"Agility is like life...you have to take it one obstacle at a time".

When I started this company back in 2000, it rather 'snow-balled' into what it is, rather than starting off as well-planned company of vision. Not to say that it didn't have any.  Vision was birthed with frustration, particularly over trying to make backyard equipment for this hobby I was caught up in. As a single gal who still holds a hammer up close near the head, and who is about as confident walking through the isles of a Home Depot as I would be walking the streets of India, trying to design a teeter-totter base for my dog was more than I could emotionally handle! I remember my desperate a-frame attempt. I took a small folding a-frame garage sale sign that was made out of wood and nailed carpeting on it. My Springer Spaniel was so patient with me back then. 

It didn't take long for me to realize that my dog loved agility more than I even did.  And that is where the real philosophy and vision of this company comes into play. Agility is more than just a fun thing to do with your dog. If that was the sum and whole, you would get bored of it, because while your dog appears to be in his glory, you yourself are doing soul-searching. Soul-searching about what you ask?  Well, if you've been involved in agility training for any length of time, you have surely experienced the subtle affect that body language, tone of voice and attitude has on your unusually sensitive dog. Anyone who has competed in agility competitions knows, for example, what happens to their dog's confidence when you feel nervous or discouraged. Suddenly a sport that started off being fun (and still is) is also becoming a way of seeing yourself for who you really are! 

You see, in a fundamental way agility represents and contains the essence of what dogs were meant to do and what we were meant to do from the beginning of creation. Dogs are creatures of nature, and nature was created for man. Both are happiest when in a harmony of submission, dogs to their masters, and man to his Maker. Agility is a form of teamwork that exemplifies this harmony. Training dogs is fulfilling and rewarding, both for the dog who was created to work, and the human who was created to work the dog. This goes for any other act of ruling over nature, whether in tending to a garden or mowing grass, teaching students how to do read and write, or organizing unruly data into neat columns. Everything we do, done to the glory of our Creator, is fulfilling our created purpose. 

So next time you go out to ask your dog to run through a tunnel, or jump over a jump, maybe you'll get that exhilarating sense, as I do, that even the simplest things of life have profound opportunities to fulfill Divine purposes.  

-Pamela

pam@affordableagility.com