Duke’s Agility Diary part 3

Before our third agility class, I had been practising Duke’s mat work and some pattern games in the hope of helping him feel more settled in the class. Our mat work practise in particular has been going really well. This is something I’ve done regularly with Duke since he was a puppy and he knows it very well. As soon as I place his mat on the ground he immediately lies down on it. Unfortunately this didn’t transfer to class very well!

Getting to agility class

When we first arrived at the class, Duke was quite happy to walk into the field and we walked around the equipment to let him get used to it again. After a couple of minutes it was like he realised where he was and immediately asked to leave. So we went into the adjoining field and he immediately relaxed, running around and doing his happy rolls. I gave him a few minutes to do this and then we started to walk back towards the agility field. We got about 10 metres away from the entrance and Duke put the brakes on and stared at me. It was a hard no from him. 

Mat work

This wasn’t a total surprise so I thought to myself, ok let’s just play some games on the other side of the gate and see what he thinks. I got his mat out and he wouldn’t go anywhere near it. I’ve never seen Duke seem to completely ignore his mat like this before and it’s such a well practised skill. Of course, he wasn’t ignoring it. He was telling me he didn’t feel safe enough to lie down and engage with me. I offered him a small long lasting chew, which I was pleased to see he was able to chew on and finish. As soon as he finished his chew, he walked further away from me and the entrance to the agility field. He walked around a fence and poked his head round and looked at me. 

Something to bear in mind with Duke is that he has separation anxiety. No matter how stressed out he gets, he won’t go that far away from me. Previously that has meant he would act aggressively towards me when stressed, rather than leave my side. If I walked into the agility field at the moment, he likely would have followed me. But he would have been conflicted. This was when I decided I wasn’t going to try to go in again. It could not have been clearer that he  absolutely was not comfortable with the situation and didn’t want to be there. So I packed our stuff up and walked into the adjoining field. As soon as we got there, Duke did a big shake off. 

What we did instead

So instead of participating in agility class, we went for a walk around the fields. This gave me an opportunity to think about what a great adventure buddy Duke is. We’d never been in those fields before, but Duke was engaged with me, never ran further than 20-30 metres away and waited for cues from me when we approached stiles. He showed no interest in the pheasants we saw or horses in the next field. He just mooched around, sniffing and doing his happy rolls in the long grass. I bought out the mat a few times and he was more than happy to immediately lie down on it, confirming that it was the proximity to the class he was stressed by.

Living with Duke

I won’t be taking Duke back to agility as it’s clearly not for him and I don’t want to risk losing his trust in me. It’s a shame and I can’t deny that I did feel a bit embarrassed that he wouldn’t even go into the field with me. Having a dog with big feelings can be hard! It made me think of all my lovely clients whose dogs are reactive or fearful and the embarrassment I know they feel at times too.

There is a lesson that living with and training Duke continues to teach me. Sometimes you get what you need, but not what you want. I wanted a dog I could do agility with, but I needed a dog who would continually teach me that the thing our dogs need most is to feel safe. Without that trust, everything else is irrelevant. 

What next?

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