Clean Run - August 2017 - 12

had achieved fancy titles in her own agility career, or a brilliant
young dog just starting out? Both questions that I don't know
the answer to, in case you were going to ask.

they exist. Poof. Irrelevant. Titles are letters for my ego,
and don't have squat to do with him. I don't keep track if
he Qs, I just run him in things I think he feels like running
in. Usually Jumpers and Steeplechase, with an occasional
Grand Prix or Snooker thrown in for good measure. Sometimes a teeter, usually not. Rarely do we visit Standard with a
table. Sometimes. Never Pairs, never teams, where I would feel
even an ounce of pressure to ask him to do something based
on anybody other than me and him. I enter him on whims, not
in places he's told me witches live, and whether I actually run
him in what I entered him in depends on both our moods.
He's run in Nationals and Regionals, and survived. I survived
not being a winner.
Did I cop out on his training, or is this an actual training method? Could I have done this if I didn't have another dog who

I do know that I have an amazing little dog named Gustavo.
He loves teeters. He's an agility champ on his own terms, a
smurf-shaped peg that is never going to fit into a round hole.
Every time I take him out on the field, he runs his heart out
for the both of us. Just this morning we were running, I yelled,
"Teeter!" and he lit up and took his rocket ride to the moon.
Bam. It hit the grass, and he stayed put and when I yelled out,
"OK!" he flew off to the next thing and his smile was as wide
as the sea. Either my bad pointing or the pressure of it all can
send him into any nearby tunnel, which happens all the time.
He runs really fast, and if we make mistakes, we just keep on
trucking on, as fast as we can.
Am I a flawed dog trainer, or am I letting him be who he is?
Probably both. Free to be, you and me, Gustavo. Everybody's
on their own trips. I'm afraid of climate change deniers, bears,
and surveillance drones disguised as delivery lackeys flying
over my house. Nobody told me I gotta get over it so we can
win a prize. I'll bravely stand up for my dog, while we let our
freak flags wave, me and him. We're cool with that. D

Laura Hartwick spends a lot of time trying to get better at agility and walking around on a perennial vision quest in the forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains with the
brave dogs of Team Small Dog. You can find her at www.teamsmalldog.com.

MOVE-iT !
®

Tired of dragging your A-frame to move
it while simultaneously ruining your turf?
Can't move it by yourself? The Move It! is a
revolutionary device that allows one person
to move an A-frame without any lifting.

Roll one home TODAY!

See the full line of
NoseTouch.com innovative products:

www.nosetouch.com
888-711-PETS (7387)
Also available at:

www.cleanrun.com * 800-311-6503
12

Clean Run | August 17

http://www.teamsmalldog.com http://www.NoseTouch.com http://www.nosetouch.com http://www.cleanrun.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - August 2017