Three weeks ago I was super pleased with how Moira did at the MadCo Agility trial. The last couple agility classes haven't been anywhere near as good.
I know that part of any dog training is regression. You think you've got everything pretty well nailed down and then your dog decides that she's never heard the word down before or never seen a tunnel in her life. That's where we are right now. Moira has decided that it's ok to blow me off in class.
I have to work very hard at the beginning of each run to get her to connect with me - something that hadn't been a problem for quite some time. The beautiful down-stay that we worked all summer on - and that still exists at home - has disappeared in class.
On the plus side, she's jumping beautifully and, when we do connect, her runs are quite pretty (I still look a little like Phoebe). It's just such a let-down from the stunning run-throughs we had a month ago. I really thought we were at a place where we could 'go to the next level' and start working on more advanced things. It's especially disappointing that this is happening at the start of winter when we won't be able to practice as much to try to work through these issues.
1 year ago
I know how you feel - the regression always seems to take me by surprise. I just forget that sometimes in training things get worse before they get better, and it can be disheartening when the dogs "forget" what they knew.
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear that jumping is going well. I know you'll be posting more stories of "Q's" soon!
Hopefully you can spend the winter "connecting" until you can get out again. Good luck :-)
ReplyDelete