Without acknowledging and working on issues, they do not improve.
Risa’s Birthday was Thursday. She is now 9 years old (not that she’s even beginning to act her age). I usually buy her something nice for her special day and this year was no exception. Though I didn’t buy her a toy, collar, harness or anything else physical. I signed us up for a rally class instead.
It’s been close to 2 years since Risa has been enrolled in a training class. It almost pains me to say that. Partially because I know how much she enjoys classes and partially because not taking classes is killing us in the ring. I could see that, each time we stepped through the gates to compete, her focus was getting worse and worse. I knew we needed to get into more situations where I could work her around heavy distractions. It’s just that things weren’t working out as far as getting us into a class. There aren’t a lot of options for various reasons. She doesn’t need a basics class (and many of the dogs in those classes are not well-controlled which is a problem for us) and some of the trainers require vaccinations I would prefer not to give (like kennel cough). So we had to wait until we could find a class that fit us.
I signed us up for the Advanced/Excellent rally class again. We took this class before but the AKC has added new signs since. Besides, the issue for us isn’t learning the signs. I know them and Risa is pretty good at 98% of them. She needs the class to learn to focus on me among distractions again. Otherwise, we’re doomed to repeat last weekend!
I wish we’d been able to sign up sooner. Had I attended our first night of class weeks before the trial, I never would have entered her in competition. The last time we took a class there, Risa was great. Her focus was amazing and I could stand around with her without having to watch everywhere like a hawk. I could take her through a course off-leash without worry. Dogs could get within 2-3 feet of her without her doing more than looking into my eyes and waiting for her click/treat. It amazed me how much had changed.
She wasn’t bad considering. But dogs could not get close to her without her lunging at them. It was very difficult for me to find a good place to stand with her and I felt like I needed to constantly manage her space and move us around a lot. As much as I wanted to get her in the ring to run the course we had set up, I couldn’t get her close enough to the entrance to make that clear. We had to stay back; there were up to 6 dogs milling around that area. With as touchy as she was being, there was no way I could stand near the ring entrance. It’s been so long since she’s been in such close proximity to many dogs she doesn’t know that she had forgotten what to do. I could see her start to remember as the night wore on and there were a few dogs she was downright curious about. She even snarked at a couple and, once they turned away, stretched out to investigate them. 😉
Once we got into the ring, her focus was gone. Honestly, had she behaved like that during the fun match 2 weeks ago, I would have been better prepared for the disaster we faced during the trial. My dog, who the instructor remembered as being very good at rally, looked like she’d never really done it before. She was so out of practice.
I remember, as a young child, being told that “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” It’s a bit clich
