Guess who came home with us from dog agility?
Not just one, not just two, but THREE ROOMBAS!
Our agility pal Cheri and her husband Mike delivered their Roomba collection to us. A whole box of Roombas and their various guts and lighthouses and docks and don't even know what else is in there.
Cheri and Mike are not only ace agility handlers, but like, so nice! They knew their Roombas would get a good home and also they were driving Cheri nuts and she was so done with having to be a Roomba fixing expert. Because she is very busy training Jeepers to do this! Thanks Mike and Cheri!
There's Mary and Kathleen, they have that we-are-chatting-but-also-carefully-watching-that-course-at-the-same-time look on their faces.
It was a good thing Mary was watching, because she won an envelope full of money in Steeplechase. We will go have cocktails!
There's Rob and Hobbes. Hobbes was feeling much better this weekend. I ran him some, I made some dumb mistakes. I don't know why I do this. I am not a dumb person. I just handle like one. Rob ran him some, did not make any dumb mistakes. Also Rob ran Wings a bunch, did not make any dumb mistakes. I am very, very lucky Rob still lets me run Hobbes.
That's Kathy and Millie. Millie has become a very consistent Masters level dog. Leaving her friend Gustavo somewhat in the dust. He did get his last Advanced Gamblers Q, then I let his brain explode and pulled him out of his Standard run when hid under the table after I made him redo the weavepoles until he got them right. Brain explosion is always a potential liability with Gustavo, even as he's gotten better and better. The pressure just builds and KABLAM! And during his amazing Jumpers run, I had this weird refusal bobble where I scared him, he came back to me and we finished. I asked all my friends watching what I did to freak him out so bad, and the consensus was he scooted behind me, I crossed late, and yelled at him to weave. Which was not only weird because it was jumpers and there were NO WEAVE POLES, but also because I say "Poles" for my dogs to weave and so have now added speaking in tongues to my repertoire of strange and weird ways to muck up agility.
That's Jim and Sweep. Jim saw Otterpop get another Masters Gambler's Q with his own two eyes! This was a very exciting moment. Too bad I didn't just let her wrap up her day after a couple runs, but figured since she was running nice and speedy and sound I'd just run her in EVERYTHING even though she was sore last week and spent the week doing nothing and as luck would have it, indeed, she ended the day horribly sore again and I feel like a grimy old heel for thinking at first she was being naughty. So that is it for Otterpop and a full day of runs. Never again.
A couple people today told me I was an inspiration in the way I just keep at it with my dogs and am so nice to them. Never giving up, even with all the issues I have with Gustavo and all the years of ups and downs with Otterpop and having to quit running Ruby. I am not sure when people tell me this if it's a compliment or not a compliment. Or like one of those statements that are sort of a compliment but sort of a big diss at the same time. Sneaky compliments.
I thought about this for a minute. I could only think about it for a minute because my brain space kept getting bumped by the new idea that I have THREE ROOMBAS! Serious thoughts, Roomba. Serious thoughts, Roomba. I try not to worry about Otterpop following down the Ruby path of early retirement because of physical issues, and I try not to wonder where Gustavo's agility journey is going. And I try not to care what people think. I'm not a top handler, and my dogs aren't top agility dogs. I think it would be super if we were all tops. We work harder at getting topper, there's always room for improvement. A lot of room. But I think they are all the best dogs, no matter what, and also, now we have THREE ROOMBAS!
5 comments:
Agility-Shmagility.
There better be a video of Rhoomba-ing x3 posted on this blog shortly or I am boycotting TSD until then....
:)
Oh, man, and I don't even have ONE rhoomba. But then, I don't have cute small black dogs, either.
As Jake got older and more arthritic, I ended up just entering him in maybe 1 or 2 runs a day, things I thought he could do most easily (for him, jumpers and gamblers). It was hard to let go of the old reliable Qing dog like that, but he was happier doing *something* than nothing and I was happy that he could get more Qs once in a blue moon.
How does the Team handle Roombas roombaing? Blitzkrieg ignored my Roomba when I first got it and now it's his mission in life to bark at Roomba until it stops sweeping.
Predictably, Gustavo is horrified by Roomba. Otterpop however, obsessed. Frighteningly so. She owns all the Roombas now and is not afraid to express her love of Roomba loudly. Ruby uses this opportunity for some blissful private tennis ball time.
I am now very familiar with the sad song of the needy Roomba beep. I was warned of this. There is much work ahead for the Robot Army.
Yes, I have a Roomba but pretty much stopped using it. With three Border Collies it did a great job picking up A LOT of hair but it quickly became: Run the Roomba, clean the Roomba. Run the Roomba, clean the Roomba. Ugh, I got tired of that pretty quickly. We just use a regular vacuum now. Not as good but a lot easier to clean.
Yeah, I want to see a TSD v. Roomba video, too....
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