This week I’m going to mail my first ever agility trial entry that doesn’t include any classes for Chico. It’s AKC and he has to jump sixteen inches there and I have not been asking him to do that lately. He likes practices better than trials (in fact, he jumps twelve inches fast and happy, with shining eyes and a happy tail, at Julie’s arena in run throughs), we only ever did agility because he was crazy and now he’s not, he’s twelve and he shouldn’t have to do something he doesn’t find to be fun.

But he’s my heart dog and it’s hard to do this thing that I only have to do because he’s getting older.