|
De-Stress Your Obedience Experience! Does your dog show at an obedience trial the same way they train? If not, then the answer is stress! Golden Retrievers are prone to stress and they usually exhibit it in one of two ways, either by slowing down or speeding up. The reason you don’t get the same performance at a trial that you do at home is very simple – it is you! Entering an obedience ring to show your dog can cause you to be very anxious. You are there for all the world to see just how well you have trained your dog, and you have spent a lot of money to get there (ie. gas, motel, entry fees). As we become anxious about what we are about to do, we experience symptoms such as sweating, fear, rapid heart beat and tremors or shaking. As you become anxious your eyesight sharpens, and your senses become more acute, which can actually be productive in making you ready to show, but if your anxiety continues as you step in the ring, all of these physical symptoms can cause your dog to wonder what the heck is wrong with you! As your dog senses that something is terribly wrong with its handler, it will revert to a response comfortable for the dog such as freezing to avoid the problem or flight, which is what you see when the dog starts the zoomies in the ring. Neither response from your dog, gives the almost 200 performance that you see when you are training. So it is up to us to control our anxiety so that we can demonstrate just how well we have trained our dogs and come home with that leg we went to the show to get. Handlers use many tricks to help themselves conquer the anxiety. A commonly known fact is that anxiety causes our saliva to dry up in our mouth, which in turn causes our breath to smell. A few breath mints prior to entering the ring will reduce this problem. Make it a ritual that you have those mints as a part of your routine just prior to entering the ring. Make sure that eat them prior to entering the ring though, as food in your mouth is not allowed, so don’t make the judge ask what you have in your mouth! Another good tip, taken from Olympic Dressage Rider Jane Savoie is to do mental imagery. If you tell yourself that your dog has a problem with slow recalls, your brain will focus on the words “slow recall” and guess what, that is exactly what your dog will do! Jane suggests that we put our “butterflies in order” by focusing our brain on positive aspects that our dog can do, “such as perfect attention to me while heeling!” See that in your brain, and your dog will get the subliminal message, resulting in getting just that in the ring. Smiling is another way to reduce your anxiety and if you can laugh out loud, even better. It is a proven fact that laughter will reduce stress. A big grin on your face will relax your facial muscles and will convey to your dog that obedience is something we enjoy. Deep breaths, slow and cleansing, just prior to entering the ring, will reduce your heart rate. These breaths must come from your diaphragm and your exhale of that deep breath must be slowly let out to be effective. Push the air out of your mouth as you exhale to achieve a deep cleansing breath. Certain drinks will help you keep your anxiety level down too. Water is good and keeps you hydrated. Coffee or other caffeinated drinks will speed up your heart rate and your anxiety. Green Tea is great for slowing down your system. They even make a iced green tea for summer. Achieving a performance in the ring that is anxiety free for you, will give you confidence that you can do it again another time. The more we are able to perform in a positive, stress free way, the more confidence we will have in our dog and ourselves. The pattern will be ingrained and repeated! |
|
|