Agility, Stats and Performance... What's the Connection?

My girl, Keeper, and I recently competed at the UKI Canadian Nationals and WAO Team Canada Tryouts in Saint John, New Brunswick, September 7th - 10th. I packed up my RV and my five pups, and we went on an almost 3,000 km roundtrip road trip to make it to the Nationals.

Keeper, a three-year-old sheltie, competed at her first-ever National event with over 450 dogs participating! Talk about a milestone for her!

It was an agility marathon over four packed days, and Keeper proved that she could compete with some of the best 12" dogs in the country! Many American friends also came up to compete and pushed the competition and course times with their border paps and sport mixes! It was also great to see two of my fellow MCR team members compete - Stacy and Ainsley. Several of my elite coaching students from the United States also attended and had outstanding weekends with their dogs. This was the definition of an international competition with some of the best handlers and teams from Canada and the U.S.

I am so proud of how Keeper handled the environment, the competition and her ability to stay focused and connected (mostly!). She also proved that she can keep times with some of the fastest dogs in Canada and the U.S. We were able to pull off multiple top 10 place finishes and ended up placing 2nd in Canada for the Games event.  

Here are a few of my favourite runs during the UKI Canadian Nationals:

​If you know me, you won't be surprised to hear that I like my statistics and data - and so with every major event or multiple-day trial, I sit down and analyze the data collected over the weekend. 

• What did we do well?
• What can we improve upon?
• What do we need to focus on for the next upcoming event? ​

Collecting data on our dogs' competition weekends is as important as the competitions. We can gain valuable information from these analyses from a performance/training standpoint and a physical perspective to determine if something might be off in our dogs. 
​
One mistake in an individual run might mean little, but with multiple days of competition, patterns and trends will ALWAYS emerge! For example:​

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• Keeper completed 148 jumps over four days and only had one knocked bar! Although jumping is not an issue, this bar proved costly because she would have won the Win-On spot for WAO Team Canada had we kept it up! We were so close!  
  What did I learn from this? Jumping isn't an issue for Keeper but rather a strength. 💪🏽 so we're good on this front.
  
  
• We completed nine weave poles throughout the weekend - only one entry was missed - a 90-degree on-side entry. 
  What did I learn from this? We need to concentrate our weave pole training with on side 90 degree entries. 
  
  
• We had 6-7 refusals over the course of the weekend. The consistent pattern that emerged showed that I took off laterally to the next obstacle before Keeper had committed to the obstacle she needed to complete. 
  ​What did I learn from this? I need to be sure that Keeper has committed to the intended obstacle BEFORE I leave and work on increased obstacle commitment.  Why do shelties have such a strong desire to chase... 😳  

Some other things that I like to analyze during a competition weekend are:

• Number of refusals
• Number of off-courses
• Number of bars dropped and the reason why they were dropped
• Contact behaviour

Let me ask you a question now that we are talking about data: Are you interested in learning more about how you can analyze your competition weekends to help guide your future training sessions so that you turn your weaknesses into strengths?

Collecting data helps to: 
- Identify patterns of weakness 
- Guide your future training sessions 
- Make your training sessions more deliberate to turn those weaknesses into strengths! 

Like I've always said, the more information we have on our dogs, the better we can do to set them and us up for success!

​Many of you might think 🤔 this post analysis competition is something your agility coach might ask you to complete – this seems very specific to agility training and obstacle execution. 🤔

Let me explain further:

There are many reasons why something might go wrong on a course, and we fail to earn a "clean" run. It could be that our dog knocked a bar or refused to complete an obstacle. Evaluating this over one run only gives us a snapshot, not an overall picture. Over time, especially in a four-day competition, patterns will always emerge. 

But here is the thing:

It isn't always a training issue for patterns that you might find. Over time, you may find your dog consistently knocking the bar on a backside wrap OR refusing to jump or take a particular contact piece of equipment. These errors might not have anything to do with their training and understanding of the tasks, but could start to indicate that something is physically off with our dogs. Perhaps they have lower back pain - a common reason for jump refusals, or they may not have the necessary hind end strength at speed to complete a backside wrap and keep the bar up.

By evaluating your entire weekend of competition, you can start to notice common patterns that can help guide your future training sessions OR pinpoint areas of soreness or weakness in your dog. ​

We need to examine these trends to collect much-needed data that can:

a) improve our dog's training, and
b) turn our physical weaknesses into strengths! 

If you have never collected data on your dog like this – that is ok! There is no time like now to start and learn more about your dog! So, I have developed a template to get you started or to build on your existing data-gathering practice! Click on the button below to get this free template straight to your email inbox​

ACCESS TEMPLATE HERE

Author

Carolyn McIntyre, PT, is an animal rehabilitation trainer and registered physiotherapist. She is the owner/operator of McIntyre Canine Rehabilitation, located in Erin, Ontario, Canada. She specializes in helping canine athletes reach superior physical performance while minimizing injuries and boosting longevity in their sport. In addition to offering sport-specific conditioning programs to her international clients, she has various online conditioning courses (foundation through to advanced) and a personalized Path to Success Coaching Program. Carolyn is the author of “Warm Up and Cool Down of the Canine Athlete: An Evidence-Based Approach to Improving Performance and Preventing Injury.” In addition, she was the canine physio practitioner for the 2019 and 2020 Canadian agility teams that competed at the IFCS World Agility Championships. She holds a Master of Science in Physiotherapy and a Diploma in Canine Rehabilitation through the Canadian Physiotherapy Association.

Carolynn and her five dogs - Quinn (Aussie), and four shelties - Fifty, Shades, Keeper, and Siren, are accomplished agility competitors. She is a member of Team Canada with Shades (WAO  - World Agility Open) and Keeper (FCI - AWC - Agility World Championships).