I was chatting with Sarah at training on Friday night, and this wonderful and moving video clip made by US and Canadian agility expert Susan Garrett came up in conversation (along with the confession that neither of us can watch this without crying, and I challenge any other dog person to try watching it without crying!), and it got me thinking about my own personal journey and the dogs that have shaped me and taught me lessons and have brought me to where I am today.
I'm not going to start at the beginning and list every dog and every lesson learnt as we'd be here all day, but I will dwell on some of the ups and downs.
Ah, Dizzy Daydream, my beautiful little cocker spaniel, she certainly taught me some lessons in how to handle humiliation and embarrassment at a very young age as she ran around the agility rings sniffing away, and I'm sure she helped shape me into the teenager I became. She also taught us that you can't force a dog to enjoy something, and that agility was my ambition and not hers, and that sometimes the kindest thing to do is admit that you're not the right person to provide the dog with what they need to be happiest, which is a hard thing to realise.
And then came my wonderful Cassie. We've enjoyed a fabulous 16 years together, and it breaks my heart to think that our journey together is nearing its end, and I'm in tears as I write this. I can't even begin to cover the things she has taught me, not just about dog training but about life in general, and I only wish that when I was training her in her early days I knew some of the things I know now as we might have enjoyed greater success together, although no amount of rosettes would ever mean more than the time we spent together working as a team and enjoying our runs. And Cassie was certainly a dog that always enjoyed working! She also taught us lessons about diet, and what a difference a natural diet could make to behaviour and energy levels, and as our future generations are raised on healthy and natural food we will always be grateful to Cassie for showing us the way.
Tango, in her all-to-brief stay with us, taught us lessons on health and vaccination and the devastating side effects that can occur, but unfortunately the lessons were learnt too late to help her, and her memory will always be tinged with great sadness and regret. She was my beautiful girl, my gorgeous brindle collie, and I will always think of her with great sorrow in my heart. And looking back, these were also perhaps lessons that Ilsa was trying to teach us, proof that the lessons do repeat if you miss them the first time, and we will always be grateful that we got there in the end, though regretful that it took us a second attempt to realise.
And then to Finn and Willow. The two dogs that have probably taught us more in their two years than we had learnt over the past ten. To them we owe a huge amount. It was through a desire to learn more about the latest training techniques, through a desire to search out the best education for us and them, through a desire to help them as best as we could to overcome some of their problems, that we have met some incredible people along the way and come across some amazing and groundbreaking ideas. And these incredible people have then further inspired us to want to know even more, and to spend hours researching ideas and trying out new things with our dogs, moving away from the old methods and embracing the new. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Kay Laurence and Lynda Edmundson of Learning About Dogs for sharing some of their expertise with us, more knowledgeable people than them on training and behaviour it would be hard to find. And to Susan Garrett who was so inspirational at her seminars last year, and seems so keen to share all her ideas with the world. And to Lauren Langman of Devon Dogs who is an absolute inspiration when it comes to agility training, so knowledgeable, so positive, at the forefront of the field, and my personal inspiration and role model. When I got Finn, I had no intentions of running my own classes or setting up my own business, but through a lack of places to train our own dogs in the manner we wanted, and through a realisation that there are much better ways to train things but not enough people out there doing it, and with encouragement from Lauren who, at 26, has her own thriving business, things have progressed to here. So to Finn, Willow, and all these people we owe a huge amount for teaching us that sometimes the lesson is 'the realisation of the need for more knowledge', and this quest for more knowledge should be a journey that lasts a lifetime and never ends.
And a thanks to new friends; our ventures forth so far have brought us to new friends who are now sharing in our journey. In particular Lynne has been a huge influence, joining us in our journeys with Lynda through our CAP 1 & 2 qualifications, and handing me over her Wednesday evening class and giving me the confidence to believe I could run it. And Sarah & Izzy who will hopefully be part of our journey forward for a while to come. And Katie and Kay M and Bronwyn and all our new friends who have continued to travel with us through our classes and have supported us in our adventures. Nicer, more caring people you couldn't hope to meet!
There are other dogs who deserve a mention, and they have all taught us something along the way, and I wish I had the room to write it all down but don't, so additional 'thanks' to Tara (the GSD who actually taught me how to walk!), Heidi, Ilsa, Polly, Kiri, Ziggy, Stella, Carly and all the other wonderful dogs belonging to the other wonderful people we have met along the way. I owe a huge debt to all of the dogs that have enriched my life, and looking back now I only wish I'd been able to recognise some of the lessons they were trying to teach me a little earlier.
Fabulous!!!!!!!
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