Nerd fest...
I volunteered to take my nephew to the retro gaming expo today. SO MUCH GEEKINESS! Costumes, old games, bad junk food, couches and old tvs, oh my. All the awkward people in one place!
League last night. I ran Seeger feo and Mayzie got to sub for someone. The course was perfect for her, she aced them both. And she so wanted to play! She has become such a pleasure to run. I'm wondering why it took until she was nine that we could finally work together. I know I'm an okay trainer, this isn't my first rodeo. I feel bad about the lost time, though glad we have some time still to see some success. As I watch young dogs with hobby handlers, I often wonder if the age at which dogs can compete shouldn't be increased? Primarily for the safety of the dogs. Lots of youngs dogs are just nuts on the course, very dangerous, not to mention learning bad habits. I would support either regulation to when a dog can begin competing or tighter controls on unsafe behavior.
One other thing I've been thinking about is league. It started as a novice dog "competition" and now no one with a novice dog wants to be on a team. Instead, they run feo. I'm doing it too. There are some people that run their very experienced dogs and make it not fun for the novice dog handler. I'd support allowing only novice dogs in league. Or two tiers of league. Maybe it will be a way to re-spark interest. We only have two teams at our time slot.