Tuesday, February 3, 2009

My Annual Fall with the Dogs

I've noticed a trend that seems to be happening once a year with my dogs -- I fall flat on my belly. And this morning was this year's annual belly fall. I don't remember all the years' falls, but I do remember the one when I was rollerblading with my Chow Barley. I was rolling along, and then all of a sudden Barley saw a cat. He took off and pulled me down, flat on my belly. Then there was the time when I was pregnant and some how as I was going out the door with Takara, I ended up flat on my stomach going down the steps from the front door. Then there was the time a few years ago that I twisted my ankle and fell to the ground as I was going out the door for a walk with the dogs. This time though I didn't land on my belly, just on my butt with a twisted ankle. This was just two days before an agility trial, and I could barely walk. I wasn't going to let a hurt ankle stop me from going though!! I made it through the trial, gimping along, but at least I stayed up on my feet! Then three years ago at a DOCNA trial, I fell flat on my stomach once again. We were doing a Trigility run. The ground was very icy and slippery. My first teammate did her run, although she had some problems negotiating around the course, and ate up quite a bit of time. Then the next teammate did her run, then it was our turn. I thought for sure we could make up the lost time. I took my first step and my feet just slipped out from underneath me and once again, I was flat on my stomach. Kaylie was awesome though -- taking the first two jumps like she was supposed to. Then she started back to me to see why the heck I was flat on the ground. I told her to keep going, and by golly she did. I finally got on my feet and we finished the course perfectly, and even got the gamble. My only real concern was if we made time. We didn't. Oh well. Then last year, Conor was the cause of my belly fall. We were at the kids' bus stop, and he was with the boys playing ball with them. I knew the bus was coming, so I called him to me. He came running as fast as he could, body slammed into my knees and knocked my legs right from underneath me. I ended up once again flat on my stomach, and my chin. I had not a scrape on my knees or hands or anything, just a big scrape on my chin. It was lovely. Then this morning was this years' belly fall. I was running with the dogs this morning. I actually took a different route this morning (big mistake!) We were starting to go around a corner, and apparently part of the sidewalk was raised -- not sure if it was because of tree roots or what, but for whatever reason, it was raised and I didn't see it, and I ended up once again flat on my belly. Luckily my doggies have a good recall, because I ended up dropping the leash as I fell, and there was a car coming. I was afraid the dogs were going to keep going straight instead of rounding the corner -- so I yelled "doggies come!" and they came running back to me. Whew!! This time I ended up with a scraped up left knee and a scraped up right elbow, and the upper part of my left arm hurts when I push on it. Wonder what next year's fall will be like!

2 comments:

Diamond Girl said...

First - I hope you are ok!!

Second - HILARIOUS!!!

Vickie said...

The amazing thing is I seem to always be okay, although the top of my left arm STILL hurts when I push on it. :)

Kaylie - The True Wonder Dog

At our last DOCNA (Dogs on Course in North America) agility trial in Prescott, Kaylie did fantastic! We are trying to be the first team to earn the MEX (Merit of Excellence) who started in the Beginner level. We are getting VERY close. All the other teams that have earned the MEX were grandfathered in at higher levels. Kaylie was just starting her agility career when DOCNA was created, so we had no choice but to start at the beginning. And as it is, I believe there are under 20 teams that have even earned the MEX to this point.

Well, going into the trial at Prescott, we needed 2 Specialist Gamblers legs and 2 Specialist Standard legs. In DOCNA, there are two types of Gamblers runs -- Traditional and Strategic Timed Gamblers. Unfortunately, we have only earned 3 Traditional Gamblers legs -- one from the Beginner class, one from the Intern class and one from the Specialist class. All the other Gamblers legs have come from the Strategic Time Gamblers. So, I knew going in that the chance of getting that Traditional Gamblers leg on Saturday was slim. We walked into the ring, and I knew Kaylie was on fire and ready to go. The Gamblers class is usually the first class of the trial, and Kaylie is usually absolutely wild in the first run. Well, this was no different. She was incredibly fast, and I was not -- I kept getting in her way, and things just fell apart. At 30 seconds, the buzzer rang, which meant I had to get to the gamble portion of the course. I sent her over the jump to the tunnel -- she took the wrong end of the tunnel, then came right back to me over the wrong jump and that was the end of that. No MEX for us this weekend. BUT, she did qualify in the two Standard runs she needed, getting First place both times, and she got her Strategic Timed Gamblers leg on Sunday, earning a Second place. Wooo hooo Kaylie!!! Out of 10 runs over the weekend, we qualified in 8 of them, placing 1st, 2nd or 3rd in all but one run -- our Jumpers run on Sunday. I got lost on the course and just got confused. Luckily, Kaylie can read the numbers on the cones (that's the only explanation I can come up with) because she ran the right course despite my mess ups! Hence the name "Wonder Dog." So we still Q'd, but got 6th place. Still, not too bad!!

So, our next DOCNA trial will be in Pinetop the end of August. Hopefully we'll get our MEX there! Just one Gambler leg to go.