Hi Tracy,
I am beginning to think you know me better than I know my self 😉 hahaha
Start off thank you for such kind words. I was shocked that my family came with such 3 active little boys. Yes, those last two runs with Buddy was definitely more training than competing (lol). They have never been around for practices so this was really a challenge for him. I have to admit getting a chance to see all this through their eyes was very thought provoking and interesting. They were completely clueless that Buddy NQ’d. All they saw was our dog out there doing these obstacles smiling , wagging his tail and running really fast. I have never taken the time to step outside the box and get an idea what other people see. It was an eye opener especially when one of the nephews hugged buddy and said you ran perfect. (lol) Hard to stay upset when Auntie see’s and hears this.
Few thoughts on difficult spots:
This was the big reason I was so thrilled you are keep’n class open a little longer. I never would have thought about having a different approach to the routine or entering fewer classes. Or that it would have unconsciously effect me as a distraction.
“we can totally q or win this one!”: self talk focus on outcome goals – You are correct and Honestly I knew better than to do this. Part of us being human I know .. I just wanted Tanner to do what I have seen him do in practices , already being disappointed that he hadn’t done better with the earlier runs. I jumped way ahead of the run. Not making excuses just thinking it all they way through that if I wasn’t already distracted not knowing or realizing I was would I have done the same thing?? I don’t know. I am going to make sticky note in my folder to remind me not to do that . If you don’t mind me using your words ” only way to Q is to execute”. I like that!!
disappointment: I never would have thought of the various mental prep techniques that we have covered. The only thing going through my mind was ” okay affirmations to squash these negative thoughts. When those didn’t help I did withdrawal. But only after I stuffed those in a box and Focused on getting Buddy ready to run. That is one thing I REALLY really work on is not to carry over one boy’s run into the other boy’s run. So once I withdrawal yes those negative voices get worse and I don’t want to get others brought into the negative world I am currently. When I read your feedback I felt like you were watching me. lol
You brought up sooo much good feedback that I need to make self aware of and to remember other ways to recover from my disappointments.
I do have to share this with you I only because how our discussion on dealing with disappointments come into play. I honestly feel like my disappointments just shout out.
Anyway after our dog club meeting last night one of our club’s students who had been at the trial volunteering to bar set. Came up to me and said ” You have always talked in class about building our dogs confidence up and while we are doing that we are also building our own confidence up in what we are learning together.
I watched a lot of handlers this weekend and now I get it!! A few things really stood out watching all these handlers and their dogs. I could see what you were talking about the dogs not having the confidence in doing the obstacles or particular cross , meanwhile I started noticing that the same handler wasn’t confident either. There is some handlers that completely had a melt down. But when you ran your boys even if they messed up you kept going like they did it correctly. Even that one time When Tanner was running around like a wild man. All you did was stop and touched your toes , as soon as you did that Tanner was standing right beside you ,looking right at you with his tail wagging
and you said very calmly are ya ready to try it correctly now as a team. Tanner as usual answered you and wow you guys were awesome!! You always ran very confident and both your boys always ran with confidence.
But now it makes sense what you have been saying about building our confidence and our dogs confidence”
Honestly I was shocked she had even noticed still being so new new to the sport. She is still working on areas in foundation class so she hasn’t even moved up to the next class yet. Secondly I was shocked that I didn’t show my frustration or disappointment when Tanner decided to make up his own course or that I didn’t communicate better for them to understand. Because I sure feel it on the inside.
All I could think of to say to her was “Thank you, that is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. I am so proud of you for being able to put that connection together. Now you can really apply it in building your confidence as a team.” she smiled big and said yes.
So since this seems to be a them on this discussion for me anyway. Do you think that having many of these mental preparedness skills down/understood/ applied gives off a certain perception to others??
Or would you say that it all goes back to the beginning of teaching the dog how to do obstacle, read your body, building their confidence in understanding , the whole agility foundation from the beginning??
Anyway I have a Nadac trial Fri and Teacup trial sat and sunday. Have made my notes from your suggestions. Will let you know how it all goes. Since these are completely opposite ends of the spectrum to me.. One being more distance and speed while the other being micro managing handling.
Mary and The Boys