Despair

That was my feeling while driving home on Saturday after the USDAA trial.

Vito had a few pros:
- He didn't fixate on anyone or react to anyone.  Even when kids were running by he remembered that he actually likes people.
- I got him to yell at me on every start line.
- Great dogwalk and aframe contacts

But had a lot more cons:
- He ran dirt slow and he got slower on each of his 3 runs on Saturday.  By the 3rd run on Saturday I actually ran on the outside of one jump and on a wrap I even ran past the plane of the jump just so I could continue my forward motion long enough for him to take the jump.  Weaves were the slowest.
- It was hard getting him up to engage with me on our warm ups.  Even for his tennis ball he was not super thrilled.

I didn't know what to think.  There are plenty of dogs who never sprint around the course and minus a few exceptions, they look happy.  There are even many people who really want that calm (and usually consistent) dog and never encourage their dog to break out of a trot or gallop.  But that's not my personal vision of agility.  I want speed and enthusiasm and am happy to take some off courses while we are learning to read each other.

Vito will never be a blazingly fast dog, but he used to run for me in practice.  Then he slowly started to have a few days here and there where he wasn't so speedy.  Now days the slower days are happening more frequently even in practice.  Usually if I can get a good warm up and barking at the start line he does well.  If not, I can almost always get a fast Vito after that first reward.  And if we are by ourselves he runs like a champion.

So as I drove home on Saturday I was in tears as I contemplated letting agility join obedience in retirement at Vito's 3.5 years of age.  Certainly disc will be joining them as well after this summer's experiment.

On Sunday I tried a new warm up plan; I brought along a disc.  When I first pulled it out Vito jumped on me and then remembered that he's not idiotic and brainless at agility trials.  He remained focused but calm as we walked over to the ring entrances/warm up area and when I found there was a huge delay he quietly lied down.  When I was ready to start getting him excited, Vito was very up but kept his wits about him instead of turning into a screaming idiot.  We tugged on it and threw a few short rollers.  Going into the ring seemed pretty comparable to Saturday, which I felt was good both days.  I got him to bark at me again and he seemed focused.  On our standard run he even did his reverse chest vault when I just asked him to put his paws on me during a small delay.

Our runs were better.  They weren't fast and he still weaved very slowly, but it was a huge improvement from Saturday.  Again he loved his dogwalk's and aframe's and gained speed after them with his running contacts.  I am so grateful that I don't have to try to get him up after stopped contacts! 

But I still don't know where to go from here and I don't know why we're struggling.  Vito does not seem stressed in any way just hanging out at trials or practice.  He is content to relax and even sleep in his crate.  Out of his crate he is calm and even if he does fixate on a person (which is still pretty rare) he recovers very quickly.  Trials are like a second home for Vito, unlike when he goes over to someone house and completely overloads with excitement, or even when goes to work with me and decides that just the environment is stressful.  So why has this been an issue for us and what should I do from here on?

Other facts to judge thee giving of advice:
- I've done complete training breaks.  We don't really train at all anymore anyways, just once a week in class and maybe 5min after Lance's class.
- We don't compete that often and mainly do one day shows, averaging about 1 trial a month.
- He's not running fast, but he isn't walking or even trotting.   I don't have YPS for this last trial, but usually when he's feeling slow but accurate he's about 3.5-4.5yps and fast for him is between 5-6.2YPS at a trial.  It's not the numbers that concern me, it's the large difference between them.