Saved.

"My Agility Story"

We have received many lovely stories of people experiencing OneMind Moments. Let's hear another story!


We at OneMind Dogs love seeing our students learn and realize something that helps them along their journey in agility. That's why we want to share with you stories about people having their OneMind Moments, eye opening moments when they have realized something very important about agility.

Let's hear the story by one of our Premium members:

"Five years ago I did not intend to do agility with my new puppy. The breeder was an intense agility enthusiast so she gave me a DVD together with the puppy - the DVD was "From Puppy to Champion" by Janita Leinonen. So began our journey in the interesting world of agility. I peeked the DVD for the first time when Pörje was about 6-7 months old. Then I got an opportunity to practice in an indoors hall with agility obstacles and I decided to do some in-between-obedience-agility on my own. And I got hooked with the advices of the DVD and my talented puppy.

After a couple of months I got my first real agility lesson from OneMind Dogs Coach Jenni Leino. I immediately recognized a knowledgeable and trustworthy person and came to believe every word she said. I went on with the advices of the first DVD and the others I ordered from Janita. I also took some private lessons from Jenni and visited Janita's training facility a couple of times. As short as those visits were, were they highly valuable for me.

Months went by and I started competing with my dog. He was fun and easy to train with and was always trying to do his best in the competitions, too. We got some titles in obedience and search in no time. I was struggling in agility, though, because I was not able to get any good advice and was mainly just training on my own with the help of Janita's DVDs. Step by step we went on and in 2013 we moved on to class 3 and got an invitation to run as a white dog in Finnish national tryouts. I was very surprised, because I felt I was a novice, a nobody who could do nothing. A person who asked us for this task was very encouraging, telling us that many of the handler-dog teams he had asked for the same job during the previous years had finally made their way to the real competition later. So I answered yes. The experience was unforgettable.

After the tryouts I was selected to one of OneMind Dogs Coaches' courses which was for handlers who don't live nearby. During the five training sessions of the course I learned a lot and got tons of assurance about my dog and my handling. Little words can make a difference! Unfortunately my dog got injured in the spring 2014 and I had to have a break from all of my dog activites. A couple of looooooong months later we were able to start training again. This time we were invited to Jenni's training group where we started in September. In November something happened! We had been competing several months with no mentionable results, but suddenly we started to do qualifying runs in almost every competition we attended! We also got our first win in class 3 in December! For quite a long time I did not believe that we could ever run two clean runs in a row, the results that was needed for bigger games, but then it suddenly happened! We were now qualified to run in Finnish Championships and national tryouts! A goal that had been set only in my dreams had come true!

The reason I wanted to share this story with you guys is to encourage everybody to dream big dreams and believe in yourselves. And when you finally get there, don't forget to say those kind words to those who are just starting, because they can mean a world to them!

I am still a novice handler. I want to become a warm-blooded competitor. Right attitude, never giving up, controlling my nerves, team-spiriting. All the time loving my dog and enjoying every second of our time together. New dreams wait to be fulfilled :-)

Sirpa"

Share your OneMind moment with us. We’d love to hear from you!

Our mission is to give a happy life to dogs by helping people become amazing dog owners. We are passionate about increasing the mutual understanding between the dog and the owner, making a life together more enjoyable for both.