Agility

My mom runs agility with my 4-year-old Australian Cattle dog, Jersey. Agility is like obstacle courses for dogs, A-frames and dog walks to walk across, tires to jump through, tables to stand/sit/lay down on while the judge counts down from 5, tunnels and chutes to run through, and various kinds of bar set ups to jump over. There are various kinds of mistakes your dog can make. There are 'refusals,' which is when your dog refuses to go over/through the obstacle you tell it to. There's the 'wrong course' sign that the judge can give, which obviously means that your dog either went onto the wrong obstacle or went the wrong way through the tunnel. If your dog knocks down a bar on one of the jumps, you get a fault. If your dog jumps off the table before the judge finishes counting, it's a fault. As you can see, there are quite a few things your dog can do wrong.

At an agility competition, it's hard to find someone who's mean, whether you know each other or not. People just talk to each other and joke around. We all love dogs, and we're all equal. When you and your dog perform well in the ring or 'run well,' or even if you don't, people clap for you. When your dog knocks down a bar or makes some sort of mistake, everyone watching winces and 'feels the pain' with you. Everyone encourages each other because they know what it's like to not just do well, but make mistakes too. Everyone is willing to help each other and answer each other's dog questions because they know what it's like to be new and to not know, no matter how long they've been doing agility.

I always feel so good, so welcome, at an agility trial. Everyone is so friendly. In a sense, is this not a Zion society? Is this not the model Christ would have us follow? While this isn't church or anything, doesn't Christ see us equally and want us to help and encourage each other this same way?