Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.William Shakespeare
What a fantastic, inspirational quatation - and so true. What I find inspiring about agility is that greatness is accessible to the masses, whether they choose the right paths to it, that is their choice. The fact it is possible is the bit that keeps me smiling! I remember these paths all too well with Popi, at 19.5 months old she was the equivalent of a Grade 6 dog, she was grade 7 at 2 years old and fantastically talented, imagine being me (ha - David Munnings) the choices were massive - I could train as I always had or continue to learn and improve with my first ever bred agility dog.....we are constantly developing. There is a lot of choice for owners out there today, I definately feel I made the right choices for both Popi and I.
I was reading on a blog the other day - "You shouldn’t want your novice dogs to be frantically grabbing obstacles, squirreling around like mad. The power and the speed will come, but the time spent working on the finesse will pay off down the road. It is far easier to teach collection and thoughtfulness to your young dog before they realize they are equipped with a 400 horsepower engine and a set of Pireili tires– then after!"
It really made me think, we do ask a lot of our agility partners, rightly or wrongly this is a valid point!
I am currently working with a fantastically talented group of young dogs, they are between 14 and 16months old and have come to us from the start - I really hope they are enjoying it as much as I am. I will post some videos of them shortly and have already put some bits up on my fb - do check it out :)
Bowerland has been a pleasure the last few days - I really do feel very lucky to be able to live here. I have attached a few photos from in the week - my Tuesday morning group have a lot of fun here, there are 8 of us and the woodland walks, scenery, good company and of course agility make it all a real pleasure.
