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?
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