Another barn hunt weekend is in the books, but was it a bust? It was Olivia’s first competition ever, and for me, it is just more masters runs. What makes a weekend a success, the ribbons, titles, or what?
On the hour and a half drive to the trial, Mom was listening to an expert talk about kids and sports. Early in the morning on weekends, radio is always a bit different. We have had problems with Bailie not being interested in her sports anymore, and Mom worries it might happen to me and Olivia too. The radio lady said that many kids are already quitting all sports before they turn thirteen. Why? Because of pressure from the parents to be the best, bring home ribbons, and wins. For many kids, that takes the fun out of sports completely.
Mom got to thinking about it and realized that being super competitive, she pretty much does that to us. It’s always about getting those titles. Fun should just happen by getting the titles. Recently when I had my amazing element trial, and last week at the AKC trial, things were different. Mom was more relaxed and was having lots of fun with us. It made a difference because we too had more fun, and did well. A lot of people might find this obvious, but for super competitive people, it is a hard concept to accept and work with.
After listening to the woman and thinking it all over, Mom tried to not worry about passing our searches, just having fun. Guess what, it worked really well. I was so crazy about hunting and finding my rats! I actually got stuck upside down, back legs in the air, between some bales, trying to get to a tube! Olivia also had a blast running all over the novice ring, checking things out. For her is it all new – a new place, new feeling, lots to discover.
What did we learn? It was a blast, but I refuse to tunnel, which has been a problem for a while now. Olivia is starting to tunnel, but she needs to focus more on finding the rats. We are renting the ring to practice before our next trial. Of course, Mom is bummed we didn’t get any Q’s, but she feels we are on the way, and is looking forward to Bailie’s nose work trials next weekend focusing on fun. Mom may enter her in a novice barn hunt run just to see if she might start to have fun hunting again.
So, what do we have from the trial weekend. Lots of fun photos from Saturday, when the weather was gorgeous! Sunday was cold and raining, so no photos. We found this wheelbarrow to transport our ribbons in, but then we didn’t have any, so we got in instead!
They added a lot of art to the fairgrounds since we were there in April. I like this barn door with the small decorative squares.
For anyone wondering, “Where’s the beef?” Olivia found it…such a food hound!
Now we will regroup, and try hunting rats again in two weeks.
We are joining Comedy Plus for the Awww Mondays Blog Hop.
As long as you are having fun….
We had a lot of fun, just missed some details for Q’s, but we will work on that and it will come.
Having fun is so important!!! Great post. Have a great day. Your friend Lilly
Mom is figuring out that her pushing us to get everything zaps some of the fun, so we are trying more fun to see how it goes, but we will have to do better too in the future.
we would love to try a barn hunt… and we wish you all the good luck for your da nose work trial next weekend… we hope we all will drive home proud and happy, next week da Nelly runs his NAT (with the mama as the captain, omg LOL)
Bailie is up next weekend, who knows how it will go, but Mom will try to make it extra fun. Good luck to Nelly next weekend!
It’s too bad your weekend wasn’t more successful, but we are glad you had fun! We hope your Mom’s new way of looking at things will help you all in the long run.
We think in the end it will be beneficial. My tunnel thing is a problem, but we have a session scheduled to work on it some more.
Great pictures girls and keep having fun!
It’s pretty easy to have fun if Mom isn’t all uptight, so we had a blast!
Aww ~ they pose so well and are precious ~ wonderful and creative photos ~ favorite is the last one ^_^
Happy Day to You,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
Thank you. We love to do photos and have fun too.
Such great photos. Often humans forget how to have fun which is one reason they should have dogs.
It is hard for competitive people to just let things happen, but we are going to try that for a while. I think it is a good plan.
Fun sounds more like it and I’ll bet you all enjoy it more, good thinking Mom!
She never liked team sports because of relying on others, so she decided to dive in with dogs! We will figure it all out in time.
Love the borrow for the ribbons that had the two star students in it instead. Sounds and looks like it was a good photo shoot weekend, we be all have 100% every time. There will always be another day.
It is really important that we are enjoying what we do, especially Olivia because she is so young. She will catch on in time.
You are sure great posers. You should get extra treats for all the posing. A huge Awww.
Thank you for joining the Awww Mondays Blog Hop.
Have a fabulous Awww Monday and week. My best to your peeps. ♥
We love going out to do photos for a change of pace during competitions. It relaxes all of us.
You absolutely gotta have fun! You girls look so cute in the wheelbarrow!
Fun with no pressure is what we are learning about…or rather Mom is working on.
Life is for enjoying, not worrying – have fun in the future and thanks for sharing some darling photos!
This is true, but Mom’s competitive side makes it hard for her to do.
What a great revelation for your Mama….It’s all about together time, learning and having fun! Ribbons are just the icing on the cake!
xoxo,
Rosy, Jakey & Arty
Mom has heard this for years now, but finally she is starting to understand it and see the value in having fun, and that fun breeds more success too in the long run.
I am way too competitive too. I have seen many kids quit sports because of overzealous parents. It is really sad.
We think that is what happened to Bailie because she is such a sensitive girl. Olivia and I are stronger personalities and we just love our sports, don’t care much about what Mom thinks. Hopefully the new fun side will help Bailie find fun in sports again too.
If you are having a great time and learning and growing and getting better while enjoying it, that’s important.
My kids took piano lessons with a young man i’ll call Luke. He was great at piano, and went on to learn several instruments. He also loved swim team, although he was lousy at sports, including swimming.
One time at a swim meet, his heat was called and he was supposed to race one other person in that heat. The other child didn’t show up when the heat was announced, and they have so many that they don’t wait for you, you have to be listening and ready. The whistle blew, and he dove in alone. His mother was thrilled, finally he would win a first place ribbon for a heat, something he’d never done.
He was almost all the way across the pool when another child came racing through the crowd and dove in, his competitor for that heat who had finally realized what was happening. He swam like a mad thing, and by the time they turned at the end of the pool and came back, the other child won.
Luke, not even looking at his opponent, got out of the water, looked above his lane at his time, and began jumping up and down and shouting “Yes! Yes! I did it! I beat my own best time ever! Yes!”
He wasn’t disappointed that he had a 3/4 lane head start and still lost, he was thrilled because he’d done his best time in any race, he was improving and have fun, and that’s what mattered to him.
Luke’s story always inspires me to at least try to do my best, even though i am not the best.
It’s hard to always come in second or third, or…but not everyone is going to be number one and the important thing is to finish. Mom is working on learning to just relax and enjoy the ride, but it is hard for her.
you make excellent points about pressure put on kids spoiling all the fun! Looks like the pups had fun!
We had the most fun in the rat ring, but we also had fun walking around, doing some photos.
I’m glad Mom found that radio program and that the advice helped. Being competitive myself, I totally get where she’s coming from. It is so easy to get hung up on our ‘perfection’ that we lose sight of what we are really trying to accomplish.
I hope this has been a turning point for your team.
I think because of my hormone issues she had to get creative and started to realize the fun made me happier and I did better. Now to continue on and hopefully be successful.