OCTOBER ALREADY!

Well, this year seems to be just winging by at breakneck speed. September just went zipping by so fast, it's amazing. You would think, since it was such a soggy month this year, that it would have felt like it dragged on for ages, but no -- I guess there was just a lot going on so there was hardly time to think about time slipping by.

Since I've been a bit remiss in updating the blog in September, I guess there's some catching up to do. First off: Abby got her AADC (Advanced Agility Dog of Canada title) at AVID's September trial. That means she now moves up into Masters for her Standard runs. She's still working away on her Advanced games, so it'll be a little while before she's running in Masters in everything. She's also running in the Veteran category now, which gives her a little more time to complete her runs, which is nice. She was consistently running clean but being just a fraction of a second or a second or two over the time allowed. Now she has that wee bit extra breathing room. Nonetheless, we're still working on speeding her up. The latest tactic in her training sessions is using sardines. She ran like a speeding bullet at her Thursday lesson when given this new incentive. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to translate into speed at the ScallyWaggs fun trial this past weekend. I think she was bogged down a bit by the deep sand that we were running in. Or maybe she was just having an off-day.

However, the footing didn't seem to bother Zack, who ran like a speed demon at the fun trial (but not at the AVID trial). If he carries that speed through to next Saturday's runs at the Capital Comets trial, then he just might pull in some Qs. Running him yesterday at the fun trial was like running him a year ago. He just went hell-bent for leather. I was so happy for him. In the intervening year, he's also gotten better at his obstacle performance, so put the two together, and hopefully he'll be back in the groove again.

Gemma is improving week to week. At the AVID trial, I entered her in three runs. In her first run, she finished about 5 obstacles (and visited a couple of ring crew) before exiting the ring. In her second run, she finished about half of the obstacles (and visited the judge). And in her third run, she completed the course -- her only fault being an off-course she incurred by running by the very last jump. She was only two seconds over time (most of that lost navigating the teeter). All very good. At the fun trial, she improved with each run, staying pretty well focused the entire time. She's getting better at ignoring the judge and ring crew and sticking to the business of running the course. She had a very good tunnelers run to finish the day. All in all, she made me very proud on Saturday.

I'm still waiting for some pix to share on the blog...of the August ScallyWaggs trial, and from the September Roadsters trial. Stay tuned!

On the human side of things, I handed in my notification of the date I've chosen as my retirement date. That would be January 18, 2011. Now it's getting real. Wow. Lots of adjustments coming up in my life. I'll be looking for part-time work, of course. I'd go start raving bananas not doing something. But part-time is a much better approach at this point. Plus, some extra cash beyond the pension is needed...to support my dog habit.