Clean Run - November 2020 - 49

Now write down your aims for this
course when you run it. Is it all about
the Q? Is that the be-all and end-all? Is
that a reasonable goal? If it is, do you
also want to win? If you don't want to
win, what do you want to achieve? These
are questions that only you can answer.
Moving on to the other half of the partnership, what does your dog need from
you in the ring? If his eyes are spinning
in his head, does he need a second to
come back to himself? If he's shy and
nervous, does he need verbal support?
I had an interesting conversation recently with a well-known obedience
competitor here in the UK about why
on earth you'd reward a dog as you
stepped out of the ring if the round
hadn't gone well. She firmly believes
in consequences. If the dog has made
a "poor choice," then there is a consequence for that, and it certainly won't
be a game of tug on the way back to
her vehicle.

The essential difference between us
is that firstly her sport isn't timed.
Her sport relies on accuracy so the
dog's state of mind is less critical. An
anxious dog can still be in the correct
position. It may not have the "pizazz"
that a happy dog will have, but it will
still be accurate.
Agility, on the other hand, is about
speed, especially these days. A nervous dog will not produce the performance that a confident dog will. To be
able to fly around a course, listening
and responding while at full tilt, there
needs to be not a shred of doubt in the
dog's mind. Does a dog have the ability to link a missed contact with you
refusing to play after he does another
12 obstacles? Or do you just become
that unpredictable person? Will you
refuse to reward the stunning turn
that he made after the obstacle after
the missed contact? What about the
drive across the finish line? Lastly, we
might consider why the dog missed

the contact in the first place. Should
your dog be given a consequence for a
lack of training?
The next difference is that obedience
here in the UK allows training rounds.
She can take her dog into the ring and
play with a toy if that's what she wants
to do. Or she can work her left aboutturn and reward or not until she has
what she wants. So, if her association
with the ring is broken, she can fix it.
In agility, we can't do that, and it is extremely difficult to rebuild a poisoned
association with the agility ring itself
and all that it entails.
Note: For a discussion on poisoned
cues please see my article in the June
2020 issue of Clean Run.
So yes, even after a disastrous round,
I will still thank my dog for stepping
to the line with me, and I will still acknowledge the effort that he has made.
The responsibility for the results lies
with me.

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Clean Run - November 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - November 2020