Today I took Tate & Kort to an Obedience fun match. I wanted to see if Tate showed any interest in novice work in hopes of entering him in our Lethbridge show next month, sadly he was like Eeyore in the ring :) Ok Tate, I get the message, only agility for you :) :)
I had a plan for Kort as well. He has developed stress in the Obedience ring, most likely do to me moving forward too fast. The last few trials he has shown extreme stress when entering the ring, he won't give me eye contact, he yawns & folds his ears sideways, he also lags horribly!! Kort has always had good heeling, not great, but way way better then he has been doing in the Open ring :(
Today I paid my money for a novice run, but between dogs I took him in the ring to set him up only. My goal was just to get eye contact at first. It took a bit of doing the first time, I had to tap him on the head finally to get him to look at me. As soon as he did I said "good boy"! & ran from the ring to his crate to give him his reward. It took 4 times doing this before he entered the ring with less stress. Then I went from a sit to a fast, another sit , a right turn , sit & ran from the ring again for his reward. By the end of the day I was able to do a tiny heel pattern with his full attention !! I will continue this until he is happy again entering the ring, then I will bring back the other stuff, slowly this time though. I have pulled him from every trial I entered this year & I may not enter next year at all either. I will do whatever it takes, I am determined to get Kort's UD, but not until Kort is happy again :)
6 comments:
You will get Kort's UD I am sure of it. It just may take a little longer than you had planned but you guys work so well together and you do what's right for both of your dogs as you care about them so much - which is awesome.
I am so glad that there was that bit of progress today. :) Kort will get there, it will just take a while is all. :)
Tate's an action kinda of guy!! I always wondered (and said) why you were in a rush with Kort and that he was being stressed out by the pressure. So I am glad to see these baby steps to get him back to enjoying himself. He's a willing dog, but is affected by stress (as in Duffy). The most important thing, IMHO, is that whatever you and Kort do together, that you both have fun and enjoy those times.
I wasn't in a rush so to speak, I just thought he was ready, he always was able to do the exercises in class, but my nerves when we competed would get the best of me & Kort picked up on it, he is sooo sensitive. If I was the slightest bit disappointed in a performance Kort knew :( As hard as I tried to stay positive the competive Jolene would take over. I am getting a handle on it now & going back with Kort to make things fun for us both, all my other collies never had a problem but I needed to learn that Kort was different from the others :)
It has been a learning process for me for sure & I will be a better trainer with my next dog because of it :) :)
That's so smart! Keep it up and you'll have a happy dog. Obedience is stressful for dogs I think! So the motivation is a great thing.
That is so awesome you can do that with Kort at a fun match! We don't hardly have any fun matches here... but what a good idea, to get him happy again. :)
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