“Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: "No one reached out to me and said, 'As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?' And if that is the exchange, I'm all in," Patrick told Fox News. (as cited in CNN).
Source: US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Need I say more? I think not.
I do best when I have things to look forward to — like the Tracking Test we entered for early April in Boise. Having that goal structured and shaped my training for the past few months, and yes — the test is canceled.
Understandable, of course, but also understandably disappointing.
Life with Covid-19 involves a lot of loss. The obvious one is loss of life but there are so many smaller and accumulating losses.
It is okay to acknowledge that losing opportunities, events, and goals is sad and hard. Please don’t make things worse by minimizing your personal losses — they are real and they matter. Just because it could be worse doesn’t mean it isn’t crappy and griefworthy.
And so let’s recognize that the loss of dreams and goals is tough. Let’s also acknowledge the choice it forces on us — to give up or to go on with faith and hope towards something we cannot yet see.
Those of us who track with dogs know well that feeling of marching on without a clue about where this is going — who knew we were practicing for Covid-19?!
This is what it looks like to just march on with faith and trust. It isn’t easy but these days, it is necessary.
And so we feel the feelings, and get back on track — literally and figuratively.
Sundance is off track here — no worries. It happens to all of us! Suzanne waited him out and he recovered quickly.
I want to mention a worry I have — that our wonderfully enthused humans could be pushing dogs too hard and too fast, and that this could be exacerbated during Life With Covid-19 because of extra time and extra stress.
It is exhausting and discouraging to constantly be pushing the envelope, whether one is a human or a dog.
Sit with success.
Visit what is easy again.
Stop making things harder just because you can. (Those of you doing 1+ mile freight hauls with weight — I am looking at you.)
Sundance and Claire, both skilled and advanced tracking dogs, will both be doing straight tracks of about 100 yards with lots of treats and articles this week. In fact, that is likely what we will do for the next 2 - 3 tracks.
Why?
Because maintaining motivation and attitude is every bit as important as skill, and always wanting more from our dog (and ourself) is a great way to destroy it.
Covid-19 has given us time — let’s use it to our advantage.
For the next week or two — sit tight where you and your dog are rocking it, and just enjoy and celebrate what success feels like. I think we all need that right now.
Something that helps some people during challenging times is to figure out ways to help other people — this is definitely one of the things that makes me feel better.
Lisa K shared that she is randomly calling a few people in her Contacts each day. Social distancing should not be social isolation, after all, and so she is reaching out — good job, Lisa K!
Claire and Sundance before Social Distancing went into effect.
Stacy Slade is having a benefit photo contest on Facebook. Small businesses, including dog show professionals, are struggling right now and she wants to help. Kudos to Stacy!
Find Stacy on Facebook to enter!
Claire. Photo by Galen and his drone.
And so on — people are coping and helping, and those things often go together.
Claire.
I am now teaching my classes (at the University of Montana) remotely. I already have one online course and so it is just the other two that will need to be switched up to accommodate this whole social distancing thing.
Zoey.
One of my now online courses involves teaching students how to engage in social work/counseling practice with individuals, which means the students need experience talking with real people.
Hmmmm….
How to do that when everyone is (or should be) holing up in their homes?!
My Plan: Find individuals to do Zoom sessions with my students. Zoom, in case this is new to you, is like Skype — it allows us to video chat in live time.
I want to find 18 people who can commit to 2 - 3 sessions with a student over the next 2 - 3 weeks. Sessions would last maybe 20 minutes and we would find times that work for all concerned. I will be a silent observer in all of the sessions.
The topic would be Covid-19 and how that is impacting you/your life. Nothing too personal and you would control the info you share.
If you want to try “helping others” as a way to deal with this crazy time and think you can manage Zoom, consider yourself invited to join my class to help a student learn; send me an email to accept the invitation: sontag.bowman@gmail.com.
No obligation — just an invitation.
Sparkle.
Different things work for different people, and so we are creating something of a Coping Buffet with The Daily Q. I would love to hear what is working for you, how you are doing, and/or any questions/comments you may have.
And keep up the good work! You are still 100% (A+) in managing this crazy time.
We got this!