stress in show ring

Hello everyone,
I am hoping someone has some obedience advice for my pug Norton. He has his utility title and I thought I would maybe get a few legs on the UDX title this year. When I went in the show ring he dropped his tail,ears and attitude. At practice he is amazing. When we earned the UD we were also HIT. I took a about 16 months off to run some agility but still threw in some signals or articles now and then. I am upbeat when I train and leave the treats out of the ring. I don't know if this is just a test he is giving me or should I push threw this. Any advice would be great.

Sally

No advice but good to see you here. My grandson used to go on the hockey bus with you and Norton. I've visited with you a couple of times at various dog events. Glad you joined here.

Sorry I don't have any advice and I don't think there is anyone on the forum doing full-on agility with their Pugs. I think Blanche/Northern Witch has done some with her Pom - maybe she might be a good starting point.

Hi Sally,

I have zero experience with competitive obedience, but I've been pretty competitive in agility for awhile (5 different dogs).

Stress is hard, it's hard to figure out what's causing it and it's even harder to figure out how to deal with it.

number one, make sure it's not you.....a lot of the time it's us. We are different at competitions than in training. Even if you're not "nervous" you can be different than you usually are. Work on your own mental game. There are a lot of books on the subject.

Does the trial environment itself cause stress? My most accomplished, most steady dog in the ring cannot be crated inside the building. She has to be in her crate in the car, she has her routine and if it gets altered in the slightest, I start to lose her. She really hates indoor trials, and if she's given too much time to worry about all the dogs, noise, people etc she just melts, but if her keep where it's quiet and just ask her to lie down until it's time to go in the ring she's amazing!

Are you familiar with "calming signals" watch for them in your dog, yawning, lip licking etc are all signals dogs use to calm themselves and those around them. Avoid a lot of overt eye contact and give those same signals back to your dog, indirect gaze, yawn etc.

Do you have a routine that works in training, try to maintain that in competition.

Some dogs need it to be very quiet before they go in the ring, just ask them to sit quietly others need to be jazzed up a little, play little games. I play "I got your feet" with one of mine. She lies down and I say I'm gonna get you!" and tickle at her foot. She loves it! Sometimes teaching simple tricks like hand touches are great stress relievers. Some like doing tricks or playing tug.

sorry this ended up so long, but it's a subject I've dealt with and am still working through with one pug. It's the hardest part of being successful in the ring in my opinion. The actual training is easy in comparison.

I was hoping that Jesse would respond as my agility work with my pom wasn't competitive. I did do some competitive obedience with my border collies, however. Most of mine loved the work, but I had two over the years that hated it.

It's a personal choice, but I decided not to "push" through it with either dog. It was clearly a stressful environment for them and made them dislike the work so I just stopped competing with them. It was never important enough for me to do obedience competitively to continue on when it was pretty clear that their stress levels were increasing at every event rather than decreasing. And BCs can be pretty wired to begin with.

Ah, the mental game that I play in my head. I go thru a routine at every time I go to an agility trial. I have been listening to Lani Bashams Mentel preparedness tape and It does help me focus. Our agility is amazing for a pug. In the Ob ring I stay calm as I grew up showing horses and am quite comfortable in front of judges. It is just one persons opinion is how I see it.

I will watch for his pre-ring nerves. The agility shows really excite him and maybe just the hushness in obedience is a downer. The last show I did play some games to get him up and it did work but as soon as he stepped in the ring he went depressed like. Practice is always fun. As you know pugs can be clowns and he has fun.

I will give it a few more trys before I throw in the towel for the UDX. I don't really want to do Rally until I am done with this level. I think I would repeat the comands and I can't do that in utility.

Thanks for all your help.

Sally,Norton & Otto