The Spaniel Annals

I’ve often thought that living my life according to the principles in The Lord of the Rings works pretty well.  And so a few weekends ago, I was reminded of this crucial scene where Faramir realizes he needs to release Frodo, so Frodo can continue on his quest:

How could this possibly relate to dog training?  The words Faramir spoke came to mind when I recently showed Gael, my Gordon Setter, in the obedience ring for the first time in a year-and-a-half.  That long break between the 2nd and 3rd leg of her novice title occurred to some extent because another older, soon-to-retire dog took precedence.  But it also occurred because getting Gael to perform according to the expectations I had was simply exhausting.  She didn’t seem to enjoy it, and I wasn’t enjoying it,  so why keep going?  I had never given up on a dog for the obedience ring before, but with other dogs taking priorities, and Gael’s obvious enjoyment in simply being a house and pasture dog, I gradually let those expectations go.

And as I let go of them this past year (to some degree subconsciously), Gael matured.  She now has less “happy feet” on her stays and a bit more impulse control.  This summer she seemed genuinely pleased to be re-included in the training team that heads to the training building.  And so I entered her at the Portland shows.

And she passed, which finished her novice title!  This happened with no extra commands needed on the heeling (a previous problem), no massive buildup to a special jackpot, and me being okay with Gael being Gael.  The on-lead heel had silly moments, but she improved with a solid off-lead heel and good recall.  I admit to some loud heart beats on the stays, but at the end, I walked around her, waited for the judge to say, “exercise finished” and we had our CD!

The next day I just wanted her to have fun in the ring, and so moved her up to Graduate Novice, which asks for some baby versions of the Open exercises.  And despite the fact that I had only reminded her of  some of these exercises quickly the week before, she passed again!

It felt like the less I expected of her, the better she did.  The more I took pleasure in who and what she was, without the pressures of all the expectations, the more she flourished.

And so, at very long last, we understand one another.  She might not be my High in Trial dog, but she will have moments of brilliance and will look beautiful doing it.  She is very fun to train, and while we can work on getting better, the unreasonable expectations are over with. To paraphrase Faramir at the end of the video, “Release her!”   We are on a new journey now.

I made a little video of her best work over the weekend just to remind myself of what she can do.  While the work here isn’t perfect, there are those beautiful moments of pure energy that is my Gael.