Now, I know what you may be thinking. "Relax? I have a high-drive, retrieving, tugging, 500 horsepower, athletic canine machine. Why and how would I ever get him to relax?" Allow me to explain.
When your dog is on the field, of course you want him revved up, tweaked, psyched, insert your own word of choice here. But when I go to dog sport events, I see the fallout of too much stress for too long a duration. It manifests in dogs who are over the top, unfocused, or shutting down. All of this detracts from peak performance. An over the top dog is unable to even hear or see handler cues, barks, bites, or jumps at the discs, to the point where it makes routine execution difficult. Sometimes dogs like this mouth discs too much, won't drop, or won't return a disc to hand. Dogs who shut down can often be seen going through the motions of their routine but missing discs, sniffing the grass, scanning the environment, or moving veeerrryyy sloowwwlllyyy. Not to say that dogs can't overcome these things, but I propose that their performances would be exponentially better if they could learn to truly relax while off the field.
We all know that sports like disc, flyball, and agility require a dog to operate in high drive for peak performance. However, most of the time spent at a dog sport event is spent OFF the field, not on it. I see lots of dogs (including my own, unfortunately) who waste a ton of energy barking on the sidelines before their own turn to play. Everything about the environment becomes a cue for our dogs to go ballistic. They are so cranked up by the sights, sounds and smells of game day that sometimes even well rehearsed behaviors like Sit and Stay go out the window. These dogs are over-aroused.
The opposite end of the spectrum is the over-stimulated dog. To the casual observer, this dog might seem relaxed. He certainly is much less mobile and vocal that the over-aroused dog, but when you try to engage on over-stimulated dog, the signs of stress are apparent.
Many canine athletes are just fine once we switch into active attention: start throwing discs, or running flyball, or performing agility obstacles. It's passive attention where they disconnect. Time spent waiting your turn should be relaxing for you and your partner. It should be a time when you connect with each other and prepare to give your best performance. It should not be a stressful time period where the handler tries to contain a barking, maniacal dog, or conversely, cheerlead a droopy dog. For peak performance on the field, I believe good passive attention behavior is key. The dog should be relaxed, calm and attentive, happy to engage in warm-up activities and equally content to patiently wait his turn.
It's easy to ignore this part of the training puzzle, after all, there is nothing glamorous about a dog relaxing while waiting his turn (that doesn't mean it isn't impressive!). I believe starting small is the key. If you think it sounds like a good idea to actively teach your dog to relax, start by working in environments that aren't likely to spin your dog into orbit. Practice it in and around your disc training sessions. As your dog becomes comfortable and proficient with relaxing in the context of a solitary training session, raise the bar and try it while OTHER dogs are playing. There are many ways to relax your dog, including massage, TTouch, and marking and rewarding actions such as blinking and deep breathing. I am still exploring these avenues myself, and my guide along the way is Leslie McDevitt's outstanding book, Control Unleashed (available at www.dogwise.com or www.cleanrun.com). My goal for this article is not to instruct you HOW to do it, that I'm still learning myself. The goal is simply to plant the seed of an idea in your mind and make you consider that this training might help you and your canine athlete reach true peak performance. I know it has become a personal goal of mine, and I'm really enjoying the journey!