Squeaky

Here is the direct link if it doesn't play below.

This is wonderful.

Weather

The weather on the east coast is reported to be EXTREMELY cold (40 below in Minn). The northeast is flooding. Here, well I swear it was just about perfect (I even wore a short sleve shirt).

I'm a little worried. We need rain.

How Do I Get Myself Into These Things?

I belong to my local agility club. Everyone should. Support these clubs. Without them, there would be no competitions. I also volunteer for my club. I try to help out at the trials and do my part.

A couple years ago I somehow got volunteered to be the trial secretary for our April trial. I found out that this is actually a paid position. Wow, I was going to do it for a free entry! Little did I know that I got enough $$ for many entries. I did it with my friend so I wasn't alone and we continue to share this task every April.

Here is the amount of time I think I spend:

• 40 hours of input,
• 10 hours the week before the trial,
• as needed at the trial, and
• 4 hours to wrap it all up.

I've also volunteered as the RV Czar, the Vendor Czar, and hospitality. For my club, all of these positions get free entries (a good way to save on dog showing expenses for sure). I enjoy doing these jobs as you meet new people and really get to know the people that work all the shows.

This year, in a moment of weakness, Laura said, "We should chair next Aug and give Rob/Derede a break." (We really wouldn't have a club if it weren't for Rob and Derede...they do EVERYTHING!). So I say to Rob a little while later, "Laura says we should chair next August." Rob jumps on this and before I am able to backpeddle, I'm a 1/2 trial chair. I sorta feel like I went out, got drunk, and woke up with an unpleasant surprise.

Laura blames me. She says she had the original idea, but I put the idea in motion. Ok. So, now we are trial chairs.

I am now in the process of putting the premium together for the April trial AND organizing the August trial (getting judges, filling out needed forms, etc.). Joy, joy, happiness. Thank goodness we have a great group of people that will all jump and and do their share. I sure hope everyone likes the judges. I hope I can find flights and nobody gets sick. I can't believe that in January I'm worried about sick Judges for August...but such is my life. (I think I'm delegating all sick judges to Laura).

I'm a busy bee. I actually like being busy. Can't wait till the trials. We are going to have a BLAST!

Fun Match Report

First of all I want to acknowledge all the individuals that live where they can not do agility out of doors this time of year. Here in the SF Bay area, we had a chilly morning of frozen over buckets and puddles, but the temps got up to the low 70's by 1pm in the afternoon. I apologize for all the fun we are having.

But, fun is what they call it. Blue skys, amazing weather, and a fun group of people. Drove up to Ben Lomond (Santa Cruz mountains) today for a fun match at Heart Dog Agility. The facility is very nice. They've just opened some new space for parking that that helped quite a bit. There are two fields and we do jumpers on one and standard on the other.

Kel (my husband) came with me today so I called it a short day so he wouldn't get too bored. I got in 3 runs by noon and headed into town for lunch sitting outside with Fin at my feet. Kel actually enjoyed himself and said he'd definitely go again :)

Took a few videos (also available on youtube).

This is the first jumpers run. Had a little trouble on the first pin wheel (it's because I didn't support the jump enough) and then she got a little cranked up and flew past the jump after the tunnel, but all in all I thought we did well.

Here is the standard run. I'm not doing A frame and dog walk on purpose. Need a little work on the targeting and did not want to use my 90 seconds for target work. The first set of weaves is amazing. I just smile. Second set of weaves had trouble with my entrance. I was dumb and kept putting her in again and again. Should have just set her up for success. But, once in, zoowza! I'm not real proud of my finish, something I really need to work on (her going on with me bringing up the rear), but if we were perfect, it wouldn't be any fun.

The last video is another jumpers run. It is the same course as the first. I felt I handled it better even though we had trouble with the finish.

Today, learned a few good things, got some stuff to work on for home work, and had a blast. I guess I'm most proud that she worked all morning for treats or toy AND I left my cookies and toy at the finish line (I did run with a hidden toy the first run and pulled it out...but the rest ran pretending it was the real thing).

Harvey Bear Ranch

Went for a walk/hike today. I forgot the camera, so no pictures.

Not really a hike as the roads are really nice...more of a walk... but we were away from civilization...so sorta hiking. Lots of fun. Dogs are allowed on leash. There are some areas you could go off leash, but we ran into horses and bikers so off leash wouldn't work for me. For well behaved dogs, you could probably get away with it if you hike in far enough, but the rules are on leash

Directions: From Highway 101, exit San Martin Ave. Go east for 2 miles and the entrance to the park is on the left side.

You have two choices, up or flat. There is a nice flat paved 2 mile loop you can do (I saw lots of runners, walkers with kids, and bicycles down on the flat). I chose up.

Up is gravel or dirt wide roads. There are a number of gates to go through as you walk along. We walked about 1.5 miles in and then out on the Harvey Bear trail. Beautiful views. Saw some cows. Ran into a couple of horse back riders, 2 runners, 2 bikers, 1 biker/dog combo. We went up there around 10:45am so probably this is a busy time.

This is a really a nice place to walk if you are in the Morgan Hill/Gilroy area.

Harvey Bear Ranch

How a Colonoscopy is like USDAA Gamble

I feel like I've lost two days of my life.

Team Whisner had a couple days off while the team captain went in for a tuneup.

Now, most people don't need two days for regular maintenance. They need like a day and a half. Me, I was stressing out for a week. Everyone I spoke to agreed that the prep was the worst part. As far as the procedure goes, pretty much everyone said, "you won't remember a thing." However, everyone also said, "when it is painful, just tell them." My question, "if you can't remember a thing, why can you remember when it is painful?" Another concern was that some people get sick afterwards (one even passed out on the way home scaring her husband). All these things concerned me.

So I started to think about in terms of agility and I noticed alot of correlation between the USDAA gamble and a colonoscopy.

Many people are scared about gamble because it is unknown whether your dog will take the obstacles. I know that I've stood with people before the walk throughs and we've talked in worried tones about the difficulty of the course and whether we can get through it. Many people are scared about the colonoscopy. I was scared. I stood around talking about it trying to get ideas from people how to get it right. The bottom line for both topics is you have to get out there and just do it with confidence.

With the Gamble, there are two parts:

• The opening


• The closing

With a colonoscopy there are two parts:

• The prep


• The procedure

Lets talk the first part. For both topics, (the opening and the prep) the first part is the longest part. In gamble you run around as fast as you can getting as many points as possible before the buzzer starts. For the prep, you run to the bathroom as many times as fast as you can. Now in the prep, you don't run to different places, it is the same over and over so you need to do it longer to get the points you need to move on to the second stage. But in reality, you are running in both the Gamble and the Colonoscopy with different outcomes of course. For me the prep lasted till the next morning. I got A TON of points and was all ready for my gamble.

The second part is the shortest. In the Gamble you are sending your dog out to a distance challenge hoping and praying that s/he takes the appropriate obstacles. For the colonoscopy, you are the one getting put out and hopefully will not get the judges buzzer that you incorrectly completed the exercise.

For both (the gamble and the colonoscopy) it is important to do the first part correctly. If you don't, you'll get disqualified and have to try another day.

I am happy to report that I "Q'd!" my first time out. I would even go so far to say that I won't have to perform this particular task for another ten years! Yippiee!

Fitness for Agility

I haven't spoken about fitness for a while, but rest assured, I'm am focused. I am working out every day. Here are some of my rules for the road:

1. Join a gym. Now I will say that it isn't sufficient just to join. Paying the monthly fee doesn't mean you'll get fit -- you actually must go (I believed this for a while...then I started to go and saw a huge improvement). When you get there, have a plan of attack. Don't just do 20-30 minutes and say, "that's good enough." Plan to be there an hour or more. Do cardio on a couple machines (pick the hardest and do that for 10 minutes, then pick one that is easier for you and do for 30 minutes...build up on the hard one). I went so far as to get a personal trainer for 2 times a week (my fast food budget is paying for him...believe it or not!). He helps me with my strength training which includes lunges, step backs, squats, loads of ab work, and of course...weights for arms and legs. I pick one other day a week and do stuff without the weights.
2. Watch the biggest looser. I know it is an artificial world. They don't have to be home paying bills and making a living...but it is inspiring. Doing some work out while you watch can also help.
3. Take a dog for a walk. This does NOT equal going to the gym unless you are running with your dog. I don't run...I walk, so I am walking the fat one every day to burn some calories.
4. Write down what you eat (This is my new thing I am adding to my strategy).
5. Write down goals. Say what you want to loose and have a reward for getting there.
6. Be creative in your diet. Don't get into a rut and eat the same thing. Get a couple books and try new things. During this time a year I am finding soups especially fun.

Hope this helps. I know just writing it helps me.