A lot of people think that if their dog
knows all the exercises, he’s ready to compete. Denise would argue
that not only is this not true, but also that you’ve failed to
prepare him for the most important part: dealing with the stress
inevitable in a new environment. I touched on this a little in my
last seminar post, but today let’s explore this idea just a little
more.
To recap, to be successful in a trial
environment, your dog should either be confident with chaos going on
around you or he should be willing to take your word for it
when you tell him he’s safe. Either way, you’re going to have to
do some work, whether that’s doing planned exposure to a trial site
or developing a trusting relationship. The latter requires that you
actually step up and protect your dog, both at trials and in the rest
of his life.
But the environment isn’t the only
stress inherent in competition. For most dogs, the sudden cessation
of classic rewards (food, toys, etc.) is frustrating. Dogs who think
the lack of reward means they’re wrong can start to worry. Others
will become demotivated and not see the point of working that hard.
Because of this, you should both build up playful interactions that
can be used as a reward in the ring and practice using these
during trainings. Your dog needs to be able to work for long periods
of time without toys or food.
Another stress is the sudden change in
the way you’re acting. This is especially important if you tend to
do most of your training alone. Most people act differently by merely
having an audience, but you will also go from having your sole focus
on your dog to needing to split attention between dog and the judge.
At the very least, have an “invisible judge” in training with
you. Look at and listen to the invisible judge. Take directions from
the invisible judge. Talk out loud. Bonus points if you can play
trial sounds while training. (You can totally get these free, by the
way. Most smart phones will allow you to record and playback audio.
Set your phone down at a trial and let it run for ten minutes or so.)
You will also need to find a way to
recreate stress in yourself so that your dog learns that it’s no
big deal if you tense up. I’ve heard many suggestions for this over
the years, but I liked Denise’s: get a metronome (again, smart
phones are awesome; download a free app), set it for between 125-135
beats per minute, and heel to that beat. This will force you to
concentrate on something external, which will replicate that face
you’re going to be making when listening for a judge to call
instructions during a trial.
Finally, teach your dog to learn how to
wait. Most people never do this in training, but dude. We do it all
the time at trials. You wait for your turn. You wait for runoffs. You
wait for awards. It’s helpful to practice by watching another team,
but if you train alone, simply practice standing around for 5 or so
minutes at a time. Denise recommended using “squishing” during
this time. She recently wrote about this on her blog far better than
I could, so go read about it here.
Once your dog knows how to wait, how to
work for long periods without food or toys, is comfortable with you
acting weird, and trusts that you’ll protect him, then you
can consider competing. What do you do to prepare your dog for the
ring? Do you have other suggestions? Please let us know in the
comments!
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