Review

By Brenna Fender

Ninety-five percent of winning in competition is done by five percent of the competitors, according to Mental Management® guru Lanny Bassham. Bassham, a multiple champion and Olympic Gold medalist in shooting, became an expert in Mental Management when he had to settle for a silver medal in the 1972 Olympics. Through his studies he uncovered the secrets of those in the top five percent, and after winning the Gold in 1976 he launched a business to help competitors in various sports reach their potential by developing a winning system of thinking.

Bassham’s first book, With Winning in Mind, gave agility exhibitors a look at the Mental Management system that Bassham has refined. That book is a powerful tutorial in changing unproductive mental attitudes and replacing them with a winning outlook. What Every Dog Agility Competitor Should Know First About the Mental Game applies the Mental Management system directly to agility.

Used alone or as a companion to With Winning in Mind, this 60-minute audio CD provides an outstanding educational opportunity for the listener. The CD contains seven tracks: Welcome, Objectives, Three Phases, Harmful Ways Avoided, Helpful Ways to Think, Avoiding the Top 3 Mental Errors, and Instructors and Competition.

When listening to the CD, users can go directly to a track that interests them. Unfortunately, the only track listing is written directly on the CD, which is less user friendly than having the information printed on the CD case or elsewhere.

Although Bassham begins by covering some of the information found in his book, it soon takes an agility-specific slant. Bassham notes that there are many books, DVDs, articles, and other materials that address how you can work with your dog, but he says that his CD is different because it is about “how you can work with you.” Bassham says, “Far too little is done to help the handler.” He says that his CD will improve the probability that a handler will do well and be more in control when running a dog.

Bassham says that his product will aid listeners in several key areas:

  • It will help avoid common mental errors.
  • It will accelerate the learning curve and enhance lessons taken from agility instructors by improving the probability that the listener will learn technique and form more quickly.
  • It will help shorten the time and expense incurred while trying to reach competition goals.

As dog trainers, we are often faced with trial experiences that are very different from our practices. Many of us have had a “He doesn’t do that at home!” incident. Well-trained dogs that can hit every contact in practice, show-n-gos, and matches, launch off the top of A-frames in the heat of competition. Slow weave poles or missed entries destroy our Q-ratio, even for dogs that weave for dinner with great success every night.

We spend a lot of time, effort, and money trying to deal with these “ringwise” dogs. We work hard to make practice sessions seem like competitions. We try stress-reducing serums and energizing treats to counteract the effects of “trial stress.”

But what if the problem lies with us and not our dogs? Or, more specifically, perhaps the problem begins with us and affects our dogs. Bassham says that, although handlers can execute moves and sequences successfully in practice, mental errors affect them in trials.

Many handlers fall into harmful ways of thinking that damage their success. Competitors often worry about what other people think. Bassham has some great thoughts for exhibitors with those worries. The CD lists and explains three common harmful ways of thinking and provides supportive advice on how to escape destructive thoughts.

Handlers also often lack consistency and therefore think and perform differently in practice than they do in trials. This affects a dog’s ability to understand cues and execute the proper performance. Bassham explains the top three mental errors handlers make in competition and it is very clear how these errors make trialing different from practice for our canine partners. Often, our so-called “ringwise” or “environmentally sensitive” dogs may simply be responding to our unclear, trial-specific behavior. Bassham is detailed in instructing listeners on how to develop consistent mental (therefore physical) performances and how to avoid errors.

Bassham finishes the CD with a discussion of the importance of instructors. He talks about how to pick a good instructor who can improve not only your techniques and skills but also your mental game. Bassham also argues against the common practice of waiting to compete until the dog is “perfect” in practice. He says, “Perfection is the surest form of procrastination.” Bassham believes that there is no substitute for competition to help determine where both you and your dog are in training. He says that your actual performance in competition doesn’t matter; you should focus on the information you learn from your experience at the event.

The CD format makes it easy to listen to Bassham’s comfortable, conversational style on your way to trials. Listening to Bassham talk makes you feel like you have your own personal mental agility coach.

Bassham’s CD is designed to help competitors who are just starting out by keeping them from developing the bad mental habits that are so detrimental to agility success. But even seasoned competitors can learn valuable information to help them eliminate destructive thoughts that interfere with reaching agility goals. I’ve been a competitor for almost 10 years and I could easily identify—and start to change—things I’m doing to damage my own agility success.

What Every Dog Agility Competitor Should Know First About the Mental Game and Bassham’s other books and audio CDs are available from

Brenna Fender is a freelance writer and teacher with a masters degree in education. She is owned by a Vizsla, a Doberman Pinscher, and a Whippet. Her dogs are collectively titled in agility, obedience, conformation, hunting, rally, lure coursing, and Canine Good Citizen. She currently teaches agility classes at the Dog Training Club of Tampa and Bonjon Shepherd Ranch. Brenna can be reached at .

NOTE: The review originally appeared in the July 2006 issue of Clean Run magazine.