Episode 054 - How to Build Confidence in Dog Agility Training by Pushing Your Limits

Season #1 June 09, 2026

Show Notes

Build Your Confidence By Pushing Your Dog Training Limits

Quick Answer

How can agility handlers build confidence in their training?

One of the best ways to build confidence in dog agility training is by pushing your limits with challenging exercises and working with people who encourage you to try new things. Training partners, instructors, and seminars can help handlers expand their skills and discover what their teams are truly capable of achieving.

Episode Overview

In this episode of the Maximum Fun Agility podcast, Lorrie Reynolds discusses how pushing your training limits can help build confidence for both handler and dog.

Many agility handlers become comfortable working within their current skill level. While this can feel safe, it may prevent teams from discovering what they are truly capable of accomplishing.

By training with people who challenge you and encourage you to try harder exercises, you can expand your abilities and gain confidence in your skills.

Why Challenging Yourself Builds Confidence

Confidence doesn’t always come from doing things you already know you can do.

It often develops when you attempt exercises that initially seem difficult and discover that your team is capable of more than you expected.

When handlers consistently push their limits in training, they begin to trust both their own skills and their dog’s abilities.

The Value of Training Partners

Training with someone who challenges you can be incredibly valuable.

Training partners can help by:

Encouraging you to try more advanced exercises
Providing feedback on your handling
Creating friendly challenges that push both teams to improve
Celebrating successes along the way

Training with another person often makes practice sessions more productive and more enjoyable.

Finding the Right People to Train With

Confidence-building opportunities can come from many different places.

These might include:

A skilled instructor who challenges your team
Seminar instructors who push your abilities
Training partners who enjoy friendly competition
An online training community that provides challenges and accountability

The key is finding people who believe in your abilities and encourage you to expand your limits.

Training Tip From This Episode

If you want to grow as an agility team, look for opportunities to challenge yourself.

Train with people who encourage you to try more difficult sequences, explore new handling options, and push your skills beyond what feels comfortable.

You may be surprised by how much your team is capable of achieving.

Related Episodes

Episode 050 – Can a Training Partner Improve Your Dog Agility Sessions?
Episode 035 – When Is Failure a Good Thing in Dog Agility?
Episode 037 – Does Your Agility Dog Lack Confidence?

Resources Mentioned

Maximum Fun Dog Sports
https://www.maximumfundogs.com

Continue Your Agility Journey

If you’re looking for a supportive community and monthly challenges that help push your agility skills to the next level, join The Agility Playground.

The Agility Playground membership provides structured exercises, challenges, and coaching designed to help agility teams continue improving.

You can learn more and join the community at:

https://courses.maximumfundogs.com/2025-bb-tap1-7D

Additional Resources:

Website: https://www.maximumfundogs.com
Shop: https://courses.maximumfundogs.com/shop
Email: [email protected]
Articles: https://www.maximumfundogs.com/articles
The Agility Playground: https://courses.maximumfundogs.com/2025-bb-tap1-7D

Episode Transcript

Lorrie Reynolds [00:00:07]:
Do you have someone who helps build your confidence by pushing the limits of your skills while you're training with your dog? What other things can help build a team's confidence in agility? Welcome to the Maximum Fun Agility Podcast. I'm Lorrie Reynolds, owner of Maximum Fun Dog Sports. We help your agility team build your relationship, communication, confidence, and fun in training so that you can enjoy success on any course. In this episode, I'll talk about how you can build your confidence by finding someone who encourages you to push the limits of your skills. But first, a little story. I was really surprised to see that Maggie, which is not her real name, signed up for my dog agility distance seminar. She and her cute little dog had distance skills that were well above average, and they did pretty well at trials. While I frequently get experienced and high-performing teams that sign up, they're usually teams that are used to running with their dogs and they are proficient with everything else but distance.

Lorrie Reynolds [00:01:09]:
They come to a seminar because they're struggling with the distance and need the extra knowledge and motivation to move to the next level. I would have been even more shocked if I'd known she would end up becoming one of my most frequent repeat offenders, coming back to attend the very same seminar multiple times over many years. I don't remember which year it was or even which location she came to first, but it was early in my seminar teaching days. What I do remember is pushing her hard, encouraging her to try more and more difficult sequences so I could assess the team's limits. I remember her joy when she got them right and her good attitude and determination when she made a mistake. Determination to fix it the next time. I also remember wondering why she was there and worrying that she wouldn't learn as much as she thought and would be disappointed. I finally decided to ask her during a break.

Lorrie Reynolds [00:02:05]:
We talked about the fact that she was nailing almost every exercise and had great distance already. I told her that I was trying to keep her challenged by making the exercises harder so I could see what their limits were. I said she seemed really surprised when she did the exercises right and I asked her what motivated her to come to the seminar and what she hoped to learn. She paused for a minute and then told me that she didn't know they could do the exercises that I set up. She said her instructor didn't teach distance, so she needed someone to push her. She decided to come to my seminar to see what she could do and learn what she needed to do to go to the next level. I'm not sure what answer I expected, but that definitely wasn't it. When I watched her run at trials, she always looked confident and sure of herself on the course.

Lorrie Reynolds [00:02:53]:
While she didn't offer advice to people, she usually didn't ask for any either, and always seemed to know what she was doing. Over the years, she continued attending seminars, sometimes my new additions, but most often the same Agility Fundamentals for Distance course. We became friends and had a standing joke about her coming to "confidence class." I challenged her at all the seminars, always urging her to expand her limits, and she worked hard and always rose to the occasion. We celebrated every success, and I became an auntie to her dogs, even running them on occasion. When it comes to my own dogs, I've always sought out people to train with who I know will push me into becoming better. When I had Maxx, I became friends with the facility owner, and we often practiced together with our dogs, who were both at about the same level. We would play silly games to see who could get more distance, run a sequence faster, or get the tightest turns. With Revel, I live close enough to my friend who owns his mother that I have the luxury of training with her often.

Lorrie Reynolds [00:03:57]:
Revel, as of this recording, is still young and nowhere near his mom's level, but it is definitely inspiring to try to get him running as fast as she does or making it through the same tough sequences that they do. It is the push I need to keep working to expand our capabilities. I also have built-in motivation in the Maximum Fun Dog Sports community. Coming up with challenges for my membership every month keeps Revel and I on our toes as we try to provide advanced exercises for the members to try. If you want to improve as a team, you need to explore your limits and find someone who will push you to move beyond them. Find someone who will build your confidence by believing in you and making you prove to yourself that you are better than you think. If your weekly instructor doesn't have the knowledge or ability to challenge you in an area, find opportunities to take seminars or seek out online instruction to learn more and stretch your wings. You never know how high you'll be able to fly!

Lorrie Reynolds [00:05:01]:
Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Maximum Fun Agility Podcast. If you need a push to gain confidence through monthly challenges and new sequences to practice, join us in The Agility Playground. The Agility Playground is a reasonably priced membership that meets you where you are on your dog agility journey and pushes you to the next level. You can check out The Agility Playground and join our community at www.maximumfundogs.com. See you next time.