The Dogs

The Dogs
Bosque, Brink, Tundra, River, Rival

Friday, March 25, 2011

Crisis of Faith

It's time to get this out there. I'm having a lot of doubts lately. When I went to college, I planned on being in the medical field-specifically a emergency doctor. Freshman year was difficult and things changed and suddenly I was major in Economics and European Studies. What would one do with that kind of degree? My thought was international business, specifically museum management. Then graduation neared and I didn't know what to do. Swimming ended in March and within a week I had a puppy. Someone said you should be a veterinarian and I thought okay-why not. I turned down a Master's program at Columbia to continue taking classes at UNM and try to get into vet school. When I think about this, I wonder what would have happened...
What if I had gone to New York. I realize I'm not as good at agility as I thought and I spend a lot of money on it. If I hadn't decided to go to vet school, would I have ever started competing or would I be traveling the world.
Right now, not much makes me happy. I ran in DAM team today with Rival and Brink-Brink had no good moments, Rival was off his head in Gamblers, did a great Snooker and Standard, and then didn't want to run in either Jumpers or Relay. Overall, I almost left crying...again. Luckily Rival's team still managed to Q and my friends joy over it helped me. I'm glad I'm taking a break from agility, but that leaves work and home and lots of time for thinking. Did I make the right decision? I guess I'll never know...

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Nobody Said It Was Easy




What a difference a day makes. The past two weeks, my work schedule has not given me two days off in a row. By some chance, I ended up with Saturday and Sunday off this week. Just knowing I have tomorrow free made it so much easier to do things today.

I did start the day very anxious, knowing I was going to a local agility trial to do canine massages and knowing I would get all the questions about why aren't you showing this weekend? I actually ended up having a really good time. I did 6 dog massages and talked to lots of people about what I was doing with my career. It's always nice to just take the time and relax and really connect with the dogs.

When I got home I was actually energized enough to work both Rival and Brink outside. I haven't worked both dogs at home in probably months. Both dogs were great. I'm also working on teaching the boys to wave. Bosque and the girls all can wave great, so now the boys have to learn. Plus it's great shoulder and biceps exercise. Tomorrow, I need to exercise myself :) I'm thinking a short run with Brink would be good.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

St. Patrick's Day



It's been awhile since I posted last. St. Patrick's Day is my favorite holiday, not because I'm Irish, but probably because green is my favorite color, I love Ireland, and luckily I'm with someone who is very Irish. Luckily I have the day off and I've been thinking about posting for awhile, but kept putting it off.

The year hasn't been great so far. While I do have a job again, I've still been forced to make a lot of changes. First, I gave up Starbucks, which really wasn't that hard. Now, I'm giving up agility. This is extremely hard. I think I knew this was coming, but I tried to be hopeful that things would turn around. For the past 10 years my life has revolved around agility. I really became a veterinarian because of agility. I hope to return to the great sport someday. I still plan on getting my canine rehabilitation certification and possibly pursuing board certification. I hope that it will get me out of the state of New Mexico. I really wish I was writing about how great agility was going. How Brink is just taking the agility world by storm, but it just wasn't meant to be. Needless to say, I won't be trying out for world team this year.

Today is Rival's birthday. He got a birthday bagel and we practiced some running dogwalks. I'm very happy with his dogwalk and we were able to progress to tight turning into a tunnel. He has one more trial to show it off. Maybe he will finally get that last Standard leg for his AAD.

In more positive news, I have registered for an Ironman 70.3, so I need to get my a$$ in gear and start training. I'm planning on at least 3 triathlons before the Ironman as well. I did finish my first half-marathon in February-it was exhilarating. I hope to do the same one again next year, but my goal would be to finish around the 2 hour mark. I just have to get motivated to start training again.

I promise to post more often and stay positive!