Fear no more: Competing with confidence

In a compact, easily-read book of some 200 plus pages, Barbara Cecil and Gerianne Darnell have packed an array of information on virtually every aspect of the mental aspects of dog sports. The authors compete in obedience, agility, conformation, tracking and herding and have amassed an impressive number of titles on their individual dogs. They make it clear that many of their titles and achievements were accomplished while the authors dealt with fear, show nerves, and all the negative emotions all of us who compete must confront. The authors say they worked through the show nerves problems, and share with their readers the techniques they found successful. Recognizing that no one solution will work for everyone, Gerianne and Barbara provide readers of their new book with multiple solutions to conquering fears and learning to be mentally tough. The authors recognize that more actual dog training information is available today than ever before - on the Internet, through books, videos, and seminars. They say, "It's the game that is played in your mind, the one that requires an understanding and application of sports psychology, that is going to make the difference." The advertisement for their book says, "Fear No More covers every stress-buster and tension-reliever from Affirmations to Zen, including what you should eat, drink, smell and hear, potions and pills, relaxation exercises, proper breathing, a reintroduction to psycho-cybernetics, goal setting, 20 pages of "Quick Fixes" and much, much more!" Truth is, there's a lot more to it, because they have evaluated all of the potential anti-stress techniques from a dog trainer's point of view. This is the first book I've seen whose authors have "been there, done that" in both obedience and agility. http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~may/review5