Is she enjoying this...
Becca and I competed in another rally trial today. We got a qualifying score (Yay!). I am wondering exactly how much she is enjoying the process. In class it is clear that she is happy, bright eyes, bounce in her gait. However at trials she doesn't have the same oomph. Bright eyed, but much more distracted. Up until today I have blamed it on the fact that you can't have bait in the ring. It is amazing how food motivated she is.
We are entered tomorrow as well. I'd like insight from some others. Do I stay in classes and not compete? Will she settle in at the more stressful trials? ( She has her Rally Novice title, but we are entered in Novice B.)
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rachael & Waffle on
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Trials are scary places to be. We're gearing up to get our novice obedience title and Waffle does amazing in practice and bad at run-thrus, even with food. Go to trials and work on attention with her. Take advantage of any empty ring space and do rally things with food in your hand. Get her used to the environment and working in that environment, basically. She may be stressed from the noise and the dogs and the people and just needs some help getting used to it all. She won't reach the level of excitement and enjoyment you see in practice if she's worried about what's going on around her.
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Permalink Reply by Linda on
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In practice I use to hide a piece of cheese in my hand, Tasha knew it was there so when we competed I always held my hand in the same position so it looked like I had something in it so she was just as ready to go.
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Permalink Reply by Marcie on
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Thanks. Today went better. She was still distracted, but at least looked at me while we were in the ring. I played the name game with her while we waited. It was hard to give her extra exposure at this trial because it was a no crate venue. There wasn't much space around the rings.
The next nearby trial is in November. We will be taking another rally class between now and then. Hopefully she will be ready to move up to Advanced by trial time.
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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on
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In training, occasionally delay all food reward to the end of your training routine ( same sequence/routine as you will use in competition ) and give a big food reward at the end, like a hand full of treats. If she is hard to work with without treats, start with giving the treat after the second exercise, until she's learned the reward comes after two exercises... then delay the reward to the third exercise plus always one at the end. Gradually build up until you get good performance with the whole reward delayed at the very end. Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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All I would add to this is to make sure you use your marker word whenever she does well, so she knows that the treat is coming later on.
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Marcie, if YOU enjoy competing and Becca does not love it, but is not stressed by it, I would probably continue. If she seems stressed (intentional sniffing when nothing is there to sniff, looking away, yawning, tongue-flicking), and the training tips given above don't improve the situation over a reasonable amount of time, then I would not continue, or at least take a break til you can figure out what's going on.
We quit agility because Jack got to the point he'd actually try to leave the arena during class--- go to the exit gate and stand there, panting pointedly. Very long story that I won't go into here, but we quit that very night even though I'd paid through another couple classes. I won't subject an otherwise outgoing, confident dog to something so stressful when it's meant to be FUN.
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Becca doesn't show many signs of stress. Today a siberian "talked" his way through his routine and she was alarmed and yawned through that. When you are as short as she is and can't figure out what the noise is, I guess it is worth worrying about. I watched for signs of stress today to gauge things. She isn't stressed, but not her joyful self in the ring. In class she will bounce from front to finish left, at trial it is a slow motion move.
I wonder if it would be easier if we didn't have to wait so long between trials. I try to stay within two hours of home, and there are not that many available.
She is quick to pick up on who is wearing a bait bag and who isn't. Today she stared at any handler who had one. The steward passing out treat bags for qualifying scores even gave her an extra when he saw how excited she got.
I think I will follow everyone's advice and play it by ear. My rally instructor was a steward at this trial and we talked about my concerns as well.
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