So I posted to one of my dog club emails the other day, looking for DAM team members for an upcoming trial. DAM team, my non agility friend, sort of like a big dog show popularity contest ending in a sack race where you all have your legs tied together and your eggs in one basket and if someone trips, you execute them. Very exciting agility event! One where I am actually taking a Saturday off in December so I can do DAM Team. I think most people get invited to be on teams months and months in advance. No wait. Years. Booked years in advance. Waiting list and a concierge tells you to take a number to book a team with them.
For Team Small Dog, we get invited occasionally. On occasion. Sometimes. Not much. Am not super popular. As agility ladies go, not exactly in the in crowd. The out crowd? Sundays Only Non Border Collie Crowd? Sucks at Gamblers Group? Makes Fun of Dog Agility on Internet and No Friends Left Anonymous?
And what do I hear of potential teams? Silence. Nada. The email is not ringing off the hook. Maybe will get one offer from someone who has never entered their dog in a trial but would be willing to do it now to make me feel better if I pay their entries. Am feeling very jr. high here, kittens, and self esteem falling by the second. This is just like in 7th grade and NO ONE asked me to dance and really, I am still reeling from the pain of it all. They played Foghat and everything. I think I had new Dittos. I just sat there, on a cafeteria bench and I dunno what. This was before texting. You could not sit and text. You just sit there and that's it. Wait to get picked up by your mom. Farrah Fawcett wing-do just drooping in the humidity of sweaty tweens slow dancing to the Commodores. There could be suckier dogs than the dogs of Team Small Dog. Suckier handlers than I. I PRACTICE, you guys! I swear. Yes they are both ADCh-free, but almost there if they just get the gambles which we don't even have to stress out about in team!
So, Hi! If you want to be on a DAM team with 12" Championship Otterpop or 12" Performance Ruby, Santa Rosa in December, please email me? Hi? We don't do that bad. Ruby loves the indoor arena in Santa Rosa and though this year was her year of the E, she is usually super happy running indoors on dirt. And Otterpop just trucks along. Not an E machine at all. We try really hard to get our team Q at this trial because might be our only chance with my limited trial schedule.
Um, hello? This thing on?
Did you ever dream that you were a dog agility super champ except then it switched and you were at some germy, grungy, derelict seaside park in the dark and the carnies were actually drug addled zombies that were shambling after you with hammers and their big teeth? And then as you're trying to escape your way out from under their oily, horrible claws by clambering up a rat infested palm tree, you're all, this is about dog agility like, how?
8 comments:
Well, of course we want to be on Otterpop's team, but were afraid to ask because Otterpop and you are a lots better team than Ariel and me and because you are in the crowds of which I am out. Maybe you aren't getting responses because no one is sure what in and out crowds s/he is in. And everyone wants to be on a team with people they really like a lot and with dogs that are about the same level as their on dog. But that involves presumptuous judgments about who actually might like you and what other people besides yourself actually think about your dog's ability to actually Q. And worse, you might have to figure out how to tell someone that you don't want to be on hir team (because you don't really like hir) (or because hir dog really hasn't got a hope in hell of Qng, you think). So it's better to check the little box and let Karey put you on a team. Especially since no one on my former teams has asked us, which is not a good sign. But if anyone reading this likes me and thinks Ariel might Q in everything (she might! - we are going to Turlock and we are going to practice really hard from now to then) and if I like you and your dog might Q in everything, we want to be on your DAM team. And I actually do like pretty much everybody, and I would be nice no matter what happens. And I promise not to throw the baton this time. But you would have to be voting for Obama, of course.
Um. Fly to NH for the BARK trial and be on PVP with Tessie and I will fly to CA to be on a DAM team with you? :D
If it makes you feel any better I am in the same boat as you. My dog has a reputation for being "sniffy" and I KNOW I'll end up with a draw for that trial even though it's 3 months away. Since most of the USDAA shows are outdoors around here, people don't know that she's a whole different animal when she's indoors... :/
If I lived anywhere near you I'd gladly be on your DAM team!
Hey I am out of town (i forgot, am in LA til Wed.) but let's talk then Mary...some possibilities!
Yeah, prob won't fly to NH but thanks for invitation!
They played Foghat at your 7th grade dances? Somehow that just seems...wrong.
Oh my first good laugh in a long time! Thanks for that. I am so not the "in crowd" also!
If Taj MuttHall had any small dogs in its Hall, it would definitely be willing to team with TSD. The problem, as I have been pointing out to people for a while, is that we don't have a whole slug of small dogs in this area. Like, maybe 2/3 of one 12" dog and sometimes one and a half or two 16" dogs. And not a lot of them seem to do the santa rosa trials; they must all be South County Residents Who Don't Travel.
I don't think that I can find and train a small dog between now and when entries close for December.
Fly me up there, pay my hotel and food and Jam and I'll be your teammate! :)
I hear ya though...getting DAM teams ain't easy...and no, my email or phone isn't ringing off the hook either.
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