by Kathy Keats

The Agility Coach

1st Edition

The

BlueprintConnection

All material is copyright and may not be used without permission

Kathy Keats © 2017

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Introduction 5 .........................................................What Is Connection? 6 ...........................................Introduction 6 ..........................................................................What connection isn’t 7 ............................................................The elements of connection 9 ...................................................Anticipation and Connection 12 .............................Introduction 12 .........................................................................Know your dog 13 ....................................................................See your dog 14 ........................................................................When anticipation goes bad 16 ...............................................Assumption—the evil twin 18 ..................................................Clear Mind, Great Connection 21 ...........................Introduction 21 .........................................................................Doubts, fears, judgment 22 .....................................................Get uncomfortable in training 22 ...........................................Stay (relatively) comfortable in competition 24 ....................Side benefits of a clear mind 25 ..............................................Focus and Connection 29 .......................................Introduction 29 ........................................................................Types of focus 29 ......................................................................Focus and pressure 34 .............................................................Focus and reaction time 35 .....................................................The focus of top performers 36 ...............................................Simplicity, Automation and Connection 48 ..........

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Introduction 48 ........................................................................Training 48 ..............................................................................Choices 50 .................................................................................Automation and your default handling 52 .............................Intention and Connection 56 .................................Introduction 56 ........................................................................Make it matter 56 ....................................................................Creativity and Connection 60 ................................Introduction 60 ........................................................................Spontaneity 61 .........................................................................Final Comments 65................................................

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Introduction Well done.

You’ve made the decision to look into the most fascinating element of teamwork.

Great teamwork and communication are the ultimate goal of connection.

Without it, you aren’t working together. You are two separate entities fighting with each other, struggling to understand each other.

If communication is the steering wheel, then connection is the steering column, the conduit through which your communication flows.

If a steering wheel ever falls off the steering column—even though the steering wheel is still between your fingers and you can turn it—the connection between you and the tires is broken.

Training the dog builds the dog’s connection with you.

But you also have to train yourself to hold up your end of the bargain.

And that’s what this book is all about.

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Chapter One

What Is Connection? Introduction Connection is one of the most important elements of peak performance … the ability to focus yourself fully in the moment and apply every ounce of your training, your skill, and your passion to the challenge at hand.

Let’s start with a definition of connection … From Dictionary.com -

Connect (verb):

1. to join, link, or fasten together; unite or bind:

2. to establish communication between; put in communication

So, in essence, what you are trying to do is create a link between you and your dog that establishes communication.

Connection is a two-way street, and the training you put on your dog helps your dog understand his side of the equation and build the link between the two of you.

You can control how you train your dog, how you handle, how you train and how well you prepare. But once you’ve trained your dog and you’ve made the decision to go into the ring, all you can control is your side of the bargain. You’ll have good days and bad days, but it’s your responsibility to try to be your best self as often as possible.

Dogs are living creatures too, not robots, and have off days just like us. They bring individual strengths and weaknesses to the party. Some naturally read your mind and save your butt. Others are less forgiving of your mistakes and will shoot over the wrong obstacle at the slightest incorrect twitch of your

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eyebrow. It’s your job to nurture the strengths, train to compensate for any shortfalls, and then be the glue that holds it all together.

So when your impeccable handling plan is about to come apart because your dog is asking a question and about to make a mistake, your responsibility is to support him and answer his question before the train derails. No matter what his strengths or weaknesses are, handle the dog that’s in front of you and make him shine. Always remember, when you choose to run a dog in the ring, you’ve made the choice to do so in full knowledge of what the dog is. Never go into the ring with a dog you are ready to blame. Give your dog the benefit of the doubt. Goodness knows we aren’t always as clear as we should be.

Connection requires you to be in the moment, to see and anticipate and respond with ninja like reflexes.

That’s what you’re going to learn about in this book—how top professional athletes train to have great awareness and react time, and how it applies to incredible connection with your dog in agility.

What connection isn’t So first, let’s talk about what connection isn’t.

Connection isn’t simply looking at your dog. I think this might be one of the biggest misconceptions of all. A lot of handlers get confused with conflicting information regarding how much they should look at their dog. The simple answer is: as much as you need to keep the dog on the right path.

Let me give you an example. You’ve probably seen this happen at trials or in training (I’m sure it’s never happened to you).

The Tale of the Blind Handler

A handler is having a beautiful run with her dog.

She signals her dog to turn at a jump. The dog doesn’t turn, but instead heads toward a nearby tunnel.

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The handler watches her dog as he rockets toward the off-course abyss, but her eyes are glassy, dreaming of the phenomenal new move she is going to try in the upcoming sequence.

Everyone at ring side is thinking (or even saying under their breath) “Call your dog, CALL your dog, CALL YOUR DOG”.

Yet the handler watches the pretty dog go off course without moving a muscle to save the situation—while she holds a stylish turning-cue pose. The dog is half-way through the tunnel before the handler does a double-take, drops her shoulders, and stands there in disbelief.

When the dog happily pops of out the exit of the tunnel, the handler looks at him, and says loudly, making sure everyone can hear, “I said ‘jump’”.

The truth is the handler was looking at the dog but literally not ‘seeing’ him. Even though she was looking at him, her mind was elsewhere and there was no communication. And no connection.

So connection is a mental thing, but it develops out of both physical and mental training components.

But first I need to make a point about training specificity and feedback loops.

A note on training You learn the most through incremental feedback loops. This means you get very specific feedback that helps you change one small detail at a time.

Although you might understand the concept of connection, it doesn’t help you improve.

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Let me give you a different example. How often have you been told “you’re late” by an instructor? Do you understand what they mean? Of course. So why do you keep having the same problem? If it was as simple as “turn sooner” you’d have fixed it by now. But when you are late, it is the symptom of a bigger problem. “You’re late” merely states the problem, it doesn’t tell you how to fix it.

Saying “you’ve lost connection” is the same as saying “you’re late”. It states the problem, but doesn’t give you an answer or tell you how to train a solution.

“Signal sooner” and “stay connected” tell you WHAT the answer is, but don’t tell you HOW to pinpoint the problem so you can fix it.

So in this book you’re going to learn how to pinpoint the problem.

The elements of connection Connection has a lot of moving pieces.

Some of these skills are mental skills that revolve around a clear mind. A clear mind helps free you from doubt, distraction, uncertainty, or fear. You are able to focus your attention fully in the moment, and be attuned to the relevant performance stimuli. You're prepared, you react to what you see, and you run with intention.

You stay connected.

At any given level, where the dogs and handlers are of equivalent skill levels, the mental game is what makes the difference between a tiny mistake and a championship. Your mental game impacts your connection to your dog in so many ways: your preparation, your strategy, your execution, and your confidence.

Naturally, we all like to have a great handling strategy to help us execute and perform well, and love feeling prepared and confident. However, I’ve got a little secret for you. Being too confident can actually hurt your connection because it makes you complacency. Many great sport teams over the years have lost the opportunity to become legendary because they became complacent. They were

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too confident. They made assumptions and lost their edge. And it happens in agility all the time. Making assumptions is the kiss of death when it comes to connection and probably one of the most preventable mistakes there is.

How many times has your dog had a refusal because you were thinking too far ahead about what was coming up and rushed off, assuming he would take the jump?

Or your ego got in the way because you were dwelling on something that just happened, such as being upset about a wide turn? When you get your ego out of the equation, and you don't judge, you stay in the moment. Analysis is for later.

An open mindset—a flexible mindset—helps you leave your ego at the door so you can stay in the moment rather than being a slave to your plan. This is what allows you to react quickly and appropriately in any situation. You can access your spontaneous side and respond to what’s happening right in front of you. It allows you to survive.

There are also physical skills, how you shift your eyes, or turn your head to pick up information, and how you incorporate that into the technical execution of your handling moves.

All these skills are tied together, and as I said at the start of this chapter, you’re only as good as your weakest skill.

Over the course of this book, I’m going to give you ways to improve your ability to stay connected, run as a team, and react better to unexpected situations.

Chapter Summary ‣ Connection is far more then simply looking at your dog.

Connection is the foundation of teamwork and communication.

‣ Multiple elements affect connection.

‣ If you're struggling with connection, the first step is to identify why the connection is breaking.

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‣ The next step is to train that element incrementally using specific feedback loops.

Chapter Assignment Developing awareness:

1. What is the most common error you have on course? Refusals? Off-courses?

2. How might it be related to the different elements of connection?

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Chapter Two

Anticipation and Connection Introduction

One of the biggest benefits of connection with your dog is the ability to anticipate and react to situations.

Anticipation is a bit like seeing into the future. It can be a huge advantage in sport.

Connection with your dog gives you that advantage.

Being able to anticipate what your teammate or opponent is going to do is a positive thing because it gives you extra time to react. In basketball you can make a pass to a teammate without looking, in hockey you can intercept the puck for breakaway.

The same thing happens in agility. You can prevent a refusal or take off sprinting for new handling position. All of which makes it seem much faster than you really are, appearing magically three steps ahead of the game. The ability to see your dog’s intention give you an extra few fractions of a second to react, but when success is measured in fractions of a second, anticipation gives you a massive advantage.

On the negative side, anticipation can cause you to move too soon. In hockey or basketball, a smart opponent tries to lure you into anticipating to take advantage of you. In dog agility this usually translates into thinking your dog is going to commit to an obstacle and getting caught out when he doesn’t do what you expected.

Anticipation is a double-edged sword. As an analogy, anticipation is like using a wood stove to warm your house in the winter. The heat is wonderful (especially when you live in Canada!), but you will get the occasional splinter from the

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wood, and might even get burned once in a while. Your job is to use the fire as safely and responsibility as you can. The same goes for anticipation.

Let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of anticipation.

Know your dog To connect, you’ve got to communicate.

You need to be “a student of the game”, a student of agility. Understanding the pieces of the game help you fit the pieces together faster. But just as importantly, you need to be a student of dog body language and behaviour, particularly your dog.

You train him to understand you by teaching him to understand your signals, but the theme of this book is communication is a two-way street. You also have to be able to understand your dog.

How can you possibly hope to anticipate what your dog is going to do, if you don't know his language or his tendencies?

So how does understanding dog body language help you to anticipate?

Anyone who has ever had a reactive dog understands the concept of anticipation.

A reactive dog gives extremely subtle signs when he gets uncomfortable. One of those signs is something I refer to as “the stinky eyeball”. It’s this hard look that comes into the dog’s eye, a slight tightening around the eyes and mouth. Most people would never see it, but if you know your dog well, it's as clear to you as a flashing light, warning you of an impending reaction. When you know the signs, you can anticipate what is about to happen and prevent the reaction from happening. If you don’t (or can’t) see the sign, you reaction time won’t be fast enough to prevent a blowup.

Your dog gives you all kinds of signs in agility. For example, when he is going to commit to a jump, he will do certain things like his eyes will snap forward to the jump, his striding becomes confident and purposeful. If he’s unsure about

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committing, his eyes will flick toward you, his striding becomes hesitant, his body might orient slightly toward you rather than the obstacle.

Even if you're new and you're learning how to read body language, you can still anticipate quite a bit simply by paying attention to what your dog’s common mistakes are.

For example, if he tends to pull off of jumps when you cue a turn, you can anticipate that and be ready to help him. If you continually let him pull off and don’t to react to help him, your lack of anticipation is undermining your training. Although you need to keep training that skill to be stronger, continually allowing the dog to rehearse the wrong behaviour is constantly digging a hole you are trying to fill back in with training, like bailing water out of a sinking boat.

The interesting thing is most people don’t realize how often their dog makes the same mistake. One mistake quickly turns into 5 or 10 during a training session. To help you notice patterns, have a training partner count out loud each time your dog makes the same mistake (or you count out loud to yourself if you are training alone). For example, you could say “refusal one, refusal two”, etc. This brings some accountability to the mistake and recognition of the problematic pattern, and forces you to do a better job of connecting with your dog.

See your dog Seeing your dog is a crucial element of being able to anticipate what he's going to do.

Duh. I know that seems like an obvious statement, and yes, it does relate to having a clear mind, which we talked about in the previous chapter. But that’s not all there is to it. It also has to do with literally seeing your dog, and that is influenced by your handling philosophy.

What is a handling philosophy?

It’s similar to a coach’s philosophy of the best way to play a sport. For example, in basketball, one coach prefers a grinding, defensive style of game and believes

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in the idea that games are won on defense. If the opponent can’t score, they can’t win. They also believe that great defense creates scoring opportunities and that the ball needs to be pounded inside. Other coaches prefer a philosophy of an aggressive fastbreak offense. The team with the most points wins so let’s increase the odds of winning by scoring lots of points and putting the pressure on. Both philosophies have pros and cons. One style is very effective and methodical in wearing opponents down like a machine, but is more conservative and sometimes lack the firepower required for a comeback. The other style is more exciting and explosive, putting pressure on the other team, yet it takes more risks, is less consistent because it depends on momentum, and requires a certain type of athlete to run.

Sound familiar?

How exactly does this apply to agility?

Handling philosophies tend to fall at two ends of the scale, one leaning more to turning your back on the dog and watching the course (blind crosses) and the other style leaning more toward watching the dog (front and rear crosses).

The more often you turn your back on your dog, the more responsibility you give him, and the more aggressive you might run, but the less you tend to connect with him, so the more risk there is. The reason for that is you can't see him so you have to trust he's making the right decisions. He earns that right over time. Some of the things that influence whether he makes the right decisions or not are the quality of his training, your ability to communicate as a handler, the inherent strengths and weaknesses of both you and your dog, and your fit as a team. It's easy to get lazy about connection when you're running in this style.

On the other hand, the more often you face your dog the less responsibility you give him and so the less you leave to chance, and the more opportunity you have to communicate back and forth, answer questions and react to the unexpected, rather than it being a one-sided affair. But you can develop a tendency to babysit too much, instead of running full out.

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Neither is right or wrong. It's more a matter of philosophy, the types of courses you run, and to some extent what fits your physical situation.

If you value consistency, perhaps because your main goals revolve around titles, or the organizations you compete in require you to go clean for a number of rounds, then a less risky style where you connect with your dog more often might make more sense. If you are going for absolute maximum speed, then a risky style might suit you better.

But still, on any given day it comes down to what the course challenges are and who does the best job of executing their game plan on that course.

Just remember, you can't easily fix the unexpected when you can't see your dog. It's difficult (but not impossible) to win a big round full of top competitors if you have a bobble, because somebody is probably going to nail the run. However, when you're trying to qualify for the final round surviving is usually more important than winning. And you can't save a run if you don't see your dog going wrong. Not everything goes according to plan.

You might be able to walk through your house in the dark when everything is as it should be, but it won't stop you from tripping over the random dog toy left in the wrong spot.

Even if you're handling philosophy is to watch the course more than your dog and take more risks, don't get lazy about connection. Don’t depend so much on training that you start to believe your dog is a robot and doesn’t require you to connect with him.

When anticipation goes bad In dog training, anticipation from the dog is usually a bad thing, so we work hard as trainers to teach our dogs to only react when we ask them to. If the dog jumps the gun and executes a behaviour before we ask them to, it causes no end of trouble. The same thing can happen when handlers anticipate inappropriately.

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How many times have you started pulling off an obstacle afraid you weren’t going to get your next cross? And how many times has that anticipation caused your dog to pull off?

Possibly one of the biggest handler errors is anticipating your next handling move, which causes you to rush.

Anticipation is a double edged sword. It can give you a massive advantage and help you to predict what's about to happen. But it can also cause you to act too soon or to engage in the wrong behaviour.

Anticipating and doing something too soon is just as bad as giving a signal late. It’s important to give signals within the ideal window.

Let me give you an analogy.

Have you ever been driving and had a friend navigating? Some friends are really good at navigating. They tell you the turn is coming at just the right time. But you probably have also driven with other friends whose navigation skills left something to be desired. Their cues were poorly timed. For example, they say “turn here” just as you're passing the exit driving 65 miles an hour towing a 14000 lb 5th wheel, when there is no way you're going to make that turn. The information is just too late. It’s a bit frustrating, isn’t it?

That’s how your dog feels when you are too late signalling a turn. This is when you're more likely to incur off-courses faults because he shoots past the turn, or you get a refusal because he doesn't trust you so he starts watching you all the time.

But being too early can be just as much of a problem. Perhaps you have another friend who navigates like this:

”You're going to be turning right.”

“Now?” you ask.

“No, it’s a way to go yet.”

“How far?”

“Maybe 3 turns?”

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You drive a little bit further. And you ask again, “Is this the turn?”

“No, still a bit yet.”

So you're constantly questioning if the next turn is the correct or not, or whether you should continue going straight. You start driving hesitantly and riding the brakes, unsure of where your turn is, and anticipating too much in advance that each turn is the next turn. That's how your dog feels when you give signals too early. He starts to question your sanity, and it breaks the trust.

When you break the trust, he is less willing to commit to a course of action, and as a team you are more likely to incur refusals.

Assumption—the evil twin I think assumption is the single biggest reason for preventable handling errors.

Assumption is the evil twin of anticipation.

It relates to anticipation in that you incorrectly anticipate your dog is going to do what you asked it to do. You make an assumption. However, wrong anticipation and assumption are not the same beast.

When you anticipate wrong, often you saw some signals to make you think something was going to happen, but then circumstances changed. This happens in sport when a player “fakes” another player out by pretending to start one thing without intending to follow through on it.

In agility, a dog might give every indication he about to take a jump so you start to move on, but then he uncharacteristically pulls off at the last minute, he ‘faked’ you out. If it’s a one-off situation, no big deal…it was a simple burp in the system (just don’t let it happen again). You were connected to him and saw the appropriate hints from him. However, if he gets into this habit, you can’t anticipate anymore because you can’t trust the body language you are seeing from him.

Assumption, on the other hand, is when you give a signal and just take off. You don’t even bother to look for the correct signs from your dog before making your move. There’s no connection at all.

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Assumption happens when you don’t have a clear mind. It often manifests itself as rushing. When you're rushing, you’re moving too quickly and not connecting with your dog because of nerves from pressure, or lacking confidence in your choice of handling and whether you can get there, you’re a bit lost, or you’re simply not focused. Basically, you go through the motions and rush off, both mentally and physically.

Those reasons are fairly straightforward to most people, even if they don't yet know how to fix the problem.

One of the big misunderstandings about connection happens when people are told to trust their dogs (aka not look at their dogs), but also told to connect with their dogs (aka look at their dogs). The confusion for most people is they don’t understand the difference between trust and assumption.

The difference is this: when you trust your dog, you are still connected and communicating with your dog. When you make an assumption, you break connection with your dog.

When you trust your dog, you give him a signal at the point you believe he can follow through with it independently, and when you see his body language confirm that he understands, you trust him to follow through and you move on to the next thing. When you make an assumption, you give him the signal at the same time, but YOU don’t follow through and make sure you see the signs of confirmation from him before you make your move. You assume he has understood your cue.

It's a subtle difference, but an important one, and can mean the difference between a silly refusal and winning a championship.

Chapter Summary ‣ Connection gives you the massive advantage of being able

to anticipate.

‣ The ability to anticipate depends on your ability to read dog behaviour and recognize your dog’s patterns.

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‣ You can’t connect with your dog and anticipate what he is going to do or fix something going wrong if you can’t see him, or aren’t at least aware of him.

‣ Your handling philosophy impacts how much and how often you can connect with your dog.

‣ Anticipation can also get you into trouble.

‣ Connection reduces the number of times you make poor assumptions.

Chapter Assignment 1. Are there places on course or situations where you tend to

make assumptions or read your dog wrong? List them. Why do you think you haven’t changed your behaviour yet in these situations? Are you worried? Or maybe don’t know where to look or what to look for?

2. Is it more important for you to see the course or see your dog ? How will this impact your handling decisions? (Note: there’s no right answer to this one, it simply influences your choices and also how you will compensate in other areas.)

3. How good are you at recognizing the signals your dog is giving you? How could you get better at this? (e.g. video of your runs, shorter simpler drills so you can focus on being more aware and watching your dog’s body language)

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Chapter Three

Clear Mind, Great Connection Introduction Professionals all want to have a clear mind when they perform.

Do you know why top professional performers, such as golfers and musicians, don’t tend to teach? Because they don't let their brain get in the way of their performance. They don’t want to start overanalyzing. They can't really explain why they sometimes makes the decisions they do or why something works. It just feels right.

A clear mind is often referred to as “beginners mind”. A beginner has no expectations. The less you know, the less you think, and the more you just do. Which is the ultimate definition of a clear mind or mindfulness. Beginner’s luck is generally the result someone just reacting to what they see in a logical way, rather than overthinking it. Children have this wonderful ability to learn through play because they are learning through experience. Professionals also seem to be able to get into this mode.

Teaching, on the other hand, requires the ability to analyze in great depth. Incredible teachers have an ability to see, analyze and explain, but it sometimes comes at a cost. That ability to analyze gets in the way of their performance, because they have trouble letting go of that analytical side. They have trouble getting out of their own heads and analyze their performance or their emotions too much. They still might be wonderful performers, but just not quite enough to breakthrough to that top 1% because they can’t let go to access that raw creativeness that is part of magical performance.

Being able to separate the two ways of processing information is a critical element of having a clear mind for performance. And it is possible to be able to do both. You just have to make sure to use the right style of processing at the right time.

So let's talk about what gets in the way of a clear mind.

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Doubts, fears, judgment Doubts, fears, and judgments are some of the biggest enemies of a great performance.

It may not always be possible entirely eliminate those feelings. Everyone feels these things some of the time, it’s very normal. But the cure isn’t necessarily confidence. In fact, if you aren’t feeling a bit nervous, you probably aren’t as ready to perform as you could be, because you haven’t activated your “superhero” fight or flight response…the part of the nervous system that helps mothers lift cars off of children and other such amazing feats.

Nerves are only a problem when they make you too tense or completely unable to focus. You only need to rein these feelings in to the point where they are manageable, then it’s easier to focus on what matters.

If you do need to rein your feelings in a bit, your biggest weapon against nerves is the ability to direct your focus correctly. When you focus correctly, you don't have time to dwell on your doubts and fears. You don’t even notice them much of the time (although you still might benefit from the superhero portion of the adrenaline!).

Quite often, nerves go away once you start your run. However, your inner critic still might come along for the ride and cause some problems. The inner critic causes problems because she judges every move you make. So when you need to be concentrating on what’s happening right now with your dog, she’s distracting you by judging and complaining about the wide turn three obstacles ago.

The good news is that whether it is fears, doubts or being critical of your run, you can train to be more focused and to tolerate high levels of pressure.

Let’s look at how.

Get uncomfortable in training

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The biggest breakthrough you can make when it comes to getting to another level in anything, not just sport, is the ability to push yourself outside of your comfort zone when training.

There are three main zones of learning: the comfort zone, the training zone, and the panic zone.

In the comfort zone, you are only maintaining your skills, or even regressing slightly.

In the learning zone, what you are practicing is uncomfortable but tolerable. You are stretching, growing, and improving.

The panic zone is when you are overwhelmed and unable process information.

The single biggest mistake you can make before going to competition (or any performance situation) is to stay well inside your comfort zone in practice, and as a result you end up far outside of your comfort zone, or even in the panic zone, at a competition. And it’s almost impossible to have great connection with your dog when you are too far outside your comfort zone.

It's also impossible to get into a flow when you're in the panic zone. And your ability to focus correctly is impeded when you are under a lot of pressure. So you need to ‘overtrain’ in practice, at least part of the time. The term “overtrain” comes from the theory that when you're pushing yourself much harder and to a higher standard than a competition, the competitive situation seems easy. Only then are you able to free your body to perform the way it can.

Unfortunately, most people stay comfortable in training and as a result they are in the panic zone when competing.

Many people don’t like the term ‘overtrain’…they think it sounds too harsh. But I’m not talking about going crazy all the time like a lunatic. I’m talking about proper, balanced progressions that push you into the learning zone incrementally.

However, the reason that there is a stereotype that a hard driving, radical coach creates champions is to some extent it works. At least for those who

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manage to stay afloat. Great coaches understood the need to push their athletes outside of their comfort zone.

Getting to the top isn’t always warm and fuzzy. It takes hard work and big disappointments, and you only stretch when you're being pushed outside of your comfort zone. Of course, there's a difference between being pushed hard versus unethical, disrespectful behaviour. But the truth of the matter is few of us can push ourselves harder than someone else can push us. And most of us are willing to give in too soon without someone cheering us on. We are capable of far more then we realize, but we are rarely, if ever, pushed to our limits.

You don’t have to worry because the odds of pushing yourself too far are slim. You may, however, in the case of agility, have to watch out for your dog because he is probably far more willing to go to the brink than you are.

But the main thing to understand it is you must be uncomfortable in training, so walk into the ring confident, and with a clear mind. You must know you're capable far beyond what you're about to attempt.

Stay (relatively) comfortable in competition Here's the trick of excellent performance…

You need to practice far enough outside your comfort zone that your comfort zone rises to a higher level, so when you go into competition, your comfort zone is much higher then the other teams. Then, run on the edge of your comfort zone where you are extremely capable of high-end performance but you're not trying to do things that you're not capable of.

That’s why most people ‘choke’ in big events, they are running too far outside of their comfort zone.

If you’re used to being highly uncomfortable in practice, you develop a tolerance for being uncomfortable. And if the level of discomfort you’re used to in training is a lot higher than you face in competition, you'll handle the trial environment easily.

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That's why astronauts, pilots, an emergency responders get put into nearly impossible situations in simulations, so they learn to think and perform under extraordinary, and seemingly insurmountable, circumstances.

They learn to tolerate stress at quite a high level. Even though they know the simulations are not real, additional factors are added in such as time constraints, fatigue from training for long hours, mechanical failures and anything else that can be thrown at them. It's not always pleasant but it teaches them to handle the real situation. When they face difficult situations, they seem easy…or if not easy, they at least are reasonably comfortable working with that level of pressure.

That’s why you should run sequences and courses that are 30 obstacles long occasionally. (If you do, start by making the technical elements of it easy. Don’t try to do 30 obstacles of really technical challenges, only stretch one criteria at a time.) Or do several quick different sequences in a row with one walkthrough each. Things that push you well outside of your comfort zone.

Don’t hope for the performance of a lifetime when you are under incredible stress, and well outside your comfort zone. It doesn’t work that way. You’ll never be able to connect properly with your dog when you are in that state of mind.

You need to create your own agility simulator of stresses so you can practice at a higher level of pressure than you’ll face in competition. Then, it will be easier to stay in your performance zone when you are competing. And when you do have to push the boundaries of your comfort zone in competition, you’ll know how to perform on the edge and thrive.

Side benefits of a clear mind

Better anticipation makes you a more flexible handler We talked about anticipation in the previous chapter. One benefit of having a clear mind is being able to anticipate better.

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Being able to anticipate well helps you become a more flexible handler, able to adjust to different situations and different types of dogs. You notice different behavioural signals sooner and have time to adjust to them. This gives you the ability to run different types of dogs successfully, even within the same competition. If you aren’t good at anticipating, when you get comfortable with one type of rhythm you might have difficulty shifting gears. But you can’t anticipate if you don’t have a clear mind.

A clear mind helps you be more consistent One of the biggest benefits of a clear mind is you are aware of what is happening around you.

Awareness allows you to see and react more quickly to problems, which makes you a more consistent handler, as well as more able to handle different types of dogs.

When you don’t have a clear mind, you are blown hither and thither by doubts and lack of focus.

When you show up every day with a clear mind, you see things clearly and react to them immediately, rather than simply running to a pattern. You understand why you made a mistake and learn from it.

But when your mind is in a turmoil, your dog senses it. It’s impossible to be connected to your dog when your mind is a turmoil.

Consistency builds trust. Trust builds connection.

So the next step is to learn how to focus properly. Which we will talk about in the next chapter.

Chapter Summary ‣ A clear mind is known as “beginner’s mind”, with no

expectations.

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‣ Analysis has its place, but can get in the way of having a clear mind.

‣ To have a clear mind, you must switch off your analytical side.

‣ There are three zones of stress when it comes to learning: the comfort zone, the learning zone and the panic zone.

‣ You should push well outside of your comfort zone into the learning zone when training, as much as you can tolerate. Possibly even near the panic zone at times.

‣ Competing should happen at the edge or just outside of your comfort zone. This is only possible if you push hard enough into the learning zone in training so that you raise the level of your comfort zone.

Chapter Assignment 1. Write down 3 things that stress you out and make it

difficult for you to have a clear mind.

2. Pick the most important one from Question 1 and write down one strategy you could start to implement this week to improve in that area. For example, you feel really nervous before a run. Your breathing is probably shallow. Do some diaphragmatic breathing and focus on a happy thought or a thought that puts things in perspective (i.e. You are very fortunate to have the resources to play this game with your dog.)

3. What one thing could you do at least once every two weeks to force yourself well out of your comfort zone in your training? For example, running 30 obstacles. (Remember start at a level of technical difficulty that is easy. Only

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stretch one criteria at a time. 30 obstacles of a technical course is too big of a jump to start.)

4. What pushes you into the panic zone? How could you train in such a way as to start to desensitize yourself to that? For example, if you get stressed by multiple walkthroughs, set up two short sequences, walk them both once and then run them immediately one after the other.

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Chapter Five

Focus and Connection Introduction Focus is one of the most important elements of performance, and a critical component of connection.

Focus is a term that is used fairly loosely in the sport world—and I don’t want to confuse the issue with semantics—but it is important to identify four different parts of focus.

1. The ability to focus on one stimulus to the exclusion of all others. E.g. focusing on your dog to the point you don’t hear the crowd

2. The ability to shift focus from wide to narrow and from internal to external. E.g. Being able to shift from your thoughts (internal) to your dog (external)

3. The ability to sift through stimuli and decide what to focus on. E.g. Recognizing and deciding when it is safe to look away from your dog so that you can glance at the course.

4. The ability to stay focused on a task/performance for a period of time (duration). E.g. You can stay very focused for 7 obstacles but not for 20 or 30.

In this chapter, you are going to learn how each of these elements of focus relates to connection and ways to train it.

Types of focus

Introduction

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The first thing you have to understand about focus is it impacts what information you have in front of you. It’s hard to make good decisions if you don’t have the right information.

The way you shift your focus impacts what information is available for you take in.

Some of us are very good at focusing on one task (narrow focus) to the exclusion of all others and love little details, but get overwhelmed with too much information. Others of us prefer to have a lot of information to sort through so we can see the bigger picture (wide focus) but go bonkers with tiny little details. But the key in sport is to be able to shift back and forth.

When you think of a football quarterback (North American version), he has to process a lot of information very quickly when the ball is first snapped (wide focus) or he’ll miss his receivers and get schmushed into the ground by massive defensive players. But then when he makes his decision about who to throw to, all his attention has to be focused on the one simple task of throwing the ball. When you learn how to shift your focus correctly, it helps you need to process a whole bunch of information you can narrow it down to the most important information, and then concentrate on the one job that needs to be done.

There's four main ways to shift focus for our purposes.

‣ Narrow focus - for example, looking at the dogs eyes

‣ Wide focus - looking up the course at the next line

‣ Internal focus - paying attention to your thoughts or muscle tension

‣ External focus - paying attention to the world outside of your body and thoughts

Different stages of performance require different types of focus.

It's important to understand each of these types of focus. Very often, the reason we make mistakes is really wrong kind focus. So first let's talk about each focus and what it is exactly.

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Narrow and wide focus The first two types of focus are narrow and wide.

These two types of focus determine how you are filtering information.

Narrow focus is when we are concentrating on something so intently that we block out the rest of the world. This is quite often the state that most people associate with “being focused” or “being in flow”.

There are definitely pros to being a narrow focus person. You concentrate fully on the task at hand and you aren't likely to be distracted by outside stimuli.

The cons of narrow focus our that you often miss important information, and whenever focus gets too narrow it creates muscle tension, often associated with trying to hard.

Wide focus on the other hand, allows us to take in a lot of information, be very aware of our surroundings, and generally be more relaxed. On the downside, you get more easily distracted if your focus gets too wide, have more trouble focusing on a single task, and can easily feel overwhelmed.

Simple exercise for shifting from narrow focus to wide focus

If you've ever been on Google earth or Google maps, looking for a town for an address, you've probably had this experience. First you saw a whole country, or even the entire planet Earth, and then zoomed in to a city or house. Looking at the planet is equal to being in wide focus. When you focus on a smaller piece such as the city or an address, that's like being in narrow focus. You can't see the edges of the planet anymore, you don't even know there's a planet. Kind of like you can't see the forest for the trees. Because you're so focused on that one point everything else drops away.

So now you're going to learn to do that literally with your own focus instead of using Google's technology.

Narrow and wide focus exercise

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Step 1: Look around you and pick a simple objects nearby. Focus your attention on that subject.

Step 2: Then find a tiny mark or spot on that object and focus on that. You can almost imagine the same effect is zooming in on Google earth from space into the city. The object grows big and your vision to the point where you don't notice the room around you because you're so focused on that spot on the object.

Step 3: Then even within that tiny mark or spot, find something smaller to focus on, trying make your focus go as narrow as you possibly can.

Step 4: Now, do the opposite and zoom out. You should see the object, the table the object is sitting on, the walls and the room around you. And this is important… your eyes shouldn't be bouncing around looking at all different fine points around the room. When your focus is wide, everything seems a bit blurry. Another term for wide focus is soft focus. Nothing is necessarily in sharp focus but you can see a lot of things, including out of your peripheral vision.

Step 5: If your vision is jumping around, you still are in a form of narrow focus, but you're directing that focus around in a certain order. That's also an important element of shifting your focus but not working on here.

Step 6: Now for the final piece of the exercise, practice shifting your focus in and out from that spot you've picked on the object. Hold you narrow focus for a few seconds then widen out, and hold that focus for a few seconds, the narrow back in again.

To challenge yourself, try shifting your focus from wide to narrow rapidly with only a second in between each shift. Then try holding each focus for 10 seconds before you shift.

You can also try shifting out gradually and back in gradually in the same way that a movie camera can zoom back-and-forth smoothly and slowly. This makes you go through a continuum of narrow-medium-wide and back.

I want to make sure you have a sense of how to do it before you try it in dog agility. :)

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Internal and external focus Internal and external focus has to do with where you're getting your information from.

In dog agility, most of your performance focus will be external, but part of your preparation phase is internal.

When you're focused on the external environment, you're filtering through information that you need to react to.

When you're focused on the internal environment, you're assessing things like your muscle tension, your breathing, you handling strategies, your visualization.

Many performance mistakes happen when your focus shifts to your internal environment. Even though your eyes are open, when you focus internally you’re not really processing what's happening around you. For example, thinking you aren’t going to make it to your next handling position, or worrying about the little bobble that just happened, are all forms of internal focus. When your focus shifts in this way you tend to miss signs from your dog, such as he's not committed to a jump. Dogs sense this shift in focus and it breaks the connection with them.

A classic example in real life is driving. It's quite easy to get so focused on what you are thinking about, that you missed the turn off, or don't even notice a building getting built until weeks later. Even though you're looking at your window, you're not truly seeing what's happening, you're not processing, and therefore your reaction time is inhibited.

Internal and external focus exercise

Step 1: Similar to the exercise for narrow and wide focus, pick a nearby object.

Step 2: Focus on that object. Look at its colour and shape.

Step 3: After a few seconds of doing that, shift your focus internally. You can try focusing on several things. Pick one from the list below.

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1. You can focus on your thoughts. What are you thinking?

2. How are you breathing? Fast? Slow? Deep? Shallow?

3. Focus on your heart rate. Is it faster or slow?

Step 4: After about 10 seconds of focusing internally, shift your focus back on the object. If you have trouble focusing on the object in general, focus on more specific point on the object.

Step 5: Practice shifting your focus from external to internal and back. For a challenge, try shifting your focus back and forth quickly or very slowly, as well as suddenly or gradually (i.e. think slow zoom lens).

Section Summary There are four types of focus and each have pros and cons:

Focus and pressure Each of us has a natural tendency toward a certain type of focus (or combination)—narrow, wide, internal, external.

Your ability to focus is affected by the amount of pressure you feel. As pressure increases, you will first move into an ideal zone, and then your focus will either go too wide or too narrow, which affects how well you are able to process information.

Focus Type Pros Cons

Narrow Concentrate on one thing, not easily distracted

Missing information, tension

Wide Take in a lot of information, relaxed

Easily distracted, lackadaisical performance

Internal Good for pre-comp prep, monitoring thoughts and muscle tension

Distracts from external performance information

External Awareness of external performance information

No self-awareness

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Next time you feel a lot of pressure, take note of whether you get distracted or whether you get tunnel vision. If you practice the skills of shifting focus from the previous section, in conjunction with diaphragmatic breathing and a solid mental game, you will be able to recalibrate your focus so you can connect properly with your dog and have a great performance.

Focus and reaction time A common lament I hear from handlers is they wish they could move faster. So they work with personal trainers on fitness and running technique, which is marvellous, and I strongly encourage it.

BUT… getting more fit doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be faster at reacting to the important things. You have to able to see them to respond to them.

One of the key benefits of improving your focus is that your reaction time improves…dramatically. You see things happening sooner, which gives you more time to react. You appear to move faster, because you are able to anticipate what is going to happen and you are efficient at gathering information.

It’s as if you can predict the future.

You get faster simply by reading the signs better.

Even if you are blessed with great reaction time, there is a limitation on how fast your neurons can fire and how fast your muscles can respond. When you see the subtle signs that tell you something is about to happen, you start the process of reacting. The sooner you see those signs, the sooner you start to react. So even if you have slower than normal reaction time, if you are above average at seeing the signs, you’ll still respond faster than the person with great athletic skills who can’t SEE.

Many people think they have no chance against other handlers who are wonderful athletes. But physical athleticism is only one part of being an athlete. Athleticism also involves being a student of the game, as I’ve mentioned before, being able to read and react and understand what you see. Become a student of

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the game, a student of your dog, and you will be surprised how much you can level the playing field.

So let’s take a look at how the focus of top performers differs from that of average performers, and how it gives them a massive advantage in reaction time.

The focus of top performers We often think of skill as being the main difference between top performers and average performers. But skill isn’t the differentiating factor.

Focus is one of the main reasons top performers stand out, and it’s the most important component of connecting with your dog.

Top performers focus much differently than average performers in 7 important ways.

Top performers:

1. see smaller things

2. notice subtler things

3. see things sooner

4. take in more information in less time

5. know when to look

6. know where to look

7. know how to look

Each of these things gives top performers an edge in what decisions they make and their reaction time in making them.

Let’s take a look at each individually.

Top performers see smaller details

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The first thing top performers do exceptionally well is they see smaller details than the average performer.

Where an average handler is lucky to see a fuzzy blur, a top handler sees the eyes of her dog.

A dog communicates a lot with his eyes and where he is looking.

A top handler is able to anticipate the dog’s intent, what he is about to commit to, and where he might think about going next by seeing this simple, small detail.

This skill relates to narrowing your focus so you can see important cues, and is one of the more well known variations of focus.

Top performers see more subtle details Top handlers also notice subtler things than the average handler.

What’s the difference between a small detail and a subtle detail?

A small detail is literally that…something small, tiny, minuscule.

A subtle detail is something you learn to see. It might be right in front of you but it is meaningless to you until you learn to look for it and understand what it’s relevance is.

For example, when a dog collects for a jump, the weight shift is a fairly big visual in terms of the legs and body, but you can be looking right at it and not necessarily know what you are seeing. The same goes for a lead change*. A lead change is involves large sections of the body but is a very subtle thing to learn to see.

(*An example of a lead change: when a dog running on his left lead—which means his left leg is forward—and then changes to running on his right lead with his right leg forward. The lead a dog runs on affects which direction he will turn.)

Usually once a small detail is pointed out, anyone can see it. But recognizing a subtle performance key comes with education and experience.

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Either wide or narrow focus may be necessary to see subtle cues.

Note on expert blindness

The curse of ‘expert blindness’ can make it difficult for a highly competent competitor to convey information about subtle detail to less experienced handlers. Over the years, an expert subconsciously internalizes these details to the point where she is unable to explain the detail, or makes unconscious assumptions about what people see and know. These subtle details are often the details that an expert ‘just knows’. Ironically, experts sometimes even explain things wrong because of expert blindness.

Top competitors see details sooner Top competitors read the small cues and subtle cues so well that they see things developing sooner than average performers.

You’ve had a similar experience as an armchair handler.

You’re watching a handler on course and you can clearly see her dog has the intention of going into the off-course tunnel. You see the signs: the dog is looking at the tunnel, he’s driving ahead, he hasn’t responded to the handler’s turn cue.

Yet the handler turns away from the dog and looks up the course, even as the dog accelerates even more determinedly toward the tunnel. You even have time to make a quick remark to the person you’re seated beside that the dog is about to go off-course.

But the handler couldn’t see it. You might not have either.

It’s always easy to judge from the sidelines. When you are the handler, you don’t see nearly as much.

The trick is you need to be able to have as clear a mind as an armchair handler so you can see the cues sooner, rather than at the last minute (if at all).

For instance, a top handler can judge if a dog is going to commit to a jump much sooner than an average performer can. She might even recognize the

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signs of commitment when her dog is only half way between jumps, whereas the average performer won’t recognize commitment until the dog is almost over the jump. Not only does this give the top handler a big head start and an extra step or two in getting to her new handling position, it gives her extra time to mentally process upcoming challenges.

Wide and narrow focus both come into play in reading a situation sooner. Sometimes narrow focus let’s the handler see the eyes and recognize commitment, other times it might be her wide/softer focus that allows her to see her dog collect or make a lead change that gives her the advantage.

But there are two important elements to seeing things sooner related to focus. The first is having a clear mind, so you can see what’s happening in front of you. The second is being a student of your dog’s behaviour and of how various challenges affect him, so you know what information to look for. The more understanding you have, the more details you will pick up on.

Top performers take in more information in less time Another key component of focus is a top performer can take in a lot more information in less time than an average performer.

They know what patterns to look for. This relates back to being a student of the game.

A study was done using chess masters versus amateurs. When given only a short amount of time to look at a chess board that was in play, the chess masters were easily able to remember where all the pieces were, whereas the amateurs had much more trouble remembering the positions of the various pieces.

Understanding the patterns helps you chunk and process information much faster, and is a wide focus skill. You have to see a lot of information at one time and lump it into one piece of information.

How does this apply to agility? An experienced handler only needs to take a quick glance at a course, perhaps while her dog is in the tunnel, to know where the next several obstacles are relative to her. By contrast, how often have you

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seen a novice standing still, looking around bewildered, trying to process which jump is the right one while her dog bounces around her.

The faster a dog goes, and the more technical a course gets, the more important it is to be able to process a lot of information in a very short period of time.

To take in more information in less time, you must be able to use wide focus to recognize chunks of information. If your focus is too narrow, you won’t be able to take in enough information to see the pattern. In the case of agility, you’ll only see one obstacle, rather than a pattern.

Top performers know when to shift their focus Knowing when you can shift your focus may be one of the most important, yet one of the least understood, elements of focus.

This is strongly tied to how well you understand and read your dog, and how well you understand when he needs your support and when he doesn’t. Shifting your focus incorrectly and looking away from your dog at the wrong time is one of the biggest causes of breaking connection—and unnecessary faults.

A classic example of ‘when’ to shift your focus is when your dog goes into a tunnel. Once he is fully committed to a tunnel, he doesn’t (or at least shouldn’t) need your help. Since you don’t need to manage your dog while he is in a tunnel it’s a good opportunity to check your position on course and orient yourself to the upcoming challenges. Yet many handlers watch their dogs go into, through, and come out of a tunnel, and THEN decide to look at the course, breaking the crucial connection with their dogs at the tunnel exit and wasting a valuable opportunity.

However, it’s far more in-depth than simply looking around while your dog is in a tunnel. It’s about commitment and trust. It’s about recognizing the exact moment when you can depend on your dog to commit to a signal you’ve given, and you know he can follow through with it independently.

Conversely, if you’ve asked your tunnel-sucking dog for a turn at a jump while an off-course tunnel becons only metres away, that is NOT a good time to look away from your dog.

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The more trust you have between you and your dog, the more often you can shift your focus to your next move, or the course, and the sooner you can do it. But trust is something that is earned. Don’t mistake a lack of training for a lack of trust, or your focus will always be in the wrong spot. You must know your dog and run him as he is in this moment.

When you are able to recognize these moments of freedom, these moments when you trust your dog enough to hand over the steering wheel to the car for a moment, your handling options increase exponentially. And it’s not just about recognizing your dog has committed to a jump.

You need to be able to recognize your dog has committed to turning toward you instead of taking the off-course tunnel, or committed to a contact or weave performance, or simply your dog has committed to stay with you on the side you’ve indicated.

It seems like a simple thing, but as the saying goes…it’s simple, but it’s not easy. If it was, refusals and off-courses would be rare. But you’re going to learn more about why it happens and how to fix it later on in the book. For the moment, the important thing to understand is knowing when to shift your focus is an important element of staying connected.

Top performers know where to shift their focus to Where to look and when to look are closely tied together. You need to know when you can shift your focus, but you also need to know where to direct it.

There’s a subtle difference between understanding when to shift your focus, and knowing where to shift it to. Knowing when you can shift your attention relates to understanding your dog, whereas knowing where to shift your focus to relates to understanding the game of agility.

The tunnel, once again, is the classic example. If you aren’t supposed to look at your dog while he is in a tunnel, where are you supposed to look and what should you be looking at?

For example, as your dog goes through the tunnel you can check where your next obstacle is to orient yourself in space, or you can glance at the upcoming

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sequence. Even if you don’t consciously register anything, a mental process kicks into action where your subconscious mind starts to work on the upcoming sequence, and by the time you get there, your brain and body are oriented to the sequence and prepared to execute the handling strategy and be perfectly connected to your dog.

But your ability to look to the right place is heavily influenced by your handling technique, a never-discussed detail of top performers, which is how to look in the right direction.

Top performers know how to shift their focus What the heck do I mean by “how to look”? It is primarily the technique-related component of handling.

It’s similar to footwork. You need to do it without thinking, but it takes training. Some people figure it out naturally, but most people don’t.

At it’s most simple, it’s about how efficient you are at looking over your shoulders at the right time and toward the right place when you execute a cross. In other words, you look over your shoulder in the natural direction of your turn.

Huh?

Let me give a few examples.

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Correct focus technique in a pull

In the first drawing, a handler has her dog on her left hand. She’s guiding the dog over the 180, and is simply planning on pulling the dog to the third jump, keeping her dog on her left hand. If the handler sees commitment and trusts her dog, she might have a moment to glance up to make sure she’s on the correct line to go to the third jump. She would glance over her right shoulder to look for the third jump. That makes the most sense because that’s the direction she is rotating.

Drawing 1

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Correct focus technique in a blind cross

In the second drawing, the handler is planning a blind cross. Because the direction of the rotation of the blind cross is the same as the pull, it makes sense for the handler to look over her right shoulder as she starts the turn. This is one of the advantages of a blind cross—the ability to easily see the course and keep moving. The connection disadvantage is it is more awkward to look back to pick up your dog after the blind cross.

Drawing 2

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Correct focus technique in a front cross

In the third drawing, the handler is planning a front cross. In this case, it does NOT make sense to look over the right shoulder.

You are not following the natural turn of the front cross.

If you can easily look over the right shoulder to find the third jump, you have rotated too far forward, and now have to rotate all the way back. This will make your front cross late, and makes a blind cross feel more natural.

If you make an effort to look over your left shoulder when your dog is at his commitment point halfway point between the first two jumps, you are looking in the natural direction of the cross.

The disadvantage of the front cross is losing sight of the course and more physically difficult footwork. The advantage is more connection to the dog.

Drawing 3

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Naturally, there are always exceptions, but in general, shifting focus should work with the handling you are using and not against it.

In any of these examples, the better you understand how to maximize gathering your information with efficient technique, the more you can offset the disadvantages.

Chapter Summary ‣ Athleticism isn’t just about your physical body. It’s also about your reaction

time. And that relates to your technique as well as how you use your mind.

‣ Reaction time is related to the ability to shift focus and sift through stimuli.

‣ Focus is a key element of reaction time

‣ Top performers use focus differently than average performers

‣ Top performers see smaller things - e.g. the eyes of your dog and where he is looking

‣ Top performers notice more subtle things - e.g. lead changes or what it looks like when your dog is unsure

‣ Top performers see things sooner - e.g. recognizing the instant your dog’s intention to commit to an obstacle

‣ Top performers take in more information in less time - e.g. recognizing a sequence pattern in one glance

‣ Top performers know when to shift focus - e.g. recognizing your dog is committed enough to performing an obstacle you can glance at the course

‣ Top performers know where to shift their focus to - e.g. glancing at the upcoming course to orient yourself to an upcoming sequence

‣ Top performers use efficient techniques - e.g. looking over your shoulder in the direction of rotation of a front cross so that you are working with the rotation of your cross and not against it

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Chapter Assignment 1. Write down the 7 ways top performers focus better than the average

performer. Give an agility example for each.

2. Go on YouTube and find a video of a high level event. Look for a mistake. Can you see signs the dog wasn’t going to do what the handler asked? How early could you see them?

3. Now watch one of your own videos. Pick one mistake. How early can you see the mistake developing?

4. Practice shifting focus in regular life outside of agility at least one per day for the next week. Then during one agility drill this, simply start to be aware of your focus, and try shifting it around.

5. Set up the simple 3-jump drill shown in the drawings above. Are you able to shift your focus to look at the third jump as your dog commits to jump #2? If not, use a curved tunnel in place of jumps #1 and #2 so you have more time and independence to make sure you are looking over the correct shoulder.

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Chapter Six

Simplicity, Automation and Connection Introduction The whole point of learning focus properly is so that you can filter the information in front of you and produce the appropriate response, which is the whole basis of connection.

But even if you filter the information correctly, if the response isn’t automatic, you’re still not going to get the results you want. You have to train the response to be immediate—just like you train a dog's response to a signal to be immediate. In other words, there is no latency between the information and the response.

A highly trained performer in any discipline makes the performance look easy. The genius is in turning something complex into something simple. Where most people run into trouble is the complex stays complex. For example, if you need to turn your dog at a jump, and you've got five ways to do it, you've created a complex situation. When you see a signal, you don’t have time to work through five different options. The top performer will have a maximum of one or two choices, so even if those choices are complex to execute, their choice is simple. And generally speaking, they will have practiced those choices to the point where executing them feels simple.

This cycle happens in sport again and again, where the sparkle and flash get all the media attention, but results really come from fierce attention to fundamentals and simplicity of execution.

Training We always talk about consistency in our dog training.

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Training a response to a stimuli is something we’re very familiar with. We would never dream of training one signal to mean two or three different behaviours.

Except in agility we do just that.

When you consider a dog can be traveling 6 yards a second—which is the equivalent of 18 feet a second—that means a dog will cover the distance between two jumps in less than a second.

Your dog doesn't have a lot of time to process any signal you give. By the same token, you have fractions of a second to react when your dog starts to go wrong, or for that matter to just give a proper signal when everything's going fine. If you have more than one, or at the most two, options to choose from, you are in trouble.

To react with lightning speed to a situation, you need to pair the same stimuli over and over, just like we do with the dogs.

Let me give you an analogy.

For those of you in North America, and other countries that drive on the right hand side of the road, if you've ever gone and driven in the UK you'll understand. When you are used to driving on the right-hand side of the road, certain things become automatic. One of them is to swerve to the right if something goes wrong, to head for the ditch. But if you're driving in the UK, an automatic response to swerve to the right will take you into oncoming traffic. The problem is your automatic behaviour is a bad behaviour.

If you take it one step further, and now you're driving in the UK on the left/wrong ;) side of the road, and you're driving a standard stick shift, you have a lot of things to think about, too much really. If anything goes wrong, you’re in big trouble, because your mind is too full trying to cope. You are too conscious of everything. You've got to retrain your automatic, default behaviours to do something different.

In agility, if you don’t have an automatic response for when you realize your dog is pulling off a jump, or an automatic response to your dog not collecting

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for a jump and staying in extension as he locks onto the off-course tunnel, you’ll never be able to save a situation. You’ll always need everything to be perfect.

Even when it comes to basic performance, your reactions must be automatic… and they must be good! Your footwork, the direction you look over your shoulder, your instinctive positioning of a cross, your timing…all these things must be good automatically.

Your timing in your handling is a classic example. The default timing for many people is late, because that’s how they practice day-in and day-out, unless a coach really pushes them and knows how to help them fix it other than just saying “you’re late”. You must hold yourself to a higher standard in training, because in a trial you will revert to your default execution. And if you are late often in practice, you are sure to be late in a trial.

Note: You can also use the support of verbal cues in your handling, but since training verbals to a high degree of fluency is much more difficult and time consuming than people realize, are highly dependent on body language, and those verbals quickly get diluted when trialing because of a lack of maintaining criteria, I’m going to focus on good body language when handling.

Choices Some people call it a toolbox but I call it a junk drawer. So let’s talk about how to clean out the junk drawer and speed up your reaction time.

If you have too many choices you simply can’t make a split second decision.

One of the key ways to speed up your response time is to use an “if-this-then-that” set of responses. It’s programming language that basically means you only have one reaction paired to one signal. If “this” happens, I do “that”. That’s it. Not a multitude of options.

Now I can already hear you muttering and disagreeing with me. But hear me out.

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First of all, it’s how we look at training. One cue = one response. If that’s fair to our dog in regular training, that’s what is fair to our dogs as we decide on our handling signals.

There's not as many unique situations in agility as you may think. The basic categories can be summed up in the following list:

‣ Go straight (commit forward)

‣ Turn away from me (lead change)

‣ Turn toward me (basic turn)

‣ Come into me (but keep moving forward, not a turn)

‣ Push away from me (but keep moving forward, not a turn)

Each of these categories has to work when you're in front of the dog, and also when you're behind the dog.

Before you start freaking out and saying what about wraps, pull-throughs, push-behinds, etc., a “turn toward me” can be anything from a 45° turn to a wrap. The category “come into me” can cover everything from a gentle pull to a threadle. If you look closely at this list, you can see it includes almost everything, you simply need to vary the degree or the intensity. For example, more turn at a jump needs more collection.

And as the handler, you actually have a fairly limited palette of body language to steer with.

You can use movement and communicate with:

‣ Acceleration

‣ Decelerate

‣ Rotate your shoulders/hips

‣ Step in to him (pressure/hold a line)

‣ Pull away from him (take pressure off/release a line)

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Or you can change sides of the dog in these three ways:

‣ By turning into him (front cross)

‣ By turning away from him (blind cross)

‣ By cutting behind him (rear cross)

And, of course, these can all be combined together. All moves are based on these general principles and combinations.

When you recognize how to boil your choices down into these basic categories, it becomes much easier to combine the skills to create a single response and pair that response to a single situation, because you understand the underlying foundation skills.

It is similar to driving a standard stick-shift car. You can do all sorts of things with the car because you understand each of the individual elements: a brake slows you down, a steering wheel turns the car, a clutch disengages the transmission. Only one action causes one response. Imagine you needed to turn left suddenly, and you could turn the steering wheel left or right to make it happen and you weren’t always sure which would be better? You’d either freeze, react too slowly, or you’d decide to always choose the same response.

The same happens in agility. Say things are running a bit wild, you need to turn your dog left but you’re not quite where you thought you’d be. You have to improvise but you have 5 different moves to choose from. CRASH!

So you need to automate your handling by reducing the number of choices for any given situation.

And you need to be ruthless. Experimenting is fun and great for learning and growing, but then you need to decide which handling techniques make the grade and which ones don’t. Don’t waste your time on fluff. Keep your choices to a minimum.

Automation and your default handling In the previous section, I used the analogy of driving a stick-shift car.

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Think about each of the things required. Brakes, gas, clutch, shift, steer, signal, check mirrors and a host of smaller functions.

You can combine those individual moves together to perform very complex driving movements in complex situations. But those complex movements are based on very simple movements that you understand so well you can link them together in whatever way you need them. Eventually each of those combinations of simple skills seem to become one skill.

But if you had to remember each combination of movements as a separate, individual response when you were first learning, it would be overwhelming. You need to learn the basics first before you remember them as a “chunk”. This chunking is a natural evolution of piecing the basics together.

Think of the basics of learning to drive a standard car. When you are first learning and you have to slow down fairly fast, you hit the brakes and the clutch at the same time, because it’s overwhelming to do anything else. As you get more experienced, you might be able to gear down quickly, and maybe eventually you learn to double-clutch. But there’s no way you could even think of double-clutching until you had the basics down.

You are only as strong as your weakest skill.

For example, imagine your ability to steer is really poor. You won’t likely have a lot of success driving a standard car (or any car for that matter). Remember, your reaction to every situation is only be as strong as the weakest skill in your package—and steering is pretty important. No matter how good you become at clutching, your overall performance as a driver will still be poor.

The same thing happens in agility. You might learn all kinds of fancy moves, but if your understanding and timing of the underlying basic moves is poor, no amount of making things more complex is going to improve your handling.

You need to train so that your automatic responses—your default reactions—are also your best responses. They are your go-to moves, your “money-in-the-bank”, “I’ll bet you $50” moves.

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The problem is most people won’t pay the price. They crave variety and excitement. But the truth is success requires a certain amount of boredom, of repetition. That’s how you get better. Hours of deliberate practice. Of course, you have to take the dog into account as far as training repetition goes. But you can do footwork on your own, get fit, practice technique without the dog, watch video and so on.

You don’t need to tell me what your priorities are. I can tell you what they are simply by watching you for a day. Your priorities always come out in your actions. If you really want to improve, you must practice. Pay the price. And it starts with doing the fundamental agility skills exceptionally well.

Chapter Summary ‣ Complexity must first be broken down into its simple parts.

‣ Focusing isn’t enough. You have to be able to react to what you see. To react well, you must train specific responses to specific situations.

‣ Complex responses are possible, but they are built on combining simple fundamentals.

‣ Too many choices inhibit reaction time. Be ruthless in pruning your handling techniques.

‣ Train your default response so it is also your best response and it happens automatically.

‣ Most people aren’t willing to pay the price and put in the time. Are you?

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Chapter Assignment 1. What moves do you practice that you never use? How

necessary are they?

2. What moves do you use all the time? Are they getting 80-90% of your handling practice time?

3. Do you know of situations where you have too many choices for moves? Can you eliminate some options?

4. Are you practicing at least 3 times per week on sport specific skills?

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Chapter Seven

Intention and Connection Introduction A lot of handling sins can be atoned for if you handle with intention.

Huh?

What the heck do I mean by “handle with intention”?

Here’s the definition of intention from the Merriam-Webster.com definition of “intention”.

1: a determination to act in a certain way : resolve

It’s simple, really. Don’t be wishy-washy. Handle like you mean it. Handle like every time on the floor matters. Your time with your dog is short, make the most of it.

Make it matter When you handle with intention, you are in the moment.

Dogs sense intention. If you are directing your dog with intention, you are clear and determined. He senses your leadership and your confidence and he trusts that. If you handle in a wishy-washy way, he senses you lack commitment, and he’ll respond in kind.

You are working hard to survive, like something is at stake. If something starts to go wrong, you don’t stand there striking a pose, you step in to fix it. Handle like the world championship is on the line.

Imagine you play an instrument. If, when you practice your instrument, you stop at every mistake you make, you are training yourself to stop. When you play with a band, you can’t stop. You have to keep going, find your place and fight to stay in the game. By doing so, you learn strategies to stay alive, to

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improvise, to recover. That’s why handling with intention is so important. Otherwise you are training yourself to give up and quit.

In music and in agility, some days everything flows perfectly. More often it doesn’t. On the days things aren’t going your way, fight for everything. That’s how you learn to survive. You have to learn to win ugly. But when you practice fighting for everything, you’ll find you don’t waste time worrying and judging yourself as you run. You just get the job done.

When you work hard every repetition of every practice, you already know how to run (and win) at a world championship.

Championships aren’t won on style points. You can’t worry about who’s watching, you don’t have time to analyze your handling choices. You are trying to get the job done, plain and simple. No stopping, no fixing.

Sometimes people mistake handling technique for connection.

You might be doing all the right things, and looking very stylish, but it doesn’t mean there is any connection between you and your dog. You aren’t a mannequin being placed in a pose. I could pose a mannequin and roll it around an agility ring, but no matter how much I do and how realistic it looks, a mannequin can never connect to a dog.

Positions don’t connect to dogs, handlers do.

Over the years, intention has been one of the biggest problems handlers have.

For example, let’s say a dog cuts behind a handler on a front cross several times. The handler turns to me and asks what did she did wrong, what little technical magical powder can I sprinkle over her to fix things?

Quite often, the handler didn’t do anything technically wrong. The timing of the cue was good, the position was good, everything was fine. The dog just didn’t do what he was asked to do.

You could argue the dog wasn’t trained properly. But in truth, nothing was going to change because the dog didn’t believe the handler. The handler was going to continue to let that dog cut behind her. So I create a consequence.

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Sometimes I say “you’ll owe me $50 next time that dog cuts behind you” or sometimes I make the handler run lines if the dog cuts behind them again. Lo and behold, without a single drop of technical hocus pocus, the very next repetition, they do it beautifully. Or if not beautifully, at least they get it done. And within one or two more reps, they are doing it beautifully. You see, dogs sense intention, and their training can reshape very quickly to mirror the intention (or lack thereof) of the handler.

It’s got to matter to you. Or your coach as got to make it matter to you. I’d rather see you take responsibility for your own success. :)

Chapter Summary ‣ Handle with resolve. Every repetition matters. Your time with your dog is

goes by far too fast.

‣ Handle like every repetition in practice like it is a world championship. It raises your game and makes pressure your friend.

‣ Never give in and never give up. Fight for every obstacle.

‣ Poses don’t connect to dogs, handlers do.

‣ Be a handler, not a mannequin. Move!

‣ If you need motivation to focus and run hard, create a consequence for yourself or ask your coach to come up with one.

Chapter Assignment 1. Are there certain circumstances on a course or in your handling where you

tend to give in or give up or lose heart? If so, list them.

2. Pick at least one sequence where you try, on the first repetition, to simply survive. Give it everything you’ve got. Fight for every obstacle. Don’t stop, no matter what. (If you can identify a situation from Question 1, set that situation up in your sequence.)

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3. Are there times you feel you are handling correctly but the dog isn’t responding? How many times have you let it happen? Start counting.

4. If you have trouble running with intention, what consequences could you use (at least part of the time) to help make it matter to you?

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Chapter Eight

Creativity and Connection Introduction When you have great connection, something really amazing happens. You react to what you see, which opens up the freedom to respond without thinking to a situation. To spontaneously combine moves and create something you might not have even practiced.

Creativity and spontaneity are important parts of mastery.

Automation can only take you so far. But when you have changing variables, a one-size-fits-all set plan is only going to work when everything aligns perfectly and nothing goes wrong. You can’t run clean consistently if the moon and stars always have to align correctly.

Most people don’t think of sport as an art, but it is just as creative as anything else. Mastery becomes art, no matter whether it is writing, painting or sport.

Let me give an example. Michael Jordan was an artist. A brilliant athlete, yes, and a fierce competitor, but he was also an artist. He took the basic skills of basketball and instinctively recombined them with such insight and originality that he created something new and beautiful. And it wasn’t just about aesthetics. His creativity made him an overwhelming force in the NBA. The same can be said of Wayne Gretzky in hockey. But no matter whether you look at legends of sport, business or art, you will find they had a tremendous grasp of the fundamentals. They just found ways to combine (or bend) those fundamentals in creative new ways, and could do so spontaneously if required.

So what do the creative inspirations of legendary Hall-of-Famers have to do with you and dog agility?

Everything.

I know some of you are thinking, “I don’t need to be a masterful artist, I just want to get my dog around a course!”

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But sometimes the reason you can’t get your dog around a course is your ability to be spontaneous when things go wrong. And your ability to combine the skills you have to fit into something slightly different than you’ve practiced before to give you the result you need.

When you think about it, top performers get excited when they see a new challenge. They want to test their abilities, see if they can tweak what they know to fit into the new parameters.

Let me give you a more mundane example of combining skills to create something new. You drive to work every day. You know the route, you have the plan. But what if something goes wrong with the plan? If it rains, you turn on the windshield wipers. If there’s an accident or construction you go a different way. If you realize you need gas, you stop for fuel. You adjust. What would happen if you crashed everything the sun went behind a cloud or had to face traffic? You wouldn’t be a very effective driver. Now, you don’t have to be a Formula One driver to get to work and back successfully. You need to learn the basics of driving a car first and how to react and adjust on a basic level before you start worrying about double clutching. But you do need to learn to make adjustments when conditions aren’t perfect, starting with basic skills. Otherwise you will only get to work when conditions are perfect.

Agility is the same. You are perfectly capable. But learn to adjust and react using basic skills first. Spontaneously adjusting is a skill. Once you can use simple skills without thinking, you’ll find you’re able to combine them into the more complex skills easily. You’ll become a master. An artist.

Spontaneity So how do you learn to be spontaneous in agility? How do you learn not to be married to your plan?

You practice it.

I often get arguments from people that they can’t adapt when their plan goes wrong, and their plan has to work and they aren’t going to shift from their plan.

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They might even be successful handlers with lots of wins and titles. But they just aren’t comfortable going “off-script”.

Now, to be clear, I’m not saying that having a plan is a bad thing. A good plan is important.

But if you are married to your plan with no flexibility to put a step different, you have to hope your plan is 100% correct and everything always goes exactly as it should.

And when you are that dependent on your plan, you may have a tendency to forget to connect to your dog.

Remember, even if you pick the “perfect” plan, something can still happen on the fly to change it.

For example, let’s say you plan a cross that you will barely make it to. As a matter of fact, you’re not even sure that you can. But you want to be aggressive so you decide that’s what you’re going to do.

However, during the run, your dog doesn’t commit as early as you expect to the previous obstacle. You’re already unsure about your decision. If you are overly committed to the technical plan, you’ll try to make that cross at the expense of committing your dog to the obstacle. You might not even see that he’s pulling off, because you are still in your left-brain, analytical mode and all you see is the course. Your connection comes apart.

If you do manage to save it (which you probably won’t because you are obsessing on getting to your next handling position and won’t see it happening), you’re out of luck anyway because now there’s no way you’ll make that nearly impossibly cross.

You can’t run too far out of your comfort zone in competition and be successful. Build on what you know.

If you learn to become spontaneous and adapt and not panic, you become an even more effective handler. I hear stories all the time from students (as well my own personal experience) where they didn’t get much of a chance to walk a course, but then went go out and nailed it, and it was one of their better runs.

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It’s because they didn’t overthink it. They ran by feel, fully in the moment, and got out of their own way.

But to develop feel and spontaneity you have to start within the confines of what your skills will allow. So starting to learn to be spontaneous with a world course is not a good idea.

A drill I use to build spontaneity is I have students practice a simple figure-eight drill with front crosses, rear crosses and blind crosses. (Note: more advanced students don’t need the additional practice.) They run the figure-eight three times and as they enter the pinwheel at each end of the figure-eight, I call out what cross they have to use next. It forces them to just run and react on feel.

If you are working on your own, you can record a few handling variations as if a coach was calling out the handling on the figure-eight, then randomly pick one and play it and run to it. Or in the most simple version, just write FC, BC and RC on some bits of paper, then pull them out of a hat and then quickly go run it in the order you pulled it without walking figure-eight drill.

You can also give yourself a very short walkthrough of a new drill. You don’t need to do this all the time, it’s just one of the little things you can do to help you get out of your own way.

Chapter Summary ‣ Mastery and creativity are closely linked. You are able to

recombine skills you already have to face challenges you haven’t seen before.

‣ Many people feel tied to their handling plans, and this might not only limit their connection with their dog, but their creative and performance potential.

‣ Developing spontaneity is an intermediate step toward creativity. It is something that is can be learned through practice. Like anything, it requires stepping out of your comfort zone.

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‣ Start by using skills and drills that are easy for you, but minimize the planning of the execution.

Chapter Assignment 1. Can you remember a time you had to run without a very

solid plan? Can you remember a feeling of surrendering to the process and just trying to survive? Did you maybe even find it to be a rush?

2. Practice being spontaneous by having a coach call out the handling in a simple drill or by randomly choosing it yourself.

3. Pick one relatively simple drill during the next two weeks where you limit your walkthrough time. Try to let go to just feel and react around the exercise.

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Final Comments Although connection works well as a catch-all phrase, it has many different elements. All these elements can make it difficult and confusing to determine how to improve your handling connection to your dog.

As your understanding of your dog and the game of agility improves, you direct your focus better. As you train more, your responses get better and quicker. As you get more confident about not being tied to a plan, your ability to feel a course will improve. That, in turn, will allow you to go into a course with a clear mind, to run with intention, and to be fully aware and connected to your dog.

I hope you have enjoyed this e-book and I wish you a very joyful and successful agility career.

Warm wishes,

Kathy Keats

theagilitycoach.ca

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