Why am I still frustrated?

Last night was an interesting night. Multiple dreams with similar themes, but the one that sticks with me is about my mom getting married.

So I'm in the car, my two sisters and someone else are also in the car. I have my puppy Fin with me. We are getting cake for my mothers wedding. I'm asking my sisters where we are having the reception and Peggy is saying it is at my house. Now this is all taking place TODAY! I say, "it's got to be at your house, my house is a mess." Peg says," nope gotta be at your place.

For some reason, I agree to have it at my house and we are driving down a street and I say, "Stop the car, Kel's car is parked over there and I'll go back home and clean house." They let me out and I have Fin with me and they drive away as I start to walk toward Kels parked car when I realize that I don't have keys to the car. Nor do I have a leash for Fin and she is running around the parking lot like a looney tune.

I find a building near by that has something like a rec room. I have Fin in my arms and I'm trying to call home to tell Kel to come get me (I guess I don't have cell phones in La La land...or as Kel will tell you, I constantly forget my cell phone so that's probably what happened). Anyway, I'm using a pay phone, someone is using a pin ball machine right next to me, it is loud. With the small amount of change I have I make 3 attempts and none of the calls go through, but I keep loosing my change, Fin is wiggling and there is a cue forming to use the phone. I keep looking out into the parking lot and there is Kels car parked right there.

I end up waking up before I resolve the situation, but I wake up frustrated. It is now 16 hours later and I'm still feeling frustrated. I don't want to have the reception at my house!

I think it's time to come to the realization that mom is not getting married anytime soon and that I don't have to worry about a bunch of people showing up while I'm chasing my dog around a parking lot with an empty car, no car keys, no purse, no money, nor a cell phone.

You never call, you never write

I'm trying not to be a bug, but someone I love has not given me an update. Her doctor was supposed to be back from vacation and yet...nothing. I'm a little worried, but don't want to call to bug her. I know that she would let me know if something was up.

Maybe she'll read this blog and give me an update.

7 day training challenge

Fins turns are just not tight enough. She doesn't understand that when I stand still on the side of the jump to turn close to the side and turn. She is still jumping through the middle landing and then turning.

I need to raise her understanding. This week I'm going to do 30 jumps a days training challenge for 7 days and see whether we get improvement. I'll video along the way.

My challenge: 3 times each day go out and do 5 one jumps on each side (10 each session) working on getting her to jump and round the jump. My goal is to do 210+ one jumps. I hope that she will gain an understanding to jump closer to the jump standard when I'm on that side.

So some may ask, "Why is this important?" Todays world of agility is super competitive. Having a fast dog is great, but a slower dog making tighter more efficient turns can beat a fast wide turning dog. My job is to keep Fins speed (she's got plenty of that) and work on teaching her to become an efficient jumper.

Don't worry, I'm also working on her contacts, just didn't do any pictures or video today. I'll get more of that later.

Tazzy speaks, "I'm Confused About Criteria"

Tazz N I have an issue with criteria. Everytime we work on our contacts, he clearly tells me, "I don't know what you want me to do." Always with a smile on his face of course. He is not an obnoxious confused guy, he is quite happy in his confusion.

I am wishy washy and didn't stick to my guns when I trained him. I rushed because I wanted him doing equipment (the sexy stuff - who could blame me?). I started with all my contacts with a 2on2off (means front feet in the grass, back feet in the yellow, stop and wait for instructions). Honestly, I never really perfected this method and then came "the accident." Not sure exactly what happened, but the poor guy hurt his back. I convinced myself that he couldn't do a 2on2off on the A frame (too hard on his back) so once he was better, we started back teaching the running A using stride regulators. On a good day the A frame looks like this.

Criteria is a funny thing. How does Tazzy know what I want? I certainly have some work to do here as I can't baby sit these A frames in a trial. He needs to learn to get the yellow with out me begging for it.

For the Dog walk, his criteria is 2on2off. Ya think he knows this?

Again, obviously not. The good news is that since I changed to a running teeter, I think he understands that he should go up the Teeter and when I say ok jump off. But that 2o2off on the dog walk is not reliable. More work, more work, more work.

Next blog I'll talk about how I'm teaching Fins contacts MUCH differently than Tazzie. How I am NOT allowing Fin on contact equipment until she demonstrates to me she understands my criteria. How Fin will be perfect. Yeah right...we'll talk in a year and see what woes I share then.

Training a curve

Today we worked on lots of speed. Accuracy seemed to slip as we put the pedal to the medal.

Still had fun and then slowed it down a little for accuracy. What I did was lower one side of the jump so that she could see that running the inside was better then running the middle or outside. Fin does have a tendency to go wide, so I think alot of drills teaching her to curve in the inside of the circle is going to be important.

I'm still working on one jump where she just jumps one jump and comes into me. She needs about 9037 more of those before we move on. She LOVES to jump out and doesn't quite understand to take a path that will get her to where I'm going faster. She just likes to have fun and put on those after burners!

After our great training session today, she was a little warm so we went to the pool and I took a little video of her new "get in" cue. She doesn't like to crowd with Tazz on the step, but she sure isn't afraid of the water anymore.

As the wind blows

It rained last night. No dog agility. The good news: I got to watch Top Chef (usally I have to wait till friday or the weekend as I get home so late).

Well, the chefs were at it again last night. The idea for the final challenge was to create a dish inspired by your favorite movie. The winner was Willie Wonka and the Chocolate factory. No umpalumpas, but alot of creativity went into this seared salmon dish. The strangest part was that in the sauce they used white chocolate and wasabi. I'm not sure, it's either brilliant or totally gross. The judges must know as they picked it as the best.

Kel and I were trying to decide on a movie and a corresponding food item. I decided my inspiration would be "Gone with the Wind" and I'd make a 3 bean medley over cabbage.

Kel is still laughing. Just goes to show you, 12 year old humor never dies.

April Fools

Well, I'm confused. My sister hasn't called to say she is preggers, my other sister hasn't called to say she has adopted a new puppy. My mother hasn't called to say she is moving in with my brother.

Whusup with this?

It must be an off day. My project manager did tell me Friday was her last day, but I told her this better be an April fools joke or no kidding I'm coming down there! I will see her in April, hope she was joking!

For me, I haven't thought of anything good.

Sure I could have posted that I was adopting a new puppy. I could have posted that the puppy I didn't adopt just got her ADCH. There's always the one where I saw a cougar in a tree ...oh wait, that ones true...only I didn't see it, a neighbor did.

So another April fools goes by and I just can't think of something funny and original. I could get dried cockroaches and leave them in Kels car, I could have gotten about a zillon tennis balls and put them in Lauras front yard, I could have called my mom and told her I was moving to Alaska....but all seem trivial and somewhat overdone.

Instead, I did something totally unexpected. I cleaned the kitchen, exercised, ate right, and picked up dust bunnies.

Kel is gonna be truly weirded out tonight. :)