Why do you play Agility?

I wasn’t sure how to answer that question, at first,  but I have been hooked on agility since I started.
It is very gratifying, fun and something I can do with my dog. JoJo is an amazing dog and has been since the day I brought her home from her original owner, when she was 8 months old. She has some issues, but we worked them out together and She has changed me and how I relate to my dogs.
I have had many, many, hours of fun with her and I really enjoy it.

Over the last 3-4 years that we have been playing agility, I have been asked “Why do you do it” & “What’s so fun about that“. I would think “I guess you have to play agility to understand”.
The other night I was reading an past  issue of “Clean Run Magazine“,  http://www.cleanrun.com/
from December 2009.
After reading the “Editorializing….” article, “The Journey” written by Elizabeth Dott, it all became so clear on how to explain “WHY”.  She said it so perfectly, when she explained what the letters at the end of her dog’s name meant.
So let me see if I can put it into words like Elizabeth Dott did in her article.

…So why do I play agility, why do I spend all that money…

I realize now that it’s because of the Journey…..
I began training Jo when she was 4, but Our Journey really began when I switched trainers & I meet Chris Parker of SPEEDOGGIE PERFORMANCE  http://speedoggie.com/index.html.
She helped me learn the sport. She helped me understand to concept behind training my dog. She helped me understand how a dog learns to play aglity. She helped me develop such a passion for the sport. Thanks Chris.
After a year of training with Chris, it began. I started competing.
Our journey…… Our Journey began the first time I entered the ring. I still remember the day, it was 2 day show at Willingboro, NJ. It was the hottest day in June, around 99 degrees. I had coolers of cold water to keep Jo cool.
We ran Novice Standard and Novice Jumpers. We received “Qs” and first places in both classes. I was hooked.
Jo was a superstar.
It is because we got our Novice titles with ease, and had fun doing it.
It even was when we were having trouble while getting our open titles, when Jo was trying to tell me that I was trying too hard and I was  too emotional and it was affecting her.
It was when we got our Open title  in Jumpers.
It was when we got our final Q in Open Standard after working through all our issues together.
It’s because of  the people I have meet along the way, that share the same excitement with me.
It’s because of the excitement when I can share my success with my agility friends, who know were I’m coming from.
It’s because of the way I fell about my dog, my lil’ girl, who I adore for always giving it her all to please me.
It is because I REALLY ENJOY when some comes up to me and says “I can’t believe you can get a Jack Russell to do that, and do it so well” and “I can’t believe you have a Jack Russell that is so focused on you”.
It’s because of the look in her eye when I tell her “We are going to play”
It’s because she is my Jo and I love her and I love to spend time with her.
It’s because of the Journey. The one we started together as a novice,  and have grown and excelled together as a team now competing in excellent to get our ultimate goal a  MACH.
It is because it’s the journey together that makes us happy, not the destination.
It is because even though it will be sad, but the day will come when the journey will end and Jo wont be able to continue to play, even though that little Jack brain will want to. I will know that we had the journey together.
It is because I will begin that same journey with Haley, my newest addition to my family.
I would not trade this journey for anything, it is a bond that only a few will know, &
We are lucky, we have experienced the journey.

I’m not sure if I covered all the reasons WHY, but it should help understand WHY.

I thank you Elizabeth Dott for helping me with explaining it.