Good Times

Very, very proud of the people we train at the moment. The number of wins and move ups are great.

Success in the ring is one thing but when somebody from another club comes up and says they were parked near some lovely people at a show. These people were UpAndOver members :) The person said "I should have known they were your members as they were so nice".

Thanks guys - I know you can't help being lovely but as it was at the same show were there was a fight in the Championship Ring it really addresses the balance.

Agility is a great sport where so many friendships are made and it's good to be part of it.

When the going gets tough

Torro Laker is just an amazing dog with natural rapid acceleration and some very good learned skills. So it is quite tough at the moment to be at the end of a year without a string of successes to look back on. Mark says I need to check what I'm using to measure success. It's hard to get depressed about how badly you're doing when married to a Sports Psychologist sometimes :)

A resent article in a paper (of course everything you read in papers is true) was about the benefits of being sad. Yes, apparently we should allow ourselves the full range of emotions as they all serve a purpose. Some of the best runs I've done have been when I've been disappointed in myself. The article stated that chemically your mind is more balanced and focussed when you're feeling a bit sad. When you are happy and relaxed then it's easier to lose focus.

Running Torro Laker makes feel smile and feel happy - so that's where it's all going wrong.

So next time you see me laughing in a queue you can guarantee it's all going to go wrong in the ring and you'll know why.

That's obviously a simplistic view and Mark's Psychology course on 30 October will have more detailed and practical ways to keep us focussed on our runs.

Being disappointed in my year will give me an incentive to put in extra training and set decent goals for 2012 so this time next year we may even be training for Olympia etc

PS Torro has actually achieved a lot of good things this year - winning up to Grade 7 and 2 excellent clears in the agility part of Championship classes to name a few.

Ready for Autumn and Winter

I often joke that I was a bear in my last life as I get very tired this time of the year and would happily sleep for hours - even more than usual. I suppose that it's getting towards the end of the show season and it's only natural to start winding down but far from that this is the time of the year that gets really exciting as we are planning our winter training.

Opportunities for extra training at Catherston are limited so we need to ensure the Tuesday training gives as much as possible. There will be a few new members from other clubs joining us as well as all the changes for people progressing up grades.

It is a challenging process to balance heights, levels and personalities so everyone gets the best out of their training. We're very lucky to have such great trainers Fifo and Ruth so have no problem with people saying they want to be with a particular instructor.

It is a big responsibility that we take seriously as we believe the week to week atmosphere can really make a difference.