E168: 메간 포스터(Megan Foster) - "대회를 위해 뇌 훈련하기"

all of my demo dog videos for my online classes and things like that because she prefers agility as an outdoor sport. And when you live in Washington, it's a mostly indoor sport. And Shrek is my four-year-old Parson Russell Terrier. And I kind of refer to him as my full-time job because he always has something to work on. And he keeps me very busy with the things that we have to train to keep going in agility and team. Awesome. I know you've got quite a few things on the FDSA schedule right now. The main reason I wanted to chat is because in June, you're offering what I think is your first six-week class at FDSA. And you're doing it on mindset training for dog sports. So I want to talk about that. What is mindset training? Why does it matter? So mindset training is the skills that we need to literally change our brain, rewire it, so to speak, and kind of accepting the fact that we can change these things and that so much of what we do is not who we are and embracing more of a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset. So having those skills to work towards that growth and change rather than staying stagnant as a person. And it matters for dog sports because we are just one person. And even though I think people try to separate their job and their social life and their different dog sports, but really, truly, it's all there all of the time. So when we enter competition, we can sometimes get distracted by everything else going on in our lives. And that ability to zone in and focus on what you can control helps you become a better competitor. So what led you to kind of become interested in this and then, you know, eventually develop a class? Yeah, it's been, I think, a long time coming. When I got my first Border Collie smack in 2008, my perception of my social surroundings changed. And whether it was real or all in my head, who knows? But my perception was that I was like a real competitor now because I was not a little girl with a Sheltie. I was, you know, I had a Border Collie. I was going to be something. And that very quickly kind of ruined the, what I thought I had, like, nerves of steel and always felt that way when I was running the dogs before I got smack. And then with him, something just changed. And who knows? I was also a teenage girl. So, you know, anything's possible. What could have actually been happening, but things were different. And so it started there trying to find mentors and information out there. And, of course, there's tons of sports psychology. Every other sport out there has access to these mentors and people just because you're on a team professionally.

And that wasn't really normalized in dog sports and especially agility. It would be really weird to hear someone talk about it. So it took me a while to find the mentor that I really clicked with. But once I did, and that was in 2015, it just kind of took off from there. And the skills that she taught me, I could not only apply to my competition skills, but I found myself applying them to how I work with students and how I teach others. And I could see that helping my students. And so I think especially now, people need this more than ever. We need to be able to focus on what we can control and make our brains do some work for good instead of evil. So you mentioned in there, like the idea that, you know, part of it's being able to shut out the rest of the world, right? Like whatever else is going on. So it sounds like focus to me. And then you kind of touched on the idea that maybe it's also a little bit to do with nerves. Is that right? Yeah. We can use those feelings of nervousness for good. We can use them in a way that can actually coach us a little bit in the moment because we have those feelings for good reason. But if we have those feelings because we think that a certain person is watching us and that makes us feel nervous, those feelings of nervousness aren't serving us. So we want to be able to tune out those types of distractions because they're not helping or most of the time they're hurting us. And then focus more on the feelings of nervousness that maybe are serving us. I know one of the things that you talk about in the class is long-term goal setting. And I think that's definitely an area where a lot of us struggle, me included. After all, how can you tell what your dog is going to be able to learn and know a year or even multiple years in the future? Can you kind of talk about how to handle that a little bit, just setting long-term training goals? Yeah. It's a little bit counterintuitive. But the day that I separated my long-term goals from any goal I have with a specific dog, everything became more achievable. And it is because we can't know, right? The dogs are living, breathing individual creatures that have their own plans and own ideas and own feelings. And so it's very, very difficult to attach a specific goal of your own to one particular dog. So I like to, when we start to put together this long-term plan, I want to focus on what the handler wants to achieve rather than what the handler wants to achieve with that dog. And then we kind of, we take it step by step. And each dog we have should help us along the way.

But it's not up to that one specific dog to make sure that you reach that end goal. Yeah, that's kind of an interesting way of thinking about it. That's kind of got my brain turning. You know, obviously a lot of people right now kind of feel like all of their goals and all of their plans kind of have to be up in the air because the pandemic has thrown like this huge wrench in competition plans and your ability to kind of trade out in public even sometimes. So I'd love to just kind of hear you talk a little bit about how you're handling that with your guys. Yeah, for sure. It certainly has thrown a wrench in things. And it's worse if you have kind of put these specific goals on one particular dog. Because maybe you're in the situation like I am with Smack. He's 12 years old. He was competing happily, you know, just a couple of weekends before the world shut down. And now I feel like, well, maybe that was it for him. And if that was the end of my story, that would be crushing. If that was the end of, okay, well, now I have nothing else to go for because everything was tied to him. Right. And that also makes anything unexpected more crushing. An injury, illness. You know, sometimes we lose our dogs way too young, things like that. But ultimately, it has just shifted my timeline. So it has provided me more time to put into Shrek's training and more time into what he's going to help me with in this progression. And I'm just kind of looking at my timeline a little bit differently. And seeing how this current shift is going to affect me professionally and, you know, personally and, of course, in my own competitive things. And it's just going to take a shift. It's not going to completely derail me. Right. Right. And obviously, like, it's still okay to, you know, feel sad about his career kind of coming to a close. Or, like, you know, that's kind of a, understandably not, like, it's kind of a bummer. But I get what you're saying about, you know, if you're not tying the stakes, if it's not dog dependent, then you don't have to give up on your own goals. Just because one particular dog can or cannot accomplish those things. Yeah, exactly. Because the dog doesn't have those goals. He, I mean, Smack has zero idea that that was his, maybe his last agility run because I can still take him out into the backyard and do things. So when we just kind of strip it down and get down to what's important, it's a little bit easier to swallow. But, yeah, it's disappointing. And I think there is some, like, cultural fog around mindset training as being, you know, always perky and positive and never being sad.

And that's not it at all. But I can't control it. So there's not a whole lot of benefit for me to put a whole lot of energy into that sort of situation. So I gave myself some time, give myself a pity party, and then you move on to the next thing that you can do. But, yeah, it is disappointing. I think there's a lot of people right now who are really, you know, they're struggling maybe with staying motivated and continuing to make progress and, you know, adapting to, like you said, kind of accepting that there are things in this world that cannot change. Do you have any tips that listeners can try and apply? Yeah. My favorite one is to plan for a puppy. And it is exactly, like, one of the first things that I did is I went back to my timeline and I said, okay, when am I getting a puppy? How does this affect that? Because I think that makes everyone feel better, right, is to plan for their next puppy. And so that's tip number one is decide when you're going to get a puppy because I think quite a few of my friends on social media have gotten puppies just kind of on a whim because they have the time for a puppy right now. So that kind of helps smooth things over if you're feeling disappointed is to look forward to a puppy. But or anything to look forward to, right? So instead of focusing on the things that were canceled, focus on, well, what's next? What am I going to start aiming for next? And look for the opportunity that canceled events have given you and how much easier it's going to make getting to that next stepping stone because you have maybe a little bit more time. If nothing else, you have more time to actually spend with your dog and maybe, you know, get a little extra training in and be a little more prepared before whatever that next step was, right, for the next competition. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And going back to that, that it's okay if you don't achieve everything you thought you would achieve with this particular dog that you get to keep going. What else do you kind of cover in the course? Can you talk a little more about just what else is included? Yeah. Once we kind of start rewiring our brains and thinking more in the growth phases and things like that, we're going to start to apply those skills to our agility training. So, making sure that we're able to watch our videos with a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset and how that's going to be applied to future training plans and kind of creating more of a feedback loop for yourself from training to trialing and back again.

And we're going to really dive into what it is like to compete and build routines and set boundaries around your competition day so that you have enough energy, mental energy to give each run. And figuring out your plan before you walk the course or during your course walkthrough and giving a lot of focus on just sticking to the plan and not necessarily like chickening out on your plan at the last minute. Fair enough. So, I kind of mentioned at the beginning that the class isn't the only thing on the FDSA calendar that you're working on right now. I know that in addition to the June class, you've got a workshop starting June 7th on agility jumping skills that folks can register for and a webinar coming up on teaching agility professionally. So, first kind of to talk about the workshop, can you just share a little on what you plan to cover? Sure. It may be a little bit different than people are expecting, but it's going to be the jumping skills that I teach my dogs. And it's going to be the jumping skills that I teach my dogs. And it's going to be laid out in kind of each stage so that a young puppy could do it or an adolescent dog or a more seasoned dog could do it. So, we're going to focus on the skills that they need for extension and collection and wrapping and slicing and backside slices and backside wrapping. And also kind of giving the dogs the concept of ignoring distractions while jumping and those distractions specifically being us, the handler. When we're handling, that's usually the dog's biggest distraction while they're trying to jump. So, the dogs need to know how to kind of tune us out while they are jumping and to be able to cleanly. So, we're going to focus a lot on that. Kind of thinking about who would be the right fit, right, as folks are listening for this. Is there any particular things that they should know or shouldn't know or ages or anything else that, you know, kind of who's the right fit for this workshop? The right fit would be that we know that the dog is structurally sound for jumping and fit for jumping. I sort of mentioned it that I will include the progression so that when I start the skills, I teach them without a bar presence. So, there's no jumping. So, a young puppy could do it. And then I do show the progression of how to add the bar and raise it over time. So, it's pretty accessible for all ages, but they should be fit for the job. So, structurally sound. And I wouldn't do it necessarily if your puppy's kind of in that floppy stage where they don't know anything about where their feet.

Or they just realize they have a tail and they're falling over their ears. Something like that. But it would be good to maybe have in your library for when they're not in that gangly stage. Wet noodle stage. I think that's what Hannah calls it. Exactly. So, what about the webinar? I know it's titled Building a Successful Agility Class Curriculum and Format. What do you plan to cover? Well, I think the title says it all. It was such a mouthful. But that one, we're going to talk about what your job description is as an agility instructor and kind of figuring that out for yourself. So, that you don't get trapped in giving more than you're getting back. And in terms of effort and engagement and participation. And then we're going to talk about the pros and cons of different class formats. So, the length of the class. The number of dogs that you have. And then how to build a curriculum that can reasonably flow from one week to the next without boring your more advanced students or leaving your less experienced students behind. I feel like agility is one of those hard ones to do class curriculums for. One of those hard ones to do that for. Because, you know, newbies often want to skip the beginner steps. Because they want to get to what they see as the fun parts. And, of course, the beginner steps. The foundation pieces are the part that matter the most for safety and for ultimate skill level. Right? I don't know. I just feel like it's a hard class to kind of figure that out for. So. It can be. And I think a lot of agility instructors, myself included, we run into the client schedule really kind of determines where they end up and which class. And that can really make things even more difficult. So, I do touch on that as well in the webinar about, you know, drawing a line about, okay, is this going to be appropriate for this student to be in this class? Can we make this work? Or is it going to disrupt everything else you've built it for? So, if somebody's trying to kind of decide if this webinar is a good choice for them, can you just talk to that? Sure. I think if you feel like your curriculums aren't working or you're having a really hard time managing all the different levels, I think there's a lot of good tips in there for that. Or if you really struggle with kind of time management of the class. I spent quite a bit of time on trying to create a format that works time-wise where you get enough instruction time in and they also get to work their dogs enough.

Or if you're just interested in seeing if you can make your classes that are going really well, if you want to make them a little bit better. I think there's something in it for everyone. So, one last question, the one that I like to end with these days. So, what's something that you've learned or that you've been reminded of recently when it comes to training? Oh, well, Shrek has reminded me that dog training is not linear. Sometimes you just have to take a couple steps back to go forward a little bit. The agility field where I train is very full of wildlife. And, well, it became springtime. And the bunnies and the birds are just so busy right now. So, even just a couple of months ago, he was completely okay with running full courses and 100% focused. And then about a month ago, he reminded me that he is very much a terrier and would much rather hunt. And so, we've had to take a couple steps back and figure out how to do agility instead of hunting. Sometimes it's a hard lesson to be reminded of. It is. But I can't compete right now anyway, so might as well work on the knot hunting. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast, Megan. Thanks for having me. This was fun. Always. And thank you to our listeners for tuning in. We'll be back next week with Nicole Wybush to talk about virtual rally competitions and what most people get wrong when teaching stay. Don't miss it. If you haven't already, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes or the podcast app of your choice. They're our next episode automatically downloaded to your phone as soon as it becomes available. Today's show is brought to you by the Fenzie Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzie for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty-free by bensound.com. The track featured here is called Buddy. Audio editing provided by Chris Lang. Thanks again for tuning in. And happy training. Thank you. Thank you.