Along with the launch of search.agilitynerd.com I launched a parallel site: Googility.com named for the combination of Google and Agility. Please tell your agility friends and neighbors.

I also decided to revamp my other search pages and create a new menu system for my blog too. So if you are reading this entry from a feed reader, please take a look at AgilityNerd.com to see the new look.

On AgilityNerd I've removed the top left menu and converted to a menu spread across the top. The items that didn't make sense for the top menu were added to the very bottom of the left hand menu. I've removed the little search box from the left hand menu and put all three types of search into a drop down menu cleverly titled: "Search". So Search now contains the original search of the site (which now remembers what you searched for once you've performed a search for easier refinement), the Clean Run magazine search, and a link to Googility.com.

The layout of the Clean Run magazine search has been greatly cleaned up and looks more like the Googility layout than its old look which was more like the blog. I've gone to a clean bluish theme instead of my old greenish theme. I've also added Google ads to the right hand side of the page. While I was at it I added all the magazine descriptions through the current issue. I still need to update the individual article index thought.

When I launched Googility I thought I had loaded all of the sites I've referred to in the past. I found out Friday I had left off about 30 prominent sites. Then I realized I had left out all the agility equipment plans/manufacturer sites. So I did some Googling myself and added over 70 sites on Saturday and Sunday. Now there are nearly 200 sites directly entered into the search engine. Google also adds sites linked from (some of) those sites. So after many hours in front of the computer this weekend I think as Laura would say: "I searched the web so you don't have to".

So far I've only heard from a half dozen people asking me to add websites, which I've done. I'm starting to come up with "rules" for the types of websites I won't add. The search engine is only valuable if it returns useful sites, add too many sites and the value of the results could be diluted. For example I won't add generic dog/pet stores, I'll only add their agility sections. Similarly, I've only added agility training related pages from the websites of a couple dog breeders. I am adding websites for agility clubs and agility trainers as I learn about more of them because I've already seen people search for trainers by areas of country.

Lastly I played around with the list of Googility websites and wrote a small program to manipulate and display a randomly selected list of three of the websites used by Googility on its front page. So each time you visit the site you'll see links to three different agility related websites.

Back in December Nancy Reyes, the thoughtful owner of For Your Canine, had photographer Karen Hollis of Sirius Pet Images come in and secretly take pictures of the dogs in day care. She then gave each dog's owner a calendar with a picture of their dog as a holiday present.

Well Karen's photo of Petey was so cute that we had to get bigger pictures. So Nancy, that's Petey's Mom Nancy, got me an 8x10 of the little monster last month:

Doesn't it remind you of a picture you'd get of a kid graduating from grammar school? Or a yearbok photo? All cleaned up, smiling, and looking innocent. When we know the truth...

It reminded me of a similar photo Sheri Berliner of Petraits Pet Photography took of Milo years ago:

Most likely to...

This past weekend Meeker and I trialed in Wilmot WI at the Cream City USDAA trial. It was an outdoor trial with two rings. Our judge for both days was Eric Quirouet. It was Meeker's first outdoor trial and we did pretty well: we had 4 Qs out of 7 attempts.

Here's the summaries of each days runs:

Cream City Canines - 2008-6-14 Judge: Eric Quirouet

Level	Event	Time	SCT	Place	Q	Comments
Starters	Standard	35.32	64	0	NQ	Came up from down at start (early release) and dropped first bar. Slow Dog Walk. Missed A Frame down contact.
Starters	Pairs	42.61	60	1	Q	Running A Frame contact was barely in. Paired dog was Sweeper.
Starters	Snooker	0	52	0	NQ	Dropped color bar jump on reverse angle approach attempting a Backey-Uppey. Then I directed him to another color instead of to the next red, which is an elimination.
Starters	Jumpers	0	33	0	E	Storm was coming he was nervous. Fouled ring at obstacle 10 on a clean run - bad handler!

Cream City Canines - 2008-6-15 Judge: Eric Quirouet

Level	Event	Time	SCT	Place	Q	Comments
Starters	Standard	32.70	61	2	Q	Front cross on landing side of A Frame may have caused him to get into his A Frame contact.
Starters	Gamblers	31.04	25	3	Q	Missed A Frame downside contact during points accumulation. Gamble was easy.
Starters	Jumpers	15.35	28	1	Q	Smooth course.

I've started using Dave Connet's very nice Agility Record Book software for keeping track of Meeker's scores. I generated the tables above by post processing the export of his software. If you are thinking about record keeping software I'd recommend giving ARB a try.

I'd like to thank everyone who attended and contributed to the raffle to assist Dana Pike whose building and home were damaged by a tornado. If you don't already know I'm helping out by collecting money in a fund to assist Dana, so far there are contributors from all across the country. On a related note, volunteers went to Dana's house on Saturday and helped clean up debris from her yard and start the restoration process (I was going on Friday but got rained out). It is wonderful that there are so many thoughtful and helpful agility people out there.

I won't bore you with the play by play for every run... Some highlights: Meeker was pretty excited when dogs are running around and tugging as we wait to start, but as he gets older he can hold it together with some help from me. Apart from his start line break on the first run he held his stays and let me lead out. He was jumping nicely all weekend. We ran our first pairs run with Laurie and Sweeper and both got our Q, I might have "sold" Meeker's A Frame contact to the judge by my "Good Dog", it was certainly a close call. I was able to send Meeker over a jump preceding the A Frame, get into position to Front Cross [FrontCross, LearningFrontCross] on the landing side of the A Frame and Meeker made the contact - that was the first time I tried that in a trial.

The lowlights are all my fault. We had a couple misses of his A Frame down contact. Since I've retrained him with a running A Frame he is about 75% accurate away from home at classes and it appears about 50% accurate at trials - so obviously more to work on. That is the most frustrating thing for me. I really liked being able to go to the line with Meeker and know that there wasn't anything we'd run into on a course that we couldn't handle (that's not to say we'd Q every course!). But now I have that lingering doubt on whether or not he'll get his contact. Well it will improve with time.

I relearned a Snooker rule that I had forgotten. I had a good plan, I think it was a 16 point opening, with the only difficulty going from the first red to the first color which was a jump at an awkward angle to the first red jump. I misexecuted and Meeker dropped the bar on the colored jump (his only dropped bar all weekend). I thought: "I have to successfully complete a color before taking a red". So I took another color and the judge whistled me off the course. As we walked off he was kind enough to explain that I only had to attempt the color, if I faulted it I just wouldn't get the points for the color, but I had to move on to another red. I appreciate him taking the time to explain it to me. Live and learn, I won't forget that for a while.

My worst failing occurred at the end of Saturday. I was building courses all day and we waited three hours for our final Jumpers run. There thunder storms coming and I could tell Meeker was a little unsettled. What I didn't do was take him to potty... So we were at the 10th obstacle and he stopped and pooped on course. So his elimination caused our elimination. I felt really bad that I didn't get him to potty earlier. In the nearly 10 years I've been trialing I think that was the first time that has happened. Bad, bad handler for not better minding my dog. Needless to say on Sunday I took him for a long walk during the wait for our final Jumpers run until he finally pooped.

So for his first outdoor and his second USDAA trial Meeker did very well. I think he has some titles now. I had a bunch of questions on the USDAA email list about when to move him up. Here's what he has:

Championship Novice Standard 4 runs, 2 judges 3 Qs (75%), (3 clean), 2 judges
Championship Novice Jumpers 4 runs, 2 judges 3 Qs (75%), (3 clean), 2 judges   
Championship Novice Gamblers 3 runs, 2 judges 3 Qs (100%), (3 clean), 2 judges
Championship Novice Snooker 2 runs, 2 judges 0 Qs (0%)
Championship Novice Pairs 1 runs, 1 judges 1 Qs (100%), (1 clean), 1 judges

So I think he as earned his Starters Standard Agility, Starters Jumpers, and Starters Gamblers titles. I guess that means at our next trial I can move him up to Advanced in Standard, Jumpers, and Gamblers. I also think that if we can earn one Starters Snooker Q under a third judge he'll have earned his Agility Dog title and we can move into Advanced for Pairs and Snooker too. I hope I'm understanding the USDAA class progression.

In any event titles aren't that important. We had a good time and it was a nice weekend for an outdoor trial!

This past Saturday night agility trainer Dana Pike had her training building destroyed and her home damaged by a tornado. Fortunately, she and her dogs were able to get into the crawlspace before the tornado hit. She posted some photos and her account of the incident on her website. In minutes Dana lost years of hard work that went into the facility and the equipment it contained. She now faces a huge clean up and repair effort.

While she has insurance it in no way will cover the expenses she will be facing. In response to numerous requests I have set up an account at TCF Bank for those who wish to help Dana.

There are three ways to donate:

1. Online Via PayPal
   You do not need to have a PayPal account in order to use PayPal. You can use a credit card or check and your account and other financial information is kept at PayPal and not forwarded to the fund. This is the PayPal secure link
   Or you can click on this button:
   
2. Via Check Sent by Regular Mail
   You can make a check out to "Dana Pike Tornado Fund" and mail it to:

   Dana Pike Tornado Fund
   c/o AgilityNerd LLC
   P.O. Box 789
   Prospect Heights, IL 60070
   

   
   I will deposit the check for you into the account.
3. At a TCF Bank Branch
   You can give the teller the name of the account: "Dana Pike Tornado Fund" and they can deposit a check or transfer money directly into the account.

The IRS does not consider donations to an individual to be tax deductible. The bank is not charging any fees and no expenses will be deducted from the account. All the money deposited in the account will be given directly to Dana Pike. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about this fund.

I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who has contacted me with their concerns and desire to help. Special thanks to Whitney Rupp who kindly setup the PayPal account and will be assisting with handling the donations.

Please keep Dana and her family in your thoughts as she goes through this difficult time.

Please cross post this request or email a link to this blog post to anyone who may wish to contribute: http://agilitynerd.com/blog/journal/dana_pike_tornado_fund.html

Thank you very much.

My agility friend and mentor Dana Pike had her training building destroyed by a tornado this past Saturday night. She just sent an email that she and her dogs are alright and her home is still standing although damaged by the tornado. She posted some pictures and a brief description on her website.

I'll find out what we can do to help her out and post back here. Keep Dana and her family in your thoughts in this very difficult time.

Nancy recounts her experience with Petey at the vet's office.

Back when Petey was just a pup we started clicker training him. It was a great way to get him to offer different behaviors and be able to mark interesting behaviors without having to think of a verbal command right away. One of the first things he leaned was 'paw' which can best be described as a poker 'hit me' gesture.

Read more ...

Happy Birthday Meeker! Today Meeker turned three years old. He's been with us just under two years (one more month until his adoption day) and has turned out to be a sweet little guy. I took some photos today, I raced outside when the sun shone through the clouds. The photos aren't terrible but Meeker didn't seem too happy having his picture taken today:

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I received very sad news this past week and it has been hard for me to try to capture the right words. Our long time Flyball and Agility friends lost their heart dog, their once in a lifetime, special dog, Zamboni. He is to Tony, Kris and Anthony what our Mr Peabody was (and still is) to us. He is one of those dogs that always has a place in your heart.

Read more ...

Well it was bound to happen at some point. But it didn't happen in agility. I hurt my knee at a Flyball tournament! Flyball, derogatorily refered to as the "bowling of dog sports", typically doesn't result in handler injuries (other than twisted ankles from stepping on tennis balls and running into each other or our dogs).

Read more ...

Nancy has a real gift for capturing the personality of our dogs. I particularly like some of the sketches she has made of Milo and Mr Peabody. I'm hoping some day soon she'll create an illustrated book of "her" story Milo Hears a Bear, her sketches for it are really wonderful.

So I was surprised and wowed a couple weeks back when she made me a hand silk screened t-shirt with a great caricature of Milo:

I think she really captured Milo's "Milo-ness". Take a look at his pictures from a little while back and I think you'll see what I mean.

So I've been proudly wearing my Milo shirt to our classes and a number of folks expressed an interest in getting their own Milo shirts. Nancy had always talked about making shirts from some of her dog art, but didn't expect anyone but us to want a Milo shirt. So we are looking into making some Milo shirts; maybe this can turn into a little business...