Spirit Joy

Great videos, Cara. Wow. She sure tells you when you take her off of the course before she's done, LOL
Our debut is on May 27th. I finally got our contact problems sorted out.
 
Thanks everyone! Yes, she sure gets mad when I take her off the course!!!!!! Not sure whether I'll be able to use that to my advantage going forward ;-)

Lanie, best of luck! Please keep us posted. Can't wait to see those beautiful contacts!!!!!!
 
Spirit and I have another trial coming up this weekend. She has really been struggling with ring stress lately, manifesting as blown contacts and refusing to do the teeter. BUT she's doing everything perfectly in class, and it's really hard to fix a problem that only happens in the ring :-( Our trainer did point out that at trials I tend to disconnect from Spirit from the time we're on deck until we leave the ring - she said that I become dead serious and intense and not fun at all, which Spirit might be picking up on. I watched our videos and realized that she's right. I am a completely different person in class than I am in the ring. So now the struggle is to give Spirit what SHE needs in the ring (connection and FUN) and not what I need (intense focus, competitiveness, and determination). I'm so freaking competitive that this is really going to be difficult for me, but the bottom line is that this is for Spirit and if she's not having fun I'm doing her a huge disservice. So this weekend's goal will be to stay connected with her when we walk into the ring, and PLAY with her, no matter what happens. Hopefully this will work, we'll both be more relaxed, and we'll have fun together. Don't get me wrong, she clearly loves agility and is so happy after our Jumpers runs - prancing around and wagging her tail - but I need her to feel that way no matter what happens out there, not only when she does Jumpers. Hopefully that will turn the tide and give her more confidence on her contacts too.
 
Cara Sandler said:
Thanks everyone!

Lanie, best of luck! Please keep us posted. Can't wait to see those beautiful contacts!!!!!!
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Hopefully she holds them. She's 100% in practice, but I'm still treating her every single time. She may start blowing them if she isn't being paid to do it. We'll see.
 
Cara Sandler said:
Spirit and I have another trial coming up this weekend. She has really been struggling with ring stress lately, manifesting as blown contacts and refusing to do the teeter. BUT she's doing everything perfectly in class, and it's really hard to fix a problem that only happens in the ring :-( Our trainer did point out that at trials I tend to disconnect from Spirit from the time we're on deck until we leave the ring - she said that I become dead serious and intense and not fun at all, which Spirit might be picking up on. I watched our videos and realized that she's right. I am a completely different person in class than I am in the ring. So now the struggle is to give Spirit what SHE needs in the ring (connection and FUN) and not what I need (intense focus, competitiveness, and determination). I'm so freaking competitive that this is really going to be difficult for me, but the bottom line is that this is for Spirit and if she's not having fun I'm doing her a huge disservice. So this weekend's goal will be to stay connected with her when we walk into the ring, and PLAY with her, no matter what happens. Hopefully this will work, we'll both be more relaxed, and we'll have fun together. Don't get me wrong, she clearly loves agility and is so happy after our Jumpers runs - prancing around and wagging her tail - but I need her to feel that way no matter what happens out there, not only when she does Jumpers. Hopefully that will turn the tide and give her more confidence on her contacts too.
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Cara, I can see myself doing this when I eventually get into the ring. This will be something I will need to make sure I do not do. I already saw when I took the CGC test with Cleo how serious and tense I was and that threw Cleo off and she almost failed. However I think you are doing fantastic and at least you have a plan to work on this. I am interested to see how it goes.
 
Thanks, Brittany. I'm interested to see how it goes too :-) This is so different for me, but if that is what Spirit needs, that's what she'll get. I hope.
 
Here is my facebook post from today. Not everything I had hoped for, but better than the last trial. Hopefully starting to get past this!

"Well, no teeter today, and no Qs, but a very good day anyway, and I learned a lot! The number one thing I learned is that the running order is only a guide, and things could actually be playing out very differently.

So I got there around 7:30 and wandered around getting set up, signing in, getting course maps, etc. Until I noticed that the ring that was supposed to be doing Excellent FAST (according to the running order) was actually doing Open FAST, which is our category!!!!! I missed the briefing and most of the walk. So with less than a minute left, I threw together a plan and walked the course. Got off feeling ok, then realized that what I thought was the start line was actually the finish line!!!! So I had to completely revamp my plan, and was getting pretty anxious about it. So I just tried to relax and get out there and have fun with Spirit. Which I did, and came off the course thinking that she had Qd. Turns out that the send consisted of 3 obstacles, not 2 (jump, tunnel, then back over the original jump). I didn't send Spirit back over the original jump, so no bonus and no Q. Oh well. She still had fun.

On to Jumpers. Spirit went off course to take the weave poles (this is the 3rd time in her short career she has gone off course to take the weaves, definitely need to work on that). She also took an off course tunnel. Other than that, she was awesome and had fun.

Finally on to Standard. Spirit did the dogwalk, no problem at all. She got off the table when I tried to static cross (2nd time that has happened in the ring, need to work on that too). But she got back on and stayed. I tried to take her over the teeter but she refused, so we ran on and finished the course.

So all in all, I learned that connecting with my dog before stepping into the ring definitely makes a huge difference, and even though Spirit didn't do the teeter, she was happy and enthusiastic and having fun the entire time. We're definitely on the way back up, and she'll get the teeter when she's ready. And tomorrow is another day."
 
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