Weekend Report

Who is back in the lake.   This girl!

I knew it was a bit naughty of me but I took Molly for our lake swim after my work shift on Saturday.  I was very pleased that she did not do any paw holding up or any limping, even though I let her "run it into the ground" with many speed retrieves.   Her one rear foot was bloody afterwards but that's a normal day of lake fetch with Molly!

Ein thinks we should stop talking about Molly and throwtheball!throwtheball!

Perri could not agree more!

Perri is happy that I brought Molly to the lake, because she loves to pest her!

Ein says if you pest me I'll knock you into next year!

Everyone was kept too busy for pesting most of the time

A break was needed for an on-land family photo

Wheeeeeeee!  Let's get back to swimming!

Not Ein, he loves posing for the camera

Perri does too but she's mostly too weird to pull off a good portrait

Speaking of weird, Perri got weird again at the agility trial on Sunday.   After her wild-girl power run in Jumpers last Sunday when she should have been hot and tired, I wasn't concerned about her attitude in today's Jumpers.   She was perky enough ringside, excited about her treats and not staring at anything in particular.    .....In the ring she came off the start line in negative slow motion and we slogged through about 7 obstacles in complete misery before I thanked the judge for her time, and excited the ring.    ..... Huh???

This frustrates me and honestly, it makes me a bit angry and I am getting to a place where I do not need to be with Perri.  Because of agility.   Because of a game.  Perri is an excellent agility dog, and I know it.   Unfortunately, she is also very unpredictable, very sensitive and can be thrown off by things that I do not even notice.   For whatever reason, Perri is not feeling very secure in the world right now...not for the last few months and so she is even more sensitive to her surroundings.   

A lot of people stepped up to Perri's defense saying, "It was hot."   It was not that hot at 9am inside of a well ventilated building.   In fact, later in the day...at almost 1pm in the dead 90 plus degree heat, I hosed Perri down and revved her up and acted silly with her and she threw down a beautiful Gamblers run.   Happy to have P2 Gamblers out of the way!   She even did the teeter at a distance and did not fool around wasting time and she stayed out on the gamble line and took the final jump afterwards.  

When we had the shut down in Jumpers, I knew I still wanted to stay and play Gamblers.    I love Gamblers, I do not love Standard.   No weaves in Gamblers, no numbered course in Gamblers.   All a very good chance that I could focus 100% on just keeping Perri happy and not worrying much about handling correctly and strictly.   We did all of that: we had a nice time in the ring working as a team both giving equal effort and I wanted our day to end on that and so I scratched Standard.   Ending the day on a good note.   

I don't know how to reach Perri.   I feel completely frustrated and drained of ideas and so for both of our sakes, we may need a long break from agility.   A month wasn't enough.   This crushes me because with Molly's soundness being uncertain, this could mean the dreaded No Agility.  I never realized how much this game means to me, how much I enjoy filling my time with it and dreaming agility dreams and always imagining that the sky is the limit.  We are entered in a CPE Trial in two weeks, all three dogs.   If it was anywhere except our favorite arena on dirt footing that makes Perri zoom and stay happy! I would scratch her.    

Will Molly stay sound running agility at this trial?   Will Perri stay happy?   We all know Ein will be awesome.   

Oh yeah, I'm the best!    I'm going to do the Agilities better than anybody.  Why don't you sell that poodle to the circus since she makes you so sad?

"Sell me to the circus??"

No, Perri Pop.   I would never sell you to the circus.   Oh how I love you.   I love how you snuggle, I love the sound you make when you reach for a treat.   I love your yodels.   I love how you will hike 12 miles with me and would hike 12 more if I asked you to.   I love how you always want to come along in the car with me.   You would ride shotgun if I told you we were driving to Jupiter.   I love your pounces and your paw smacks.   I love your snarkle smile every day when I get home from work and how you jump like a pogo stick on your rear legs and how you hug me like a human.   I love how you push your head into my body so hard you almost knock me over.   I love how you learned to be safe alone when it used to terrify you, learned to be calm in a crate without mutilating yourself, learned to walk on a leash, learned to have a collar put on you.  You learned to swim, you learned to fetch a ball, you learned to love toys.   You try and try and give me everything you have.   You have come so very, very far and I know you can go even further.  You frustrate me and you fall short of everything I know you are capable of  but you are a Good Girl and damn the people who think I do not know all of these things about you.   "People" think that if I am disappointed Perri does not perform in the ring that I love her less or that I don't have the right priorities.   You people, you are wrong.   I love her more and because of that my heart aches at my own shortcomings and it aches that I am failing her.

And despite it all.   Ein's hip dysplasia, spondylosis and fear of people.   Molly's cancer and possible career-ending foot arthritis.   Perri's poor sweet broken brain.   Despite it all, we have this lake and these dogs who love to fetch and bark and roll in dead carcasses and smile at me.   I know what is important and I treasure it.   It's all right here.