Speed and motivation problems...

[Riptide]

For all you agility experts out there, maybe you could help me out with a problem?

My 5 year old mix, Pixie, has been in agility training for about 2 years. She can do every obstacle quickly, safely, and cleanly, and I'd love to compete with her more. At agility practice, she is AWESOME. She's fast, clean, and pays perfect attention to me...but at trials, everything goes wrong. She gets stressed, distracted, and just refuses to run. This is frusterating for me because I know that she could be Qing and placing in every run if she made an effort like she does at practice; but at trials, standing in the ring and refusing to budge is completely unacceptable because I know how well she could be doing. Even if she does move, she walks slowly with her nose on the ground the whole time.

How can I make trials a more enjoyable experience - for us both? And how can I keep her fast and motivated? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[tessa_s212]

Have you tried matches?

How does she act when she's stressed? When she refuses to run does that mean she's walking? Or is she running around not paying attention? Can you include more detail about her stressed behavior?

Trials can be a stressful experience for novice dogs. And, even if you aren't meaning to, you as the handler could be giving off weird signals to the dog .. dogs pick up on that stuff. If you are nervous or tensed, they will sense this and get nervous themselves.

If you can find agility matches in your area, these are fantastic for getting dogs used to the trialing experience. You can take treats into the ring, and practice things on your own. So much less pressure, and totally worth it!

How many places has she done agility at? Perhaps just taking a jump out to your nearby park, or to a friends yard, etc.. just to get her more used to performing in new and wierd places.

Goodluck. If you have any more specific questions feel free to ask.

 

[MelissaCato]

..run with her or get a laser pointer. That would be fun !@!

 

[Riptide]

Thanks so much!

There are only a few matches per year in our area; and they are always full before I get a chance to sign up, unfortunately.

Normally when she's stressed, she just completely shuts down. She doesn't want to move, go for a walk, anything. When we're in the ring trying to run, she just stops. She ignores me completely, and even has left the ring a few times. She also sniffs alot and get distracted very easily. But I do admit, I get a little nervous at trials too -blush-

That's a good idea, taking some equipment to the park. I never thought of that! Thanks ^^

 

[tessa_s212]

Can you tell me more about your events while you get to the show site and before you run? You may be doing something else to make her more nervous than just you being nervous. For novice dogs you always want to try and act the same way as you do in practice. And before your first trials, it is best to start acting as if it were a trial. Set up your crate and chair somewhere. Sit down on your down time, act as if it were a trial. This helps my dogs.

I've also been told eating Mints helps cover up your nervousness.

Goodluck.

 

[doberkim]

I agree with tessa - it sounds like its not really HER stress, but her stress in response to your OWN stress. How keyed up are you, how often have you competed? The more fun matches and such that you do with her, the less your nerves will be. It's hard to go in the ring especially as a novice and not have nerves take over - your best bet is trial trial trial to get over it, and work on her motivation, and work on making her trialing the same as her practices.

If it were easy, my dogs would all have OTCH's by now

 

[agilityretrievers]

Work on reducing your own stress in trials, I like Agility Success by Angelica Steinker, and books by Lanny Bassham are also supposed to be good ... go to trials and set up her crate and your canopy and otherwise do everything you normally do, but spend the day just playing games and rewarding attention (this will get you both more used to the trial environment) ... practice doing agility in different environments ...

I noticed you live in NV ... we're doing an AKC trial in Henderson February 10-11, and though you're technically not supposed to bring unentered dogs to AKC trials, you could bring her there to work on games/attention and you wouldn't get yelled at or kicked out or anything ...

I think I know you from various places ...

 

[tessa_s212]

Katie's right. A *wonderful* way to get a dog used to is to merely bring your dog and not actually compete. All of my dogs, because there are no matches around here, are brought to my club's agility trials *several* times before they ever actually compete in one. When they are brought, I will use the practice jump with them, get them used to sitting in a crate, and sometimes I will even have someone hold them and let them watch me run *another* dog. This certainly gets most agility loving dogs all riled up and more ready to compete.

I've actually never heard of that book, Katie. But as you know, a friend of mine is wanting my help to train a dog.. so I hope to get a list of books for her to read. Got any more that would be both useful for all novice dogs and handlers? I already have a few that I have read, but most of my information came from online sources and my own knowledge.

 

[adojrts]

Hi
Everyone has given you excellent advice and I would like to add my two cents worth....
Is it possible to attend classes or a workshop at a club that hosts agility trials? If so, go train there, or pay for time on the field and the equipment.
If you get to know the hosting club, they MAY with a donation from you, let you play with your dog just as a trial is ending, after the last run.
The other thing that I would do (I have done this) is enter many trials FEO (for exhibition only), you have mentioned Q'ing, yep it is important to some, but at this point get rid of any thoughts of q'ing. The more you are concerned and stressed, the worse it will get for you dog, its like a snowball.
Everything that you have said about your girl.......the sniffing, unfocused, running away, running out of the ring etc, that is stress. Also, I wouldn't ever reward her at your tent or at her crate, reward her for being with you, have a party with her, lounge with her etc.
You may have to travel long distances to find Open agility trials or fun matches that will allow motivators in the ring. Another thing that you can do is, run into the ring, (at this point don't put her into a 'start position', do a couple of jumps or any piece of equipment that she loves and is close to the exit, do one or two pieces, then run out of the ring having a party.
And one last thing..............look at your dog and think what if she died tomorrow? would q'ing and competing be important? or would you give almost anything just to have her?
Last year on Jan 12th, my dog Petie came very close to dying (poisoned) .......now everytime I step into a ring with him, I look at him and smile, just thrilled that he is still with me..........the bonus is still being able to have fun with him.....but its just the bonus. Interestingly enough, when I shed all those concerns and worries in the ring, we had the best year we have ever had.
Good luck
Lynn

 

[agilityretrievers]

I've actually never heard of that book, Katie. But as you know, a friend of mine is wanting my help to train a dog.. so I hope to get a list of books for her to read. Got any more that would be both useful for all novice dogs and handlers? I already have a few that I have read, but most of my information came from online sources and my own knowledge.

Agility Success is a good book about the mental aspect of competing and making sure you're excited enough but not crazy nervous, things like that.

Competing in Agility by Cindy Buckholt is good for people new to competition, Shaping Success by Susan Garrett, Jumping from A to Z by Christine Zink, and the Clean Run magazine special focus issues about jumping, contacts, weave poles, and handling. Both of Greg Derrett's DVDs are supposed to be very good, but are too expensive for us poor folk

 

[Riptide]

Thanks so much for the advice, everyone! And I'll look into getting those books, too ^^

Katie; are you from around here? I'm going to try to get Kayla, my sheltie, into that same trial. She's novice level, and she can do everything, she's just a little shy in public. Hopefully I'll see you at the trial!

And Pixie is fixed, so no worries there

 

[agilityretrievers]

No, I'm from southern California, but my dog needs 265 points for his MACh (and 3 double-Q's but that's not really an issue for him), so I'm trying to trial as much as possible in places where we have a good chance at placing 1st or 2nd to get our points multiplied.

Plus it's nice to trial somewhere where people don't act like the entire trial is there exclusively for them and their dogs, because I get actually get to warm up my 7-year-old Golden and not sit around while someone does 50 jumps with their 3-year-old Border Collie and hits them in the feet with the bar when they knock it.

If you bring Pixie to that show I can help you work on some things. I have my Golden in 24" Excellent Standard and JWW and Novice FAST, and my Lab in 20" Novice Standard and JWW (he might be moved up to Open by then), but there should be time between Excellent and Novice.

 

[milos_mommy]

i have a question that sort of fits into this topic.

Will Milo become more motivated and excited about agility once he actually figures out what to do? at this point i'll tell him over, and he'll look at me for a few minutes and then hop over the low bar (or pool noodle, in my case), and sort of looks at me like " i think you want me to do this, seems kinda pointless though..." he'll walk through the tunnel, but not nearly as enthusiastically as he does "sit" or "down". He acts like performing the basic obedience commands are the most exciting thing ever, but agility equipment is some stupid, senseless thing humans came up with. This is a dog that literally bounces off the walls, and bounces over to snarling rottweilers, yet acts like agility equipment might bite him or something. is this just something he needs to get used to or he is not cut out for agility?

 

[agilityretrievers]

It's all about MAKING him motivated and excited to do agility. Set him up 10-15 feet back from the jump or tunnel so that he can really run to it, and use his favorite toy in agility training (or a container of his favorite treats if he doesn't like toys) and throw it ahead of him as a reward when he does the jump or tunnel. Also make sure you train in short sessions of 3-5 minutes and don't train when he's tired or otherwise not excited. You need to teach him from day one that agility is fast and fun.