AGILITY AND OUR DOGS thought we were together again, and playing, and it was wonderfully healing to my heart and soul. That handful of runs made all the challenges of the year melt away. Judy and Sylvie also came very close to not making it to the Invitational - so close in fact that over the summer, Judy and I had a plan that if need be, she’d bring Sylvie to Long Beach and I’d try to run her. Judy recently had her ankle replaced and knew at the 2008 Invitational that she would have to have it replaced again in 2009. As the rehab process started, Judy said she had stepping back onto the agility field with Sylvie in her mind - Sylvie was her motivation. When she was frustrated by the pace of rehab or the sheer difficulty and pain of it, she thought of Sylvie and agility and pressed on. Judy received her surgeon’s permission to run Sylvie on Dec. 4th – just eight days before the Invitational. She was nervous before her first run, not completely sure the ankle would hold up
to actually running, not certain if it would be painful or if it would cause her to be out of position and send Sylvie off course. But as she stepped onto the field, all misgivings melted away and it was just Sylvie and her dog – a couple of gals having the time of their lives – together, one more time! Agility is a silly little game we play with our dogs. It doesn’t dictate the course of world events. It doesn’t mean much of anything to the majority of people on the planet, and in matters of life and death, it’s not very important. But for those of us that play the game, it represents the bond we have with our dogs. It’s an expression of our relationship and the mutual trust and respect that we share. And at the end of the day it’s a few seconds of unmitigated joy. If you have suggestions or comments, please let me know at training@creativepaws.com.
Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring -- it was peace. Milan Kundera
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