I was so disappointed in her. WAY too disappointed. I could barely look at her. I knew that I was in no position to be a good or effective trainer, so I just left her in her crate for awhile while I cooled off.
That's when I decided that I must be taking all of this too seriously. Hence, the break. It's been good to not think or stress out about agility too much for the past few weeks. I still don't know what to do to fix her weave poles. It's unbelievably frustrating to be spot on perfect in practice (any scenario I can throw at her) to have them fall apart in a trial.
So, I think after our next trial (which we've already entered), and maybe one more NADAC trial in November, we'll be done with agility for a little while. Take maybe a month off, and work on other things. We're definitely not giving up on agility, though. The two of us love it way too much :)
Here's my plan, since nothing/everything else hasn't worked:
I need to figure out a way to train Cedar to think better under stress. Maybe once she learns how to do that better away from agility, she'll be better able to cope with weaving. Maybe I'll train her up for her CD title.
Any thoughts about other things we could do to help her build this skill?
Thanks :)
I've heard of putting the last two poles offset from the first 10 in practice, in order to make getting those last two poles harder. Then, when they are straight on and easy in a trial, it'll be a no brainer.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it is a good idea to step back and take a break. I pulled Koira out of flyball for 3 months once, and 2 months another time. She was getting burnt out, I was getting frustrated, and we both came back from those breaks much better.
Are you sure you are not doing something just a little different at at trial yourself? A tiny twist to your shoulders as you check back on her weaves? Maybe a tiny pull out as you anticipate moving to the next thing? It could be very sutle. Herding dogs are very aware of the tiniest difference.
ReplyDelete@Sheephollow, I have studied and studies videos of us in competition and practice, and always have my instructor watch them, too. Sometimes, yeah, I've messed her up, but when she pops out "normally", I can't see anything I'm doing. I've tried running them different ways in practice and trials, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. She either gets in a groove and does them perfectly, or her brain, like, short circuits :) Once she pops out once, she pattern trains (typical BC, lol) and restarting the poles rarely works because she "knows" where she's going.
ReplyDeleteI am not putting all the blame on her, because I'm the one that trained her and is asking her to do this. But I am completely stumped as to how to fix this, other than getting some distance and working on her mental strength.