12006...

And the six week countdown begins…and while my power was out I got Jenna’s Number for the AKC junior nationals.  12006, and in my wonderful 12” class 4 other juniors will be joining me….

8001 Shetland Sheepdog, 12004 Bichon Frise, 12005 Shetland Sheepdog, 12006 Shetland Sheepdog, and 12007 Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. I know not the biggest class, but my fear was to be the only 12” dog there so at least I have some fellow competitors!

But really the number of dogs in the class doesn’t matter to me; agility competitions aren’t you against the other teams. More of you against the clock and you against yourself, I think beating yourself is one of the worst things… And I don’t mean when you are running two dogs and beat your own time, that’s actually kinda fun. I mean when you let your nerves and fears take over and completely bomb a run that you were more than capable of doing. We’ve all done it once, gone to the line thinking “This is it, you can do it!” but then that really mean annoying voice in the back of your head gets scared “Don’t be late for the front cross after #9 or Scruffy will take that off course tunnel!” It’s almost as if people can sike themselves out with negative thinking and losing focus on the job at hand. In agility your job is to guide your dog around the course, not think about all the things that could go wrong. Because a lot of things can go wrong, and if you dwell on what could go wrong than chances are something is going to go wrong! Instead ignore your fears and just focus on the moment, not the challenges ahead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp2S4hqDwIQ   <Training Monday :)