A Tale of Two Sports (and Panga's)

I have two distinct competitive activities; one is road racing/triathlons and the other is dog agility.  These are VERY DIFFERENT sports in nearly all ways.  I have a similar approach to both: train quite a bit, and am relatively good at both, but no one is exactly lining up to sponsor me anytime soon. 

This past weekend, I competed in dog agility with Panga and one of my other dogs, Calypso.  We headed up to the freezing tundra of Chicago-land and had a fabulous time.  Panga was especially fabulous and achieved one of my big goals- qualifying for nationals super early in the year, so I can spend the summer focusing on getting her and I in great shape and training for the Ironman!

Case study in a happy Panga (picture from this weekend):

And how did I reward my fabulous cattle dog when we returned home from the trip to Chicago at 9 pm Sunday night?  I was a wretched person and dared to exercise on my bike.  The 15 degree temperature and the dark?  EXCUSES!  ANGRY PANGA!  I was quite pleased I had the self-discipline to exercise after a long weekend...but this did not abate the rage rising from my dog.

See, the issue with Panga is she spends her entire life WAITING TO DO SOMETHING! and DOING SOMETHING! HOORAY!  Panga's standard for things to do is low.  Things she enjoys include following me around the house, standing next to me 'helping' while I bathe the other dogs, and biting her nub of a tail.  WAITING TO DO SOMETHING! is not a comfortable thing for her.  She hates it.  Panga is extremely smart and puts an enormous amount of her energy during WAITING TO DO SOMETHING looking for tailsmen signifying the potential of DOING SOMETHING.  Running shoes? Putting stuff in the car? Pick up her leash? Touching the basket where her running harness is located? VERY EXCITING. SQUEAL SQUEAL!

Panga sees going for a run as THE BEST THING EVER and me riding the bike as an excrucinating version of WAITING TO DO SOMETHING! as I do it while wearing clothing tailsmen similar to the outfit worn when THE BEST THING EVER (running) is possible. 

While I was committing this torture of my poor, loyal dog, she clearly decided to communicate her extreme displeasure at the current WAITING TO DO SOMETHING agony:

The Panga Suicide Demonstration

(Disclaimer: no dogs were harmed in the making of this photo.  She literally did this herself behind Allen's bike in the basement.  I am riding and took this with my iPhone)

Taking her level of desperation in mind, yesterday I decided on a long run outside despite the cold temps and snow on the ground.  Panga's boots were strapped on, I remembered my YakTrax, and off we went.  We were DOING SOMETHING! HOORAY! and Panga was very pleased.  I have to admit, it was a wonderful, Panga was right.  We covered 6 miles at a good clip on a beautiful bright, clear night, with a pretty blanket of snow.  An excellent example of the wisdom in listening to your wise training partner's desperate attempt to communicate her need to DO SOMETHING.

All in all, both sports are going well and Panga is pleased I learned my lesson.

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