meaningful monday ... more quotations to ponder

today's topic - but first meet Lily - one of this summer's house guests - she won't be doing any agility don't you worry - She is totally blind (in point of fact she has no eyes but that doesn't bother her so I try not to let it bother me)

Practise

I have to be honest - I'm loving 3 minute practices multiple times through the day - sometimes we work 5 or more times ...cool eh? THIS is THE LIFE

Sally loves them. Thea loves them. Brody wants to work once a day without the wild women anywhere in sight. And that's OK too.

Ray Bradbury has this to offer

"I know you've heard it a thousand times before. But it's true - hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don't love something, then don't do it."

Unlike many of the practise quotations that I read Bradbury wasn't a sporting person yet I think this thought will make my ultimate top ten list of agility quotations. I can be lazy about practise sometimes but boy when I put work into it it pays off in spades. I do enjoy the sport - bordering on obsessive love and it seems so sad to me to watch people who are not enjoying the day at agility.

"Practice as if you are the worst, perform as if you are the best."

I can't do this with Brody. Brody isn't an easy dog to practise with. He hates drills, gets bored and turned off easily if he gets something wrong but he will practise. Just going back in time to weaving when he really didn't get it at all I took Christmas wrapping paper tubes and set them in glasses and put 6 out in my living room/dining room. every single time we went through that space we weaved. (And rewarded heavily for correct performance). It worked.

"What a player does best, he should practice least. Practice is for problems."

This is great for Thea. She is truly a tiny dog. Two long sequences for her are like running a marathon would be for Sally. So we focus our practises. We do lots on wobbly boards and planks. A little jumping but not much and only a tunnel or two. We should do more weaves.

"It's not necessarily the amount of time you spend at practice that counts; it's what you put into the practice" Eric Lindros

This just fits this summer so well. When we practise I take time to have a plan. I organize the rewards. I know what I want from who. Sometimes doing all that takes longer then the practise (with all three) does. Usually it takes longer than one dog's run to organize.