Learning to Trust the Process

After last week’s disastrous results from the trial, I have been doing some serious introspection about dog agility.  First off, I have begun to examine my motivations for participating in agility.  I remember when I took a puppy class with Jefferson and I recognized his puppy exuberance and love of learning.  We had a great time, albeit a bit frustrating at times to learn how “to walk on a loose leash.”  But, we persevered and proudly earned our AKC Canine Good Citizen title when he was 15 months old.  I was so proud of my boy for learning how “to walk on a loose leash” and “come when called!”

We entered our first agility class (Intro to Agility) when he was around 10 months old.  He loved it (me too!) especially learning to touch a “target” for his squeeze cheese.  He was truly fearless when it came to mastering the equipment – running fast and confident over the dogwalk.   The DW has always been one of his favorite obstacles!  I remember whenever I was first asked to take him off leash to perform a “sequence” of obstacles, and he escaped and ran around the field.  Those were some humorous classes, but I can truly say, “You’ve come a long way, baby!” since those early days.

But, what I love the most about agility, and dog training in general, is helping Jefferson learn how to “do” something new.  He is such a fast learner that sometimes it surprises me how quickly he responds to training.  For example, I am now working on teaching him a start line stay.  I have determined that this would be best for us to start our runs together as a team – being calm, cool, collected and confident.  By having a start line stay rather than a running start, we begin our runs less hectically and I am in a better position to give him information about where we are going on course.  So, we practiced this last night on a course that definitely required a start line stay since Jump 1 and Jump 2 were side by side, not lending well to a running start.  With the help of string cheese and a happy tone in my voice, he nailed the start line stay and performed flawlessly during our practice.  Yay!  We ran the course more calmly and confidently than we have in a long time.  I was having fun; Jefferson was having fun; WE were having fun learning together as a team.  

Team J-Dawg pre-agility (15 mos)

Back to my opening comment about disastrous results, I have made up my mind to NOT focus on the RESULTS of our dog agility; rather, to focus on the PROCESS of dog agility.  This PROCESS involves my learning how to be a more effective handler by giving Jefferson the information of what obstacle is coming next on course.  This PROCESS involves my learning how to be more energetic and able to “let loose” and have fun on the course with my dog and to leave all my stress outside the ring.  This PROCESS enables me to rekindle my love of training Jefferson.  I need to learn to trust in the PROCESS and not get preoccupied with the RESULTS. 

"Slow down. Calm down. Don't worry. Don't hurry. Trust the process."
~Alexandra Stoddard