Class,
So you know, as I've stated already, EVERY dog will have its Point of Contention (where it refuses to do the retrieve work) and EVERY student will hit their own, "This isn't worth the effort, I quit!" point. Happens in every Retrieve Class. I remember wanting to quit with Sugar at Lesson 2 when he WOULD NOT OPEN HIS MOUTH. Margot corrected him, in a way I refuse to do with ANY dog, and he opened his mouth. We got through Lesson 2 as that was Sugar's Point of Contention. When we got to the "Hold" part of the retrieve training process, I was the one that wanted to quit as it was WAY harder than I thought it should be.
All of this is being shared with you so each of you recognize the process to train an inexperienced handler with their FC trained dog is a journey, not a destination. It is what happens between the handler and their dog that makes this training process so time consuming as well as mentally stressful. It is also this training PROCESS (meaning NOT automatic nor easy nor simple), that creates the handler and their dog into a working team.
Instead, it often looks and feels like this:
As long as you hang WITH me, there is always a way for a handler and their dog to succeed, just it doesn't look like the same journey for any team. So, Alice/Mabel - breathe and know we'll get the two of you through where you are stuck right now. And Chris/Sarah - breathe and know that I'll get the two of you through where you are stuck right now, get you working on Sarah's right side, and experience success. I've never had a single Retrieve Class were all the teams got through each lesson at the same time, not one time. Each team, handler and their dog, work at their own level of understanding and newly acquired skills and we build on that with each EXAM.
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| So, you may be feeling like this#$#! |
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| Or you may be feeling like this. |
Roxanne
Thank you so much for this post. You have no idea how timely it was. It was exactly what I needed to hear at this point in time. This week the 6” fetch has been particularly challenging. Reading your post was so encouraging and gave me hope, especially where you wrote, “Rarely is this retrieve training process linear, predictable
ReplyDeleteand ever upward.” So true. As in the FC, there are times when I just want to throw up my hands and walk away. I feel inept and fear that I’m ruining Molly by doing it all wrong. I get frustrated with myself and experience anxiety thinking about having to submit an exam at the end of the week. Then I remember Roxanne saying, “you and Molly are a team.” That completely changes my mind set. As a team we need to work together and I need to help Molly succeed. I need to take a step back and breathe! Then, through each week as we practice, it gets a little smoother and I catch my mistakes a little more often and a little quicker (taking videos of our training sessions helps with that). So, I’m going to hang in there in the retrieve course because I know, in the end, it is well worth all the blood, sweat and tears (well, no blood has been shed but there has definitely been sweat and tears). I also have to say if it weren’t for the support and patience of Roxanne, I may have quit a long time ago. She is a great trainer and coach. She wants her students to succeed and cheers us on! So, if you feel discouraged or that it’s all too hard, take a step back, relax and realize this is going to stretch you in ways you’ve never been stretched before and that’s a good thing!