In the past year or so I have taken up a new hobby, dog agility, (what happens when middle aged people adopt a puppy that grows up to be a Border Collie). Two weeks ago I took her on a road trip to an agility trial, not our first but we're still pretty green to this. At first she did great in her novice class but as we kept doing various runs her brakes started failing at the end of them, she would do the run but then get so excited it was hard to catch her. This ended in her brakes going out completely and her becoming the LOOSE DOG every time. She would complete the run then bolt out into the audience with people yelling "LOOSE DOG" and other dogs barking, people trying to catch her and CHAOS!!!!! It got so bad that we would approach the line for our turn and they would yell "Layla's next" and people would close in around the ring preparing for the loose dog to come! She got disqualified from a very nice run for this, not to mention CHAOS!!!
BUT, the people were kind to us, they made suggestions (too many, but they were trying). I asked the lady who organized the trail if I should take my dog home and she said "NO, we want to help people become successful at this". People were kind. Finally someone had the idea that perhaps the leash runner should bring me my leash behind her back when we finished a run and sneak it to me. We tried it, Layla sat down right in front of me and let me put it on her. The audience erupted and cheered, even though it was a HORRIBLE run with me forgetting where we were going dreading the end and catching my dog.
It was unreal. We had blown out in a flaming mess, but everybody tried to help us and they succeeded. The end of the day brought more good results since Layla did really good after that, even coming close to "qualifying" in a run called "chances" that requires the human to guide her dog from a distance. I kept thinking "is that MY DOG doing everything I tell her WAY OVER THERE?"
I am grateful to get help, accept it, and succeed. And I'm grateful that I am finally barely starting to learn not to run off and hide when I feel like I've totally blown something, but to keep trying. Finally.
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