Why I Traded Competing for Confidence-Building This Weekend

This past weekend, I was booked to attend an HTM show in Leicestershire with my competition dogs. Between the entry fees (four HTM runs and one FS), travel, and accommodation — not to mention the time away from work — it’s a big investment. But I love the sport, and so do my dogs, so it’s usually worth it.

That said, life had been a bit chaotic leading up to this show. A foster pup, a CPD course, and (deep breath)... let’s not even talk about the pool 🤦‍♀️. All perfectly valid reasons — or excuses, depending on how honest I’m being with myself — but the result was the same: I hadn’t put in the training time my dogs truly deserve if we’re going to compete at our best.

I felt like I was letting them down. But you know what? They didn’t know that. They weren’t disappointed. They’ve still been getting love, attention, and play — just not the focused prep they need for the competition ring.

So I debated whether we should go at all.

In the end, I set my alarm, got up, and off we went. I decided to reframe the weekend: instead of competing, we’d treat it as a high-value training opportunity.

Tomlinsons is a brand-new venue for us, so it became a brilliant session for environmental training. Without the pressure of scores and performance, I was relaxed, the dogs were relaxed, and we had a fantastic time using the ring to build positive experiences.

Tinks and Pudding had both been spooked by the music at a previous show at Forest Oak, so to see them play and stay confident for the full three minutes this weekend was huge. We got in some really lovely heelwork and transitions — the kind of foundation that’s worth its weight in gold down the line.

Lenny has been on a motivation journey over the past year. A change of music at our last show really helped, and I was so tempted to throw caution to the wind and compete this weekend… but I stuck to the plan. And I’m glad I did. His attitude was fantastic — lots of energy, lots of joy, and those gorgeous trotty feet made an appearance!

And Henry? Well, golden boy Henry did what Henry always does — worked beautifully and had the time of his life in the ring 💛

So, did the dogs know we weren’t competing? Absolutely.
They know when I’m nervous. They pick up on everything — even when I try to hide it.

Do they understand why I’m nervous? Heck no.
They don’t care about scores or ribbons. They care about us — how we feel, how we move, how much fun we’re having. That’s what matters to them.

And honestly? That’s what should matter to us too.

It’s easy to get caught up in pressure, progress, and performance. But competition should be fun. The nerves will always be there — that’s just part of being human — but if our dogs are enjoying themselves, they can cope with a wobbly handler.

So this weekend wasn’t what I had planned.
But it might have been exactly what we needed.