Friday, September 28, 2012

First Trial

Spencer's first agility trial was a success!

Flashing Canines was a awesome trial because it was a little quieter and benching was pretty spread out. I LOVE the venue because of the other fenced baseball diamonds though. It is awesome beyond belief to be able to take your entire group of dogs for a offleash walk/run/game of fetch during the trial within sight of it! It makes pottying after staying in the hotel overnight a cinch and if you happen to have dogs with you not in the trial they don't spend a mind numbing day sitting in a crate with only potty breaks!

My goal was just to get my baby dog out to experience a trial environment, run around the ring and have a good time. Anything else is just a bonus. I was also really trying not care how he did, except that he would have fun and be enthusiastic. I think I succeeded.

We were just in starter jumpers (because it is easy) and gamblers so that I could run him over "strange" contact equipment a few times and then have a party. Mentally I was making a huge effort not to care about qualifying and not to let anything in my mind change my behavior. No pressure on the dog!

Spencer was a little unsure of agility. Watching the videos of our runs I can't really "see" the difference,  but in our first gamblers and jumpers run he was unsure. He stuck with me, but I didn't have my happy little dog from practice. He noticed the ring crew (but didn't bark at them!) and was sniffy with the chute, but I think that was more curiosity than stress behaviors.

Our third run, the second gamblers run was awesome. We hit the dogwalk and the Aframe, and he was with me the way he'll run in practice! It doesn't look faster/drivier/different on video though, which I found odd. It almost feels like he actually needs contact obstacles/weaves/table so that he is confident of what I am asking him to do, jumps/tunnels are not valuable enough and his enthusiasm and speed wanes as we do more of them without a reward - he thinks he is wrong maybe? I do reward mistakes in training with him so hopefully not! He's just so soft.



With Spencer, our pre-run routine still needs to be established. I have to pump him up and then cheerlead through the course. 110% of my attention is on my little guy so that he doesn't have a bad experience and shut down. He is very toy driven/ball obsessive, so I wanted to use a toy to motivate him instead of just food. But it's hard to bring that toy with you to the ring before you run and it's distracting for the other dogs or they focus on it and scare Spencer. He'll tug, but not with all the dogs around the gates at a trial. He jumps into my arms, but he doesn't do the personal play thing yet, there have always been toys or treats involved too, so definitely something to work on.

I wasn't sure what kind of "exit strategy" I wanted to use with Spencer either. Baxter gets a jackpot of treats at the end of his run, but it's kind of a pain to prep them. I wasn't sure I wanted to double that, but I think I will. Spencer was a little surprised the first time he got it, but after that "Where are your cookies? Good boy, lets go get the cookies" got lots of enthusiasm. Then we can play ball or tug, or whatever.

I think the hardest part is wanting for him to be successful. I just don't know if what I am doing is going to enable that. He doesn't have the most confidence and is really soft so I am trying to be proactive and avoid things I know can shake it. No start line stays yet, and any wrong obstacles or incorrectly done ones are my fault, not his. No major obstacle call offs of yelling his name either. If we look silly but have fun, so be it.

Baby dogs are fun, but stressful!

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