Regaining Perspective.

Yesterday I told myself that I need to “Keep it all in perspective.” That no matter how I do on any individual run, my dogs are still amazing.  Today, I had an amazing dog, amazing runs, but one bar in each of Whimzy’s steeplechase rounds. I saw it as bittersweet, an “almost” perfect run. But after mulling it over for a bit I realized I was looking at the knocked bars entirely wrong.

My runs weren’t bittersweet at all…they were ten times the power of SWEET. Just barely 2 year old dog, puts down the fastest time in both round one and round two, so under control, so fast, so smooth, so effortless. Now why in the world would I ever in a million years even think any of that was unfortunate? Because two little bars fell. PFFT. Kathleen, really? I’d tell anyone else that they should be singing from the hill tops. So now, my only question is; why wasn’t I? Perhaps I’m looking at agility the wrong way?

It wasn’t the lack of “pretty blue ribbons” that bothered me, it was the mental slip. The one single moment of handler error that caused the bars. Ever feel like that? It’s almost like you’ve let the dog down. But outside the ring I knew Whimzy didn’t care. She doesn’t know the difference between “clean” and “faulted”. So maybe I should be learning more from her than just handling, she didn’t care about the bars. Why should I?

I think it’s time for me to step back and take a look at the big picture. With Whimzy everything has happened so fast, she has matured so quickly that I’ve began to focus on ‘the now’. Today is a one inch by one inch pencil sketch of Whimzy’s life. A foundation for the dog she will become, a sneak peak of everything Whimzy can be. This is just the beginning for her, and it’s a whole new game for me. I don’t know the rules, I can’t predict the results. So instead of brooding on a fumble I need to get my head back in the game. 

Immy whimmy, you were perfect all weekend.