Duke’s agility diary part 2

On our way to the class, Duke seemed really excited and keen to get there. He pulled on the lead on the track up to the agility field, which he usually only does when he’s excited to get somewhere. However, within a couple of minutes of being in the field he asked to leave. That is, he walked towards the gate and just stared at it until I opened it and let him go through. As soon as he was on the other side of the gate he immediately relaxed. I cue’d him to have a run and he happily ran around the adjoining field with his trademark waggy bum. He was happily rolling around in the grass and sniffing, then lying down and looking at me to wait for a cue. 

Like last time, he asked to go back into the agility field after a couple of minutes of free running. We sat at the back of the class and played some games with food. Unlike a lot of dogs, Duke will always take food regardless of how stressed he is so that’s not an indicator of how he’s feeling. We took our turn on the jumps but in between each jump Duke went off into the field to sniff the ground. I think this was a displacement behaviour rather than genuinely being distracted by a smell. He is a typical sniffy Spaniel but rarely gets distracted by smells whilst actively training. After our turn on the jumps Duke asked to leave again. We went back into the field for one more turn on the jumps and whilst he was able to do it, his heart wasn’t really in it. I didn’t ask him to go back into the agility field after that. To me, it couldn’t have been clearer that he just wasn’t enjoying it. 

Making a plan

I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is about the class that Duke couldn’t cope with. When interacting with the other dogs and people, he seems fine and these are not usually an issue for him. I think it’s the class environment as a whole that he finds overwhelming. Immediately after the class I thought that we would need to abandon it altogether and not take Duke back again. Fortunately, the lovely April messaged me after class with some ideas as to how we could increase Duke’s confidence and help him enjoy it a bit more. 

It was really useful to get April’s insights and she suggested some great ideas. We will be practising Duke’s mat work and doing some pattern games outside of the class environment. These are things I literally do everyday with other dogs! For some reason I didn’t even think about giving these a go with Duke, despite us having done a lot of this in the past. As April rightfully pointed out, sometimes we just need someone else to point these things out to us. I probably won’t take Duke to class next week but I will go to class as a spectator. I can then have a think about how we can best set Duke up for success without actually worrying about how he’s doing. Also, I’m really keen to learn more agility because I’m a big ole dog training nerd!

Listening to my dog and respecting his wishes is the best thing I can do for our relationship. I am really proud of Duke for communicating his feelings without feeling the need to escalate his behaviour to aggression towards me. This has previously been an issue for us. I do feel hopeful that we can help Duke enjoy the agility class, but if he isn’t into it, that’s fine too. We’ll see how it goes over the next few weeks and of course, I’ll keep you posted!

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