Clean Run - February 2016 - 9

seasoned dog would never have bit that
o -course tunnel in Standard. You could
have won that class. Today, you lost.
A er defeat, you are going to have feelings, and they are not going to be the
warm and fuzzy kind. A few minutes later,
one of your classmates (you might love
her, you might hate her) is celebrating her
class wins, along with a new title. Here,
it is easy-it is incredibly tempting-to
sulk, to fall into self-pity, and to even get
struck with a chord of jealousy. You might
then loudly burst into the crating area
to exclaim that life is unfair and the win
should have been yours because of reasons
x, y, and z. Alternatively, you might make
the rounds to fellow competitors, to whisper and imply the ease or luck that your
classmate enjoys, attempting to somehow
invalidate her achievement.
Or, you could be brave, making the
choice to set aside your own struggles for
a brief moment, in the interest of congratulating your classmate with a smile, a
handshake, a hug, or an insert-appropriate-congratulatory-ritual-here. In the face
of something painful, you refuse to compromise respect for your opponent.

February 16 | Clean Run

is is a familiar lesson in sportsmanship, just as common to the 8-year-old
who has lost her rst soccer match, as it
is the 55-year-old who unked her Jumpers run (or the 8-year-old who unked
his Jumpers run). When we play, we are
bound to lose at least some of the time,
and though failure and loss never really
get easier, we can use failure to grow and
evolve into better competitors. Losing on
the eld or in the ring doesn't mean the
situation is a loss; you choose what you
make of defeat, and in turn, you choose
how you treat those around you.
Of course other variables are always at
play, too. An altercation with a past friend,
a long-term disagreement with a fellow
trainer, or any type of con ict that we
might have with another competitor can
pop up as a challenge. Whether you are
bitter about a loss to an archrival, or that
rival is not practicing integrity, relationships with competitors outside of the
game can superimpose a situation and appear to change the rules of sportsmanship.
Here's the kicker: the rules of sportsmanship don't change just because you
don't like someone.

When it comes to the game, the player
is responsible for checking a lousy attitude at the door. i s is particularly
true for a sport that requires establishing connection and trust with a canine
partner. It can be a di cult path to walk,
respecting a competitor because she
is your competitor, and leaving your
personal history behind. Sometimes
your opponent will make the situation
even harder by boasting her own set of
poor manners. In the face of this, most
of us, at some point, will make errors in
sportsmanship. But the intent should be
to identify these errors, apologize where
needed, and, most importantly, aim for
better actions in the future.
Qualifying a loss with your own rules can
also be problematic. While maintaining
your own set of personal goals as private
events is highly valuable in developing a
variety of skills (e.g., improved contact
performance by maintaining criteria
in the ring), altering these goals into
excuses should be avoided (e.g., "We
only lost because I held his contacts").
Contemplating privately, and even later
explaining publicly why something went

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - February 2016
