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October 30, 2000

USDAA Fairhills, MD

Day One The Adventures of Team Bean

�from the hotel room. It is a good thing for all of you that I do not have internet access from this lap top��yet. We will just have to go ahead and change that won't we? Then I will be able to annoy you all from anywhere. : )

I left for the show on Thursday night and as I got onto the turnpike and started to plug in my radar detector. No sounds, no lights came from the unit. Seems that the last time I had the guys in the car, someone stepped on the cord connection and it was broken. I was going to have to relay on my internal "Cop-dar" In other words, no 90mph+ for me.

I still made it here in under an hour.

Well, we are here at the USDAA Nationals. Susie and I had one very busy day. I had a total of seven runs between Crumpie and Harry. Mind you, this was not one of my best days of handling, but we did have some great moments on course and a few things to smile about in "Personal Qs" Ok, not really, but hey, I am Miss Positive.

Friday
Our morning started out at 4:45am. See the first problem already? There is nothing like being on a field way before the sun even thinks about rising. And no coffee in hand either. See the second problem? Tents were flush with one another, cars arriving in numbers, and barking dogs everywhere. Just the way I like it.

There was one ring set up to look official as some of the classes would potentially appear on TV/Animal Planet later.  Classical music played from the loud speakers at each corner of the ring, adding a classy feeling to the show.  I found myself meandering around with a smile on my face and some inner peace in my being.

This morning could not be any more perfect.  No, a cup of Joe would really make it.
"Aaaaaaaah", as I have the thought, Susie comes out of nowhere with an extra cup of coffee for me.
Now the morning is complete.


The only ring conflicts I had were with Crumpie. They scheduled Advanced Standard and Jumpers at the same time. I have to be in two different rings with the same dog at the same time. Ok, weird.


USDAA (United States Dog Agility Association)
Levels - Novice, Advanced, Masters
Courses offered (today)
Jumpers (jumps and tunnels)
Standard (all of the equipment)
Pairs (two teams compete together to complete the whole course)
Steeplechase National (jumps, weaves, frame)

Rules - NQ (non qualifying) jumped yellow contact area on heavy equipment, dropped bars on jumps, off-courses.
Ribbons are given even if the dog does not qualify. They just come without the happy little, burgundy colored Qualifying ribbon.



In the order that I ran them:

Crumpie, Advance Jumpers.
I walk this course.  It is going to be fun, but to be honest, I really think I am going to get lost. It loops in on itself twice and I am way too tired to be thinking clearly. We go. Once again, we are the first dog on the line. Hooray for us.
We also get to run in that nifty "TV" ring.

Crumpie is hauling around and being very quiet about his run. I nearly lose him twice to trappy jumps, but he does the calls offs. The funny part is that I am running and directing and I have no clue that I am doing the correct course. We cross the finish and hooray for Crumpie.

I am not celebrating or anything to that like because I really thought I had gone off course.
Julie and Craig had been watching so I made my way over to where they were sitting. Julie said that it was a nice run and responded that she did not see any "hands go up" from the judge so I must have stayed on course.
Yes��we have a Q,
but then Julie adds, except for once for the dropped bar.

What dropped bar?
Everyone knows how tuned in I am to this phenomena, but the bars were not PVC, they were wood. Hum. Looks like I will be getting used to a new sound�.or lack of one.
NQ, 2nd place.

If it is not bad enough that Julie and Craig tease me about the leg of my running pants being pulled up, they have found something new. Seems that my "right�.Crump" (reserved for a total call off a trap) comes out "RUMP".
Yup, I have always called 'em as I see them, especially if Crumpie took the trap.  : )  It is the "nice" way of saying it.


Crumpie, Advanced Standard:
I laughed on this course and I am laughing now. This had to be one of the worst runs Crumpie has EVER given me. He goes over the first jump, goes into the tunnel, and then takes an extra jump, ignoring me completely. NQ.

Of all the places on the course to mess up�and there were a lot of them on this one, Crumpie had to Jump-mong.
Okie Fadokie, I am still willing to work this course.  The angle that Crumpie approaches the next TRIPLE jump is sick, but he takes the jump and keeps all of the bars up.  Figures.

We continue on the run, but I am laughing so hard that I cannot issue commands correctly. In essence, the run was gone and I knew it.
We got whistled off the course when Crumpie jumped the Teeter contact.
Oooops, our bad.
E (for Elimination)


Crumpie, Advanced Pairs
We get teamed up with a Blue Merrill Sheltie named Garth. We end up taking the first half of the course with the most jumps, Weave Poles, and tunnel under the Frame. The three things that we screw up and we have to face them.
Garth gets to have the DogWalk.  That would have been our fourth thing.

I also elect not to say anything to our Pairs partner. Why make her upset? She needs one leg, I need one leg, and then we both get to move up to Masters. I walk, making special note of the course. It is one thing to botch up your own run, but to have what happened last weekend to Crumpie and Emma, was my fault.
It will not happen again.

It is time and we go to the line. Crumpie and I go and we haul. He gets the weave entrance and STAYS in the poles to the end. He handles the pinwheel of jumps with only one down, and takes the Frame as he eyeballs the tunnel. We have incurred a five point fault for the dropped bard, but our time saves us.

Garth is off and running, but I was more concentrated on keeping Crumpie from watching Garth run on CRUMPIE'S course. I have no lead or collar and I need to keep my doggie under control and not let him go and herd poor Garth off the course.

Garth comes over the finish line and everyone cheers.
Q, 1st place.
Hooray for us and a non-existent title. We move up to Masters Pairs.


Harry, Novice Pairs:
I should have thought about this when Susie had me fill out the entry form, but I was thinking that this was Novice and no Qs are offered in the games classes, only placement ribbons. I was not thinking that the other person might be totally competitive and will get paired up with Mr. King of Ballistic. I was lucky as my pairs partner was very cool and was just as unsure of her dog as I was of mine. We were the perfect team.

Harry gets to do the first half and Hope, the Keeshond, gets to do the second. Harry got whistled off the course when he followed Crumpie's direction and had to do that yummy tunnel. The whistle also let my partner know that we had an E and she could go without the Baton. The sad part is that Hope pulls off a flawless course.

Talk about letting someone else down. I will have to remember not to enter Pairs with Harry until he is really ready.
E


Harry, Novice Standard:
This was going to be a fun course if Harry could pull it together. The other thing that occurred to me this morning/afternoon was that Harry has different commands then Crumpie. He knows what mine are, but does he REALLY know them? Susie works the boys a lot and her command is Jump. I thought to try an experiment and try using the alternate commands.

For the first half of the course, Harry was in the zone. He was his normal self, flying along at Mach 67, but he was checking in with me, paying attention, and in moderate control. He did jump the DW contact, but I had decided that the focus and checking in was more important then the DW contact. That would be settled later when I had more control.

We get to the Table. Harry will not go into a down. I try stepping back, standing over him, anything, but he will not go into a down. This has been a serious issue and well, now it is time to settle it. Harry's butt is picked up and walked off the course.
Oh no, Poor Doggie.
E


Crumpie, Steeplechase, Round One:
I said this was a long day. I was not joking.
This is it, the "Big Deal"
Ooooooooooh.
The funniest part is that I am not nervous. I thought I would be, especially when people are lining the "tv" ring and there is an announcer on the loud speaker.

The Beginning obstacles are two jumps, tire, jump, HARD left, Frame. What makes the left hard? The YELLOW, YUMMY TUNNEL that is right there.

I do a two jump lead out on Crumpie and he comes running off the line.  Bars stay up and I call Ring and Over. I hang waaaaaaaay back and call "left", but Crumpie is gone. Mom? Mom who?

Who needs a Happy Mom when you can have the Yummy Tunnel?
Whistled off the course.

No final round of Steeplechase for Crumpie tomorrow. Poor doggie. There is one thing to Tunnel Mong, but it is another thing when you can hear the announcer talk about Corgis and how much they love tunnels��as it echoes over the whole field...along with the sound of the whistle. I was the first to go off course so time was taken by the announcer to "educate" the spectators visiting from the horse show that was also being held on the grounds.


Harry, Novice Jumpers:
Now this was my kind of course and it was going to be Harry's. I also decided to use the command word Jump as part of the experiment. It worked. Mind you, I almost lost him twice to trap jumps, but Harry really listened and almost ran like he does in class. So there is a ray of hope and I think I just found it. The only thing he did was knock a bar. There is a surprise. : )

I am going to try to remember to use all of Susie's command words in Gambles and Snooker tomorrow and I am going to run his butt off.

I have no idea if Harry placed in this class as it was still being run when we left and they are handing out ribbons in the morning for today. Will have to get back to you guys on this one. It does not matter anyway because there are no Qs in the Novice Games classes.

I would include the "for those who know and care" but to be honest, there have been so many runs that I have lost track.
Maybe Deb N, Deb C, Julie, and Craig will write in about their adventures and fill us in on how they did.

Joyce,the Fearless Leader of Beanhead and Bonehead.



Team Bean, Day Two


The day's schedule of events was not the best organized. Susie and I got to the trial site to find that yesterday's posting of the weekend's schedule had been changed. It was going to seem that all four of our runs were going to be packed into a two hour time-frame.

Hooray, I get to watch the Horse Show.
Nooooooooooo.
After the initial reposting of the schedule, they go and change it. We had Gamblers in the morning and Snooker sometime in the afternoon.
Afternoon?
Does 5:30pm constitute "afternoon"?
I hardy think so.

My buddy, Cory, from work came to watch Crumpie, Harry, and I haul our butts around the course. I think that after all the walking back and forth we did from the tent to the ring, he will appreciate his sport of couch potato football. If I am lucky, he will also stop busting on my 12 INCH doggies now that he has seen what I mean about not under estimating small dog bodies with big dog attitudes.

Yesterday's atmosphere was one of a start of any National Event. The excitement was in the air and the events of the day unknown in outcome. This morning?  I got nothing. Maybe that was a good thing as everyone had settled down and has gotten back into the same old routine of "just trialing".

USDAA
Same as yesterday.
Courses offered:
Gambles - course with the distance work
Snooker - the one with the "red" jumps�.and the one I suck at.

In the order that I ran them��


Harry, Novice Gambles:
This was the first time I had ever run Harry on this course and I thought it would be a great way to practice on some of the equipment and to just plain have fun.

I had planned to do only one Tip, but when it came time to do the obstacle, Harry did his normal Harry thing which was to jump off as the board started to move.  Sooooooo, little sable colored doggie gets put back onto it.  He did wait long enough for it to come down, but Harry did jump off.  Third time is a charm and Harry handled the Tip like a real pro.

We haul around some more and then the whistle blows for us to head into the gamble area. We have a very minor conversation at the weaves, but he does them and then does a "get out" to a jump and the frame, and a "here" to the Table. Just as he is getting ready to launched onto the table, the whistle blows, so technically he did not "get the gamble" In my mind? He sure in heck did. This IS Harry we are talking about.
NQ�but it could have been an E. : )


Crumpie, Advanced Gambles:
The opening obstacles did not move, but the gamble did.  I changed the opening for Crumpie and we hauled around the course completely in control and fast.  The whistle blew and we headed out to the gamble area.  I chose the side with the Weave Poles and the send out to the jump and frame.  We did all 12 poles and then Crumpie would not get out to a jump seven feet away.  Good grief DOG.  Just do it.  Ok, he does it and follows my "right, frame" with his eyes only because his body sure in heck would not.  The whistle blows and we head to the Table to stop time.
NQ, 3rd place
(last of the losers as Crumpie missed the DW contact and the 1st place doggie did not. That was the point difference.)


We wait until 4pm for our next run. Can we say this felt like an AKC trial?
Yes, yes we can.

Some time during the Novice Snookers walk-through an announcement goes over the loud speaker about a lost Corgi that had been found. Ok. My interest is perked. The guy goes on to say that that the dog is a red and white and is wearing a "Martha Stewart" collar.
Hum.
Martha Stewart collar?
Does Harry's purple, sheep collar constitute Martha Stewartness?
No, I decided. I know it is not Crumpet as he is sporting the cheap-o Smiley Face collar this weekend because it has his name tag on it.

That one is NOT Martha Steward like. So I continue on with my walk-through wondering if I should be checking this one out.
I go to get Harry and discover that he had been the Corgi that was found. No, he was not sporting his sheepie collar, but the one with the leaves on it. Yup, it was the Martha Stewart collar.

Seems that Deb N passed Susie at the tent and asked Susie what she was looking for.  Susie's response was that it seemed that she had lost Harry.  I guess she was not completely concerned as she thought I might have taken him already.  Deb responds that they just found a Corgi at ringside.

Deb mentioned nothing about the description of the collar and Susie was horrified when I told her about it. I think Harry is getting a new apparel.

And I thought I was bad about Crumpie's wardrobe. At least he isn't sporting anything that can be described as Harry's was.


Harry, Novice Snookers:
Like I have said before, this is the course that I just do not get and really suck at it. Today, both Harry and Crumpie made me actually look like I knew what I was doing.

The Novice course was not a happy one. It was worthy of being called Advanced. Poor Harry, he was going to have to run this "control" course in CONTROL. Riiiiight.

Believe it or not, Harry did run in control. We actually made it through all three red jumps before Harry decided I was not moving fast enough (try like not at all as I was trying to call him to me) and back jumped the tire.

We get the whistle and we haul to the finish line
One very big HOORAY for Harry because this run was really AWESOME. (So was his Gambles run.)
NQ
(I have not checked to see if he placed.)


Crumpie, Advanced Snooker:
Well, call me the Beanhead because that is what I am and the reason why I am the Captain of this Team. The sun was setting and the walk through was forced to beyond quick. We will not mention how tired I felt and my sense of humor showed it.

Even though I am really good about one or no walk-through, Snookers is a course that I really need to concentrate on. I walked everything with backup plans for dropped Red bars and did not thoroughly walk the closing sequence.

Crumpie does these insane lead out, works with me and away from me and I goof up as I "snooker" it from one side of the course to the other.  I put him over a jump and into the combination tunnel and hear the whistle.  I have no clue as to why, but we haul to the line.

It was not until a good few minutes later that I realize that the reason we got whistled off the course is because BEANHEADED me forgot about Closing sequence numbers, 2, 3, and 4.  I started with number 5.

Oooooops my bad.
Ironically, all the bars stayed up.
NQ, 3rd place.
The sun set as Crumpie and I drove back to the hotel.

I have been missing obstacles a lot lately and this is not good. I think I am just tired and burned out. You cannot fault Crumpie and Harry for not having a great time. They do not know the difference between a good run and one that I screw up.

Thank God for small favors. At least they will never judge me the way the humans do.

The good thing is that tomorrow yields only two runs for me, one a piece for the boys. With any hope, USDAA will stick to the schedule and Susie and I will be out of here by noon�.or before the sun sets again.

Joyce, the Tired Captain of Team Bean




Final Day

The Adventures continue to mount up, but the good thing is that I only had two runs this morning. The second good thing was that USDAA kept that part of the schedule on time and I was done before noon. This has not happened in a very long time and I welcomed the chance to watch some of the Cross Country Competition (for the horses) and to just hang out for a bit.

USDAA
Same as it has been for the whole weekend.
Classes offered:
Standard (all of the equipment)
In the order that I ran them.


Harry, Novice Standard:
Harry has been a real challenge for me. Not only is he super ballistic, but I am at a disadvantage in training. I can work Crumpie anytime, but for Harry, I have to prearrange a time with Susie. After this weekend, I can honestly say that Harry and I started to connect. He did a lot of "checking in", which is something he rarely does. I felt like I was in more control and could direct him to the correct obstacle.

I have also given up with using a "stay" command on the course because Harry breaks it. Why use something when I cannot enforce it? I figured that I can really work on that over this winter and start to iron out the Start Line in the beginning of next year.

The Novice course was a really nice course and it had a ton of flow. Harry did an incredible "Joycie Gamble" out to a tunnel (like that was HARD for a Corgi????) that left me in a great position for the Teeter. I really worked this obstacle and Harry did too. He did not seem too happy about having to wait and did jump off earlier then I would have liked, but it was better then what has been happening�.like jumping off.
Hooray.

The Weave Poles were next and we did have a minor conversation, but once we got going, Harry acted like he knew what he was doing. Next came the Table. Great�.Teeter, Weave Poles, Table, all in a row. Talk about not being able to reward Harry with something fun like a tunnel. Poor little guy, he was going to have to deal with a Happy Aunt Joyce.

Harry gets onto the Table and does not jump off. I get him into a Sit and try the Down. He looks at me. Ut oh. I gave three more commands and��.he drops. Oh my god, he did it. He looked so pleased with himself that I could not resist a few words of praise�which I cannot give because he will break the down. The Down continues. We are off and running to the DW and Harry jumps the contact, but finishes the rest of the course in total flare and control.

The sad part is that the run was a qualifier until the jumped contact, but I really do not care that we NQed. Harry really worked with me and offered a ray of hope for next year.  I just need to put more time into training sequences and working with him.

I end Harry's trial year on one very positive, hopeful note.
NQ, 4th place.


Crumpie, Advanced Standard: This was also a really nice course and I was thrilled with the traps and how I was going to handle them. The only thing I was really worried about was the Chute that was just a little too close to an extremely difficult entry to the Weave Poles.

Crumpie hauls his butt off the start line, passes the first trap and we continue on. We get to the Chute/Pole trap and Crumpie works with me, but just has to pop out on pole number 11. Not kidding.
Arugh!

He handles the tunnel and DW like a pro and GETS the DW contact. Holy Tomoly this is going well. He takes the next jump and gets on the Table with a smile and goes right into a down. Good lord, what has possessed my dog? I am so excited that Crumpie has held it together this far that I praise him and that was my mistake. The next obstacle was the Tip and something happens that I have NOT seen since Virginia Beach two Januarys ago. My friends, Crumpie does one INCREDIBLE Teeter Fly-Off.
Corgi Air Force BIG TIME.

Crumpie was too busy smiling to hear the whistle or my next command of "here". We haul our butts off to the finish line.
E




So we have ended our trial year with a single letter of the alphabet and it was not a Q.

All in all, this has been a great year for us. Harry and Fred might not have gotten any fancy titles, but they did get a ton of ring experience and I know what I need to work on. The winter will see us working on these issues.

Crumpie had a phenomenal year, picking up the OAJ, NAC, NGC, OJC, AD, HC, a move up to Masters Pairs, plus a few legs towards the next levels' titles.  Not bad for a doggie that is "breed show retired". We have a ton of time to be on the field and I am looking forward to ironing out our issues as well.

Crumpie and I are heading into our cave. I will be taking a break as the want and desire to NEVER see another tunnel, jump, DW, or anything agility-like is over bearing. Crumpie gets to practice at his favorite title of BOB (Best On Bed) and play ball in the afternoons. I just get to be a human that is not bouncing all over the place for dog classes.

What we will be doing is practicing Doggie Obedience. The New Brunswick show will be coming up in February/March and I think that might be a realistic time frame. I will be looking for other shows to enter, but with the colder weather and the coming of the holidays, the amount of AKC Conformation/obedience shows drops in number.

In the meantime, Betsy and I are going to the Boardwalk KC show in early December and I am going to enter Crumpie in Best of Breed Competition. He likes to be groomed up and strutted around so I thought it might be fun for him to do something easy�.like stand and be cute�.his favorite.
Hey, what is the worst thing that can happen??? We take the "Breed". : )

I am also including the hyper link/web address to the Crumpie website as I have added a few new photos. I did rework the site a while back and the spelling/typos are still there, but I thought you guys might like to see it.
Heck, it might give you something to do next weekend when you do not get any more Adventure emails from me.

Well, that was our weekend. We had a blast on course as well as off course. I am glad to be home, but miss the excitement of having an insane schedule.
Crumpie and I hope that all of you have had an awesome weekend and that each one coming up is as much fun as the ones we have just have had.

Joyce, The resting Captain of Team Bean
Crumpie, the Pilot of the Corgi Air Force.




I Promise, You Won't Hear About My Dog for the Rest of the Year

I thought I would separate this from my Adventures emails as I wanted to talk about my observation of a National Competition and not really about our so-called "brags".

This was the first time I had entered a trial with anything "National" in the title (other then Corgi National, but that is different) and I thought for sure I would be over burdened with the competitive feeling from handlers that I would be competing against.  I was surprised that I was not even nervous.  I just ran the dogs like it was another day, another course.  This is a good thing as I may seem completely calm, but internally I am a wreck.

When I was still working at KB, my staff was horrified to hear that I had never worked a Black Friday Morning, nor had I ever been a manager during that time, yet I was the center of calm for them. They did not find this out until January. For me? I was a wreck and knew better then to show it.

Maybe what made me feel comfortable was the familiar faces in my Advanced class. There were more then a few people from the 12" and 16" class that I recognized and joked around with and we had a great time. In the Novice classes, there were people from all over and I made some new friends and got some great insight on training and handling techniques. Ironically, as the weekend progressed, I saw these same people running some dogs in the Masters

Team Courses and they were holding up to some of the "big boys". It is funny that you never know about people.

The other thing that I noticed and my buddy Cory did the same, was that nobody was cheering for "just anyone". Perhaps this was because we were a group of people from across the country and not everyone knew each other like we all do in a local area. Or maybe it was about the competition.  I like the first reason better.

The Novice and Advanced classes were definitely the stepchildren of this trial. The Masters classes were the largest and the most numerous, especially since this was the DAM Team Nationals as well as the Steeplechase.

Saturday's poor organization was the teller of this tale. The revised and posted schedule had all Novice and Advanced class running at the same time, yet when someone "set up Masters Snooker" by mistake, there was no announcement made about when we would be running. When it came time for Novice, the Steeplechase final round was run instead. No announcements.

I understand that things can get mixed up and that schedules have to be revised, but what really got me was that no one was ever alerted of the changes via a PUBLIC announcement. Now, I am a big believer of that philosophy that the handler is responsible for her or his own runs, but this was ridiculous and very unfair.

You do the complaining and then you deal with it.

I really enjoyed the hour or two I did have between runs (except for Saturday) as I did get to explore the field with Crumpie and Harry. As I was walking through the forest and fields, and around the Cross Country Track, I realized that this was what I really enjoyed. I love being outdoors (in comparison of sitting on the couch) and I love the company of my four-legged companion. We are just a dog and a human and not a team intent on watching each other just a little to closely.

The one thing that I thought was really neat-o was the horse show that was held next to the agility field. I had never been to a horse show before and as you all know, I am glued to the TV every Saturday night in what I call "Horse Night". This was the first time I could see the courses and show in real life.

Crumpie, being my buddy, got to go too. The two of us walked around on Sunday after we had NQed for the millionth time. We got to watch as Humans and Horses drawing carriages negotiated a course designed for control. We watched as the competitors warmed up in a huge ring, horses everywhere.

It was really cool to watch and kind of gave me an idea of what it must have been like in the major cities some 100 years ago. I guess I did a time warp.

Crumpie and I then watched some of the Cross Country course, where Horse and Rider went for long distance riding and jumping. This is something that I could easily get involved in and my kind of sport.

Show Jumping is not being held until tomorrow (Monday) so I missed my favorite of the horse sports. Figures. Maybe it will be televised and I can couch potato watch some Saturday Night.

The horses gaiting and jumping awed me. It is one thing to watch it from a far, but to watch from 30 feet away was really something. There was elegance and pride in the horse and rider/driver. I just could not help but stand there and watch.

It was just awesome.

I did feel slightly under dressed though. Everyone was sporting these classy duds and I had on my jogging pants. (Yes, guys, I made sure the leg was kept down.) I did get more then a few odd stares, but then again, this is me and I am used to those looks. It comes from being a dog handler where you have to keep 'em guessing.

The other thing that I really liked was that as Crumpie and I were walking around the Horse Show, he was not called the "little dog". (This really drives me nuts as people see a small dog and automatically assume that it cannot do anything but be a lap warmer.) I caught more then one snippet of conversation about Crumpie's attitude and presence. People could not take their eyes from him. It was almost like there was some kind of respect for the Corgi breed as a lot of horse people have Corgis. They know what these dogs can do.

As we headed back into the agility area, the first thing I heard was that "little dog and I wonder if he can go over a jump". Kind of insulting for Crumpie. Was I glad that Crumpie does not know all words of the English Language.

All in all, the weekend was awesome if not tiring. I would rather run the dogs back to back all day long then to walk back and forth to check the rings. I think that is what gets me so exhausted. In my next life, I am coming back as a dog that can be crated in between runs. I want to watch the humans leave and come back eight million times.

Joyce, the Crumpie needs a Horse Buddy person.



                                      Last Updated on April 21, 2007                                      






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