The pressure isn't there with Flyer. We are going to finish rally before obedience, and agility class once a week. As much as I'd like him to be well titled at 2 years old, it isn't going to happen. Flyer is a different dog and will be a lot of different lessons to learn. Hopefully he will soar to the top, and take me with him!
Edan has CD class on Monday. With Keiran I have Rally class on Monday (after Edan's CD class), Agility class on Wednesday, and Treibball class on Saturday. Unfortunately, because of other things in life, I have very little time to practice any of it. Thankfully both dogs are very smart and retain what they learn so we don't have to go backwards. I'll admit, it's also discouraging when your dog (Keiran) has little to no concept of staying in heel. My fault entirely because we don't practice enough but when I see it it's like a sledgehammer to the head reminder we don't practice enough and time is difficult to find. It's one heck of a cycle.
Like you, as much as I'd like him to be titled like his puppy peers, it's not going to happen. He'll get titles eventually, in our own time. I need to keep reminding myself it's about the journey; it's about the journey. Any number of things can change in an instant so I have to remember to enjoy the bonding and growing together as a team. That bond IS why I started agility in the first place and no ribbon or title can replace that. Knowing and saying that doesn't make it easier to remember at times.
You make some excellent points, and some of these I struggle with too.
In regards to my ring strategy at agility, the methods I find most useful are as follows:
1) Walk the course MY way, not the way others walk it, or even the way my trainer is walking it. Walk it for MY dog and the ways I feel comfortable with.
2) Don't watch others before I run. That is deadly! If I watch a successful run I might start wondering about changing my own plans on how to run the course, or I might see a trap and start to doubt the way I intend to run. I begin to overthink and then things go wrong.
3) Similar to 2), don't stand at the side of the ring and go over the course in my head. More often than not, if I do this I start to make errors in the course layout and then run it wrong.
4) Don't rush to start. Give myself a moment on the startline.
5) Don't beat myself up over bad runs and especially don't carry over negative thoughts to the next run (still a work in progress!)
6) At the end of the day focus on the positives, not the negatives. I might see some things I want to work on in training, but I mustn't make them a big deal.
7) Always share in the successes of others, even when they have beaten me. Always cheer them and praise them. In turn always be there to commiserate with a friend, or to find something positive in a difficult run.
8) Remember that neither myself or my dog can be perfect all the time.
I've learned to do a lot of these myself. Most of our trainer run bigger dogs and don't necessarily understand the difference between handling a big dog (20 inch+) vs. a smaller dog (>=16 inches).
As for watching others run, I do watch others run, especially games like Full House, Snooker, and Jackpot where you make up your own course. There have been times where I have changed my approach to the games based on watching others after I've already walked one course. Usually if I'm going to make a change and run something I didn't walk it's because the path is clearly supeior (smoother) than what I had planned. There have been many times where I ran something completely different from others because it presented the best course for my dog. When it comes to numbered courses, I do watch if there's a particularly difficult sequence and I want to see how others handled through it. Normally I don't change my handling but I may pick up an idea or two to try in practice.
Now to your second line of thought, which is oh so appropriate for me right now too. I know how it feels. Sparrow doesn't do closed weaves yet, but her peers, some of whom are younger than her, are now doing closed weaves and it makes me think I am failing her somehow. I have to remind myself that those dogs have flaws too, and at some point do things worse than Sparrow, but you tend to focus on the things you feel you are struggling with. I remind myself over and over that Merlin did not compete until he was 2 and his first year we struggled to gain clears.
Edan didn't compete until he was nearly 3 years old, about 1 year after we started training. I look back at some of the things we did in that first trial now and know we weren't ready. Edan was my first dog and I was anxious to get into the agility ring with him; impatient may be a better word. I made mistakes with his training that I'm trying not to make with Keiran.
Edan was also super easy to train, Keiran not so much. Sure, he's brilliant and will work with me but he also has an attitude when he doesn't want to do something. Getting him comfortable jumping 12 inches is actually suprisingly difficult though I think I've figured out it's a confidence issue and have gone back to some basic jumping skill exercies he can do with ease at 8 inches. I'll admit I was/am frustrated I can't get him to consistantly work at a higher jump height; the jump height he'll need to be able to work at because of his size. Now that I know it's confidence, I believe I can work through it and help him.
Sparrow has the advantage over him in terms of training and she has been in the competition environment since she was 18 months. People keep telling me she will be amazing once she gets a little more mature and experienced, but I still struggle to see it. Just getting a clear at a competition would be nice! But, of course, this is a journey we all take at our own pace and judging ourselves by others is never a good move. After all, those people may start seriously competing now, their dog may get titles and shoot up the ranks quickly, but very often I see young dogs who fly up fast and then get stuck because they can't handle the harder courses. I have even seen some who have completely shut down. So I have promised Sparrow that this year is all about having fun and the serious stuff can come next year. Even so, every once in a while I look at our peer dogs and go "but why can't mine do that?" I think that is probably what comes from being competitive by nature
Thankfully no one is pressuring me to enter Keiran. In fact folks from the club, to their credit, help keep me grounded and from doing something stupid, like entering him when he's not really ready. That said, I do plan on entering him in Teacup Agility the next time I get to trial. Why? Because Teacup has For Exhibition Only (FEO) runs that cost all of $5.00 and the beginner courses don't have weave poles. My ONLY goal is to get him on a course to run with me. If we don't run in sequence, fine; if we only do 6 out of 12 obstacles, fine. I just want to get him out to play with me, play being the key word. Keiran's been on all the Teacup equipment already and I'm comfortable the smaller equipement will be safe for him.
Last year Lexi and I worked really, really hard putting in lots of time and work into agility with the goal of putting on a good showing at USDAA Nationals. We went to nationals and looked horrible. We honestly looked like we didn't belong. I admit that there were tears, and I truly thought about quitting, because in that moment it's hard to remember all the victories (I don't mean "wins" in the literal sense of the word).
Ashley, I have the same issues every year at the Petit Prix (Teacup Nationals). Somewhere in the stress of the weekend something goes wrong and I have a meltdown. (Not good when a venue judge, even one not judging, has a meltdown.) I wanted to pack up and go home because "we are better than that". Yes, that's an exact quote I said after a particularly bad run one year.
This past year at the Petit Prix we had an AMAZING run in one of the distance challenge games. Edan was one of only 5 dogs to complete all 6 of the distance challenges only to
loose all the points because of handler error. When I walked the course I COMPLETELY missed one of the jumps and incurred not just a 5 point off course and 10 point failure to perform but did not get credit for 1 of the distance challenges loosing 5 point bonus for that particular send AND failed ot earn 30 point bonus for completeing ALL the sends. My points in the game came to a whopping 10 points instead of the 60 points it should have been. It probably cost us a top 4 finish in our class also. I was
devistated but Edan got the biggest party right there at the end of the course because he did
exactly what I asked him to do; all of it! It was the hardest thing in the world to do... put my disappointment, and anger at myself, to give Edan the reward he truly deserved.
