In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why embracing discomfort is essential for growth on your dog agility journey (and for life!)
- How discomfort and purposeful practice go hand in hand
- The three hallmarks that define purposeful practice
- The three questions to ask yourself after every training session to ensure you’re on the right track when it comes to progress in your training and handling
This podcast is very timely for me. I just saw a fellow competitor wearing any shirt with the common phrase ‘agility, if you are not having fun you’re not doing it right’. I’ve been doing agility for 17 years, and while there is certainly fun involved I’m not always ‘having fun’ the way most people would define fun. Agility is challenging and yes, I have to get out of my comfort zone and sometimes that means walking into a situation where I know I may fail, or realizing I have to do the hard work and the purposeful practice. I have found that if our goal is always to have fun ultimately I have less fun and more disappointment because I didn’t embrace the growth aspect of the sport, which will lead to fun down the road.
Thank you so much for the podcasts, they are eye-opening and exactly what I needed to hear. The mental stage is definitely a big issue for me as my dog has high levels of arousal that make me even more nervous. Since listening to your podcasts, we both have improved our mental game and I dare to try out more and let him run by distance, it seems to work. We had some great results lately and a much better connection, and no matter of, our runs are better and I am happy even when DQed. There is a long list to work on, so also this episode hits the mark, also for life… 🙂
Please keep going, thank you for being our couch (I had to laugh, as I also like Ted Lasso)
Anni, thank you so much for this lovely comment! I am so happy to hear that my podcast episodes are helping you (and also that you’re a fellow Ted Lasso fan) 🙂