There is No Crying in Dog Sports…

A friend and I were recently commenting on people who cry while competing with or training dogs. While not prone to crying in public - EVER I guess I can sort of understand where the emotions come from. Dog training is challenging on so many levels. You are attempting to communicate with another species. Sometimes the stakes for success are high. We often invest a lot in our success financially, timewise and emotionally. We put lofty expectations on ourselves and our dogs. We unfairly compare ourselves to others who may or may not have the same challenges. However it seems that many people who participate in dog sports forget the most important part - it’s a “sport”. Something that we do for fun (even if we get paid for it, if you are getting paid and still not having fun then that is whole 'nother conversation). Crying tears of frustration or unhappiness is taking the sport way too seriously, I don’t care what level you are competing at. If a failed start line stay or crooked heeling or a missed weave pole entry are our biggest problems then I think we are fortunate. Fortunate that we have the time, money, health and knowledge to focus on training our dogs. 

I recently drove to Chicago to compete for Steel’s VST title. Given the low odds of passing the test, making the long drive was a gamble . I am far from well off financially and had to plan my trip carefully (hotels that offer free breakfast are also providing a free lunch whether they know it or not). It would be nice to not have to pinch pennies quite so tightly. However I am also thankful to be well off enough to be able to buy food, put gas in my car and participate in something that I love doing. Having not passed would have made the drive home much longer but it would not have been the end of the world. Winning is nice but certainly not worth tears when it doesn’t happen. Being relatively new to dog sports, I am amazed at how cranky and unhappy people sometimes seem to be. I pretty much always think this but am particularly reminded of it this week. I was going to include one of my favorite movie clips – Tom Hanks screaming “There’s no crying in baseball!!” but thought I would add a few things instead that should make us cry....