Although I wasn't expecting a 200 in each ring, I thought I'd set some reasonable expectations for the weekend, the least of which was to have my dog stay focused on me as we moved between the exercises and do quick, clean set-ups. That didn't happen.
I got walk-ins, stress yawns, slow responses, malinois-in-the-headlights looks and more. I felt like Phoenix was the poster child for "My dog hates obedience."
This is an extra hard slap in the face because I love obedience. I've loved obedience since showing in my first 4-H dog show at the county fair when I was 9 years old. And until now, all my dogs have loved obedience. Doesn't mean they always qualified or were in the placings, but they went into the ring with their head high and their tail wagging and we had fun doing whatever we did. This weekend, Phoenix slunk around like he'd been beaten and his responses were so achingly slow people probably wondered why I didn't retire the poor "old" dog.
So, enough wallowing in the misery of the weekend. What's next?
I still feel that I'm on the right track with the "make ME the cookie" approach but obviously it's going to take a fair amount of time to build that to the point where I can expect it to hold up in the ring. I have NO IDEA how long that might be.
Our next potential trials are 9 weeks out. When it's time to send entries, I'll re-evaluate and decide if I want to enter, what I want to enter and how often I want to enter. With the addition of an all-breed obedience trial sponsored by a local boxer club, there will be 5 straight days of obedience trials on Labor Day weekend - all 7 miles from our house. So I am very motivated to train and be ready to show, although I would never dream of doing all 5 days.
Since Phoenix loves running agility with single-minded focus, energy, drive and enthusiasm, I know he is physically capable of performing well in the obedience ring. If he were a slug on the agility course as well, I might suspect some physical problem or genuine phobia about performing in public but that is clearly not the issue. The difference between Agility Phoenix and Obedience Phoenix is night and day. He's obviously a speed freak, adrenaline junkie who relishes a 25 second JWW course but is nonplussed with the much-slower pace and demands of the formal obedience ring. Even if he's not racing about the obedience ring at breakneck speed, I still want him to enjoy what he's doing and put on an attractive performance that has "Happy Obedience Dog" written all over it.
I want the silly, happy, goofy, growly dog in obedience that I have in agility. Is that asking too much? Geez, I wish someone would give me the answers! Or, maybe I WILL find the answers, write a book and earn a million dollars.
Or maybe I should just keep training my dog and keeping a clear picture in my mind of how I want us to look in the ring - whether it happens this fall or next spring or 2 years from now. If I don't train, it's not going to fix itself and since I created the problem, it's clearly up to me to un-create it. No finger pointing, no blame game. (Ugh. Really, this would all be much easier to deal with if I could blame someone else!)
Here are some immediate ideas that I have for the rest of the summer:
Keep training sessions short and clearly focused; reward intensely.
Blend toy rewards and food rewards with ME rewards.
Forget the formal: work elements of each exercise with emphasis on speed and informality.
As often as possible, train somewhere new. Backyards and club buildings are convenient but they also do not present a challenging new environment.
Reward effort; perfection is not the issue here.
Believe.
I hope you all had wonderful weekends and learned something about your dogs that will help you improve your relationship with them, both in and out of the ring.
Why do dogs with so much potential have to have so many issues? I feel your pain.
ReplyDeleteI've been told that it takes twice as long to untrain/retrain something than it took to do it the first time around. So Nix is how old? Doubt that you're going to make him see you as a bigger reward than food in just a few weeks. I do think your expectations for this weekend were too high. 9 weeks might give you some time to start reprograming his brain. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI have heard it said, from very accomplished sources, that when you begin a new approach/mindset such as this to expect performance/attitude etc to take a nosedive. Big time. However, after a period of being insistent, consistent and resistant, you will come out the other side with a solid dog. I'm not a behavioral guru, but when they all talk about extinction bursts, I always wonder if the same can be applied to this. My pals and I call it PPF, Prolonged Poop Face. Good luck and hang in there!
ReplyDeleteI'm in agreement with all, too soon to expect any more. I have to tell you that I'm injecting more play in my sessions with my guy since I see heeling fall off on day 2 (he's still green at the ripe age of 5). The cool thing about my guy is that he loves doing anything with me so maybe that puts me at a little more of an advantage. And I'm starting to take advantage of matches more than I use to (maybe you can't get to many in your area?). It sounds to me like you are on the right track and just need some more time to build that foundation. Maybe you can just take him to a show to watch and hang with friends (if there is one that is close). Do some heeling, maybe lots of playing, a warm up and then more play. Surprise him by not going in the ring (there seems to be a pattern here where he warms up nice but gets poopy-faced when you enter the ring).
ReplyDeleteJust some rambling thoughts off the top of my head. Looking forward to reading more.
I know how you feel. The dog I started flyball with, and fell in love with the sport with, for the longest time, just did not enjoy playing. She went out there and made a minimal effort, mostly to please me. But, in the past few months, all the enthusiasm is in her, and I think she loves going to practice just as much as my crazy obsessed flyball dog.
ReplyDeleteNow, since I don't do rally, or obedience, or agility, this suggestion may be ridiculous. But, would rally be a change from formal obedience that might make Phoenix work harder for it? I have heard rally is much faster paced, so it might be a way to bridge the gap between super fast exciting agility and what Phoenix seems to see as boring not-worth-the-effort obedience.
I have gone through some similar problems with my current dog, who started out stressing "up" so I had to work to keep him under control, but then suddenly went through a rapid change (for lots of reasons I won't go into here) and got very flat in the ring. I have worked HARD and am just now starting to see the old attitude back (problem is, the more attitude I get, the more "talking" under his breath I get too!). One thing that struck me is that you are playing and working to get him up outside the ring, then you suddenly go in the ring and all is serious. I found I did better to work short warmups outside the ring focusing on projecting "coiled tension" to my dog- then both of us exploding on our release and running to his toy or treat. The quieter and tenser I got, the more he anticipated that release and the more intense he got. We also did 9000 reps of running to the ring gating, setting up, saying "ready", then releasing to a hand target and then his reward; eventually adding in a step or two. This helped a LOT with the line up, look away and go flat syndrome we were experiencing. Then at "real" trials I would show him his extra special treat before we went in the ring (for my dog it's pizza) but NOT give him any, do a quick warm up and then try to hustle into the ring as quick as we could and maintain that body tension (I am NOT the quick, tense type but more the slow lumbering type, so trying to project this to my dog has been challenging!). We are still a ways from where we want to be, but I can finally see progress.
ReplyDelete