# Obedience Woes



## Lindor (Feb 3, 2014)

Well little Mags has been going to obedience classes for a while now. Don't really know how they are helping us though. Today we went to an obedience fun match and entered in the pre novice class. Why is it that she does really really well in our warm up but when it comes our turn to show she has to first sniff the judge, then sniffs the two people standing as posts during the figure 8 and then to top it all off, as I went to put her lead back on after completing the recall exercise she decided to play catch me if you can.  But at least she had fun.


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## Marzi (Sep 17, 2012)

And breath.... 
No doubt she picked up a little on your tension and thought that she should show you that these nice people were very friendly.... and then at the end, well, what is better than a little game of chase me!
Don't let a little embarrassment make you give up!
A long, long time ago I was competing in a regional team obedience contest with Cheka (GSD at the time 7 months), the captain on my team told me to load my finger nails with pate... I was horrified 'surely this is cheating?' 'Nope - just a way of helping your pup to concentrate' was his reply


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

Yes as Marzi says she will feel your tension and this will make her act different as well. The way Chance is in the few agility competitions is very different from the bouncy dog I have in training - but though the videos I can see my behaviour is very different too so we both used to get used to a different environment.

Years ago with a previous dog I used to be in a training club demo team. One of the things we used to do was walk in a line and leave the dogs in a sit stay as we walked so we eventually left all the dogs in a V formation before we turned and collected them as we walked. Half the time I would hear a snigger and now it was my boy who had got up and started to creep forward - never in practice -only when we did it for real.

As long as you both enjoy it carry on and know you are taking the best dog home with you


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## fairlie (Sep 7, 2013)

I sometimes wonder why you guys put yourselves through all this stress.


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

fairlie said:


> I sometimes wonder why you guys put yourselves through all this stress.


No finer feeling than it all coming together nicely though  and I am old enough and experienced enough that personally I am thoroughly enjoying the journey Chance and I are on together and can happily self analyse to realise what I did wrong


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## fairlie (Sep 7, 2013)

Well I am a good bit older than you but far too young for any self analysis. HO still calls Rufus and I her dock diving duds, I can't take the shame of it.


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

Not sure on the younger bit? I am approaching 50 at a fair rate of knots 

I have been lucky enough to have some good teachers along the way who consider getting things wrong just part of the process of learning to do them well - my agility trainer is a very talented (and very young) guy who has made it very clear from the start that faults we make as a team are generally down to me


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## Lindor (Feb 3, 2014)

2ndhandgal said:


> Not sure on the younger bit? I am approaching 50 at a fair rate of knots



Ha Ha! Fairlie and I have both been there already.


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

Lindor said:


> Ha Ha! Fairlie and I have both been there already.


 I will conceed defeat gracefully then


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## Lexi&Beemer (May 5, 2013)

So funny. My thought reading this was "Wow, Maggie did such a good job!" Haha. Perspective I guess. 


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