Friday I "judged" UKC obedience. Our friend Sheila with her dog Fena was the only one, but we had fun together, twice! After that I fiddled around and signed up to work my own dogs.
After putting Buzz and Bailey nearly last on the obedince list, we headed to the agility area.
Bailey has always had a definite slat dislike. Her contacts are not super fast, but with slats they are painfully slow! The slats at class are rubber, she's ok with those... we're making progress in the speed department. Friday was a painfully slow day--now that I think about it, TCOTC has wooden slats on their a-frame and dog walk. ARGH!
Not only were her contacts slow, but she was spacey and weird in general! I thought back to the only other times we've shown at TCOTC and they were all like that! Obedience, rally, AND agility! I wonder what it is?! I thought we could work through it, so I signed her up for another ring time in agility but we barely made a dent. She was a completely different dog than I'm used to. I'm still trying to think of why!
In the obedience ring though, she was on fire. Great girly, no odd behaviors, responding to cues VERY well.
I just don't know! Do I sign up to take classes, so I can work my dog in the building? Do I just avoid the building (entirely possible, we don't have to trial there), or what?
I'm quite confused. I do know we need to work our contacts again, but that means I need to get a new board and such because my oldish-but GOOD board was burned! How sad! It was painted and sanded and great... *sigh* oh well.
Anyways, I don't know how to help my dog. Or what I should do in the future. My response to things lately is a terrible one "she's 9.5 years old." Don't let me use that excuse, I need to be a better trainer!
1 comment:
Regarding your dogs acting spacey and distracted at TCOTC... I've had similar problems with Feisty there. Again I will go back to things we can not see as well as things the dogs can see and feel that we are not as tuned into. I believe the *energy* there is different. I have had some of my dogs do great there and others are definitely distracted and spacey. I think it is disturbing to some dogs - that isn't to say that it isn't a good place to train - it is just an energy that is disturbing to some dogs. SPDTC has a similar affect on a lot of dogs. I'm not exactly sure what is there that bothers dogs but I know it does. If you study things like Feng Shui you will gain some insight there because the design of TCOTC and SPDTC is not great according to those who study Feng Shui. Granted there are no perfect buildings but there are things that can be done to enhance the positive and minimize negative energy of spaces. I've started using things to help *protect* my dogs and myself from negative energy in places and that has helped a lot. I think you are seeing in your dogs some of the things I've been dealing with in Tay but yours in more specific to location than hers was.
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