What I Did on My Summer Vacation

"Be yourself. Everyone else is taken."

- one of Stacy Peardot-Goudy's shirts

Summer is an odd time of year for academics. If we're not teaching summer school, we may have no regular schedule. By the same token, we're not on vacation. Summer offers my best chance to learn new repertoire for the next season; it provides long, uninterrupted blocks of time during which I can record and edit last season's repertoire, and wish I had practiced more and better during the previous summer. A couple of professional meetings I attend take place during the summer months. The college where I teach runs a summer piano academy. All this says is that I work, on a variety of different projects, spread out over time.

At some point during that time, I'm supposed to take a summer vacation. After all, we're practically brainwashed during childhood that summer vacations happen to everyone, or at least to everyone in school. Here in the Upper Midwest, I'm surrounded by people who go to The Cabin, or to The Lake, usually for the weekend but often for a week or two during one of the summer months. I have friends and colleagues who spend the summer traveling, or at least get away from the college town in which we live. Away is farther for some (three months in London) than for others (try burgers at the next town over).

What I can manage consistently, by way of summer vacation, is a couple of days of agility camp. This summer, I did a grand and brave thing and went to an agility camp two states away. This wasn't really all that brave. I knew, and thought the world of, three of the instructors, plus the camp was near enough to my high school stomping grounds that I could stay overnight in familiar surroundings. Thing is, I learned so much in two days that I don't know whether I can count it as a vacation. It was lovely, and relaxing, and the food was great (thanks, Diane!), and my brain was so full by the end of the two days that it has taken me three months to process what I learned. Here's a partial list of new-to-me ideas (plus some old-to-me-ideas that finally sank in). This brilliance comes courtesy of Stacy Peardot-Goudy, Ronda Carter, Jen Pinder, and Rachel Sanders. Anything incoherent you should attribute to me.

1. Dogs naturally radiate towards handlers. (This explains yet again why Viva curls in to me when exiting tunnels.)

2. It is much easier to pull dogs between obstacles than to push them between obstacles. That said, it is important to take one's time, as pull-throughs don't happen quickly.

3. Hesitation is a powerful tool.

4. Collection is both physically and mentally taxing for dogs.

5. Effectively cuing lead changes reduces stress for both handlers and dogs.

6. Drive past the last obstacle.

7. At trials, videotape every run. Take notes on every run.

8. The higher one's arm, the more it cues extension.

9. Run with both arms pumping when possible.

10. Viva and I need to work on forward drive through rear crosses.

11. Viva likes to race me. When I can position myself for a race (as on the dogwalk), Viva goes much faster. (Thanks, Jen Pinder!)

12. Shoulder rotation cues extension.

13. Sometimes one needs to run faster in order for subsequent deceleration to be sufficiently obvious to one's dog.

14. Viva reads my knees. (Thanks again, Jen Pinder!)

15. Turning in toward one's dog is a huge collection cue.

16. Sitting back on one's heels is another collection cue.

17. If one wants one's dog to have a faster A-frame or dogwalk, one should not turn in toward one's dog or sit back on one's heels while one's dog is on the A-frame or dogwalk!

18. To go faster, relax. You can't open up your stride when you're tense.

19. Every rear cross has a lateral motion component. The more lateral motion, the sharper the turn.

The college I teach at is coming up on Fall Break. It's not quite fall vacation, but it's two days, long enough to revisit every agility course and exercise from my two-day official summer vacation. Need to find me or Viva? We'll be in the backyard.