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Megan: [00:00:00] Hey everyone. Welcome to Fostering Excellence in Agility, the podcast. I'm your host, competitor, coach, and mentor Megan Foster. I help agility enthusiasts focus on the small details of training and behavior while still having a clear understanding of their big picture. Join me as I take you through key elements of dog agility, training, competing and teaching, and how you can take action today to start improving your skills within the sport.
Let's get started.
Hello, friends. Today I would like to talk to you all about why we enter trials. . Why do we compete? Why do we put in hours and hours and hours of learning and practicing and rehearsing and looking up events and entering events and getting up way too early and spending our [00:01:00] entire day in sometimes very cold and very dirty arenas to run around in the dirt chasing our dog over sticks.
Why do we do such nonsensical things? . I'm sure you all have a different main reason for competing. But if you are here, you are interested in hopefully my perspective on this topic. And so I am definitely going to let you in on what it means to me to compete and how I go about doing all of those things and preparing for these things.
So personally, I definitely. compete because. I'm a competitive person. I like to do well. I like showing off my [00:02:00] abilities to train and handle. I like showing off all of that hard work, and I like showing off how much fun that the dog and I have together out there in the ring. I also. Fully accept that my dog does not care at all about competition.
That's not my goal when I get them. My goal is not for them to feel like they need competition in order to access great things and access that time with me. It's my goal that in training, I make the sport. So fun for them and so rewarding for them, and that I also make the less exciting things like crating or being in the car all day or waiting ringside or going for [00:03:00] walks or, or things like that equally as fun and enjoyable.
Right? I know that they aren't the same. I know that. my border collies would much rather run and jump and do all of the equipment all day long. But it's a reality that that's not what an agility competition is. It's the reality that most of competition is not competing . And so because I love to compete so much, I need to make sure that all aspects of competition are enjoyable for the dog.
So that's. Baseline Where I start is that once I have accomplished all these things in training, that I feel like the dog will enjoy all aspects of competition, then I can start to, uh, scratch the itch that I have as a competitor. And [00:04:00] so I break my trialing into. Different, let's call them seasons or different, uh, types of competitions in my head, and I'm not talking about local trials versus regional trials versus national trials.
I'm talking about not all trials way equally to me and what their goal is to me. So this is. Something I talk about a lot in my coaching programs and my mindset training is periodization, and that that means that there are some trials that when I enter the, their only purpose is for me to test new things.
They are to test my. Training [00:05:00] there to test my understanding of my dog's training, my understanding of the courses that I'm going to be running, it is purely a testing phase. And to kind of draw parallel, this is the only sports analogy that I use, but I do draw a parallel to spring training. It's a pre-season type of competing where I'm not.
Overly interested in a paper result. That's not why I'm entering the trial. My focus is only to see what I have, but I'm seeing what I have based on very, very, very well educated, uh, predictions. So I'm not enter. thinking that things are going to go poorly. I'm entering because I assume things will go well and I'm [00:06:00] entering to confirm that prediction, and that's something that I really want to drive home is that I don't think it is very fair to enter a dog into a competition that they cannot truly sign up for themselves
and then ask them to do things that they are not prepared for. So preparation is a kindness that we owe to them. So I really do wanna keep that in mind. When I'm in this testing phase, this spring training phase, there's a lot of time in between trials for me because I'm very, very, very protective of the habits that I want to build in the trial environment.
So when I'm in this spring training phase, there's probably three to six weeks in between each competition. [00:07:00] Because I am collecting data and then going back to the training field and the drawing board to make sure that I repair or tune up or change any predictions that were not true. The second phase in this periodization, I will.
Parallel it to the regular season. If we stick to that baseball analogy, these are, the games are more frequent. Now we're picking up the pace. We're maybe traveling more to them. They're happening definitely more frequently. So the , the trialing may start to outweigh the training, and this means that my training needs to be holding up.
Which is what the spring training phase was for, was to definitely make sure that the [00:08:00] training is going to hold up and gave you a chance to modify anything that wasn't, Because now in this regular season, this is where maybe I'm trying to qualify for another event, maybe. I'm trying to earn a specific title that kind of gives me access to different types of events.
You know, like, so you have to have your MACH to be able to enter Westminster. You have to have certain titles to enter different tryout events and things like that. So this regular season, as I'm going to refer to it is the time where I'm. not focused on the paper result, because that's just a not a great mindset perspective to be in.
But that is why I'm entering. I'm entering because I have a goal in mind and I'm going to [00:09:00] use. Everything that I have available to me in order to get it. So all of that information that I gained in spring training set me up to have a very good regular season. And that means the little bit of training time that I have in between is just spent on maintaining those behaviors.
I'm not looking to add a whole bunch of new things. I'm. not changing a whole lot. I'm just trying to maintain the tools and the skills that I have because that's what's gonna get me through this regular season. That's what's gonna get me qualified for whatever big event that I would like to attend later in the year because that big event.
Maybe it's making the finals at the nationals. Maybe it is just going to the nationals. Maybe it's winning something, a big event. Um, maybe it's earning a spot on [00:10:00] a world team. That's kind of your post-season game. Right? And that's where we really need to. Again, show up knowing what we have to offer and knowing what skills we can and cannot count on.
Because if you then have to continue with this post season because you did make the team, or your placement in one final opened up another competition for you, you now need even more consistency going along with you as you level up and continue to attend more and more big events. So you want to be able to have enough downtime between your regular season and your post season to give yourself a little rest and reamp back up.
But then you're still not adding in a bunch of new skills that you can't test. [00:11:00] So the only time that this might be different is that if you have an abnormally long time between. Your regular season and your post season, you may have enough time to do a quick assessment of whatever skills may need to be added or improved upon, but you still wanna make sure that you can give yourself time to train it, time to test it, time to modify it, and still also rest.
And that's super important for the entire team, that there is some downtime between all of these phases and training. . Where it gets messy in agility is that because there are so many different events, is that we might be swapping back and forth between spring training and regular season and post season constantly.
And again, pulling us back to the big picture always is where as competitors we need to get [00:12:00] real and honest with ourselves. about, how much we can realistically do that in a year and still show up as our best selves, and also expect our dogs to be able to show up as their best selves. So all of that is really important and it's definitely something that I take quite a bit of time on.
Any time that I'm looking forward to competing is . Really kind of looking at a two or three year schedule, maybe even five years sometimes to get clear about the events that mean the most to me so that I can make sure that my entire team is rested and ready and prepared for what I hope to accomplish. And don't worry, I definitely am going to address.[00:13:00]
What I would do if your purpose for competition is purely for titles, that that is kind of your outcome goal that drives your training. And I think that this is great. This goal is valid. This, um, outcome related motivator is the same as. The outcome related motivator that is making the world team or winning something at a national An outcome related motivator is an outcome related motivator, regardless of how prestigious or big or small it's perceived to be. If it is important to you, it is important to you, and that is what makes a goal valid, not its perception in culture. So I just wanna put that out there. If you [00:14:00] only wanna compete locally, you don't really have interest in competing all that frequently.
Even maybe you're competing once or twice a month, which is quite a lot anyways. But even if you are only competing when it's close to home or when it's the judges you like or anything like that, if it is important to you, it is important to me. I'm just gonna. Make sure that we're clear on that, that my goals are not more important than anyone else's.
So if your outcome related goal is a title, there's no big event, there's no post season. You particularly may feel like you are always functioning in the regular season. And I just want to point out that you. Still need to give yourself some spring training, grace, [00:15:00] some regular season grace. And if you want to level up, I would choose an event that is your post season and really truly go for it because that's like an ultimate test of where your training is, maybe your season is.
trying the next level in that particular organization. Maybe you have used your regular season to complete your Master's titles in AKC and you're gonna try Premier for the first time. Maybe it's something like that because that's gonna be your next level. That's gonna inform what you need to be prepared for in order to earn the next title, which will be premier.
And so we can still make this work and that you are giving yourself downtime and time to train new skills and then debut those skills in a spring training format. So I would still urge [00:16:00] everyone to try and develop a periodization that works even if you feel like you're always functioning. A regular season type mindset, mostly because I want your training and your competing to improve, but also because maintaining a regular season.
Performance all year round without a real break is likely unsustainable. It will likely lead to trial only problems like slipping of criteria on start lines and contacts. Um, maybe there are things that you. Have to kind of bandaid in competition, but never have to bandaid in training. And tho that typically comes from being [00:17:00] competition heavy and not having enough time to truly fix those things in training.
So definitely try and think about how you could periodize your year. Even if there's not some special event that you're looking to attend. And also I recognize that there is a medium sized elephant in the room, and that is that when I ask people why they compete, they will often bring up the social aspect of comepting.
And so now we are talking about how much of agility is social time. For many people, there's not any way to change this or deny this. This is a fact, and I think it's just [00:18:00] better to own this fact and recognize that if there's a part of you that enjoys going to agility competitions for the social aspect.
but you also have competitive goals. You need to sit with yourself for a moment and reconcile that right now because if you are prioritizing the social aspect over your competitive goals, then you need to check your expectations when we put the social aspect ahead of the competitive goals, we may be allowing ourselves to enter competitions for social reasons instead of making excellent training decisions.
If we're, if our priority is to hang out with our friends, we might be more likely to put our dogs into [00:19:00] situations that they are not prepared for. It's something that each competitor has to decide for themselves that if you are purely going for the social time with your friends, then your competitive goals need to match that effort or not exist.
So it's not that we can't enjoy social time with our friends at competitions. I just argue that they can't be more important than our goals of excellence. So I've already said that all goals are valid and all goals matter, and all goals are very important. However, if you are entering a competition, you do have some sort of outcome related goal in mind, and you owe it to your dog to [00:20:00] make their preparation for that outcome the top priority, and we can't avoid that anymore.
We have to decide for ourselves and our team.
The effort matches the expectation, and if you do need to be giving yourself more downtime, more time off of competition, a longer break from competition, so more time during winter training, more time between competition during spring training, less focus on the social aspects when you are in the regular season because you need to.
A hundred percent. Maybe you need to reevaluate your boundaries around the social aspect. I personally always had rules with my students that if I [00:21:00] had headphones in or I had a dog out, that I was not available. And it's just because I can't give a hundred percent to both of those things. I cannot give a hundred percent.
Social skills and, and hanging out with my friends and also a hundred percent to my competitive skills and my dog. So I just have clear boundaries around that. And also I try really hard to maybe before I'm running. And I'm waiting for my run. I'm more likely to volunteer and choose bar setting because then I can mostly be with myself and my thoughts and think about how to focus my competitive energy.
And then once I'm done running, I'm a completely different person. I'm not thinking about competition. I'm thinking about socializing and hanging out and, and everyone. Balance between social and competitive skills is going to look different [00:22:00] because I'm sure there are many of you who are listening that have better social skills than I do.
Maybe it's not as draining. Maybe the extroverts listening to this can give less than a hundred percent to their social aspects and be okay, whereas the introverts in the room, it takes a lot of thought to have these. Social experiences and make sure that we're not embarrassing ourselves or inadvertently being rude.
Um, so it, the balance is going to look different for everyone, but I do think it is super important to have that little conversation with yourself around balancing the things that we. earn by entering a competition both socially and competitively, and then just making sure that your training and your [00:23:00] choices reflect that balance.
That was a lot of different thoughts on why we compete, but I feel like the bottom line is that competition. is for humans, and if you are entering competition, it is a really good idea to sit down and kind of think about what outcome it is your after by entering those competitions, and then see if you can determine some natural downtime in your year that you can really, really use.
adding skills and improving on skills and changing things. And then see if there's a natural time in your competition year where there are fewer events for you to enter. So maybe we can call that spring training. And is there a [00:24:00] naturally more busy time of the year that gives you a lot of opportunities to earn that outcome that you're after?
and then. Choose the big events that you're interested in, but also prioritize them because it's better to show up at a hundred percent for one event than to only show up at 40% for a couple of events and then only have 20% left in the tank for a third. It's definitely real that as humans, we have social needs.
But in my opinion, those social needs should not be prioritized over the experience that your dog has at a competition because they did not sign up for this. We did. I would love to hear your thoughts on this episode. Please reach out via Facebook or Instagram to [00:25:00] share your thoughts on why you compete and how you are going to start applying this periodization to your own calendar year.
Thanks for listening. Please subscribe and leave me a review. If you'd like to support this podcast, head over to synergy dog sports.com/community to access bonus content and to get your questions answered via podcast episodes and other social media content. If you'd like to know more about what I'm up to and what's coming up, make sure to bookmark my website, www dot synergy dog sports dot.
