Is it an agility sin to say "I don't care about speed."
Not that I want my dog walking the course, but I feel like there is always so much emphasis on speed and doing it faster. I find that frustrating. I am not now, nor have I ever been a competitive person. I just want to have fun with my dog. That's it. If my options are crazy fast, out of control, frustrated owner and dog or slowed down, in sync, happy dog and owner... I will pick that later every time.
Well, I have both. I'm also competitive (mainly with myself, if that makes sense, I realize I'm talking sports psychology stuff here), so take that for what it's worth.
Auggie was so slow we struggled to make course time. We dropped him to preferred so his jump height would be lower and so he would have 5 extra seconds. He STILL had trouble making course time. His accuracy didn't matter because we missed out on so many Qs based on time. I retired him because to get a PAX we need double Qs, which when it's a victory just to snag one, a double is a pipe dream, and to get a PACH, let's not even mention the double Qs and instead talk about the 750 speed points. Auggie has 100. He needs 650 more. He was getting 2-4 points per run with about a 25% Q rate. Nope nope nope nope nope. Not realistic, I can park my ass at home and set money on fire there if I want to. So I retired him.
Payton, OTOH, is blazing fast and I will never ever ever have to worry about course time with him. His accuracy WAS there but now we've lost it because he's discovered just how fun his version of agility (run really fast! do all the jumps! THAT JUMP THIS JUMP NOW THAT ONE THIS ONE WHOOOO) so we're working on getting the accuracy back.
Payton's issues I know I can overcome. It's frustrating as hell right now, but I know I can fix it.
Auggie's issues I am not sure I can overcome. That's why I retired him in the first place, and only recently did I start getting it in my head that I'm a better trainer than this and I CAN overcome this stuff.
We've been working on it since November, sometimes more regularly than others, but definitely not often enough considering all my equipment is at another house right now. I don't enter him very often and the only reason I enter him at all is because I'm going to be somewhere already with the puppies, so I enter him just one day so he can go out and have fun instead of being angry and jealous he doesn't get to play when we go. Every run I have with Auggie now is a joy because it's truly wonderful to run with my old man. And, well, his speed is actually getting better (though now he's knocking bars again.) None of it matters, a Q or NQ doesn't matter, an extra $30-35 for some runs with Auggie is no big deal when I'm already there with the puppies as the main event.
But you better believe I have still sat there wondering if I'm doing the right thing. Sometimes I believe I am a good enough trainer to help overcome some of this stuff. And other times I think if there's a trainer out there who can help Auggie, they are far more talented than I.
Personally I would pick the fast dog with a lack of control as the easier one to train to be successful, but YMMV and probably will depending on your personal experiences. And maybe a year from now I'll have something different to say if I'm still sitting here with a dog I struggle to work with. But I don't think so, given that over our last three-day trial, just from the first day to the third, people told me they could tell he was starting to learn to check back in and develop some handler focus again as opposed to just RUN AND DO ALL THE THINGS YEAH... I think Payton and I will come together soon.
As a trainer I would also add that if you cannot maintain criteria at speed, IMO that likely signals a lack of understanding.