In considering Jackie’s and my own educational odyssey, and comparing that to Gunner’s background, it occurs to me that the reason I thought agility was so easy when I first started with Gunner several months ago was due to our strong relationship. Gunner was nine years old and had been in my life four years before we ever took our first agility lesson. Gunner’s natural personality is a velcro dog; he was dialed in to me from the very beginning because of this trait. Our relationship allowed us to jump right in to agility, making it seem easy.
Jackie and I are still in the very early stages of developing our relationship. Jackie’s personality is friendly and easy with everyone she’s met, but it will take time for us to develop the deep bond that Gunner and I enjoy and that makes training feel seamless. Jackie’s personality is definitely more independent and patient; she is happy to quietly entertain herself with a chew bone or a good nap, or even just gazing interestedly at her environment, for long periods of time. Gunner is much more demanding of one-on-one interaction, and wants to be engaged with my full attention as much and as often as possible.
Gunner stays focused on me and my cues, yet is able to work independently using objects in the environment as cues (such as agility equipment, for example), and easily moves between focusing on me to independently focusing on his surroundings (like jumping up on a wall or walking up a narrow ramp), and back again.
Pacing, exposing her belly, remaining in one spot, walking away to lay down, staying inside her crate, are all signals Jackie is using to tell me our relationship needs more time to develop. It is interesting that in seemingly more distracting environments, such as while walking along the trafficked river trails, Jackie seems to enjoy training more. There is less direct pressure while traveling together along a trail versus when working alone in a fixed environment.
This week we are experimenting with playing in a variety of different places, including indoors at home, outdoors at home, and outdoors in different places. So far Jackie’s favorite place is along the trails while we are going for a stroll with her brothers. It is a very relaxed feeling we all share, and has the added bonus of being able to keep moving, sniffing and exploring between each behavior that we’re practicing.
Pearls:
- My endpoint of interest is a great relationship with my dog; education games, while fun, are secondary
- Gunner and I have a great relationship that has been forged over many years and countless interactions from spending a very great amount of time together
- Zero pressure games and education environments where Jackie volunteers to engage is my goal with Jackie as we continue to develop an august relationship
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