A beginning

Soooo, to introduce myself, I am a mother of two girls -they are homeschooled, and getting to the age I can do a few more of my own hobbies and not feel like I am taking away too much from them. I also have a grown son. My chosen addiction is dog agility, which I have found to be fun and challenging and is really teaching me a more then I could have believed. I am learning to have a team member (my dog) want to do what I want to do I must get into their head and figure out what they would like out of the situation, I am learning how to work things out so we all get our needs met. You have to make sure your other team member is having fun and getting their needs met or they do not do their best!!! I am learning that some competition is OK and might actually be FUN. I was the type of kid and young adult that really shied away from competition and team sports because I did not feel I was good at them and didnt want to feel like I let others down, how much time did I waste worrying about that all the time? So having people watch me do what I like, and competing against others, having other people watch when I am trying new things is all something I have had to work to feel comfortable with. Another thing I am really learning lately that life is not under our control, and we can work, we can try, we can learn all we can do, we can actually do everything we know to ensure success but in the end.....we just have to hope some things are in the cards!!!!
So my so called agility career is not exactly something to be envied. I am learning so much and feel like I just want to put it all to use but.....like I said Fate sometimes seems to take control-who knows when I will be able to use all I have learned? Did I say I am learning a lot of patience?--I hope I am anyway.
My first agility dog was my tri color sheltie Skyler. He was a bit of a fearful dog and would take off after other dogs that scared him in class-getting himself beat up, so after working with him a lot I decieded that he is happiest doing agility in his own yard- he is much more comfortable, so who am I to say that he should be a public figure??? He is a happy backyard agility star now.
My second agility dog is my little buddy Chloe. Chloe is a 4 yr old sable Sheltie. Chloe has really started my patience training. Just when her career started she developed some sort of autoimmune disease that left her very slow, having a hard time learning and pretty shut down. I have done a lot of alternative therapies with her and just supported her and hoped that if I put as little pressure on her as I could she would one day be able to run and play and do agility again. Actually that sounds aweful, mostly I just wanted her to be a happy girl again, that was the biggest goal even if she never could do agiltiy. I came to peace with thinking that was all done. Well, recently she has just blossomed once again. So she isnt the fastest little girl, but she is consistent--well, except for her weaves--she is having a great time-at least she seems to be, and she has just started her trialing and is doing OK. Only problem is that she is a new dog but that means I have to relearn how to work with her. She is the sweetest, happiest little dog and I really admire her spirit and heart.
My third dog is one I got because I really wanted to do agility and I didnt know what would happen with Chloe-this was my Lizzie Lou. I had always wanted to get a border collie, but had heard so many horror stories so it scared me, but i was finally ready. Lizzie turned out to be everything I was scared about getting in a border collie, LOL, but that is ok, she is really a heart dog. OOOH my gosh, Lizzie is a split face red/white border collie and what can I say about her, SHE LOVES LIFE!!! She also loves me-I think she is more attached to me then any other dog I have ever had. That does not mean she lives to please me though-far from it. She is much smarter then me, and I struggle to keep up with how fast she figures things out. Lizzie just turned 2 and is finally starting to let me take a breath once in awhile. I have been in so many classes with her, really reliable recall-many times, control unleashed, lots of obedience classes, lots of trick classes, agility, so many classes and lessons. I have worked with her more then I have ever worked with a dog, but she is her own girl. I am trying to be careful not to smash out all the spirit and things I love about her and still motivate her to work with me. She is the dog that I keep telling myself if I ever figure her out I will be a really awesome dog trainer. I will be able to train any dog, I can write books or do videos, but I will not be writing any books just yet...IF we get through this I will be able to say I survived the Lizzie Lou!!! Some days I feel like that is just around the corner, then she takes off with a wild lap of zoomies and no one can catch her and I feel like we are at square one. She would be so awesome at agility if I can ever get us both on the same page, but, she might have to be my best friend and I will have to take what I get as far as agility goes.

Then there is my little 20 month old border collie Breeze. Contact Points Blew Breeze to be more exact. She was named that for the kennel she came from, and for her dad, and then of course she was named Breeze for the type of dog she is. Gentle as a Breeze, very fast, easy to teach and each to love. She has all it would ever take to be the most awesome agility dog in the world. She could really go places. I have handled her training carefully, she has the most awesome agility instructor in the world who has taken us under her wing and works as hard to teach my doggies as I work to teach them. She also is patient with me so how could we lose??? Well, unfortunately we recently learned that Breeze might have all the right stuff mentally, and someone who wants to work with her but she has some seriously bad hips and is really showing the signs now. Right now it is doubtful she can do agility and not suffer permanent damage and we are exploring some type of surgery to help her-she is starting in some rehab therapy at a place that looks awesome, and guess we are going to see where this road leads us.
So there you go, dogs, dogs everywhere at our house, and me sitting with some pretty strong desire to do this agility thing and get into trialing and see what I can do, and now i have a little knowledge and someone who can help me get a lot more of that, and ???????? serious dog problems, LOL, so if that isnt one of those funnies life throws at you, what is??? So that is more then you ever needed to know about me....