Sometimes I still pretend like Lilly and I will compete someday. I know it’s rather unlikely, but I have a good imagination. Heck sometimes I play whole scenarios in my head, where Lilly earns some huge title. My friends are there. Everyone is cheering. Lilly gets a big ribbon. And, I get to say, “See, I knew she could do it.” I’m like the Walter Mitty of handling. I admit it. But, the make-believe keeps me going. So, here’s my latest idea …
If and when the time comes to enter a trial, I might begin with gamble courses (or the similar thing in various venues). For those non-agility readers among you, these are courses where you essentially get to make up your own path. You score various points for different obstacles. So, you can run around and do what you want until the buzzer sounds. Then, you have to do a specific sequence that’s set behind a line the handler cannot cross. Basically, it tests your ability to handle your dog from a distance. I don’t much worry about that, even though it’d be hard for Lilly.
But I think getting to run around and do whatever would be good for her.
Yes, I know that good handlers have a plan before they go out, but to me it seems like a good transition from the do-whatever game I learned at that speed and motivation class last summer.
So that’s my idea. If we compete down the road, maybe that’s where I should start.
I bet I read that on your blog and just forgot it was your idea. It’s a good one. I can see how a low-stress, outdoor trial might work. I could just run her in, do whatever she wants, run her out and go home.
That’s exactly what I did with Cody when I realized he was going to have issues with trialing. We’d sign up for just Gamblers, go out there and run around like idiots then go home for the weekend. Then I added in other runs until we were up to a day then after a while he was able to handle the whole weekend. I’d always attempt the gamble because Cody loves to work at a distance but if he didn’t get it on the first try I kept on going and didn’t let on he’d done anything wrong. If he decided on a course other than the one I picked out then I went with it and made something up on the fly. Gamblers is great for building confidence in stressy dogs that don’t like to be wrong.