Legend did pretty well at the last obedience trial. We still have a lot of work to do but I thought we were definitely making progress. I was actually kind of hopeful she might Q this weekend.
Well, not so much. It was awful. I think we only passed three exercises and one was the down stay. And the heeling was passable but not in the way I would have liked. Generally she acted like I regularly beat her and even reverted back to the walking on the broad jump behavior.
I realize a large part of this is my fault. I have not committed to obedience the way I have agility. I don't know what started the stress in the first place (story of everyone's life right?) but now I really need to decide what to do. I either need to commit to retraining and "fix" some stuff and actually do a lot of proofing or just move on and focus on agility. Problem is, there are lots of things I like about obedience. I just don't like them as much as agility. It's times like this I kind of wish I only had one dog. Then I could spend all my time and money working that dog in all sports. But I have three dogs, two still working. I was actually contemplating working on a CD with Lyric-she could use some improved obedience skills. But then that's two dogs working in two sports. Lots of time involved in that. But maybe over the winter we will work on some indoor stuff on the days we can't do agility. Then we can see where we are later in the year. I definitely won't be entering any obedience trials for awhile. Actually we are not even going back tomorrow. I don't want to wait until 3PM to show, have a miserable time and then get home late. With any luck I can get home in time to take Holli out for a herding instinct test. Sounds more fun.
Summer
5 months ago
5 comments:
Funny, I have the exact same issue. Obedience is one of those things that you either do, or don't do. It's hard to make time for everything. Recently I have decided that yes, I do want a CDX so I've been making the time for training- and have actually made it a priority. So yeah, I've been where you are. It's not fun. lol
I have the opposite problem, hahaha. I only have the time and money for one sport, and I've chosen Obedience. We still play at agility, but I don't know that Scorch and I will ever get to compete in it. If I could just do away with sleep, I'd be set! :)
I feel your pain - both with the obed. stress issues and balancing two sports in terms of time and finances. It's hard to excel in both at the same time, especially if you have multiple dogs competing.
Good luck finding the balance and being able to enjoy both sports and reach your goals.
I understand the good stuff about obedience training -- but ultimately it bores me to tears, so my choice is easy. Agility all the way. ;o)
Because I have friends that compete in both disciplines, there was a brief period of time where I dabbled with the idea of doing obedience. Also, if I could manage to get Kaiser an obedience title in UKC I could finish his "Super Dog" designation (titles in conformation, agility, weight pull, obedience and rally).
Ultimately, though, I have no passion for it. Heck, I don't even have a warm fondness for obedience work. lol My dogs receive as much obedience training as is needed for making them nice to live with and to do agility (ie: sit, stand, down & wait).
But good luck to you! :o) I certainly understand the issue of limited resources.
If only we could all just win the lottery. Guess I would need to buy a ticket huh?
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