Clean Run Magazine - August 2009 - 5

Editorializing… The “Good Ole” Days Aren’t Really Gone By Trisha Stall I thought I really missed the “good ole” days of agility. You’ll notice I said “I thought.” I am not going to write about how agility has changed over the years. Instead, I think it’s actually the same in the most important ways. I started competing in 1996, when most trials were one ring, everyone knew one another, people cheered every run, helped with advice about training and other dog problems, and stayed in touch with one another over life’s ups and downs. Since there were fewer trials and fewer venues to choose from, people traveled farther from home to attend and knew one another well because they went to most of the same trials. Over the past few years, and particularly in recent months, it seems that everyone is out to win, out to cut one another down, and spiteful and unsportsmanlike in their behavior. There have been more and more stories of incidents and even near-altercations at trials. Some are just hearsay; unfortunately, others result in write-ups and disciplinary action by host clubs and sanctioning organizations. The last of my two original agility dogs passed away last year. She was Sandy, an All-American rescue dog, and at first wasn’t an agility prospect at all. A friend of mine commented not long after her passing that she was someone else’s little throw-away dog; when I started agility with her, she really started to shine. She went from a dog scared of her own shadow to a confident, happy dog, and over the years we became an accomplished team. Sandy was very honest, and in the early years she often bailed me out (I was not a good handler back then). We went on to do many great things in agility, including going to several national events all across the country, winning the NADAC and CPE Nationals, winning the regional and competing in the finals of the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge, getting the highest level titles in three venues, and gaining Top Ten and Lifetime Top Ten honors in USDAA and CPE. Why am I writing about all this? In addition to the catharsis of writing about my sweet little Sandy, I need to tell about my heartwarming experience after she passed away. I sent an email out to the Yahoo groups to tell the people I knew about her passing because I needed to let people know that she was gone. On the list, there was recent controversy about questioning calls made at a national event, about questionable breeds competing at a national event, and here I was in the midst of it posting about the death of my first agility dog. Over the next day or so, I received about 200 emails from people expressing sympathy. Some emailed me with memories they had of attending special events with us; others talked about knowing Sandy in her older years. But the replies that amazed me were from people I did not know, but who told me various stories of how Sandy had touched them. Apparently, Sandy inspired many to go out with a rescue dog, or with an AllAmerican, and succeed in agility. Many expressed how watching Sandy and me competing on course showed them what to aspire to as a team and what teamwork really is. Others said that they were re-energized to go on and aim for new goals after seeing that an unconventional, mixed-breed dog could do well. The sheer outpouring of sympathy and respect for Sandy was far from lost on me. I realized that the agility community I remembered from my early trialing years was still alive and well; at times it just seems buried beneath controversy and competitiveness in this modern age. But the caring, wonderful, supportive people are still there in droves. I wouldn’t trade the agility community for anything in the world, and I am so glad that I’m a part of it. Thank you everyone for reminding me that the good ole days of agility have not gone away. Trisha Stall 5 Trisha Stall owns AgileDogs Agility Training, where she teaches classes and seminars and hosts agility trials in upstate New York. She judges for USDAA, CPE, TDAA, and ASCA. All Trisha’s dogs are rescue dogs. Crystal and Sandy were CPE and NADAC Nationals winners and attained the highest titles in multiple venues including USDAA. Trisha has taken four dogs to CPE’s C-ATCH title, and two have earned CPE’s C-ATE. Currently two dogs are competing and one new dog is in training. Contact her via www.agiledogs.net. August 09 | Clean Run

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Clean Run Magazine - August 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - August 2009