What now???

So I went to someone else's place to train my dogs this weekend.  There were several people  and dogs running throughout the day. At the end of the day, I asked if it was ok to run my dogs before I left.  So I was going to run Java one more time over a small standard course.  She ran up the teeter and BAM!  The whole teeter falls flat to the ground. I dont know how she stayed on but the she did. (She probably thought this was some type of new proofing method. )  Anyway, I got her off the teeter and checked it.

Well the weld broke on the bottom support piece. so when that broke, the whole thing  went flat. Ugh!!! Java seemed ok. I put her over another teeter , that was there, and she seemed ok with it. So hopefully, she is ok with what happened and she wont be scared of it.  The person, who's equipment it was, felt bad and was just glad Java wasnt injured.  How very scary that this happened. Ugh!! (No, it wasnt a MACH1 teeter)

In other news, I went to a trial up in Pendleton SC , not this weekend but the weekend before. Once again, it was a small trial. It was suppose to be 2 rings and 2 judges but because of the small entry, they had to go to one judge.

On Friday, it got very warm during the day. I didnt bring any shorts or short sleeve shirts. I didnt know it was suppose to be so hot.  I think the picture from above, it from Saturday morning. Its that time of year where its chilly in the morning and hot in the afternoon. So I had the heat on in the rv at night and the ac on during the day. LOL. Overall the weather was beautiful!
Friday went ok.  I had not entered Miley in this trial and was going to enter her later if she was ok. Remember I thought she might have had a seizure?  I havent seen anything else that concerned me but I forgot to enter her. So only Java was running.


"Wait, what??  Im not running?"

I thought she might be very barky because she couldnt run, but she did really well.

First up was  FAST.  It didnt look tough but not many dogs got the send.

So I knew I had to be down the line to cue #4 otherwise your dog comes out of the tunnel and curls in toward you.  Many people put their dog over the jump with 2 points and then send to the #3 tunnel send. It just didnt work. so my plan was to  come off a-frame,   from #9 to #1 and then blind cross between that #1 jump and #5 double and then send to the #3 tunnel send.  Well that worked great but she flew out of the tunnel so fast and took the #4 jump fully extended. So then when I tried to cue the turn back into the tunnel, she back jumped the #4 jump.  Ugh!!

Next up was Master standard.

Java left the start line early, so I had to RC on the flat into the weaves. (I had planned to front cross). When she came out of the tunnel she turned the wrong was for a second but I got her back. I was worried about the turn off the a-frame and that she would be so far in front of me, that she was take the start jump instead of the chute. But she didnt. I used verbals to  help with that.

Anyway, I asked my friend if anything was called. Its hard to run and see if your dogs is getting their contacts. But she said nothing was called. whoohoo!! I didnt go check the computer screen.  Sometimes I do but most of the time Im just glad I Qed.  Later someone came up to me and said,  "Wow, you beat xxxx (Dog name)".   I was surprised. Then the owner of the xxx dog came up to me and told me I had beat her dog. So I went over and looked at the screen and sure enough we took 1st place. But just barely. I think we took it by .10  of a second.  (To bad I didnt get a tighter turn out of the chute).




Next up was JWW.

I really wanted to run this and I needed one more double Q to get the 5 I need for nationals.  I posted turned #2, I turned to the right and Java went left. What the heck?? I wasnt late either.  The only thing I can think of it , she knew the course didnt go to the right because there are no obstacles over there, so she went left.  I was able to save it and get her over the #3 jump but now Im behind and cant cue the #4-5 line and she went off course. Ack!!  So disappointed.

The next day Premier standard was first.

I felt pretty good about everything on this course except getting the correct tunnel entrance after the aframe.  (down side of running a-frame. ) Anyway, she didnt read the backside to 2. WTH??  We practice this all the time. Even watching the video, I dont know how we missed it. Then it was just kind of a mess until she got into the tunnel.  I couldnt leave her at the teeter, because I figured she would fly off, so the kept me behind for the threadle at 12-13 but she got it. Then the dreaded a-frame -tunnel thing. I even layered the triple, trying to pull her into the left side of tunnel but it didnt work. (I took out the crappy stuff at the beginning of the run).




I really wish we had done a better job but live and learn.
Next up was Master standard.
It had the same a-frame tunnel set up as premier. Ugh!!  I tried to handle it better, call her, give her more verbals but I got the same results.

She also went wide around 7.  I dont have a video of this run. (My ipad camera is doing that same crappy white screen thing sometimes when you tape. Ever since  Apple send out that 9.0 update, my camera has been doing that. It looks like its taping but when you are done and try to view it, it shows a white square  spot and said that it cant read the format the video is in)

Next up was Master JWW.

So this looked fun!!   She broke her start line, so I RC 3 and then RC4.  Everything was going good until #17, I went to RC her, to turn her to the outside, and pushed her off the jump. Akc.
So no Qs today. I told my friend I have to stop thinking about going to nationals and  stop counting the points I need. Its messing with my head.

This was a tough course.  My friend, who is a Qing machine, had trouble. I saw several other people, who are really good, have trouble too.   Great.  Anyway, hardest course of the day and we Qed. LOL   That figures, It didnt count for anything toward going to nationals either.  LOL

I came out of the ring and several people said that was awesome ect...  I said thanks but in my mind I was thinking, "No it wasnt. All I did was kept calling my dog off of things".  It wasnt a smooth run.  She kept thinking she knew where to go but she wasnt right and I had to call her back to me. Like 8-9.  She was headed straight to the tunnel and I had to call her off and bring her back.   Some how me made course time. Not sure how.
So here is the weird thing about premier. They have a specific course time set. Its not based on yardage. How can they do that. The 8 inch and 12 inch dogs have the same amount of time to get through the course. Thats really unfair to the 8 inch dogs. Im not even sure what they were thinking.  And how can they just add all these tight turns and think that , yep all dogs should make it through in this amount of time.  The more tight turns, the slower the dogs will be because they have to slow down and collect to make the turns.  Several 8 inch people were really upset. And I dont blame them. I told them to send the course map to the AKC and a letter with their complaint. I feel they are going to have to change this part of premier.  Otherwise no one is going to play the game if they have no chance in Qing.

Now to RV trouble.  On Saturday my friend's RV kept tripping the breaker at the pole where you plug in your RV. It happened several times. And one time it started smoking when it popped the breaker. She wasnt tripping any breakers inside the RV. So I have another friend, who was at the trial and lives nearby. I asked him to come look at it.  Well her plug was bad. He could see that one of the prongs was loose and  it was fraying where the plug connects to the long cord part. He thought he had an extra one at home and he came back and fixed it for her.  When he took the old one off, it was all melted inside and wires were touching each other. He said she was lucky she didnt have a fire.  (So if you ever keep popping the breaker at the pole, get your connector and cord checked)
Then the next day , when I was packing up, my slide wouldnt go it. The button would click but then shut off. So the button will shut off if it senses something is wrong. Like it taking to much pressure to pull the slide in.  Ugh, If I have to hand crack this thing in again, it will take me over the edge. That last time I had to do it, I had so much pain.  So, I called my friend again. I felt so bad asking him to help me. He wasnt even at the trial that day and had to drive over.  He help me get it back in. He hand cracked it and I kept pushing the button inside and it finally started pulling in on its own but it took a lot.   So my friend said either the slide is out of alignment, the motor that pulls the slide in is going bad or the motor needs to be adjusted to pull just a little harder.  I made an appointment to get it checked. Of course they cant see me until Nov 5th. I told them I need it back by the 11, because Im going to a big dog show. So I hope they can do it.

Ok, Im tired of writting now.  After just trying to forget about needing points and counting points for AKC, we  double Qed on Sunday. Yea!!  This was kind of a tough course. Tight in places like 4-5-6.  It doesnt look tight on the map but if I tried to go into the spot between 5-6, it would have pushed her over #11.

So I layered that #17 jump in the opening.  Then I knew I couldnt beat her out of the tunnel to be on the left side of 8 to push that backside. So I stayed to the right and pulled and then did a RC on the flat to get her over the backside.




So yea, we double Qed on Sunday!!  I didnt count points but yesterday I couldnt take it and counted my points. I have 510 and need 600.  I have all my Qs but you have to get Qs to get points. So will see how things go. I have 3 more trials to get points.

Fixing Coachman Mirada entry door and dog agility trial.

My entry door on my RV has been rotted. Ive known about this for a month or two. The RV place put a bunch of screws in it, to try and hold it together , but I knew I didnt have much time to get it fixed.  I called and emailed a bunch of places but couldnt find a replacement door.  My RV is a 2000, so kind of old and the length of the door is 78 inches. All the doors I could find were 72 inches. I even contacted a bunch of salvage yards, no one had a door.
I google fixing RV doors and found a couple of post about people  fixing their entry doors. The doors have a thin wood frame just inside the metal trim. The trim is held on with glue, and mine had a few screws in it. I know some of the screws have been added after it was factory made, not sure all of them were.  We removed the trim with a putty knife and ran it down the side It came off easily. Then there was the wood. It was thin, not sure the exact size.

The metal trim is on top of the door. This is the hinge side of the door.  This is the bottom edge. Its completely rotted out. Im not sure how the door was holding on.

This was the wood trim after we removed it from the door.  Scary , huh?

We cut a new piece of trim from a 2x4. we used a table saw to get the size we needed.  (sorry, I took lots of pictures and accidentally deleted them off my phone)
After you take the wood trim off, there is Styrofoam  and aluminum framing.
So after we cut the new wood, we did put a coat of light primer on the wood to hopefully help protect the wood.  Then we slid the piece back in place. We stapled the top and bottom pieces to each other. We also used contact cement to keep it in place. Then put the metal trim piece back on.  We checked all the other wood framing and it was ok, so we left it alone.  We got the door back together and hung It seems ok, so hopefully we did it correctly.

Not sure how the water is getting into the  door framing. Weird.  Im thinking of adding a EZE  RV gutter above the door to help prevent water from running down the door.

This weekend I went to a dog trial up in Charlotte NC.  I was just entered  Saturday and Sunday. It was suppose to rain on Saturday. I called my friend, the trial chair , that morning and asked if it was raining. She said no.  Right before I left the house, I asked her again. She said no.  I started driving. Its about 1 1/2 hour drive. During the drive, at times it was pouring down rain and lightening. Great. I kept debating turning around. But I figured, if I went home, I would find out that it didnt rain up there.  So I kept going. Of course it was raining when I got there.   The rings are on  a slight grade, so several times you have to run uphill. It doesnt seem like much but you can tell the difference when running  flat rings or ones with grades. LOL.  Miley Qed in standard. But I just couldnt run Java. My legs were like lead because of what we did Friday.  On Friday, my son, husband and I went to a friends house who was flooded.  They had about 1 1/2 foot of water in there home. We helped move all the carpeting, padding, dry wall, cabinets  and other wreck house hold stuff to the curb.  Everything was so heavy with water and already starting to get moldy.  It was hard work. And it killed me the next day (Saturday).  I had woken up at 3am  in pain and just couldnt sleep.  So anyway, I didnt run my dogs to well. With Java, I kept falling behind and she would read it as deceleration and turn. Ugh!!  Anyway, it was pouring down rain at times and it was good to go home. I was grumpy and probably not pleasant to be around. LOL

The next morning, I felt so much better.  So back to the trail I went.  I ran Miley and Java in T2B.  Both stayed on course and Java did the teeter correctly. Yay. But each dog dropped one bar.
Next was Master Standard.

I didnt think I would get the opening. #1-#4 are headed downhill. I have a lead out on Java but not a huge one. So I decided to push after the a-frame and then layer that off course jump to cue the correct tunnel entrance. It worked!!  Of course the dogwalk is going uphill, LOL.  So I was hoping just telling her "go on" and  "over", would be enough to get her over the #8 jump. She did curl off the dogwalk  and tried to take the tunnel but luckily she didnt.  I had planned to front cross after the teeter but didnt make it, so I didnt handle the #14 jump very nice but we made it through.  Anyway, we Qed!!




Miley didnt do to well and jump off  the table and ran around the ring.

Next up was JWW.

I was so worried about #6-#7.  I kept thinking, how am I going to keep Java out of that tunnel but make sure she takes the #7 jump. Well it turns out, that wasnt a problem at all. I turned my dog to tight after #4 and she missed the weave pole entry.




I was so disappointed. Ugh. And then , even though I knew that I turned Java to tight after #4, I did it the same way with Miley. Ack!!

The big flood

Sorry I havent been posting.  I never even finished the post on Java's 2 double Qs. LOL  Then there was our clubs trial. Ugh. What a lot of work.  So I was trial chair again, because no one would do it and I had already hired the judges. I was in charge of the judges and the equipment. I think all of this took me over the edge.  Because by the next Tuesday, I had quit the agility committee.  I told them I would help for the Spring trials but then Im done. Why??  Because I always have to find people to fill the position and every time someone quits, I have to find someone else. And if I dont find someone, I have to do their job. Im so over it.
It started raining on Sept 24th, the day of set-up for the trial.

 It poured that day.  Blowing into the covered arena.

Then the water started flooding into the dirt arena.  Ack!!.  So we sandbagged and created dirt damns.  It worked pretty well.
On the positive, the dirt surface was the best its ever been. Im not sure , but it looks like they added new dirt to the surface. I also told them I need them to turn the dirt down 6 inches. They kept telling me they usually only go down an inch. I told them that was a big problem for the dogs.  The top dries and the dirt underneath is rock hard and dogs start slipping and get injured.  So they went down 6 inches. It was great !!  The only problem was the rain. It continued to rain all weekend.  It was blowing in on the one side, so that edge was getting soppy. We had to have the judge move the table because it couldn't stand up straight.  The next day, we moved the ring  out 5 feet, at the center. So no more deep mud.
I only got a few Qs.  Java and Miley both got jumpers Qs. Java got a FAST Q and and T2B Q.  Miley would have had a couple of more Qs but always dropped one bar.

This was my favorite run. I cant believe I made that blind cross at the dogwalk.  To bad I mess up at the tunnel. Ugh.



The freaking teeter is still a problem, although she did have a few good ones. But then some really bad fly offs too.

So the rain started on Sept 24 and its still raining today. The rain over the weekend turned into a massive flood here in Columbia , South Carolina and the surrounding areas.  It was suppose to start Friday and then Saturday.  We had rain on and off but no 10 inches. I kept thinking they didnt know what they were talking about. But Saturday night and into Sunday morning, I kept walking up to the pounding rain on the roof. I knew the rains had come.  And they just kept coming. In a very short time we had 8 inches of rain. Small damns just kept breaking and peoples homes and businesses flooded.

Our yard flooded a little. I usually have the dogwalk where that water is. So my husband and I went out and moved it because the yellow contacts were underwater.  The guy behind me has an in-ground pool.  He must not have emptied it  and it was running off into our yard.


The rest of these pictures were not taken by me.

This was taken by the Irmo Chapin Rec Commission.  This is Saluda Shouls park, that I walk the dogs at almost every day.  It has flooded before but not like this.  This is the entrance  to the park. That's a lot of flooding.

This is a house in Coldstream subdivision, not to far from me.

This is one of the two roads that leads to the Clubs agility field.  We are pretty sure the agility field was under water during this event.  It has a pond right next to it that is also controlled by damns. But not the same damn that caused this road to wash out.

This is a club member's house. They had just refinished doing the floors in their house.

This picture was taken by Shanon Huffman. This is ext 5 off I-77. You cant even see its a huge intersection. This is the exit to go to our club's building. Its also one exit after Amazon.  My son has been called off work the last two days. There are curfews at night here. Im not sure if Amazon had flooding or not, but workers have been told to stay home and that NEVER happens.
This lady checked our clubs building. Its flooded before but this time its really bad. The whole building flooded.  We had rolled up all the new mats in the back room and stacked them up. Not sure it helped. We sandbagged the doors but I guess that didnt help either. I had left the agility electronic equipment in the closet there. Usually its on the floor but I had put it all on the 3rd and 4th shelf. I hope its ok. Now I feel like I should have taken it home.

This picture I took off the television.  It shows the flooding across I-77. Just crazy.  People kept driving through flooded roads and there were so many rescues.

This was Shady Grove rd, not to far from my house.

This is why some of the highways are closed over the bridges. The water is all the way up to the top.  So trees and trash are hitting the bridges and causing problems. One tree hit the bridge and came over the top. So if cars had been going over when the tree hit, it would have been bad.

 This is Kings Grant, from WIS new, I cant believe this place is underwater.

This is also not far from my house. It all depends on where you live if you were flooded.

Here we are trying to fix the leaking roof again The tarp blew off.

In good news, its suppose to be sunny tomorrow. In bad news we had a trip to the beach , in the rv, planned.  We were going to see  Stephanie too. All that had to be canceled.  I know , based on everything that is going on, this is minor. But I was really looking forward to Lou and I having some time together.  Ugh.