Don't Get Me Wrong, I Love the Game

SUMMARY: --but sometimes--

I've been trying hard this year not to spend time bemoaning my failures in agility and instead celebrating the successes and forming plans to overcome our weaknesses. Boost and Tika are so much fun to run. I love their speed and their drive and the way their eyes light up and their ears perk and their tails rise when we're out running in the ring. (Compared to my first dog, Remington, who loved it--as long as we didn't do too much of it or as long as I wasn't too stressed about it; I never knew whether I'd have the happy fast dog or the slow distracted dog--.)

But, OK, sometimes this overwhelms me: Tika has run 624 runs in USDAA at the masters level (including P3 and tournament); she has earned a blue First Place ribbon a paltry 11 times, 5 of those since moving into P3 this spring. If we were a major league pitcher, we'd be SO outta there.

And so, sometimes, I feel like this (click image for larger size):


[Source: http://comics.com/peanuts (Aug 2, 2009; originally printed Jul 29, 1962)]

I'm sure that I don't work as hard at it as those who do win. Probably not as hard as Charlie Brown practices. So I probably shouldn't ever feel like this--but sometimes I do. There ya go.