So usually, I practice all by myself. Like human-wise. Dog-wise, I have all of Team Small Dog to keep me company. We enjoy the forest at my friend Kathleen’s beautiful field, Heart Dog Agility, I set up drills and we have a great time. I never, ever wear Spanx while I’m doing this.

Sometimes though, it’s fun to practice with friends.

There’s my dog agility pal Nancy with her big floppy tongued puppy, Scoop.

Gustavo and Scoop were in swoony doony, lovey dovey, lady gaga googly eyed love.

It can be a little disconcerting if some of your agility pals are like super world champions. I just try to practice like I’m a super world champion too, so I blend. In my mind, I blend. No need to comment here, super world champion dog agility pals. But the bar is really actually very leveled when everybody sits in the same puddle and has the same wet underpants under their shorts. And also when your agility pals are nice enough to mention that, ahem, DON’T BACK UP when you’re serpentining!

Practicing with friends is not only fun, and educational if you watch your friends who are totally better at dog agility run their dogs, but also good proofing. Because if Gustavo can run when the field is full of starey eyed border collies and a Zuma, then anything is possible. Gustavo seemed pretty weirded out and unfocused for the most part, which is how it goes sometimes. At least it wasn’t like the day before, when he got so freaked out by a cigarette lighter that he went catatonic for part of the afternoon.

Yes. I said cigarette lighter. Welcome to my world.

We are pretty lucky here, in our part of the world, a blissfully free of Bic lighters world, to be able to do some agility in a beautiful forest on grass fields, then let the dogs run on the beach like complete lunatics until they’re pooped. And possibly eat Mexican food somewhere in there, too. The ladies. Not the dogs. Also, did you know that when dog agility ladies travel in packs, it looks like a official State convoy of SUV’s and vans? It is a scary sight. Like we are escorting the body of the alien somewhere. Carpool is a challenging feat in a world of big cars filled with big dogs and big dog crates. I take personal responsibility for the gulf spill. I hope to not be stoned to death by stoners now.

That’s Quill. Quill always beats the pants off of Otterpop when they run in trials. It’s just how it goes. Quill and Otterpop both have the same idea about how the beach works when it is full of border collies. The way it works is that Quill and Otterpop need to have the sticks and only Quill and Otterpop need to have the sticks. And that a trip to the beach is pretty much about Quill and Otterpop having sticks and not border collies.