Well I must be hooked on this blogging since I am sending you this from a WiFi at a gas station as John fills the RV up with diesel. Since I am on the road for the next couple of weeks and may not be writing regularly I am going to pose a question to you so all of you can write on my blog. So here goes, what (if anything), do you think separates you as a competitor in the sport of dog agility, from the best competitors in the world? This is a pretty wide question so I am expecting a wide assortment of answers but I am not going to prompt you other than to suggest your answer may include what role the dog’s natural talent plays. I am going to send a lovely gift of a hardcover copy of Shaping Success (complete with a autograph from me and a paw-to-graph from Buzz) to one of you who writes in with your thoughts. I am not planning for this to be a contest , my thought is that I will just to pick a random number out of the people that take the time to write on my blog for me, however if someone writes a really compelling piece I may just change my mind. In 7 days I will post the name of the lucky winning entry.
Today am really grateful for John who once again has done all of the driving on our 23 hour drive to Florida. My plan was to get caught up with some computer work, but I haven’t done much of anything to tell you the truth.
Could you do a training session on tricks that we can add to our recallers like in a bonus or something like that.
Kind regards
Terri
We are interested in agility, but I remember something from the old days. I think it was called jumpers – having to do with building up the dogs back legs before starting agility. Is this still true today or is jumpers part of 360 training? Thanks for your help.
Hi Pat, Handling360 is a comprehensive program. We make the foundations of strength building for an agility dog (exactly what you are asking about) a big part of the lessons within H360. We have specific lessons on body awareness to create a great agility dog. Lessons that concentrate on both encouraging and creating a physically and mentally strong canine partner for any dog sport. We love this part of our program! Sign up for our free video series to the right. Susan will answer lots of these kinds of questions. You are right it is very important!
Some extremely impressive runs. Thanks so much for sharing them with everyone and also the work you did with Swagger as a pup learning tricks!!
In theory, nothing at all.
I imagine that the best competitors in the world have the same amount of intelligence, love for dogs, urge to excel, and fascination with training that any of us do. I suspect that they all have their ‘demons’ as well; such as perhaps being a procrastinator, perhaps having low self-esteem, a physical challenge, or perhaps competing family or job obligations (or even loneliness from their lack). Maybe they have more time or money than I do, but they might as easily have more time or money than a lot of ‘best competitors in the world’. Or less. Maybe they have a great dog. Maybe they are working through a particular challenge with that dog, or even with themselves. Maybe life has thrown them some curves, as well as some blessings. Maybe they recognize this, and maybe not.
My point is that I believe that any one of us has the capacity to become one of the ‘best competitors in the world’. I think that if being the best is your goal then you had better believe this, because no two of us are the same. Yet could there be a template? Lanny Bassham once said something both naive and provocative. He said he once told himself to ‘go find out what the winners are doing, and then do it’. It really is that simple. What is hard is putting everything else aside.
Really sadly, I have to admit that the main thing that is keeping Berny from becoming a top competitor is my ignorance, cause I´ve trained him so awfull when he was young just for ignorance in a hostil and punishing manner, and now I have a beautiful scared dog that loves to run a course, but in his safe environment. I´m not giving up on him, or me, but today, everyday I regrette every single punishment I put to my poor friend. So please everyone, be nice to your “friends” and help other people to be nice with your dogs, I haven´t find a most loving animal in the world. Here in México we don´t have really an oportunity to learn possitive ways to understand and train our dogs, so many, live in misery.
I´m really sorry for the ignorance of people,and for my own ignorance, and I hope that the frase completes once “loves conquers all”, cause I love my little grunchy jack russell.
I forgot to mention that they are going to take him out to potty and feed him as well. 🙂
Questions about Ruff Love… My border collie was having a recall issue around high level distractions. So, I bought the book Ruff love and he is in Stage one. We started all over with him. We are following the book to a T so far, but will be going to the Clicker Expo in RI in March and he will be staying at the in laws house. At that time he will be on week 8. We have instructed mom & dad to keep him in his crate when they are not watching, playing or walking him. Is there anything else we should have them do to stay on the plan? PLEASE HELP! I am worried that he will pick up bad habits again. Thanks, Pam
I had the opportunity to dine with a couple Olympic hopefuls in Skeleton (crazy sport, racing headfirst down an ice path on a cafeteria tray) and a Bobsled driver just before Christmas. We chatted about how fast they go and how they prepare for the ride. The best snippet I took out of this conversation was that there wasn’t time to react…if you were reacting you were going to lose or worse yet crash at 120 km/hr. You had to know what you were doing at each part of the course. As most conversions go about competition, I relate them to dog agility! My biggest failing is not being able to plan and then execute on the course. I am reacting. It’s the mental part.
Absolutely nothing separates me from the best agility competitors in the World. I have the passion, dedication and discipline to be there with the best. It’s just a matter of time before wearing that Canada flag on my shoulders.