Dolphin and I headed north to Cleveland for an agility trial with our agility besties. This is one of my favorite places to trial.

Our results were pretty good, lots of weird things happened but plenty of good stuff happened also. On Friday we started off badly with a big fail on our send bonus in FAST. Dolphin got his head together and laid down a really nice Double QQ in Standard and Jumpers! It wasn't our fastest runs, but decent speed and GREAT accuracy on some very complicated courses. This is Double QQ #26, number 6 towards MACH 2. Dolphin knocked a bar in Time 2 Beat, so no Q there.

Saturday started off with a nice Q in FAST. However, things went downhill fast in Standard. The course started pretty simply with a tire to the dogwalk. For some reason, Dolphin's right front foot slipped off the side right at the top of the dogwalk, and he fell. Luckily he was able to scramble a bit and landed on his feet instead of his side and his back. I stayed very calm, called him back, and we started over and he went up the dogwalk like nothing happened. He finished the course absolutely beautifully with a ton of speed. The whole time I was having mini heart attacks, worried that he hurt himself. I checked him over thoroughly after the class and he was 100%. I have the damn dogwalk, there is really no need for it to be 4 feet off the ground. Thank God Dolphin wasn't hurt. I would be a complete basket case if he hurt himself.

We finished off the day with a pretty slow jumpers run where he knocked the 2nd bar from lack of effort, but ended really really strong. We had a great Time 2 Beat qualifying run. After the trial and after dinner and a nice long nap in the hotel, we took a walk at CVNP, and Dolphin seemed no worse for wear after the day's events.

Sunday started off with a knocked bar in Time 2 Beat. Dolphin knocked the very first bar, which meant we got to train the rest of the tun. I pushed the envelope on a few things and they worked great, as the rest of the run was perfect. We had a nice FAST Q today, the send was tricky and he surged ahead of me and read the line and got it! Standard had me worried when I saw the map (posted here). There were not two jumps in a straight line anywhere on the course. It had a tricky 4 jump serpentine that wrapped back to a 2 jump serpentine, and then some tricky offset obstacles. I am so proud of Dolphin - he freaking NAILED that hard serpentine! In fact, he read my cues perfectly and ran that course like a champion - it was so amazing....UNTIL he knocked THE LAST BAR!!! Damn. So heartbreaking. The last jump was offset just enough to the teeter that it was a very hard angle for the big dogs to get. Ugh. Though, on watching my video, his A-Frame contact was...eh...a little sketchy (the judge didn't call it). Oh well.

We ended the day with a weird error in Jumpers. For once, he did not knock a bar...woot! However, he pulled off of a jump when I did a rear cross and we got a refusal called. That is so unlike him as he has been realy solid on his rear crosses and his commitment. Of course, after that he finished the second half of the course at top speed, handling the hard bending lines perfectly. Disappointing couple of days after Friday was so good, but that's agility for ya!

It's all irrelevant, because today my best friend and training partner got her MACH on her dog! We raised our two dogs together since they were young baby puppies, training them side by side since 2020. Her journey was my journey, and vice versa. What a GREAT way to end the weekend!

Well, I had thought that today was going to be considerably cooler, so I rented the bird dog club for some training. Nope, wrong, it got really hot and extra humid because of all the standing water (we had a ton of rain yesterday). I brought all 3 girls out to train. I got Bacon out first before it got too hot. We put out 4 pigeons, loose with their wings flipped. She went on point on the first bird, and then did try to jump in but I was able to stop her with the check cord and re-establish her point. After reminding her what 'whoa' meant, I released the bird and she stood beautifully through the flight and the blank shot.

The next three birds were great. It was very hard scenting conditions as there was standing water everywhere, the temperatures were nearing 80 degrees, and there was absolutely ZERO wind. Not a bit of air was moving. Bacon did really well, stopped nicely on point and held her point so that I could walk up, unflip the wings, and flush the bird. She stood through the flush and blank shot every time. Man, it is so nice to have another natural steady dog. Unfortunately, she struggled with the run as she has no stamina because of her heart condition. I am hoping things might improve slightly when we have colder weather...fingers crossed!

After Bacon was finished, I trained Noodle and Pizza with my friend's dogs. Noodle did pretty well, she was nice and steady on her birds and did a really nice retrieve. Her honoring was a bit sticky. Handling her in the field was really difficult today, as she was running pretty big and could not hear me calling her at all. I am on the fence on whether I can ever run her at a test again...it's so hard to direct a dog that is running big in front of you and cannt hear your voice or your whistle.

Pizza was unusually naughty today. She had a big jump forward on her bird, and I had to pick her up and put her back. Retrieve was 'meh'. Then she broke on her honor after her bracemate's bird was shot and tried to steal the retrieve! That was so unexpected from her! She has NEVER done this EVER in her life. It really caught me by surprise, and it was tough calling her off that stolen retrieve. You just never know, I guess. Always something to train!

Dolphin and I did something we haven't done in well over 2 YEARS...we competed in a Scent Work trial! Although we have been training regularly the past couple years, it seemed that every local trial I tried to enter I got waitlisted. FINALLY we got in a trial this weekend. Dolphin did way better than I expected, earning 3 Excellent Container Q's (and a new title!), 2 Excellent Interior Q's, 1 Excellent Buried Q, and 1 Excellent Exterior Q.

On Saturday we had to do our exterior searches outside in a torrential downpour - the skies opened up and we got drenched! It was pretty awful. For the first part of trial 1, Dolphin wandered around in the rain looking unhappy. I don't think he had any idea what he was doing out in the rain. Then he caught a whiff of the odor, indicated, and understood the assignment. Unfortunately we ran out of time right after that. Trial 2 went better, he found 2 hides, but never could find the third one. This search area had a good 1-2 inches of standing water, so it was extra tough. Sunday's exterior went better, though right away when we entered the search area Dolphin thought about peeing on a cement block (I pulled him off just in time before he could do anything). He found the first 2 hides, but never found the 3rd...it ended up being underneath that cement block. He wasn't going NEAR it after I scolded him! The second trial went a lot better - he did a great job searching (and it was HOT) and found all 3 in time.

Dolphin nailed both Excellent Containers on Saturday to finish his title in that element. He got a bonus Q on Sunday. The biggest surprise was that he got a Q in Excellent Interiors both Saturday and Sunday. Ex Interiors is so hard, it has 2 rooms and one room has 1 hide and the other has 2, but you don't know which is which...your dog has to somehow indicate that the room is 'done" and you have to call it correctly before moving on to the next room. Dolphin did awesome, on Sunday he managed to clear both rooms in just 43 seconds, earning him first place! Pretty cool!

All in all it was a good weekend, although the days were extremely long and the waiting around was kind of tortuous. Dolphin was so patient (unlike me), he really is the best dog to compete with.

Oh, and this new title is Dolphin's 61st AKC/WCA title! Damn!

Bacon and I had our group agility lesson this evening. She did pretty good. It was a very cool day today, so that definitely helped. We did some blind and front crosses that went well, but on my list to train is the collection recall...that was rough!

Before I left for class I noticed that Bacon did not want to pick up her toys. When I went to try and check her mouth, she yelped when I tried to open it. While I was in our lesson, I noticed she had trouble with the freeze dried treats I was giving her, so I switched to the softer treats. Back at home I tried to investigate her mouth, but she cried when I tried opening it. I felt along inside, and felt her teeth and nothing seemed to be off, but it seemed like her jaw was hurting. We will head to the vet tomorrow to have this checked out. I can't say I have ever seen anything like this before, so this will be something new.

Bacon wasn't any better yesterday so I took her to the vet. In sitting at the vet's I noticed that she had a pretty pronounced swelling under her right eye. When my vet went over her, he also found an enlarged lymph node on her left side of her face. Yes, we have a diagnosis, and it of course in nothing simple. Bacon has Masticatory Muscle Myositis, commonly called "MMM disease". MMM is an immune system disorder in which the dog’s immune system identifies the dog’s own muscle tissue as foreign and attacks it. Dogs with MMM cannot open their mouths without excruciating pain. They cannot eat, chew, or pick up their toys. The 'masticatory' muscles are the muscles involved with chewing. MMM causes these muscles to become swollen and painful. The treatment is to put her on very high doses of Prednisone for a while, probably up to 6 months. Then we will wean her very slowly off and see if it comes back. She may need to be on Pred her whole life (which would be a total freaking nightmare). I am praying and hoping for the more positive side where in 6 months it clears up and she never relapses. Some dogs do not respond to prednisone, and that can be catastrophic. You can google this disease if you want to learn more.

I am numb. Pretty darn numb. I finally got her heart condition somewhat under control and now this! When will it stop? I know she is with me for a reason, I just wish it could be different. Why does so much have to pile up on the world's sweetest puppy?

You would never know she has an issue, other than she doesn't want to pick up her toys anymore and she struggles to eat hard treats. I took her to rally run-throughs and used a very soft treat that I broke into tiny crumbs. She did pretty well. She is still happy and bouncy. Me, not so much. Early this morning I woke up in another panic attack. I haven't had one of those since winter. My panic was mostly about Mark, although he is handling treatment well and doing as well as can be expected. I had a moment in the darkness of the morning where I lost it. Thankfully I was alone, so no one had to witness it. I got up, cleaned up, and went about my day. It's all I can do at this point.

Noodle, Bacon, and I traveled to Dayton with our training partners for a rally trial. I was really happy with these courses - minimal sits, and lots of movement and space...perfect for big dogs! Noodle was in fine form today. I gave her a workout, entering her in all 4 classes (Choice, master, Excellent, and Advanced). She had great HIGH scores in all 4 classes, and stayed motivated and happy to work throughout the whole day. When Noodle is feeling good, it's like the whole world smiles. She has THAT sort of effect on me! I know we won't really be competitive at the AKC Rally Invitational, but I am kind of looking forward to doing that with her in December. NOT looking forward to the chaos and mayhem that the Royam Canin show in Orlando contains, but you gotta take the good with the bad.

Bacon had to wait around all day until it was her turn, but she is such a rockstar in her crate, it was fine. She was entered in Advanced A and Intermediate. In Advanced, she was super distracted. The judge made a laughing sound when we were at the start, so of course Bacon left me to go visit her. There were a lot of distractions, including a bulldog with major breathing issues who snorted and snorkled near the entrance gate the whole time she was in the ring, and that made it hard to keep her focus on me. However, she did well despite the challenges, and her sits were perfect! I am pretty proud of that as we have worked on that a lot the past 3-4 weeks.

We went back in the ring for Intermediate, which was on leash. She did a little better in that class. With these two qualifying runs, Bacon finished her Rally Intermediate and Rally Advanced titles simultaneously. We will take a break before competing again, mainly to learn the new Excellent sighs and to also work on her focus in distracting places.

I should mention that Bacon's jaw seems a bit better. She started picking up her toys again at home, and had no problem chewing treats that I gave her. I am still waiting on the blood test results for a definite diagnosis.

Dolphin and I did something brand new to the both of us - we attended a two-day Tracking clinic. It was a wonderful clinic, so informative and so much information! I had a lot of fun, and although I am not positive Dolphin really understands what he is tracking just yet, he seemed to really enjoy it so I will probably pursue it. Just what I need, another dog sport to train and compete in haha! Dolphin is so ready to work for me, he makes it a joy to try new things.

I am certifiably insane - after spending 2 LONG days (that started at 7:45 am) at the tracking seminar, I got up at the crack of dawn and drove 2 1/2 hours to Westlake for an agility trial. I was extra insane as I entered BOTH Dolphin and Noodle. The day was a bit of a mixed bag. Pizza is in season so Dolphin has been agitated every night, howling and restless, so he was pretty tired all day and didn't run his best. He did manage to get a really nice Master Standard Q and finished his Master Gold Agility title. That title is earned after getting 75 Qualifying runs. Whew!

Noodle ran fantastic! Unfortunately she missed her weave entrance in standard (which is SO unlike her), and also knocked a bar in Jumpers (also SO unlike her). However, she ran FAST and motivated, and it was such a joy to run her again! We only need 2 more Double QQ's and 133 points to finish her PACH title outright (without any drop down points), so I think I am going to try and get that done in the next year while she can still run. #Goals

Bacon has been doing really well and doesn't seem to have any jaw pain anymore. I got the blood test results back today (my vet is on vacation in Italy but still made it a point to text me the results from overseas so I wouldn't have to wait). The results? Borderline positive. So not fully positive, but not negative. They recommend a muscle biopsy in her jaw. Nope, not going to do that. I am not going to risk her heart by putting her under anesthesia right now. I have an appointment with MedVet on Tuesday so we will see what they think is the best course of action.