The Flipside of an Agility Teen.

I've read many blog posts about the importance of dogs and what they mean to their people.  How dogs have affected the lives of their owners and how, with each tail wag and paw shake, they never cease to impress, amaze and awe without fail.

I'm sure there are hundreds if not thousands of posts describing in detail how dogs can better lives, but I guess I'll just add another to the pile.

My dogs are quite obviously an extremely pertinent and influential part of my world  and I find it quite stunning how people can diminish me for that very reason.  I can understand your pet not being the center of your universe... Wait, scratch that, I can't.  I cannot even begin to fathom a life in which dogs exist but don't, well, play a significant role.  Maybe I can understand your life not revolving around your animal, but when it comes down to it, is he or she not just another member of your family?  I can nod my head understandingly when someone tells me they like their dog but agility, obedience, flyball, and all dog sports alike just aren't for them.  Because the amount of love you have for your animal isn't necessarily correlated to the amount of sports (YES. SPORTS) you take part in with them as a team.  I can say "that makes sense" or "I get it" and I won't judge a person for it, not in the slightest.  But when someone tells me...

"Whats with that? Its just a dog."

...Now that really offends me.

Sometimes a pet, is simply a pet.  A family animal and something to greet you at the door when you walk in.  But it isn't for me, and it isn't for my family.  I would never stare down at someone for playing hockey or soccer.  So why would you put me down for loving my dog and agility?

I don't want this to seem like an ignorant rant against anyone who doesn't take part in agility or anything else with their dog because I know many people who are extremely supportive of me, my family and my animals despite my "incessant animal posting" and "doggie pictures".

There are always those people though.  I could just un-friend them on facebook, or not talk to them at school... But that somehow seems oh-so unsatisfactory. (Posting a rant on my blog shouldn't really be the answer, but it is somehow making me feel a lot better, lol) 

I don't insult or diminish you for posting about, again, hockey drafts, or who won Euro 2012 because really, if its important to you, I respect that! And if that's what you like, follow and love, that should be enough for me to just scroll right by, like it, and to maybe include it in conversation the next time you and I chat on facebook or face to face.

But please, please, don't ask, and by ask I mean tell,  me to stop posting stuff about my dogs.

I was not put on this world to please you, if you don't like it, you can un-friend me.  If you don't like when I tell you something that I did on the weekend with my dog after you tell me about going out with your friends, that's fine! Don't ask me then!  I understand how that could sound stand-off ish or, in some cases mean, and maybe its just my generation... But I really believe its just common courtesy to respect, and not put down something that a person blatantly adores!

My family, dogs included, have been there for me when kids, teenagers, from my school and elsewhere haven't, and they have helped me through so much caused by the latter.  So, no, I will not stop posting every single time my dog gets up on the counter and eats something.  Because, hell, that's freakin' hysterical, to me at least (I should really work on that, hindsight), and to a lot of the "dog people" who I have grown to consider my extended family and closest friends even though they're not "my age" or don't go to my school.

So you know, having finally graduated high school is liberating in the sense that I am continuing on  to bigger and better things, to cegep and eventually to university, away from the people I've been trying to escape for quite some time now.  But I also find it so amazing how, without the somewhat judgemental views of others (which I thought I had come to ignore), I have really begun to realize how much more I love the things that have been right in front of me this entire time.

I thought I loved it before, but man, do I ever love it now.