"Too competitive" ??

Well, for the first time in my entire life I have been accused of being too competitive. Me? Competitive?? Well maybe!

Since starting agility with Obi I have gone from non commital to taking great interest in the sport, Obi has proven to be so easy to teach and quick to learn that it has all seemed quite natural to go from "we'll never bother entering a competition" to "lets book time off for 6 UK shows"!

However, Obi may be a natural, I on the other hand, am not! I can clearly remember Louise patiently trying to teach me front cross footwork in the early days at Paws, I just couldn't seem to get my head round it and ended up fed up and frustrated, poor Louise probably wanted to thump me haha! Luckily enough I had been bitten enough by 'the bug' that I went home and practiced it on my own, without Obi, until I got it right. It took ages and it was so annoying that I had to work so hard at it when everyone else could do it without thinking. I guess my brain just works in a different way (!)

Anyway, back to the 'competitive' accusation. Is there actually anything wrong with being competitive? Surely few people take part in a sport like this if they don't want to win?

And if you want to do well, and more importantly play fair to your partner, you have to be consisitent so your dog understands exactly what you want him to do. It is no good giving him the hand signals for something without teaching him what they mean.

I was reminded this morning of a lesson where we were being taught 'pull throughs', we had never done them before and I was shown the instructors' handling technique and told to do the same thing. It didn't work, funny that as Obi had never been taught what that particular handling meant!

So we have been practicing, and will continue to do so throughout the winter. I have only two jumps but it is suprising what you can do with such limited equipment. Over the last week we have worked on front crosses, serpentine handling, pull throughs, 'go on's, waits and 'bounces', and I can see improvements in both of us already.

Obi and I are both enjoying playing this game together very much, even when it all goes horribly wrong, Obi has even started doing his 'ball squeek' on courses which tells me that he is enjoying himself very much indeed :o)

So here's to 2010, onwards and upwards (hopefully!) :o)