What's it all about?

Wishy poses a question in her blog..."why do we do agility?" I responded in the form of a comment, but felt the need to expand on that thought.

My comment mentioned cameraderie. When I first started agility in 1993, I met and befriended some fantastic people. We became the best of friends and started spending a lot of time together. The highlight of each year was roadtrippin' to Pueblo to compete in a USDAA trial. We were together for 5 straight days and rarely, if ever, got on each other's nerves. We did this for several years and have fond, happy memories of those times together. THAT is what hooked me into this sport and kept me going.

At the time, I ran a Beagle (NEA, Her Beagleness) and we weren't wildly successful. It was those same friends that kept my spirits up and helped me to see the comedy in each situation. I cherish those times and miss them tremendously. You see, each of those folks ended up leaving the sport for one reason or another. Some lost interest, some moved away, some moved on. I keep in touch with them, but miss the times we had together.

I stayed with it (agility) and my friend set changed, but the one common bond we all share is the love of our dogs. While there are no more roadtrips (having kids put a stop to that) I still feel a wonderful bond with many of these friends and cherish each moment I get to spend with them.

Another aspect of friendship is the one I share with my dog. I've blogged about my tragic losses (losing 4 dogs in 1 year) so I won't go deep into that, but one thing I came away with after that horrible year was a whole new perspective. I went 3 years without an agility dog. Three very long years. When I got Jam, I was overjoyed, enthralled and fell in love with her almost immediately. While I was anxious to get back into the ring, lack of time and circumstances allowed for precious little training time. Instead, I worked on building a close bond between Jam and I. And that was time well-spent. We don't drill, we don't spend 30 minutes a day on backyard sets...heck, we were lucky to get in 10 minutes every 3rd day! Yet when showtime came, we hit the ground running. I am taking the same route with my new puppy and come showtime, we'll see what happens!

In summary, I do agility because it truly gives me a high. I get to spend quality time with Jam and socialize with friends...two of my most favorite things to do!