Tired dogs

Just returned from a 3 day USDAA trial. It was SO much fun, although it probably ranks as one of Icon's worst USDAA trials ever. But Apollo was quite brilliant at this trial, aside from stopping to air sniff in GP (where I pulled him off) and Snooker (where we I got him back to finish). I'm still not sure what he was sniffing at, but my current working theory was that he could smell Auntie Kay in the scribers chair. Other theories from the spectators are that he could smell the bbq and that he was looking at the boom from the amazingly professional videographers. But in his entire agility career, Apollo has never stopped and sniffed at ANYTHING. I was (and still am) a bit distressed at this.

And then there was performance steeplechase. After spending 3 grueling days of scribing or timing full time in the masters rings, Kay must have felt that she was an agility expert as well as a boxer expert. She essentially ripped Apollo out of my grasp just before PSJ finals and said that she could do better with him than me.

Well!!!

I thought I'd show her by letting her TRY to run him. Of COURSE Apollo wouldn't run for her with me standing right there. Apollo ADORES me.

Or does he??? Wouldn't you know it, Apollo and Kay go out there and win the whole thing! But I know Apollo is just trying to make me jealous because of the time I spend with Icon and Rammy. And you know what, Apollo? It's working!

Oh! And Apollo even got his APD Bronze at this trial! I keep forgetting because I thought he had it back in April but it turns out that in performance you do need pairs legs now. So he got his 15th pairs leg (thanks Linda and Mercy!) today.

I guess I should step up to the plate and say that Icon was also quite brilliant, but his handler let him down. I got lost on TWO jumpers courses, made him backjump a red in team snooker (why didn't I stick to my original plan?? I'm still blaming Tammy because it's easier than blaming myself :), And I'm not quite ready to talk about our Saturday Master Std run, where at the end the judge turned to the crowd (which I believe was laughing quite heartily) and asked, 'did you get that on video???'

When, not long after our run, I asked Nancy G if she saw it she replied with a haunted look in her eye, "No. But I heard about it."

I could see her thoughts swirling through her eyes, "Holy cow, this person is on my world team??"

Yes, my friends. They did get it on video. And I will post it when I am emotionally recovered. Thankfully after that Icon did manage to whip his handler in shape to win GP, SC, and a few other things but I'm not sure which one of us is more embarrassed about my performance this weekend.

Kerilyn's going away party was lots of fun, but that is still overshadowed by my disgraceful performance with Icon. And Rob/Karen Yi's baby shower was sweet, but that is overshadowed by Apollo abandoning me for his guest handler.

Rammy had a blast this weekend and I had a blast with him. Despite a rather strong interest in the ring it was pretty easy to keep his attention on me (well, the toy). He played a lot with his good friend Trickie, his friend Tip and his brother Riff! I had my camera in my RV but never brought it out for photos! I hope Celeste got a few with Riff and Rammy.

Despite the earset and coat differences I see SO many similarities between Rammy and Riff. Of course there are differences as well. Riff is way more 'herdy" or "stalky" than Rampage. His head and nose are broader and he seems to have more bone, although they're about the same height (it's hard to tell with Rammy's curly coat). I would say that despite Celeste referring to Riff as 'Goomba', Rammy is the 'Goombaier' of the two. Rampage is a "leaper". For the people he loves (which is most people, although there are some he is wary of) he loves to leap up at them, as if he wants to land on their head. This is a trait I *think* he shares with brother Roller from the photos I've seen (I need to ask Donna about this) but Celeste tells me that Riff doesn't share this trait. If Donna responds that Roller isn't really like this, I think will blame Kay since leaping is totally a boxer trait :).

Holy cow! This post was just supposed to be about how tired my dogs were after the trial, but it got out of hand. I mean, I wrote and wrote and wrote but I didn't even get to talk about the Jamaican or the pairs trash talking or even the SC trash talking! When I started writing this post, all the dogs were all passed out. Since then Rampage has decided that sleeping is overrated and is trying to coerce the other dogs to play. Alas!