Try!

Started this thought 2 months ago and never finished it...life has been busy! Dog injuries, illness, work, general craziness in life-all can eat up your time. Now that things are quieting down a bit, even with dark coming earlier each day-getting a bit more time to train the dogs, enjoy a gorgeous New England Fall and filter out unnecessary things. 
Try! is about keeping going and focusing ahead to joy, even as roadblocks are thrown in your way...adversity and criticism can be motivators to build more Try!, unless you let them get you down...
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One of the qualities I love most in a dog, is Try! A dog who has Try! will often keep working towards completing one of the tasks we ask of them, or they are the pup who doesn't quit trying to get a rolled ball or treat out from behind a cabinet...the relentless ones. Some Try! very calmly, others are very obvious and overt. Sort of like the difference in introverts and extroverts in people-there are the boisterously loud "look at me's" and the quiet focused intense ones, with most of us and our dogs somewhere in between. 

Competing requires Try! If you don't climb the mountain, how can you see the view? I think most serious competitors are pretty much in their heads and quiet about it to the point of seeming aloof, they are working on their mental management/nerves/plan prior to a run, game, competition...saving small talk for afterwards.  I am always interested in watching those people. I am also interested in the dogs like that too, ready to work on a moment's notice, they don't waste energy with frantic displays and excitement as they wait.

For some dogs balancing Try! with remaining focused and calm is a skill they learn as we help them get there, as they mature. I have learned not to overdo Impulse control-too much of it and we teach a dog to always ask us "please" and wait for us, rather than having some natural Try! and Go on their own. I don't want a pup leaking drive out of their tonsils and body while excited, but don't want a calm robot either. Each pup I realize I "should have done" certain things, I shut them down too much with calm and some need more building of Try!, while others need to be brought down to earth and relax...live and learn. 

Working on the skill of waiting at a trial some with Zinc, as he is still a baby head in many ways while waiting and we worked on this a lot when he was a baby, but as he has trained in class and started to compete he is all business when we step to the line. This past weekend and the one before we ran in a totally new place, new footing, BIG place and just lots of energy swirling around under one roof. Our first day of entry was to see what we have. No expectations, but to see how he handled new equipment, getting up at 3:30 AM for a long drive, walking into a new place and would our relationship/training/skills/life socialization hold up? 

Zinc has a lot of Try! He is a big Mama's boy! He Tries for me! I didn't even have to ask him the question of are you "ok here? " in this new big venue. He held perfect startlines (which are a very good indicator of stress level and previous training & I think I finally trained it well 😄) nailed his weaves in every run and had on his game face of "let's do this!" He thinks it is a game, because it is, we always have fun regardless of the Q. He is my sensitive boy in many ways, but oozes Try! 

To some Try! is synonymous with Drive. I think it is a Verb all it's own. A dog can have plenty of drive or speed, but not have the ability to work through frustration or keep trying when asked to, or is stressing high and flying off contacts or slews bars left and right as they speed up and lose their minds, etc. (have had dogs like that!)  But calm and focused doesn't always mean Try! if they don't explode off the start with "OK"...so I want that too. 

I think you can build Try! in a dog in the same way we build resiliency. I am working on it for myself too. I know there are people who run each agility run to win. That thought doesn't even occur to me, I am mostly thinking about trying to be clear in handling, accurate while maintaining criteria and do our best, and at the end of a run or jump or whatever venue we are competing in-thank my dog immediately for working with me. I have picked the next month and half to Try! a few new things. Will see how it goes. I think I probably prefer to be the quiet and in my head person, whose dogs may or may not get noticed, but my achievements or learning experiences with my dogs are ours to celebrate or learn from, not measured by others. We will just keep Trying!