Agility: Charm 1, Brenda -2
Last night's class ran over and out of time because of all the "do again" on our part. Granted, some of the dogs are repeating this class, so they do well. Charm improved last night, she did what was asked of her mostly, but ran off to play twice and had to have a "time out".  At the end of class, she looked to me to lead her, so an up note at the end  But that is the problem. I can't put it together fluidly. Some just walked and glided through the exercise like "monkey see and do". I lost eye contact moved like a robot  , or did the compete reverse of a front cross  . Its hard for me to put it all together when I have to think left, right, turn inward, etc. etc.  Sorry for the whining, but it feels right to cry on your shoulders. After an hour of reading the agility threads again, I feel better but is awkwardness normal? Are some people weeded out? I'm terrified that he is thinking "hmm, one more class to see if she can improve...maybe this sport is not for her" etc. I've lost confidence and its getting worse. The logical side of me is saying that no one learns equally, just two classes, and its a difficult sport. The less confident side is sniveling and shaken. Upside is that Charm loves the challenge. When she ran off course, she zipped through the tunnel and tried to walk up the A frame looking thing (sorry, I'm certain it has a name). The trainer was encouraging in his remarks that she would even try that, but of course, it wasn't appropriate behavior. Any words to improve my negative status? I'd like to be in the plus column next week |
|
|
| OMG, let me see...you've had two classes and you've already decided you suck...???!!! Hold on one moment...  OK, I'm back. I'm writing a book which would probably make you feel better if I thought it would be done by the time you and Charm are successfully competing (or you're on your 5th agility dog, who knows) I'd refer you to, but since that's not gonna happen, I'll give you some highlights: I started my first agility class in September, 2000. Yes, that's right, more than 12 years ago. I still have days when I drive home from class convinced I suck, but fortunately those days are the minority now, and I can laugh about it. Some reality checks: How advanced is this class??? OMG! I was already competing with my first dog by the time I was learning the front cross (which I inevitably did poorly) and I am STILL perfecting my timing. This is a difficult cross! So much to remember. When to start it, where to put it, at what speed, where the hell is body in space, WHERE'S MY DOG?, where are we relative to the equipment, can I get through this and not lose my lunch? So many questions, a long time in the making. I know people who have agility championships on their dogs, and still can barely do a front cross to save their lives (OK, not too many, but it happens <g> ) You say some of the people in the class are repeating. Pay no attention to them, comparatively speaking. They've already been where you are. In 2001 I started competing with my first dog. In 2002 my second agility OES was born. In late 2006 (!), in desperation, I contacted an agility instructor in the area and asked her if she could fit me into one of her classes, She had a reputation for being good at sorting out the terminally confused. She couldn't at that time, but she offered me private lessons. So in 2007 I started lessons with one of the daughters of agility OES#2. My confession to instructor: I've screwed up two perfectly nice OES. Please don't let me do that to another dog. She laughed. Now, my first OES was incredibly biddable. She saved my butt - a lot! My second was incredibly high drive. No idiotic thing I did could slow her down. Which is just as well, because Idiot was my middle name. Then came Sybil. Sybil IS biddable and high drive, in her way, when it suits her. When I started classes, however, all she was was inclined to do was quit as soon as I'd made a mistake, and I made many, many - that's part of the learning process. She would stalk off to some crate and all but slam the door after her. To add insult to injury, instructor had to (re)teach me how to do the front cross properly. And she wanted me to learn how to do a blind cross. OMG, there were days when she had to physically move me where she wanted me to go. I was so busy worrying about that one cross that I'd forget the sequence itself and get lost. (I have graduate degrees, not that this is a prerequisite and may be a detriment for all I know  but I still couldn't remember seven obstacles in a row some days! LOSER!) In between the quitting (Sybil) and the all but falling over her own feet (me), the inability to remember where to go, how to get there, my dog's name, hell, my own name, I used to leave wondering when instructor would finally break down and state the obvious: "There's no hope for you, honey. Go home and take up knitting or something". I'm not kidding. There were weeks I was convinced we sucked so badly I was completely wasting everyone's time. The proverbial axe never fell. Instead she kept encouraging me, kept pushing me, kept laughing and kept reminding me that I needed to trust myself, trust that I would "get it", and above all trust my dog. These days, some days, I'm "teacher's pet (project? <g>)" (heck, she worked hard, she deserves to be proud of that) Some days I regress and things she knows I should know how to do I suddenly have to be pushed to clean up again (regression is also a normal part of the learning process) And she let's me know it! But I don't think I've gone home thinking I completely sucked for a couple of years now (so it only took ten years? Hm ). That said, I still go home humbled some times. But the upside is when you start to get it, that feeling...nothing like it. And once you've had that feeling you have the confidence to know that even though you're having a bad day, bad week, bad ... <?> you will work through it and it's just a part of the process. And as long as your dog is still having FUN, nothing else really matters. It's just a game. Nobody dies even if you go the wrong way, call your dog the cat's name and run into your instructor. It's one of the few times, as adults, we get to regress and PLAY, again, really play. And with our dogs at that. How cool is that???Last year Sybil was the top AKC agility OES (she won't be this year as we've only trialed a handful of times, and, besides, I think her sister may have surpassed her, so she'll probably be third ) But, anyway, point being, we ALL feel we suck - some times we feel this a lot. Especially in the beginning. You would think this would make people quit, but to the contrary agility continues to be the fastest growing dog sport. Hm! But starting out...just bring your sense of humor, RELAX, and remember: no matter how awful you feel you're doing, somebody out there has done worse. I guarantee it. Heck, quite likely it was ME. The fact that she was looking to you towards the end means she's getting the fact that, yes, you're there for fun, but the fun is with you, not a free for all. That's huge. Having more advanced people in your class is always humbling. You're going to think you suck more than you actually do. (But the good news is that having people to watch who are further along will help you learn because you can watch a better proximity of how it should be done more often.) So though that's good from a learning point of view, in some ways it is easier when you're all at the same bumbling level and can laugh with each other. (We tease each other good naturedly in our classes, but we also cheer and clap when someone gets something they've been struggling with) The last thing I'm going to tell you is to remember that we all learn at different rates and we learn different things more easily than others. Our dogs are the same. I get a little cocky starting out because my dogs tend to (1) like to climb and be up high and (2) aren't generally bother by things moving under their feet. So they may feel comfortable on contacts pretty quickly compared to some dogs. On the other hand it's taken Luna an embarrassingly long time to realize she had to DUCK to go into the tunnel (don't ask <g>) Same thing with us handlers. You'll be going along and there will be something you're all learning that seems to come naturally to you while your class mates are struggling and you'll feel pretty proud of yourself till the next time you run into a learning wall and feel everyone else is getting it and you are a bumbling fool for sure. Nobody thinks any less of you. At least no one who has been down that road at least once Keep us posted! Kristine |
| I know how you feel, at our first agility class, we had one person who had already taken an agility class somewhere else, and a person who has tons and tons and tons of experience in agility, and then there's me, no experience at all! But we had fun, so it was all okay. |
| Thank you for the votes of confidence. It does help to see it all in perspective, and know that it is a gradual learning. I just felt so overwhelmed. Both of you are right, it is about the fun with the dog, bottom line. I just needed to hear it from someone here that its okay to be mindless in the beginning |
| Yes, it's a long, long learning curve in this sport. I was the newbie in Chewie and I's team (I swear all dogs are born with a leg up over us humans)...and THAT was biggest incentive to get better! I went home many nights after class wondering if I would ever get good enough to do my dog justice.... |
| Two classes in? I want to hear from you again after two years in. I'm five years in and though Simon is much better, I still suck. Front crosses, wait a minute...oh yeah, I remember those...thats the thing where I nearly fall on my a$$ and Simon sits there and laughs at me. The best is when Simon took me out at the knees and as I sat there on the ground, checking to make sure all body parts were still in working order, Simon came back to me and the instructor told me where I went wrong. The next try, I stayed on my feet, but still not good. I always wonder if I'm wasting time doing it again, and again, and again. If I can get through it with just one do-over, its a great day. People watch trials and think "oh I could do that" and than try it and realize its harder than it looks. Body positioning, crosses, front and back, remembering the course, its alot and its difficult. Above all, remember, its fun(most of the time). Its play time. And laugh, at the good and (OMG) not so good. P.S. Kristine, write that book. You had me belly laughing. |
Well at the risk of boring you......................TWO classes in   What everyone else said. And Tiggy ran away to play with other dogs a lot at first. Partly because she likes nothing better than to chase (someone, something, anything) but also because I was so busy bumbling that she got confused and bored. She hates to get stuff wrong, she's so smart she knows it was wrong sometimes even before I do, so she goes AWOL. It used to be physically but lately she's resorted (in desperation?) to entertaining herself by sniffing the ground, a lot. That gives you a hint at how bad I can be! Intense and prolonged sniffing of the ground is far more interesting than me the person who is supposed to be a) directing proceedings, b) fun and interesting, as I have the treats, the toys and the tugger. However I sympathise. I came home two weeks ago from class and sent an sms to my instructor informing her that I was a depressingly bad handler and listing the reasons. She messaged back the things that had gone well (not many on the day). I refused to be consoled so she (quite rightly) refused to continue the sms exchange. This week went quite well except for weave entries, but everyone agrees they're one of the hardest obstacles to learn so I'm only moderately depressed. The upside even if I'm never co-ordinated enough to compete is Tiggy and I have a much stronger bond as a result of training together and I love that. |
Thanks everyone! I needed a swift reality check. I just didn't realize that most everyone had a similar experience  So I guess the trainer is used to all this , which is a helpful realization. And any activity that strengthens the bond with Charm is so worth the pain. Actually looking forward to next week's class. |
| Brenda, Brenda, Brenda! You are on a journey that will take a while for you to achieve competence, never mind brilliance. I confess to taking a loooooong time getting comfortable with a front cross and an even longer time before doing it really well. Granted, there are some who are natural athletes and all of this comes easily to them. I am not one of them. I never was and I never will be. But I continue to improve and that makes me happy. I always do my best and have learned not to get down on myself if it doesn't go perfectly. It doesn't help the learning process and in fact it is counterproductive to improving. Relax and have fun. Know that you are not having any more difficulty than most of us in meeting the challenges (both physical and mental) that learning agility provides. BTW, some parts will be easier than others. For example, while I struggled with doing a front cross, rear crosses came naturally and never gave my any trouble. So you will be better at some things than others and some things will be easier for you. I figure as long as I am making forward progress (however slowly) and always giving my best to support my dog, I am a winner! Best regards, Linda Z |
Didn't find exactly what you're looking for? Search again here:
Custom Search
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|