Competition

I was cleaning out a really old email file yesterday (REALLY old, like posts from 1999-2000, how crazy is that?!). One of the posts was a review i'd written for a judging clinic that i'd helped organize, done by Kent Kuykendall. The following 2 sentences were part of the review and jumped out at me --

"Kent began the day by explaining his philosophy on helping
people and dogs in the stockdog world. He feels that
anything he can do to help make the competition better only
serves to make him a better competitor in the long run."

What a great, healthy attitude towards competition. Definitely inspiring for me.

Also inspiring was the amazing outpouring of emotion for Walt Jagger after his recent passing. I didn't see anything about what a great competitor he was (and he was), or what trials he'd won in his time (many of them), but there sure were a ton of touching stories from people he'd helped along the way and everyone noted how much he cared for people and dogs. Another great thing to draw inspiration from.

If there's anything i can do to help y'all out there, give me a shout and i'll do my best!

As for the latest dog update -- I got Moss out yesterday and worked him a while, even though it was nasty and raining, ick. He's just hit this point where he's absorbing everything i toss at him and i didn't want to miss yet another day because of the weather, so we toughed it out. His driving continues to improve almost every time i work him and i started giving him some of the flank whistles as well, which he picked up almost immediately. We were both having such a good time that it didn't matter if it was raining. I guess that's a pretty good sign. I hope to work him a fair bit this weekend (it's supposed to be pouring rain tomorrow). I think you have to take advantage of the "window being open" on these young dogs sometimes. Even if it does mean you get wet shoes.