18/08/2025
❤️
Last week saw me come home two trophies from The Kennel Club International Agility Festival, but do you know what? I actually picked apart bits of the runs as soon as I'd run them 😆 I'm a perfectionist and I know we could have done them better. But if you asked me the proudest I was of Tux, it was on the last day when I walked a calm Tux to heel past the main ring with the local tannoy blaring in surround sound around us, the sound which had terrified him last year and which we worked on in the lead up to the event and every day whilst there. I was proud to have him ring side posing for pictures in front of the stand we'd hid behind last year when it all got too much and I was proud of him chilling in the exercise area with his mates and not tearing after the cars he could hear through the bush or seeking out movement from other dogs. You don't realise how far you've come sometimes until you have these direct comparisons. It's important to celebrate the wins along the way and congratulate yourself and your dog for the successes which don't come with ribbons and trophies.
You’re standing at the start line.
Your heart is racing, your dog looks up at you, and for a split second, you remember every moment that brought you here. The early mornings. The training sessions in the rain. The tears when it felt like nothing was working. The doubts that crept in when you wondered if you were enough—or if your dog was.
And yet, here you are.
For some, winning might mean leaving the ring with a trophy, a rosette, or a new title. And that matters. Those dreams are worthy. But winning doesn’t always look like that.
✨ Sometimes winning is your reactive dog walking calmly past another dog for the first time.
✨ Sometimes winning is stepping into the obedience ring and holding your nerve.
✨ Sometimes winning is finishing an agility run clear—not perfect, not flashy, but clear.
And sometimes winning is simply showing up, after all the setbacks that could have stopped you.
We don’t talk enough about the fact that winning is rarely easy. It comes with sacrifice, with discipline, with courage, with long stretches where progress feels invisible. It costs time with family, it tests friendships, it pushes you to keep going when everything in you wants to give up.
That’s why your win—whatever it looks like—matters. Because it’s not just the moment in the ring. It’s the story behind it.
So don’t whisper your goals. Don’t apologise for wanting more. Don’t be afraid to say out loud: “I want to win.”
Because your win—whether it’s deeply personal or proudly public—is yours. And you’ve earned every step of it.
👉 What does winning look like for you and your dog right now?
