Vito USDAA
USDAA trial for the Toller! Summary- not his happiest trial weekend.
Saturday
Gamblers- NQ
Saddish Toller. Needed lots of cheer leading to run despite the fact that I even did 2 dog walks for him in the opening! Gamble was pretty straight forward, but Vito couldn't go far enough out to get the aframe in the a/tunnel discrimination and took the easier tunnel.
Standard- NQ http://youtu.be/UzxRigUZHDQ
MUCH happier Toller! Nice speed and we nailed the part I was worried about by doing a fun blind cross after the dogwalk to turn and avoid the tunnel trap! And then I thought I picked up Vito but he snuck behind me to take a bonus dogwalk. On the positive side he had two lovely running dogwalks!
Grand Prix- NQ
Another happy Toller run! He was moving faster and I wasn't able to get in a second front cross so was forced to rear cross the jump before the dogwalk. Sadly Vito turned right immediately I said switch and got a refusal as he didn't do the jump first. Not a new problem with him, especially in trials where he doesn't like rear crosses. But he still nailed the turn off the dogwalk to a tunnel vs taking what was in front of him. And then oddly came back out of the tunnel entrance he went in...
Sunday
Tired all day.
Fancy Jumpers
I entered Fancy Jumpers for the first time! Really only because of "biathlon" I can no longer enter Fancy Standard without also doing it's jumping friend. The course was tough but Vito actually did a phenomenal job! Slower speed but overall a very good attitude for Jumpers, especially with the 2 backsides in a row. We actually made it clean through the second to last obstacle and then while he actually did a serp on a single jump (a hard move for Vito!) he cut behind me to take an off course. I was planning on getting a front cross in after 16 but wasn't far enough ahead(!) and wanted to avoid the tighter wrap in favor of being able to jump long on 17.
Jumpers
Oh my. Saddest Toller of all time. Knocked like 3 bars and then skipped a jump at the end and then were over time. This is what I'm talking about when I mean Sad:
Fancy Standard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnyWCeXdyV4
Improvement. Started slow, but then picked up speed, espcially after his dogwalk. Unfortunately due to a standoff in front of a jump in the beginning (and actuall not a refusal as he never turned away) we were over time by .21 seconds.
Standard:
Best run of the day. Actually ran a bit. But knocked the first bar to complete our 0/7 weekend.
Zumi
Zumi came along and was a champ! Back to eating her food in public! Also lost yet another tooth.
Awww. Do you think sad Toller is from anxiety or maybe boredom? He just doesn't seem interested in it at all in the Jumpers. :( I hope you find his motivation soon because I know it has to be discouraging to have a trial like that. Good for you sticking with it!
I think Sad Toller is combination of
1. a little general anxiety (although overall he seems very comfortable now in the agility ring and no more bar setter/judge/etc worries!)
2. Not naturally loving to run. He's much more of a sniffer on walks than liking to do the zoomies. Unlike the corgi and the Duck who both seem to love to run.
3. Low work ethic. Very much a "what's in it for me" type of dog. That being said, he is highly obsessive so a lot of people think he is very driven as he LOVES his rewards and can fool me/others easily. That was a trap I fell into several years ago of showing him his reward up front to draw energy from, but it backfired. In a trial Vito knows there is no reward in the ring. Jackpot style training is helping a lot, but still hard for Vito.
As long as Vito seems to be having a good time we're sticking with it and I'm going to continue my education. Sad Toller runs are thankfully not the norm anymore. He's not always Running Toller, but I've had to learn to become OK with that and just become super excited when he does choose to Run in a trial.
Ooooh okay! That makes sense! He had me fooled too. I totally thought he was a high drive dog. That's why I was surprised to see how lack luster he was in that video. Thanks for explaining it for me. :D