The End of an Era
Thoughts on retirement and transitioning your main dog.
Disclosure: This site may contain links to affiliate sites that earn me a small commission at no additional cost to you. Please know that I only recommend products and services that I personally use!
I’ve been thinking about this for weeks. About what to write. What I’ll say. And now the time is here, and honestly I’m still at a bit of a loss. After all, how do you celebrate your number one teammate? How do you commemorate a career that inspired your passion? How do you thank your best friend who has been game for any adventure? I’m not sure I’ll do him justice, but let’s start at the beginning and see where it goes from there.
For those who don’t know, Finnick is my first Border Collie. He’s my first pure bred dog that was bought for the purpose of doing agility. I’d had Casey and Riley before him, but neither of them were “sport dogs” despite all their willingness to try this crazy game with me (or in Casey’s case lack of willingness). Fin was bought to be my team dog. He was the dog that I hoped would make me competitive in this sport, that would put me on podiums, that would let me travel the world, and that would one day put me on a team. He’s done all of those things and so much more.
You see there’s this funny thing called the Dunning-Kruger effect; trust me, you’ve heard of it, it’s the theory that sparked the adage “You don’t know what you don’t know”. 10 years ago, when I was looking for my first Border Collie, I had no idea what I didn’t know. I had no idea how long of a road this would be. How much there was for me to learn about dog training, about behavior, about course design, about handling, about emotions and the mental side of our sport. I thought I knew what it would take to make a team…I’m still not sure I truly know.
Finnick has been the best first Border Collie I could have asked for. He’s very much a jock, an easy going boy’s boy, who just looks at you with his big goofy grin that seems to say “It’s ok, I’m a good boy”. He was happy to learn with me when I thought jump commitment meant escorting him to every wing. He took it in stride when I jammed dicey blind after dicey blind in front of his face, always avoiding me, sometimes letting out a big “woof” to let me know how late I was, but then happily continuing on with the course. He let me train Running Dog Walks again, and again, and again, going from method to method until I finally figured out what we were looking for. At 7, we went back to foundations and actually trained collection, after years of being told “he’s just a big boy, he can’t turn that tight” we did it our own way, and we learned he can in fact collect gorgeously…he just needed to be shown how.
Maybe if anything, that’s our legacy as a team. That we always did it our own way. We always carved our own path, and blazed our own trail. That I was never satisfied putting a glass ceiling on him, or in fact putting a glass ceiling on US, and so we continued to grind, and to work and to build skills that we had often been told we would never have. And through all of that, Fin has been a goddamned saint. He never gets frustrated, he never quits. He’s not as empathic as my girls, which was exactly what I needed at that time in my life. If he had been a little more in tune with my emotions, I think we would have both completely fallen apart.
He has happily travelled the world with me, exploring fairy tale forests in Bavaria, running courses in Denmark, walking the high street and looking for Chimney Cakes in Prague. Once you stay in an airbnb with him you’re one of “his people” and he’ll seek you out if he gets wind of you at a show. Fin has been the commensurate “school dog”, happily running for countless of my students. He was the perfect learner Border Collie, not as intimidating in terms of speed as Rue, a little more forgiving for your handling and timing, but still happy to teach you what the right timing feels like, and what commitment looks like.
In short, he’s been perfect for being exactly who he is.
And as I sit here writing this, with tears running down my face, knowing that our time and our teamwork is coming to an end, I can’t help but feel both grateful and incredibly sad. Grateful for all the opportunities he’s brought my way, and sad that that chapter of our life together is closing. We’ve got one more event on the books at 24”, but honestly I’m not sure if he’ll run there. We’re taking things day by day and seeing how he looks and feels. He still loves the game. He still escapes my van to come join me in the ring, but his body is having trouble keeping up with the demands of 24”. And let’s be honest, he doesn’t owe me a goddamned thing.
So if you see us out and about, running our asses off at 16s, stop by and give his big old head a giant squish, and maybe he’ll give you a few happy woofs. And just know that I’ll be over here reminding myself how fucking grateful I am for this big goofy boy every time we get to step to the line.
In case you’d like to celebrate an amazing final EOTT with us, here are all of our runs. The good, the imperfect, everything. Because this weekend wasn’t about being perfect for social media. It was about making wonderful memories with my best Finny woof.
Round 1 - https://youtu.be/L9u8dt4N5lU
Round 2 - https://youtu.be/NeJcr_aq0Tk
Round 3 - https://youtu.be/Ed5H6w4R6EA
Round 4 - https://youtu.be/9LKuXlBLg4U