to this

in the blink of an eye?

I bought him a CRN number so he is all ready to go in flyball. I just need to teach him the rest of the game. Like, a box turn. We wide-passed a dog on him for the first time yesterday and he didn’t even blink, which made me very happy. To this point he’s just been doing restrained recalls and running down to the box for a ball just laying on the ground and bringing it back. But he is so focused. I think the rest of the game will be easy.

He has a warm up spot for the big tournament at the end of June and I’m hoping he’ll be able to get his first title. That would be very very exciting. We’ll see.

He is such a good and social puppy who plays well with other dogs. He is sweet and gentle and barky and a big fan of rolling in the Pond Mud of Dqqm.

He is not, unfortunately, a big fan of bathtime.

I am proud to own a puppy from this litter. As they grow and mature, they are turning into amazing dogs and I am so excited to see what they all do. Flyball and agility and rally, maybe some herding. Lots of sports out there for the trying. But Bean first and foremost is a super camp dog, an endlessly polite dog who just doesn’t want to make waves. A dog who wants to play whatever game I offer him- ball, frisbee, tug, chase. He’s not picky. He just wants to play. And that is the most important thing, I think, that a dog can bring to a sport relationship. That and a sound body.

So much to be proud of as my boy turns one.

Happy Birthday Wee Beanerkins! Onward and upward.

We entered Gamblers, Standard, and Jumpers. I didn’t really know the rules of USDAA at all, what qualifies, what doesn’t. How to, you know, play Gamblers. I was afraid Steve was going to be sky freaking high with all of the chaos of a big three-ring trial. And he was loud and whiney in his crate, but other than that, he did really well.

I ran him in Performance 1, which meant that he jumped 22″ instead of the 26″ he’d have to jump in their regular “Championship” program. I felt no need to jump him at 26″. He jumps well at 22″, and while he’s faster and I have less time to think, he is also better able to save my bacon when I am late giving him information.

Friday went really well. He was the only dog to Qualify in P1 Gamblers, which is a choose your own adventure game at the beginning with a distance challenge at the end on the opposite side of a line that the handler can’t cross.

In standard, he did not qualify because he missed his a-frame contact, but everything else went smoothly. He was listening. He was high and he wanted to take some off-course obstacles, but I was able to call him off and redirect him every time.

His jumpers run was absolutely beautiful with the exception of he started himself before I released him, so he ended up on the far side of the first jump before I did. He also had one refusal where he ran around a jump, but I was able to call him back and restart him, and everything else was clean. Qualified and took first place in that, too.

This is my dog that I took out of classes and was going to quit agility with altogether because he’d knock or crash 75% of jumps. Yes, that dog. I think he took one bar in his first Gamblers class and that was it all weekend.

Saturday we just ran Gamblers and Standard. Gamblers was wonderful again. My plan worked beautifully to get me to the right place when the buzzer went off, and again we got the gamble, even though it was pretty hard for a baby dog. He didn’t do it the way I had planned for him to do it, but we got it. Again, the only Qualifying dog in P1 Gamblers.

His standard run was nothing to write home about. We had some moments of poor communication which caused an off-course tunnel and an off-course jump. Of course, he’d missed his dogwalk contact on the third obstacle, so it didn’t much matter by then. But he wasn’t being wild, I was just slow and discombobulated and things didn’t quite work out the way I’d intended.

I am really really proud of my guy. He did far better than I hoped. He got both his tables in Standard without any question. No springboarding and no discussion about downing. That is HUGE. I got a couple lead-outs. He didn’t actually STAY on any of his contacts, but he got most of them. And he kept his bars up, which is a good indication of his frame of mind– that he wasn’t too wild to think.

He did have a moment in his first run when he noticed that there was a dog in the ring next to him also running agility and his face went OMG DOG but then he switched his brain back to what he was doing and that was the last he bothered with it. That was a big relief for me. I think that’s a benefit of flyball- he’s used to working with a dog running right next to him. But agility is different for him. Agility requires so much more thinking than flyball.

So here’s his second Gamblers leg. For those who don’t know the game, all the obstacles have different point values (in this case, jumps are 1, tunnels and tire are 3, dogwalk/teeter/weaves are 5, and a-frame is 7) and you need to rack up at least 21 points in the 30 second opening. When the buzzer goes off, you have to go to the numbered gamble and complete those obstacles in order without the handler crossing the line marked on the ground. The gamble was worth 20 points. Succeed at both parts, and you Qualify. Steve had 52 points in this run.

I am glad I took it off even though it ended up being nothing worrisome. I didn’t like the way it looked, I didn’t like the way the size changed, and I didn’t like how inflamed it was. Even if the vet had not found mast cells on his slide, I would have had it removed and sent out, because he is ten and a pit bull and I am a paranoid dog mom.

So yay! We’ll take his stitches out in another week or so and that will be that.

Yay cancer-free pit bull!

Steve is out of shape. He was TIRED by the end of Sunday. He ran start, and in the one race we had a bunch of false starts. I’d false start, the other start dog would false start, back and forth. By the end of it, Steve was just standing there, not straining to run, not crouched down ready to spring. I need to run him more. MORE HILLS.

I always look like a monkey in flyball pictures. Sigh. Readddddddddddy!

It was freezing cold inside the building even though it was relatively warm outside. So I was making a huge fashion statement with my awesome hat. (Steve was naked. Is that a fashion statement? It was the “Bare Naked Flyball Tournament” after all.)

Steven does not wait well to go in the ring. BERK BERK BERK

Love this!

I will admit, I do not envy his boxloaders. I would not want to face this barreling down the lane directly at my shins.

And the Labradoodle I ran for awhile on Sunday. She really made me appreciate my “point and shoot” dog. You had to bowl her down the lane toward the box, yell a lot, and then have food out to wave around when she was coming back. But you couldn’t have food out when you sent her because she wouldn’t go. TOO MUCH THINKING. Plus she started from like 23′ whereas I start Steve from 40′, so I had to remember to get out of the way of the next dog instead of being back behind everybody else. But still, it was a lot of fun and I didn’t have any bad passes even though I didn’t really know what I was doing.

Steve is five points from his next title, so that is exciting. The next tournament usually has very nice ribbons. I like nice ribbons….

(photos by Kim H and Laura K)

(His skin is awful right now. I think it’s related to the hypothyroidism we just recently diagnosed and started him on medication for. Poor dog is falling apart.)

The offending lumpy bumpy. You can sort of see how it’s not just the pink nodule, but some swelling underneath that the doctor doing surgery felt was part of the tumor and removed to biopsy as well.

It’s really not very big, but I am much happier having it OFF MY DOG.

Then into surgery. Where I work, every patient gets their own dedicated anesthesia tech. They are monitored with EKG (which is actually in his esophagus), temperature, pulse ox (clipped to his tongue), respiration, CO2, blood pressure (on his back leg where you can’t really see it in the picture).

Surgery didn’t take very long. He was out for about 45 minutes total.

Back in his kennel, waiting for him to wake up enough to remove his endotracheal tube.

Sleeping it off.

Mom, what just happened to me??

He’s doing fine. He’s got his very attractive baby blue bandage for the weekend, and then he’ll have his stitches removed in a couple of weeks. I should have biopsy results sometime the middle to end of next week. I am not very good at waiting.

Thanks to everybody for the good wishes!

The little pink nodule is the tumor. I’m not sure why it’s so swollen underneath, but that’s what bothered me so much about it. When the vet stuck that, she just got blood.

He’s having it off tomorrow and we’ll biopsy it to make sure it is all contained in that little pink tumor. Tomorrow just happens to be available, and I’m going to stress until it’s gone, so I’m just going to do it. I’m worried because he’s ten, but he’s healthy (though he was recently diagnosed with hypothyroidism). I know we put tons of dogs under anesthesia and they do just fine, but it’s different when it’s my dog, you know? I also chose tomorrow because I am not in surgery. I will be there to hold him to put his iv in and to put him under anesthesia, but then I’m out- I don’t want to be in charge of his anesthesia if something goes wrong. And my rational brain says that nothing is going to go wrong, but I’m a worried mama anyway.

He is going to be devastated when he finds out he’s not getting breakfast tomorrow.

Just kidding, ma!

So grown up!

Isn’t this the coolest thing ever? It was drawn by my friend Callie from pictures of Beanhead and I love love love it. It’s adorable and she captured his doofy self just perfectly. Want your own pet drawn? Check out her Etsy shop for ordering information and prices. She’s currently running a grand opening special, so now is the time!