measuring up, down and all around ...

“Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement.” 
Brian Tracy

"Life can be pulled by goals just as surely as it can be pushed by drives."
Viktor E. Frankl

"Who aims at excellence will be above mediocrity; who aims at mediocrity will be far short of it." 

Burmese Saying

Yup it's that goal setting time of year, but wait ... what's this I see?

Well, not me, but the dogs sure are perfect just as they are. I had a great year in agility land. Brody is running better and better and I'm truly, deeply grateful every time he zooms around a course. He's loving it and I get so much pleasure from every run.  We did 1 AAC trial (2 jumpers Qs - 1 title) and 4 CPE trials earning 27 Qs in that venue  out of 29 classes  - both errors were entirely mine. Brody is running at level 4 CPE nothing to sneeze at - the missed Qs have been my fault too, as usual! 

Thea astounds me. Much of the winter, and July and August she was in full time residence elsewhere .. I think she did 3 CPE trials - 19/20 Qs - her only miss was a snookers Q that I skipped # 3 in the closing for. Really would like to get her weaving in place. Will look for a couple of CPE trials for her to keep working on our Level 1 point title - I think she's about half way there. 

Sally was fantabulous too. 1 AAC trial - gamblers Qs and a snookers Q. Advanced jumpers eluded us mostly due to my inexperience running over 5 yps! She came to each of the CPE trials so 4 of them over the year. 20 Qs of 26 efforts- the missed Qs were too often missed contacts.

Sampson got to do a little more work than I had planned and he was lots of fun to play with train. 

For the number crunchers among us that means a whacking lot of Qs ... and a pretty successful year by that measure. Good dogs! More importantly to me I embraced my mission! 

 "To run every run with intention, passion and commitment; to hone my handling skills and maximize my dogs' potential for excellence." 

Lawn 'gility, Farm 'gility, Regionals, CPE trials, AAC trials, Nationals - it didn't matter where I was - with very, very few exceptions I grabbed the mission and hung onto it - and made it work for us all! (Well actually the dogs made it work - I like to think I helped a little!)

Looking forward I am excited to see how living the mission plays out for us in 2012. It may be a year of change for us all. As I am very serious about not letting Brody have one bad day at agility - his retirement looms large on my horizon - in fact given the issues around AAC regionals in Ontario I suspect he's already retired from that organization. I'd like to get Sally to an AAC trial or two this year if it works out - would be fun to finish a title with her there - and we are only one starters snookers Q away from a SGDC. 

2012 holds great promise for us and the ride should be fun!