I am brand new to this board, however, I have been snooping around here for a few years. I am hoping that some of you will have new ideas to help me with a very shut down dog!

I have a dog that is almost 3 years old. She does obedience, rally, and agility. She practices and fun matches really well, but once she gets into the ring, she drools and stumbles around like she has head trauma. She just shuts down completely.

This dog is very social and well-socialized. She has some weird fear issues and has had them all of her life. We work through them. If you just watched her, you would not know she was a fearful dog, except in the show ring. She is actually a pushy and high-drive dog as long as she is in class or at home.

My dog has her CGC, 2 legs of her CD, novice standard and jumpers titles, and her rally novice. Unless we get better, we will never finish her CD. She has one open standard agility leg, but she is getting slower and slower and timing out of qualifying!

How can I get her to compete like she practices!?! Any ideas? I am at the end of my rope! Thank you!

Holly welcome to the board, as I read your post I started to imagine well socialize, but you have done that, then food came to mind, and I guess you have done that also with lots of praises. keep seeking someone will get you were you want to go. again welcome. Dan

Hi Holly,

Are you familiar with the book Control Unleashed? This book was instrumental in helping my GSD with nervous behaviors.

-Melissa

The book is on my shelf but I haven't read it. I will start it right away.

Thank you!

Fun matches? Small mock competitions with familiar dogs in familiar settings? or smaller than normal competitions?

I would enter her in shows and take her around the grounds. Just walk her around the showground, do some shopping, talk to friends but don't actually work her.

When she's more comfortable with that ask the judge or whatever if you can take her into the ring for training but not competing. Play with her outside the ring, run in do a jump or 5 seconds of fun obedience - run back out of the ring, play or treat. Repeat a few times, thank the judge and leave.

Over time increase the duration that she is in the ring. There is no quick fix for this, she may never be capable of competing in the higher stakes but you have to familiarise her with the busy hectic environment of competitions. Even if you are calm, there is a lot of nervous energy around and it's probably affecting her quite a bit.

Good luck

I wish I could offer some advice, Holly, but I am in the same boat you are, so I will be watching the responses here closely. I too have a dog with serious fear issues, and she often shuts down in the ring. We've made it to her Rally Advanced title, but I fear we may never be able to move on to obedience, where I cannot talk to and encourage her.

Fun matches are a great idea and I go to as many as I can, but the thing is, she seems to know the difference between a match and a trial. I guess they're good at reading our minds! I too will look into the book that was mentioned, "Control Unleashed."

As far as asking the judge to practice in the ring, to the best of my knowledge, this is absolutely not allowed at any AKC event. I can't speak for other venues.

I fun match whenever I can and she does beautifully. We go to shows often and she usually, but not always, does well right up until we go into the ring. However, at some trials, even outside the ring, she will refuse food and refuse tugging. I can almost always get her back to tugging, but not back to food. Even at a "good trial," she can eat and tug all the way to the gate, but once in the ring, it's trauma again.

She is highly food and toy motivated away from a trial.

Having her on site and asking nothing of her is probably going to be my strategy for now. I sill fun match as I can. I take her to all sorts of classes at different facilities, but it's hard to duplicate the stress of a show.

I will certainly give hanging out at shows a try.

I really appreciate the advice. A trainer whose opinion I deeply value suggested quitting with her and letting her just be a pet. I am not ready to give up yet.

Thank you for the input.

Just curious....have you been the only owner of this dog from when she left the breeders as a 8 or 9 wk old pup?

Do you know what other dogs from the litter are like?

Just curious....have you been the only owner of this dog from when she left the breeders as a 8 or 9 wk old pup?

Do you know what other dogs from the litter are like?

I know in the UK obed. competitions they generally have a practice ring set up that you can use for a charity donation. But generally you can also enter a dog NFC to get into the showgrounds and if you only want to use a ring for 5/10 seconds and explain to the judge - they can allow it but is up to them. Worst comes to worst you can practice next to a ring.