I exist! Time just got away from me, rather, I think by not writing it felt like time was kind of standing still. I'm loving this time. Max is still doing great (fat as a house, so back on an unappreciated diet), Starlet is happy playing the role of Mike's buddy (never gets off the couch when I have keys in my hand, but runs to the door when she sees Mike is heading out), Vic continues to blow my mind with what he does so easily, heck even Gari the Goddamn Cat is doing good. She's back in the house most of the time, lounging around and being her self-absorbed kitty self. I'm excited about seeing what Nationals holds in store for Finn and Vic. They both have the potential to make finals.
In my mind, Max is going to die after Nationals. Now, this would be true regardless of the lymphoma, but still, I'm kind of dreading the milestone's arrival. I know I'll be happy once I'm in Scottsdale,but it's bittersweet. Last year I had 4 dogs going and Max was running, heck he was winning the Veteran's All-Around. Hard to believe that was just a year ago. Damn time is going by far too quickly these days, but they are great days. I can't believe I leave for Scottsdale in a little over a week. It's so soon!
Last weekend Stephanie came up for our Nationals tuneup workshop. It was courses and more courses and more courses. Many from the Bay Team Regionals, which both Stephanie and Geri didn't attend, so they were interested in seeing how those courses ran. It was a tiring couple days, but Vic did great. I learned that his 2o/2o on the frame isn't totally solid yet (duh), especially when I'm rotating. The other big epiphany was Vic is always faster when I am moving. Another "duh" moment, but I have to remember that sometimes choosing the rc option will keep me moving better than a serp or fc choice.
Here's the Grand Prix day, I think if Vic had theme music it would involve tribal drums:
Here's the first half of the second day, when we did Steeplechase courses:
Sunday afternoon, JWW courses, I ran Cousin Stir on a couple exercises when Terra came up lame. He's really fun to play with.
- I exist!
-
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
agilityfrk- November 1st, 22:20
chipper
- Time turning back again?
-
- agilityfrk
- October 21st, 10:57
- chipper
Max is jumping in the car again. :-) The past couple days I've also had my special couch dog back as well. He's ignoring my carefully placed stairs and jumping on it himself. I fell asleep on the couch yesterday and woke up after falling on the ground, because Max had pushed me off. That's my boy! I still do see some overall weakening, but these were things I thought would never happen again. This reprieve filled ride can be scary, but I'm appreciating every moment of it. Love my Max.
- more DrivenDogs
-
- agilityfrk
- October 19th, 13:37
- pleased
Good show this weekend, but the dirt does seem to wear me out more than running on grass does. Probably doesn't help the weekend was a warm one (Saturday was hellish HOT!!!). It was the first show for Vic with his 2o/2o frame, no problems at all there. :-) I do need to do some work to speed up his dogwalk and I have a small list of other things to work on before Scottsdale. Vic and Finn were really lovely all weekend. The courses were a bit boring, I'm all for a flowing fast course, but I wanted more challenges for my last show before Nationals.
Even on the simple courses, I found special ways to screw up, especially in Snooker. Finn and I had a low Q rate on the weekend, but I think I reestablished he's not to "jump" off of his contacts. Of course, learning that lesson brought out the "am I stupid and ugly" aussie in him, but by the last couple classes he was barking on course at me like his normal self. He won both PNS (of course he gets a bye for the year it's going to move far away) and PSJ, Qed with a 4th in a Standard (that was his "you're mean for making me stop" run) and won Sunday's Jumpers. I think the heat was also getting to him, plus it was a LOT of runs.
Vic was really lovely. The only class he didn't Q in was Steeplechase and that was a total handler muck up. Snooker had bobbles both days, day one in the close (I could have sworn he was committed to the tunnel!) and day two in the opening. He won Jumpers on Saturday, Qed on Sunday. He took 3rd in Grand Prix, was 3rd in Gamblers on Saturday and 2nd on Sunday. Best of all he finished his MAD by winning Standard both days! Woohoo! I should be more excited about the MAD, but he's now only 2 Standards away from his ADCh, so my mind has already gone there...
Videos:
Finn PNS
A couple more Finn (so much editing for the weekend, I wasn't killing myself to get Finn filmed...)
Vic Saturday
Vic Sunday
- Max's day at DrivenDogs
-
- agilityfrk
- October 17th, 22:44
- happy
Max is on fire today, looking great, enthusiastic, happy, pushy, he's really Max at his best. I didn't cry nearly as much as I expected today. I tried to focus on my good fortune in being able to have this run, to know what it was while it was happening. I'm blown away by my good luck. Aside from my ultimate dream that Max would live as he is now forever. And I did spend much energy in the past few years trying to contact the devil to make a deal, unfortunately, I think the devil knows I'm going to hell anyway, so no need to make a deal on his end. ;-) Anyway, the reality of life is Max is going to die. If it's not the lymphoma, it will be something else. What the lymphoma gave us was a timeline, a wake up call about how precious this time with Max is. It even gave us a preview of what is to come, of how much Max will fade before he leaves, but it also showed us how his soul won't ever change. We saw old, sick Max and then *poof*, within days he became the Max of old, really the Max of old, like Max 7 years ago. We had our dog with his seasoned, but still super clear old mind, all that knowledge, but a much younger version. His stamina crushed the younger dogs as well as Mike and me. Amazing. He continues to do well, giving him time to rest has helped.
Today he didn't rest much. His was the first run of the day for me. He was great, tried to bite me after the first teeter. ;-) After the run, some incredible kind GVDC friends gave me this amazing poster with pictures of Max for his retirement. People are signing it, I started to read them, but that really made me cry. The kindness was just so amazing, I'm so blessed to have such great friends around me. Max was quite pleased with himself. I could hear him barking, demanding "MORE COOKIES" nearly all day, when he wasn't with me. At one point he busted out of his x-pen and just started working the scene. No hyper running around, in fact when he trotted by, my mind thought, "hey that's Max", like I would mentally acknowledged a human friend. He went to the river with Sizzle and would have stayed there MUCH longer, but goddamn it was humid and hot down there. He had a great day, which has ended in some pot roast. He's still not sleeping, he's sucking on big wooly, his favorite toy and his toy sucking is something that is just so Max. Vic is CRASHED out, as is Starlet (who hung with Mike today). I will be soon. Max is on fire. Love my Max.
- not funny Mother Nature...
-
- agilityfrk
- October 16th, 14:03
annoyed
First cold rain, now a heat wave!
- Anyone else in Group D?
-
- agilityfrk
- October 14th, 12:55
curious
While I wouldn't mind having a walkthrough all to myself, I doubt that's happening. ;-) So far no one I know seems to be in Group D, any LJ folks?
- Rain, Day 2
-
- agilityfrk
- October 14th, 11:15
bored
We do need this rain and it's been a perfect rain, my only complaint is why couldn't it rain on days that I'm not supposed to be working! Doesn't Mother Nature know it's important that I continue to make $? Apparently watering the earth is more important than my fiscal status. Sigh. So the past couple days have been spent snuggling with Max. We've rigged the bed so he has steps to get on it and he's figured out how to use his front end to make getting on the couch easier. I think he's been touching me for 90% of this rain time (he's presently lying with his head on my feet as I type). He does seem better than he did last week, I think our normally busy schedule is tiring for him, but as long as he wants to go, he gets to. I'm still not sure how I'm going to make it through his run on Saturday. I can't even talk about it without crying, but I know how incredible lucky I am to have a chance for a final time in the ring (plan is still to run around looking for tunnels). He's not as fast as he was just a month ago, so I should be safe from his corrective teeth. I'm sure he's going to be annoyed by my stupid plan, but that thought entertains me. ;-)
- checking the standings...
-
- agilityfrk
- October 13th, 9:44
- chipper
USDAA updated the top 10 standings through Bay Team. I knew Vic would move solidly into the top 10 with his 2nd place in the giant Jumpers class, but didn't realize he'd get 19 points for it. :-) He's also still hanging in the top 25 in Snooker. Woohoo! Finn's also doing really well in PIII Jumpers, nearly 30 points ahead of the next closest dog and no lower than #3 in all the classes. We have double games (aside from Pairs) this weekend at DrivenDogs, but that's our last show until after Nationals (skipping DART, since it's on Mike's birthday weekend). That's going to be a lot of runs this weekend, thank goodness Max is only doing the one day of Gamblers, so I'm basically running 2 dogs (Finn and Vic). :-)Points Owner Dog Breed 112 Mah, Stuart Jet Border Collie 76 Eizember, Joleen A. Zing Border Collie 69 Grant, Mia Vic Border Collie 65 Mitchell, Lauren Zella Border Collie 63 Wasielewski, Donna Siryn Border Collie 63 Brackman, Bruce Jiff Border Collie 57 Basic, Jim Sweep Border Collie 57 Mitchell, Susan L. Jazz Border Collie 57 Humphrey, Timothy M. Gina Border Collie 56 Lolich, Jody Cyclone Border Collie 56 Bower, Andi M. JJ Border Collie 55 Mueller, Loretta Gator Border Collie 54 Mueller, Loretta Klink Border Collie 54 Thompson, Chuck Crash Border Collie 54 Lynch, Elise Ting Border Collie 54 Peardot-Goudy, Stacy Wally Border Collie
- More lessons taught...
-
- agilityfrk
- October 11th, 10:44
contemplative
Kristi's Sizzle is definitely the dog that has realized Max is REALLY cool and everything he does must be imitated... Vic has been a slower study, but continues to pick up things from Max. Today I went into the kitchen and heard the sound of the empty water bowl getting pushed to remind me to fill it up. I turned around saying, "Okay Max..." and saw Vic standing there. Max was close by, but I really think it was Vic... The other and I'll have to get this on film because it's so cute is getting the birds at the park. Max has had hatred of crows for most of his life. At the park they are the only birds he chases, say "go crows" and Max is off barking and running straight for them. Vic isn't as crow specific (he responds to "go birds", since "go crows" makes him look at Max), preferring the flock of little darty birds that tend to take a few hints to get off the grass. He also doesn't go straight at them, preferring to run around the backside of the flock. There's no stealth in it, Vic does an outrun, runs up the backside of the flock and jumps up like a little kid as they fly away. It's so damn cute.
Predisone eyes:
- changes...
-
- agilityfrk
- October 10th, 22:22
- contemplative
Overall Max is still doing great, he's happy, HUNGRY and very Max-like, but the changes are starting and I can't pretend they aren't. Thursday night was the first time Max couldn't jump in the car on his own (and has requested help ever since). It happened just after Denise (a friend who has a dog living with cancer that was diagnosed shortly after Max) said," He can still jump in the car?" Sigh. We'd talked earlier about predisone's side effects and one of them is Max's back end is getting weaker. I've been noticing the back end for a couple weeks, first tried telling myself it wasn't happening, then kept it to myself and just a couple days ago started pointing it out to people. Mike is still able to not notice some of the changes I'm seeing or he's at least able to not acknowledge them. It doesn't help that Max is really FAT (and loving it), but I started thinking last week that DrivenDogs will most definitely be our final time in the ring. I'm now thinking it will be a symbolic trip around the ring doing tunnels. Max will love it and I'll try to wait until after the run to start crying. ;-) Max has dealt with me crying in the ring before. While I was leading out in the Veteran's Grand Prix last year, he busted his startline as I went to wipe away a tear. It's one of my favorite agility memories.
Here are some videos, I have another one to download that has Max doing some low jumps. The club day video is mostly bobbing for hotdog highlights, the other is a super fun skill drill I used for Wednesdays class. Vic is was such a good boy on them. :-)
GVDC Membership Day
Vic from Wednesday
- I should have become a grade school teacher
-
- agilityfrk
- October 1st, 18:53
sick
For as often as I get sick, this time it's in the form of a cold. I'm on the GSE, which should make it go away. I know it started Tuesday night, I remember saying, "I have to remember to bring a jacket from now on" as I felt the post-sundown chill hit. Today was spent sweating it out with Max as my constant heat source. He is the most cuddly of my dogs, Vic will cuddle, but not for the length of time Max insists on. Max continues to hold off the return of the lymphoma, he looks great. I'm back in my denial place, living the days like nothing will ever change. Really, I just can't imagine life without Max, it makes the denial easy. We did have another accident in the house last night. I shut the back door, because it was cold outside. As I shut it, I remember thinking, "be on the lookout for any hints Max needs to go out". Yeah, there were no hints, he was plotting stealing Starlet's dinner and then started peeing. Good thing Max isn't one for remorse. I'm entering him in Gamblers at the DrivenDogs show, I was thinking of the classes I wanted to run him in (Standard/Steeplechase...), but really Gamblers lets me pick what's best for him and that is the goal, to do right by Max. He's on a pre-show diet, since he's probably put on 10lbs since this all began. It's funny, people keep asking me if I'm losing weight. I may be, Max gets so much of my food these days. ;-)
- Weekend with Stephanie
-
- agilityfrk
- September 28th, 15:54
tired
Great weekend at the Wendy V. hosted Stephanie seminar. It had been far too long, since I had an eye on Vic and me. The site had the best footing I've ever been on, I swear it was like a golf course. Lots of fun and challenging exercises. Vic and I still have some work to do to get him to turn when there's a tunnel in the distance (he turns better with a close tunnel than he does a tunnel 20+ feet away) and him driving to me and away from me, when I don't have a lot of motion. Still, we actually got a lot of the exercises right on the first try! He did a lot of stuff I didn't know he could do. :-) I have a few weeks to try and improve our weaknesses before seeing Stephanie for our pre-Nationals tuneup. Here's the video:
Day 1 (on my normal camera)
Day 2 (on Terra's kick ass camera)
- Park play from today
-
- agilityfrk
- September 23rd, 22:32
- pleased
Fun time at the park this afternoon, not nearly as hot as I expected. Gotta love our proximity to the beach. :-) Max is going to have to go on a diet, he's getting BIG. Vic was super today. Hardest thing for me with the frame is remembering to say "scramble". I said "climb" on one, but remembered to say "hit it" and got a love running frame. I really want to try to not ever say "touch" when I say "climb". Here's the video...
- Scramble
-
- agilityfrk
- September 23rd, 11:48
- relieved
Yesterday I jumped off the cliff. There was no special reason I chose yesterday, I've been thinking about it for a LONG time. My main reasons for not jumping were mainly old Catholic guilt reasons about not wanting to let people down and confusing Vic, that and stubborn pride that I could do it....damnit. My reasons for making the jump were thinking about what I'd said when I got Vic (I don't care about winning Finals, I just want to get there) and concerns about how much wear and tear it would take to get the behavior, then how much maintenance would be required. I think I'd be having a lot more success on the 5'6" frame of AKC. Too bad I can't stand ACK. I do think the box can work for running frames, but right now, it's just not working enough with Vic for me to continue. I know things I'd do differently with the box if I had another dog like Vic. It was suggested to me that he may need a chiropratic adjustment to do better frames. I'm not into chiropractors for myself, let alone for my dog, I'm a big fan of doggie massage. Anyway, I started thinking about the "what if Vic's out somewhere" and that led to the vision of Vic doing perfect frames, but not being able to collect or make weave entries. ;-) If I have to have a problem I'll take this one with the easy solution. So, yesterday I did some downsides, "scramble, touch" with Vic. "Scramble" being a different frame command than his usual one. Took that to a low frame and *poof* lovely frame with a 2o/2o, worked it up to 5'6". It wasn't hard at all, Vic wasn't traumatized or confused.
I'm not completely abadoning the running frame, when Kristi's frame is FINALLY done (needs more yellow rubber...sigh) I'll continue with the running frame on that and see if the surface makes it easier for Vic to be successful. I suspect it will. Then when the day comes that we have rubberized contacts (I know several clubs are talking about making the move), I could try again.
For now my challenge is to have contacts like Kate and Sandy Rogers' Brink, freakishly reliable, because of freakishly consistent handlers. I should have video of our new behavior up later today. :-)Vic says "Mia is sometimes a freak, I'm happy with any plan, just let me know what it is."
- Pictures
-
- agilityfrk
- September 22nd, 21:32
- calm
More pics with Kristi's amazing camera from the past couple days:
Starlet hung with Mike, so I have a lot of pictures of just the boys:
Max is still looking great!
I finally got a picture of Vic where his dark side eye shows up! Unfortunately, I cut off his ears...
Puppy Maizey is getting bigger! She's hanging with the big dogs now. :-)Most everyone really likes Maizey...
Vic isn't one of the Maizey lovers.
And my favorite shots of a dog that isn't my own:
Miss Backseat Adventures (aka Smooch)
- More Vic family at FCI (yes I'm a geek)
-
- agilityfrk
- September 20th, 12:56
geeky
So this morning Karen told me about a couple more members of Vic's family over in Austria. It's been so much fun looking up the runs and looking for similarities to Vic. I do see a family resemblence with all but Dizzy, maybe it's the coloring, but she seems much slinkier than the rest. Slinky is not a word I'd use to describe Vic. ;-) For those of you with VOD and time to kill, here's where to find Vic's family:
Jude (Cousin Stir's half-sister, most distantly related to Vic of the family at FCI)
Medium Team Jumpers: 15:15
Medium Team Standard: minute 27
Medium Individual Jumpers: 27:45
Medium Individual Standard: 28:15
Dizzy (Vic's cousin, daddy is Vic's Uncle Diesel)
Medium Team Jumpers: 16:15
Medium Team Standard: minute 28
Medium Individual Jumpers: 27:45
Medium Individual Standard: 63:31
Kes (Vic's aunt, littermate to his daddy Dylon)
Large Team Standard: minute 195
Large Team Jumpers: minute 26
Individual LD Jumpers: 2nd group of videos 47:26 (just one moment of disconnection on a brilliant run)
Individual LD Standard: 1st group of videos minute 11
Zipper, competing for the Netherlands (a Quincy kid, so a half brother to Vic's daddy Dylon, an uncle to Vic and also related to Starlet)
Large Team Jumpers: minute 96
Large Team Standard: 164:50
Large Individual Jumpers: 1st group of videos 40:25
Large Individual Standard: 1st group of videos 31:10
Eli, also competing for the Netherlands (a Touchango boy, father is a half-brother to Vic's mommy Bliss, another cousin of Vic's)
Large Team Jumpers: minute 95
Large Team Standard: minute 168
Large Individual Jumpers: 1st group of videos 70:14
Large Individual Standard: 2nd group of videos 36:15
I love this type of stuff. :-) Big thanks to Karen for letting me know! Back to the Niners. :-)
- Vic relatives at FCI
-
- agilityfrk
- September 19th, 1:19
- geeky
I wasn't going to buy it, but then I cracked. ;-) Then since I didn't look at any updates have been hooked into the video on demand, which has me up late enough to run into Karen (Vic's breeder) online. Turns out his aunt Kes (sister to Daddy Dylon) is on the Bronze medal Large dog team, the way she jumps into her tunnels reminds me of Vic. :-) She's at minute 195 in Team Standard and 26 in Team Jumpers for those of you with vod. :-) A Touchango is on the medium team for the second year in a row. Jude is an Ari daughter, so a half sister to Vic's cousin Stir and also somehow related to Vic. Dizzy is also back on the medium team, she cracks me up, little speedy blue merle. She's a Diesel (brother to Dylon and Kes) kid, so Vic's cousin. I'll have to look them up tomorrow. Ahhh, I see a productive weekend ahead. ;-)
- Catching up
-
- agilityfrk
- September 17th, 23:28
- good
Weird week, good news is as it comes to an end, I'm feeling better. It actually started on Sunday, the first Sunday of football. Always a special day around here, Max loves it as much as anyone, football=FOOD. Max had so much fun and that day he started jumping on the couch again to snuggle (without being asked). I've been wondering if that was going to happen again, since one of the subtle symptoms of the lymphoma was this going away. Both Mike and I noticed it and treasured having Max squeeze between us. And then I realized we're already 25% into the time I'm hoping for. I know there's a chance we could get more, I know there's a better chance we could get less, but it's some weird clock I have in my head that said "you're a quarter of the way through your final Max times". The funny breathing rattle I sometimes hear never fully went away and it sounds louder to me. I'm telling myself that it's from his hard-core living life that he's doing right now. Really he looks great, but there's that sound. Anyway, Sunday I was kind of in a funk, but also loving the day as weird as that may sound. Probably the most insight I've had in to a manic-depressive... Then there was drama Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday in a trusted place in my life, that really brought me down.
I did decide to enter Max in the October DrivenDogs trial, but am still deciding what class... If he's still doing okay in November, I'd love to be able to have a retirement run with him at Happy Dog, that would be my ideal situation. It's where we've shown the most, where all his ADCHs/LAAs were completed. I just can't predict how he's going to be that far away and I know I'll be taking Max to the DD show and the way he's acting, he'd be pissed if he didn't get a turn. ;-)
Perk of the week was the puppytime on Monday with Heather and Bruce and the CP pack of puppies. Those were some cheery puppies, that white-headed/blue eyed/spot on head blue merle girl had a mission to make me like her. I can't publically admit liking such a dog...merle...girl...blue eyes... (She was so darling!) Puppies are good for the soul, but no puppyitis here. The idea of the next dog being years away is quite okay with me, I'm having too much fun with Vic to be distracted. :-)
Today, some of the drama was cooled, almost feel better about it, but time will be needed for a lot of that. I had a really good time up in AG. Fun classes, lots of successes and I left feeling good about myself. :-) This week has also had way too much Bejewelled in it. It's a great distractor, but I have the game sound in my head, like the sound of slot machines after a trip to Vegas. ;-)
I did do a little training with Vic, here's him jumping in class on Wednesday:Pack pic from Tuesday
Max's first thing when he arrives to the park...who has the cookies?Starlet and Vic on "Max Patrol"
Max talked Kelly into sharing Molly Rose's frisbee.
- Day at Kristi's
-
- agilityfrk
- September 13th, 9:27
- content
Football starts today! Please Niners, don't completely suck. Yesterday I did a some frames at Kristi's and then helped her rubberize it. I'll be curious to see how he does on that frame with the rubber. I suspect it will be better. After the manual labor, the dogs went swimming and then Max tried to hump everyone while Kristi and I drank some wine. I don't know if that wine had a higher than normal alcohol content, but normally we're good at sharing a bottle and I had to stop after 2 glasses or I wouldn't have been able to make the drive home. I'm borrowing Kristi's kick-ass camera while she's off at stockdog camp! Woohoo! Super timing since Max is looking so great right now and I'm excited to capture this time with him.Max loves a big stick!
Did I mention how good he's looking?Vic helping proof Kat's weaves.
Starlet had fun and we learned she loves a good massage.
Then it was time for some SWIMMING! Anyone excited?I guess so. :-)
Everyone went swimming, even Starlet (who tore her nails to the quick in minutes).
Max is on FIRE!
Classic Vic
Pretty Star
- couple pics
-
- agilityfrk
- September 11th, 20:21
- content
I had to buy this pic of Vic while up at Bay Team. In general I was disappointed with the photo options (I miss when 8x10s were always on display at shows, I'm bad about buying after the fact), in fact this was the only 8x10 available of either Finn or Vic, but at least it was a good one!Vic's so freaky handsome!
And while I was at it, I also scanned in my first picture of Max...
And so she isn't left out, a classic staring Starlet pic
