As a first time competitor, it is easy to watch the more advanced classes, dogs with skills that you can’t even fathom and feel pretty inadequate. This weekend was one of those. It isn’t my first time getting skunked at a trial. My first agility trial was a miserable failure, my first national speciality (dalmatian only show) same thing. And to some people that is motivating to go home, train more, be determined to fix it. For me, it just feels like failure.
It feels like failure not because I care about the Q. The Q is nice, but the failure is that I want to get better and this weekend, nothing was better. She actually performed worse in events she has Q’d (and titled) in. Of course I got the behaviors I wanted outside of the ring, so even more dejecting to go in and not get what you were getting 2 minutes before.
These weekends make me want to go home, eat pizza and hide under the covers, which I generally do for a night or two. But part of that process is evaluating what is going wrong and then how I plan to fix it. And I have to admit, I spend almost all my time training for agility, I am not putting the necessary effort in to get the results I want in obedience. So shame on me for thinking I should get more, I just got lucky previously.
So there you have it, 3 weeks before her 4th birthday and I got skunked. I’ll have my pity party, but not for long, she has another trial in two weeks. . .and I need a plan.
One thing to try is suck on a peppermint or other strong smelling candy (fishermans friend works great) it covers up the smell of the “Nerves” for your dog.
Thanks Lisa! What an interesting notion. I think Fisherman’s friend are pretty gross, but I’ll try out a vegan altoid!