Once upon a time my beloved “Novice A” dog, Karma, got invited to the AKC Agility Invitational the same year we also finished third in the inaugural AKC Rally National Championship – we were having quite the year! Karma was running well, feeling well and we...
When we go into the ring – any ring: conformation, agility, obedience, draft, etc. – there are SO many components that go into making a performance excellent. Yet one of the main causes of not feeling confident is rooted in feeling unprepared or even just less prepared...
The harshest critic, the most unkind person, the biggest judge of our performance lives in our own minds. We say things to ourselves about ourselves that we would never utter aloud, much less say to a dear friend. We rarely cut ourselves a break and hardly ever say...
In the first of our blog series on gaining confidence, we started with ring nerves and their tie to the fears we take with us into the ring. This time we are going to look at pressure, where it comes from and how we can tackle it for what it really is.
“Pressure”...
Some amount of heightened energy is a good thing, but when your nerves get in the way of you being able to perform at your best, it’s a problem that deserves attention.
One night in my group obedience class, my instructor was...
I knew the moment I looked at the clock, with those seconds converted to points, Indie qualified for the 2019 AKC Agility Nationals! I was ecstatic and near tears as this was yet another unexpected dream realized. We both ran back to her crate for her jackpot, bouncing for...
About mid-June, a wonderful friend forwarded the standings for the 2018 AKC Agility Invitational in Orlando and Indie was still sitting in the Top 5 for “regular” Berners.
I was floored as Indie really only ran at 24″ a handful of times during this qualifying period. Besides...
I’ve always considered myself a superstitious person. I’ve also never felt alone in this as pretty much everyone I know who competes in anything has objects or behaviors they believe bring them luck. Recently, however, I was at my week-long national and I started wondering, is it...
I wasn’t going to write about this. And I literally told a friend I would not post it on FB. (Ha!) She nudged me, but then dropped it when I said that someday it might be part of a bigger story.
This weekend my “middle child,” Moxie, earned her CD and we...
In my coaching, I talk about having “handler goals,” or goals that you as a handler want to accomplish, but which may not fit with the dogs sleeping beside you. These are in addition to, and separate from the goals we have for our dogs. When I talk about this, I use my own handler...
This year was Indie’s year in agility. She was six, the magic age where people say it all starts to click. Of course, while I didn’t want to believe it would take this long, it’s true. We are now a seasoned team.
Indie received wonderful compliments...
Any of us who have wanted something so bad, know what it’s like to push it away. The Universe abhors desperation after all. Most of the time it’s because we take our minds off of the process and focus solely on the outcome. It rarely goes the way we desire.
For...
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