In training you should now have a solid wait, you are at your first show and there is a possibility your dog may break their wait. This is ok but its what you do with it, that sets the rules at future shows.
Let’s just take a few minutes to think about why. Your dog is now in a very new environment, surrounded by hundreds of dogs and people. There are activities going on in the surrounding rings and like we mentioned before, they lose at least 40% of their training when you add in a new environment. This also goes for things like contacts and especially weaves.
You need to think if your dog is nervous or anxious of their new environment or just full of excitement with no impulse control.
When I started competing with Zelda earlier this year, she asked me to pick her up, while we were in the queue. She had never asked me to do that before. It made me realise at that point that she probably wasn’t going to wait as she will want to stay with me.
So, I put her down asked for a wait and just took a few small steps before I released her, setting her up to succeed rather than to fail at the first jump.
Her first ever class was very overwhelming for her and after taking a couple of jumps she took a moment and sat in the middle of the ring before carrying on.
I knew as her confidence and experience grows my wait will come but if I didn’t listen to her then I wouldn’t have a wait at all, as it would become a learnt behaviour in the show environment.
So, my options were and still are, when she needs some confidence building, running starts or send arounds. I’ll also do send arounds when I can so that I’m not only doing them when she’s a little nervous.
When she asks to be picked up, I take in to account other factors like if she’s fidgety or restless. Sometimes she does just want a cuddle and sometimes its easier to carry her into the ring.
Running starts are hard as it puts you behind your dog and they are harder to change in a competition as the dog gets used to starting once they feel you release their collar. If the course is a straight run to the tunnel, then you’ll have a good chance of catching up!
Even with a running start you still want the dog sitting next to you, looking at you and waiting without you holding them before you release. You don’t really want a ‘drop and run’ type of start.
If you’ve taken in to account all possibilities and your dog breaks their wait, then you do need to eliminate your self and put your dog back on the start.
Or you could stop your dog and restart after the first jump. You’d probably get faulted for this especially if touch your dog. You would basically not continue and ask them to sit and wait and then restart. You do run the risk of them being over excited and doing zoomies and taking their own course, so personally, I’d put them back on the start line and restart.
We all know our dogs and once we know why they are not waiting at a show we can then train it.
If in training your dog goes just as you open your mouth to release them or as you turn away and you continue, and allow them to start on these cues, this is telling them its ok to go and they will release themselves at a show as that is what you have taught
Remember : You must set your criteria and stick with it 😊
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