This was 2014

I tend to get going very romantic and emotional when time comes to the end of the year. This time of the year always gives the opportunity to spend some quiet, peaceful hours thinking back to the past months and think forward what is ahead.

2014 was very special for many reason. This was the first time in my life ever, when I could compete in agility throughout the whole season.  Due to other -mainly – professional duties – I had to miss doing any dog sport for many years and being back, itself, is an absolute delight to me, a small but miraculous present from the life.

The other, rather big miracle is Jet. Without her shiny and absolutely brilliant personality I would be nowhere in the agility sport. I could not love her more for being with me always,  not matter what happens…

We literally run through the year together. She improved a lot, and she helped me improving even more. She was always there for work happily and eager to do what she was asked to. She didn’t have any injury at all, not once, not even a small one though we worked a lot.  She successfully took a herding working test,  reached agility A3 at the very beginning of the year only after a couple of competitions in A1 and A2.  Among many other competition she run with me the EO and the BCC this year, with quite a lot of success and fun, and with plenty of experience regarding myself. Right after she turned 3 years old she won the jumping run on the Hungarian National Championship, and well, it was not her fault that we run the agility with Dis therefore we couldn’t even have a chance to win the Nat.Champ title.

But agility is not about winning titles. Well, it is an important part of it  – for me, definitely 🙂 – but that should not be placed above everything. To me, placements indicates where about we are in that given event comparing to other teams. It only gives extra motivation to work better and more efficient to improve and develop.  There is kind of a “religion” I developed for myself throughout the past years and it is called PROGRESSION. I fully and truly believe in it, and it affects each part of my life. I try to be a better person, a better mum and a better athlete on the course every single day. It doesn’t really matter what others do or achieve when I feel that I can improve, that some way I am – or we are – better than we were yesterday or some time before.

In my life with Jet , living this “religion”  means never-ending learning, changing for a better trainer and training partner. The main achievement of this year is, that I really learned  to evaluate our performance as it is without comparing it to others. I used to compare ourselves to others in too many aspects and as its result, sometimes I felt rather hopeless thinking about us and our agility future.  I needed some time to understand that the most important thing is in achieving any good result is to aim to bring the best out of us instead of wanting to be the best. And I didn’t only started to say this , but I started to live according this. And this latter is really what counts. I remember to enjoy that given moment what I have with Jet, no matter if that is a training, a competition or time when she gets fed. I want to be focused , positive and to bring the most out of that occasion. I learned to live more for the present, I understood that behind every achievement there is a process what includes a lot of little steps that must be taken and that all those small steps can, and should be enjoyed. I switched from wanting to fight and beat everyone else to fight and beat myself and wanting to become better every day. You may say , oh come on these are all common sense. They definitely are, assuming that one is aware of them at all. But then knowing these “phrases” , speaking about them, or really LIVE according these are completely different levels in one’s quality of life. I think in the past few months I really could make a little change in my way of thinking and it is a fantastic feeling to experience what these little changes launched.

I could work through our last competition in this mindset, and I was really-really happy with the result. We were fast, focused, self-confident (or at least more confident than usually). We won the jumping run and came 3rd in the agility with best time. (There was a missed down-contact on the A-frame but Jet was re-trained for RC A-frame recently and it still needs a little more detailed work.) But we made brilliant team-work, and most of all, I really  LOVED what we did 🙂 So it was amazing to close the year like that and it gives me more confidence and belief for the next year. We are in the right mindset, on the right way.

So this year, besides those amazing agility (and of course some herding work)  experiences we had , was a start of a big inner journey what I hope can be continued in the future.

So sorry for this post turning out to be a little confession about 2014 instead of sharing I don’t know, more factual or “professional” things about agility or any other topic of dog sports. I warned you all at the beginning of this post, that the end of the year brings out my emotional being! Well, 2014 was emotional indeed. As for 2015, I hope for even more emotion to take place. The big dream and aim is to qualify into the Hungarian National AWC Team.  I am very hopeful about the quali competitions, but of course we have to wait what happens. In case we won’t succeed there is a Plan B that will be implemented. I can only say in advance, that it is not at all less exciting than going to the AWC 😉

I wanted to put together a veeeery fancy video about our year 2014, but I didn’t have time at all to do it. Jenny Damm, one of my absolute favourite agility person made one about theirs. I like her and Miss Lilly  very much so I am happily share their little movie with you. Probably it is more edifying as well than our video would be 😛

Happy New Year Everyone! 🙂