Head in the Clouds.

Sometimes dreams seem too good to be true, you stick your head up in the clouds and take a look around at everything that could be...but everyone's always said that being stuck there is wrong. So you fall back to earth.

Welcome to reality.

But it isn't really...for reality doesn't have to be absolute; it is interdependent with your actions. Your reality depends solely on what you make of it; the "realistic" goals others set for you will always fall just short of the fairy tale version of Cloud 9 in your mind. Personally, I don't mind living with my head in the clouds, sure everything gets foggy every now and then, and it is awfully bright...but then again the future is too, so I suppose that's fitting more than anything. Certainly better than living with your head in the sand. The best part of it all is that no one can tell me what I can't do, I don't have to listen to people listing the "problems" in life, or tell me now impossible everything is, and always will be.

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.

The reality people keep ranting on about is entirely based around problems. Think about it, no one ever welcomes you to reality when something good happens. Reality is entirely negative, it is obstacles, and statistics and all the things standing in your way wrapped up in one. Knowing that, why anyone would want to be realistic is beyond me. Perhaps my head isn't screwed on quite right, maybe I'm delusional...maybe I'll never know. But at least for me, reality will always seem to be an illusion, a trick, that other people fool you into believing. It keeps you firmly on the ground... with no way of shooting for the stars, or taking a leap of faith, you can't even pop your head into the clouds to imagine "What-if?". Reality should give you wings, like red-bull only without all the caffeine.

Don't let someone else's opinion of you become your reality.

USDAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Champions

What can I say? Jenna never ceases to amaze me...

Jenna and Trixie, an English Cocker Spaniel handled by Blake Rivas, won the 2013 PVP Team Championships. The first ever Junior Handler Team to win a USDAA Team Championship, and to top it all off Jenna won Overall Top 12" dog. 

Honestly in this journey, in this year, I've begun to discover what Jenna and I are really capable of. There have been so many opportunities that I simply counted us out for because I never believed in the team.  I always believed that I could handle clean, and that Jenna would do her job...but something was missing. I feel as though my attitude towards competition has been altered... I'm not sure what did it, or if I'm just imagining it. But this year has already been so incredible, and I don't think thanking Jenna a hundred-thousand times would ever be enough to say how grateful I am for her sticking by me through the last 6 years. 

USDAA Mid-Atlantic Regionals: Day 1

Best part of any competition, when the stress sets in and your nerves go on end. It's when handling and skills become second to simply holding it together. It isn't a matter of "can you" anymore. You can....but will you keep your head? 

Ended the first day of USDAA Mid-Atlanitc Regionals sitting in 3rd place for team with Jenna and Trixie putting down 4 solid runs throughout the day. Could no be more thrilled with how the girlies did, and today we run Team relay for a shot at the podium. Honestly this is my favorite type of situation, stakes are high, lots to lose, but no matter what the final results come out to be the journey to where we are now was unforgettably fun. 

Underestimating the opponent.

Never underestimate your opponent.

Have you ever looked at a course and thought “oh shit, this is going to be wicked hard.”? Whether that statement is said with trembling fear or you say it like me, with a sick sense of excitement, I think we have all muttered something of that variety under our breaths while looking at a course map. Okay now what about the opposite? Ever looked at a course and thought “Wow, this is so simple! It’ll be easy to run clean.”? I have, and to be completely honest I do not put tons of effort towards the planning and memorization of these courses. I’m not sure if I’m the only one who gets lackadaisical when they see a circle, but I always relax when I see something that doesn’t “look” necessarily challenging. 

So tonight I was training on a very steeplechase/T2B style course. Small challenges surrounded by miles of wicked fast lines…okay well not miles, but at least a hundred yards or so. I focused on the challenges; serp this, blind here, don’t role out of the front until she’s rotated, blah blah blah…and I figured I could just take off down the straight line, decelerate turn and go around this simple circle of obstacles without a problem. Well holy fudge nuggets was I wrong or what… I’m not sure what I missed when I was walking the course that made me think that straight line into a circle was going to be “easy”, but I didn’t even attempt to handle it until I was RIGHT on top of the jumps realizing something had gone wrong. Three failed attempt later, I finally told Whimzy to go play in the pool so I could go look at the line again. I ended up shaping the straight line with a blind-rear combo and then rearing the a-frame, instead of "oh I'll just run this way and Whimzy will pick up all the jumps." Duh, Kathleen, of course that was a dumb plan.

Now this obviously isn’t the first time I’ve NQ’d in the backyard, I do that like 5 times minimum every training session. But it was interesting to realize my only real mistake was underestimating my opponent. It’s never good to over think a course and stress over how challenging it is, but the opposite is also true. No matter what dog you are running, looking at a course and judging it as simple before you really dissect the handling needed to get you through the course is equally as unwise.

Perhaps I’m the only one who has run into this issue because for some reason I’m incapable of proper course assessment, or ya know I could just be an idiot and the lesson I just got a refresher in is obvious to everyone. Who knows, but I’d like to think that from tonight I’ll remember to look at each course with an equally calm approach, with precise direct handling planned for each section no matter how "easy" it looks. 

Work every foot. 

Walking Off: who really needs a "time out"?

The practice of walking a dog off course started years ago as a simple way to remove a dog from an overly stimulating situation, in which there was no way to continue the course without causing further damage to your foundation. I’ve walked my dogs off in this manner many times, particularly when the dog gets so high in the ring that it is impossible to get them through the rest of the course. Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with calmly excusing yourself from the ring for this type of issue. But more recently, removing the dog from the ring has become more and more of a punishment. Dogs flipped upside down, carried or dragged out by their collars, and even people storming out of the ring without their dogs, which can be considered abandonment, just in case you weren’t aware. There is no purpose, it’s not an “effective training tool”, and it’s based entirely on the handler’s temper getting out of hand. I know we can all get emotional about our runs, good or bad, but in the end agility is a game. Stomping your feet at a knocked bar or having a screaming match with your dog after an off course is completely unacceptable.

And it isn’t just those “problem” dogs that are getting hauled of the course. It’s consistent, honest dogs too, …which honestly I find beyond ridiculous.  Dogs are dogs; they are allowed to make mistakes once in a while. People make up excuses that their dog was too excited, or needed a “time-out”, when really it’s the handlers who need to spend some time thinking about their actions.

So maybe next time, before hauling your “bad, bad, bad dog” off the course, you should remember that 99% of faults on course are caused by handler error.

Just be.

A man once told the Buddha,

“I want happiness.”

The Buddha replied,

“First remove the ‘I’, that’s ego.

Then remove ‘want’, that’s desire.

And now all you are left with is

Happiness.”

Sometimes it takes realizing what was there all along, to get what you’ve always wanted.

In some ways we are all “wannabes”, I know I am. There are things that I have always, always wanted to be. But when you spend so much time simply wanting something, you end up putting distance between yourself and your goal. I think there are times, when used appropriately, that living in the future becomes the best way to reach the future you want.

Extraordinary people live their lives backwards; they create a future and then live into it.

Rather than being a wannabe, just be. 

If you can look at yourself and say that you’ve already accomplished all of your wildest dreams…you eliminate self-doubt. If you can make yourself believe it, you will believe in yourself. It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? And yet, with our greatest enemies often living between our own two ears, it can make such an impact on the future...

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.

It’s that childhood locket dangling over the white lace, the bride herself scented with a custom bridal perfume, with the groom carry grandfather’s pocket watch, and the bride’s delicate fingers wrapped tightly around the fistful of hydrangea, delphinium, and white lilies. That’s something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.

While that wedding tradition rhyme is constantly used by zillions of brides, it is something we agility folk are slowly losing our grip on, and I'm not quite sure we should be tossing away the bouquet so soon. We seem to be perfectly fine with something new and something borrowed, the majority of handlers are open to trying new moves, training more complex courses, and incorporating new training methods into their routines. That’s part of the evolution of the sport. But we are letting go of the old, which isn’t always ideal. I am the first one to say I love all those newfangled, fancy agility moves we are all slowly experimenting with, trying new things is never bad. And yet, similarly it doesn’t hurt to K.I.S.S, keep it simple and stupid. I don’t think there will ever be a combination of handling skills that could ever prove more useful to me, for my dogs, than the basic front cross and rear cross. They are the foundations for handling at a more complex level, they teach people how to read lines, execute, and plan effectively for their own dog’s preferences. Personally I don’t think one can progress as a handler until they understand the principles of good, old-fashioned, basic handling. Really though it comes down to a balance of the new and old; applying the most effective skills we have to each course, whether it be a ketschker or a pull and flip rear cross. I just hope I can always keep the tradition going with my own handling...remembering the old, trying the new, and never being afraid to borrow. 

And hey, if you have something new, something old, and something borrowed, something blue is bound to follow.