Running

Mother's Day and other things

For Mother's Day we drove down to Savannah and saw my parents. The weather there was very nice. We sat out on the dock and it was just windy enough to keep the bugs away. If you have ever been to Savannah, the bugs will eat you alive. So no bugs, yea! We were very tired when we got home. I'm not sure why it seemed so hard on us. Its a three hour drive each way. It could be because on the way home we encountered rain storms. Black Sky's and driving rain.
The above picture is what my daughter gave me for mother's day. Its a licence plate for the front of my car. I haven't put it on yet. I'm looking for a clear cover to protect it from bugs and rocks.
I haven't worked Miley on anything since last week until last night. I took her to a different field that she hadn't been to, just to do a few dog walks and not more than 4 a-frames. She did well. I did notice twice on the dogwalk, coming down the ramp, she picked her foot up a few times. I guess we will be doing more rest. The frustrating thing is that I don't see anything else. She goes up and down the steps and Ive been watching her walk and I don't see anything. The vet has checked her 2 more times and cant find anything. I think people think I'm crazy.

I'm redoing my a-frame. I ordered "contact coat" and I'm going to put that over the a-frame contact. I'm not going to use any slats. From the response I got from the clean run group and what Julie said, made me feel no slats are necessary. In case you don't know, "contact coat" is a rubber coating that you put on top of the painted contact equipment. http://www.contactacoat.com/a-frame.html It provides grip and give for the dog and is suppose to make the equipment safer. I'm also redoing ( still) my dogwalk. I'm thinking of taking the slats off that too. But Meagan doesn't think I should. So I'm still up in the air with that.

I finally got my computer back. WhooHoo! So I can now put my video program back on my computer and edit video.

Unlucky Walk

I took the dogs to the state park this morning. I wanted to go early because it was going to be over 90 degrees today. First, I twisted my foot/ankle. It hurt when it happened but then it seemed fine. I thought about turning back , but that seemed silly since it really wasn't hurting. Not long after that, SNAKE! A big 2 foot long snake on the path. I HATE SNAKES! I pull the dogs close to me and cant seem to move. Do I turn back? Is this an sign? First the foot and now the snake. I've been walking in the park for over a year and have never seen a snake. I realize it is the Forest and I know snakes are there. Ive just never seen them. Ive seen them at the other park several times but not this one. Anyway , my dogs are looking at me trying to figure out what is wrong. I decided to go on. And now I cant stop thinking about snakes. You know how many roots are in the Forest, tons. Do you know how many look like snakes, all of them. But I keep walking. Scaring the crap out of myself with roots and any little noise. I'm about 1/2 way done and the dogs seem hot. Ill take them to the river like I always do. We are getting close to the water. The dogs are at the end of a flexi-lead and SNAKE. I don't know how they didn't step on it. O'course I stop and again I'm frozen. When the dogs hit the end of the flexi, they turn around and start coming back to me. OMG they are going to step on the snake. I try to pull them off the path to the side and they some how miss the snake. Now I'm thinking, I got to get out of here. But I'm so far from my car and the only way back it walking it. I get myself together and start walking. Now comes a bike. He turns just in front of us to go up this really steep path but hits a big root. The back part of his bike come all the way up. I don't know how he didn't fly all the over the handle bars but he didn't. I think he hurt his groin, makes a werid noise and gets off the bike. I don't think he realized I was there. So I asked him if he was alright. I know, dumb question. He didn't answer me, gets on his bike and goes. I think he was embarrassed. Well now I'm thinking, there cant be any snakes on the path. This bike was just riding on it. I'm free and clear. Nope, SNAKE. All the way across the path. How did the dogs not step on it? I wasn't going to stop because that would make the dogs come back to me again. So I jumped over it. Now I'm more freaked out then ever and just want to get to my car. I usually let the dogs drink in the smaller creeks but not today. We did finally get to the car without any more snakes. I'm not sure if I will be able to make myself go back there. I hate snakes.

Ugh !

I pulled Miley from the USDAA trial for this weekend. Last Friday I saw her skip 3 times on the morning walk. I didn't see anything else until yesterday. Last night I took her up to the training field. I saw her do that weird gait going down the dogwalk ramp. It wasn't as bad as the time a few months ago, but it was there. She also wouldn't turn to the right on a jump sequence. Did I not cue it right? I had to do it several times and then she finally go it. Did it hurt to jump to the right. I don't know. Dogs are hard to figure out. She jumps up and down at home when she is excited. Boing, Boing, boing! That doesn't seem to affect her. She still has a nice tight tuck sit and can go into a stand on her back legs without moving from her spot. I did have the rehab vet check her this past Monday. But of course nothing seems to be a problem. I really feel it has to do with the a-frame. My a-frame or any a-frame , I'm not sure. I built my a-frame myself, maybe there is something wrong with it. Maybe she is stubbing her toe. When watching her yesterday on the dogwalk, it really seem like a foot/toe problem.


Then of course it was raining again this morning. I tired walking the dogs but everyone was acting like it was torture so I took them back home. Then Miley pooped in the living room. Loose poop too, so I had to get the steam cleaner out to clean it up right.


I see the rehab vet again on Friday. I'll have her check Miley again. I kinda don't know what else to do about it. I wish I could figure out what the problem is or what is causing it.

O,yea here is a positive. Miley had excellent dogwalk contacts yesterday. WooHoo!

Greg Louganis seminar

So, I went to a Greg Louganis lecture on Sunday. It was about 4.5 hours long. The name of the lecture was called, "Performance Enhancement of the Natural Athlete". That should have clued me in right there. "Natural Athlete". I'm not an athlete. ( let alone natural) I have never played a sport in my life. I sucked at all sports. I was the last picked in school for any teams sports we had to play. I got a "c" in tennis in college. But, I digress. I really don't know what to say about this lecture. It started off with him asking everyone how much they use mental imaginary. Me, huh never. He asked me why. I guess I never felt the need for it. Never did sports. As a nurse, no need for mental imaginary there. You don't have time to imagine. You think quick and react. Someone stops breathing, act quick. Call for help, turn on the oxygen , grab the bag, put it over there face and start bagging. Also, I'm not one for imagining. I'm a very concrete person. I see things very black and white. ( not always a good thing).

Anyway, I'm not really sure what I learned. He is interesting to talk to. I asked lots of questions. When I was driving home, I started thinking. Was I one of those irritating people that wont quit asking questions? Was everyone behind me rolling there eyes at me and wanting me to be quiet? I don't know, I couldn't help myself. I was just trying to understand it. I think if feels natural to him because he has been doing it a long time.

One thing he did say that hit home was , "visualize success, not perfection". When he was diving, he would practice his dives with mistakes so that he was prepared for it in competition. So if he didn't jump up high enough off the board, he knew what he needed to do to correct for that because he had practiced it.

Something that I do to myself on course is, if I walked the course and I feel that we can really do this course. It shouldn't be a problem. I see the results before its happened. That a negative thing to do to yourself. You should always be on your game. Don't think, "I got this" before you do. Because you will usually screw it up. ( These are my words not his) .

We practiced some relaxation techniques and did some mental imaginary.

The only bad thing was when I was driving home , there was a tree on the side of the road. It didn't look like it was over the road. But it put a big scratch all the way down the side of my nice shinny van. Crap. I'm hoping I can buff it out.

Before Agility

Things I did before dog agility.

Sewed curtains and stenciled walls.

Wall papered rooms.

Painted lots of rooms.

Owned a wonderful springer spaniel.

Went on family vacations.

Lots of family vacations (without dogs).

O,yea. Made cakes. ( sorry its sideways)

More a-frame practice

Im still thinking about how to fix Miley's running a-frame. I decided to go back to the ground work and see where she is. I put the yellow sheet in the middle of the box to help her maybe transfer the box work to the a-frame. When I first did the ground work a few months ago, she was 3 hitting. I did what the video said to do, to change her to a 2 hit. I did this because I felt she would jump off after 2 hits. But she isnt getting in the yellow on the a-frame with 2 hits. Not even close. So I watched her on the ground again and she is three hitting. ( Sara, I can go to my camera and watch it in slow motion, thats how I can tell she it three hitting. Then I can adjust what Im doing right then and there. Sorry, but my computer is away being fixed so I cant edit any video except what my camera can do. I can watch it in slow motion but cant down load it that way.)

After a few reps of ground work, I put the box back on the a-frame.

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Three hitting looks much better. So that is what I'm going to work on. Will see what happens when she gets excited at at trial if it will hold up.