A day that only could have been better if maybe we were all wearing matching capes.

It takes a village to become a champion, and not to be too picky or anything, but preferably it takes weather that isn't rain. On a rainy Sunday morning though, the village decided that 30% chance of rain was 70% chance of not rain, so we all drove down to Hollister for our Working on Becoming Champions Practice.


This was actually his idea. I am very lucky to have such good friends who are extremely accomplished at agility. Who I think have finally figured that if they could just help me become a champion then maybe I would just finally SHUT UP about it and life would be somewhat less irritating.


Or maybe it's the challenge thing. It's one thing to turn yourself into a champion. But can you help turn Team Small Dog into champions? That's a whole OTHER challenge. Like right up there with fixing health care. Stopping global warming. Taming the haunted chandelier in my dining room. Clearly, some challenges might be more important than others, because who wants to live with a haunted chandlelier, but, obviously. All BIG challenges.

Also, let me interrupt this program with a very short real estate ad. We're also lucky to have such good agility pals who let us use their amazing agility fields, since all I can offer up here is one short, cement, cat riddled driveway. If you were ever thinking of moving to Central California, into a beautiful country house on 5 acres with 2 flawless, grass agility fields on them plus a dirt arena, mare motel, and sheep pasture, this is your chance. Talk to my friend Susan, because she's selling one! She's painting it Martha colors in the house. New carpet! She'll probably throw in actual sheep! Thanks for letting us practice, Susan!


We all worked on a tricky jumpers course that required nice tight turns. Not something I excel at with Gustavo. Not something I've even figured out about how to do with Gustavo before today. He was my champion guinea pig of the day. Otterpop and Ruby actually had to suffer for championness today and stay in the car and nap. Goo started out the day a little baffled, then figured out this was Champion Practice and stepped up to the challenge! He was even bringing his frisbee back like a champ! Good job, Gustavo! Sorry I scream your name 40 million times on every run. We're working on this.


We had to work very hard, this was the learning of some new stuff which means sometimes my brain clogs out and the learning comes out the wrong ear. I took notes. I stayed focused. My brain did not ever leave the field and also, I brought muffins. No learning leaking out ear. We were working hard to set the highly efficient lines for our dogs, and get tight decel turns. The dogs thought this was super fun. Our dogs think just about anything is pretty fun, actually. They had a good time.


This was weird, there were no border collies amongst us today. Almost all little dogs! How often does that happen? It sure makes for a quieter Gustavo. He gained many bonus points for an entire non screamy practice.


We ran a lot. A lot a lot. And then some more. It wasn't enough. We probably could have hung out all day and worked on our tighter turns and more efficient lines except the rain was coming back and some of us had other places to be. The rain held off exactly as long as it took us to pack up our junk and get back in our cars, and then the 30% chance pummeled on down. All of us, clearly handlers with exceptional, most excellent timing, to get this to happen.

This was not the end of Champion Practice. We have a lot of work to do and a long way to go. Guess we'll have to do this a lot. See everybody soon!