Clean Run Magazine - September 2007 - 5

Editorializing… Reflections on the Life of an Agility Dog By Kristy Netzer It was with great sadness and pain that I said goodbye to my beloved agility dog Zippity. During my times of crying and reflecting during that day, I reminisced about all the special times we had together. I remembered bringing her home from Texas on an airplane with her sister, Grace. I remembered that at 12 weeks old, I had to run up and down the street with her on a Flexi-lead at 1:00 in the morning so she would settle down and sleep. As the day progressed, my thoughts turned to the vacations we spent together. We packed the truck so full with our camping gear, that there was only about 2' between the gear and the top of the camper shell. Zippity and Grace squeezed in and we were off! I recalled the beauty of watching her swim under Rainbow Falls at Mammoth Mountain in California. On the trip where we took a raft and floated on Horseshoe Lake, I couldn’t keep Zip in the raft. I’d pull her out and she’d just turn around and jump right back in. She swam for hours, biting at the oars or just swimming around the raft as we rowed around the lake. Later, I thought about our agility training. I smiled when I thought about the day I “saw the light.” I could not figure out why some times she would bark at me when we practiced agility and sometimes she would not. I finally made the connection. She must have thought I was a real genius! She would bark at me when my commands were late, when she didn’t know where to go. She taught me more about handling and timing than any trainer could. I was always so excited when we got through a sequence without a single “woof.” As our bond grew and I got to know and love her more, we started to work as a teaching team. If I had a student with poor timing, I had that person work with Zippity. My other students and I would clap and cheer when the handler who was practicing with Zip could get her around a course without tons of barking. Sometimes, I would offer a prize to students who could run her through a sequence without a woof. Zippity loved it. She would come off the course and look at me as if to say, “Hey, the dummy finally got it.” I remember how she smiled and her eyes sparkled at the end of a run where the crowd would ooh and aah at our distance-handling skills. She ate it up! Between fits of crying, a little memory would pop into my mind, like the time we were at Knott’s Berry Farm and she sniffed the hind end of a bronze statue dog. She was so embarrassed! These tiny moments would fill me with joy, remembering the pleasure I had in sharing these experiences with her. It was not until late that evening, sitting in my office and looking at photographs of her throughout her life, that I realized what memories did not come back to me. I didn’t think about all the titles she had won or all the accomplishments we had achieved together. I didn’t think of our fast and clean runs on the agility course, although this was a huge part of our life. What I did remember were all the friends we made along the way, the students we helped, and the joy she brought to me in so many, many ways. What will keep her alive in my heart for years to come are memories of the journey of her life. It is the wonderful moments we shared, the joy she brought into my life, and the thousands of times she made me smile. Kristy Netzer Kristy Netzer is the owner and lead instructor of Happy Dog Agility, LLC, located in Moorpark, California. Her BC, Jubilee (USDAA ADCH Bronze), was a finalist in the 2001 USDAA Grand Prix of Dog Agility. Her dog Zippity was in the USDAA Top Ten consecutively for two years in Jumpers and Gamblers. Currently running two BCs, Jubilee and Dabbie, Kristy hopes to start showing her Papillon, Shazaam, soon. Contact Kristy through her website at www.happydogagility.com. September 07 | Clean Run 5

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Clean Run Magazine - September 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - September 2007