fUtility

Bailey (the Fierce Corgi pictured at right) is a smart dog. She's been to obedience training for several years. She's gotten her AKC Novice and Open degrees. She's gotten AKC Rally Novice, Advanced and Excellent degrees. She knows how to do the exercises that make up the AKC Utility class.

But she sure can't demonstrate that knowledge in the show ring.

This past weekend, she busted three times in a row in the Lone Star Classic show in Dallas. She didn't come close to passing anything except for the Moving Stand exercise. She gets in the ring, and she focuses on everything but me - the smells on the mats, the old guy driving around the exhibit hall on a golf cart, the janitors wheeling around garbage cans, the birds up in the ceiling....everything but me. She's had nine utility trials and only really passed any of the exercises twice.

Since I know she is capable of doing the exercises, it follows that we are doing something wrong in the ring. There is such a thing as ring anxiety, where the dog recognizes the ring as a new, different environment and acts differently. And it probably means we haven't been going around to work in different places than our normal training areas. So we need to find new places to train, and then try entering shows after she's gotten over her issues.

But unfortunately, Bailey has another problem - she's been diagnosed with kidney problems. She's on a few medications to try to adjust her blood protein levels and keep fluids from accumulating, but I'm beginning to see some respiratory problems. When she was originally diagnosed, her prognosis was for about a year, so I'm starting to think she isn't ever going to pass Utility.

Obviously, this is a completely selfish thing. Bailey doesn't care if she passes Utility - she has fun at training, and seems happy otherwise (except during thunderstorms). I'm the one that wants to see the training we've done show up in the show ring. But I still find myself apologizing to Bailey for not getting her through Utility. I hope she doesn't have to retire - I hope this isn't the start of the end for her. She's only seven years old - it's just a shame.