Clean Run - September 2012 - 25

Pay attention to the process and the likelihood of getting that Q is far greater.”
© CAROL CLAWSON

Keeping Track of the Pack
“I confess that I don’t do as good a job of record keeping as I should. I blame that on training a large number of dogs and the very limited time that I have.” What she is good at is faithfully reassessing her goals on a quarterly basis. She assesses where she is at, her strengths and weaknesses, and her short- and longterm goals. “It grounds me.”

get massages. At competitions, she always makes time to have them attended to by professionals.

If you build it... they can run!

Competition Ritual
It’s a challenge running her pack of dogs, and occasionally client dogs as well, in competition, so developing an efﬁcient warm-up routine has been essential. Once she arrives at the site, she gets everyone out for a walk, does some simple stretches, and gives each dog a few turns on the practice jump. If there is time and space, she may ﬁt in a few disc tosses. Right before the run she does some parallel path work (a.k.a. heeling on both sides, at different paces), turns, sits and downs, “just to get the dog’s head into the game.” She puts a lot of work into getting her own head into the game as well, listening to a lot of mental management tapes and reading books. Kathy Keats’ book Success from the Inside is “insightful,” and Lanny Bassham’s tapes are always in her car, ready to be listened to again and again. It was Bassham who inspired her pretrial ritual to keep things into perspective. Before she goes into the ring, she takes several deep cleansing breaths and a big yawn, which she ﬁnds amazingly relaxing. “I have a little mantra that reminds me to pay attention to the process and the outcome will be there. A lot of people go in thinking ‘I have to get a Q’ or ‘I have to beat so and so.’ I think that’s why a lot of failure occurs. Just like in training, it’s a process. Pay attention to the process and the likelihood of getting that Q is far greater.” D

Prepping for the Big Competitions
When she is heading into a big competition, Stacy concentrates on rest and reinforcement. She recognizes that if her dog doesn’t know something now, he won’t know it next week. “Look, if I am heading into a big competition such as the World Agility Open or world team tryouts, I have already met all the requirements. The last thing that I want to do is overwork my dog and nitpick all of the things that haven’t been perfect. It makes it stressful for both of us.” What she will work on is simple skills with lots of reinforcing; not to ﬁx, but to solidify the skills that are already there. Between world team tryouts and the 2012 WAO in Belgium, for example, Stacy didn’t do any real training except for a few contacts and runs through the weave poles. Training is only a small part of keeping herself and the dogs ﬁt. Life in the Rockies affords endless opportunities for offleash hiking with the dogs. Every day she is at home she takes a hike, allowing the dogs to run up and down hills, at high altitude, which gives her and her dogs an edge when competing at lower altitudes. They also swim regularly, stretch, and

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Sally Silverman is a freelance writer whose life has gone to the dogs. She and her husband share their hearts and their home with three Australian Shepherds. An avid agility competitor, Sally is working on MACH3 with Bounce, who also has a PDCH. He and his older sister, Tinker, have many canine freestyle and herding titles, too. Baby sister Java is now in AKC Excellent. Sally is an active member of Y2K9s Dog Sports Club outside of Philadelphia, where she trains and teaches. September 12 | Clean Run 25

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Clean Run - September 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - September 2012