Once, I posed the following question on FaceBook, to generate conversation (and boy that was a success!) – here’s what I posed:
What is the point of the weave poles in a Master’s level course, if the approach and entry is just going to be a straight on, easy approach, and if the handler can just move alongside the weave poles with their dog, just like in Novice? Have the dogs not already proven their proficiency at just completing that obstacle at the lower levels? At the Master’s level, should it not pose some sort of training or handling challenge/skill beyond just ‘proficiency’
Not that every Master’s course should have 20 obstacles and 20 challenges (although, why not?), but how do we grow as handlers and trainers if we’re not consistently presented with creative challenges on course? Why not just omit the weaves, for example, or the table, if our dogs have already proven their proficiency ‘just doing’ those obstacles, and if they cannot be used to introduce more handling and training challenge at the Master’s level?
There was plenty of discussion, ranging from “why yes, I’d like more courses where the number of challenges is equal to the number of obstacles” to “no thanks, things are plenty challenging as it is” to “get off my lawn with your dangerous ideas, you’re suggesting some things that feel threatening to me”.
But HERE, in the Agility Challenge, one of the overall guiding principles is that CHALLENGE is something to be embraced, sought after, chased after…and that when you master one challenge, it’s only a stepping stone to the NEXT challenge, so that we become resilient to failure, viewing it not as a lack of self worth or value, but merely a signal that we’ve learned something or that we have something yet to learn.
Challenge is something I have had trouble with myself, which is part of why I keep hammering away at it – in order to be my best self for my dog, on and off the agility course, I have to seek out challenges to overcome. I have to be comfortable with failure. I have to be a lifelong learner, and I WANT to be a lifelong learner!
This week’s Talent Tip goes right along with this thinking – Daniel Coyle opens up this tip by saying:
In our busy lives, it’s sometimes tempting to regard merely practicing as a success. We complete the appointed hour and sigh victoriously – mission accomplished! But the real goal isn’t practice; it’s progress. As John Wooden put it, ‘Never mistake mere activity for accomplishment.’
Daniel Coyle
How do we go about making sure that we don’t fall in to the trap of mistaking mere activity for accomplishment? Coyle suggests setting a daily SAP: smallest achievable perfection. Pick a single chunk that you can perfect. Not just improve, not just “work on” – but get it 100 percent consistently correct. Maybe your dog’s position at the end of a contact. Maybe your dog’s sit stay at the start line. Maybe a good, clean, solid nose touch to the hand. The point is to take the time to aim at a small, defined target, and then put ALL your effort in to hitting that target.
You and your dog aren’t going to be transformed in a single day, much less a single training session. We’re built to improve, little by little, connection by connection, rep by rep. So, break things down in to chunks, and then, try to perfect those chunks…one chunk at a time.
Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens — and when it happens, it lasts.
Coach John Wooden
