Radical Canines

About a year after I moved to NH, I was asked to cover a few agility classes when the regular instructors couldn’t make it. I felt like a huge fraud then, and honestly still do sometimes, though not as often. I started assisting with classes when I was in Texas for grad school: basic manners, canine good citizen, and puppy manners. I even worked for PetSmart for a very short stint though that was incredibly short lived and quite disappointing.

Being an introvert, teaching classes is exhausting, it takes so much out of me, but I really have come to love it. When I moved to NH I thought I was done teaching, but those infrequent covers turned into teaching agility foundations classes. I now teach most of the agility foundations at the facility where I take classes and seminars.

Before this year, I would introduce all the equipment, get students comfortable sequencing a few obstacles together and fairly proficient in most of the equipment with the exception of the teeter and the weaves and then they would “graduate” to the more experienced instructors for more handling specific instruction. I am fairly confident with foundations and the beginning stages of handling but beyond that, I still feel like a hot mess express so teaching other people what I haven’t mastered just seemed wrong.

I’ve been running Rugby more since this summer and I’m realizing my handling, while still in need of major work, isn’t *quite* as bad as it feels sometimes. This year though, in all of its strangeness, I have managed to hold on to a group of students far longer than typical and I honestly have to say I am loving it.

In addition to feeling like my knowledge was lacking and I wouldn’t be able to provide quality instruction, I always worry that my students won’t like my teaching style, or will find me immature/strange, or inappropriate (I swear, sometimes a lot, it is what it is). I worry that my students aren’t getting what they want out of classes, that they aren’t having fun, or that they feel lost. The mask requirement has definitely made these worries so much worse because I can’t read facial expressions. Honestly, though, let’s keep the masks, I’d rather stress about not being able to gauge where my students are at, than stress more about getting COVID.

Being able to see these students and work with them on the more advanced handling has been more rewarding than I ever realized was possible. Usually my students are new teams, who haven’t quite hit their groove. They’re just starting to mesh with their dog but its still quite fresh and in need of polishing. When I cover classes, I get to see my old students and it’s always been amazing to see how far they progressed but I usually just attribute that to the other instructors.

This group though, the group that has stayed with me long beyond what my classes typically do, I am just so in awe of them. They have worked so hard and come so far, it is amazing. I am amazed that they keep coming back and feel so incredibly lucky that they choose to continue taking classes with me. Even my current foundations class has made amazing strides and huge improvements each week. I have a really fantastic group of students who make the mental toll of teaching classes worth it.

For any of my students out there who may be reading this, thank you, your instructor appreciates you, recognizes your hard work and is incredibly proud of how you continue to work on your journey with your dog.