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Mental Training & Agility

Sometimes you see agility competitors who work beautifully in training with their dogs, and seem to have all the skills for success, but still rarely reach their own level in competitions. Basic agility skills might not be enough to get you to the top: also mental factors have a great impact in agility.


Agility is a very goal-oriented sport with persistent competition at all levels. Every handler can learn to use mental preparation and competitive skills to their benefit and enjoy their hobby in all of its levels. For active competitors, acquiring these skills and using them actively is an important factor of success.

Since our dogs always give their all to us handlers, it only fair that we work just as hard in order to be the best possible handlers to our dogs. That is why we at OneMind Dogs find mental preparation for competitions very important. We have already published two whole series of articles about this issue.

You can now easily find all articles related to mental training in their own category. Need more tips with the new navigation? See a short video clip with instructions!

The articles about mental training that have been published on the OneMind Dogs website, are by Vappu Alatalo. She is a specialist in sport psychology, who has been working closely with several successful agility competitors, including some of the OneMind coaches.

Vappu has also written the unique Case Janita –article series which presents the process of mental preparation, seen through the eyes of both the mental coach and the athlete. The series of five articles is a very personal story of Janita Leinonen’s journey.

Vappu is a certified psychologist who has been working since 2000 with agility handlers aiming to and competing on the top level. In addition to her expertise in sport psychology, she knows agility and dog sports well: Vappu started her own agility career 1993 and has since trained and competed with 8 dogs in Finland, USA and Denmark. While living in the US she spent her time learning from Susan Salo and Susan Garrett. After returning to Scandinavia in 2007 Vappu started her own training company, Nuppijumppa, and has since been working full time with Sport Psychology Coaching, teaching Susan Salo Jumping Technique and Motivating Skills for dog handlers in Finland, Sweden and Norway. Vappu works fluently in Finnish, English and Swedish. She is passionate about both the dogs and their handlers, equally, getting the training they need to perform well in agility.


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