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Obedience Hotline<br />
Sandy Case (&friends)<br />
945 NW 102 • Oklahoma City, OK 73114-5555 • CeleAussie@aol.com<br />
Getting<br />
A<br />
Connected<br />
friend of mine wrote the<br />
following description of<br />
watching a team practice Rally.<br />
I think it brings up a very<br />
important issue that many people either<br />
ignore, or don't recognize when preparing<br />
to compete:<br />
Ifully admit to not being the best instructor<br />
in the world. Sometimes I wonder ifJ am<br />
even qualified to do this, since my Novice<br />
A dog andIfirst went into the ring in 1992.<br />
Thirteen years doesn't seem like a very<br />
long time, and there are SOOOO many<br />
questions, and so<br />
many dogs, andso many personalities.<br />
Last night something hit me. I wasn't<br />
watching the teamfor errors. I was trying<br />
tofigure out why the dog, who can be a very<br />
upbeat, precise, working animal, sometimes<br />
just wilts and gets distracted. Rather than<br />
trying to nitpick the team, I just watched.<br />
And was very surprised at what I jaw.<br />
The dog remained animated as long<br />
as her handler was focused on HER. Not<br />
the signs, notjust chattering good girlfor<br />
no reason, but totally connected to her<br />
dog. The dog KNEW when her handler<br />
wasn't paying heed to her, and each time<br />
the handler appeared a bit confused or<br />
lost, the dog checked out. Each time the<br />
handler attempted to get the dog back, it<br />
took longer to remotivate her. And each<br />
time, the handler never had a clue that it<br />
was because she had changed herfocus,<br />
the dog had shut down. After all, Rally is<br />
unlimited communication, and she<br />
telling her dog how wonderful she was (as<br />
she tried tofind the next station).<br />
I told her to walk the course one more<br />
time without the dog. Then when she had<br />
the dog, ifshe hadno clue what to do, toput<br />
92 AUSSIETIMES I <strong>July</strong>-<strong>Aug</strong>ust <strong>2005</strong><br />
the dog into a sit, lookfor the sign, praise<br />
the dog and reconnect before going to the<br />
next station.<br />
Hopefidly, she won't need to do that,<br />
and will learn how to follow a course<br />
properly. This could be a dynamite team,<br />
but again, the stress has to be ON THE<br />
TEAM. She can Vget away with tuning out<br />
her dog for even a second, or the dog will<br />
reciprocate. Itwaj really interesting to me,<br />
and I wonder how many UDX legs I have<br />
lost because I nervous and wasn't as<br />
connected to my partner as I should have<br />
been.<br />
Just thought...<br />
Mindy and the Muddy Paws Pack<br />
Dog sports are about teamwork. We<br />
expect our dogs to give us all of their<br />
attention. But how often do we fall down<br />
on ourend ofthe deal? It's possibly harder<br />
on us. We know what the goal is, the title<br />
is important to us. Frequently, we are beset<br />
by concerns about all the stuff that could<br />
go wrong. We get stage fright. We forget<br />
that it is really just about being with our<br />
dog. We spend our time either reliving<br />
past problems or living a few minutes in<br />
the future, anticipating what might happen.<br />
Dogs are creatures of the moment. And<br />
dogs are creatures who communicate much<br />
differently from us.<br />
It was interesting, a few weeks ago,<br />
to listen to experienced stockdog trainers<br />
talk about how if they visualize what they<br />
want the dog to do, words aren't always<br />
necessary. I've played with the same sort of<br />
thing in obedience (the problem, of course,<br />
is keeping myselfcalm and in-the-moment<br />
enough in a trial situation to do so!). You<br />
can call it telepathy, or you can call it is<br />
something else. I do know I have good<br />
results ifI can visualize what I want (and if<br />
I visualize what I don't want—for instance<br />
praying that my dog doesn't lie down on a<br />
sit—chances are I am going to get what I'm<br />
thinking about). The fact is, dogs read us<br />
like a book. They pick up things we don't<br />
realize we are putting out—which isn't<br />
really surprising. Humans tend to pay<br />
attention to words. Dogs pay attention to<br />
the whole picture. I was reading an article<br />
in Smithsonian a few months ago about<br />
how most people cannot even recognize<br />
expressions of very common emotions<br />
(anger, fear, joy, etc.) on the faces ofother<br />
people. We are so intent on the spoken word<br />
that we frequently allow our other natural<br />
forms of communication to go unnoticed.<br />
But, our faces, our expressions, our<br />
body language—even the chemicals our<br />
emotions are producing are quite clear to<br />
our dogs. Even when we aren't thinking<br />
about ourphysical communication, it is still<br />
going on. You can lie to people. You can't<br />
lie to a dog. So often, when our dogs fall<br />
apart in the ring, it is because we are falling<br />
apart, too.<br />
So, if you can't lie, how do you keep<br />
your dog from catching your nerves?<br />
Brenda Aloff talks about something called<br />
"end-gaming" that a lot of people do in<br />
sports. I imagine most of us have done it<br />
at one time or another. We think about the<br />
mistakes we made in the past, and worry<br />
about what might happen in the immediate<br />
future. We tend to make the very things we<br />
worry about happen. And we forget to be<br />
in the present. Our dogs live in the present.<br />
And if we let them, they can teach us this<br />
valuable lesson. The best performances<br />
happen when it isjust you and your dog—in<br />
the groove together. In the present. Even<br />
there are lots of other people watching.<br />
Here's a message from our Future<br />
OTCH puppy:
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