In one of the recent interviews, I was asked what is more important: how good the dog is or how good the handler is. And well, I’m afraid it’s not as easy as that. You can take a World Champion dog and have it run with a World Champion handler – and it might be a disaster.
It’s all about the teamwork. I’m far from a perfect handler and my dogs are far from perfect too – but we make a great team. We understand each other weaknesses, can think outside the box and adjust. La might completely lack any self-control and many handlers would probably spend those 10 years of her fighting with it – while we rather spent time having fun and winning World Championships 
I knew she will never hold stopped contacts – so I thought of my running contacts method, just for her, my crazy little La. And Bu might have tons of fears and many people would still try to make her overcome her fears – while I simply decided to work around it and give her enough confidence and trust in me that she can run despite all her fears.
Yeah, neither La or Bu fit into the classical description of a good agility dog. But their imperfections make them special, teach me a ton and make us a great team.
photo by Valerie Teppe
I’m definitely guilty of getting Bu with expectations: I expected from a BC to have a drive and love to play. She had neither of the two and it sure affected our relationship at first. But that taught me to forget about the expectations, accept the challenge and enjoy the journey. She might not be a dog I expected to get – but she is so much more! If I tried to make a perfect agility dog out of her, I would never learn that. So forget about a perfect agility dog – just make sure you make a perfect team with your dog. – Your dog who should first and foremost be your best friend. – And should always come first, before any result.
So for all, thinking I’m rude to leave the ring immediately after my runs on WC, not watching other team members run: I’m sorry, but my dogs are more important to me as watching others and I will always make sure to do what’s best for them. From the same reason, I will probably rudely ignore you if you try to talk to me when I have Bu out. I just have to do what is best for my dogs, I owe that to them.
And for all, asking if I’m retiring La now after the great showing on WC: I don’t really care about retiring with glory. La will run just as long as she loves to and I think it’s good for her well being and even if she is slow and old then – she will always be simply the best for me.
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What a wonderful philosophy! I am somewhat new to Agility and I have dogs who are clever and yet not “driven.” So I have issues. And I will use this thought of yours to try harder to become a better handler and a partner with my dogs. Thanks.
Wendy
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Every issue is just a new challenge! And what a cute gang!
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I could not have said it better myself. Your philosophy is what drew me to your classes. You radiate your love for your dogs and you let them be themselves. You don’t try to control everything in their lives. I am surrounded by people here that try to fit each dog into one handling system. I see so many people struggling. The way I see it, we, as handlers, are not perfect, so how can we expect our dogs to be? We have to adapt because we all are not, for example, physically capable of everyhting someone else is, and we see that as being ok; so why is it not ok for us to adapt things for our dogs??? Seems like a double standard. And that is why your philosophy and methods are so wonderful, you teach us to adapt and work with our dogs. Thank you for showing the world that there is another way, a loving way to treat our partners, who just want to please us…:)
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Yeah, I guess dog training would be pretty boring if there really would be one best way for all dogs to train and handle them. Luckily, every new dog is a new challenge and new opportunity to learn! And I guess that if somebody proves me wrong one day and proves there is one best way and all you need to do is just follow the instructions/rules and there is nothing left to learn, that will be the day I stop doing agility
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I think if you wrote a book, maybe not even on dog agility (even though I’d love that
), but just on your outlook on life, you would teach so many people to just relax! That is one of the many reasons I admire you Thanks for sharing articles like this, they make me not worry so much about my slow, noisy, lazy, silly dog.
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