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Mind Over
Matter: Part Three |
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By Kathy J. Lang |
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I was at a fun match recently, the first time I'd had my dogs out in several months. Driving to the match, I told myself my primary goal was to have a good time. I didn't care how the dogs did, I needed to enjoy myself. If I had fun, two things would happen: 1) I'd be more eager to go to the next match (We all know matches can often be a drag… they are things we "have" to do for our dog's benefit, not necessarily things we "want" to do… we usually have better ways to spend a Sunday.) 2) My dogs would have a good time and be able to work through any training glitches that came up. I knew that if I got stressed, my dogs would get stressed. If Ashley and Tristan get stressed, nothing productive comes out of a training or match situation. Under stress, Ashley's motto is "when in doubt, check out" meaning she has a very strong flight instinct. Tristan, on the other hand, gets "brain lock" when the stress builds. He glazes over and shuts down. My secondary goal at this match was to have both dogs get through all the Utility exercises, even if I had to simplify them and help them. After all, neither dog had done a Utility run-through in several months, and my winter training had been quite sporadic. At the end of the day, I couldn't have been more pleased. Yes, I had fun. Yes, my dogs had fun. Ashley was relaxed and grinning at me during the heeling. Although she was a little spooked with the judge behind her on the signal exercise, she worked through it with positive reinforcement from me. Scent articles, another stressful exercise for Ash, were simplified to the point that I did not turn her away from the pile, and I sent her from just 10 feet away. First time out she ran past the pile, into a little room outside the ring (stress reaction, flight instinct). I just stood there. Ash made her way back and worked the pile nicely. Second article, I sent her from the 20 foot mark, but did not turn away from the pile. She trotted out, circled the pile once, looked into the room, then went to work. Third article (Canadian) I put the turn in and she performed the entire exercise perfectly. The rest of the class was fine. Thirty minutes later, Ash was put through again. She qualified — quite nicely, and first time at a match — with no additional aids from me. Tristan's classes had similar results. I know the dogs' performance was directly attributable to my mental state of mind. Several of my students were also there. One lady, who did not do her original training with me (she brought me a partially trained Utility dog that had all sorts of problems related to stress and over-correction, and I've helped her work through most of his problems), looked like she was going to pass out. She was a nervous wreck. I asked her what was wrong, and she told me she was terribly nervous. |
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