Finally Photos!!!

The photos I ordered from Sam I Am's first ever agility trial, way back in October finally came in today's mail. Shall I put may very favorite photo first, or last? Hmmmmm. Best for last I say!

BIG jump!

Looking for what's next

His first ever tire

I love this photo. He hadn't qualified in this clas, but I was SO proud of him! And I love that those are my fellow Paducah Kennel Club members smiling in the background.

And this is the best, which I saved for last. This is why he didn't qualify in this class. He was supposed to lie down on this table, but he had never practiced a down on the pause table. (I mentioned we were totally not ready for this trial.) So I'm telling him "DOWN!" and he's telling me, "YES, I CAN do that same thing with MY paw, see?" Look at that sweet expression!

I love it!

I'm hugging my hounds.

Nervous Nellie

Tomorrow is Sam I Am's first agility trial.
MINE TOO!!!!!

I saw my first agility trial in 1990 at a horse trial. I thought it was the World's Coolest Sport. I had taught my childhood dog, Rex, to jump over broomsticks perched between the couch and coffee table, and had taught every dog I owned since to be little horses. And here it was in real life. I was reaching an age where the notion of simply falling down instead of falling off was appealing.

I got my first Whippet in 1992 so that we could do agility. (Always had shelter rescues prior to that.)

Laurie Erickson photo - HRH Queen Gracious

HRH Queen Gracious had other ideas. She enjoyed showing off her loveliness in the conformation ring (think of the movie Best In Show) and if I told her to jump something that she didn't feel like jumping, she would say "No thank you, but if you feel it needs to be jumped, you go right ahead. I'll watch." Well, you couldn't argue with that, now could you? So we went to shows, and she adored lure coursing, and that's what we did.

And here it is fifteen and a half years later, and Sam I Am and I are going in our first Agility Trial tomorrow. We're not really ready. Honest. He sort of gets the weaves, but he thinks if we're in a hurry, we shouldn't bother. He loves to jump. He scares me sometimes on the teeter by going too fast. And I'm scared to death of heights, so I always close my eyes when he does the A frame. We love the tunnels, both of us. Zoom he goes!

Tim Caro photo - Sam I Am loves tunnels

And last weekend in New Jersey, he pulled a muscle in his back. I thought we wouldn't be able to go this weekend, and didn't practice at all this week. But he's jumping on the bed and skipping the four stairs up to the porch and having big zoomies in the yard, so we'll give it a try. If he indicates even a little twinge tomorrow, we'll excuse ourselves. But if he feels fine and is having fun, we'll give it a try.

No expectations of even qualifying. Just a fun practice.

We're going to an Agility Trial! Fifteen years late, but we're going. I am so excited!

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Too old

Have you ever seen dog agility? Maybe on TV – it’s a super exciting dog sport where the dogs sail over jumps, and climb up and down obstacles, weave through upright poles, and zoom through tunnels, all at their handler’s signal, and at warp speed. It is a brilliantly fun event, and is ridiculously popular, in a bazillion countries.

It was dog agility, in fact, that led me to get my first purebred dog after years and years of shelter rescued mixed breeds. I was at an International horse trial and there was an agility trial going on up by the Trade Fair tents. Well, I had just never seen anything so cool in my life! Here I was, a grownup who used to train my childhood dog to jump lawn chairs, broomsticks, sideways ladders, et cetera, pretending poor Rex was a horse. And now, here was a whole sport with real dog stuff. I was getting a little old and brittle to be falling off a horse which was jumping a four foot fence, and here was a fun sport where if you fell, you “only” fell off your own two feet. (Remember that “only”, dear readers; it will come back to bite me in my ample butt.)

So fifteen years ago, I entered the world of purebred dogs, purely to do dog agility. Only that first purebred dog, Miss Gracious, Her Royal Highness Queen of All, had a different opinion. She felt that if I had this big desire for jumping and climbing and being so undignified, I could go right ahead and do it. She would watch. She would not, however, climb on a seesaw, wait for the thing to go bang on the ground and climb down off it. She would not leap over a twenty-inch, gaily striped jump just because it would please the Servant. She would fly over a four-foot barbed wire cattle fence to follow a disappearing deer, without thinking twice or batting a beautiful eye, but that was an entirely different matter, now, wasn’t it? She would agree to showing off her loveliness at a dog show, and field trials were her idea of a fine time, so there I went. Weekends were devoted to doing that which pleased the Queen.

Now, fifteen years later, I am doing agility with five-year-old Sam I Am. Never mind that I said I would start with him when he was six months old. We had the Big Move and I’m sure I could bore you with about a million other excuses. I’m great at finding excuses. But Sam I Am is entered in his first Agility Trial in six weeks. I could technically say that he has been in training for four years. But I don't think one practice session a year counts.





Thanks to the kindness of fellow Paducah Kennel Club members (especially Martha, wow!!) I am slowly learning. Sam I Am learns fast and is really awesome. He is handicapped by me. WE practiced today in Martha's excellent yard on her fantastic equipment. Here is club member Judy with her gorgeous Standard Poodle Tessa, showing how it's done.





Tessa waits to start as Judy goes over her strategy.

Tessa flies over a jump while Judy shows her with the subtlest of graceful hand signals what comes next.





Tessa zips through the weave poles as Judy claps her encouragement. "Weave Tess! Good Girl! Go, go, go!!"

Now, here is what poor Sam I Am has to contend with...

I don't know. I may be too old for this!

Have fun with your dog, no matter how old you are...