Without quality, training can get us confused and frustrated because it doesn’t lead where we want it to lead. And in the end, it eats up motivation. Has this ever happened to you?
We interviewed Petra Malin, a Finnish agility competitor, and coach, who has very different dogs herself. She has a miniature pinscher Manu and an Australian kelpie Teuvo. The experience with her own dogs and coaching others has given her a clear view of what is important in agility training - if you want to progress - and that is quality.
Diversity is a word that comes up regularly when Marko talks about the event: “There were different handling styles, different dogs, different handlers and even the courses of the two judges Sari Mikkilä and Oba Toshiyuki were very different from each other but both allowed different handling options. Read Marko Mäkelä’s interview about AWC 2019!
Becky Schiltz from Luxembourg competed in European Open with both her shelties -and it’s already quite an accomplishment to be there with one dog! Even though she’s still very young, this was her 3rd European Open with Dizzy and first with her youngster Mii! Read about their journey to this point, Becky’s thoughts about consistency and find out what is Becky’s routine before each competition run!
Success doesn’t just happen by getting the right dog. Susan admits that she’s always been very intense with everything she’s done, first with field hockey and horse riding, then with agility: “I’m always pushing my limits and wanting to become better and better.” This may explain her success to some extent. But it’s important that whatever your goals are, you feel good about what you are doing.
I’m probably not the only one who dreams of traveling around Europe from one agility event to another. Or at least traveling to some agility event once in a while. Quite often there are questions in different forums about what competitions there are, where and when. These events often have a registration that ends months before the actual event, so you need to plan beforehand.
I collected the biggest dog agility events in Europe into one list from which you can find links directly to the events’ websites. If something is missing, please tell us :)
