When the woman got out, she introduced herself. She said her name was Crystal.

"Where's your dog?" I asked, curiously.

"Oh, you mean Susie." She reached into her purse and brought out a Chihuahua. "Meet Susie," I observed that she had a red collar on.

"Come on, Susie. Let's get your leash on." Susie stayed perfectly still as her owner clipped a purple leash on.

"Come on Poky; let's get your leash on." Poky Jo bounded out of the car. He had a lovely, blue-collar on. Suddenly he stopped, sitting and wagging his tail as I put his leash on. His eyes began to get wide, his tongue hung out, and he began to pant.

"I think something's wrong with your dog," Crystal said. As Crystal and Susie began to walk away. Poky began to pull.

"Katherine...why don't you let me take him?" mom said to me.

"Okay," I said.

As we walked into the building, we could see two rooms. On the left side, we could see one that was big and fancy looking; above the door was a white banner that said in big, black, letters "Agility Course Show Ring." On the right side, however, the room was smaller in size, and there was a sign that said "Agility Course Training Center." As we walked into the training center, we could see dogs far and wide, jumping on a man.

"Hello my name is Katherine," I said, trying to be polite. The man didn't answer.

"Um, my daughter is talking to you" my mom exclaimed furiously as she waved her hand in front of the man's face.

As the man turned to us, I could tell that something was not right, "but what could it be?" I thought. I pondered on this, for a bit at least, and then I had it. "Deafness," a voice in my head said. "Of course, it was so obvious. How could I not see it before?" I wondered. I leaned over to my mom and in a whisper, I said, "Hey, mom I know what the problem is."

"You do?" she whispered back. Immediately she stopped waving her hand. I could see her hand slowly fall, down, down, down. It fell as it slowly returned to her side.

"Well..." she urged, "What is it?" she said, growing impatient.

"He's not answering us, because he's..."

"Yes!" she whispered.

"Deaf" I whispered back.

"Hey, why don't you sign to him?"

"Okay," I said, still in a whisper. As I slowly walked up to him, I could feel my hands beginning to shake. When I got up to him, I stopped dead in my tracks. Sweating I stood there, facing him. With trembling fingers, I signed "Hi my name Katherine."

He signed back "Hi", and introduced himself to be the agility trainer of the joint.

"What name you?" I signed.

"Gavin" he signed back.

"Hi, Gavin I came with my mom...."

"Where your mom?"

As I turned to point, I saw her sitting on a bench near the entrance. That same lady was sitting with her. "On bench near entrance" I signed. I paused, before continuing. Then I said, "This my dog, Poky Jo" he nodded, as if he understood everything I was saying. Then, he took us over to a small part of the training area where I could see a line of dogs forming.

Gavin explained that he would time all the dogs, and at the end of the week, we would have a little competition in the show ring.

The week seemed to fly by, and Poky seemed to be improving.