2020 - Page 2 of 2 -

Rethinking Accomplishments

In a recent podcast I listened to, the host asked, “What will you say after 2-3 months to friends and coworkers to the question…
what did you do during the quarantine?”

My type A personality loved this question and multiple possible answers popped into my mind. Did you write a book, start a blog, run a mile or five or ten, learn to cook new exotic foods, train your dog to do 101 new tricks, read a dozen new books, or….?

The next day a friend pointed out that while my reaction was full of energy and enthusiasm, others might actually feel additional stress and despair if this question was pointed at them. Her concern was that having to have “accomplishments” would add pressure to some people whose new life changes were stressful enough. It was a fair argument and made me consider how we think about accomplishments during this time.

An accomplishment is defined as the successful completion or achievement of a task. We assign value to tasks which influences how worthwhile we believe that task to be.

However, almost anything can be an accomplishment.
Finishing a home renovation, resurrecting an old hobby, homeschooling two kids for four months, or walking your dogs every day. These tasks all hold immense value for the individual and completing them is undoubtedly attaining success.

Your time in quarantine should not be defined by what you do or don’t do; it is the intention behind your actions that matters. Rather than worrying about how to strive for accomplishments that hold societal value, consider what simple tasks will add value to your life each day. While writing a novel might sound impressive, making a commitment to call your mom or an old friend each week can yield more significance to your life.

When life gets more difficult and is full of unknowns and inconveniences, it is important to pause and recognize the immense value in your daily accomplishments.

Small Habits, Big Change

Your brain is wired to create and use habits. Most of what you do during a day actually qualifies as a mental “habit”. From brushing your teeth to feeding your dogs to driving to work and on through your day, close to fifty percent of your thoughts and actions are routine. They’re habitual.
This is good as it saves you countless minutes of mental processing. Our minds are designed to build unconscious routines, which psychologists call habits, so we can focus on the new and unusual – a definite advantage to our ancient ancestors.

Some habits are useful – tying your shoes, putting on a seat-belt, hand washing, turning off the stove, etc – while others are detrimental or destructive. We’re going to focus on the good habits and use some leading-edge psychology to build even more!

In his New York Times award-winning book, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg explores the concept of a keystone habit. He recognized that people can make significant changes in their life with minimal effort by consciously developing keystone habits. These are new behaviors or changes in routine that set off a chain reaction of new and improved behaviors without extra willpower or attention.

Multiple studies have found that exercise is one of the strongest keystone habits. Any exercise – from a walk around the block or ten thousand steps a day or a bike ride around your neighborhood – counts when you’re creating a new habit. Over the long term, the duration or level of effort is not as important as the daily routine of some form of exercise. This is the concept embedded in the current usage of “fitness challenges” by personal trainers. Working the challenge at any level improves your fitness but the true benefits are much, much bigger. Exercise as a keystone habit leads to the progressive development of other good behaviors and thoughts. It works something like this…

After a short workout, you drink more water. You then feel better and make a healthier choice for lunch or skip dessert at dinner. After a few days, a little bit of lost weight energizes you to up your exercise amount so you take a walk after lunch. More exercise then leads to better sleep and a better attitude which makes you more productive at work. More productive means less stress which reduces illnesses and gives you even more energy.

And so it goes – on and on – a cascade of small changes in behavior and attitude lead to positive changes throughout your life. Everyone will have their own stream of changes in behavior but the process of moving toward positive choices and attitudes is the same. And, it all stems from using one small keystone habit.

Other common keystone habits are:

Goal Setting
Time Management
Food Journaling
Eating Family Dinner
Meditating
Money Management (budgetting)
Consistent Sleep

Do you have a keystone habit that you’re working on?
Or, have a keystone habit that’s changed your life?
Let us know about it in the comments!

Dog Training Team

Magic 5: Training Priorities

We all want to accomplish our dream, whether it is earning a prestigious championship, attaining optimal health or buying a beach home in Hawaii – we all have dreams! Arriving at success, however, is so much easier said than done. Keeping our sights set high is motivating, but we can easily loop through old habits, go sideways onto different challenges, or just take a few too many detours away from our dream. It’s identifying the small goals – what we do day-to-day – that ensures success. Unfortunately, we often see too many and cannot get a plan started.

We call our process for identifying priorities the “Magic 5”.

Step One: Data Gathering

Before we can make an assessment of how to improve, we need to know what issues need improving. Think back to your last trials, what sequences or scenarios gave you and your dog trouble? Reviewing your results will give you a broad picture of the faults and issues that you may be struggling with in competition. You can also consider what issues or challenges you experienced during your last training session, class or seminar. Look critically at your performance in competition and practice.

Step Two: Identify Common Problems

More than likely, you now have a dozen (or more) items on your list. You must review the data closely to identify the common problem areas. Look for errors that have happened more than once and be objective (take some of the emotion out of the review process).

For example, if your dog broke his start line and you were eliminated at jump two, you may remember this all too well! However, it was one broken start line. If he self-releases off the a-frame every time there is a tunnel nearby, then contact training is a better item for your list.

This type of analytical review also serves to bring clarity to the actual issue behind each fault. Many aspects in agility are layers of skills and decisions.

For example, a late front cross may truly be caused by the need to “babysit” your dog’s weave pole performance which means it isn’t a front cross issue; it’s a weave issue.

Understanding which skill or decision caused a fault is a big piece of accurately diagnosing what problems belong on your list.

Step Three: Evaluate

Write down all the faults and problem areas that have multiple occurrences. Analyze each issue with regards your goal and consider the return on training (ROT) value. We use this simple double-check to be sure that the time required to train the issue or skill is worthwhile in terms of your ultimate goal. Training new moves, harder courses, and advanced skills may be fun, but you do not want unnecessary skills at the top of your list.

To identify your Magic 5, you must honestly assess the ROT value of each issue and ask yourself how it will help you reach your current goal. This is where you find your Magic 5 training list. Other issues get temporarily put to the side.

Step Four: Dig Deeper

With your Magic 5 – the five issues you’ve deemed to be the best investment of time and resources for your team to work on – identified, you now want to consider your ability to improve on each issue in context to your KSA’s: knowledge, skills and abilities. Put each issue/problem into a category.

Training Knowledge – When looking at an issue/problem ask yourself … can I identify what steps I should take to train my dog to understand the issue? If you answer “No”, then you must seek out more information. Recycling old training methods and drills will not fix the issue. Find an expert, sign up for a seminar, consult with your trainer or buy an online resource to help you learn more about the issue you’re training.

Dog Skills – When looking at the issue/problem ask yourself… does my dog have clear criteria for the skill? If you gave an honest “No”, then you need to think through all aspects of the training exercise. Write down your criteria for the skill, list what stressors might be affecting skill performance, and have a precise plan for where rewards will be given.

Handling Abilities – When looking at the issue/problem ask yourself … do I understand how to resolve the handling challenge? If you answer “No”, then you need a deeper analysis of your handling. Write down what handling maneuver is causing you issues and whether you can apply it in different sequences. This will give you a better context of which element of the handling move (application, timing or execution) is the source of the issue and what specifically to work on.

Step Five: Sanity Check

Review your Magic 5 with your coach, training partner or trusted agility friend. A second set of eyes on your list can be invaluable before you invest time, money and resources.

Competitor Prepare

Start with Intention

You’re waiting to go in the ring and you’re quickly using up all your treats trying to keep your dog focused. Your gaze shifts from your dog to the ring as you see another dog take the off course tunnel. Ugh. No one is getting through this course. You think, “Should I front and try to block the off course…no, no, I should definitely rear. I walked the rear cross, but I haven’t seen anyone get through it with a rear.” As your gut twists with anxiety, you snap back into the moment to see your dog now behind you with his nose glued to the ground. You scramble to regain the lost attention as the team before you races down the end-line.
You’re up.

You’re waiting to go in the ring and you take a breath. You take a moment to review your plan while keeping your eyes on your dog. You work through your favorite three behaviors to keep him engaged. You hear the crowd groan as another team bites the off course tunnel. You take another breath, reminding yourself that, “We’ve trained that tunnel trap before and the rear cross will set the right line.” Your plan is as good as it is going to be for this run. As the team before you finishes, you take one last deep breath.
You’re up.

Which pre-run experience would you rather have?

I thought so, I like the second one better too.

The first pre-run experience is hectic; the handler’s focus is split between watching the dog, considering the potential for an off course and waffling on her chosen plan. Being caught off guard by her dog sniffing causes extra stress and re-affirms the feeling that her dog isn’t focused either. Stepping to the line distracted and doubting the handling plan, this handler is likely to make a mistake on course.

The second pre-run experience is intentional; each time this handler reviews her plan she adds a breath – deep breaths cause the body to physically calm down. She keeps her attention on her partner and engages with him. Keeping the mind occupied helps block out distractions and thoughts of self-doubt. When briefly considering the dismal Q-rate so far, she reminds herself of successful practices and stays confident in her handling choice. This handler used her pre-run routine to get in the right mental space, and is more likely to execute her plan successfully.

When used correctly, routines can enhance your focus, reduce stress and, ultimately, increase the consistency and accuracy of your performance. I can’t promise that a pre-run routine will put your Q-rate at 100%. But,I know if you’re not taking the time to be intentional about your pre-run routine, you are missing out on Q’s and the fun of stress-free runs.

As you step to the line that exhilarating wave of adrenaline rushes through you, the question is – are you prepared? It’s a fallacy to assume your plan or your dog’s skills are the only factor determining your chance for success.

The moments before your run can have a huge impact on your success too.

Want to master your own pre-run routine?
Download our free Pre-Run Checklist – a guide to creating an effective pre-run routine!

Athlete Habits

A Habit I F*ing Failed At

Diane has a goal for 2020 – stop dropping f-bombs. I was mildly intrigued, and then I heard a podcast on living more positively. The podcast interviewee pointed out that curse words by nature are negative; profanities rarely add anything positive to a moment. Since I am big on cultivating positivity, this idea really hit home and I decided to set my own goal to stop using all curse words.

I immediately became hyper aware of my cursing. Every piece of colorful language that left my lips was followed by a gut-clench of true frustration. I was constantly muttering “gosh darn it, not again.” I told my friends of my valiant pursuit to clean up my act and began dropping “fudge nuggets” and “dagnabbits” into our conversations. As you can imagine, they were quite amused. I even kept a daily, mental total of cuss words used – probably around five most days (okay, some days more like eleven).

I gave myself a pass anytime I replayed a conversation I had with my advisor about my thesis. Like, have you ever tried to explain the complexities of agility to non-dog people while editing a 100+ page paper; swearing seems downright necessary to fully express the aggravation. Regardless, I was improving at my goal of cutting back on cussing.

Well, I thought I was improving. There came a day where my allotted passes blurred together and then I couldn’t really claim that I was on this mission. It dawned on me, I straight up f*ing failed.

Yet, Diane was succeeding. F-bombs were becoming rare. Why? We basically had the same goal. We should have been equally successful at eliminating this bad habit. By comparing our experiences, I’ve gained a few insights into what made the difference.

1. My goal (stop using all curse words) and Diane’s goal (stop using one curse word) might not sound different, but my goal was too drastic to try all at once.

2. Diane actually penalized herself a dollar for each f-bomb dropped. By counting dollars in the envelope, gave her a clear number how many times she failed. Plus, she plans to buy herself a gift with the “f-bomb fund” when she finally breaks the bad habit for good. Keeping track in my head just wasn’t effective and added to my frustration.

3. My environment wasn’t ideal. During this process, the people around me brought attention to my substitutions and they continued to curse a “normal” amount. Now, let’s be clear – their actions weren’t an intentional effort to thwart my progress, but going against the status quo is difficult. Being surrounded by your bad habit makes change harder.

4. I didn’t stay set a firm boundary for consistency. By allowing myself passes when I didn’t “feel like it” or was extremely frustrated, I undermined my own efforts. Diane keeps her envelope with her every day, everywhere she goes – even on vacation – and counted every word, even when cursing silently in her head.

New habits won’t stick if we don’t construct them to be maintainable. I totally f*ing failed at this habit because I didn’t take the time to create a successful system. However, I now know how to adjust my process to reapproach my habit change.

Dog Training Team

4 Steps for Purposeful Practice

It’s not training quantity that produces success.
It is training quality.

The question for us as trainers becomes, how do we create quality in our training sessions?

We often get tricked into thinking that lots of practice hours are productive and will automatically produce results. After all, we’ve heard that practicing a skill for 10,000 hours is the pathway to mastery. Well, while skill repetition is an important part of dog training, once a team reaches a certain level of competency, repetition no longer yields the same value.

On its own, repetition of what we already know will not lead to the improvement of a skill. The quality of practice becomes a critical component to forward progress. As we strive to achieve bigger and better goals, we need to increase the amount of intention we put into our training.

After years of trial and error, we have a four-step process to help us create a purposeful practice session every time. Each session includes a purpose, a challenge, boundaries, and a review of what was accomplished.

1. Identify a Purpose

Before a training session begins, we identify what should be trained. Without a purpose, the session may just be training. Determining your topic or what for a training session is the first key element in training for quality.

Be specific. You can make it simple – write down a weak obstacle skill that you want to improve. If you’re running a practice course, are you running to push for speed, to test a new handling move or to run clean? Another example of purpose might be to improve the accuracy of your dog’s weave entry when coming from a tunnel.

2. Create the Challenge

Once we have established what skill we are going to train, we create a short training set. The training session must focus on the skill and must contain a challenge.

A challenge is a different or new situation that causes struggle or failure. This can be as simple as aiming to complete the skill with accuracy and speed. Failure and imperfection are good signs in a practice session! They indicate that we are pushing the skill to become stronger and more diverse.

A challenge can be almost anything; such as adding distance, speed, a new layout of equipment, a new location, or any number of changing variables around the equipment.

In our weave entry example, we might alter the distance from tunnel to weaves or we might alter the shape of the tunnel from a ‘C’ to straight to get more speed.

3. Set Boundaries

Keeping the focus on a specific purpose or skill throughout a training session is the whole point of quality training. It requires us to set boundaries around what to reward and what criteria to maintain.

Before entering a training session, identify what behaviors you are looking to reinforce; what will you be rewarding and how? Are you using a mark/clicker? Are you using treats or a well placed toy? A few minutes of detailed thinking improves quality!

In our weave entry example, we would reward the first pole with a clicker mark. The focus is solely on the weave entry, which eliminates training other behaviors such the send to the tunnel or a sit stay.

When training our dogs, we often encounter a “pick your battles” situation. This happens when the dog presents an undesirable behavior while completing the skill you are training.

In the weave example, the dog may break the stay or pop the last pole. Now what? It’s easy to begin training multiple skills, the stay, the weave entry and 12 pole commitment within one training session. This creates an unproductive, frustrating training session for you and your teammate.

With a known purpose and boundaries, we would reward the weave entry and eliminate or reduce other issues. A restrained send eliminates the need for a wait. Using 6 poles instead of 12 eliminates the popping at 10. Those skills can go on the list to be deliberately addressed in their own training sessions.

4. Review

After the training session has ended, we take time to review the purpose, the challenge and boundaries that were set prior to the session.

We use this check-in to decide what to practice next!

Interested in seeing this process in action?
Keep an eye on the Agility and Beyond Facebook next Tuesday (2/18) to join Kat for a training session with her up-and-coming super star, Flash!

Want to stay connected?
We work every day to expand our minds, enhance our bodies and improve our teamwork. Our Weekly Walk-Through provides you with an insider’s perspective of how we continually better ourselves.

Mind

Positive Thinking: Why bother and How to start

Knowing that you should be positive is great.

You might think someone chirping “look on the bright side” or reminding you to “believe in yourself” is being positive. The truth is that positivity is much more complex than repeating quotes you find on a quick google search. While often dismissed as a soft skill, positive thinking is the systematic process of putting yourself in an advantageous mindset.

How do thoughts impact performance?

Before utilizing positivity to enhance your performance, you must first understand how thinking impacts performance. Our immediate thoughts produce emotional reactions. Think to yourself, “This course is going to be impossible,” and you may feel discouraged, frustrated or stressed. Think “I have the most incredible dog,” and you’ll find a feeling of pride and joy welling up inside you. The emotions we associate with thoughts have a direct effect on our physical state. Important factors of performance, like blood flow, hormone production, muscle tension and attention, can be positively or negatively impacted by our thoughts.

We aren’t just worried about how our thoughts impact us physiologically, a negative thought can limit how effectively we think about a problem or situation. Consistently using positive thoughts allows us to find more opportunities for improvement and think more creatively than our negatively minded counterparts.

Consider these three types of negative thoughts that hinder our performance.

1. Predicting – you foresee a negative outcome.

Example: “I know he’s going to take that off course tunnel.”

This type of thought limits the amount of creativity and effort you put into your handling plan and execution. You’ve already given up before you enter the ring.

2. “All or Nothing” – you sum up your performance based on the worst moment.

Example: “I can’t believe he took that tunnel. That run was awful.”

This type of thinking skews our view of our performance and limits our ability to learn from our mistakes. There were likely many great moments on course that deserve your attention before you examine the mistake.

3. Mistaking – you turn your emotions into your reality.

Example: “That tournament would be too difficult for us.”

This type of thinking prevents us from challenging ourselves, which is essential for progress! This might feel true in the moment, but your emotions do not dictate your teams abilities or potential for improvement.

Noticing these types of negative thoughts is the first step to intentionally using positive thoughts to improve your agility performance. Awareness allows you to understand how often your thoughts are getting in your way.