Helping your fellow competitor

I have pondered this topic for several years now.  Should we or should we not share how we train something in agility (for money or free).  Or even give advice (when asked) on what went wrong and how to fix it.

I guess my opinions have become very clear to me on this one.  Yes, we should help our fellow competitor!

In helping our fellow competitor I believe that we are increasing the body of knowledge in our sport and advancing the sport, we are helping to raise the competitive level of everyone, I an learning more about the topic myself, and we are paying forward for our own time in need.

Why should we add to the body of knowledge.  Just look at the history of agility.  When I started with Tip 8 years ago my first day of instruction with her was running an AKC Excellent course with the dog on leash.  If people had not shared how to train new dog we would still be doing that.  I believe our training methods are better and easier on the dog and human today.  Not to mention, more fun!

Why should we raise the level of competitiveness around us?  Personally and selfishly speaking it helps me be a better competitor.  I want there to be a ton of competition around me, I want competition to challenge me to improve, I want the bar HIGH!  I want to watch great agility all the time.  I want to be wowed by improvement and performance.  I can only achieve these things if I agree to help lift those in need up!

Success

I think the concept of learning more when you have to teach it is not new.  I have a burning desire to always learn my topic better.  By helping others I help myself.

Paying forward in my mind speaks for itself.  If we are all helpful and giving to our community, doesn't that make a much better community?

Now the caveat!  I want to help, really I do.  But I have found that those who ask casually for help are not the best people to help sometimes.  Not because they aren't in need, but because they are not ready to receive.  I think that people have to be hungry for the help and knowledge.  They have to have that burning desire to improve, not just the weekend wish to improve.  You have to be willing to take risks, put yourself out there, and open your mind to new concepts even if they don't make complete sense at the time.

So pay it forward, share the skills you are good at, and open your mind to strengthen your weaknesses!

Competing for Your Next Personal Best

This is a part of Dog Agility Bloggers day, you can find more blogs here. The topic of choice is Success and it is a call to action.  I would challenge everyone to examine how they measure success.

Success, the process of constantly improving, competing against your personal best and winning.

What more can I say...that about sums it up for me.

So how do you achieve success and more importantly, how do you feel successful?

In the beginning it was very hard to not focus on the Q, or not to be disappointed in the off course/knocked bar.  I wrestled with this too often in the beginning.  Way too many times I came off course not happy with the outcome.  How can you always be happy when your expectation is perfection?  Perfection just doesn't happen that often. And for me, a Type-A personality my idea of perfection is always beyond my reach.

There are too many things in agility that are completely out of your control, at least in the short run.  You can't set goals and achieve success while including a majority of the things that are out of your control.

I reset my measurement of success and am a much happier competitor.  I have a list of things to work on for myself and each of the dogs.  These are the items that are incorporated into each practice or trial (yes, trial).  The list comes from several sources: what made me nervous in my last trial, what skills were we missing in order to handle the course aggressively (not just Q), or what skills do we need to acquire in order to meet a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG), like trying out for world team.

This is the list that I use to measure success!  When I walk a course I always try to put at least one element of a challenge in it for us (some courses offer so many more).  I come off the course, reward my dog and reflect on how we performed our "challenges".  I don't come off course and ask "did we Q" or "what was our time".  It is what it is.   What I need to do to affect future performances is much more important.  Will I ask those two questions at Nationals, sure, but not at local trials.

I read a blog that Silvia Trkman wrote in April that struck me as something that contributes a great deal to her success...

You will NEVER see me ask a dog (to) do that or another obstacle without having an evil plan on how to proof their understanding more, without asking them to do it with a reason to take their understanding to another level. 

If you are constantly challenging yours and your dog's level of competency and increasing the competency, how can you not achieve greater goals?  Focus on what you can control.

There are so many ways that you could measure success in agility, but most are not within your control.  Can you really control if you win?  Yes, eventually you have a great influence on it, but you can't control it, you work toward it.

I am very mindful when I compete and practice, in their lifetime my dogs only have some many jumps in them, they only do this because they love playing with me.  So, I have to be the best teammate possible and make every moment of play count!

Develop Success From Failures

 I had dinner with a friend tonight and admitted that I don't even watch the agility runs posted on FaceBook anymore.  There are some that I watch, but it is getting more uncommon for me to watch.

On the way home I began to think about that confession.  I realized, it is not as interesting to me to watch a "perfect" run as it is for someone to post a run with a mistake (dog or handler) or what they learned in their run.  I like things that really make me think.  I like things that help me learn.  Watching perfection sometimes is really awesome, but run after run for me, tends to get boring.  People don't comment on why it was perfect or what was perfect, only that it was perfect or a Q.

Now, it will catch my interest if there is a ton of handling moves that I don't recognize or sequences in a course that are evil and tough.  But the average run, not so much.

I know, it takes guts to make our mistakes public.  But only because not every sees it as a step toward success.  Failure is thought to be a bad word.

I have a quote on my desk, "If you let your fear of consequence prevent you from following your deepest instinct, then you life will be safe, expedient, and thin" Katharine Butler Hathaway.

I don't want a safe and thin life, I want to be as good as I can be.  Which, for me, means taking chances.  It is a chance to learn, a chance to improve, or a chance to trust my training.

My take way from this.  I need to post more "imperfect" runs on my blog (I don't post runs on FB too much--lots of reasons).  Examine what I did well in that run and what I learned.  Why?  Because when I write about that, I am forced to examine the run, to analyze the handling and the dog, and draw conclusions that I can learn from.   Posting one of my perfect runs does not cause me to learn.  I feel proud and that shouldn't be underrated, but that isn't what keeps me coming back to the start line for another try.  It is what I learn that keeps me coming back.  Because I need to apply what I have learned the next time.

Develop success from failures.  Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.  Dale Carnegie  

It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure  Bill Gates

Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence. Colin Powell

If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed.  I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward. Thomas Edison

Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.
George Bernard Shaw
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