The moments that take your breath away...

[3Stars]

Have you ever had one of those moments, when you're working/training/trialing/playing with your dog, when all of a sudden it hits you how blessed you are to have the relationship you have with your dog?

I had one of those moments tonight. We were working on running contacts for the first time since the fall, and we were doing them full speed. For those of you who don't do running contacts, one of the key factors is that the dog has to curve it's body on the angle between the flat midsection and the downslope so it stays close to the obstacle. It's easy if a dog is trotting/loping, but if the dog is running full out, it's very difficult and requires significant physical effort on the part of the dog. A good way to understand it: imagine you rode a bike full speed along the dog walk. If you kept on going straight without adjusting your weight as you transitioned to the downslope, you would fly into the air. In order to stay flat on the dog walk you would have to put all of your weight forward on the bike. It's the same with the dogs - but much harder.

At any rate, we had a reasonably successful training session (hitting about 70 - 80% of the time - which I was happy with after no training for two months), and then all of a sudden he started hitting them dead on every time. I watched him to figure out what had changed, and saw him making a huge effort to curve his body right over that edge. It seems like such a small thing, but it's not something that can be taught - dogs need to figure it out on their own, which means they have to care enough to figure it out. And I honestly felt like crying - how amazing that this funny little dog of mine puts so much effort into understanding and fulfilling what I want...not because he cares about Qs or titles, but because he is my partner, and he loves me, and he wants to make me happy. It was just a moment that took my breath away, when I thought how lucky I am to have this dog, this relationship, this sport...when training dogs it really is the journey that counts, not the destination.

[Justicemom]

Yes I know exactly what you mean. I have had that thought countless times with Justice. He has humored me endless though the years and always given me 110 percent, no master what I ask him to do. The dog who my first time ever in the utility ring almost qualified with a 198.5 because he thought I was going to have a stroke and watched me like a hawk picking up the slack for the team. He NQ'd that day because I in my nerves flashed the jump signal and he guessed wrong. The dog who finished his Canadian OTCH when he changed direction when the crowd groaned as he approached the wrong jump and went parallel to the jumps to take the right one with no extra signal from me because he realized he was wrong.

He likes toys and food but his best reward is a pat and good boy. Nothing makes him happier than to make me happy. I cherish that special relationship I have with him.

[dmeyer123]

I had a moment like that with Lexi in rally. I think it sticks out, because it was the first time we'd had this kind of moment.

We were doing a novice rally run. Of course, novice is last up. All day it was dark and cloudy and threatening rain. We were last to go in Novice A and the rain began, just as we started our run.

We were going along sign after sign, when I looked down at Lexi who was looking up at me....just as she was trained to do, blinking rain drops out of her little eyes. I'll never forget that sweet face.

We scored a 99 and got 1st place! We were the only team who had the rain to deal with.

[SheepOfBlue]

Originally Posted by Justicemom

Yes I know exactly what you mean. I have had that thought countless times with Justice. He has humored me endless though the years and always given me 110 percent, no master what I ask him to do. The dog who my first time ever in the utility ring almost qualified with a 198.5 because he thought I was going to have a stroke and watched me like a hawk picking up the slack for the team. He NQ'd that day because I in my nerves flashed the jump signal and he guessed wrong. The dog who finished his Canadian OTCH when he changed direction when the crowd groaned as he approached the wrong jump and went parallel to the jumps to take the right one with no extra signal from me because he realized he was wrong.

He likes toys and food but his best reward is a pat and good boy. Nothing makes him happier than to make me happy. I cherish that special relationship I have with him.

...and an ice pack

[Calliesmom]

Originally Posted by SheepOfBlue

...and an ice pack

only in July in SC

[seashel]

I had a moment like this with Epic yesterday. We were running proper jump/tunnel sequences that involved changing direction and pulling round a jump for the first time. When our instructor explained what we were going to do I though "no way! We can't do that!" and I messed up on the first two trys BUT then on the third go Epic correctly stormed round the 8 jumps and two tunnels! Joy joy joy!!

I can live on moments like this

I love agility!!

[Jaynie]

I had this with Neechee on the occasion of our very first time in the obedience ring as a Novice. We'd been to hundreds of matches and had gotten a little bored. But suddenly, in the middle of the figure 8, I looked down into his exquisite little face and discovered that BOTH of us were having a blast. We both smiled through the rest of the exercises, and ended up going first place AND high in match with a perfect 200 score! While we were doing it, I wasn't even thinking about how we were doing, both of us were just enjoying doing it together.

I didn't realize anyone else had noticed until I went out of the ring bearing our blue ribbon, along with that all-important green qualifying ribbon, and three conformation handlers who had been watching came up to me and congratulated me, saying they could just tell what a wonderful relationship I had with my dog, and how he adored me. I was just shocked that anyone had noticed. Sure, it was gratifying, but no-one had ever told me that before.

I've got a great reminder of that moment - a big framed photo of me & Neechee with our ribbons, matted with the ribbons themselves. In the background of the photo are the three handlers who had complimented us.

We were SMOKIN' that day!

[3Stars]

These stories are making me smile