How our agility journey started
I remember the exact day that my life changed due to Covid-19. I was on a project based near Seattle, Washington, very close to the elderly home that had some of the very first cases of Covid-19. I had flown home the Thursday night before St. Pats weekend. I went into the office the next day and at 5 o’clock hit the road to Rolla, MO to celebrate St. Pats the Rolla way. On my way out of town, I received a call from my boyfriend saying that everything was shutting down in Rolla and St. Pats was being “canceled”. Now, that did not mean that I couldn’t go down and there wouldn’t be some sort of St. Pats celebration but I had a nasty gut feeling that maybe I should stay home due to the fact that I had been traveling and on a plane less then 24 hours ago.
That week, it seemed like the whole country was starting to shut down. We were advised to work from home and client travel halted. What this meant for me, was that for the first time in a long time, I got to spend an abnormal amount of time at home and not traveling. What I didn’t know is how long it would last.
After a few months when it became clear that travel was not in my near future, I finally decided to take my first agility class! I had learned about a few local places from a pet sitter I met through the Rover app and ending up signing up through Dog Sports at Kim’s in Caseyville IL.
First day of agility class - July 14, 2020
To add a little bit of color to this story, signing up for classes was a big deal for me. I have always been into dogs. Ask anyone. I don’t remember the exact superlative, but my senior year of high school I was nominated something along the lines of, “Most likely to open their own pet store and have 5 dogs”. In the area that I went to high school, there wasn’t much in the way of competitive dog sports. I do remember however, creating a single PVC jump and getting a hula-hoop to teach my oldest dog “agility” in my living room and swearing that I was going to open my own business one day and become a dog trainer.
Fast forward and… well I am slowly getting there! Everything in life is a journey and good things take time. I haven’t made it on the world team or even to Nationals yet.. but I’ve gotten a few ribbons. I’m excited to see how far this agility journey will take me.
I still have a lot to learn and also…. I am not sure if the learning actually every stops. :)
Thanks for reading!
Loya