E354: 사샤 지터, 베나 스티위잉, 매켄지 민토(Sasha Zitter, Benah Stiewing, McKenzie Minto)와 함께하는 어질리티 주니어 핸들러

I guess I first got into dog training when I was like five or six, when my mom and I would go to this shelter in New Jersey and we would walk the dogs and we would do basic obedience training classes with the dogs. And that sort of sparked my love for dogs. But I didn't find out about agility until I was 10 and I had moved into a new neighborhood in California. And my neighbor just said, hey, you love dogs. You want to come to this agility class with me? And I was like, sure. And I had coincidentally gotten a standard poodle puppy at like around that time. And I decided I wanted to start it with him. And yeah, the rest is history. Fantastic. Mackenzie, you want to go next? My story is a little similar. It is I was around the same age. I think I was seven or eight. And I was actually riding horses at the time. And we had my mom had actually signed up for agility classes with our family dog named Sasha. Funny enough, my first dog is named Sasha, too. And we were at the horse arena and my mom fell off of a hay bale and broke both of her heels. And then I was her little seven year old daughter who had to replace her in the eight weeks of agility classes that she started. So I actually initially had no interest in agility. And then this sort of act of fate occurred. And to this day, I, as you can tell, became hooked in agility and have been competing ever since. So obviously, I love it. And it's a passion of mine to bring it to more juniors and just sort of let them experience the joy that I got to have growing up in the sport. You know, so I kind of have a weird agility origin story in that as a child in elementary school, I was like a hardcore animal rights activist and was like lobbying and marching and started a nonprofit. Like I was really into it. And through being in that sphere, I learned about dog sports actually kind of like through negative light. But I was like, wait a second, that looks really fun. And pivoted. And like all the energy I was putting into animal welfare work went into dog training. I started with my like family toy poodle at the time. And it was just like the most wonderful thing ever. I had always, I was like the animal obsessed child who had a million pets, just like so many pets. Like I was, I had rats that I was training to do agility with. And so finding agility and like having an actual animal who could properly do it was just like the best thing ever. So it really, really changed my life. And like I would not be who I am or do what I do today without agility, without being a junior in agility. So let's talk a bit more about BJAC.

So Sasha, kind of what led you to found it? And for everybody else, kind of what led you to become involved? Yeah. So when I was 15, I was looking around for summer camps that I could bring my dog to and do agility. But I wanted this specific feeling of community among juniors. Because when you're a junior in agility, you're usually, at least in my area, the only person probably under 30 at a trial. And that's all well and good. You know, I think the three of us can probably agree that we've developed a lot of skills at a young age because we were always interacting with adults when we were, you know, very young. But it does make it a little bit harder to find community. So I was looking for community and I couldn't really find anything like that anywhere in the U.S. So I am from a very entrepreneurial family. My dad has started many businesses and is now advising a lot of businesses. And he kind of was just like, what is stopping you from starting something? And I thought about it and I thought, nothing, I guess. And so I had posted some stuff on Facebook. I was very active on Facebook at the time. And I was like, would anyone be interested in this? And I just got an outpouring of support from, you know, so many people in the agility community. And this other junior handler at the time, Madison Edmonds, had essentially reached out and was like, I want to do this, too. I want to help you do this. And so we were both 15 at the time. I believe the first camp happened when I was 16. And we sort of just built the organization from the ground up. And that was, you know, obviously like a huge accomplishment that I'm very proud of. And I'm so glad, you know, that I have Mackenzie and Bina helping me grow it. We have so many cool initiatives happening right now. And I'm sure we'll talk more about them later. But, yeah, it just kind of came from this hole in the community. We just didn't really have resources like that for juniors. And so I just decided I wanted to make it myself. Fantastic. Mackenzie, you want to go next? Yes. I have a kind of unique relationship with this organization because I grew up in California with Sasha. Granted, I was in SoCal and she was in NorCal. So we didn't our circles didn't overlap all that much. But we've been friends since she founded this camp. And I actually attended as a camper for two years back in 2018 and 2017, I think. And or maybe 2019. Anyway. So, yes, I attended as a camp camper and I immediately loved it and wanted to be involved. And then when this opportunity came up, Sasha invited me to join her as a director of the camp.

And so now I'm on board and I'm kind of on the behind the scenes side of it, which I think is really interesting. So I love that I'm helping sort of improve that camper experience now that I have both perspectives. Fantastic. Bina? So I knew I didn't find out about B-Jack until I had aged out of being a junior. But so I couldn't have attended. But when I found out that B-Jack existed, I was very sad that I was already too old because B-Jack is just about one of the coolest things ever. And it's been so wonderful because I started during last fall during the winter and our camps happened in the summer. This summer, 2024, will be my first time getting to attend camp. And it's just been like such a wonderful experience getting to hear from a lot of our past campers, including Mac and other campers as well, about their experiences there. Because I feel like as amazing as it was just learning about B-Jack and hearing about B-Jack, actually talking to people who have like campers who have gone to B-Jack, especially campers who have gone to B-Jack like year after year after year, the experiences they're having are just like transformative. And I think exactly like what Sasha intended it to be, just like a truly, a truly like steadfast community that is united in their love to like have fun with their dogs and grow in the sport. So it's been just really wonderful getting to be more involved in the organization and be able to actually work towards providing those experiences to campers. And I'm so excited to get to see it in person this summer. Fantastic. So talk to me a little bit, guys, about the application process. How do folks get to actually attend? What prereq skills do they need? What skills do their dogs need? Who wants to dive in? So we actually have two camps. We have one on the West Coast and one on the East Coast. This year, the East Coast one is in Pennsylvania in August. And the West Coast one is in Oregon in June. And they're slightly different. So the West Coast camp being smaller than the East Coast camp, it has a slightly less broad age or not age range. I'm sorry, experience range. And so that basically means that, you know, on the West Coast, we have some people who are pretty new to agility. You do have to have like your dog needs to know the obstacles and you need to know, like, what is a front cross? What is a blind cross? Like, how do I run a 15 obstacle course? Like, you need to know, you need to be able to essentially complete a course. Um, and, uh, so that's the prerequisite for like for West camp.

That's kind of our, our more novice group that can span from people who have those skills down, um, and are sort of starting out all the way to people who are competing, maybe in like novice or open, uh, level, you know, in, in AKC or, um, you know, even in UKI or any, any of the organizations. Um, and then we have a more advanced group that, um, you know, that that's kind of full of maybe kids who have gone and competed overseas or, um, kids who are competing at the masters or like ISC level. And so that's the West camp. And then the East camp is, has a, a much broader range. And so basically we have, you know, a group that's more geared towards younger kids. Um, and, you know, again, they can be pretty new or they can be competing already. And then we have groups that are geared towards like masters level AKC stuff. And then we have intro to international, um, and that's learning skills like backsides and throttles. And then we have the international group, which is the highest experience level. And those are the people who are pretty much all competing overseas already. Fantastic. So the application process is just a video that they submit and the junior fills out sort of what level that they feel they compete at or they can run at. And then we review their application and put them in the group that we feel would be most productive for them during camp. So it really just, it's open to all levels of experience and we're going to place you in the group that would be, um, probably most effective for you to be part of. And I will add onto that, that, um, while we do, um, expect our, our campers to come with at least like a baseline knowledge of what Sasha said, like, um, front cross, blind cross, rear cross, how agility works, how a course works. Um, we actually have a great program called the lend a paw program for campers whose dogs, maybe, uh, camp isn't going to be like the best setting for them, or maybe they have younger dogs who aren't proficient on all obstacles yet. Um, so in the case that one of our campers does not yet have a dog who is ready to attend camp, um, our absolutely amazing agility community, um, at both of our camps, West and East lens, they're fully trained dogs, um, to work for a camper while they're at camp. That's such a cool concept and such a cool idea. Um, as far as numbers and all that, is it first come first served? How many handlers do you guys usually have, um, for camp? It is first come first serve. Um, but we essentially fill up the group, like the experience levels. Um, so you can get on a wait list for a particular level, or maybe let's say you're

apply for the maybe most advanced level and we're, we see your video and we think you might benefit from being in, you know, a different group, then we'll let you know. And you can still choose to be on the wait list for the level you applied for, but we ultimately do kind of have the final say in where we place people just because we want them to get the most out of their experience. Um, yeah, so we do have, uh, and, and in terms of like the number of spots we have at camp, our, our camps this year are full with, um, with wait lists, but the wait list can still be joined. Um, at East camp, we have 44 and at West camp, we have 22. Um, so it's groups of 11, um, just to allow, you know, we don't want to make the groups too large because we want to allow everyone to get adequate time training. Um, but yeah, that's basically it's, it is a first come first serve thing and registration tends to fill up in the first couple of days. Um, at least mostly. Yes. We find that it's kind of a national holiday for the juniors. We've recently discovered that our enrollment day is like a big deal and they start all these group chats and they're like, Oh my gosh, it's opening up in five minutes. And so everyone has their applications already to submit right away. Uh, so we think that's super cute and heartwarming. I think we filled up and we filled 87% in the first day this year, which was really cool. That's fantastic. When do you guys usually open registration just for folks who are already thinking ahead to next year? So we usually open registration, um, after like the holidays. So, well, the winter holidays. So, um, right after, uh, like new year's generally is when we open registration. And we do also have like, I mean, now that camp fills so fast, this isn't, doesn't also apply, but we do have like a staggered pricing. So, um, people can register early and it's going to be less expensive than if they register later, it's more expensive. Um, but as Mackenzie said, it's, it's quite the rush now to register. Um, so we, we, we recommend registering very quickly for a myriad of reasons. Yeah. Talk to me a little bit about kind of what it looks like for campers who attend. What does a typical day look like? And I know, uh, since Mackenzie's actually been on both sides of that, maybe, uh, makes sense to start with her. Yeah, I can speak to that. So first and foremost, it is an agility training camp. So it's West campus, three days, East campus, four days. And so, uh, East camp looks a little different, but for the most part, there's going to be,

uh, like on the Thursday afternoon, there's workshops slash presentations with the instructors. By the way, the instructors, we always pride ourselves in like the caliber of these people. Like they're like super skilled trainers. They're people that all over the world, people want to be training with these agility instructors. So we love to give juniors the opportunity to work with these trainers. So we have like workshops that we attend on the first day, as well as icebreakers and games. And then the next two days are seminar sessions. So it's going to be about three hours within your group, working with the instructor. And of course, over those two days, you're going to be rotating from one trainer to the next. And then, uh, you know, we're this year, we are changing it up a little bit to sort of incorporate some more character building and just fun, like summer camp activities as well as agility. So we have little things built into the schedule games and whatnot, leash making, you know, we have, we have things that are secret right now, but the camper should be very excited to be participating. And then on the last day we do a mock trial, which we think is really important for the juniors because oftentimes these kids have not competed before, especially in the lower levels. And so we get to sort of put on a fake trial setting. Like you have a running order and you enter and just, it's, we run it just like a trial, but it's mini. And we give away some really cool prizes and stuff. So essentially it's a mix of activities and agility training, hanging out with friends and then competing on the last day. All right. So talk to me a little bit about why the mission here is so important, right? So why is it so important that we kind of support junior handlers, um, and talk to me a little bit about maybe how camp supports that. So, um, I mean, first of all, I think, you know, what I had mentioned before, which was the community aspect, um, if we want this sport to continue, uh, and it is our beloved sport, so I want it to continue. Um, we need to support the future of the sport. Um, agility has a reputation of not being super welcoming to newcomers. And I hope that this is something that we can, uh, get past at some point. Um, and you know, that kind of is amplified for juniors a lot of the time, because a lot of people go into agility, not wanting to deal with children. Um, this is especially, you know, uh, prevalent in the younger juniors. Um, and I can speak to this with my own experience being a young junior. Some people just don't want to be around kids.

And, um, that can drive people that can drive young people in the sport away. Um, because, you know, if you a don't have a community and B are actively having tough experiences with people in trial settings or training settings, it's, it's going to be hard to retain people. Um, so we feel like it's really essential for us and, you know, for the future of the sport to support this population who they're extremely talented, just amazing competitors. And we have the opportunity to shape these competitors into good sports people. And so when they grow up, they'll look at juniors and they'll be welcoming. Um, so it's kind of this like positive feedback loop that we're trying to create here. And I can add on to that too, if you don't mind. Uh, I, I just want to say that also we're becoming so much more than a camp because, you know, we've discovered that juniors are a minority in this sport that needs to be promoted and lifted up. And there's a number of sort of barriers that we faced as junior handlers. So we are well aware of, of the difficulties and struggles that we had as juniors. So it's not just limited to us not having a community, but it's also things like financially and transportation and not having a dog oftentimes to compete with. So our job as BJAC directors is to find a very comprehensive list of these struggles and then systematically find ways to overcome them. So we are expanding to be more than a summer camp and we are launching a lot of different initiatives to combat these things. And I'll just add to what Mackenzie just said. Um, we like, we want, not only do we care about the future of our sport as is, but we, we want the camp, the sport to continue growing and progressing. Um, like we want, we want more people in our sport. Um, and we want the sport to continue growing in that, like we are training smarter. We are competing with kindness. Um, we're building community that is collaborative and dynamic and ready to meet the demands of the day. Um, and so I think this is where, like what Mackenzie just said about us growing as an organization is that we're, we're really working to adjust to meet the demands of what is needed in our sport. Um, and we really see junior handlers as the, the key to, um, a better future for all of us, right. Um, and a better future for our sport. Okay. So let, let's say somebody kind of listening to all of this, um, whether they're a junior handler or maybe they have one, right. Or maybe they're an instructor or another adult who want, they want to support the program somehow. Can you, can you share a little bit about how they can do that?

What opportunities there are for people to get involved and all that? Yeah. Um, there are a lot of opportunities for people to get involved. If you're a junior, obviously you can come to camp, which is super exciting. And then we do have other things in the works that are sort of secret right now, but there are other events that are being planned. Um, juniors can also apply for our year round, um, education grants, which allow them to, um, essentially apply for money to spend on anything agility related or dog training related. Um, so that's really exciting because again, you know, McKenzie had mentioned the financial burden is a huge thing as well for juniors who aren't paying their own bills. Um, so that's a big, that's a great thing for juniors to, um, have on their radar. Um, as for adults, uh, you know, we have lots of voices support. So a lot of the time adults will volunteer at camp, which is really exciting. So if it's near you, you know, that's something we always appreciate. Uh, Bina mentioned the Lend-A-Paw, we call it the lap program. Um, that is, you know, if you have a trained dog, that's good with kids and will run for another person. Um, that's huge. We love having those dogs. We pair them with the junior handler. We'll, you know, we let you know who we're pairing them with and you're welcome to stay at camp or leave the dog with the kid for the day. Um, so that's a great way to be involved. Another thing is just monetary sponsorship. We are a nonprofit and, um, you know, we have, great sponsorship packages for people who want to sponsor, whether you want to sponsor through a business or you would just want to make a donation. Um, you can sponsor so many cool things. You can sponsor the camp in general. You can sponsor our grants. Um, so there's just tons of ways you can, you can get involved either as an adult or a junior. Yeah. And it's so variable too. We're willing to work with everyone who wants to be involved in any way. So reach out to us. I think the cool thing about our position in the agility world right now is like, we are connected with the juniors. And so if you want to just reach out to us and say, Hey, I want to support juniors, let's workshop and brainstorm ways that I can do that. We will find a way for you to support this demographic. So, uh, yes, reach out to us. I would also encourage everyone to join our mailing list because that will keep everyone updated. That can be found at the bottom of our website and then just stay in touch so that when we have ways for you to support, you'll know about them right away.

And I just want to add, um, that while we are working really, really hard to find every junior everywhere and connect them with resources, um, there are still so many juniors out there who do not know about any of the resources available to them. Um, so if you are in a class or at a trial or at a non agility event, just at a different dog sport event, and you see a junior there, go, not only go up to them just to welcome them to the environment and help them feel seen and comfortable. Um, but let them know that there are opportunities for them out there. Um, we do a lot of like promotion on social media. So like if there are any juniors you're friends with on social media, um, just by resharing our posts and maybe getting one more junior to like, see what we're talking about in the resources that we're presenting. Um, so I think that like everything that Mackenzie and Sasha just said, and also just literally like connecting with juniors and talking with juniors, um, and letting them know that we exist. All right. So as, uh, folks who competed, competitors who competed as junior handlers, can you guys talk a little bit about how a program like this might've made a difference for you personally, if it was, you know, available when you were at that phase? This is a bit of a weird question for me to answer just because like, since it did exist while I was a junior, I just wasn't able to participate in it. But I would say that, um, you know, what this I'll, I'll frame it as this is, this is what it did do for me, even not being able to participate. This is what it did for me as a junior. I made a lot of friends that encouraged me to stay in the sport. I think that again, community is everything. And if you can't make community that, you know, feels welcoming to you, you're going to probably not stick around very long. And so for me to be able to even just make friends with the people who attended camp, um, have connections to the instructors who very graciously donated their time to camp. That was huge for me. It's just the community aspect, um, just really kept me in the sport. Um, and I think it does that for a lot of people. It also kind of lit a fire for me. Like I, I felt more passionate about agility because I was seeing all these great juniors go and train together and these instructors who had a lot of faith in the future of agility. And that was really exciting for me. So I would just say being able to observe that even, and I would imagine being able to participate in it would have been really awesome too, but just being able to see it, um, was really

huge for me in terms of keeping me in the sport. It was awesome. I can attest as a former camper myself, it really is great. And I don't have much to add. It's just that it really makes an impact to have friends in the sport, um, when you're young. So it was lovely. Yeah. I can elaborate on this. I grew, I started dog sports and grew up in Maryland. Um, and there was there, it was a small, I mean, not that it's like a huge community now, but it definitely wasn't a huge community then. Um, and I, uh, I was in a place where like, you know, driving one to two hours to get to class. Um, I think that it would have made a huge difference to have, um, a community of juniors around me. Um, I was really lucky when I was in high school, I moved to New York and did find a community, um, not of juniors, but a great community. Um, but there were still like, as, as much as I love having friends of all different ages, I think there's something to be said by like being in community with your, your peers. Um, and I can see ways that I would that like things that I missed out on that would have been really, really special to have. Um, just like being in a community where you're all there for a central reason and have a united passion that brings you together. I think that is just invaluable to any person. Um, and especially a person in a, in, in dog sports where it can be sort of isolating. Not to mention the inspiration factor that's involved as well, coming to camp where there's 40 other people of all different levels. And so if you're at the younger end of that, you get inspired by these other juniors who are, who have been in it for longer and are just like running all these super cool courses. And so you get motivated to continue to progress, to want to be like those other juniors that you see. Yeah. And being in the higher levels as well, you know, I think those, those people get the opportunity to really mentor younger people and take them under their wing. And that's another motivator to stay in the sport. I mean, it feels good to know something about something and to be able to share that passion with other people. Um, especially if they're less experienced and, you know, you have, you have good advice to give, like that's really exciting too. So just kind of opportunities for people of all experience levels and all ages at the camp. And also something I, we hadn't failed to mention before, uh, is that we also, you know, we do accept people, uh, under 21. So not just 18 and under, but under 21, because, um, we're, you know, we feel like there's

this harsh transition between like you turn 18 and then all the junior benefits stop and there's no more support. And, you know, that's not really how life works. Like when you're a young adult, it's still hard to be a young adult. So we also do support young adults as well at our camp. All right. So let's switch gears to advice just for a second here. Um, I'd love to, uh, just help you each maybe share some advice for junior handlers or, or for those maybe who are raising them. Um, so my advice is to like, be picky and be selective and not to settle. Um, I think that because agility is awesome. And so like we find it and then we find the closest facility and we're like, okay, I'm doing it now. Um, and maybe the closest facility to you is great and it's everything you need, but if you do not feel, um, comfortable or welcomed or invited in that environment, keep looking. Um, maybe that, maybe it'll end up being that like a virtual class or a virtual community will work for you better if there are less facilities in the area, because it's just, it's not fair to be treated with anything except kindness and patience, understanding and compassion. Um, so don't settle for an instructor or facility. Who's not going to treat you the way that you deserve. Listen to your gut, um, and look for the agility community that is going to best support you and your needs. Love that. My advice to all beginners in the sport, regardless of age would be to be patient with yourself and sort of walk in that discomfort of being in like this big foreign atmosphere and feeling like such a beginner at something because there's so much value in like starting off something that is a long journey, a very long work process, but it's so rewarding once you get to the end and you can run a course with your dog. So be very patient and like sit in the discomfort of not knowing this world. There's a lot to it. Like aside from the training and handling, there's so much to be learned just about like entering a trial or how to, uh, how to go to classes and whatnot. So yeah, I think Sasha and I are both discovering that because Sasha is doing ice skating right now and I'm doing line dancing right now. And these are two things where like we go into this community where there's people who are like experts at this already. And it's easy to feel overwhelmed by how little, you know, about this world, but it's actually so exciting if you just embrace that discomfort and be patient with yourself and commit to the long run. Yeah. I would say that my advice to, to juniors, um, to new juniors is to kind of similarly or piggybacking

off of what Bina had said. Um, just because you are young and new at something, uh, you don't have to settle. So don't settle for when, you know, if somebody treats you with disrespect, you have every right to ask them to not treat you that way. Um, I really do think, you know, agility is a community that has the capacity to be very welcoming. And like, that's, I mean, I had been welcomed and mentored by a lot of people and that, that is part of the reason that I stayed in the sport. And like I said, it has the capacity to, to also sometimes be not very welcoming. And so, you know, my, my advice is really, you, you do need to find your, your community. You need to, um, make sure that you are not allowing yourself to be put in environments that are not positive and that, that make you feel bad. Like you should not feel bad. This is supposed to be fun. You shouldn't be having a bad time. That's like a, that's huge for me. Um, and I've kind of just realized that recently, like I, I went through some times of feeling like, Ooh, like I'm really stressed about this all the time. I'm stressed about training. I'm stressed about competing. And that's just not what this is meant to be. It's supposed to be something that supplements your life and makes it better. Um, so you should always keep that in mind when making decisions about, you know, training where you want to train, who you want to train with, who you want your agility friends to be and all of that. And also, I just want to quickly add, I love that Sasha. And I think the same goes for your dog, like advocating for your dog and not settling. If someone is not like your dog is doing this new thing, that's also really big and new and scary the same way that you are. Um, so like if you're uncomfortable with the way that someone treats your dog or wants you to treat your dog, um, advocating for yourself and adding advocating for your dog, um, is not only like a great thing to do, but such an important life skill in like all everything. Um, and if I could just add one more thing, I know you asked about like advice for someone raising a junior. Um, I would say like, well, I'm not a parent, so I will, I will not like presume to, I will not, I don't have the audacity to like give parenting advice, but I will say that, um, you know, agility for me allowed me to develop social skills that not many people my age at the time had. Um, and I think that if you step back a little bit and allow your child to navigate, to lead the way navigating this new thing, um, and that probably goes for a lot of stuff, not

just agility, but I would say like, I did not come from a dog sport family. And so I kind of figured everything out myself and my parents were there supporting me. Um, they took me to trials. They, they hung out with me, but they didn't know, you know, what jumping versus agility was they, I figured all of that out. And I liked that because I felt really competent at this thing. Like I understood it and my parents didn't even understand it, but I was able to sort of have that journey on my own while my parents were there to support me, but they weren't like smothering me and they weren't figuring it all out for me. Um, and I just, I think that really had such an impact on the way that I developed as a human. And I think that's a super positive experience for any junior. Mackenzie, did you start to say something in there? I was just strongly agreeing with everything Sasha said. Parents, I cannot emphasize enough, like how valuable it is to have grown up in this sport. I think all three of us can attest to that. Like we have so many, so many, um, developments, I guess that happened as we were growing up. And it was all due to agility and largely due to just what Sasha was saying about how like our parents, yes, they supported us, but they also kind of stepped back and let us lead the way in navigating this world. And so it has a really big impact simply learning how to enter your own trials and learning how to raise the dog on your own and discover all these things. Um, it really has a big impact. All right. So before we, um, kind of wrap things up, I want to give you guys a chance to kind of share your website address and your social media handles and all that kind of stuff. So folks can know where to go to follow you guys and kind of, um, stay in touch as things continue to roll out. Yeah. So our website is BJACo, that's BJACo.com. Um, and our website is going to be the best place to go. If you just want like all the information, um, that's where you can find information about our camps. That's where you can find information about our, um, grants, um, as well as all the other fun things that we're putting together. Um, we are pretty active on social media. You can find us on Instagram, um, boundless co at boundless co, um, that's boundless the first word of our name and then C O. Um, and, uh, we also have Facebook. We're boundless junior agility company on Facebook. Fantastic. All right. Um, any final thoughts or key points you guys want to leave listeners with? I would just say, you know, uh, it's really helpful for people to spread the word about BJAC.

Um, it doesn't just benefit the juniors, but it really benefits the agility community as a whole. Um, we're raising people to be good competitors, good sports people, good to their dogs. I mean, this is, we're trying to shape the sport. Um, so spread the word, tell your neighbor, tell whoever. Um, and yeah, we're, you know, we're looking to expand even more. So the more interest we get, the more we're going to do for juniors. And the simple fact that you've listened to this whole podcast means that you care. So thank you for caring about our beloved little demographic of junior handlers. Yeah. And, um, yeah, thank you for listening. Thank you for having us on. Um, and just to bounce off of what Sasha said, if you know a kid who loves dogs and doesn't even know what agility is, talk to them about BJAC, get them in touch with us. Um, they do not have to, they don't even, maybe they don't even have a dog yet, but they're playing around with their neighbor's dog or their, you know, their sibling's dog, whatever it may be. Um, if you know someone who's into dogs and a junior, um, send them our way and we are just going to be beyond excited to talk to them and get them started. Fantastic. Well, thank you to all three of you for coming on the podcast. This is great. Thank you so much. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. Absolutely. And thanks to all of our listeners for tuning in. We'll be back next week. Don't miss it. If you haven't already subscribed to our podcast in iTunes or the podcast app of your choice to have our next episode automatically downloaded to your phone as soon as it becomes available. Today's show is brought to you by the Fenzie Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzie for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty free by bensound.com. The track featured here is called Buddy. Audio editing provided by Chris Lang. Thanks again for tuning in and happy training. Thank you. Thank you.