About Evelien
So as you may have guessed, I'm Evelien 😁 I live with my boyfriend Jamie and our dogs in a small town in the south of the Netherlands, close to the German and Belgian borders. We have about 2.5 acres of land with a small wooden house on it, which we intend to rebuild into a slightly bigger house in 2025 🏡
Part of that land is now in use as my agility field, tucked away in the corner between big old oak trees and the neighbour's greenhouse (full of strawberries 🍓), so despite the size it's actually very private.
The remainder of the land is a mix of forest and meadow. We intend to get some sheep and chickens after the rebuild.
We moved to this picturesque little piece of paradise in 2021. Every season brings its own charm, but the tranquility and beauty of this place is forever! It's like being on holiday, permanently. We both work from home, so we get to enjoy these beautiful views daily.
Speaking of work, I'm a product manager by profession nowadays. After finishing my Applied Psychology study back in 2012, I actually got a job as a software developer (it made sense at the time!). I have since then moved on to the job of product manager, primarily because of my frustration of not understanding why I had to develop what I was asked to develop. As a product manager, I now try to save my dev colleagues from that frustration, by being the translator between the clients with their wishes, needs and expectations, and the developers with their own wishes, needs and expectations.
I've come to realise that dog training is actually very similar.
On the one side, we have the owner, or handler. They have certain wishes, needs, and expectations. Within the sport of dog agility, they may want to participate in trials. For that, they will need their own handling and mental skills, and will need to train their dog to have the relevant agility skills and focus for the game as well.
On the other side, we have the dog, with – you guessed it – their own wishes, needs, and expectations. They may be aligned with the handler's wishes, needs, and expectations, but more often than not, they are not.
It's never the dog's fault
There are many ways to realign a dog's wishes, needs, and expectations with their handler's. We could simply force them to do as we tell them to do. Personally, that's not the kind of relationship I want to have with anyone, let alone with my dogs. I want my dogs to work with me because they want to work with me, not because they'll fear punishment if they don't.
That means, if my dog doesn't want to work with me, then it's up to me to invest and recreate that relationship with my dog. It is never, and I mean never my dog's fault!
I personally don't think that dogs deliberately blow us off. That they "know better"! It's my strongest believe that our dogs are doing the best they can, with the education we have given them, in the environment that we are asking them to perform. (Side note: Susan Garrett can say it so much better than me. Please go check out her podcasts!)
The dog is always just giving us feedback on our training so far. If we don't like what we're seeing, then it's up to us to come up with a better training plan!
Be kind
The good news about this approach to dog training, is that it gives us ownership. That means it's up to us to make that change!
And the best thing? This doesn't just apply to dog training. It applies to everything in life! That's why I want, above all else, to be kind. It is my hallucination that the world just seems a little bit brighter if we approach it with kindness first. ☀️
So let's have grace. For our dogs, who give their best every single day. For our friends, family, and fellow competitors. And the hardest one, have grace for ourselves. No one is perfect, and it's okay to make mistakes. 🙏🏻
That's cool, but why are you so slow? 🐌
It is my blessing and my curse that I obtained a very persistent tendon injury in my hip area in October 2022, that still troubles me to this day. This gluteal tendinopathy has had a major impact on my ability to run and train, even just stand and walk.
The "fix" to this difficult injury is to balance impact. I have taken periods of (relative) rest, but (slowly!) increasing impact makes it flare back up every time, despite lots of physical therapy and daily exercises.
Needless to say, it's very frustrating for me.
But there is a silver lining.
This situation has given me the opportunity to work on San's independence to an even greater degree. His understanding of my verbal cues continues to amaze me. Despite me not having been able to run in training for over a year (we train "hoopers style"), we remain competitive in trials.
A physically challenged handler with an Australian Shepherd running competitively in A3 FCI trials, that's an achievement in itself, and one I am very proud of! 😊
My glass remains half full, and I prefer to see opportunities when faced with challenges!
