Attitude!

Well, looks like I missed the dog agility blog action day yesterday. So here's my belated post :)


Love. That's what I walk into the ring with. Ace taught me that and I think that is one of the most valuable things he has taught me - to always walk into the ring with nothing but love. 

Every single run we have with our dogs is a gift - we never know when our last run will be so just enjoy every second of it. You never see dogs out in the wild running through agility courses - dogs do agility because they love us and enjoy spending that moment with us. Every great run (Q or NQ) is a gift from your dog. 

I remember when Nari got hurt last year at the Chicago Regionals. She started going really slow - I thought it was because she didn't want to run with me anymore but it turns out it was because she was injured. After a couple of adjustments from a couple of chiros and some laser treatments they said I could run her the next day. I pulled her from pretty much every run except for the Grand Prix Finals because we had worked so hard to get there. About halfway through the run she popped out of the weaves - and that was the end of our chance for a bye into the Semis at Cynosports. I knew why she popped out - she was still sore from getting injured the day before. But she ran the rest of the course with a smile on her face. That is the only time I have ever been so happy that I actually cried. It was is amazing how much Nari loves me despite all of my imperfections and faults - Nari loves me and the game so much that she wanted to run with me that day even though she was still sore. 

I recently got an email from a friend and it meant the world to me. I'm just going to share a small portion of it:
"I loved watching you enjoy your dogs, and so despite the fact that I tend to be shy at first I wanted to know you. There are not as many people in our sport as I would like who "get" the true joy of our dogs and the sport. You obviously do."


I struggled for a quite a while to finally understand what agility was all about, but I am just so glad that others see that I am becoming the handler that my dogs deserve. 


I may not be a great handler, but I hope I am the best handler I can be for my dogs when we're out there on the course. So please everyone, don't worry about those Qs and those titles - if you have love they will come.  Love is what this game is all about!