An Alternative Route Part II

So I haven't written in detail on training Detour for quite a while. I thought it was time for an update. There are four sections to it and I have decided to post a section every few days so as not to bore anyone. Here we go.

Detour Herding the pack

The Trials and Tribulations of training Detour instalment II

How emotional is training your dog for agility? For me, it is a very emotional time. We have fears, hopes, highs and lows. With Detour I can honestly say I have rarely felt low with him, always taking away a positive from training sessions or at least trying to find a way to turn a poor session into a step forwards.

A raw deal
In my previous article I mentioned working Detour through the stress he experienced with barking, lunging dogs. I was happy to work through this, as I know that he will have to deal with that behaviour at competitions. I hoped that he would realise that regardless of the other dogs behaviour, he was safe and could stay focused on his work.

Unfortunately a few bad experiences caused me to rethink. The first time one of these ‘high’ dogs managed to get free, it ran over and nipped Detours face. Instead of making a fuss which would have reinforced any fear or aggressive response I encouraged Detour into a game of tug. I knew he hadn’t been hurt and by distracting him it helped him deal with a scary situation. We had a few more similar occurrences and dealt with them well.

Then, I had a ‘bad Mom’ moment one week at training. The ‘high’ dog involved in most of the instances managed to break out of its collar during D starting a sequence, knocking into D who just flattened it nipped him while he was on the floor. After this, I couldn’t get D to do any agility or even play with me, he was just too nervous. I popped him back in the car and waited till it was just myself at the venue. I took Hoax out of the car and worked her for a short time. I knew D would get a little high and jealous. I got him back out and did about two minutes just tug games and a few tunnels then put him back in the car while he was still excited. I wanted his last agility experience to be positive.

On the way home I felt very low. I can’t blame the other dogs owners as they do all they can to keep the dog on a lead and protect the other dogs. However, I know how easy it is to knock a dogs confidence or create an aggressive dog, and felt terrible. I had knowingly put my puppy in that situation, and instead of teaching him that barking was not a response to be feared, was actually proving the opposite. I decided from that point that I would not work him in classes that contain dogs that are liable to physically hurt him, it isn’t fair on any dog to deal with that and I still haven’t completely lost my guilt in not protecting him more at the start of his career. Once a plan had been formulated I felt a million times better. Our next trip to agility was fast, fun and built more confidence in D than I thought possible in such a short few minutes. What a dude :)