The good – I displayed an intense amount of patience and Ike tried to overcome his stress and work with me. The bad – Ike was all googly eyed and very stressed out. :-(
That really sums it up, to be honest. Lots of TL (tight leash), SR (Slow Response), OOP (Out of Position), 2 RTs (Re-Try), etc.
The tight leash is comical since Ike naturally walks loose-leash. However when you are stressed and staring at creepy things, sometimes the paws forget to move and the handler tries to keep moving. Oi!
In the Halt, Down, Ike sat for about 40 seconds before going into a down – he also licked himself prior to doing the down. Stress much?
In the Forward from a Sit, we had just completed the 270 in the corner where a creepy (Ike's adjective) tall man wearing a hat with a video camera (definite Ike triggers – gah) was right at the gating, and Ike took his SWEET time sitting. Another SR. He did sit though. And the next station Fast Pace was his only clean station! Kind of ironic that Ike nailed Fast Pace!
Call Front Finish Left Forward – Ike actually had a VERY decent front given how terrible we are at them. It was very straight. When I asked him to finish left he was busy staring at someone outside the ring. I had already used my two re-tries, so we failed that station. I will have to ask Jenny – at that point maybe I should have just fixed his finish-forward?
So, it was kind of a disaster.
I think we will continue class and try one more trial. See how it goes. I think I will look for an outdoor trial. Ike typically did much better at agility trials that were outdoors. If Ike is still a stress-ball at an outdoor Rally trial we're shelving the whole "trialing" thing!
6 comments:
Poor Ike! That's a bummer that he was so stressed out :(
i would try outdoor trials for sure- my old shepherd Kate was much the same- the stress of being indoors just about killed her everytime...
try, try, try again!
Better luck next time. It does take while for stress levels to go down for dog and handler alike.
thank you! I have looked for outdoor trials. It's the right season, so there are quite a few coming up. We'll take some deep breaths, practice, and try again!
And if Ike is still stressed? Then he might be like my friend Sandy B - allergic to competition!
FWIW, the Eastern English Springer Spaniel Club's trial in June is outdoors, low stress (it is a considerable distance AWAY from the conformation stuff) and was good to Tessie last year (and Tessie sucks outdoors, the opposite of Ike). The way the obedience/rally rings are set up, there is just one tent that a few people crate under, and it is adjacent to the obedience ring, but that's it. Also, the entry numbers are typically way low, so there is a lower number of potentially creepy people.
I'm not attending this year (sigh, it's the week after Premier and I will be broke) but I lovelovelovelovelove this show.
Cat, thanks for the heads up. Sounds like an ideal site for Ike!
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