Awaken to Opportunity

The theme of life lately.





The Dog and I, we had a fabulous fun time running FEO together. Make no mistake. It’s been awhile since there were moments of just us two and being able to have that made it even more special.



It was exciting, educating and ever so humbling. Some of those teams- wow! No guts no glory- no regrets. You could see it in their faces and feel it in the emotion afterwards. I had a unique opportunity to be at the heart of it, where everything was so real and raw, the good and the bad all flowing at once. And me wondering if I could do that, could I be so brave? Could I ever put myself out there in that way? No guts no glory- no regrets. Something to think about.



By definition, my being there and running didn’t mean anything to anyone but me. A nice safe little place to work from. But I still wanted to try hard and do our best. To see what our best was. Now I’m not sure I did, not sure my motivation was there for it. Not in the way it was for some people. I thought before that I wanted to do well. But I did it on a whim. For a bunch of floating reasons- nothing concrete, not an ‘aim’ in mind. But if it was ‘for real’ for me, I might have done things like practice. Like find a way to work courses when I knew it was what I needed. Be in shape. Or you know, figure out for myself what the motivation was.



Basically I feel like I need to get some things figured out. What I want, where I want to go and then how will I get there. I do want to have something to put on the line and then put it there. I want no holds barred, no regrets kind of moments, not safe little places to work from where I have excuses and nothing to answer to but lots of things to hide behind.



It was just for fun, but I don’t want it to be that way. I don’t mean, take the fun away please. But why can’t we have fun and meaning? Fun with a purpose? I want to learn to have fun in these moments where what I want is there for the taking and I can enjoy the attempt to snatch it, not one or the other moments.



Anyways. Like I said, humbling. Educating.



But despite this, regardless of how I feel about myself and whether I am going to get on the bus or off… I am just so proud of my little dog. My unpolished gem. She is made of stronger things after all. And if she can do THAT well, maybe I can learn to be brave too.




"I knew that in the silence that followed, that anything could happen here. It might be too late again. I might have missed my chance. But I would at least know I tried, that I took my heart and extended my hand, whatever the outcome."

Totally Like Me.

Dog show number 2 of 3 in the series is complete. Didn’t I say I wasn’t going to do this again??

But this time around doesn’t seem so horrible. The Dog is holding up well and is looking more and more comfortable at 26”.  She does well in practice so really, at this point all we can do is trial and see what we have and where we are at.

And I think we are in a really good place!

***

Going into the weekend, I was working off of goals from last weekend- control “self-talk” being the main one. For me, this means thinking in positives and if things should go downhill, not letting negative thoughts cause a traffic jam in my head.  I can’t say I have the easiest time letting go of bad runs, especially if they pile up. This of course leads to MORE bad runs if you don’t let them go. Hence the traffic jams. So I wanted to work on just letting the less desirable flow through. Learn my little lesson and move it on.   I decided it was totally like me to be that way.

And I totally was!

***

While we didn’t have any ‘bad runs’ we left Saturday with lessons learned but otherwise empty handed. This is the sort of thing that I would usually think about after a day like that, while driving home, maybe even when trying to fall asleep- why did I do that- of COURSE she would knock that bar, dumbdumbdumb, etc but because it’s like me now to just let it go, we came back Sunday and I had a totally clear head. Yup, mistakes happened but goodness! I didn’t have to relive them again. We all know how crazy-making Groundhog’s Day was. Important life lesson somewhere in that movie.

***

The result of moving on?

Fantastic Dog! Qs happening! Good team work on all sides!

Amazing what you can do when you start dropping some baggage.

Things that I am REALLY happy with, therefore allowing to make a home in my brain:

Driving her dogwalk! Yay! Here is a video-

Yes, criteria was not exactly met on the first. BUT this is a situation where she would have crept before. Now, from a standstill, she works her butt off to get up to speed and run ahead. (And hey, he didn’t call it so if you are going to miss, miss it FAST. Hehe!)   All of the other dogwalks for the weekend were really good. Like, REALLY good.

Jumping! And my handling of her when jumping!  No video, but she had an AMAZING Jumpers run. Clean, fast, perfect.  I even found the ‘secret’ to rear crosses- cue her for them from ahead. Sounds weird but people do it all the time.  She keeps her bars up when I stick downstream of her because she has better information then.  AND I remembered to trust the doggy. She is responsive. SHE IS.  No need to talk to her (or lose my head and scream at her) when jumping.

Our front crosses just keep getting better and better. She is picking up my collection cue now too- like, for real! Collecting! Once again, I have Daisy to thank for this little gem. And probably Tracy too.  It all mushed together for me finally though.

And can I just say again that she is responsive?  I am so, so proud of this. Remember when she wasn’t a few months ago? And went to China? And didn’t know how to pull past anything because she was so obstacle focused? ALL GONE! She feels so different.  She follows me! Sunday’s Standard course was very trappy and by golly (heck YES I said by golly!) she just went right where I did.

***

STILL looking for a solution to start lines. This feels like the last missing link to complete and total awesomeness.  I’m hoping that the change of venue next weekend will provide feedback either way. She was MUCH zippier during our last out of town show.

***

Speaking of a change in venue- super excited for next weekend! WTTO! FEO fun time for us! Cheering on the competitors (ESPECIALLY BROTHER DOG)! Face melting courses!! It’s gonna be awesome.

Oh, and in the spirit of NOT throwing anything at your dog for the first time in a show…

Homemade viaduct jump!! Haha, heavy emphasis on the DUCT.

I may go into business. “Love agility? Want to train more at home but can’t afford such luxury materials as rubber, metal, PVC and wood needed to make your own equipment? Well, here is your answer!  Cardboard Cut-out Agility! Dog tested. Homeless person approved.”

I’m thinking millions. 

They said that about skydiving too...

At only ONE agility event am I semi-ok with being a spectator- the AKC World Team tryouts.

We are quite spoiled in MN- we get to host this event; no VOD for us! No, we get to watch, front and center, live while teams duke it out on the field to win the coveted two spots.  This is the most intense, exciting trial I am able to witness.

This year- no exception to that. The courses were INSANE. But in the same way that skydiving is insane- people are still doing it voluntarily, just for the rush. The FUN kind of insanity, from which dangerous, addictive habits are formed.  As an agility junkie, I have to admit I felt positively ITCHY to try them out.

But first I had to watch.

Sooooo...cooooool…  SOOOO HAAAARRRDDD!

Of course, some teams made them look easy.

Not many though. Very few clean runs each round. Lots of brilliant moments though. I sincerely hope everyone went home happy. (Seriously, even YOU, Exasperated Sigh Lady.) All the dogs did something well; they each survived some disgusting trap, or nailed a ridiculous weave entry or managed to not bite their handler- big accomplishments! This was not a regular agility show! Everyone should be proud just for running at all after walking that first course. Ouch! It takes a brave, confident person to attempt that beast. And if it didn’t go exactly right, remember the brilliant moments and that you tried. Plus, there is always next year, right?

THE Beast- no clue why it's sideways. Oops.

So congrats to all, and thanks for the viewing pleasure.  Super congrats to the MN reps and to those who won their spots (some crossover there!).  The Dog sends Super Squishy Prideful Sister Congrats to her Brother Dog. (I’m not sure why they are squishy, must be a Sister Dog Thing.) 

***

In our humble little portion of the dog-o-sphere, we did set up a lot of the elements from the courses (like I said, agility junkie!). I was really pleased with how The Dog handled them.  I can see running these types of courses how much better she has gotten on jumping into me and just plain following my lines. A year ago, I would never have gotten her through the sequence of Aframe-backside jump-post turn and now she can do it easily. Cool.

***

As for The Pup (like I could skip a pupdate?!?!?) she was the lucky dog who got to come with me to watch the tryouts. I am amazed at how well she does, no matter where she goes. She was just fine with hanging out there in that high charged environment- she fell asleep in my purse!  And I think that was the record for the longest she has gone without being naughty- the full 9 hour day and she was a model citizen every minute. (OK, except when she decided to steal the treats from my bag. And drag the water dish around. And eat floor fuzzies. But other than that.) 

Sadly (???) I think this means she is growing up. I noticed yesterday how very much like a DOG she looks now- if she doesn’t wriggle you wouldn’t even guess she was a puppy still.  In general, she is starting to chill a LOT and now she will come lay down in my lap in the evenings instead of finding trouble.  She’s making better decisions and is getting less destructive. The biting especially is starting to ebb. Sniff…sniff… soon she might not even want to steal my socks and hide them from me!

Probably won’t happen THAT soon though. 

Oh, and her ears are definitely going up. Unless they decide to go back down.  While on Saturday they were a bit warped, they spent most of Sunday up. They were still up this morning; we’ll see what happened during the day later when I get home.  Hilarious- the sleepier she is, the droopier they get. After the WTTs, they flopped like a retriever's!! 

***

I’ll get some video up this week- have to share her awesome progress on pivots (got some advice from ST and now she is following my leg like it was made of socks or something) and on her tricks. Handstand is nearly there, as is the monster trick.  (Her ‘sit up-‘ Seriously the cutest thing ever.) I hope I can teach her to speak so she can do ‘monster’ and go “RAARRR!”   The Dog is learning to ‘drum’ which is amusing.  Anyone know where I can buy a dog sized drum she can’t destroy? Fisher Price obviously didn’t have Border Collies in mind when designing play sets. 

***

Time with puppy toys and NO puppy equals fuzzy warm magic happy time...

Dis what life COULD be without Da Pup!

...Snap out of it! 

Wha? Huh? Aw nuts, it was just a dream...