Sheepdog training/trialling can be an emotional roller coaster. This is so with any sport where animals are involved.
It can bring us to tears of joy or despair.
I used to train horses, and my mood usually coincided with how well my horse was going.
Sometimes there was a problem you just couldn’t get past or find a solution for. So it played on your mind. Usually, after some time, you found a way to work through it, and in doing so, you learned something.
Some issues can take a while to get sorted. Lack of experience in dealing with them can make it worse. However, once we have found a solution that works and understood what we did to help fix it then it is a step forward in our training.
Some issues may not be fixable, but we can manage them the best we can. The trick is to be aware of them. Don't get upset if, because of them the dog did not produce his best work, or the sheep took advantage of the situation, or perhaps we were not at our best either and failed to manage the issue as well as we should have.
This is normal and is life. No person or dog will ever get it right all the time.
Dogs are good at reading our mental state, and most of us act differently at a trial than we do at home, so we need to take this into account and try to keep our cool. (Not an easy thing especially if you get to the pen on a good score and then the wheels fall off. )
Nerves is something most triallers deal with all the time, especially in big events or in finals.
I’ve found the best way is not to fight it, just go with it, accept that you get nervous and do your best regardless. You are only competing against yourself, it doesn’t really matter what people think.
We all want to succeed, but some people are a lot more competitive, and some are happy at a certain level. The worst thing we can do is to get too competitive too early. Otherwise, we will be disappointed. No-one can win all the time.
Once you start trialling and you are out in the public eye you must be prepared for some criticism.
It doesn’t matter how good your dog is, or is likely to be, if he messes up on the day then he will get criticized. It is usually not a personal thing but just an observation of your dog on that day on those sheep. At the last trial you may have had some success, but at this one you can’t even get a score. That’s just trialling.
Criticism can be hurtful, even though there would not be a person trialling who has not had some sort of a train wreck at some point in their career. The trick is to not dwell on it.
I was always told, that after a bad run, you have ten minutes to whinge and moan about it, then you must forget it and move on.
If it’s a training issue, then we have something to work on at our next training session. Perhaps the sheep just did not suit your dog. Being aware of this is important. If you can observe the sheep, and think, ‘well, they will probably be too tough for my dog, but we will give it a go.’ Then you will be less inclined to blame the dog or the sheep or your handling skills. If the dog tried his best that’s all you can ask.
Dogs also have off days, like we do, so cut them some slack if you can see they are not working up to par.
If you stuffed up and gave a wrong command, or didn’t read the situation properly, then yes, it is your fault, but thinking on the spot is not always easy. We have a saying for people who don’t get it right. “I wouldn’t have done that” said in a light-hearted manner. Sometimes we have to keep a sense of humor, as it is not an easy sport.
Everyone has bad times, and in trial after trial nothing goes right, and the harder we try the worse it gets. Best to shrug the shoulders and just do our best and see what happens. Like in any sports, getting through the bad patches is not easy.
Trialling is a sport where anything can happen, at any time. With so many minds out there that we can’t control, the best we can do is observe what the sheep are doing, note if our dog is listening, and if the weather has any impact, or the ground, or our state of mind. Some things are out of our control, some are not. If it has all gone pear shaped, then call it a day. There is always another trial..
