Where is the love?

The agility community really is a "small world" despite the fact the sport has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years.  Most of us that want to be "in the know" of all the newest training techniques, cool moves and new trends follow quite closely at least 5 or 6 of the world's best known trainers whether it be via their blogs, facebook, books, DVDs, etc.  A top competitor pulls out a move unique to America in a final Grand Prix round winning the competition and the next day we are playing around with that move in our backyards with our own dogs.  The availability of information is truly overwhelming.

Recently one of those top trainers introduced a unique opportunity for very focused individual instruction for 5 individuals for $5K per person which has resulted in quite the buzz (ha ha pun originally not intended!).  Though this has proven controversial, I really couldn't care less for the purposes of this blog entry.  It isn't my place to judge anyone in how they choose to spend their money and people could argue this topic until their faces turn blue but for me it is nothing more than personal choice.

What does interest me in the fallout of all the discussion surrounding the $5K opportunity is the recurring theme harkening back to the 'olden' days of agility where everyone supported each other and all breeds were accepted.  I've seen this topic come up on various blog sites and cooresponding comments very frequently especially recently.  What am I missing??  Are we so lucky here in Minnesota that none of this so called desire to win no matter the consequences attitude can invade our MN nice veneers?  Is veneer a real word or did I just make it up?  It is late and I'm sleepy but I digress. 

I know there are ruthless people out there.  They exist in every walk of life.  Unfortunately I'm sure a few of them have found their way into agility and are probably working their dogs on jump grids with spiked bars right now but I believe they are the very small minority.  I don't wax fondly on the good ol' days.  We have awesome people that care about their dogs whether they are Border Collies or so called 'off breeds.'  People that I trial with care about each other.  We cheer each other on and celebrate small victories whether it is a friend's stressed dog having fun in the ring or a world team prospective team smokin' a tough course.  The people I trial with are considerate to the novices of the sport and are good teammates.

A while back when Brag and I earned our MACH 2, we were lucky enough to be among many friends that also received their MACHs on that day.  The vibe in the air at the trial was incredibly positive that day and you could feel it.  It wasn't because numerous people received a random number of double Q's or points that day, it was because everyone was genuinely happy for their fellow competitors.  A few weeks ago at a USDAA trial that was well attended by lots of folks from Iowa/Omaha and I remember thinking at one point that I was so lucky because literally everywhere I looked, I saw a friend.  Whether it was a close friend, a newly made friend or a friendly aquaintance, they were all friends and we all share the love of playing with our wonderful dogs -- the most important thing.

It is so fitting that as I was mentally arguing with some of the negative comments I read about how things aren't the way they used to be, I saw on facebook a video featuring Gary Herber who was making his trial debut after recovering from a stroke.  It was awesome that he and his Stephanie got a QQ but what was the best part of the video was all the overheard conversation from those talking excitedly about how this was Gary's first time back.  That is what I see when I look around and I'm very proud to be a part of such an amazing sport.