Friday, January 1, 2010

2010 Goals

Happy New Year! The end of 2009 brings with it club membership dues and submitting last year's accomplishments for various club awards. It's a great time not only to look back, but also look forward and think about goals for 2010.

I have one email group and one trainer who asks its members/students to submit their goals each year. I like thinking about both short and long term training goals, so this has been fun to do each year.

So how do you set goals? Jenn Crank of IncrediPAWS said her goals need to be S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-based). I really liked that model.

I also think you need to look at long-term and short-term goals separately. Long-term goals include "career" goals for each dog. I start out a list of titles I want my dogs to have when they retire. Then I think about progression toward each different goal. In balancing multiple sports, which sport am I going to concentrate in first and which will wait until the end of the dog's career? Those are the big picture goals when I bring a dog home. Those goals rarely see big adjustments, other than in the timeline it takes to achieve them.

Next come the shorter-term goals, yearly, monthly, quarterly and weekly. This is where I add my resources into the mix, as well as balancing multiple sports. I start big picture and then work my way down. So, at the end of the year, what titles do I want my dogs to achieve? How much money and training time will that take? If I'm looking toward pushing to a big title, which other trials will fall into the background this year to make room for that accomplishment?

And goals don't have to be about titles, they should include training. For instance one of my big goals for Devon this year is to have a confident teeter performance. One of my goals for Page is to have her agility obstacle performances solid by the middle of the year.

Once you have your yearly and quarterly goals set, then the training begins. How do you organize your training? Do you journal? Do you plan out your training sessions each week? How do you track your progress?

I plan my training session on the calendar about 10 days out. I look at my work schedule and coordinate with weather.com to see what days would be best for outdoor work. Then I list on the top of each page in its own unique color what training session Page and Devon will have each day.

For daily training sessions, I use a checklist to track my progress. I write out all the steps or progressions of each thing I'm training and put an "X" beside it each time I train it. This let's me see at a glance where I'm going. And if I run into problems, I can look back and see where we might have spent too little time and revisit that area.

So, what are the girls' goals for 2010? Ok, I'll be really brave and post them! For Devon, I would like to get her VST in the first half of 2010. This is a huge tracking goal, so we'll start gearing up for it in late February.

In agility, I'd like Devon to earn her AXJ and if not her MXJ be on the way to it with most of her legs. Agility is one of those sports that often has to take a backseat to field and tracking, so she will only trial periodically. Devon's other big agility goal is to have a confident teeter by fall.

In field, I plan to work drills and concepts to set her up for her Master Hunter. I'd like to enter at least one or two tests this fall, just to get our feet wet. And this leaves obedience; poor obedience is once again getting the "leftover time." Our goals for obedience are simply training goals. I'd like to solidify Devon's Open obedience exercises and teach the utility exercises. I plan to continue to work her precision heeling.

And what about Page? Well, Page will also be pursuing her VST in the first half of 2010. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had to make a tough decision about whether to pursue Devon's MH or VST in 2010. What made the decision is that both Devon and Page are working VST, and I didn't want either of their tracking to stagnate.

Page's other titling goals for 2010 include getting her JH and WC in the fall. This will take a significant amount of training during the summer, but I think they are achievable goals. With her upcoming field training, she should be on her way to transition to Senior work by fall. This will set the girls up to dovetail field work in Senior and Master very well in 2011.

Page's training goals also include agility and obedience. For agility, I'd like her equipment/obstacle training to be complete by summer, so she can begin to sequence by fall. If I see any fall off in her agility performance due to her other sports, I'll back off her agility training to a maintenance level. In obedience, I am currently teaching heads up heeling and other novice concepts (fronts, finishes, etc.). I will maintain those skills throughout the year as we shift focus to other sports.

Those are our 2010 goals. I'd love to hear about everyone else's 2010 goals! Leave me a comment so I don't feel so alone in my planning!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Deb your certainly not alone!
Cant wait for your girls to get their VST. This is such a challenge especially when you have such young girls pursuing it. Maybe they can get into the same test and title same day.. :) i think id cry with you!

As for our goals for 2010:
na/naj legs by spring title by summer.
TD certification and title spring/summer.
JH, WC by the fall.
She should be ready with her CD by spring... but that may be asking too much of her and myself mentally ;). We'll see..

Kathy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sam said...

Great blog!

Now you've got me thinking about my goals. I guess my biggest goal would be for Marge to get her first agility title. Another goal of mine would be to at least enter our first Rally trial. I wish I could shoot higher, but Marge is a fearful rescue so I have to take things pretty slow.

I will look forward to reading about your dogs' progress this year!

Deb said...

Deanna, if we pass a VST I will sit down on the track and hug my girls and cry! That's what I did with Page on her TDX. I think I was too naive with Devon to appreciate her TDX until it was over.

I think your 2010 goals sound terrific! Let me know as you reach each of them so I can cheer for you!

Deb said...

Sam, I think you're doing a great job with Marge. I really applaud your efforts and heart for rescue. Goals that aren't about titles are just as important - probably more important. Huh, maybe that means I should concentrate more on Page not flinging herself at people and dogs ...