Episode 66: Ring Stress
===
[00:00:00] If you train, compete, or teach dog agility, you're in the right place. Hey there, I'm Megan Foster, creator of Fostering Excellence in Agility. Join me as I share key insights on all things related to dog agility and help find your team's path to excellence and unlock your best year yet. Let's get started.
Welcome back to the podcast. This is episode 66, and I want to talk about ring stress. What does it look like? What is causing it? And what can we do about it? So first, what can ring stress look like? And honestly, it can look like any difference in your dog's behavior from training to trialing. When we [00:01:00] typically talk about ring stress, I think we're primarily talking about competition and dogs that are not able to bring the same amount of enthusiasm or joy that they tend to have in training.
Um, so a lot of things can look like ring stress. Typically, we're thinking about lack of focus, especially on the start line, right? When we cross that threshold of, you know, outside the ring, on leash, near my rewards, with my human, safe and cozy, walk into the ring, and now all of that is gone. They... You know, their eyes might get big, they're looking around, they can't seem to access kind of that motivation to start the run.
This can also look like they're frozen on the start line. Um, and then even [00:02:00] if we can, uh, convince them to start running, they might zone out or check out or even leave during, um, the middle of the run after a few obstacles. A lot of times, the difference from training to competition is their speed. They can be slower overall, slower to get going.
They generally speed up toward the end as they get closer to that predictable path to reinforcement. It can also look like frantic behavior, though. So sometimes, you know, this ring stress idea, it only gets put on dogs that are kind of going flat, but we should also be looking at all differences. So even if they tend to stress up, um, maybe they're grabbing obstacles at random.
Maybe they're zooming. Maybe they are actively looking for the exits. So they are running the [00:03:00] perimeter, checking the gates, checking where they came in from, checking where they typically exit. So they are trying to leave the situation. And, you know, sometimes even if they're... maybe they're going faster than they normally would in training, but they're not able to, you know, do things accurately to the same level of precision that they can in training.
This I would also put in the bucket of ring stress. Um, dogs that are, that react kind of poorly to a handling mistake or an obstacle mistake on course, then that could be the trigger that causes any of those behaviors that I just, uh, described. But really, like I said in the beginning, any difference in the dog's behavior from training to competition, I am gonna pay attention to and dig into [00:04:00] as, uh, something to look for when we're talking about ring stress
So what is causing the dog's behavior to change from training to competition? What is stressing the dog out? Here are a few reasons that I typically see when working with these teams. So if none of these issues exist in training, we are typically looking at a couple of things.
Number one is the environment is triggering a difference in your dog's behavior. So something about the competition environment, the people, the noise, the dogs, the novelty, all of that combined is too much pressure for your dog to adequately perform to the level that they were trained in. So we need to, you know, dig into that.
And second, and is very closely [00:05:00] related, is motivation. Does your dog understand how competition is rewarded? So does the dog understand about leaving rewards behind, working for a set amount of time with no primary reinforcers present, and then exiting to get that reinforcer? So of course, if one of those is a factor, it's going to cause some stress because if the environment is putting too much pressure on the dog that they can't access behaviors that are typically easy for them, that is stressful.
And also, if your dog is unsure how they will be reinforced, confused about reinforcement, um, worried about where their reinforcement is being left, that is also stressful. Two, if some of these [00:06:00] behaviors show up somewhat in training but to a lesser degree, we're l- likely looking at a lack of fluency in those behaviors, especially when under pressure.
But we're still dealing also with the environmental pressure and the motivation to perform those behaviors under pressure. A lot of times we don't necessarily notice that there's a lack of fluency until it's keeping us from qualifying. So especially in the lower levels where we can qualify and, and in, and move up in the levels, um, with mistakes, we may miss some things where the dog needs a higher level of fluency to be successful.
And then we get into higher levels and they're not quite prepared, and that is stressful. And of course that's going to be compounded with any environmental [00:07:00] distractions that they're dealing with and any issues with motivation. So- We're still looking at all of those factors. And then the third biggest one that I, I see when I'm working with clients is that in some cases, physical discomfort, pain, or illness is the reason for the stress, even if the dog behaves normally at home and in training.
So for me, physical discomfort could just be the lack of proper fitness or conditioning to do what you're asking them to do. Um, so if they are not physically prepared for the taxing event of a competition and doing that in high arousal with a bunch of environmental pressure on them without the proper motivation, you may start to see the stress pop up because of that.
And then also, unfortunately, I do work with teams [00:08:00] where a fair training plan has been developed and implemented consistently, and there's still no progress being made. And that is the point where I do encourage, uh, o- owners to dig deeper for a physical cause blocking the progress. Um, dogs are masters at being stoic.
They're masters at compensating. So even if you believe everything is normal, but you've been working on, you know, improving their experience in the ring and you're not seeing actual progress, um, some sort of pain or discomfort is very likely to be present, and we have to go digging for it. We really have to investigate that further.
So I work with a lot of teams that come to me with this idea that there is [00:09:00] ring stress going on, and I want to walk you through a little bit about what that process looks like. And the first thing that we have to do is assess your training habits. Where is clarity missing from your current communication system?
So where is the dog currently confused about what to do in any part of your training or competition environment? So primarily, I'm looking for confusion around reinforcement. Are you rewarding in the middle of your start line routine in training so that your dog kind of expects treats throughout that entire process?
Are you rewarding every stopped contact that they do, so then when the dog goes to competition, they are expecting reinforcement at the contacts, and then that's not happening, and that lack of clarity is [00:10:00] causing stress and bumming them out around reinforcement and motivation? How are you responding to mistakes in training, and how does that compare to how you are responding to mistakes in competition, and is that lack of clarity causing the dog stress?
Is there a distinction in your training environment between a training session and a working session? So has your dog ever seen the competition context in a training environment? So does the dog understand that sometimes we do leave reinforcement behind and work for a longer period of time without rewards in between?
After we assess all of those training habits, we have to make some changes most of the time, add some clarity, add some distinction between training sessions and working sessions, help the dog understand [00:11:00] about when reinforcement is available and is not available, help the team develop more communication tools to tell the dog, "We're training now.
Reinforcement is gonna be flowing at a high rate," versus, "We're working now. Reinforcement is going to be delayed." So we build that conversation in training before we even talk about what that might look like in competition. We have to make sure that the dog is comfortable in their known environment without a bunch of- distractions and triggers present to make sure that the dog understands just how training versus competing works.
Then the second thing that we're looking at is assessing the ring routine. So now we are diving into what does competition look like for this team? Is there adequate warmup? And this also applies to training as well. [00:12:00] Um, but certainly what I see a lot of in, dogs that kind of lack motivation in the beginning is that they are not adequately warmed up, and it takes them, a third of the course, half of the course for their muscles to be ready to start running faster.
And so that is obviously, um, closely related to discomfort or pain or anything like that causing stress. Um, but an adequate warmup is sometimes the only change I've made to a team's system, and it worked wonders for that dog's ring stress. So are we adequately warming them up? Second thing is, are the conditions outside the ring better than inside the ring?
And this kind of falls into two categories for me. So in terms of motivation, is outside the ring 100 times [00:13:00] better than inside the ring as far as access to reinforcement goes? So if you are using a lot of food outside the ring, and then there's no food inside the ring, but your dog is highly motivated to do agility by food or their toy or anything really, that contrast can really tank a dog's motivation and cause them to be stressed inside the ring.
What happens is that they learn that in class inside the ring is great, but in competitions inside the ring is not so great. So we're looking at those conditions to see if that could be part of the problem. I'm also looking at some dogs in terms of relief of moving into the ring. So if there's fear, discomfort, or even frustration in having to wait their turn, so if they're afraid of maybe some of the dogs, um, [00:14:00] that are waiting outside the ring with them or, you know, maybe it's the people or the noise.
Depending on the trial environment, you- there can be a very small space with a lot of teams packed into that space. So if they are afraid or uncomfortable in that situation, they will experience a rush of relief when entering the ring. And that can also be stressful and be causing them some issues in the ring.
And also if they're just frustrated waiting, and they have a hard time waiting, again, when they get into the ring, they're relieved, and they just, they're kind of exhausted from that rush of relief, and they can't think as clearly, and that will be stressful for them. So we're diving in and cleaning all of that up, right?
If there is a problem with the warm-up, we're fixing that. If there is a problem with what it looks like outside the ring, [00:15:00] and the shift from outside the ring to inside the ring is causing the stress, we address that, we fix that, we change the routines to make that easier and more clear for the dog. , And then the third thing we're looking at with regards to routines is, is the dog clear on when and how and where reinforcement is accessed?
So is the dog mentally okay leaving the rewards behind, working for a minute or two, and then exiting the ring to get the rewards later? Is the dog clear on that? Is the dog comfortable with that? Is the dog motivated by that enough to do the agility in the way that they do in training?
And so if they aren't, we are teaching that step by step, and that takes time to build that clarity and build that trust in the fact that reinforcement can be left behind, and we can still get it when we're done working. [00:16:00] Okay? The third thing that we're looking at, uh, when I work with these teams is what could be triggering the differences in training versus trialing.
So is it people? Is it dogs? Is it noise? Is it novelty? If it's not the routine that's causing the stress, if it's not, uh, a lack of clarity in training, what specifically about the environment is causing this dog stress? And how can we focus our ring prep training around those triggers to make the experience of competition better for this dog?
You might have a team that has something to solve in each of these categories, has multiple things to solve in each of these categories. It could be one thing. But that is the list that I go down with each person that comes to me [00:17:00] hoping to decrease ring stress, increase motivation, solve problems with arousal.
Any time that there is a difference between how your dog trains and how your dog competes, this is generally the list- I'm going down and using and helping to develop a training plan around. And I hope that this was helpful to you to kind of hear my process, hear how I think about ring stress, and hopefully you can start to ask questions about your training, your routines, how your dog feels in the competition environment, and help improve the experience of your entire team.
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, I really appreciate some feedback. You can leave me a review, engage on social media, or share this with a friend. I hope you'll be back to listen to my next episode. In the meantime, you can find all of my offers on my website, [00:18:00] fxagility.com. Happy training.
