Clean Run Magazine - June 2008 - 74

Conquering ring nerves By Diane Peters Mayer You Won’t! self-talk can be negative or positive, but either way this ongoing conversation with ourselves has a powerful effect on our emotions and behavior, and plays a critical role in achieving success. rick runs his Jack russell, sprite, in Novice Standard with the hope of one day moving up to Open Standard, and then to Excellent. They have one leg toward their NA title but getting the other two seems like a distant dream, since Sprite panicked when she got twisted up in the chute and now balks about going through it. Rick is working hard on retraining Sprite to accept the chute but doesn’t realize something is standing in Sprite’s way—it’s not the agility obstacle—it’s Rick’s negative attitude and self-talk. In training class and at trials he keeps a running commentary going, either to himself or out loud: “She’ll never go through that chute. It doesn’t matter how many hours we train, it’s hopeless. I’m such a loser as a handler, we’ll never qualify! Forget about ever getting to Open Standard—why even bother trying.” Rick is hard at work on making his negative thoughts come true. When they train or compete, Rick is uptight, tense, and anxious. Sprite keeps avoiding the chute, doesn’t qualify, and Rick continues to feel like a failure. If You Say You Can’t Talking Yourself into the next Level Then there’s iris, who also competes in Novice Standard, with her mixed breed, Popeye. She, too, dreams of graduating to higher levels of agility. Like Sprite, Popeye got his first leg toward his NA, but then spooked in the chute during a trial and began to avoid it. Iris is also retraining Popeye to accept the chute, but unlike Rick she is doing everything in her power to help Popeye overcome his hesitancy and not block their future success. She understands that the mental game is as important as mastering agility’s training techniques. First, Iris is patient, for she accepts that getting Popeye to run consistently through the closed tunnel will take time. Each time Popeye balks, she views it as a learning opportunity, not a failure and does not negatively put herself or her dog down because they didn’t qualify. Instead she says things like, “He’ll go through that tunnel, eventually. The hours of training will pay off. I’m a good handler, and we’ll qualify. We will advance to Open.” Iris always projects success. When she trains or competes, Iris is calm and confident. Popeye is beginning to have clean runs, and their first title and reaching the next level, Open, is getting closer every day. What is Self-talk? Every person has an internal dialogue, called self-talk, that is continuously running. Some of it is conscious; a larger part is unconscious. Self-talk can be negative or positive, but either way this ongoing conversation with ourselves has a powerful effect on our emotions and behavior, and plays a critical role in achieving success as we’ve seen in the above stories. So, if you keep saying to yourself, “We always blow the weaves,” there is a good chance that you will, and it may not be your dog’s fault. It is not uncommon to get in a negative frame of mind and say unpleasant things about yourself. We all do it. But problems arise when negative self-talk dominates your thoughts, making you feel insecure, inadequate, and unable to cope well with stress. To compete well in agility, you must be able to handle the pressure. A pessimistic attitude combined with demeaning self-talk will suck the life out of you, drain your energy, and likely hinder your success. At best, it will make it very hard for you to reach your goals. How do you think your dog feels when you are beating yourself up mentally? There is a big difference between the fun-loving, smiling playmate when you’re at home dogging around the yard, as opposed to the tense, anxious, frowning teammate at a trial, and your dog sees it. Think about it—which handler would you rather take direction from and run a course with? 76 Clean Run | June 08

Clean Run Magazine - June 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - June 2008