Dog Esoterica

Those of us in the dog world - immersed in training, obedience, agility, and competition of any kind with our dogs - apparently have a secret language that outsiders cannot comprehend. Our practice ring is close to being ready for the public (www.DogsintheRing.com) and we're trying to tie all the loose ends up. One of those ends was insurance. Hope and I have been talking to Shel since our mom was here and he's been handling our business insurance for eons. But when we tried to explain what a practice ring was for, Shel was out of his element. "Can't they do this at home?" Hmmm, nope, no jumps, not enough room, don't want to interact with the neighborhood kids every time. "Agility? what in the world?" You run with your dog through an obstacle course. "Teeter totter? Like kids play with?" Yeah, kinda. "Weave poles???" Um, yeah, the dog goes in between the poles. "Really? Why?" It's the rule. and it's fun. We couldn't figure out a way to explain a "go-out," so we left it at that. A teeter is coming in a couple of weeks and so is a tunnel, but we've got jumps, and we've got weave poles. Our obedience jumps are coming soon too. We're almost there. -Fran