[00:00:00] Hey there. If you're an agility nerd, you're in the right place. You're listening to fostering excellence in agility. I'm Megan, your resident agility competitor, coach, and mentor. And this podcast is where I break down all things agility and guide you on your path to excellence. Are you ready? Let's go.
This is episode 39. Today I want to take some time to talk about making the most of your trial experience. I talk a lot on this podcast and in everything that I do about the dog's experience, but you are a part of this team and so your experience And your mindset that you bring to every competition [00:01:00] matters a lot.
Not only for your sake, but for your dog's sake and your teamwork's sake. So a lot of what you bring to the trial in terms of your mindset is going to impact your performance and also how you and your team perform. feels about competing. So, I am going to give you my top five things that I focus on in my mindset that helps me get the most out of every competition regardless of what's going on at that competition or in my life at that time because I'm the same person in my life as I am at the competition.
And, it does take some work to try and, you know, pack that up and leave that at the door so that you can show up and be your best self every day of the competition. So the first thing that I [00:02:00] am always relying on and going back to and using again and again is a strengths list. And my strengths list is broken down into three.
I have strengths as a handler that are unique to me, my insights, my experience, what techniques am I good at, what am I good at at seeing in my dog, you know, anything that I have confidence in that I can feel really good about. is on this strengths list. I also have a column for the dog. Obviously, we want to keep this up to date, especially when we are constantly adding skills and improving skills and improving our teamwork.
We want to make sure we have the most up to date information about our dog going into the competition. So having an up to date strengths [00:03:00] list for the dog, is really, really helpful so that when you look at a course map or you walk the course for the first time and you see something that's maybe a little bit tricky, you can immediately think about that strengths list and help narrow down how to best support your dog in that situation.
The third column is for the strengths of the team. It, especially if you have multiple dogs. You are going to have some things that feel better with one dog than they do with the other. And this just, I really do think, helps combat some of that, like, comparison syndrome. When we have, you know, a comfy, older season dog that's just really easy to run, really easy to predict.
And we're bringing up, like, a newer dog that we don't know quite so much about. The strengths list about the partnership can really Help us kind of define that. And help, again, [00:04:00] combat some of that comparison. And even comparison with our friends who maybe have dogs the same age as us. Or they're our classmates.
Or maybe they are even littermates to our dogs. So this strengths list really helps kind of ground you. Especially if things start kind of eating away at you, um, in trying to picket your confidence when you're walking the courses or looking at course maps. So the second thing that I always bring to every competition is my focus is primarily on my routines.
And my routines keep me focused. So this may be relatable to a lot of my listeners, but I function really well in routines just like our dogs do. Not to say that I have the exact same schedule. Every day, but there's a lot of my day [00:05:00] that is routinized and much of my competition is routinized and ritualized and I can rely on that and feel really comfortable in that and my dogs can rely on that and feel really comfortable in that.
Also when I have a routine keeping me focused, I'm less likely to get distracted by, you Uh, conversations going on in the walkthrough or conversations going on outside the ring. Nothing is going to pull my focus out of those routines because once I start a routine, there's not a whole lot that can stop that routine from happening.
Because all of the cues are present all of the time. So if I start a routine, I'm basically saying I'm not available for anything but that routine right now. So I'm not available for anything except warming up my dog and running her. I'm not available for anything except warming up looking at this course map and making my [00:06:00] walkthrough plan.
I'm not available for anything except working in the rings right now. And then you can absolutely schedule time outside of those routines to socialize or sit in the car and decompress a little bit or go for a walk and have a little bit more freedom. But having those routines can keep you focused and kinda committed to what you're there to do on the competition day.
So, the next one, the next two actually are related, but is the foundation of a really good mindset, is that after every single run, you need to be able to name three positives about that run. And at first this might be a little bit tricky, you might have to really get granular and think hard about it, and maybe you can only think about positive things your dog did.
But [00:07:00] as you get better at it, you're able to really focus on all the great things that you did, all the great things that your dog did, and all the great things that you two did together out there as a team. Connected to that is to give three positives. Especially if it's tricky to find. your own three positives about your own run.
Practice on other people. It's super easy to pick out nice things to say about someone else's run. And so you're getting the practice of picking out positives and saying them out loud. You're giving someone else that gift, which should also make them think about all the great things that they can notice too.
And you're just kind of Putting out the energy into the trial environment that makes everyone feel good and makes everyone want to be a part of it. So [00:08:00] finding those three positives and then also giving three positives is a really powerful way to make your trial experience and someone else's trial experience all the better.
And finally, the last thing that I'm always thinking about, no matter where the trial is, whether it's at the, uh, facility 15 minutes from my house, or if I'm driving multiple states away to compete, is that I am always trying to minimize my cognitive load. So I love a good list. I love picking out what I'm going to wear each day of the trial beforehand so that when that very early morning alarm goes off, I'm not having to think about that.
I do the same thing for my food and my beverages. It is all planned out. It is part of the routine. I know [00:09:00] what I'm gonna eat. I know roughly when I'm going to eat based on the schedule. I know When I'm going to have downtime, I know that I want to be comfortable with the trial site. So if it's a new place, I'm going to try and get there early.
I'm going to look up as much as I can online to get the lay of the land. I'm going to try and minimize the decisions I have to make on the day so that I can have maximum amount of brain power. for the competing and also the social piece that comes with competing. Especially if the social piece is a little bit more draining for some people like it is for me.
Having a lot of decisions kind of pre made gives you a little bit more in the tank to kind of deal with the The focus you need for competition and also the energy you need for the social time. Okay? So [00:10:00] just to quickly wrap up that list. It is strengths list for you, your dog, and your partnership. It is your routines keep you focused so that you can focus on your routine.
Name three positives about your run immediately as you finish. I like to do it when I'm cooling my dog down and we're walking around outside together. I'm talking to her about all the great things that we did out there. Also, give three positives. You can give more. But again, we're trying to start small, save our energy, things like that.
So give three positives. You can You know, pick out one person to give three to. You can give three people one thing. But just say something nice about their run. Something that made you smile. Like, you stopped to watch their run for a reason? [00:11:00] Tell them about it. It really does make their day and you feel good too.
And then minimizing your cognitive load. Get all those decisions out of the way ahead of time. So that you have maximum amount of brain power with you on the trial day. Okay? That's my quick list of mindset prep for making the most out of your trial experience.
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, there are several ways you can leave me positive reinforcement. One, leave me a five star review. Two, share with your fellow agility nerds or three, share your thoughts with me on social media. Be sure to follow at FX agility on Facebook or [00:12:00] Instagram.
