by Doranna
Qualifying! Winning! Titles! W00t! Rah!
Because hey, that stuff is fun. It’s lots of fun. The green Q ribbon is a revered thing. Add a bit of placement ribbon color and…you know…
W00t!
But if it was the only marker of success, I can’t imagine many of us would keep training, keep entering…keep running. Keep on with our little public humility lessons. Because with some dogs, those placement ribbons never come, and with others, the Q ribbons are a rarity, and with still others, the lessons in humility are ongoing.
My big picture goals are for each dog to train or to perform up to its potential of the day. Not what I wish that potential would be or what I think it darned well ought to be by now and what ARE YOU THINKING DART BEAGLE–! But just to know who they are and what they are and where they are with things, and to listen well enough to I can set accurate expectations. (It is, after all, easier to find success if you aren’t trying to do the unreasonable.)
To that end, I have small picture goals all along the way. First for the training–skills, drive, and the ever-increasing glimmers of joy and confidence–and then with targets for each course, which may or may not include qualifying. Sometimes–as those who have been following Dart already know–they don’t even include running the whole course, because sometimes that’s just asking too much.
These are all what I call Personal Qs. Everyone has them…you can hear it in the chatter before and after the runs. Hitting the contacts, making that tight wrap, leaving all the jumps up…whatever we’ve each been working on in particular, including less tangible things like honesty and joy and connection.
All of those things add up to Personal Qs, if we let them. And that’s where the success comes in–little Qs layering on up to big ones. And defining our own successes for our own dogs, and not worrying about what anyone else with their other breed, their other-personality, or their other-maturity dog has to say about it (or how they define their own successes).
Though I strongly suspect if we’re truly focused only on the qualifying, and the winning, and the titles, we’ll never actually see our personal Qs at all.
(Although…seriously…WHAT ARE YOU THINKING SOMETIMES, DART BEAGLE?!)
Jean-Luc Picardigan had tremendous, life-altering Qs from his agility training and trialing–and as my first agility dog, he taught me a lot about setting goals and persistence. Brain injury as a puppy meant severe challenges that can most readily be described as a severely autistic condition. Agility changed all that. He was never normal, of course, but his life was vastly improved.(Cheysuli Jean-Luc Picardigan, OJP NAP OJC NAC CGC (1998-2010))
Belle’s personal Qs were about her confidence–she was a terribly soft dog, with the need to be perfect–and about keeping her back disease at bay. She went from partially paralyzed to being Lifetime #2 Preferred Corgi, and agility became both one of the tools and the measure of that success. This picture? Massive personal Q! (PACH Cheysuli’s Silver Belle, CD RE MXP5 MXPS MJP6 MJPS PAX2 XFP EAC EJC CGC (1998-2013))
ConneryBeagle has overcome so much; far too many of his personal Qs have to do with, “Look how good he feels today!” and “Look how happy he is today!” because between his health and trauma history, these weren’t things we could take for granted. But agility has taught him how to sing again! That counts as a SUPER-Q! (CH MACH3 Cedar Ridge DoubleOSeven VCD1 RE MXC MJG XF EAC EJC CGC)
Dart Beagle is an emotional little guy with more potential than the world. He tangles up in the combination, providing him with so many opportunities for personal Qs that it’s hard to keep track. Focus and connection are usually on the table…can you tell? (Albedo’s Charter Member VCD1 BN GN RE MX MJB CA CGC)
Rena isn’t doing agility right now, because escalating health issues reset her personal Qs to baseline. In the meantime, we did glimpse the Joy of Running Q. So we’ll look forward to more of that as a primary goal! (Bellerena CDX RA AX AXJ CGC)
This has been a Dog Agility Blog Event post! There are lots more blogs on the topic…I’m heading to the event page to see how many people feel the same way I do. Let me know about your personal Qs with your dogs, too!
Beautiful happy dogs! And LOL to this one: “and with still others, the lessons in humility are ongoing”… with you there! 😉
Boy, do I hear that. Start out with a brain-injured dog as a first, and it kind of sets the tone. ;>
Wow, this is something *I* needed to hear today. I’m drained from a busyBUSYbusy month and was exhausted yesterday after editing what I wrote the other day, plus a very short shopping trip.
I can’t keep comparing myself to my past self. I’m only my present self and must celebrate my personal Qs that I CAN do.
Degenerative diseases suck! I’m still me though! Still being me the best I can.
Thanks Dee. You nad the furkids put life into perspective, not simply dog training skills, but life skills too!
Yup, you gotta go with who you are, where you are right now. And take care of yourself!
Love the happy dogs! And you are so right and so wise about training (of kids, horses, dogs, etc.) that you only get “there” (whatever “there” the kid/horse/dog is capable of) if you recognize and celebrate the “personal Qs” along the way.
Oh! Squeee! The Disqus thing let you post again!
Yeah, I’m pretty persistent, but I need *something* out there to aim for. Something that feels within reach, anyway!
Great photos! Excellent blog ;).
I’m glad you enjoyed it! I’m looking forward to checking out the other blogs in the event, come this afternoon. First, the big Spring Thing for the dogs. (Heartworm test, check-up, etc!)
Those are some happy lookin’ puppies who look ready to hand you all the personal Qs you can handle!
Step by step… 8)
What a lovely post! The pics of the Connery’s intensity and Dart’s tongue are priceless!
I love looking at their pics–it’s half the reason I put them up on the blog, so I know where to go find them again. ;>
🙂 I know what you mean! Exactly.
Heh heh heh!
I really enjoyed this line – My big picture goals are for each dog to train or to perform up to its potential of the day
It totally puts success into the context of that day! Excellent. I enjoyed your post.
I agree completely–using the context of the day is really important. Dogs aren’t static beings!
Personal Qs the best kind!! Enjoyed your blog and sharing your dogs’ stories.
Thanks for stopping by! 8)
Perhaps unsurprisingly, all of my personal Qs were for me as a handler. A perfectionist, I often got frustrated at myself in training and practice, and my fantastically sensitive Aussie would shut down like *that.* Avoidance behavior the likes of which you would not believe (or maybe you would). So I had to learn how… to have fun! I had to learn how to stop judging myself, how to stop expecting more of myself than I could reasonably deliver at that point. These days, if I flub my handling, more often than not I’m able to let it roll off my back (there are days I slip, of course–and I try to learn from those days). 🙂