Why We Compete

… if you train but never compete, it’s easy to convince yourself that what you’re doing is hard, or hard enough. It’s easy to ease up in training; easy to say “that’s good enough”.¹

I’m still not quite sure why I was reading The Fellrunner this afternoon. I’m almost certain it had something to do with not having a computer and having read everything else in the house, because I’m not a runner and I’m certainly not a fell runner. But I happened to read the above comment in an article, and immediately fell in love with it. Of course the author was referring to running, but for me it is equally applicable to agility.

I don’t train with a club or experienced trainer. I think most people who read this blog know that. I am extremely fortunate to train with a group of friends, who push me and discuss with me and, inevitably, stand and spend far too much training time chatting and eating buns. It’s a brilliant group and I love it! But it requires me to put the pressure on myself to do well, because I don’t have anyone to do that for me. I don’t have a trainer standing there each week telling me I’m not working hard enough, that I’m not getting the best out of my dog.

And I think that’s what it comes down to, because I always want to let my dogs reach their potential. If I don’t, I feel like I’ve let them down. I know I have these amazing, athletic, honest dogs, who love agility. How can I justify letting them drift around a course once a week and think they’ve done as much as they want to do, or can do? I can’t. And so I try to train them to the best of my ability, (which isn’t always to the best of theirs), and we work hard to have fast weaves, fast and reliable contacts, beautiful jumping and tight turns.

So we come back around to the quote. How do I know if I’m doing the best I can for them? How do I know I’m not just saying it’s good, when really it’s just good enough? Because we go and we come 2nd or 8th or 19th, and I know we we could have been tighter on that turn, or faster on that Aframe, or smoother on that line. I know my dogs can do that, because they’re awesome! So I get pushed to do better, to train better, and not let myself get complacent in either my training abilities or the training we do.

I’m not sure I’ve done anything with this post but write down a stream of very tangled consciousness, but I still love the quote, and maybe I’ve at least revealed I’m secretly a much more boring/interesting (delete as appropriate) person than you thought I was because I read fell running magazines. Very occasionally.

1. Mountain Running in the USA: A Singular Experience “Mr P”, The Fellrunner (Autumn 2010)