Why do so many competitors SHOUT at their dogs? Stoooopid too-late things like "I TOLD YOU TO GO RIGHT", "NO!/BAD!" to a dog that's missed its contact, etc, or "I SAID 'TUNNEL!' and how often do these people praise or encourage? Saw one recently where a lady was yelling at an inexperienced dog to go through the cloth tunnel, but then when it eventually did, with the aid of the Judge, not a word of praise, she just finished the round and stomped out. & why have these things gone wrong in the first place - is it ever the dog's fault? No, of course it's not! The dog that didn't turn right, or ran past a jump, or took an off-course jump - didn't do it to be "naughty" - it did it because the handler either didn't communicate what they wanted clearly enough - they made the error in the timing of their command, or the clarity of their body language, or they haven't trained the manouevre well enough. & we all do these things, some of us pretty often LOL! But if we have any decency we tell the dog how fabulous it's been anyway for trying to follow our bumbling directions. And these same handlers come out and tell their friends how the dog did this and that, and what a numpty the dog is - sorry, YOU are the numpty, dear handler!!!
Is it ever OK to shout? Well in some situations I'd say yes - e.g. sometimes to quickly interrupt something like a dangerous behaviour, or raising your voice in a positive way e.g. to really reinforce your body language when you're trying to pull the dog off an obstacle? But the instant they respond you make sure you praise them to the skies!
Sorry, not sure where that rant came from but it's just something I've been noticing a lot lately - not just observations from a particular show at all.
The show we went to this weekend was Agility Nuts - one we've not been to before and perhaps a bit far to go very often (Notts). It was a good day out though, and though I went alone, met up with a few familar faces and got chatting with nice new people too. In the Agility class there was a bit of a problem in that there was obviously the most fabulous smell ever on the arena floor - right next to the (12) weave entry. Dog after dog set off well, turned the corner, nose down, stuck!!! Never seen anything like it. Having watched all this happening I went in with Maisie determined to really drive her past but the same thing happened ... Shame really as she ran the rest of the course beautifully, but we finished on 5R (weaves) plus time faults(!) as it took yonks to unglue her nose from the ground without handling!! The scarey thing was that over halfway through the class she was actually in the lead even on that bad score! (They have these ace computerised live scoreboards, really good fun.) Loads of other dogs stopped and then were either bodily removed from the ring, or eventually carried on but later in the course gnashed off back for another sniff, or got E'd/faulted in other ways as it was quite a tricky course too. Very surreal carry-on! In the end Miss Mouse finished 6th.
I'd also entered Tim 'NFC' just in the Agility (and it was his 18-month "birthday" ahhhh) but I didn't want him to have the negative experience of going into the ring and sniffing, so I asked the Judge whether it would be OK to start him after the weaves (which were near the start and I was going to just by-pass them anyway as he's not weaving yet) - and so did and he ran ever so well and even managed quite a tricky turn left across a box, which many dogs had missed. I thought "pre-curving" and it worked! :o)
In the Jumping Maisie did another smashing run but her inept handler pulled her into a backjump from a pull-through. Sorry, Mouse - I AM THE NUMPTY!! ;o) (& Maisie loves me anyway coz she's a very generous girl, LOL!)
& then there was a take-your-own-line class right at the end of the day, which I almost didn't stay for but then did, and spent most of the afternoon scribing in a freezing draught. It was dark when the class came around and though I walked Maisie round for ages before going in, she wouldn't poo .......... till she got just before the second-last jump and just decided she had gotta go!! Ooooops!!!!!!!!! So then we came home :o)
Ha!! Bless Maisie. Olli has done that to me before.
ReplyDeleteHave you read Dawn Weavers book "Knowledge is Speed"? She talks a lot about never being negative in the ring, or shouting at your dog etc. Its a brill book. It is us owners/handlers that decide to go in the ring, so if we dont give our dog the right commands, or have pushed the dog too early it is our fault.
Good blog Kirsty! xx
LOL!! Actually I have read that book quite recently - perhaps that's what planted the seed for the little rant ;o) Liked the book very much too! A bit heavy-going in places (had to keep dipping into it in little snack-sized chunks!)but full of ideas and good explanations - thought the diagrams were fab. I liked how she talked a lot about how she adapts her handling techniques to different dogs with different needs, motivation, etc. x
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