Dog Sniffing The Ground While Training

[poodlefan]

How will I be asking him to do more than he is prepared for? The Trialing course is the SAME as the training one with my dog club part from the obstacles being in the different order! We arnt do anything different. We are training as if it was a trial...but without the pen and paper!

Did you not start this thread to talk about an issue with continual sniffing? Did you not say this issue is escalating? I expect you'll be wanting him to get round without doing that - is he prepared in terms of having eliminated the problem? If you follow your OH's advice about how to deal with sniffing and employ it in the trialling ring, not only will you be disqualified, but you'll possibly get yourself reported and suspended.

Heidii the whole atmosphere at a trial is different. More dogs, more handlers, more nervous energy. I know green dogs who train brilliantly who initially don't even come off the start line at trials due to stress.

You're clearly going to enter. Have a strategy for what you're going to do if you lose your dog to sniffing during the trial that does NOT involve the use of a physical correction. My advice would be to get your dog's focus and take the fastest line of obstacles out of the ring, rewarding the hell out of him if he finishes as you request. If he doesn't come off the start line, my advice would be to put his lead back on and depart with a minimum of fuss.

Edited May 6, 2009 by poodlefan

[smisch]

I get a general impression you are in a fair hurry to get into trialling - is he ready?

I dont think this is an issue. Why should you only trial if your dog has been training for a certain amount of time or is up to a certain standard? He can go around a course and thats all the matters. Is he ready to trial???....well is he ready to train? A trial for me will simply be a training day, in a different environment with a pen and paper. Im not looking for ribbons at the moment, im needing the experience in the ring and that in my opinion is alot more important. Trialing should simply be looked at as just another normal traning day for you and your dog.

Because to ask your dog to do more than he is prepared for will over face him.

How will I be asking him to do more than he is prepared for? The Trialing course is the SAME as the training one with my dog club part from the obstacles being in the different order! We arnt do anything different. We are training as if it was a trial...but without the pen and paper!

Heidii I get how you feel and your point but seriously I have been there and I urge you to take on what t=some of the others are saying..

I started agility and 6 months after starting training i went to my first trial to prove something.. well lets say it proved to me that it takes alot more than practice to get into a ring.. you and your dog both need to be MENTALLY ready.. Even though it may be the same environment (day one was at our agility club & day 2 was at our obed club) it's a completely different atmosphere.. And everyone knows it.. it can be tense and lonely in some cases.. Needless to say (and we only did one run each day) we had no passes

I spent a whole year chasing passes and clear rounds and in some cases had issues making it to obstical 5 in a sequence cos poor jock was stressed out cos I was concerned about his behaviour.. I finally got a clear round exactly one year later and while it may not matter to you now it may matter in a few months time..

My other dog snoopy he did about a year of trialing and now I have restarted him after a terrible shutdown due the fact he was simply not ready.. I treated his runs like training and made it the worlds biggest game but he still doesn't want to know about agility.. We've now been working hard the last few months and maybe this debut in brissy may be a good one where we're ready.. but if on the day he starts to shut down im pulling him out before we go near a ring cos Im not risking it!

Its really not about the length of time you spend but its about the mentality of a dog and their handler.. while you may be great to go jordi might not be and thats not fair to put him in that position.. Getting around a course doesn't mean their ready as I said I trained for six months and in that time we could complete a novice jumping course no problem..

Heres something to consider..

Are you willing to jepordise all your hard work just for a simple run of a course.. honestly IMO (and im not nearly as expeierenced as some other handlers here..) if you really wanna have a "training day" just go a trial with jordi and enjoy it.. take him round let him get used to the atmosphere and practice waiting to go and practice beign crated and you could even walk the novice courses just to get a feel.. Honestly it'd do you more good than to enter jordi and destroy your hard work..

Good Luck and Hope it all works out

ETA: sorry if the spelling sucks.. stupid touch typing

Edited May 6, 2009 by ♥-smisch-♥

[Kavik]

I have seen MANY dogs act differently at a trial than at training. Including mine. Dogs react differently when you are nervous and stressed and at a trial you WILL BE!

I want my dog to have a clear understanding and a good reliable performance on the equipment before I trial on it. That is why, a year after I entered him in Jumping, we are still not entering Agility as our contact obstacle performance is not what I would like yet. After the Ronda Carter seminar I went to (who said that contacts in Australia need a lot of work ) I know people more experienced than me who are pulling their dogs out of Agility for a few months to fix issues with their contacts.

I have a keen, fast dog who has loads of potential, and I don't want to wreck that by entering him before we are ready. Maybe you are different and are not interested in getting to top levels, but I am :rolleyes:

I saw someone at a trial a few months ago, with a dog that was not ready. The dog ran around most of the jumps, and avoided all the contact obstacles, and the owner kept trying to get the dog to do it in the ring. Not only would this be highly embarrassing for the owner, but not a good ring experience for the dog either.

If you are determined to enter your dog, I would recommend getting your feet wet in Jumping first, still very challenging handling wise, and you can get a feel of a course while still not requiring the dog to do the more difficult contact equipment. I started with ADAC Jumping, a good way to start with only simple jumps and open tunnels, no complicated equipment.

[alanglen]

Speaking as a gundog owner who has had to deal with a sniffing between obstacles problem, be smart and don't enter! The last thing you want to do is set a pattern for this behaviour. There have been lots of different idead about how to improve the sniffing, for me it was all about building drive and focus forward. With drive is no sniffing, they don't have time. So take yourself back a step, use short courses, 2-4 obstacles and build drive with no sniffing, only then will you be ready to link longer courses together. As for entering, nice idea but you will teach him that sniffing around the course is all we want out of him, is that really a smart idea?