or why WINNING must NOT be IMPORTANT
I remember that a little more than a year ago i kept asking myself looking at the seasonal leaderboard of our jump division how do you get to be on the number one spot hitting the exact 19 feet 11 average using 15 jumps or more to earn an invite for finals. That year we finished in 22 nd with 19 feet 10. And this year as of yesterday we do rank in first in a tie leading a field of currently 303 – yes Three Hundred and Three dogs. And the season is just half way over. And not only that – we also won a direct qualifier producing the high score at Westrover’s National qualifier in Alabama. So we hit the jackpot – twice!
But how did we get here ? By not thinking about the distance jump at all, shifting focus towards the new very dog friendly low body impact discipline of Hydro dash, some Air retrieve on the site just trying to form a well rounded versatile canine triathlete.Changing the whole throw technique towards place and chase equal to LESS human and MORE dog. Working on performance fun, stressing soundness and physical fitness and backing off hard work to just get somewhere. Feel and fun and soundness. And so “the” Bernhardt delivered – all natural just by himself ( you really can’t make him do something he doesn’t want to ) with some guidance.Of course on top of that we got the little necessary Luck that created jump sequences that like a miracle added up perfectly to put us in the lead or as humans would say WIN.
In the end one just realizes how fragile the human mind can be when it comes to competing having animals involved. Those just do not care about WINNING, they care about evolutionary survival. And that means very clearly – Showing animals can never be a survival boot camp for them. They trust our judgement, they serve our interest , they look up to us and want to PLAY with us because we are fun. And feel good. And so we better keep it that way. The dedication towards our animals is what in the end we can than call personal victories – It’s the animals that MAKE US WINNERS !! It is there way of saying thank you.Our very special thanks goes to Lucy Hoeppner that applied all her magic art of bodywork helping Bernhardt to be loose elastic and flexible to keep on dealing with the challenges of dog agility. It needs a sophisticated team to groom an athlete. I do highly recommend her for horses as well having felt what she can do. There are results and that’s what matters !!
