You can´t win without a great team behind you.
It doesn´t matter if you are doing IGP, Mantrailing, Agility, Fly Ball, Treibball, Obedience, Dog Dancing, or if you are an operational dog handler or if you are just training your pet puppy to be a good, normal dog.
You need to have a good support system. That can be your family being on board with training the new dog or your dog club mates.
You choose who is on your team!
Be open to new ideas and suggestions. Add tools to your tool box that you think suite you and your dog/s best. Go see other trainers, workshops and seminars. Even if you don´t like a way of training, you have gained the knowledge of knowing not to train this way and therefore find a different solution/way of training. Sometimes, stepping outside the box (that you´ve probably known for years) helps you become a better dog trainer. Actually, it most certainly will.
The Wikipedia - definition of Dog Training: “Dog training is the application of behaviour analysis which uses the environmental events of antecedents and consequences to modify the behaviour of a dog, either for it to assist in specific activities or undertake particular tasks, or for it to participate effectively in contemporary domestic life.”
Per this definition, everyone that owns a dog is a dog trainer. It doesn´t matter how often, little, for what purpose or in what way we train our dogs.
Accepting differences in dog training, is the first step towards becoming a better dog trainer and building a team that has different strengths in different areas of dog training. Strengths, that can help you and your dog become a better team.
Enjoy winning!