

We went to French Creek Park in search of a good lake swim.   I think the entire population of Eastern PA was at that lake!  Just not in this photo because I'm a wizard.

I'm also a wizard for finding swimmin' spots for the dogs and after we hiked up the lakeside trail for a while, we found a nice fishing trail into the lakeside and let the games begin!

Finally!

Throw the ball!  Throw it!  Throw it!

Next thing you know, some hideous creature rose from the depths of Hopewell Lake to shut Perri's relentless barking up.

Just kidding, it was only Molly!

And she never does anything about Perri's barking.   

Or anything about her pouncing

Or her silly dumb faces

As long as I throwitagain throwitagain, all is well with the world.

Friday Less words, more photos

Husband Vince has been begging me to get outside and take some photos of the garden, namely the clematis.   And here it is.

Oooooh, ahhhhhh.....

And then I got distracted by the begonias

And then even more, I loved the wisteria flowers against the brick

Oh, this is a dog blog?   Well there were certainly some of those out in the yard as well

Ein can't stay serious for too long!

And Molly is never serious to start with

Speaking of serious...

Unless there is a ball that needs to be squished

Balls really aren't for squishing though, they're for fetching

Or, levitating

Speaking of levitating, Molly is giving it her best try

But then she broke her foot when she landed!

Just kidding!

Once again, Perri says we need to be more serious

Seriously serious.

You see those weaves in the background?   Perri kept gleefully leaping out of the 10th pole so tonight I actually fun-scolded her and kept making her redo them until she got it right.  Remember, "if you could just weave, that would be greeeeeeeeeeeeat."   Since she was in a happy gimme-my-ball mood, she was willing to play along and finally buckled down and did all of the weaves.   I'm not giving away no tennis balls for no cheaters tonight!

And that concludes our Friday night fun, my arms are sore from playing snake tug with the suddenly seriously serious Molly.