Saturday, April 30, 2011

Thomas and I

























Summer is fastly approaching and as for my agility it has come to end with a season of vast deversity. Gosh where shall I begain? As not to boure you I will be as simple and short as can be.





Thomas was my first Standard Poodle ever to enter the world of performence as was I so it was very bumpy and truthfuly it still is.



Thomas is a handsome and well bred Standard Poodle I think if he was show in the breed ring he would of received his championship but I choose a differnt route and very happy I did.





Agility was the sport that I choose. It is a long journey that builds great team work between you and your dog. It also can be very humbling. Its not about who the mom and dad are. Who is handling your dog. It is about you and your dog, a team!






Thomas was and still is full of life. He is now almost 7 and has not slowed down.But he has taught me a great since of humlity that keeps me open to this sport which has show me how to run my other Poodle Evan.





The main venue I have choosen to run both my poodles is called K9 CPE (cainine performance events). There are many more but this is my main. The other is AKC and USDAA. We have just started AKC which is harder courses and more demands on you and your dog as a team.



This year as been one of many change first I injurned my knee so a friend a awesome handler ran Thomas for me and they did great but as he said you need to run your owne dog and after knee healed I did





Thomas is extremly fast and I'm not so this brings a big learning curve for both Thomas and I. He has to learn distance and to trust and know his job when I'm not at his side. He is learning this and so am I to get him to this point but it is not easy so trials for us as a team have been a process. The only qulifing scores this season was when Olaf was running him. I'm Ok with this as this is a sport that you have to be a team and you and your dog buld a bond of trust and this takes time.





I have seen alot of stress this year with Thomas. I moved him a level harder with bigger demands and he had major surgery for obstruction and had to take time off from his training with Olaf this all happened in the middle of show season so this put his training behind.






He injoyed running for Olaf but he always looked for me.. Where is Mom?and as time progressed it was the obviest I needed to be running him as much as I am a novice handler he still wanted Mom so it was time. Time for me to run my own dog.





It has not been easy but it has tought me to understand the sport and to enjoy my time out on the field with Thomas.





Yes he fast! Yes he is challinging but it is not about the quilifing scores but the journey to them. Together we will acomplish what is needed to acheive the foundation for a great agility team.










Lydia





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