This weekend I went to a small, local AKC trial. Friday was excellent only and I have to admit I wasn't too excited about running Rival. The past two ASCA trials with Rival have only been mediocre, with moments when I felt like he really didn't want to run. So on Friday, I wasn't motivated, but I also wasn't nervous. The standard course was tricky and there was a lot of complaining going on. I tried not to add to the complaining, but there was one area that every time I got to it, I just thought, "Rival can't do that". Even though we need two Standard Q's to get his Excellent A title, I decided I just wanted to go out there and have fun. I was going to run how I wanted to run and hope that Rival had fun, too. Success! We were no where near a Q, but Rival really seemed to have fun, he kept his speed up and he never shut down.
That night I discover Daisy Peel's blog. I saw Daisy Peel compete at the Utah Regional this past summer and can honestly say that not only was I impressed by her skills and her dogs, I was impressed with how she handled herself around the ring. I never saw her upset or complaining. She really was the epitome of a good sportsman, even when Solar's running contact caused on off course in Grand Prix. I decided I need to change my philosophy on agility plus change my mental management, and Saturday was my first day to experiment with it.
On Saturday, I would be running both Rival and Brink. Brink is still in Open and I really would like to move into to Excellent, but running safe and babysitting would do nothing to help our long term goals. On Rival's course the dog walk was the 3rd obstacle and led to tunnel. My goal: run like Daisy Peel and beat Rival to the tunnel, run as aggressively as possible and keep Rival having fun. Again, this run wasn't a Q but it was FUN! I beat Rival to the tunnel (he did get called on the DW contact) but I didn't babysit. If you want running contacts, what's the point of be next to the contact, trying to get the dog to slow down and hit? I ran the rest of the course aggressively pushing Rival everywhere I could. He did have some off courses, but he even kept his speed up in the weaves. With Brink, I couldn't stay quite as relaxed as with Rival, but I had the same mindset. I know we are having issues with our A-frame, but what's the point of standing there babysitting just to get the Q? I ran aggressively and we had one of his best dogwalks ever, but dropped the #5 bar. We continued to push and he did miss the A-frame contact. It wasn't a Q, but I was happy with how ran and my attitude. In jumpers, I wanted to be just as aggressive, but I believe he was still wound up from standard and he dropped 4 bars. It was hard to maintain a good attitude after this round, that is something I need to work on. I wonder if I just don't like jumpers as much as standard and that carries over to the dogs.
I know the things each dog needs to work on, but the trial is not the place to work on it. Next weekend I am going to continue this philosophy and we will have just as much fun. Oh, and we will be working all week on reinforcing hitting the contact zones. :)
PS: I have to give credit to Elicia Calhoun as well for this philosophy. Years ago she would tell me run, have fun, be aggressive, pretend this is the last run of your life. I guess it just took 5 years for it to sink in. ;)
Great post!! Man I wish we could train together .. move up here :) :)
ReplyDeleteAnother tip I got from Lisa Bowers (fabulous handler) - these local trials don't matter. It's the big trials (regionals, nationals, worlds) that matter. No one is going to say, oh remember so and so from that Pueblo USDAA trial? :)
Use these trials to figure out how to best run your dog, how to have the most fun, how to push yourself. You have great dogs and your a great handler - you can do it :)