#the best solution i am seeing right now is to say that kaija might never step foot into the rally ring ever again | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

seagulley · 3 months ago

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I've been feeling really down about where we're at wrt rally obedience, to the point where I'm starting to consider giving up on trialing.

Kaija continues to disengage as soon as we enter the trial ring. Our instructor thinks that I need to be more firm, and that I have to keep asking Kaija to reengage and focus, so she learns that she can't get out of work by 'demonstratively' disengaging from me.

This doesn't sit right with me at all. Even if this approach did work/yield better results in the competition ring... is that really how I want to get there? With a dog that believes she has no choice but to work, regardless of her emotional state or her confidence level?

#i want so badly so follow Sharon Carroll and Laura Waudby's protocols #but it pretty much requires me to go directly against our instructor #who for the record is the most 'positive' - or whatever you want to call it - obedience instructor that i'm aware of in this country #seems like there is no overlap between choice-based training and dog sports here (in terms of classes and instructors)#only one or the other #i can't do this on my own #and i can't constantly fight the opinion of the person i am paying to help me #the best solution i am seeing right now is to say that kaija might never step foot into the rally ring ever again #that we'll continue to train at her pace (because she does enjoy the training and so do i) but if that's where it ends then that's okay #i just don't know what else to do here so

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