I'm almost astounded to see that Piper and I managed our five RoHJ during the show in the midst of WOW losing her mind, but we sure did. Every time Piper would start to lose focus, she'd bring herself back around. It was very cool and gratifying to witness.
We had practiced the RoF in the ball park infield before the festivities and she did very well on the dirt. When I attempted them on the grass at 40' she failed on multiple attempts. I think it may have been the angle of the light because she kept losing the location of the dumbbell.
This morning we made a second (and successful) attempt at the Joseph ball field. We were alone but it was pretty windy with lots of smell distractions, as you'll see in the video as her attention shifts sometimes... and the camera falls over toward the end.
I walked out the distance and marked it with my orange beanie. I used a white towel behind the dumbbell zone to help her eyes retain the location and I placed the dumbbell on a small patch of dirt. Not sure if those extra measures were even necessary because she gave me six perfect retrieves without any waffling around. Me on the other hard, really needs to tape my mouth shut to prevent the inevitable wrong words from coming out of it.
Roxanne and Jessi, I can't thank you both enough for all your coaching, cheering, patience, impatience, and relentless standards. You gave us a very high bar to aim for and wouldn't accept anything less, so we had no choice but to hit it. This has been a huge life lesson that will be tapped for the rest of my days.
Mary, Trina, Kat, Buck and Karen... you have all been the most wonderful training partners I could have possibly hoped for. Your commitment to excellence, consistent effort and progress and your constant cheering, gave us so much to lean into, I don't know what we would have done without all of you!
And not to be forgotten, the wonderful Wayne, without whose regular coffee rescues I'd have been lost. Thank you Sir for helping me have at least half the wits to almost keep up with the rest of the crew!
