We are a little over a week away from our first agility trial and the nerves have kicked in.
The event is at a horse arena. Now when I first read that, I didn't think twice about it. Sophie runs flyball at indoor and outdoor locations. Never once has she stopped to go sniff in the middle of a run. She has never flown past me in the run back and gone off on her own. I line her up, I release and off the little black furball goes. She flies back, latches on to the tug and we do it all over again.
Most outdoor locales have no fences which used to scare me when we first started. But Sophie has such drive and focus in flyball that is no longer a concern. I figured the same would hold true for agility.
Then last week, we practiced at an outdoor agility locale. OMG it was a mess. She was stopping to sniff everywhere (ok didn't help that the previous class had dropped chicken pieces and they were now buried in the tanbark/mulch). It was jump, sniff, jump, tunnel, sniff.
After that I started thinking, horse arena, no treats, no collar....AHHHHHHHH!!!!
I am trying to keep my earlier attitude of: we will do what we can and I just want to see what we need to work on more. But now I also have a picture of Sophie running around sniffing and me running behind her trying to corral her. Oy!
Big breath and release....at the very least I am sure we will be entertaining to watch! :-)
you guys will do great!
ReplyDeleteStop on by for a visit
Kari
http://dogisgodinreverse.com
You can do it, you can do it, you can do it!!
ReplyDeleteI believe in you guys! I am so excited for you! Just think about what your goals are for this trial. Do you need to Q to be happy or do you want to go out there, try your best, and see what happens? If the latter is your aim, I think you will be a huge success!
I can't wait to read all about it!! If you can do it, maybe we can too!
Big breath and breathe! You can do this:)
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone! Our goal is just to go out there and have fun. No Qs needed :-D
ReplyDeleteWe had a good practice yesterday. I phased out treats and amped her up with some tugging before running. Her reward came after the run when she went back to her crate. She didn't love having to wait for the treat but was energetic with her runs. We are going to practice outside again on Sunday :-)
You will do great! Is there a local riding arena that might let you and Sophie go sniff around a time or two, so she is used to the scent of horses? Failing that, I'll give you an old Kolchak Puggle trick. A small smear of VA Orin, right under her nose. Hard to smell chicken and horses through menthol. Great for controlling my scent hound ;0)
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