We looked for some answers. We need to be smart about this, don't we?
"I said that 'play proposes,' and I argued that people must learn to meet dogs as strangers, as significant others, so that both can learn the corporeal semiosis of cross-species trust and enter the open of risking something new. Agility is an ordinary sport or a game, in which the syncopated dance of rule and invention is the choreography that reshapes players."
-Donna Haraway, "When Species Meet (from Chapter 8-Training in the Contact Zone)"
"And I forget
Just what it takes
And yet I guess it makes me smile
I found it hard
Its hard to find
Oh well, whatever, nevermind"
-Kurt Cobain, "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
"Training dogs is hard. Running around with dogs is easy. I like dogs! And also ponies and handbags and Sees candy!"
-Laura Hartwick, Team Small Dog
The reading research list sort of degenerated as I went along. To where I just made up a nice quote without writing a whole book. And I guess a Nirvana song doesn't really count as research? Whatever. Nevermind. Gosh darn it, we just need to get better and make agility even more funner so there is nothing STRESSFUL about it. Like, this weekend I have a lesson with Jim. So I think, what will Jim tell me? Will he see I am doing some weird spastic thing no one else sees before we get to the poles with Ruby? A late front cross with Otterpop and this causes her to have a paranoia attack? Probably not. I think he'll tell me to keep practicing and get better and just make it so the show ring is equal fun to practicing. That's what I think. We'll see if that's what Jim thinks too.
OK. Also, you know we are dealing with a trainer here who spends precious training time screwing around doing lots of other stuff instead and has the attention span of a flea. Can I pull the Generalist card? What did one of my grad school teachers say that one time? It was the critical theory teacher with red hair and uneven lips and giant beaded necklaces that were like borders or boundaries or something I didn't get. Unteachable. Some of us (said looking at me with her uneven lips which were all I could think about when I talked to her and trying to remember what the thing was with the boundaries or borders and her beads) are just unteachable.
Um, something also it's the journey and not the magic castle filled with candy where everyone has a tiara? Life is a big mermaid with legs cut off with razors? Losers live in the past and winners learn from the past and enjoy working in the present toward the future unless they are killed by zombie axe murderers using serrated knives first?
3 comments:
It's hard not to love someone wearing glasses who starts out with a visit to academia in search of dog training tips, and then ends up with big mermaids with legs cut off with razors, and winners who are killed by zombie axe murderers using serrated knives!
Gustavo loves the camera! If life were just, the next project on Project Runway really would be dressing Gustavo for a photo-shoot in Elle magazine. Er, make that El magazine. Is there an El magazine?
It is lucky I ever even got a masters degree in academia and weird they even let me teach in it. Thank god MFA doesn't include write a dissertation from reading books, just put on a show. It is also lucky I know photoshop because taking pictures of 4 dogs that all have black heads is the challenge of a lifetime. Way bigger challenge than contact training. It is also lucky Gustavo is cute because on one rainy day without running he tried to eat a pillow, address book and tax documents. I believe Christian may be Gustavo's totem spirit mammal and may they transcend the Nina Heidi gauntlet to the end.
Post a Comment