Fitzroy's hose running

I provided a brief presentation of this interesting new sport, invented by Fitzroy, in a blog post of 26 February 2011 [display]. My dog continues to practice this activity regularly and assiduously, in a style that has become exceptionally vigorous.

Indeed, when Fitzroy storms past me at breakneck speed, I try to locate myself outside of his racetrack, for fear of getting wounded by one end of the blue hose. Meanwhile, Fitzroy has developed a complex set of exercises designed to loosen himself up prior to each series of runs. The exercises start with an intense session of motionless meditation, during which the dog seems to absorb the vital energy flowing through the hose.

I would imagine, as an onlooker, that the ultimate aim of these exercises is to attain a relationship of symbiosis with the hose, in all kinds of positions.

Between the dog and the hose, the contacts are subtle, involving not only the teeth and jaws, but the paws too.

But these points of contact must be as soft and light as feathers, so that the dog can devote all his energy to running. It's a kind of zen operation, in which the dog and the hose are capable of moving autonomously but contiguously along a common space-time locus.

In other words, at no moment of his flight does the dog have the impression that he's actually holding the hose. The animal is simply moving in parallel with the object, and the object, reciprocally, is accompanying the animal. It's all very philosophical.

The runs themselves take place so rapidly that I find it almost impossible to take meaningful photos. In any case, an observer has to actually watch a series of runs to get the full impact of their force. Amazed by the power and speed of the animal as it hurtles across the lawn, a naive onlooker might imagine that the dog has simply found an explosive means of letting off steam and having fun. But such an onlooker fails to understand the profound sense of this activity, which is more an ethereal art than a sport. Admittedly, it's not easy to find the right words to describe hose running, which is impregnated with a highly spiritual dimension. It would be great if Fitzroy himself were to decide to produce a treatise on this subject, of which he is undoubtedly the creator. And probably the world champion.