This year started so well with Rhyme kicking off the year with brilliant performances in champ and Pikachu surprising me by winning her first out door competition.
Elsewhere in my agility world we had great Agility Team GB tryouts, training days and EO's we'e got the AWC still to come in October in The Czech Republic.
The EO Junior event in Luxembourg was every bit as good as Mark had lead me to believe and these youngsters were so inspiring.
Sadly all that inspiration as been lost for me and my dogs.
Rhyme is not agility sound and Pikachu has delighted in exploring what fun she can have looking for treats in and around score tents and then laughing at my attempts to catch her.
Rhyme's unfitness is not likely to be life threatening but his X-rays may throw up something that may be life changing. I love agility and think that learning it and competing at it should be available to all but also appreciate that it is a physical sport. There is much to strive towards and so many aspects to improve on within your partnership with your dog not to mention your own physical and mental skills. Never a dull moment and always things to plan to do.
The only stopping factor for me is if my want to achieve could damage my dog.
To an untrained eye Rhyme was fine but his movement was wrong. My various professional helpers sorted his presenting problem in his shoulders.
Next it was to be gently back to agility. Straight line low jumps were fine but on a low jump with a slight turn I heard him "humph" and knew that wasn't right. Further observations showed he wasn't engaging his rear legs just pulling himself over the jump with all his front end. A quick visit to our McTimoney Chiropractor identified heat in his shoulders again and she wasn't happy about his left hip. Is that his problem? I have him booked in for X-rays tomorrow as a starting point.
My hope is that there is nothing on the X-ray that suggests doing agility could cause him harm.
Yes I may have missed a season and several competitions I was working towards but if he has something that we can work on then I have a whole winter and a lot of help to learn what we need to do to get and keep him fit for next year.
If it's something that may mean a slip or sudden jolt might make him worse then its no agility for him.
Then the learning will be finding another hobby for an active 7 year old collie.
So the optimist in me has plans and won't allow any feeling of pessimism to get the better of me. Well maybe a little tear or two .......
I had also plans of getting a puppy this year but feel that whatever happens with Rhyme will take up any spare time I have. Too often we hear the phrase from people that they have too many dogs and know that although they give all to the dogs they have there is only a certain amount of hours in a day no matter how much love you have to give. I hope to have enough strength to not fall into that trap although know that sometimes puppies come along that can't be said no to ;)
On that topic Pikachu has motivated me to change a few things. I've organised a monthly group training session with a top instructor in our field to train her with others around. A step in helping her understand that whatever distractions are around doing agility with me is the best thing.
We didn't get Pikachu as an agility dog yet she grew into a shape that would suit it and loves activity. Believe it or not at home she wants to be wherever I am and will walk round our field just tugging, she gets out of her bed and grabs her tuggy, a shoe or my even my trouser leg. She has no issues with playing. She wants to work and learn equally for a toy or a treat and can tug with a treat in my hand.
There is lots there to encourage me that she can learn to be a great agility dog.
The current challenge is that she has somehow decided that when I release her from the start line at a show she needs to check out behind the score tent or run off somewhere else on the course. This in turn is teaching me not to want to compete with her.
There are a few day to day routines that I would have done differently with Pikachu had we got her with agility in mind. I am not sure I can change her understanding of what is fun. Whether I ever get round to competing with her again I don't know.
I mentioned one reason I would not do competitive agility would be if it was potentially harmful to a dog, the other would be if my dog didn't enjoy the competition environment. Pikachu is displaying to me that somehow I am putting pressure on her at a show and that makes it more fun to run off than to run with me.
I will put a lot of training into her this winter and see what happens next year. I have had loads of help and support from small dog handlers some of whom have had similar problems and overcome them. There are training in the ring shows close by in the winter that will help too.
I have learnt that I have a stubborn streak too so will not give up lightly and whatever we do I will learn lots about the best way to get the best out of Pikachu even if it just ends up being the best she can be on our field.
