I never claimed to be a good writer nor will I ever. Give me a math problem and I’ll work it out, give me a blank page and I’ll stare at that little blinking line on my screen for hours. So, why write a blog? I keep putting it off, and keep putting it off. Oh and keep putting it off! BUT inside I know, I need to write things down. I need to be accountable for my actions, I need to document things or I’ll forget them, and what better way to hold myself accountable and reflect on my actions than by writing. Writing for myself and writing for whoever out there might find some interest in this little oddball of a blog.
I feel like I should have a theme for each of my posts. That’s what good writers do anyways, right? They have a consistent theme across their entire written entry. I never was good a picking up on themes, but I’ll try my best to stay consistent and relevant.
My theme today is “Starting From Scratch”. New house, new puppy, and a boatload of things to do. Now just coming up with the right recipe to do it! Perhaps this can help me organize all the little tidbits (and by tidbits I mean huge amounts of information I’m taking in from videos and seminars). My brain is overloaded with information and overwhelmed by how much training is ahead of me. Oh- by the way, when I say training and seminars I’m referring to the very complicated aspects of training and competing in Dog Agility. Yes, that weird thing people do with their dogs- making them jump over bars, climb over ramps and run through tunnels. Seems pretty simple, right? Ya, it’s not.
Back in May, well May 17th to be exact, I flew out to California to pick up my new puppy, Epic. It’s been a few years since I’ve had a puppy, and you forget how much work they are! But that does not take away from the fact that he is just the most wonderful thing to enter my life! He is sweet, patient, pushy (yes I love my pushy BCs), and above all, very very smart. A problem solving delight to be more specific. Oh- did I mention handsome? So very handsome!
With the new addition to my life, it was time for me to get back into the swing of dog training. 2008 was the last time I truly focused and trained a dog and had goals. That’s a long time! And soo much has changed! Everyone has a new handling move, everyone has a new “system.” I was completely overwhelmed! What system should I use, should I completely change the way I know how to train dogs? No. just no. Stick to what you know. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it!
Auditing a wonderful seminar seminar last weekend, a participant asked Tori Self what System she will be using to train her new puppy. Her answer was straight to the point ” The Tori system.” Well of course. Don’t we all have our own system? We take what makes sense to us and make it work. And what makes sense to us, makes sense to the dog. There is no one way to train and there is no one way to handle. It’s all up the the individual to figure out the correct way for ourselves. That means, we take a little bit from from every instructor and we make our own personal recipe, making our own individual muffins. Not one the same.
For the rest of Epic’s life I’ll be creating and modifying his recipe. Making dozens of muffins on a continual search to make it just right. I look forward to the day I do get the recipe right and have that perfect run. A run where we both are so connected we read each others’ mind.
Until then, happy training! Or should I say, baking!
Lookout Agility 