Do It The Doggy Style!

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I've been wanting to do this for eons but have always been bogged down by work during weekends when i was still in my previous job. But hey, now that i'm finally a free spirit during weekends, i finally got Chester signed up for doggy sports and agility classes!

Saturday evening was spent at this enclosed football field at Telok Blangah that took us forever to locate. Dan and I were like parents chaperoning our son for his first lesson and it was great to see so many Border Collies (and 3 Shelties, one of which has a snail in his hood) congregate to have fun. Erm, though i must admit that testosterone was raging among the males and we had to witness a few confrontations, one of which left me, the innocent bystander, with a sore chest. Chester got into a mild scuffle with a blue-merle BC (i say mild compared to the full-on snarling, growling, lunging, snapping between 2 of the other dogs), but we broke it up before it progressed to something more brutal. Proud daddy Dan was happy that his son exhibited some good ol' fighting spirit whereas paranoid mummy me was just worried about my son beating up other dogs.

I suddenly realised that my profession has made me lose trust in dogs, probably because i'm getting better at reading their body language and my senses are fine-tuned to detect brewing tension. Gone are the days where i can happily approach a dog with no apprehension (and get bitten, as experience has taught me). Maybe this isn't such a bad thing after all. And no, wagging tail (especially one thats held up high) DOES NOT necessarily mean a dog is friendly.

Witnessed some spectacular moments when Bill, the BC from North Wales showed off his speed, accuracy and agility clearing the obstacles and chasing down frisbees. Very impressed with this super lanky fella (you have to check out those gams man!) who is also probably the most authentic BC among those present.

Managed to get Chester started on basic jumpers. We (handler and dog alike) will probably need to get fit and lose some weight. I have to admit that after looking at all the other BCs, Chester wins hands down, being the fattest dog in class! Only consolation was that everyone thought he was really calm (er hell no!) and has a cute face. One of the other owners complimented him on his "good size" (erm never mind what that means) and excellent ball drive that we could tap into to maximise his trainability and potential.

It was great fun although i woke up with sore shoulders and a half-broken back on Sunday morning. A sure sign that i really, really should get back to running and getting fit again.

More on Chester and his progress on doggy sports next week. :)