The time she went to the dog show and thought of a catchy little saying we'll call One Step Forward and One Step Back.

Let's see. What would you like to hear about the dog show?

How about the part where I won a box of Anti Bacterial Handi Wipes in the raffle? And some poop bags?

That was a high point.

And the handi wipes came in handy since I was one of the garbage ladies. And if you work glamorous jobs such as garbage lady, you get tickets to win things in the raffle. So I worked to get the handi wipes, and I needed the handi wipes because I worked. Is that sort of like one step forward, one step back? Getting you nowhere?

Let's call that the theme of the weekend. If the theme can't be Tiki Bowl Mai Tai Hula Bash. One step forward, one step back. There were moments. Otterpop won an envelope full of cash in Steeplechase. Not going to complain about that.

Gustavo got an Advanced Gamble Q and had a momentous, lovely, flawless-sort-of Standard run. Having a dog that gets gambles with ease is a whole new thing. And him hitting weave poles fast and accurate multiple times is exciting. But. But. For the momentous Standard Q, he got slammed with that BAD teeter again, right at the end. I knew there was a chance. I knew it could happen, but in a 3 ring trial, there was only one Love Teeter and the other 2 were the evils and he did it and it slammed him again and here we go again. Hits that teeter fast and hard, he can't hold on, it whips so hard, and he comes off on the bounce and gets slammed in the ass on whip number two.

Next time in the ring, for Gamblers, I just avoided it, he seemed a little spooky but made it around ok, only real sign of freakiness was a dogwalk refusal, just nervous to run up it off the bat, flying along. But next time back in the ring after that, for what should have been a gentle, low key little Snookers run, just seemed kind of stressed out and checked out and I pulled him halfway through the run before any worse damage done. I don't want him running stressed out. I want the confident, amazing little dog that started the weekend Saturday afternoon.

We'll see. We'll investigate the damage done this week. Stay tuned for more exciting details. Because I know the Gustavo teeter totter saga is the soap opera you just can't get enough of. One step forward, one step back.

Otterpop had a great Grand Prix run, where I made an error that I've before, popping her out of the last pole, right at the end of the course and hello, once again, another 5 fault Grand Prix. Sucky gamblers. Just suck ass. And, a new low point with error free Standard and Jumpers run with time faults. Yes. Time faults. Her slow brain timer on the start of the course, slow enough to give her a time faults now. Time faults??? Doesn't that seem like if she knew that, knowing how fast she usually runs, that it would make her MAD to have TIME FAULTS? Like sort of Insulting?

Can you see me ripping hair from my scalp?

One step forward, one step back.

I made up to Hobbes about his embarrassing Steeplechase with a beautiful, lovely Standard run. So he had one step back, one step forward. Although Rob did not have me run him in anything else the whole weekend. The hideous Steeplechase freaked us all out.

Ruby slept away the day. Had some walks. I am pretty sure she could give a rats ass about running at the dog show. She loves practicing just a little bit, being the schoolmaster dog for students to run in class, and that's enough agility for her. I am happy that Ruby is happy. And hopefully having a more pain free future. She chased around her tiny tennis ball when we got home. That's what Ruby likes to do. I just looked at a video of her from a year ago. She was still hitting bars, but didn't look so bad at 12". I wish dogs could show us better when they are starting to hurt.

Next weekend, the Southwest Regionals. 4 days of USDAA fiesta. OK, 3 for me, I'm going to work on the Saturday. And actually Friday is just evening pairs nite. This week, we'll be getting all ready for the mayhem of it all, and how many steps forward, how many steps back will remain to be seen. I will do my best to make it no pressure for Gustavo, you can be sure of that. Otterpop? No clue. Just stepping forward, stepping back. Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat. Can only train and not complain and just keep doing my best.