Agility Humility

Helen & The Royal Jility Girlz

Background

About a year and a half ago I decided to try taking agility classes with my Standard Poodle, Penhurst Queen of Spain (Isabella). Although not new to the world of showing dogs and horses, I was certainly new to agility. I am 54 years old, WAY overweight, under exercised, and uncoordinated. I had polio as a kid, have dislocated both hips in nasty horse jumping falls, am dyslexic (not a good thing for course memory or direction), have sciatica AND a bad back. To say I am NOT fast would be the understatement of the century (this century AND the last one) but I was determined to go out there and have fun.

Shortly after I started agility with Isabella, my Standard Poodle, we adopted a little feral dog we named Miss Millie Angel (big fancy long names should not be reserved for AKC registered dogs). Millie had grown up on the streets with her two sisters. They lived by scavenging, killing and stealing. At one point the poor things were so hungry, they went into a barn and tore open grain sacks to eat. That is where the local shelter trapped them. They were about 7 or 8 months old at the time.

Untouched by human hands, these dogs were timid to say the least. Our little girl, known only as 7355, was the most timid of the three. Her sisters were adopted but, due to her fear and wildness, poor little 7355 sat in the shelter, unclaimed for three months. My husband and I fell in love with her picture on the www.petfinder.com site and decided to go see her. The attendant put us in a room and went to fetch her. Pretty soon the door opened and she came back dragging this incredibly frightened little urchin behind her. 7355 took one look at us and piddled all over the floor.

Here she is in the shelter sitting in a puddle of liquid fear.

My husband and I both started to cry and said we would take her. The attendant was stunned and asked if we wouldn't like to take her outside to the fenced area to see if we were compatible. We said no thanks, made a donation and signed our adoption papers. We were told she was only days away from euthanasia and it was a good thing for her we came along. Actually, it was the other way around. WE were the lucky ones!

The first thing she did when we brought her home was mark everywhere she could. She marked outside and inside. She had never been in a house, had on a collar or had any love at all. Every time she squatted, I whisked her outside. It only took a couple of days to housebreak her and in no time at all, her fears began to subside. She was the cutest thing on the planet.

We took Millie to agility with her new sister and she really enjoyed it. It wasn't long before she was working on baby equipment, learning hand signals and all the other agility stuff. She seemed to be a natural. Too bad she was destined to be handler challenged.

Finally, the day came to test our skills at a trial. Millie got distracted but came away with half a Q in her Standard class. Isabella Q'd in Jumpers and got a first place. Boy did I think we were hot stuff. Our next couple of trials were AKC so Millie couldn't play. Isabella got another Q in Jumpers and we were hooked. This agility stuff was a piece of cake! Or was it?

We then entered a NADAC trial that offered a Tunnelers class. Between the two dogs, I had 2 Tunnel runs on Friday night, 8 runs on Saturday and 8 runs on Sunday. So, this is what I wrote in my agility diary...

Agility Humility Day I

Well, we just got back from what was, without a doubt, THE MOST humiliating experience in agility to date (quite possibly the most humiliating experience in my life!).

We were entered in Tunnelers for the first time (the course was made up of tunnels only, 13 of them). How hard could that be? All of the other competitors made it look easy. Millie went first. She was going along just great, until she got confused by the sea of tunnels and left in search of her daddy who was taping our anticipated triumphant debut. She found him, stuck her face in the camera and ran back to me. We continued but her confusion mounted. When Millie gets stressed or confused she does one of two things; she leaves in a daze or she jumps up and bites my sleeve. With about three tunnels to go, she began jumping up and tugging at my sleeve, right in my armpit. The final tug was a winner! I heard that dreaded ripping sound and looked down to see myself being exposed to the world (literally). I had no change of clothes and was due to run Isabella in a couple of dogs. I had two choices; scratch or go for it and hope nobody noticed (fat chance!). For sure I couldn't deny that Millie had nipped at me as I stood there with my blubber hanging out for all the world to see.

I decided I was too old for vanity and, after all, I had paid good money to go out there and humiliate myself! So, Isabella and I proceeded to the start line.

"Go when ready!" the started called. My heart raced with anticipation & I sent my usually reliable Queen to the first tunnel (which she did beautifully I might add). After that, she took one look at all those fabulous tunnels, just there for the takin' and she was overcome by IPE (Irrational Poodle Exuberance). She ran off with her silly Poodle smiling face, leaving me behind to fend for myself as she gleefully did every tunnel she could find. I stood there like an idiot, alone and abandoned at the first tunnel, shirt nearly ripped off my body as Her Royal Highne amused herself darting in and out of tunnels. Finally, Isabella looked around to see what had become of her loyal Royal subject and eventually returned to try to coax me to join in on all the fun. I excused myself from the ring and exited; head down, embarrassed, humiliated, tattered and torn and vowing that if I lived to 120, I would NEVER, EVER, EVER enter another Tunnelers class again (or perhaps any agility class for that matter).

Here is the video of Isabella's tunnel run.

Well, tomorrow's another day and we have 8 runs. I will go to bed, lick my wounds and try to wake up refreshed and ready for a new day.

Helen &  The Our Mom's A Spoilsport And Can't Take A Joke Not So Royal Jility Girlz

Humiliation Day II

Well, today went a bit better. I lived through all 8 runs with minimal humiliation. Isabella suffered briefly from a case of IPE (remember that's that Irrational Poodle Exuberance thing?). In our first run she fell off the dogwalk, she is not the most co-coordinated Poodle in the litter! Poor baby slowed WAY down after that. We didn't have any off-courses today (oh yeah, except when Miss Millie took a vacation in jumpers and went looking for her daddy for a bit. She did decide to return and finish the course but we were well over time). We had some bad luck and then Isabella missed a couple of contacts. If you heard reports of unidentified flying objects around Olympia, Washington that weekend, fear not, it was just Isabella launching from the A-frame. We are working on contacts in training but Her Royalness much prefers the Houston we have lift-off- approach. She says it is WAY more fun and isn't fun the reason we do agility in the first place? I can see her logic but I keep trying to explain the rules to her as best I can.

Both girls had pretty good Gamblers runs and both got the gamble. As a matter of fact, Isabella and I actually managed to get a Q in Gamblers! Millie just missed Qing by a fraction of a second.

We had a few extra circles in our Jumpers runs today and went over time (Isabella by 5 seconds and Millie by 11, OK, so Millie had a LOT of extra circles). Oh well, tomorrow's another day and who knows, perhaps we'll get lucky (or better!).

My feet hurt, my legs ache and tomorrow we get to do the 8 runs all over again. I am going to soak in the tub and try to get some sleep.

Helen & The We Think We Are Pretty Hot Stuff Royal Jility Girlz

Humiliation Day III

...and just when I thought it was safe to get back in the water...

First I will tell you we had some VERY close calls today but managed once again to snatch Defeat from the very jaws of Victory over and over again.

So, we have 1 lousy Q for 18 runs!!!! I S#*k as a handler!!!

Isabella would have Q'd in her Standard run today but I left before the teeter touched the ground and she came with me. Then, Isabella would have had a Q and, most likely, a very high placement 'cause she was FLYIN' in jumpers but I didn't follow my game plan. Once again, she followed me to the wrong place. I was shocked that she didn't get the gamble in time today; it is usually her strong suit.

Miss Millie on the other hand; now there's a sly one. She decided her frontal attack on me wasn't working and changed her strategy. INSTEAD of tearing at my shirt, she attacked from behind in an ambush and bit me in the butt! I guess (being part Aussie, Cattle Dog & only God knows what else), she thought she could speed me up a little (and I was ALL out at 2 MPH). She continued her butt herding all the way around the course. People were laughing so hard I started to laugh, which only encouraged her in my ass chewin'. I was laughing and turned to one girl who was in hysterics and said, "It's NOT funny!"which made her laugh even harder. The judge was laughing, the ring crew was laughing, EVERYONE was laughing. Miss Millie thought she was hysterical and the more people laughed, the more she bit my butt (after all, it was her biggest target). I did NOT want to EVER see that run on tape, it was just too humiliating! I suppose it could have been worse, she could have torn OFF my pants. At one point I couldn't stand it any longer and stopped to scold her. She thought that was even funnier and got down in her play bow, waged her tail and dared me to run for it! Good thing she's so darn cute!!! Here is that run, preserved forever on tape.

My sadistic husband, Mel, taped all of my runs. Then he made me watch them! I looked like a Weeble out there wobbling around the course with absolutely NO speed, NO coordination, NO sense of direction (remember I'm dyslexic) or much of anything else going for me. My poor, poor, handler challenged Royal Jility Girlz.

Well, tomorrow IS another day and as a friend once told me, "You can't lose 'em all!"

It is a humbling experience this agility thing but oh, so much fun!

Helen & The Our Mom Better Hire A Better Handler For Us Or We're Goin' On Strike Royal Jility Girlz

Isabella (Boy she REALLY messed me up today! OFF WITH HER HEAD!!!)

Millie (Well Isabella, I tried to make her go faster but she's hopeless and couldn't outrun a brick!!!)

Agility photos by Tien Tran

Update!

Even we got better! Hard to believe but to see then then and now videos, go to www.trainagility.com/MoreVideos.html