Understanding Pressure and Young Dogs

This past week, I took Brisco to ASCA Nationals in Winnemucca, NV. He did exceptionally well; however, at one point, he was completely overwhelmed, and I thought it might be helpful to discuss what happened, his emotions as I interpret them, and my emotions, and why I made the choices I did, and most importantly, how we all can learn to do better by our young dogs.

First, Brisco is a three year old Aussie. To most people, this would not be considered a young dog, but ask most folks doing advanced training with their dogs and they'll nod, and say, 'yep, that's a young dog'. In herding, we're building our dogs from about one year old when we put them on sheep until we finally get the dog we want at 4, 5, or 6 years old.

Brisco has been traveling and trialling now for over a year and a half. He's moved up quickly in herding from Novice, to Open, and to Advanced. Even though we don't own ducks, he seems to do fairly well with them and has never not had a qualifying run on them. Until last week, when he NQd twice in a row.

So, what happened? I have no idea. That's the challenge of sports involving animals, they can't tell us. I can say that he didnt seem to like the super tall guy wearing bright camoflage doing the set-out, nor did he like that side of the arena. I don't think he liked the ducks either. They were tall, and active, so maybe that was new...? We were also in a small grassy square completely enclosed on both sides by large steel buildings that filtered the sunlight out and the truck noise from I80 in.

Whatever the case, it was a wreck from the start. He wouldnt go get them, he started eating grass in driveby gulps, he kept looking confused and winging everwhere but where I asked. Yes, we got the ducks moving, and yes they were moving in the right direction, but it wasn't the picture I expect from this dog.

He lost the ducks at the top corner where they were tricky for everyone, and he would not, could not take them back up. I thanked the judge and called my run.

Here's how I felt: Frustrated and Mad! This dog knew better! I had a super dog with great training, and he was acting like an absolute idiot! He was embarrassing me in front of the biggest names in stock dogs in his breed.

How Brisco felt (I imagine) Stressed, confused, worried.

What I did: I took him back to the car, I popped him into the back seat, took down his crate, and drove us both to a nearby trail and took us both for a walk.

First, I had to reel in my emotions. Brisco never does anything wrong if he can help it. He does great on ducks. So, something happened to upset him, and it was my job to acknowledge that and help him, and remember, he's still young, and this is a big new place, and he has a right to be worried or out of sorts.

Then I had to support him, because even though I pointledly did not let my anger and frustration show, there is no way he didn't see it and feel it, and I needed him to know he was alright, and that we were good. So we played games, and laughed and ran around, and acted silly.

And the next day when we entered the duck arena again, and he was better but still really off, I pulled him again. This time fully aware of his stress, no longer upset or frustrated. Instead, I was simply acknowledging his right to feel how he feels, and to know that here and now was not the place to try and address whatever was going on.

We have to challenge our dogs. We have to sometimes ask more of them than they have. We have to ask them to exceed expectations. But sometimes, we have to acknowledge that here, and now, we asked too much; that failure is our fault, that our dogs are here for us, and if we've put in the work, and put in the miles, and they don't show up like we thought they should, then we need to give them space, and put in more work and more miles.

There's no such thing as a dog trained in 6 classes, or a month, any more than there is such a thing as a thirty day horse. Timelines like these set us up for failure and conflict. Yes, our college student should be able to handle the advanced load that comes with their age, but sometimes they can't and we need to step up, and own our job as trainers, guardians, and leaders.