Entering a dog show

[Stacy]

So, the Rally people suggested to me that I should enter Maggie in the show that's coming up at the end of August. They have Rally on Friday, so we could actually do that one day. But I'm looking at the premium. It's 60 pages long and I'm totally overwhelmed. I skimmed it, but because there's so much of it that's practically a foreign language, I didn't try to read it in depth. It's a whole cluster of shows. There are no times listed for anything (and don't even get me started on the entry form. I'm not smart enough to fill it out. 

It says the show is from 8am-11pm. With no times, how do you even know when to be there? Or where to be. Or what to do. I don't think it's even the Rally course that makes me so nervous. It's all the logistics surrounding it that I'm not sure about. How does a person navigate their first dog competition? Add to that the fact that I'm terrible at talking to strangers and asking for help (except from you guys, I'm all about your help!) and I'm a total disaster!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Well, if it's the same kennel name, she was born on Jasper's first birthday, January 11th 2019. They share a very famous great-grandfather. 

[Stacy]

I thought of you the first time I saw her. Her mom was the evaluator for Maggie's trick title. I did a tiny bit of investigation and there she was with Amy. I guess the world of dog sports is small.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I think that's Absolute Silver Reflection at TJ-ROC, call name "V". And her mom is Terri. 

[Stacy]

That's the one!

There are quite a few poodles in the club. All three sizes. I would not have guessed that we had that many poodles in this area. I don't just run into them out and about.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I was surprised how many of Amy's dogs are owned by dog trainers and performance pros. And poor Jasper just has me. At least I know how to feed him properly, lol. 

[Stacy]

Poor Jasper my behind. He has a wonderful life. Terri seems like a really nice lady, I don't know her well. But the lady who taught Willow's beginner class is a drill sergeant. I don't know if I would want to be one of her dogs. Maybe I'm wrong, and she's super sweet to the dogs, but she was not nice to any of the humans in that class. I do much better with positive reinforcement and I felt like she just kept calling us stupid. So I tried harder and the harder I tried the worse I got. I do felt like I learned things, but it was so demoralizing that it was a struggle to keep going. I kept telling myself that we had to finish so we could move on. We started with 12 or 13 dogs and we ended with 5. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

A couple of the trainers who own Jasper's relatives are "balanced" trainers, which means they are not purely positive. One of them I have no use for. However, the other one has put more titles on her dog than probably any other Miniature Poodle in this country, including (but not limited to) an OTCH, an RACH, a UDX9, and was just invited to the AKC 2019 Obedience Classic,  Masters class.  I respect results. :)

[Stacy]

I would say that the kennel club uses balanced training. I see many prong collars and just as many treats and so much praise. What I don't see are harsh corrections or people yelling at their dogs. The dogs all look happy to work and happy to be with their people. The training collars are just training collars. The goal being to teach the dogs and get them off those collars - you can't show in a training collar. You also tragically can't have treats in the ring. 

I think pure positive is hard. How do you ever teach them what not to do? I know the philosophy is just to train a replacement behavior, but I think sometimes you just need to tell them no. I suspect that most of the dog show people would be considered balanced trainers. I don't have anything to back that up though. 

We're never going to be really competitive. But I just love seeing how happy Maggie is when we go. I really want to see what we can do with that.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I agree with you. I also think training methods need to be tailored to the individual dog. JD was a dog who needed and responded to pure positive only. But that's rare.

[GBK]

This is so very sad.....  People get nervous when put on the spot like that trainer does.  No wonder so many left.

There are lot's of little easy tricks to get our dogs used to doing the stations correctly.  To get your dog to do a correct sit, down, stand at your side, work them against a wall, isle, or anything that prevents them from doing these crooked.  Little steps back for the finish left and come fronts will lead them into position easier.  As they learn you can ease into only voice or hand commands.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

That is terrible :(  I don't understand people who choose to teach others but seem to have no respect for their students or their feelings.  Makes me angry.  I never tell my students they aren't capable (or call them names), let alone in front of other students.  All that would do is distract them from the learning and as you said demoralize them and remove motivation.

Positive, constructive criticism works way better.  

[Stacy]

It's hard, because they are volunteer instructors. So I give them credit for that. But I think she forgot this was a beginner class. And that the majority of people in the class don't want to compete, they just want a dog with good house manners. I think her critiques would have been better received in a Utility class or something. And I think she's more blunt and outspoken than really trying to be mean, though that's not what it felt like at the time. 

The class was too big to start with. I think with beginner they should stay smaller, but it's the more advanced classes that are usually smaller because most people don't go beyond the beginning training. There was a dog who got out of his muzzle and attacked another dog the very first night - and freaked me out. If that had been Willow I don't know what I would have done.

There were just a lot of people who had no idea what to do with a dog. Willow looked really good in this class. But for people who adopt dogs who aren't puppies this would be the very first class they take. I imagine this would be a very difficult class to teach. It ranges from first time owners with troubled dogs to show people with a new adolescent. 

Contrast that with the instructor for the advanced beginner class we just started. She's soft and kind and encouraging. We've only been the first week, but it seems like she finds something to praise. Praise feels so good. I can take constructive criticism. I know we're far from perfect, but the flip side is that you have to find something to tell us we are doing right.

I just feel bad for the people who will never come back because of this class. I wanted to tell them, they're not all like this! I've had some absolutely amazing instructors here. I credit Maggie's first instructor with getting us over the hump. We had not bonded and things weren't going fabulously and whatever happened in that class turned everything around. And it's the same beginner class that Willow just took. It was a totally different experience.