Last night found me in Fremont with my agility toolbox. No matter how many times I work the boxes, I am amazed at how much I have to learn. Digging in my toolbox, I was grasping to find the correct tools.
- Confidence is necessary to get to where I need to be. Unfortunately, confidence was under the dogs blanket and I couldn't find it until the last run.
- Speed is important, but not the single most important thing. I pulled out speed, but without confidence, speed just didn't work.
- Intelligence in knowing what signals to give your dog is of high importance. I had my intelligence handy, but unfortunately, it requires the confidence handle and I kept dropping it.
- Consistency is absolutely necessary. It is interesting how all these tools fit together. Consistency is an option for the Intelligence tool, it fit in nicely once I got Intelligence working with Confidence.
- Fun. Fortunately for me, Fun doesn't need any of the other tools to work.
I had brought plenty of fun in my toolbox...sometimes I fill the toolbox with Fun and forget the other stuff, but I'm learning to pack my toolbox more carefully to bring an assortment of the tools I need...rather than just the Fun.
2 comments:
Timing as well for those boxes. We did similar stuff in class last night and it was very tough. I'm with you on the confidence thing. Trusting ones dog is always a tough part :)
Well, I trust my dog, it is me that I have low confidence in. I often doubt my ability to get to the position, then loose contact with the dog rushing to get into position. Balance...I need more balance.
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