Summer Draft

I have written before about how I tend to train some events in “seasons” — for example, I track with my dogs beginning with the first snow and continue only until early June. Draft is another seasonal event for me.

Because of the fall draft tests, August 1 is the official start of our Draft Season and things are going well. Claire and Sundance (with Suzanne, of course) practiced yesterday on the local bike path…

They are both doing great.

I am hoping to have Claire conditioned enough to do Open — that would be quite the feat given her past almost two years but I think she can do it.

Claire’s reward for yesterday’s freight haul? See for yourself…

Stay Cool!

Summer Fun

Down in Arizona, Bright Star Sage beats the heat by getting up early to train.

Kay reports that Sage is smart, athletic, and loves to train. Look at his excellent dumbbell hold…

Sage keeps fit by using their dog treadmill, which Kay reports he really enjoys. Thank you, Kay and Sue, for keeping me in updates and photos — I am so grateful!

I am reminded again how it is possible to accomplish a lot when we find those small windows of training opportunity — like early summer mornings in Arizona or waiting for the microwave to get done reheating my coffee.

Sometimes we forget that it is not only okay — but also quite productive — to just keep it simple. Small steps actually do get us where we want to go.

Where are you headed?

Micro

It is true that all things Life — including Life with Dogs — has taken a big hit in the past year. How could it be any different?

As they say, “Nevertheless, she persisted.”

But when your Little Soldiers are still recovering from a wickedly awful sneak attack, you learn to be intentional about what you ask them to do.

Recovery happens but only if we give it space and time — if you broke your leg, for example, it would be dumb to try to run a marathon on it.

No — you create conditions to let the body heal your leg. And it does. Like slow and painful magic — but it WILL happen.

Pozy knows all about that right now as she recovers from her surgery.

Nobody would think it would be smart if I was asking her to jump or run for a couple of miles. No — we understand what is needed for bones to heal.

We — the collective we — are not as kind about emotional/psychological healing. I know this from my work in grief.

If someone went over a cliff in a car and was shattered — nobody would expect anything from them for months as their body recovered.

When it is a soul that is shattered? It’s different — and it shouldn’t be.

Because I am being careful and intentional, I am doing pretty darn well. I will continue to be careful and intentional, however, because I know that having your Life go over a cliff requires time and space in order for the magical transformation that is healing to fully happen.

This video — like Life with Dogs — has lessons beyond training the dumbbell hold.

Note how nicely Claire holds the dumbbell — that has been accomplished almost exclusively in these brief micro-training sessions. You can do a lot in small doses.

Note that Sparkle is not perfect — at all. So what? Sometimes you have to just let stuff go.

Finally, note that Capella is just getting started — trust baby steps. They work.