As Seen on Facebook: Why We do Agility

Today two agility friends shared this video on Facebook (and more to come, I have a feeling), so I wanted to share it with you.



Those who are not dog people (or horse people, coming from my "old life") don't really understand how we can spend all our free time, "waste" our money, and exhaust ourselves just "running our dogs" through courses and being happy with it. This video shows exactly why--we do it because we love our dogs. We love the happiness it brings us to work together and have fun. We might not Q every time, or, if we do, we might only bring home ribbons that clutter our walls or our shelves, but that's not why we do it.

I had a former boss who flat out said, "You know, you'd actually be able to travel and do more things like I do if you didn't waste your money on dog agility." (Oh, yes, she actually said that.) I was appalled by her saying that to me. My response? "I don't waste my money doing dog agility. It's my sport and it's something I've grown to love. If I didn't do agility with my dogs, I think we'd all be unhappy."

After a particularly hard weekend of not Qing with LaMesa, I always need to be reminded about how much she still loves me. She doesn't know we didn't Q--she still got her treats and she got to play with mom, one-on-one. For Dally, I've always had to make it fun. Now I see how both girls run their little hearts out for me every time we get to the starting line.

We do agility because we love our dogs. We do it because they are our hearts and bring us joy. If a Q or a championship title come along the way, then that's just the icing on the cake. Until then, we'll continue to "waste" our money on those "cheap ribbons" and the "worthless" certificates that come in the mail every so often. We'll sacrifice our comfort of nice hotels for the cheap ones so we can afford to participate in the sport we love. We'll be alright with saying our dogs go to a chiropractor, yet I've yet to see one for myself. The happiness and joy we feel as we snuggle up to our dogs at the end of the day trumps all of that, and trumps that European vacation said former boss might get to enjoy every so often.

Ending the Q Drought!

So if you're a regular reader to my blog, you know LaMesa and I have had some struggles in the past year--missed weave entrances, popping out of weaves, dropped bars, etc. And you know we've been working through those issues with the weave pole bootcamp and Dawn Weaver seminar. Well, I'm so happy to say that hard work is finally paying off!

LaMesa's weekend was definitely more successful than Dally's weekend in Nashville. Saturday we started off in Standard. She knocked the second jump, but nailed her weaves!! I was so excited to see her drive to the weave poles and nail all 12 (THE FIRST TIME!). Then we had a little bobble on the teeter--not sure what spooked her, because normally she loves to make the teeter bang, but oh well--she nailed the weaves!

Next came Jumpers--and we were clean! No knocked bars! Twelve weave poles in a row, the first time!  After she cleared the triple jump (which tends to be a nemesis of ours some times), I took a deep breath and sent her into the weaves after the tunnel. She drove through them like she was on fire, even hopping out at the end like she was just as excited as I was. Now I was just holding my breath, willing her to jump just a little higher so she wouldn't knock a bar. I even changed my plans on the serpentine because I didn't want to risk her shortening her stride. As she got over the second-to-last jump, I could feel it, but I knew we had one more jump. Once she took off and she landed with that bar still up, I had tears in my eyes and I was hopping up and down--so proud of my little Vallhund! As Merinda says in the video, yes, I did cry a little. It was such a relief, and she ran so beautifully!



Sunday's runs were very successful, but we didn't come away with any Qs. In Standard LaMesa came out like a rocket--she was moving so fast I couldn't get in a planned front cross (which you can see in the video). Then coming off the table, she moved so quickly to the teeter, I couldn't pull her back to jump the triple. Still, we regrouped and continued, and she nailed the weaves yet again, and then rocked an awesome 4 jump serpentine.



In Jumpers LaMesa wasn't moving as quickly as I thought she would be for me to do a rear cross, so I pushed her past a jump. But she still left all the bars up and again drove through those weave poles.


I'm feeling so much more confident handling LaMesa now. A few friends were saying, "No more worrying about those weaves!" But I know differently--there's always a slight worry about the weaves, and the jumps, and everything else. Dally has taught me to never take a clean run for granted and to always continue to train and push for a faster, clean time.

Our next trial isn't until the end of February...ugh!