Thursday, January 17, 2013

All or nothing

Without realising I have taken a break from blogging, along with my little Agility holiday... for those of you that just enjoyed wonderful, snowy X-masses and New Years... well here in the cookpot we call South Africa, we are enduring extreme heatwaves, threatening thunderstorms (that haven't made good of any of those threats lately) and just finished the only month of the year that we don't have Agility.

Me and the boys took a well-deserved month off, bought a small above-ground pool (okay I did that, not the boys) for an Xmas present and spent a lot of time in the garden and swimming.  I did start 5 different posts over Oct/Nov/Dec which is lying unpublished or unfinished in my draft tray.

I decided to keep this one short and sweet, that way I know I will publish it.

2013 will mark my 17th year doing Agility.  What I love about the sport, the reason I have been around so long, even through all the political bullsh!t, is the fact that each moment is new and different and amazing.  Each dog, each handler is an individual and ever second is one of learning.  Each year I learn new and wonderful things.  I am not necessarily talking about training methods or anything that obvious.  I am talking about those little things.  My one continuous lesson throughout my entire 'dog training' career (which is now 21 years short), is the value of your relationship with your dog. It is something you cannot put into words.  The unique bond you have with each dog.

But my main lesson for 2012 only came very late in the year.  Agility is a game, it is all or nothing.  If you as a handler give it your all, if you put everything in, your dog puts everything in and at that point, regardless of the results, you are having fun, you are right there, in that moment.

Anyhow, short and sweet as I say.  And due to being lazy, too lazy to go look through pics to post here, I will leave you with my only edited vid of 2013 so far....