Last weekend, I competed at the Canadian dog agility world team tryouts and I competed with

my dog this. Now, every dog I have ever tried out for the Canadian world team, for the

world championships of dog agilities, I have got on the team with each and every dog that

I've tried out with. But this, for those of

you who follow this podcast, you know my dog, this isn't just like every dog I've ever

owned. So, I thought today I give a little debrief about the experience that this he and I had

at tryouts and what my reflections are from that experience and how I think these reflections

are going to help each and every one of you that listen to this podcast that share your life

with a dog.

Hi, I'm Susan Garrett. Welcome to Shaped by Dog. You know, it's less than a year ago that this ran her first ever agility trial and completed a run. Last year during the World Team tryouts,

I took her in the ring for each run and ended up playing

games with her because I just didn't feel like she was having as much fun as she could

have. She was still very overwhelmed because it was just a few short months since I discovered

her nutritional problems and how I could help her have more fun in training. You're not just training in dog

agility, but training for anything. And though life with this had been a struggle to train,

it never was a struggle to love the dog. I've always just been crazy about her, even before

she was even born. And so when I could tell early on that

she wasn't learning and progressing the way all of my other dogs, border collies or otherwise had,

I had to assess my goals. I had to assess my processes with her. And because it was those processes

that led me to the goals that I achieved

with my past dogs.

And so instead of saying I would like to get this dog ready for World Team Triouts when she's

...