PJpupp: The PM2 Dog Agility Team has been busy lately. I think the last time we blogged we had just gotten back from our trip to the USDAA Regionals up in Northern California. Since then the younger dogs on the team have gone to some AKC trials in Southern California. One was in Camarillo and the other was in Lake View Terrace. Magi earned new titles at both trials. He now has his AKC MX (for Master Excellent) and MXJ (for Master Excellent Jumpers) titles, which you earn by getting 10 qualifying runs in the highest level of AKC agility, Excellent B.

Rickie Roo: I went to the shows too! I was super-duper fast!

Gigi: Yeah…so fast you flew right off the dogwalk like Superdog. I just don’t understand why you do the dogwalk so nicely at home and at class, but then you’re a crazy dog when we are at a trial.

Rickie Roo: Don’t tell mommy, but I’m trying to keep her on her toes.  If I were perfect all the time, she might put her focus on LC instead!

Gigi: You might have a point. Before you came along I got lots more of mommy’s training time. But to tell you the truth, I like it better now because I can nap in the sun while you work.

PJpupp: And before either of you came, Mommy would take me to class two or three times a week. Now that I’m 12 years old, I only come to the classes that she teaches and watch them. Or if I look like I want to do some agility I will run through a few tunnels and over some jumps just to show I still can.

Rickie Roo: LC pie is learning a lot of agility. She really likes it.

Gigi: Mommy says she’s a lot like you and a little like me too! Spunky and naughty, but sweet and sensitive all in one bundle of joy.

Rickie Roo: Joy? Who’s Joy?

Gigi: Well, we have an Auntie Joy who is an animal communicator, but when mommy says that I think she means we are making her oh-so-happy.

PJpupp: I love our Auntie Joy. Do you know that you can send her messages from your mind and she will get them through pictures, feelings, thoughts and words, and then she can tell your mommy whatever you want to say?

Rickie Roo: Really?? I have lots to say!

Gigi: I bet you do…Maybe Auntie Joy can tell Rickie Roo what mommy wants her to do on the dog walk [snickers a little].

PJpupp: Gigi, I think she can give suggestions, but that doesn’t mean the doggies are going to do what she suggests. But I think she can tell the people what the dog is thinking about certain situations, or if they are hurting in places, and so on.

Gigi: Didn’t Auntie Joy tell mommy where your back was hurting you?

PJpupp: Yes, she did. Mommy had gotten a gift certificate for a reading as a birthday gift, so she got on the phone with Auntie Joy. She couldn’t believe that anyone could know anything about a doggie over the phone that they had never met, but you know mommy — her saying is, “If it’s for free, it’s for me!” So she wasn’t going to waste a prepaid session! Joy asked what breed I was and then said to mommy  that I was the most mellow Border Collie she had ever met. Which is totally true. Mommy was surprised because one thing you very seldom hear about a B.C. is that we are mellow.

Rickie Roo: How did she know that?

PJpupp: She just send me a mental picture message saying, “Hi… I’m your new friend, Auntie Joy,” and I sent back the message, “Hi, I’m PJpupp,” and she knew. At least that’s what I think I did. I was chewing on a bone at the same time right by mommy’s feet.

Gigi: What did she do next?

PJpupp: Well, Joy asked if Mommy had any questions for me. She did. She wanted to know why I was stopping dead still right in the middle of a fun agility run and looking at her like she was on crack. She wanted to know why I wouldn’t keep going. Auntie Joy communicated with me a bit and then told mommy that I was hurting. That the discs in my back called L1, L2 and L3 should be looked at by a vet. Mommy didn’t even know what that meant, but she wrote it down. At the time I was maybe 5 years old. Mommy said well, if her back hurts, I wish she’d just lay down or something so I’d know that’s what was going on. So Auntie Joy told me that.

Rickie Roo: But no one ever lays down on an agility course!

Gigi: Hello?? That’s the point, silly. That way mommy would know PJpupp was sending her a message!

Rickie Roo: What happened next?

PJpupp: Well, mommy took me to the vet and I got X-rays. I didn’t really like that too much, but they found out the discs in my back were not so good — L1, L2 and L3, just like Auntie Joy said.

Gigi: That’s weird. I wonder how she knew that when you didn’t even know that.

PJpupp: And at the next show, when I went to do my snooker run, I was running so fast and then my back hurt when mommy had me turn quickly to the weave poles. I remembered what Auntie Joy told me and I looked at mommy, stared her in the eyes, and laid down right there in the middle of the course.

Rickie Roo: What did mommy do? 

PJpupp: She waved at the judge and then she picked me up. While carrying me to my crate, she looked at our friend Carla and started singing a theme from a TV show called “The Twilight Zone.” They were both really freaked out. Then they called Auntie Joy to tell her what happened, and she didn’t even remember that she had told me to do that. How funny is that?

Rickie Roo: I wonder if Auntie Joy would talk to me?

Gigi: Maybe she will. When we leave for Kentucky this week, we will be in the car a very long time. Maybe she can tell you how you will do at the Cynosport Games.

PJpupp: Maybe she can. I sure hope all of you do well in Kentucky.

Rickie Roo: You aren’t going?

PJpupp: No, I’m going to stay home with Mushu Hu and daddy. Mommy says he doesn’t like to sleep by himself. 

Gigi: Don’t  you remember, Roo? It’s you, me, Chili Dog, Magi and Perry competing, and LC Pie and Hobo are coming along too, since they are team security. Our friend Robert and his Aussie Cheers are also coming with us in the i Love Dogs mobile.

Rickie Roo: I remember now. I didn’t know Perry was coming.

Gigi: Yes, he is 12, like PJpupp. But since he lost a lot of weight recently and really, really wants to do one more trial in honor of his brother and littermate Marlowe (who was a top USDAA champion dog and recently passed away), Mei is going to run him in the Veteran All Around Event.  Mei is also running Chili Dog in the Junior Handling Classes. Since Mei is in school, she gets to fly in for the days of the event, so she won’t be in the car with us.

Rickie Roo: I remember now! I get to team up with Lexi, my cousin Surfer Girl’s sister. 

Gigi: Yes, and I get to run with Jackson, a super-nice Border Collie from Virginia.

Rickie Roo: Who is Magi running with?

Gigi: His friend Tizzy — she’s coming from Arizona to compete.

Rickie Roo: [Chasing her tail very excitedly and jumping about] Whoo hoo! My brother Burns and his brother Thor will be in Kentucky, too! And Aunt Jeri!!

Gigi: [Just as excited] Oh, and Dylan and Moxie and Surfer will be there too! [She starts chasing and tumbling with Roo all over the office] And our party boy, Duncan! 

Rickie Roo: And Luka and Letti, too! Lots and lots of our friends! [She starts spinning around]

LC: [Wakes up from her nap and joins in the fun] Woof! My special boyfriend Flip, the Parson Russell Terrier, will be there too! Fun, fun! [She stops and looks around to see if anyone is looking, then makes a puppy puddle right in the middle of the room.]

PJpupp: Oh my…you girls got LC so excited, she made a puddle. You better calm down now.

Rickie Roo: I can’t help it! I’m so excited we are going to see all our friends!! [She jumps on top of Gigi with a big pounce.]

Gigi: Me too!! [She squiggles out, grabs a toy and starts shaking the stuffing out of it.]

Mommy: [Walking into the room] OH, NO! WHO MADE THE PUDDLE?!

Suddenly all the fun stops and everyone looks at LC. Then they all sneak off very quietly to their beds. LC hides in her crate and makes herself as small as can be, with only her the tip of her little black nose poking out the door. The only one left in the room is PJpupp. 

PJpupp: It wasn’t me.

Since Mommy knows exactly who did the puddle but can’t prove it, she just looks at poor PJpupp, who has only had just one puddle in the house in her 12 years. Mommy sighs and gets the towels. Since she is cleaning, there is no one left to type this blog. You’ll have to check in next time to see what happens on the road or at the games.

If you want to learn about our team member Magi, check out the article in the September/October issue of Dogsport Magazine about some of the dogs in the AKC Canine Partners Program.