Agility Starts Here
Tonight was Envy’s first agility class. It’s exciting to be embarking on another journey with a new dog in performance. I love the feeling of starting with a blank canvas. At this point in our training, (and only at this point) the sky is the limit. Soon enough I will make mistakes and Envy’s limitations will become clear, but now is the time for high hopes and delightful daydreams of fun training sessions and clean runs. I can’t wait until the time when we can fly around a course together and run as one. I know its coming and I’m itching. I need to remember that I am experienced but my dog is learning. ‘Encourage but don’t push’ needs to be my theme. But who can blame me for being eager? If you’ve never had the experience of the heightened bonding that occurs between a dog and its handler during training and performance of a sport, you are missing out on one of life’s greatest joys. Envy did great, she is again proving to be her grandmother’s reflection. She showed a little timidity on the equipment at first but quickly overcame that and was quite pleased with her achievements. The A-frame was her favorite. I love that she has elements of Zool, but is still a very individual dog with a distinct personality. She is very focused on the other dogs (wants to meet them and play) but works through her distractions well. I’m proud of her. Tonight I’ll be dreaming of running agility courses as well as show ring wins with my darling girl. I can’t believe I ever questioned whether to do this breeding of Schnitz to PashN. It was a long time coming, but it’s the best feeling in the world to have the qualities I value embodied in the dog standing at the end of my lead. Sleep tight my Little Pumpkin, we have great days ahead of us.
