Ask a stupid question.

Just in case you are wondering, Gustavo has not moved in. His photo has moved to our kitchen counter, with his name beautifully hand inscribed on it, to remind my nice husband that he is exactly what I Want For My Birthday. Gustavo! Gary never knows what to get me, so here I have it, the one thing that would make the Best Present Ever, just sitting on the counter. His reaction was pretty poor when I explained to him how important it was that I take in Gustavo. I'll just leave it at that.

Last night we had Wed. Nite Agility. My running was slow. But my handling was better, at least with Hobbes, the big and perfect border collie who only does things wrong if I cause it. Last night actually he did a couple things wrong not caused by me! That was exciting. He gets overexcited on contacts occassionally with his owner, and did the same thing with me. I found that flattering in a wrong way. But I ran him better than I think I ever have. I told his owner that, and he said, "you always run him just fine."

I said, "I have moments. Occassional moments."

He just looked at me with that look I get so often, the Laura Lunatic (this is the name Gary has been using since the Gustavo conversation) which I guess meant that maybe I don't run him so bad. He did drop one bar last night. Which was very much caused by my late turn.

Ruby didn't drop any! I ran her and Pop a little less since I was running Hobbes, which isn't great since they are the dogs that really need to practice, but I am hoping my handling skills sharpen up from running the big dog. I find I still ask a lot of what may be stupid questions out there on the course, questions I am thinking an agility instructor should always be able to answer. But at least I am asking and trying to learn.

Both the questions concerned position on a leadout, in case you are dying to know what kind of question could possibly be stupid. The first answer was find the front cross line and get somewhere on that, not in the bonehead place out in the dog's path I was considering. The other question was just run with the dog, send it into that tunnel so you are in place to get the front cross you are going to need at the 4th obstacle. Duh! I have to look at these things a lot sharper.

Someone asked me what I perceived to be a very stupid question in her riding lesson the other evening, and my answer to her may have been less than generous. I have to remember the kinds of questions I still ask my agility trainer next time she asks me a question like that and be a little bit less bitchy in my tone. Some of us are just slow, even looking at the most obvious thing out there on a course. The Tone can be an evil thing.