The Journey Begins

My journey in agility began over 25 years ago. I bought a book and set about training with simple tools in my home. My first dog Stacy, a Sheltie was a great student, but life intervened and I had to put that plan on hold.

Stacy is long since gone and now I have Bandit (Papillon) & Emma (Mini-Aussie). We started competing in the last year and have really been enjoying the sport. At first everything was pretty intimidating. I would arrive at a trial and not know where to go or what to do. Thankfully those first days are over and I can stop hyperventilating at the start of every event. But still, there’s a lot of NEW to this venture. People, rules, locations, it’s all a challenge and I look forward to learning all there is to learn. I do hope I don’t forget what it was like to be new though.

Both dogs have been doing well. I had initially imagined that Bandit would be my ‘practice’ dog. But he’s been a pretty reliable team mate. He usually does exactly what I tell him to do. I just have to make sure I know where I’m going first! Plus he’s not that fast, but he’s much better than when we first started.

Emma is a baby dog still so she does some silly things. But we are working hard at becoming a good team. Right now, all dogs have been running in Novice level. But the next event coming up is the first time we’ve earned a run in the Advanced level. Looking forward to the challenge.