The need to be flexible - or adaptable - is on my mind, especially after watching handlers have to adapt during the Rally and Obedience Nationals. Big events tend to spotlight our weak spots, but that doesn't mean we only need to be adaptable at nationals; adaptability comes up in all sorts of situa...
I recently posed a question to the "hive mind" on Facebook requesting ideas for supporting a dog who "stresses down." First, I received a lot of great comments - thanks to all who chimed in! Second, I received many private messages from people who had never heard the term.
As a result, I had man...
I'm fully immersed in "Olympic season," which begins with the trials and culminates with the passing of the torch. I've always been a geek for this "season" with its many thrills of victory, so consider this your warning - LOL.
Not surprisingly, I'm obsessed with the mental games of these elite ...
The other day, I was spinning. I was worrying - no, fretting - about something that might or could happen, and then planning what to do about it. I was burning a LOT of energy on "negative fantasy island." It wasn't fun.
I saw myself doing it - I was fully aware. I knew I had to change my thoug...
We've all been there. Working hard, putting in the hours, training your dog for agility, obedience, or rally competitions, and you hit the wall. (Open purgatory, anyone?) Progress comes to a screeching halt. It feels like you've hit an invisible wall. It might be normal - even expected - but it's fr...
I don't listen to my podcasts after I record them. I prepare, record, add the bits to the ends and middle, and I send them off. But this week's episode (dropping Thursday) is a doozy - not only because it's an interview with Cynthia Horner (the 2024 Westminster winner++), but because of all the gems...
Tis the season of chasing goals. In agility, this means pushing to qualify for the Agility Invitational and crossing off big goals like MACHs and PACHs. Oh, but my fellow obedience, conformation, rally, and other dog sports players are not off the hook - this "chasing" catches all of us eventually.
...When I talk to handlers, comparison often comes up in some form or another - which is why I talk about it as much as I do, I suppose. This weekend, while giving a seminar, another possible cause of comparison surfaced: We look to others when we don't have a good way of measuring our own progress.
A...
Compartmentalizing our lives seems to be the norm - we have our dog life, our work life, our parent life, our spouse life, and so on. I find that most people keep some type of emotional divider between the many complex aspects of being a human. In coaching, I often have to remind handlers that the s...
We seem so afraid of being labeled selfish that we have forgotten how to put ourselves first when we need to.
Before Westminster, I worked with a few clients (agility and conformation) who each - in their own way - were having trouble putting themselves first when it came to preparing for the big e...
I'm on a motivation kick lately. It's no surprise as many of the lessons I share are ones I need for myself - and I could use some motivation!
The thing about motivation is that it's an emotion, and emotions come and go. So it shouldn't be a surprise that our motivation fluctuates, too. Yet, many o...
As humans, one of the things our brain is designed to do is see patterns and trends; it's how we learn so quickly. We also look for patterns when we need more information - like trying to solve a puzzle. Seeing patterns is a tremendously valuable skill set, and the best of us can uncover mysteries a...
