Dog Community

Any Suggestions?

Posted : 9/26/2006 9:30:14 AM

Hi All!

I am new to this forum, wish I knew about this earlier!

I have 2 dogs currently (we are getting a 3rd around Christmas). I have a 9+ yr old golden retreiver, Maxine and a 3+ yr old black lab, Belle. These are my girls, I also have two horses they are my boys.

My big question that I am hoping to get some ideas from you all on is dog confidence. Not Max, but Bellle. Belle is a wonderful sweet HUGE lab. She is smart, we have been doing obedience (not show ring) for over 2 yrs, she participates in dock jumping competitons, and does agility. The problem is in all these activities she tends to shut down. She is an extremely energetic, vibrant, excited lab until we take her to class, or a competion. She becomes Eyore (as they call her affectionately at dog class). I don't know why she does this other than some confidence thing. She is NOT afraid of other dogs, in fact she loves the big free for alls she participates in from time to time. At obedience she becomes mellow, slow, introverted. At agility she does the same thing, and the trainer doesn't think she will be fast because she hardly ever shows speed at class. We started agility to increase her confidence. The dock jumping she loves, except when we go to a competion. She is great in practice, but won't jump at all once the competition starts. I know we may be transferring, we try to pump her up, get her excited because she becomes introverted, that probably triggers her, but if we don't it will be the same outcome. I do not care if my dog jumps big (her best is 17'11" over a year ago) I just want her to jump. Now she won't. We have stopped competing but I was wondering if anyone has ever experienced anything like this and has some suggestions.

We are planning to get a puppy, in part to give her a playmate and healthy competiton. Maxine plays a little still, but if Belle wants the toy she lets her take it. Perhaps if the puppy likes agility and dock jumping it will perk Belle up again. She is always a strong handful on walks, at the park. She LOVES to run fast, but no one thinks she can because she only shows it to us at home.

Please pass on any and all thoughts. Oh by the way she has been to a vet and we ruled out health issues. She is a tiny bit heavy, the vet says she needs to lose about 5 lbs. Belle stands 27" and weighs about 100 lbs. I said she was huge, I wasn't kidding. She is a pure bred papered lab.

Thanks
Ann

corvus

Posted : 9/26/2006 8:21:44 PM

What kind of training methods have you been using? Sometimes dogs decide they don't like corrections and therefore they don't much like organised competitions and dog sports. How do you behave with her when you're at a comp? Are you tense at all?

Maxs Mom

Posted : 9/27/2006 7:02:31 AM

I would like to say that "no I am not nervous", but as I said we do change our behavior to try to amp her up so I think that feeds to her knowing something is up. The last event we went to was the most obvious. The way the pool was set up, and where the pop up tents were, we would go behind the tents to play with Belle and her dock toy. She was running, jumping, retrieving showing her normal side. We purposely tried to keep her away from the dog line so she would not back off. When she was one dog out from her turn on the dock we walked up. As soon as she passed the pop ups she shut down as if a switch was flipped. I don't think she is scared of the pool, but she may be of the anxious barking dogs waiting for their turn, but I do not know.

We thought about running her in a CPE agility event but when this happened we decided it would probably not be in our best interest to pay all the entry fees, hotel room, and travel expenses to find out she shuts down there too.

When we set the agility course at home, or go to the local practice dock she is WILD! and shows she loves it. It is something with the the competition (I think). One other thing, where we go for out weekly obedience class, is a kennel. So just the other side of the "big door" are plenty of barking dogs. That is why I wonder if all the barking stresses her out. She is not a big barker and my golden never barks. I wonder if the tone of the barks causes her to stress and become invtroverted? If so what can a girl do?

Worst case scenario, my dog can't compete and I have a wonderful pet. So it is not the end of the world. I do think she likes to do this and go places if I could only figure out what bothers her, and how to help her overcome it. For the record, she is NOT loud noise phobic. Thunderstorms, fireworks, gunshots do not bother her in the least. However my golden is another story...

Thanks
Ann

mudpuppy

Posted : 9/27/2006 8:01:20 AM

I'd suggest trying some "fun matches" , not the real thing, and see how she does with that. She's almost certainly stressing, either in response to your nerves or just the trial environment. Or just go to a trial environment and hang out and have fun.

Mandy

Posted : 9/27/2006 8:41:52 PM

I used to do obedience with Sergeant (my doberman). In the classes he did great and loved it, but when I took him to competition he would shut down and not really do anything I asked. I stoped doing competition obedience with him. I too would get him excited before we went in the ring and then the moment we went in the ring he would shut down. I am not sure what you can do, some dogs just hate the ring and some love it. Sergeant hated it and I didn't want to put him through all that stress anymore. Now he is just my beloved companion, the first reason why I got him. Belle may never get over the ring/competition stress and if I were you I wouldn't put her through anymore. Just do fun stuff at home with her. It sounds like you have lots of room (since you have horses). I still do all the obedience stuff with Sergeant at home and without all the stress and he loves it. As long as he is happy doing it that is all that matters to me.