Reconsiderations and Theories

Theories: http://chaosinagility.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/if-onlys-have-tos-and-what-nots.html

I do love it when bloggers post about something which is both relevant and timely. I love Alett’s blog and she posted this today:

Back to the point linked to a recent post, I have sadly seen many many victims of PTC… yup you guessed it, Pressure To Compete. I have seen two specific strains of PTC recently: A. Handlers that have done well with past dogs, trying to recreate their glory or prove a point, in their rush to do this, they forget their previous steps to success, they forget that the importance of the small things. B. Handlers that are blessed with those ‘X-factor’ dogs, that want to fast track into mainstream success, they rush development and turn a blind eye to small niggly problems (that will soon turn into huge gaping flaws). I can write a book on this subject… but today I only want to remind myself that I should appreciate each unique relationship with each unique canine Agility partner I may be fortunate enough to have. The only pressure I should ever feel is the pressure not to fail my dogs.

I have spent the past few days reading the blog posts I made when I debuted Dylan, and how I aimed for small BAA shows where I could train his runs and work on his focus. I don’t know why I thought I could or should skip this step with Rio, but I did, and it was a very silly mistake. I’m now pencilling in UKA dates for the winter, finding unaffiliated shows, and figuring out what I want from each show.

I have been working with Rio on her focus and trying to identify when and where she gets “lost”. She’s not very good at waiting for information, for a start.

I am very happy with how she worked at flyball today, she did 5x hits on the box (BIG improvement over last time, still not perfect!) and she did 1x recall, and then we quit.