Maintaining Focus During Competition

Sue, again............

Entire books have been written on the subject of performance in the ring vs performance in practise. Here are a few thoughts:

It's not about "getting rid of treats". It's about building up the dog's faith until he can afford to work as long as you're in the ring in order to get a treat at he end.

Develop a reward that you CAN give him in the ring. If he loves to hop on his back legs (Syn does, her cue is "Squirrel!"), then you can cue a hop after each exercise. If there's nothing inherent, you can build one in. Tap him on top of his head 500 times over the next week, giving him a treat after each tap, and you should be able to use the tap as a reward a few times to make him feel good without giving him a treat.

Practise until you have EXACTLY what you want in the ring. People say "I do that!", but when I ask them to show me, they are bending toward the dog, giving multiple cues, offering treats, and giving feedback every 10 seconds. Then when they get into the ring and turn into zombie-handler, the dog has no clue what to do. There are 6, and only 6, opportunities to reward your dog on the individual exercises in the Novice obedience ring.

YOU have to be the same exact handler in the ring that you are in practise. That means you have to act the same, smell the same, think the same. Which means that you have to remember this mantra: "I have only one job here. My job is to give the dog what she needs to do what she knows how to do." Which means if you're nervous, if you're not concentrating, if you're worried about passing or looking stupid, YOU ARE NOT DOING YOUR JOB. My mother, who has trained 4 Utility dogs, recommends a shot of vodka 10 minutes before ring time to relax. Of course, in order to be the same handler in practse and in the ring, she has to take the vodka before practise as well...

Think about this. How much of what he knows about an exercise does your dog have to give you in the ring in order to give you the performance you want? When I was 16, i got a Utility leg on a 2.5-lb Chihuahua. Whee! Then I looked back and asked myself "is that ever going to happen again?" and the answer was "no". That Chi and the gods gave me 150% of what he knew about Utility that day, and it was NEVER going to happen again. My first UD was 2 years later, a Mini Schnauzer, who could walk away with a 199 in Utility by giving me 60% of what she knew about the subject. By that, I mean she could get a 199 if the ring was an inch under water at midnight with a helicopter hovering over the ring, my mom in the front row, the judge screaming at me, and a marching band going by.

Last weekend Syn got her Draft Dog title, pulling 40 pounds in a cart up and down hills and manoeuvring the cart around a ring, including a figure 8. It was a breeze. Easy-peezy, because we practised manoeuvring around my house, and she was going up and down much bigger hills pulling 75 pounds in practise. When the test was over, she was still wondering when the work was going to start. And I was totally not nervous (well, except for the stand-stay) because I was only there to give her what she needed to perform.