If you think you can or think you can't you're probably right.

Recently I took classes for the evening at a friends Agility school. I enjoyed the evening but was surprised by the lack of the confidence that the handlers and some of the dogs had. The small group I reguarly train have some fab confidence, whatever handling or training challenges I set them I know they will give it a good shot and be excited and motivated to do so. The groups last week lacked confidence in their own and dogs abilities. "He won't wait, won't play, won't drive on, won't focus". "I can't teach that, can't change that"... etc etc.

This got me to thinking about confidence and how we can create it in our clients/ pupils and our dogs. Firstly I think we all need to be able to fail. As toddlers we are brilliant at failing, we stand up for the first time, fall down, get up, fall down etc yet we keep trying until we crack it. When do we start seeing failure as a negative instead of seeing it as a healthy step towards success?

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

How many successful businessmen have been brankrupt at least once in their lives? Answer= probably more than not. Do you think any of the great horseriders have never fallen off? If the gold medal Olympians had not allowed themselves to fail, they would have never have been able to challenge themselves and progress to the level they have. 'Thomas Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. One day, an assistant asked him why he didn't give up. After all, he failed over a thousand times. Edison replied that he had not failed once. He had discovered over 1000 things that don't work'.

Look around at the handlers and dogs in your training class. Many of the dogs will be a reflection of their handlers/ trainers. The people who are unwilling or worried about failure have the same kind of dogs, they shut down and wander off, stress high or use other ways of avoiding trying the excersise through fear of failure. Handlers so quickly will put their unhappiness about failing (the sequence for example) through to their dogs.

So learn new things, try new things, cook to a new recipe. Teach your dog something new and note the failures on the way. TRY TO ENJOY! :)


Finally I will leave you with this from Michael Jordan: "I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."