Your Mental Game

Some level of physical fitness is key in agility not only for your dog, but for you.  However mental fitness is not to be overlooked.

It's natural to get aggravated or upset, but in training and competing, these can be a real setback for many teams.

This sport is a fun game. Take the fun out and your left for negative thoughts and/or actions.
"Success" and "failure" are words put in to our heads and stuck there to create an outline of ourselves and what we expected a particular outcome to be.

Expectations.
If you go in to your first trial with your green dog and set expectations,  odds are that something will not fit your expectation and in turn bring you down mentally or emotionally.
If you go in to your first trial with your green dog and don't set any expectations,  you are more likely to recognize and celebrate all of the little brilliant moments in each run, Q or NQ.

Setbacks
With all trainers/competitors,  you are bound to find at least one setback in your training or in trials. Whether it be your dog not listening to you yelling "touch!!!" on the dogwalk during trials, bars starting to come down frequently,  broken start line stays, naughtiness or something else, something will arise. No one is perfect and having a setback doesn't make you the worst handler ever or mean you should give up. Take that setback as a guide to strengthening your team, instead of dwelling in your so-called "failure".

Too Serious - Too Selfish
Competitive people exist, you may be one of them.  Nothing is necessarily wrong with being competitive, but be aware of who is around you.  Don't be the asshole handler who gives their competition insulting remarks, nasty glares or attempts to distract the dogs running against them. Winning can be fun, but if you're not having fun,  what is the point? Also remember you have a teammate who doesn't care or know anything about placements (because they're dogs). They're doing most of the work anyways,  so stop acting like you have a constant spotlight on *you*. If you take a more fun, leisurely approach, you may just Q more or be more happy with an NQ. No one likes a grouch complaining about their run all.day.long.

So how do you stay positive,  even when you just NQ'd every single run of the day due to broken start lines messing up your line?
Relax and take a deep breath.  This isn't your last trial and maybe you weren't ready for it to begin with. You can't always be on top of your game and Q every run.
Go in to your next trial with no expectations (though that can be difficult). Run like you train and hang on. Pick out the brilliant moments, there is always something, even if it is as small as not barking at the start line.  Embrace those brilliant moments.  Don't hang on to those speed bump moments or errors in your handling. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone occasionally forgets a cue or trips over a wing. It's not the end of the world, unless you bet your life on a Q... but if that's the case then you seriously have deeper issues.

Go out, take a deep breath, run like hell and have fun. Embrace the little things and don't sweat the mistakes. Take a positive approach to every course and have a blast running and challenging your team to anything that crosses your path.

Look at your teammate and smile before AND after each run. Every team has greatness inside them, don't let a negative mindset ruin yours.

It's Just You and Your Teammate

If you know me, you know that I'm not one to ever post song lyrics as a status or as some creative caption for an instagram photo... However,  being stuck in one of the university centers while studying for finals last week, I got to hear a lot of music and one lyric stood out to me more than anything else. Heard in John Legend's "All of Me" -
"Even when I lose, I'm winning"
I find this powerful, not necessarily in his context, but when applied to agility.
When you're entered in a trial, you're clearly running against others for the best time with a clean run. You are competing for placements... or are you competing for another reason?
I guarantee someone will not answer the question of "why do you compete in agility?" with the answer of "because I'm competitive and I want to beat everyone". Why?  Because agility is not just the physical game,  but the mental game. It's a learning and bonding experience.  It's a game we play with our dogs.
Back to this lyric, I truly believe it reflects how I personally feel every time I step in to the ring or even on my field at home. It's not about beating my competitors.  It's not about first, second, or third place. It's not about showing off. Winning is fun, exciting and a great confidence boost, but what is losing?  Is it giving up? Blaming your dog? Admitting defeat? Absolutely not. Who says you have to be the best all the time? Who says you have to be the best at all?
You may have a dog who struggles to even make time on the course,  but your small victories such as a hit contact or no knocked bars - that is winning.
Every single run is winning because we all have little issues to overcome, improve or learn. Someone may always be "better" than you,  but never forget that you're winning every time, even if a numbered score shows you're not.
Physically, you have competition.
Mentally,  your only competition is yourself.

Strive to improve,  to learn from every experience and most importantly - appreciate the little things and know that there is no such thing as 'losing'.

Strike's First Trial - Recap!

Strike competed in his very first trial over this past weekend - All 4 Fun USDAA (3/22-3/23) and blew me away! Honestly, I wasn't too sure how things would pan out because the winter months were so harsh and left us with very little training time. As a result of that, I attempted to stop him on his contacts. I don't want to use running contacts in trial until we get more practice in more locations.

SATURDAY  
Starters Gamblers - NQ
Before the run, we walked by the speaker and Strike was startled when the judges voice suddenly came blasting through calling out numbers. He was pretty spooked, so I tried to get his attention and comfort him the best I could, worried that he wouldn't even run for me. To my surprise, he was totally fine once the run started. Took our time playing around, but I wasn't in a friendly place at the buzzer and forgot I was running my starters dog (not Ace, my distance pro) and so I didn't support the send. Totally my fault and we finished the run on a good foot!!

Starters Snooker - NQ
Didn't last too long... I got whistled off. I'm used to CPE snooker, where if you knock a red, you get another and continue on to finish your red-color(x3). Well... Knocked a red, but apparently we were supposed to start the sequence after our 2nd red-color, which is where I messed up and the run was stopped. My bad!! ;)

Steeplechase - E
Super fun run!! He chose the wrong end of the tunnel... Not sure why, but he was on fire for the rest of the run! He even cleared the broad jump, which I actually didn't even train (oops). So happy with how tight he can turn and how well he can keep up bars in tight areas! 

Starters Standard - Q/1st place
My first concern was the tire right out of the chute which he ended up handling well, but did knick the tire (but not hard enough to break it). Great great great weaves and stopped contacts (yes, I actually got him to STOP!!)

Starters Jumpers Q/1st place
The last run of the day. We had been at the trial for 11 hours (sadly, I am not exaggerating...) I was burned out and exhausted, I can't imagine Strike was any more awake, but we ran and he did wonderful! I forgot to cue a right turn at the end on a close to 90 degree angle so he passed up the last jump, but he could go back and fix it because starters doesn't fault refusals (woo!)

SUNDAY
Starters Standard - NQ
Pretty quick, but Strike and I were both pretty shocked when he slid off of the teeter as it was falling! (Through observation of the rest of the class, the majority did the same thing. I was first to run, otherwise I would have been sure to stop him better!). That shock is probably what caused the bar afterwards, but he ran the rest of the course nicely! 

Starters Jumpers - Q/1st place
The most connected run I felt that we had (besides steeplechase)! We had a LOT of fun and he was really bookin' it! He ran 6.3 YPS (not bad for running at 26"!!) and just sailed over the jumps!!

I am thrilled with how well he handled his first trial and how confident he was. I just need to work on trusting him more and running faster so that I can keep up with him! I can't wait to continue our journey. The future is looking bright. :) Click here for the video!!

Me and Strike with his first ever Q ribbon!

Respect for Your Fellow Competitors

I've been around many groups of agility competitors for quite a few years now, from the young crowd to the old, the small dog people to large dog people. No group in particular had many issues with their "competition"... Though quite a few individuals were cheerful to their competitors' faces, behind the scenes was tragic in how they viewed eachother.

Rivalry has always been around and there is nothing wrong with being competitive, but when things get personal, it's ugly.

I've heard just about everything from many people... It's rude. You have no idea what each dog-handler team goes through or what they have experienced.

"Clearly they don't train their dogs, so why even enter?"
"Why does he/she even try? The dog just gets the zoomies and runs away."
"Just give up already."
 I've seen a lot of teams come out on the field with a fairly new dog. Training at home or even in a class is nothing like competing. The sights, smells, sounds and surface of the floor could be all brand new and to some dogs, they may be curious about this. It's not that the handler doesn't train the dog. Besides, they could be working through issues that you don't even know about.

"Why waste your money if you can never even make course time?"
"That handler is too fat to be able to run their dog properly." 
"Ugh, get out of the ring already. Your dog is too slow anyways."
Obviously I have never heard anyone directly tell someone this, but I do hear it muttered ringside. It makes me sad. You don't know what that team could be working through. Stress, fear, physical disability (handler or dog) or something else. Since when is this sport about having to be the fastest? Some people like agility because it's fun for them and is a great way to bond and play with their dogs. It may not be about the Q, placement or YPS to some people. It's about the fun.


We don't all have the same goals in agility, but that doesn't mean your goal is better than the goal of someone else. They're in this sport because they love and enjoy it. Don't be the one to bash on everyone just because you don't like them/their dog/their handling. Don't try to bring them down either. If you're going to be the bully of the agility world, you may as well just stop altogether because you have a very negative mindset.

Odds are that those people who you dislike are in it for different reasons than you are. Respect them.

Bree - my slow dog. She no longer competes, but she loves playing at home!

Motivation and Drive within Myself.

It's about time I write a new entry in my blog...
In case you're wondering where I've been, what I'm doing and when I'll be back...

This is the first year of my life that has been so different that it's been hard for me to handle... mentally. I started college in the fall of 2013 at Maryville University to study pre-optometry. Living an hour away from the school, it wasn't reasonable to have to drive to school 5 days a week from home for classes... So I moved in with my aunt and uncle, only 10 minutes from campus.

Life as I knew it suddenly changed. I went from being home every day to only being able to come home on the weekends. Studying and going to school 5 days a week, driving home Friday, working Friday, relaxing on Saturday and returning to Chesterfield every Sunday.

I have struggled for a very long time to keep my head up and keep moving forward. I can not bring any of my pets to live with me in the city, even my Mar (the cat).

Not only did this mean that I can only train my dogs agility two days a week at a maximum (depending on weather), but I could only see them roughly two days a week. I know my parents take great care of them and give them their supplements daily, but when you have to leave what you love so much every week, it's heartbreaking...

Ace is semi-retired from agility now for personal reasons, so I mostly just work with Strike in agility. Strike is 17 months old as of right now and has not competed, in result I have been getting questioned about why I haven't put him in the ring yet as I could be working on my titles. This irritates me, because the people who ask me this don't know my situation.

I've been on my own to train Strike. I can't afford online classes or seminars, and I am not even with my dogs during the week for the possibility of taking classes with anyone. My opportunity in regards to classes is zero, and that is just the way things will have to be.

Along with my training time cut short every week due to the lack of time I have with them, I have to do things different. Strike has a lovely running dogwalk and aframe. I worked very hard on this, but I am wanting to put a 2o2o on him as well, and as a result, I have received criticism for this. So let me just explain right here for those of you who are so against this idea. I do not want to attempt and expect a running contact hit when we begin to trial with the lack of weekly time I have to work on things. I want to have a solid 2o2o as a separate command (dual contacts) so that I can use that in trial until I have the opportunity to have him run other dogwalks besides the one I have at home. Until summer time, when I can work on things daily will things change and become more solid.

Let me be clear - I do not do agility for the title. I do not do agility for the aspect of competing against others. I don't do agility to "win". I do agility because it is a stress reliever and a way for me to have fun with my dogs. Agility gave me confidence, and although I still have a lot of confidence to build, I am so proud of present-day self. I went from a shy, quiet individual who thought communicating with anyone I didn't know would kill me to a confident young individual who can approach others with ease and engage in small talk - something I previously could have never done... and this was all thanks to agility.

I do not see myself in competition with anyone but myself.

I am not out to win. I am not out to necessarily have the fastest dog possible for the highest odds of winning. None of that matters to me. I have a BLAST running Ace, my slower and now semi-handicap dog. I wouldn't change the way he runs or anything about him for the fastest agility dog in the world.

 It isn't about the Q. It isn't about the YPS. It isn't about the placement.

It's about the fun and the privilege I have to run side by side with my best friend.

Yeah, it sucks that I will not be able to trial much anymore and that I can and will only be able to enter on Saturdays because of school and commuting back and forth to the city during the school year, but I still have motivation and drive somewhere within myself. Not do to good in agility necessarily, but to live life to the fullest and not give a damn about what others think of me. 

I am working very hard through my 7-8 years of schooling to provide myself with the best career for me. I love my dogs, but I also want to be very successful in life and that is why I am so driven to continue on this path - this long journey. To make something of myself. To have a career where I will be able to afford trialing, building my own facility, moving wherever I want to live, being financially stable and most importantly - being the happiest person I could ever be.

I wouldn't be able to have all of this drive and motivation without my friends and family there to support me and keeping my head up when the going gets rough. Thank you everyone who has positively impacted my life and helps me up when I fall down.

So when...?

"Wow Strike sure has grown since the last I've seen him! When can he start competing (in AKC I assume)?"
"December"
"Can't wait to see you at a trial next month then!"
"...I'm not entering him in anything soon actually."
"Why not? He's old enough and he looks great to me."
...
Honestly I've thought I've choked this question to death, but others must not read my blog or Facebook posts.

Yes, Strike can start competing December 8th.
No, I am not planning on competing with him that early for a few reasons...
1. Contact training is not finished!! This may take a while...
2. He hasn't even ran a full course yet, he didn't start serious training until just the other month.
3. I'm not in a rush or race to a certain title or accomplishment, I'm just as satisfied with taking my time.
4. I'm a poor college student.

Yes, Strike did really well at Purina practice.  His weaves are phenomenal,  his teeter is great, he keeps bars up, but there is so much that goes into the training of everything that I would have had to start training obstacles at a lower age, which I am highly against, in order to compete the day of his 15 month birthday and feel completely confident. Mainly because I don't live at home during the week. I don't have the option of daily training, so that sets us back a little bit as well.
I don't plan on competing until Strike is 18 months old. Sure he could have advanced into a higher level of AKC by then, but I honestly do.not.care.
I play this game for fun and because I have a true passion for the sport.

So stop asking me why I won't compete with him next month. K thanks.

Rant over.

My 5 Rules.

Where to even begin...
    Now at a year old, I've been going back and watching videos and awing at pictures from when Strike was younger. Do I regret anything? Not one bit. Some people have asked what my plan was with Strike. How I went about "training" him his first year and what my thoughts were on everything.
This was basically my rubric, if you want to think of it that way... My five major rules in "training" a puppy.

1.) ALWAYS FUN NO MATTER WHAT!
 Training rule number one of course also. Never get mad at or scold the puppy. Never instill fear into him. Be his best friend; the one he can trust. Positive reinforcement, playing, and letting him be a puppy (in other words, let him play and have a puppy brain. Maturity will form eventually).

2.) LEARN THE BASICS FIRST.
Of course I would hope anyone would follow this rule... It would only make sense. Teach them basics while they're young. In a fun and appropriate way, of course.

3.) STIMULATE THE BRAIN.
Self explanatory... Tricks, making them think, get their brains to start functioning. Shaping is especially a great way of doing this!

4.) FOUNDATION, FOUNDATION, FOUNDATION.
Puppies have so much coordination, body awareness, and basic knowledge to learn before anything big. Running around a cone, walking through a ladder, building muscle, strength training, etc. -- all vital to building a performance dog. (Has a lot to do with #5.)

and now for the big one...

5.) BIG DOG EQUIPMENT CAN WAIT!
First of all, you can't compete until the dog is 15 months old at the earliest. Please tell me why in the world you would stress this equipment early on in a puppy's life? If it's muscle you're looking to build, putting your puppy on a full size, lets use the a-frame as an example, is not the way to do so unless you want to risk injuring the puppy. Remember, puppies, like human babies, are not fully developed. There are things called growth plates. Disrupt their growth plates or damage them and well... The outcome may be devastating later down the road. It's a scientific fact, you can't say it isn't true. I just can not bring myself to understand how one can think that performing these full-height obstacles at a young age is healthy. You know that puppies are growing and developing. How can you not see that high impact training like this can damage your growing teammate?

 Plus there is SO much more to do, why rush into things? I really stress this factor in my own training because I want my puppies to be healthy and able to form and have their growth plates close before ANY jumping, weaving, climbing, etc.
So you say that waiting too long will result in undesirable obstacle performance and difficulty for them?
Okay, so clearly my young pup will get no where in agility because he started/will start these obstacles once his growth plates are closed... This is what foundation is for. Build your muscle and drive in foundation training. I find it extremely offensive that people think that younger is better for everything, because it scientifically, is not. You may get lucky and your dog may not develop any major problems, but the risk should be scary enough. We all want our canines to last as long as possible as well as being as healthy as possible.
Strike is a powerhouse. Probably the most muscular pup I've ever met. And he didn't get this from obstacles. Oh no... He got it from **foundation** training. Living on a farm also gave him an advantage, but mainly the foundation. The learning how to run, coordinate his body, and build muscle. /end rant

So, my five rules. What I follow for training puppies. (Yes, I have more "rules" but I just wanted to share 5 of them.)

and some photos for no reason!!

(I mean really, he can fly... and run extremely fast. Some say it's the freckles) ;)