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So Close But Not Today
I thought this NADAC Elite course would be way hard for us but Wyatt almost got it. I have been working on driving to the end of contacts for the last 2 weeks and sending out from the bottom of a contact from behind so it’s good to know that seems to be helping. Another Chance(s) for his championship tomorrow!
Posted in Dog
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One More Chances
After getting our 12th Elite Chances Q, we need one more for Wyatt’s NADAC Championship. We’ve made 7 attempts but no luck so far though we’ve had a few close ones. I am not too worried but I am looking forward to getting it done! I’ve had some problems getting Wyatt all the way down contacts at trials especially at a distance (fine at home, of course) and with running out of room and stopping so Wyatt, being an honest dog, also stops. Have some more tries maybe in late June and definitely over July 4 weekend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQQErLXQm9E&feature=youtu.be
Posted in Dog
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One More Chances
I have been remiss about writing here, focusing more on my robotics blog at http://www.kidsengineer.com/.
But I will do a quick update that Wyatt and I have been picking off some Elite Chances Qs and now only need one more for his NADAC championship. I am so excited! We have 4 tries scheduled for June so I am crossing my fingers.
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Wyatt NADAC Elite Chances March 2013
Whippet Wyatt NADAC Elite Chances Video Run March 9, 201
Posted in Aidan, Dog
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Loss of Our Cat Amara
We lost our cat, Amara, last week. We rescued her at about 1 year old and she lived with us for some 14 years. It was much harder than I thought it would be. I am very attached to my dogs, especially my agility partner Wyatt. I run with them every day. I train obedience every day (now for fun) and train agility daily with Wyatt most days in the warmer months. So I figured that the loss of our cat, who, in comparision, I don’t interact with much would not be too bad.
We started noticing the week before last that she was losing weight and looked a bit off. I changed her food and she seemed to rally a bit. But last Friday, I knew I needed to take her into the vet. I could not get an appointment until Tuesday due to a Monday holiday. Each day, Saturday to Monday, she rapidly went downhill. When we came home Monday from cross-country skiing, she was laying down in the shower, would not even get up, and would not take food or water, so we decided it was time. I took her down to the emergency vet clinic allowing Aidan and Dawn to say goodbye. We told Aidan she might not come back though we were pretty sure she would not.
It would have cost $1500 just to get a diagnosis so considering her age and condition, I decided to have her put down. I was a wreck, lots of tears, but I knew it was the right thing to do. I did agree to have the vet take a look and she supported my decision. They brought her in with a nice blanket and I held and petted her for a long time. She was at peace and dozing in the blanket when the vet finally came in and did what needed to be done.
When I got home late, Aidan was still up waiting to hear what had happened. We were all upset and crying and comforted each other and answered Aidan’s many questions. The next day, I had Aidan and we were both still crying and missing “Kitty” so we wrote a book based on “The Ten Good Things About Barney” by Judith Viorst. We wrote and illustrated it and it helped to read it.
I still feel loss when going to to her hang out spot in the basement, when I throw out some of her stuff, and just at moments when you expect her to be around. In the past, I’ve had outdoor cats, who have just disappeared. So I think this process was harder in a way. But she has a good long life. As Aidan wrote, “Have a good time in heaven, Kitty. She loved our family.”
Posted in Cat, Spirit
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2012 NADAC Agility Whippet Standings
I was happy to see Wyatt, once again, make the Top 10 Breed Lists for many NADAC classes. Great job, Wyatt! This dog Hugo must be awesome too!
2012 NADAC Agility – Whippet Standings – Need at least 3 elite Qs to qualify
1 110 Hugo Chances Whippet Kiely Grundahl
2 30 Wyatt Chances Whippet Dawn Heffernan
1 70 Hugo Jumpers Whippet Kiely Grundahl
1 160 Hugo Regular Agility Whippet Kiely Grundahl
2 95 Wyatt Regular Agility Whippet Dawn Heffernan
1 40 Hugo Touch N Go Whippet Kiely Grundahl
2 30 Wyatt Touch N Go Whippet Dawn Heffernan
1 110 Wyatt Tunnelers Whippet Dawn Heffernan
2 90 Hugo Tunnelers Whippet Kiely Grundahl
3 40 Isaac Tunnelers Whippet Sharron Lane
1 80 Hugo Weavers Whippet Kiely Grundahl
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Digital Life in the Cloud – Shopping Lists
We use Apple’s iCloud in our family to share calendars. This is great for knowing my son’s schedule and for my wife and I knowing each other’s schedule no matter where we are. I also use iCloud to synch podcasts, photos, music, and TV shows. I use Dropbox for all my current graduate school work, mostly to read research papers on my iPad. I recently got an iPhone 5, which I primarily use as a phone but will also use in a pinch to check email, Facebook, and my one social game I play – Mousehunt.
Last week, I got Evernote and To-Do Queue (great app if you have not heard of it) synching correctly on all 3 devices. I also created a new shopping list in Evernote and shared it with my wife. I do most of the shopping but she also shops for us sometimes. It worked pretty well though I did have to stop and check the list in the aisles and it took a little longer that checking a paper list. Also, to uncheck something I bought was a real pain. Evernote repaints the screen every time you check or uncheck something and it’s hard not to check or uncheck an adjacent item frequently. I may research this for a workaround. I will try it some more. I suppose it saves from having to write and remember all the frequent grocery items. And if we forget the list or go on an unplanned shopping trip, it will be there. And having a shared list will be handy at times. Does your family have a different way of sharing information like this in the cloud?
Posted in Tech
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Agility – Journey or the End Result?
Wyatt and I got another NADAC Elite Chances Q (qualifying run) this weekend. Elite Chances is a very difficult class where you have to guide your dog from behind a piece of tape. Your dog can be at much as 30 feet away from you and you have to train your dog to follow your direction and also discriminate between different obstacles from that distance. After breaking a year long “drought” in August, we got 2 additional Qs recently, averaging about 50%. It suddenly seems much easier to me and I feel much more confidently. Of course, feeling confidence helps your performance just as not feeling confident hurts your performance. Confidence (or lack thereof) affecting your performance creates a spiraling effect, which magnifies your success (or not) over time.
I am very happy that we seem to be much better now because I have worked on it for about 3 years. We got our required jumpers and regular Qs years ago and only need 3 more Chance to earn Wyatt’s second agility championship (in 2 different venues CPE and NADAC).
So I noticed that in agility, I feel most happy about our process and I anticipate that getting the NATCH, while it will be really nice, may be somewhat of a let down or at least not such a big deal. The journey has been very rewarding. We are also finishing our basement right now and for me, for physical projects, I feel the most satisfaction with the finished product. Perhaps it has to do with the amount of learning involved.
