Define "safe"

What exactly, is "safe" enough? Is it even possible?

Following a recent local agility trial, the usual complaints started to surface. The surface was either too hard, too soft, too deep, too slick or too something for many handlers. The groomed dirt arena was blamed for dogs knocking bars, missing contacts, running wide, and for handlers slipping or falling. To hear the list of ills, you'd think every run would have been a blue ribbon if not for the surface. Allusions to the risk of injury were made. To hear the list of complaints, you'd think every agility surface should be a perfectly level, perfectly traction-ed, and perfectly safe. As if there were such a thing!

I've seen agility courses set up and run - successfully - on rolling terrain. On soccer fields. In rodeo and dressage arenas. On hardpan and on sand. On school playgrounds and public parks and dirt lots and desert meadows. In the rain, in morning dew, in a dusting of snow. In blasting winds and glaring sun. After dark with street lighting. And inside on artificial turf, carpet, and rubber mats. With no air, or swamp coolers, or refrigerated air (that's air conditioning to those that don't live in the desert). There are lots of other settings I haven't seen yet. Most are safe, most of the time. But injuries can and do happen anywhere.

I think that the truth is that if you TRAIN on a variety of surfaces, you and your dog are physically and mentally prepared to run - successfully - on anything that comes up. So if you aren't successful on a particular type of surface, you have two choices. Either TRAIN like you want to compete, or SHUT UP. Complaining will not solve your problem, so either get to work or... stay home.

I didn't always feel this way, no siree. The last three years of coursing have really opened my mind to the idea of what a good performance dog can handle. Dogs that weigh over 80# going roughly 30 MPH in all kinds of weather on all types of surfaces - grass, pouring rain, wide open desert, rolling meadow, snow, wind, beating sun - day after day, for long minutes that no agility run could ever compare to for speed, distance, difficulty or duration. Cacti, cockleburs, goat heads, devils claw, arroyos, barbed wire fences, unmarked roads, cattle, rattlesnakes, pronghorn, coyotes... and yet people want to whine about a soft spot in the dirt? If you and your dog can't handle a groomed surface... well I got nuthin' to say, that leaves me speechless.

Sure, hazards are real and some are best avoided. At least, minimized wherever possible. Certainly, preparation, training, and luck are huge factors. But staying home is no guarantee of safety: I know at least a dozen people that have had dogs killed or severly injured in freak accidents in their own yards. Just yesterday my neighbor had a perfectly healthy 7 year old dog drop dead in front of her eyes for no reason whatsoever, inside her house. (Necropsy results pending, we suspect anyurism.)

In the end, there's no such thing as "safe", there's just LIFE. I, for one, will be out there living it with my dogs.