In the last four years of observing competition, I’ve watched a lot of teams that don’t seem happy. I dismiss a ‘one time’ observation, but many teams I’ve watched over and over. It is usually clear that someone, either the dog or human, is having NO FUN.
Having no fun sucks. It is true. I seriously love a party. I like to enjoy a great cocktail or two (or three), and I cannot pass up the opportunity to boogie on the dance floor.
Agility is sort of like a party. When it is amazing, it is a high you can get no other way. When it sucks, it sucks big time! You can have patience and work your way through it but you know that your dogs performance is a reflection of your training, a reflection of you. So as much as you want to be mad, it is being mad at yourself.
I’m tired of being mad. And frustrated. I love my dog, but I’m out of patience and that just doesn’t work for me and how I want to interact with her. My dog would rather interact with people than do agility. This is no surprise, my dog has always preferred people to any activity (even hanging out with me).
Today Meisje retires from agility. We will also retire from Obedience and Rally, we will only continue with Lure Coursing. Maybe I’ll try again, but for the foreseeable future, we will find something we both love and can be successful at together. Meisje is a puppy at heart. She plays like a puppy, behaves like a puppy when she sees people and it is one of the most awesome things to watch, to see her enjoy greeting someone. I don’t think she will ever grow out of it and frankly, I don’t want her to. It is who she is and what I love SO MUCH about her.
I’m sad, but also happy. I love her vitality. Anyone who has met her who knows her absolute love of people. It is time to nurture that, cherish it and giver her the opportunity to make other people happy loving them. We will look for a new activity that makes us both happy. We will continue to train, maybe do some match trials, but I’m taking away expectation. This dog has already given me three bucket list items, titles in 5 sports (Rally, Obedience, Agility, Lure Coursing & Road Trial) in 4 venues (AKC, ASCA, CPE & VALOR). She has given me everything she can, now it is time for me to give her what she loves most.
Look out world, here we come.