Episode Transcript
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This is the perfect pup podcast.Helping you build a better
relationship with your pup presented, by pop forward.
Hello pup parents and welcome totoday's episode of the perfect
pup podcast. My name is Devon a few weeks
ago. I had the opportunity to attend
the Westminster Kennel Club, dog, show out here in New York
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City. And I learned some lessons from
surprisingly, the dog that had the slowest time in the agility
trials. So, I want to share some of
these lessons with you and I hope that they can help you have
some more understanding and empathy for your dog.
And generally just love your dogmore and have a better
relationship with them. So, let's get right into it.
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So, warm spring day, a group of friends.
We went out to the Westminster Kennel Club, dog.
Show it was out in Queens at theBillie Jean King Tennis Center,
which is a big kind of Open tennis area.
It's where they hold the US Openevery year and it's kind of an
iconic venue and And it was our first experience all of us going
to any type of dog show we really had no expectations other
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than we wanted to pet some dogs and see some amazing dogs do,
amazing things. As we explored the grounds and
saw the different events happening, it really was an awe
inspiring experience. The dock diving was phenomenal.
Dogs of every size jumping, and leaping.
As far as they can just to get their favorite toy.
We also saw The Obedience trialswhere there's this Asian,
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communication and behavior between dog, and Handler and
they're getting directions. And they're turning on a dime
and they're going exactly to a certain spot stopping and
sitting, just obviously really well mannered dogs.
And we even got to do a dog breed meet and greet, which was
really lived up to our expectations.
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What we wanted the most, we got to pet some giant Newfoundlands
and Great Danes. And some tiny papillae ins and
be Goals and everything in between and just meet these dogs
with unique personalities, it was a lot of fun, but the best
part and arguably the most entertaining experience at the
dog show was dog agility and actually took place inside of
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Arthur Ashe Stadium, which little did I know.
Is the largest tennis arena in the world as we walked in and
you see these dog obstacles? You know I'd seen some dog
agility online seen a little It on TV but nothing major.
I'm by no means a an expert in dog agility or anything like
that and to see the dog agility laid out in this massive Arena.
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It was quite a breathtaking Viewand we luckily got to sit pretty
close. There weren't a ton of people
there. And as these dog agility, trials
started, it was an amazing experience.
These dogs were very, very fast.They were seemingly Gliding
Over. The jumps going through the
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tunnels with ease, you know, stopping on a dime, doing
exactly what their Handler, ask them to just this really the top
notch, that cream of the crop ofdogs and behavior and Speed and
Agility and just sport. It was sport in its purest form
and you know we saw dozens and dozens of dogs run and with each
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one it was you know you're cheering for them to go faster.
You you know, you can see See the dogs that are seemingly
going to be really quick and they hit the first few turns
really fast and you're keeping an eye on the clock and it's
kind of this fun experience thatI never had before.
I've always grown up with sports, I've Loved Sports my
whole life and this was one of my favorite sporting events I've
ever been to. It was just dogs competing and
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competing with themselves as what was kind of eye-opening as
well and we'll talk more about that.
And after about a dozen or so dogs running pretty quick times,
you know, most of them were in the 40. 45 seconds to maybe up
to a minute. Range was kind of the average
for these dogs and after a dozenor so a retriever stepped out
and it was just, I love retrievers.
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I have I have two Labradors. This one was a Golden Retriever
and it started off really well. It ran through the first few
obstacles with speed with Precision.
It was you know good eye contactand communication with its
Handler and then all the sudden out of nowhere, it just he
seemed to forget where he was heHe ran off into a corner.
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He was sniffing for what seemed like treats her toys.
He even came to kind of the edgeof the arena and was peeking its
head up and over to look at these people and maybe thinking
who are these people, why are they watching me?
Like they seemed excited. I'm excited.
His tail was wagging and he was having a good time, but he was
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not making good time. He was spending, you know, 30 to
60 seconds just walking around. Exploring which again in the
scheme of dog agility is your entire timing.
And, you know, the human, she was clearly a little bit
frustrated and a little bit, I think disappointed and and was
trying to get her dog back and trying to re-engage him and and
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get him back onto the course. And then as much as he had kind
of gone haywire and just gone off and done his own thing.
I don't know where he kind of snapped back.
And he came right back in and the Aaron began again and he
finished out the time trial and the time that he was actually
running if you take out the minute or so of Meandering,
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would have probably been a top 10 or 15 time out of dozens and
dozens of dogs. But that moment of him exploring
you see this kind of panic on the handlers face and she
doesn't know exactly what to do and the crowds honestly going
wild. Everyone loved it.
People are cheering people are laughing.
I stood up I clap that that I thought.
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Great. It was this moment of
remembering that these are dogs.They are individuals and you see
them run these perfect time trials and it's like, wow, these
it almost seems robotic. But then it was a reminder of
hey, this is a real dog with a real experience.
And as I stepped away from that,and, you know, we continued saw
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the rest of the dogs run. I had a lot of thoughts about
what that experience, taught me.And we're specifically ice tried
to watch the Glitter and see howshe was going about that
experience. As her dog was off wandering on
the course in what is arguably the top competition in dog
agility. So I'm going to share three
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quick, lessons, that I gleaned from this, that hopefully can
help you have a better relationship with your dog.
The first one is relationship over results.
So again, as the Handler, as she's training for this
experience and to kind of see itall slip away.
I was watching her and while shewas frustrated, It wasn't anger.
She wasn't mad. She didn't seem bothered at her
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dog necessarily. I think she was a little sad
that, you know, they'd work thathard and it was kind of falling
apart per se. But it was clear that she
understood that her relationshipwith her dog and the long term
effects were more important thanthe result.
In that specific moment when herdog came back and kind of
snapped back into agility mode. She very easily could have just
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been disappointed and kind of You know, haphazardly, run
through the rest of the course knowing that their time was
going to be long, but she went at it, she kept going.
And when they finished she gave her dog, plenty of Praise,
plenty of love. It was clear that she understood
that the relationship was more important than just that one
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result in that one time trial. And we have moments like that
with our dogs on a daily basis where they do these things where
you feel like you know, that they know they Be doing it or
that it's something that you've been working on, and it can feel
frustrating. But in those moments how we
react can often have more important long-term effects on
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our relationship than the directresult of what's happening in
that moment. You know, if your dog is already
chewing up flowers, the flowers are chewed up, it's over.
It's done. Just like the time.
Had already passed on the clock for that retriever.
There's no way she could go backand restart the time.
That's not how the competition works.
Works and we can't go back and make our dogs.
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Not chew up the flowers, but howwe react and how we move forward
with our dogs can affect the relationship in the long term.
And it was clear that the Handler understood that she
didn't want to scold. She didn't want to get angry at
her dog. She wanted to re-engage.
Praise her dog and keep moving forward.
And move on again to the next competition because there are
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certainly will be another in thefuture.
The second lesson that I learnedfrom this man.
Being retriever is to have empathy for our dogs mistakes.
Our dogs are going to make mistakes, just like we are, as
humans would have that Handler preferred a faster time.
Of course. What we prefer that our dog
doesn't have another accident onour new rug certainly would that
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Handler have preferred to qualify and move on to the next
round. I'm sure she would have.
And are there times where we wish our dog would not yank
towards a squirrel even though we've I've been working on
impulse impulse control. Yes of course but our dogs are
going to make mistakes and how are we going to empathize with
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them and with their innate behaviors?
And with the wiring that is in their brains, what that Handler
taught me. And honestly, I think everyone
in the arena is that dogs are unique and they have
personalities, and they will make mistakes and dogs.
I would You are some of the mostempathetic and compassionate and
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forgiving creatures that we interact with on a daily basis.
So how can we return that favor to them?
How can we show empathy and understanding of, hey, chasing
after a squirrel? That is a part of your deep
wired emotions and basically modus operandi as a dog and how
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can we be empathetic towards that instead of just reacting
with anger and frustration and feeling?
Like, our dog is doing somethingbad or wrong, or they want to do
something that we don't like, just to be annoying or whatever.
How can we be more empathetic towhat our dogs are experiencing
as dogs in a human first world? It's a challenge.
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It has to be difficult for them to have to adapt to everything
that we want for them. Just like that, dog.
You know, it it's natural. Instinct is not to run and jump,
precisely over specific obstacles and run through a
tunnel. No, it's natural.
Inclination is to explore the things around to sniff to smell
where all the other dogs have been to look at the people in
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the crowd, especially as a fun-loving.
Retriever it probably wanted to just go up and get pets from
everyone in the crowd and it wassuch a great lesson to remember
that. We need to be empathetic to our
dogs and to their behaviors thatto us, might be frustrating and
might seem out of hand or bad behaviors, but to them it's just
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something natural that Comes easily to them in as part of
their wiring, third lesson, I learned or it made me think of.
Or what I should ask is, what does winning mean for your dog?
And for our dogs, in particular at this competition it was
eye-opening to see that. Yes, it was a competition.
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There were quote-unquote winners.
It really felt like every singledog one and not in the sense of
everyone gets a participation trophy that kind of winning.
Really in the sense of each dog enjoyed it.
Each dog seemed to be having an amazing time.
The dogs the handlers, you know,there were a couple instances
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where it seemed like the handlers maybe weren't super
nice to their dogs but the vast majority of them the dogs and
humans were having an amazing time.
You know these watching, dock diving?
Whether it was the farthest jumpor the shortest jump.
The dogs were just as stoked to be leaping.
Off the dock and going after a toy regardless of how far they
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went and even then this dog agility the slowest, dog, that I
watched this wandering, retriever it had an amazing
time. I'm sure of it had a lot of fun
running the courses. It was running it, it had a lot
of fun. Exploring it really showed that
dogs are winning when they are having healthy outlets and they
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are doing things that they enjoy.
So how can we know what winning is for?
Our dogs for everyone. It's different for some dogs.
It might be not barking at the neighbor's dog on your walk that
they almost always bark at for others.
Its winning the Westminster Kennel Club dog agility for
some. It's just getting a
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uninterrupted belly rub from their favorite person.
Winning is different for every single dog.
And so try to find what makes your dog tick and what really
makes them happy and give them. Opportunities to do that on a
daily basis. I hope that if you have the
opportunity to go to any type ofdog agility or dock diving or a
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dog show you go, it doesn't haveto be the Westminster Kennel
Club, dog, show. I know that's kind of one of the
most, well sought-after ones. But any dog competition is an
experience that you should go. It is so entertaining and is, so
it's the pureness of dogs, it's their desire to work with humans
and to do fun things, just in case Isolated in this tiny
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competition that really brings out the best of each dog.
There's no, you know, dogs sulking in the corner because
the other dog that went after, it got a three second faster
time, there's no dog complainingto the refs because of what
another dog did, you know, it isdogs being dogs in their purest
form and you just might learn some amazing lessons.
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Like I did from this retriever that life is short with our
dogs, we could have empathy for them.
They're going to make mistakes, we can prioritize our
relationship over miniscule or momentary results and of course,
we can find what winning is for our dogs, and for our unique
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situation, I hope you enjoyed this episode.
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