COLUMN: How your emotions impact your dog

• Nadine Whittal, dog trainer writes:

I am an incredibly lucky person in that I am part of a unique group of people who get to compete with their dogs at various competitions. Today was my first competition in a number of years and it highlighted to me just how much of an effect our own anxiety can have on the behaviour of our dogs.

I, of course, was incredibly nervous even though I had entered the competition with absolutely no intention of doing well. I simply wanted my dogs to get used to the atmosphere at the grounds and being around other dogs that are not a part of our normal lives. It’s easy to say that you don’t care what happens out on the field, but you still feel the nerves that the pressure of competition creates.

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Around the beginning of the day, I took some time to send my border collie, Styx, over a few obstacles and he was behaving like a complete fool. He was going under jumps instead of over them and popping out of the weave poles unnecessarily. I was freaked out and decided to tell the judge that I wanted to run this as a training run and to disqualify me from the start. Just like that, all the pressure was lifted off my chest. Up we went to run, and we had an excellent run. Turns out, my nerves were throwing my dogs off.

This seemed to be a common theme for the less-experienced handlers throughout the day. Handlers tended to throw their own dogs out of whack by over-handling them or getting stressed about their runs. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few months. I am sure as the new handlers start to relax, their handling will improve, and their dogs will start to run more confidently.

So, the next time you had a bad day and you think your dogs are acting psychotic, don’t blame them. They might just be picking up on the emotions you brought home.