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| USDAA Mid-Atlantic Regional 2012 Piper by Agility Gallery 8th place PGP |
I started out as an obedience person WAY back when... My first dog out of college (BC mix Jessie) got me in to obedience training because she was the puppy from H E double hockeysticks! I went to my first match when she was around 2 or so, took 4th place in Sub-Novice as it was called then, and I was hooked! Not so with Jessie. It was when she was about 2 1/2 years old that Kastle came in to our lives. Jessie was more than happy to relinquish her working career to him. Every good house needed a couch potato and she was more than happy to ensconce herself in that capacity. Kastle hit the ring at 16 months of age and never looked back.
It wasn't until 1996 that I was introduced to agility. I have Shane McConnell and the members of SWARM agility to thank for corrupting me! Ha! My club brought them in for a workshop and I was less than enthusiastic about this new sport. It didn't really have structure, in my opinion, and it was all about speed. Definitely NOT my choice for a sport. I also herded with my BCs and that was enough excitement for me. I trialled Kastle a few times and earned his Novice Agility title, but Duncan was so wild on course, the complete opposite of his normal staid, buttoned down personality, that I stopped competing with him and only did obedience, and later, rally. Kastle never went beyond that one title because he had a rebuilt shoulder and couldn't weave.
I was pathetic as a handler. I only said commands once, like in obedience, and expected the dogs to do it right the first time. Not... When Lyric came along, she was all speed and over-confidence in agility. I was taking her to formal classes and she was beyond a handful for me. It really made me NOT enjoy agility because I spent so much energy trying to get her to do things right. Obedience was more cut and dried for me. It didn't have a multitude of variables to deal with. Lyric achieved an AKC NAJ before the incident. I can still remember her running the teeter the first time she saw it... No fear, no worry... just insanity. After all that happened with her, I gave up agility for a very long time.
By the time Piper came along, I was doing obedience, rally, freestyle and herding. Piper was a wiry, long-legged bullet that loved to learn. I started dancing with him and he did extremely well during his competitive freestyle career. Obedience he wasn't so fond of, but got through his CD with high 190s. I made the mistake of handing him over to a well-known clinician because I could not get him to retrieve a dumbbell. In short, she ruined him and to this day, he refuses to retrieve one. I blame myself for what should have been a glorious obedience career. But I trusted this person and because I was at a loss, I allowed her to work him. BIG MISTAKE... My other dogs were play-retrieve trained and I never had to train any other way. He did and still does enjoy rally and someday, we will finish his RAE. But because of his penchant for speed, jumping and enthusiasm, I begrudgingly took him to agility class. He was shut down for obedience and so I thought this would be a good outlet for his energy. Oh boy... is that an understatement.
I started taking him to classes at one facility, but they didn't know what to do with a dog with his speed and drive. Neither did I. So I found another facility that had instructors that owned, trained and trialled Border Collies... fast ones... That turned into a big help. With only having minimal experience with training anything in agility, I still was clueless and hopeless as a trainer and handler. My timing was horrible, my commands always late, my shoulders and feet always wrong, my arms flailing in the air... and there was poor Piper enduring my bumbling efforts with a grin on his face. God bless him...
He probably wasn't the ideal dog for a rank beginner to learn on. He was fast, wild, a bit stubborn and obstacle focused. He and I were a wrecking crew on a course. His idea of fun in AKC Novice JWW was crashing through the jumps and knocking down all the bars. The bar setters groaned when we stepped to the line. If they were lucky, there would be 1 or 2 bars still up. It wasn't because he didn't know how to jump, it was just more fun to run through them as fast as he could. He squealed and protested if I was in front of him, but steering him from behind was fruitless. He would take what was in front of him, right or wrong. But as time went on, we developed our own language and started becoming successful. I still wasn't sold on this sport, but if Piper loved it, then I was determined to make a valiant effort at holding up my end.
It was at that time that I started doing periodic workshops with Donna Rohaus. I was immediately intimidated by my lack of knowledge and skill. Quite honestly, she scared me! I kind of thought I had done an okay job with Piper, but I soon found out that wasn't the case. I didn't teach him a "handling system", he really didn't have much of a foundation and I still really didn't know how to handle him properly. Thus began my immersion in agility training for the real world. It took me 3 years to get in to Donna's always full classes. But I finally did. And throughout the years, I have blossomed as a handler. (My view, maybe not someone else's.) I also received continued help from Kim & Eric Wong from Splash & Dash and Shane McConnell and Lisa Layton from SWARM. It wasn't until January 2012 that I struck out on my own and truly felt comfortable doing so.
Seeker has the benefit of starting in Donna's classes and learning the Awesome Paws Handling System developed by Linda Mecklenberg. He is powerful and has bloomed over the last several years, getting faster and more confident. I am no longer intimidated by trainers and handlers with more experience and success. As a matter of fact, I love learning new things from these trainers, such as Stuart Mah... I glean information from every workshop and clinic I take and use what applies to me and my dogs. Piper's handling is still a mishmash of methods and is a language we speak together. Seeker's handling is more refined. He has needed different things like distance work from Kathi Scherf. As for Gem, she is being taught different obstacles with different methods, but her handling is all APHS. See? I can and do learn.
My boys are successful in my eyes. I am not on the World Team, nor probably will ever be. But every time I go to the line, my goal is to put in a World Team effort for each and every run. Are we always successful? Nope... but that doesn't matter. It is the journey that I am thoroughly enjoying. I love training and I love seeing the results of all that hard work. And now, I am teaching others to love this sport as much as I do. That is the best part... Yes, I AM AN AGILITY PERSON!!! and I LOVE IT!!!
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