CATCH3 Vada!
Last Monday Letty and Sonic had check ups with Dr Julia. Letty is doing well and did not need any additional needle/trigger point therapy to her gracilis. My massage worked out the knots. I am to keep doing her exercises and add back jumping up on the table. She is cleared to do bitework again just nothing too crazy as she needs to build up her muscles again. Sonic got laser and got fitted for a body harness as he’s been falling over when pooping. Tuesday I took the day off from work and went to a OneMind Techniques seminar presented by Soshana Dos. She did a good job explaining different techniques and how to execute them. She was able to help all of the working dogs be successful. Since Nancy was the seminar organizer she had me cover her agility class for her after the seminar. There were only 2 students so they got a lot of work and we had a good time. Thursday I brought Quest in to see Dr Jina as it seemed like the right side of his jaw was swollen and he had some scabs plus the peeing on rugs lately. His urine sample looked fine (the plastic pellets in the litterbox worked!). She thought his jaw was acne and noticed that there were lots of large lumps. She looked at his teeth and one of his molars is pretty gross. She also noticed that he’s been licking his belly a lot and the hair is getting thin. So we planned to do a dental and started the bloodwork. Turns out his kidney values are high. Probably due to the need for a dental. Since his dental wasn’t for another week we’re doing antibiotics and subq fluids every day. They’ll do bloodwork again on Friday before the dental to make sure he can handle the anesthia. When we got home I gave him his anitibotics and he vomited all the food in his stomach. So we are keeping his meds in the fridge and giving him 1/2 a dose twice a day. It seems to be going well. Karl helps with the fluids each night. The AKC updated their records for the Invitational and finalized them. Letty is the #2 Dutch Shepherd in AKC for 2015. So now we get to start making plans for the Invitational in December. I’m already looking forward to it. And now we have a startline and stopped contacts!
Saturday I drove down to Rochester for the last CPE trial of the season. They were offering 2 Standard runs and Vada still needed 1 more for her CATCH3. Jackpot was the first class and it was traditional. It was tough. There was an aframe in it but the gamble line stopped about halfway down the down ramp so the dogs had to drive ahead of the handlers. THEN there was a jump that went into the wrong side of the tunnel. Vada and I were 2 points short in the opening. I was handling too frantic and she was dropping bars and she missed her dogwalk contacts. I thought she drove ahead thru the yellow on the aframe in the closing. That driving forward helped her set the line to the correct side of the tunnel since I had to call her off the dummy jump. But it seems that the judge called her contact so we didn’t get points. I sent Fringe in the wrong side of the tunnel after I pulled her off the jump. Finally I got it right when I ran Letty and she Qd. As we came up to Standard I had to remind myself to be calm and smooth with Vada and show her the line. In our first Standard run she dropped a bar and then missed her dogwalk contact but she ran smoothly and her weaves were smooth and powerful. I looked too far ahead after the dogwalk as I didn’t want her taking the off course tunnel like she did in the opening in Jackpot. I think that brought her head up (she’s running her contacts now). I was certain with the wraps in the 2nd round that we would not be successful. The line to the aframe and a turn before the teeter was harder then the first course (reversed). But we did it! Not even a single bar down! I had to ask if we were clean. Then I said it was our CATCH. Someone said I could do a victory lap but the next dog was ready to go so we just did a little spiny celebratory thing. Fringe and Letty both had good runs. Each had a Q in one run. Fringe bounced over a dogwalk contact. And Letty dropped the last bar in the 2nd run as I was lazy and didn’t run thru. Both struggled with their contacts on the 2nd run. In Snooker I was going for all 7s as it was the aframe and the paths were good. Vada’s tailed dropped the 2nd red. So I sent her to the next red but at a weird angle and she dropped the bar. In CPE you must complete 3 reds. I only had 1 red left and 1 completed so we were done. I stopped and asked the judge if we were done. He said to go to the closing. Vada nailed it and had a blast. I was so grateful that he let us go on and let the older girl whoop it up. Mike Willis. Fringe and Letty nailed their runs. 51 points! Fringe finished her CL4-S. Her first level 4 title! And she is now qualified to go to Nationals in OH next year if we want. We got to see our friend Steve run his dog this weekend too. He was diagnosed with cancer finally after having a lot of strange medical issues. Once they started treating him so many issues went away and he has been responding to the chemo amazingly. He still has more treatments left and some surgeries but he’s checking them off and ready to be done. He’s been spending time enjoying life with his wife. He’s really embraced this challenge in life and he’s been positive and has found a new perspective on life. Steve was kind enough to video Vada’s CATCH3 run too. He hasn’t sent it to me yet though.
After I got home from the CPE trial we went to see Reba at Grand Casino in Milacs. The seating organization is terrible. There are wooden bench seats and metal bleachers. Nothing is marked with seat numbers but yet the tickets are sold with seat numbers. People in our section just made room for everyone and sat anywhere. There was so drama but it all worked out. The show was amazing. Reba is still great! The girl who opened for her is great too. I can’t remember her name though. We got home about 12:30am. The drive home was tough. But it was nice to get out and do something ‘normal’. And it was outdoors and a gorgeous night.
Sunday I was planning to go to IPO training. Warren said we would train before he went to his ringsport training. But then he canceled on me. So 2 Sundays now I have planned to go to IPO training and it has been a bust. He offered to train on a week night so we are shooting for Thursday. I’m hoping to trial in October so I may have to make some schedule changes again and get up to Isanti to train with those guys more. Or get over to Bryan’s house on Sundays or during the week. At least I have another options as we get closer to October. We’ll see if it works out this Sunday. I did a few bark and holds with her myself to get her using those muscles. Anyways, I slept in until 11am then took the girls swimming in the pond and sat in the shade and read my Kindle. It was a nice quiet day.
Ran across this picture of Logan and Quest from a few years ago. Miss him. Quest does too.