Interest vs. Commitment

I ran across a wonderful quote this morning....

“There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when it’s convenient. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses; only results.” (Kenneth Blanchard)

Wow, how true. I know a lot of people who are “interested” in training their dogs, but make excuses when it comes time to actually do the work. The people who are committed are obvious. They are the people training their dogs in the early morning before it gets hot or the people in several layers of clothes because it’s cold outside. We train in the rain, in the wind (stake those ring gates!), in the heat and the cold. We haul our equipment to parks, fields, parking lots and anywhere else that has enough space for us to train our dogs. We get in the car and drive two hours to a match, where we will pay to rent a ring for 10 minutes, just to get back in the car and drive the two hours home.

When things don’t go right in the ring, we come out, sit down and figure out what we need to do to fix it. We don’t blame the dog, the environment or the judge.  Instead, we blame our training or our preparation.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with just being interested in showing and wanting to have fun on the weekend. But, if this is the case, don’t hold your dog accountable to YOUR failure to prepare him to compete against the dogs with “committed” trainers. And, by no means am I saying that being “committed” means all other areas of your life are ignored. I have a family, a home and a job that are just as important. However, you will only “get out” what you “put in”. Do you find time to do what is important or do you just say “I’ll train tomorrow”?

So, before you enter a show, decide which person you are....are you “interested” or are you “committed”?

Train hard. Play harder.
Shannon