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crash course in agility

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Agility is humbling. Even if dammit, you don’t need to be humbled. You know who you are, how hard you do or don’t train, if you’re a weirdo homeschooler with a hothouse flower of a dog. You’ve gone round the topic enough to be pretty pleased with just holding your own little spot in the agility universe. Not aiming to be the fastest and the bestest and the holy shit wowie-est. Just going along.

It’s been quite a month. Read the long version or just watch the video.

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When I launched into my month long agility marathon I thought, yea, it’s a lot but we’ll have fun, learn a lot, be with friends. What could go wrong? The first week was a seminar with Daisy Peel. Maybe the best seminar I’ve been to ever. I probably should have stopped there and gone into a survival bunker and lived off the info for a few months.

That weekend we had a USDAA trial, which started off pretty well. Saturday we finished our Starters Jumpers title and even ran well enough in Steeplechase to barely barely miss the finals (a 5 fault on the AF pushed us over time, boohoo).

Then: BOOM! On Sunday morning en route to the trial there was, um, a misunderstanding about a four way stop sign. Universe checking in. Car totaled. Amazingly, I had switched Favor from our old rickety wire crates to a plastic Ruff Tough kennel only 36 hours earlier. She was fine and apart from an airbag burn and some cuts and scrapes I was fine. And also was really, really touched that people who I had only recently met sprang into action and came to our assistance. Heartwarming.

I brought Favor to the chiro vet on Monday: a little stiff but okay. So onwards into week two: a working spot in Ann Braue’s Masters/International clinic. Really, really fun. We are able to do some pretty snazzy stuff and it feels easy. I bow down before the gods of foundation training.

Onwards! To Ohio! Just a few days later I’m auditing a Linda Mecklenburg international seminar. Poor woman, broke her arm, so day two I practiced with some really, really good handlers. Insert a little bit of self-doubt here. Followed by three days of IncrediPAWS camp with Jenn Crank, Karen Holik, and Mary Ellen Barry.

Tired yet?

It was an exhausting, informative, and challenging week. Learned that I need to run faster. LIKE A LOT FASTER. Discovered some big holes in that foundation. Felt weird little twinges of self doubt vibrating a little more strongly. Questioned how possible is it for the weirdo homeschooler to make progress when the number one thing I’m learning is that we need to be in class more to get her around other dogs. (And there isn’t a class for us to attend, so moping about it got me nowhere.) Little icky spikes of wishing things were differently: that we were faster, that we worked with trainers, that we had done x and y before doing z. Ugh.

Commence whining to friends.

Stop whining to friends and my wonderful teacher Daisy who always talks sense. Remember all the things I already know about why I do this sport, how much I love training and running with my dog, how it’s all about the experience, never the result. OBVIOUSLY!

So week four, off to wrap up the agility marathon with an ASCA trial. Which, predictably, blows completely the fuck up. I’m distracted, disconnected, blah blah. Favor is actually running pretty fast (go figure, since I’d been feeling discouraged about speed) but we are out of sync and she is acting like a crazy little party goblin. Yes we need to be in classes. Yea, it’s a bummer that we aren’t. And then in the last couple runs of the weekend it feels like we are getting it together and then — damn!!! I forgot the course in Elite Regular. And I thought we had that run in the bag.

Drive home three hours plus in the foggy dark, feeling very very sorry for myself, completely convinced I should never, ever do this again. Mope intensely to a couple friends. (SO SORRY.) Hear the same good stuff. (YES I DO LISTEN, I PROMISE!)

Long month and we are due for a good long break. No agility for us for at least six weeks. I’m taking some intense French lessons and maybe … god, I don’t know. Getting in shape so that I can run faster?


Filed under: agility, ASCA, booger, corriendo, dog agility, Favor, friends, gimpy, handling, Illinois, mental management, moods, rocking, seminars, training, travel, USDAA, vet, video Tagged: agility homeschooler, Australian Shepherd, dog agility, don't worry, fun, mental game

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