More Lessons

Last night, for the first time, I carried Snook up the stairs to sleep on her bed next to mine.  She had made it about a quarter of the way up before her back end gave out and she could not figure out how to get anywhere else.  She waited for me, patiently and with no complaint.  I laid on her bed with her, remembering.......

LIFE LESSON TWO:  GIVE ALL THINGS TIME

I might have learned this lesson with Snook although ever new-to-me dogs reinforce this; deepens and mellows the idea of taking time like a good Scotch or Bourbon.  Me, the ever perfectionist, coming from the world of agility where practicing wrong makes for wrong muscle memory.  I've always been that trainer who wants to "fix" every wrong which allows no room for the dog to figure it out.

I'm decluttering my house right now, which is taking forever because I stumble upon old pictures, old score sheets, notes taken from clinics gone bye.  Jack Knox once told me, "just because Nell is wrong does not mean what she is doing is bad."  Poor Snook lived her life being cleaned up and, well, basically told what to do by someone who was not as well qualified to read the sheep as she was.  Back in my Snook training days, I never thought about sheep or the difference in sheep at each trail.  i never thought much about terrain or grass or set out people and their dogs, or even horses for that matter.  I did not realize what experience brought to the relationship or how confidence on the trial field could be cultivated with help and partnership and trust.  Giving all things time.....allows for learning.

As I laid with my Snook last night, stroking her thick old dog coat and whispering in her ear, I thanked her for this lesson of "giving time".  I used to wonder how much better Snook could have been had she not been my first dog sacrificial lamb:  the dog I made so many mistakes with.  Today I know that there is always a first dog.....and I'm grateful mine was Snook.

Snook's first AHBA trial 2005

Seize the Day!!!!