제목: E155: 마이아 페레즈(Maia Perez) - "처음으로 대회 출전하기"

always really interested in it, but it didn't really seem like something that was available to me for whatever reason. I don't know why. Our dogs, you know, weren't suitable necessarily. And we took like puppy 101, but we didn't really get into any kind of training with them. So then when I got Tilney, and Tilney is my first, you know, a dog as an adult, he really liked training. And I realized that I really liked training. And I honestly just couldn't think of like enough things to train him. So I started, you know, searching and getting more involved, just kind of trying to find some structure. So I wouldn't just keep doing, you know, simple tricks over and over again. And that's how I got interested in this idea of dog sports and kind of training for, you know, broader goals and really making progress. So what led you to FDSA? Yeah, I mean, I was really lucky. All the people who I approached, because I didn't really have a plan training Tilney going into it. I didn't get him obviously to be a sports dog. But when I asked people, you know, who do you recommend? FDSA always came up. So it worked really well for me. I love the online method, because, you know, it's, it's more cost effective for me. And I don't have to travel anywhere, which is awesome for my schedule. So it was pretty easy choice to at least give it a shot. And then I ended up really liking it. We absolutely love hearing that. Everybody recommended FDSA. That's kind of nice. Not really. I mean, I think it was, you know, partly who I was, I guess, hanging out with. But yeah, I was really lucky. I just every person, that's who they told me to go to. So kind of heading into that first network trial, what kind of prep did you do before? So I, I started with nose work with FDSA, did nose work 101, and then nose work 120. And so, you know, those, those courses are geared towards the idea that like, eventually you might be trialing. So I kind of started to think about that and following the preparation until we really loved it. So I was thinking it was maybe a possibility for us. And I liked the fact that you could reward in the ring in scent work, because I thought that that kind of kept the pressure off me a little bit, because I knew that even if it was bad, I could just start giving him treats. And then, you know, it wouldn't be a total disaster, because at least he'd be happy. Um, so yeah, I mean, I think just kind of following those classes, I was a broad student, but I was very active in the study group. Um, I got a lot of feedback from Denise, the TA at that time. And,

you know, did a lot of prep, just kind of going different places, trying searches. Um, yeah, asking questions about the trialing process, basically, in the FDSA Facebook groups. Awesome. So just for folks listening who aren't familiar with the study group program. So the, the way that it works is if you're a bronze student in a class, you can sign up on Facebook, there's often a corresponding Facebook group where a lot of the students kind of share their work and kind of talk through problems and do some training, you know, kind of virtually together, right? It's kind of a good summary, summary. Yeah, it's, and it's really fun. It often kind of takes some guts to sign up for that first trial. Well, overcoming our own nerves is a real thing. I can definitely have an impact on our dog. So heading into that first trial, were you nervous? Did you have a game plan? I mean, I was definitely nervous. Um, honestly, I was nervous sending in the premium, uh, even just, you know, figuring out how to find a trial, print it out, having to mail it in and so being able to sign up online. Like that was a little nerve wracking for me. Um, so yeah, by the time I got to the trial, I was definitely nervous about it. I didn't take everyone's advice and, uh, you know, volunteer to trial ahead of time. So that was my first time ever actually in a trial environment, um, which was pretty, you know, a little overwhelming in some ways. Um, so my game plan was, I basically reminded myself that if I hated it, if Tilney hated it, we would just leave. Um, so I took a trial pretty close to home so that that was an option for me. So I could just bail if I thought it was going to go really badly. Um, and then I also brought my family with me so that they would be able to watch Tilney while I kind of got used to the environment and, you know, figured out what was going on. Um, and, and that was really, really helpful. I was really glad I did that. I like that. I've actually not heard that as a tip before, and that's kind of neat. Um, so knowing that, like how did, how'd the trial go? Yeah. I mean, it actually, it went really well. I think it was successful. Um, so first thing we get there, I realized immediately I didn't have any of the gear that all the seasoned competitors had. Um, so I had to send people out to get me Starbucks so that I had some food. Um, and luckily the trial had place we could borrow chairs from because we didn't have any chairs. We just had Tilney in his crate. Um, yeah. So my first search, I didn't qualify. Uh, I was so nervous that I basically

walked in, called alert, walked out again. Um, but I was reassured because Tilney was really excited. He knew what we were doing. You know, he wanted to search. Um, so, you know, it was a little bit of a shock for me, but it was actually really nice because it gave me a chance to think, to reevaluate, um, to figure out what had gone wrong. And then after we qualified in our second run, then I felt really good because I felt like I'd been able to, you know, turn around, um, in the trial environment while I was still nervous and be successful based on our training. I'd love to hear just a little more about that. So when you say you stopped and you kind of reevaluated and thought through it, what did, what were you thinking through or like, can you just share a little more on that? Yeah, absolutely. Um, so the big thing was, you know, I'd called it basically as soon as he started sniffing, um, which was, you know, silly in retrospect. So it was nerves. Um, but it occurred to me that I, I never actually made a plan for when I was going to call the alert in a trial environment with a blind hide. Um, so I kind of sat down and I thought, you know, how long am I going to wait, right? For him to be at source, for him to really, for me to really feel like he's found it. And it really took a lot, I think, to, to decide to really trust him, you know, to give him about, I think I went on five seconds, um, at a hide. So really count that and think, is he still there? Is he still interested? Do I really feel like I saw a change of behavior? And just to reevaluate in that moment so that I was prepared for the next run and knew what I was going to look for before I called it. Do you plan to do it again? Yeah. I mean, I've already competed again in Scentwork. Um, we're going to, I'm competing again in March. So, and I think that'll be our fifth trial. So I clearly got the bug and have really gone into it. Nothing quite like getting the bug. Uh, so what, you know, kind of heading into the second trial, are there things that you did differently? You know, what, what things are you kind of trying to keep the same from that initial trial? What things are you trying, trying to kind of adapt or change or, you know? Yeah. So one thing I did that I was really pleased about is I did our second trial at the same place we did the first trial. Um, I don't really like that because then I was really familiar with the environment. Tilney was familiar with the environment. I knew how that specific trial ran. And I mean, I even knew the judges to some extent cause they had some of the same judges.

So that I think was a really good way of, you know, allowing me to, to try again, um, and not be quite as nervous because I was more familiar with it. Right. Not changing too much up at once. So in addition to teamwork, you kind of mentioned you've done some team training. What got changed in team? Um, yeah, actually team was the first thing I did with FDSA. Um, so my dog had to have a surgery. Um, I think a few summers ago, um, he had a lock sitting patella and he was on crate rest. And then once he got off crate rest, he was still really crazy. Um, but he was still on pretty severe exercise restrictions. So I was looking for something that I could do with him that would really entertain his mind, really keep him busy, but wouldn't be as hard physically on him. Um, and team seemed just kind of like a good option. Um, and then I started doing it and I realized that I really loved it because it's all the things I really like about dog training, um, high levels of precision, you know, something to grade yourself against. Um, and like this really cool foundation where you really feel like you're progressing as you go through the exercises and the levels. Have you guys, uh, earned your titles? Yeah, we have our team one. Um, still working on team two. I haven't submitted for that yet, but hopefully soon. Hopefully I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Yeah. Thank you. So how did the team skills carry over? How did they help you when you decided to start training for rally? Um, they helped a ton. I mean, that was something I maybe wasn't expecting, or I didn't totally realize what I was getting myself into, I guess, as a novice competitor. Um, team is really all of our obedience training. Like that's it. That's all we've done. Um, in terms of obedience work. And I'm talking like, I mean, I didn't even do a basic, you know, beginning companion class with Tilney. So team is kind of it. And so for rally, um, I thought that, you know, we, we might struggle because we haven't done this before. Um, but instead I found out that having that foundation has actually made it really fun and easy for us. Um, basically everything we do or we've done so far as, you know, novice competitors is based on the things that Tilney is really skilled at from all the work we put into team one. So that's been really nice. It's been really fun to, you know, see a sign, try it out, you know, fix a few little things, but overall kind of have that successful foundation to build on. That's awesome. It's fantastic to hear. Uh, you know, what made you kind of get interested in

rally? I mean, if you, if you started out with team and then some set work, what, what kind of, what kind of got you on that bug? Yeah. Um, I mean, I don't know, again, it's, you know, hanging on those Facebook groups, uh, they give me a lot of bad ideas and inspiration. So I saw people competing in rally. I kind of, at this point and made some friends who were competing in rally. Um, and then Nicole put out her rally class at around that time. So I saw that and I thought, you know, this actually looks really fun. Um, and signed up and yeah, and then it was really fun and there were trials nearby. Um, they're a little more local than a lot of the set work trials are. So I thought this would be something really nice for us to do. We didn't have to travel as far. Um, we could still kind of try it out. You mentioned, uh, originally I put this up on, on Facebook, which is looking for folks who were kind of new to trialing. And you kind of mentioned that you hadn't really thought about trialing until you'd taken Bye Bye Cookie. So I'm really kind of curious about that. What, what was it, um, that made you think maybe you weren't going to do that or, you know, can you just kind of tell me a little bit about that? Yeah, sure. Um, so, you know, something I really like about FDSA is I think it really emphasizes how important it is that your dog is also having, you know, some level of fun, right? That you're really being fair to your dog, um, when you're trialing because the trial environment might not be enjoyable for them. And the thing with Tilney is that I knew that I was an inexperienced trainer. Um, I knew that he was a young dog and he's a little crazy. So, you know, he's really working for treats. Um, he loves his treats and he gets so excited. And when he was younger and I was a worse trainer, um, a lot of times that excitement meant that he'd get really frustrated with me because he wasn't getting rewarded fast enough, um, or he wasn't clear and he thought that he deserved a reward. And I thought that he had done something that didn't meet my criteria. And then, you know, he'd start barking at me and it'd be a disaster. So I could really kind of imagine a scenario in the ring where something went wrong and he just would start barking at me in frustration. Um, and I really didn't want that to happen because I didn't think that any of us would be having fun at that point. So yeah, I basically, I didn't trust myself as an inexperienced, uh, trainer to really create a good reinforcement plan for him that allowed us to

delay reinforcement. And then I decided, you know, I might as well give it a shot. Um, so I took Bye Bye Cookie. I figured it'd be helpful. And it was just a total game changer. Um, I mean, we, we went from, I was worried, uh, finishing team one that I wouldn't be able to do the reinforcement reducing for team two, which is like two treats. Um, and then at the end of Bye Bye Cookie, I mean, you know, I had Tony working for easily 30 seconds to a minute with, you know, food on the floor, um, with him totally focused and happy and engaged with me and not at all frustrated. So it just added a lot of clarity into our training. It really taught me how to delay reinforcement in a way that was just super effective for how kind of my brain worked and how his brain worked. I have to say, I've never understood like, you know, the frustration thing. I've never been there. Yeah. Um, yeah, I know he's an intense so he, he really would get, you know, he can get mad. Um, cause he really felt that he had done what I was asking him. Um, and I wasn't clear enough and then he would start barking and then I hate the bark. So it was just not fun. Yeah. Yeah. No, my, uh, my English Cocker is the same way. He tends to, uh, get easily frustrated if I'm not being clear enough. And my idea of clear enough and his idea of clear enough are definitely not always the same thing. So I get that. Uh, so you took by by cookie and then you wound up signing up to compete in rally in November. So, you know, what led you to go ahead and take that plunge and then did you do anything special to kind of prepare for that? Yeah. Um, so after you took by by cookie, then I was feeling so much better about being able to delay reinforcement. Um, and I've been keeping up with Nicole's rally courses too. And that also made me feel a lot better. Um, especially the ones where we're actually like setting up courses for ourself. And then I can, you know, really see that Tony was working, um, for longer periods without treats. And then my kind of local club, um, hosted a trial. And so it was only about 15 minutes away. So I thought this was just the perfect opportunity. We would go, we'd see if he could do it. You know, again, I reassured myself if it was terrible, we would just leave. It was 15 minutes away, you know, it wasn't much lost. Um, so that was kind of the, the impetus is really just, it was a good opportunity. It was really close by. And I figured we were, you know, at least mostly ready to at least see what would happen. So day of you got there and then, then what happened? How'd it go?

Yeah. Um, yeah. So it was, it was very successful. I think he did a really good job. I felt really prepared. Actually, I was still nervous. Um, again, new environment, you know, fairly new competitor. Um, I heard that obedience could be a little bit scarier than scent work. So I was aware of that, but everyone was super nice. It was a really nice atmosphere. Tilney has been getting really good about being comfortable, um, in the trial environment. So he was just fine. He was so super excited to work. And then, yeah, we got on the ring. Um, he was instantly distracted by the signs. I realized in that moment that I had not actually had him ever see an upright sign before. Um, but I called him back and he got right into heel and looked up at me. So yeah, then we, we did a good job on the course and, um, he got second place that run. So I thought that was pretty good. Um, congratulations. That's a big deal. Thank you. Yeah. Uh, so I know you kind of mentioned on Facebook, you already signed up for your next rally trial. Is there anything, you know, that again, kind of looking back that you are thinking about doing differently or things that you want to kind of do the same or even just, you know, things that you're kind of working on for that, for that next trial? Yeah. Um, so I did feel pretty confident with our preparation for the first one. Um, but one thing I've really liked about the second one is that it's a different local club and we've actually had the opportunity to train there a couple of times, um, before the trial. So I think that that will help is having that experience of being in that exact environment, um, going into it. And then the other thing that I'm working on is, uh, so Tilney has two legs now of his novice, um, rally title. And so I'm hopeful that if, you know, he finishes that, we're maybe going to be able to move into advanced for the next trial. So I've really been working with him on focus off the leash, um, feeling confident that he's not going to run away or, you know, leave the ring or go over jumps without me asking him to. Looking back, do you have any major takeaways or lessons that you kind of learned just from having been there, done that, um, that you care to share? Yeah. Um, I mean, I'd say, I guess a big one is that people really are pretty friendly, uh, with dog sports. You know, if you tell people that you're a new competitor, you've never been to a trial before, um, people were really nice to me and wanted to help. So I think that was just a big takeaway that

like people want you to succeed, um, if you're nice and you also want other people to succeed. So it can be a really fun environment where you're all supporting each other. Um, and yeah, I guess lessons, you know, I think I did some things well. Um, I, I think that I didn't rush, which I'm really happy about in retrospect. I think it's easy when you start training these things to focus on the skills and to think, Oh, you know, my dog can find odor. So I really want to get into a trial. And that wasn't, that wasn't what was hard. It was, you know, being familiar with the rules, being familiar with the environment, making sure your dog could handle the environment and it wasn't going to be hard for them, you know, mentally to be there. Um, that's, it was really difficult. So I'm really glad that I didn't rush it. And that so far Tilney's had good experiences, um, which I hope will mean that, you know, he'll be able to continue to do this with me for quite a long time. When you, when you say you didn't rush it, do you mean, you know, you spent the time to kind of train kind of beyond a basic understanding, or do you mean, um, actually at the trial? Um, I mean that I spent the time training, so I didn't hurry to start trialing, even though, you know, he was successful in training, like the skills for each of the activities. Um, I didn't say like, Oh, he can heal with me. So it's time to do a rally trial. I waited until I made sure that he could, you know, heal with me for like three minutes without getting any treats and be really happy about it, even if we were around distracting things. And I think that that's the part where maybe people rush, um, and can get you into trouble and make it less fun for you and your dog. Do you have any advice for other FDSA students or listeners who, you know, they haven't done that first trial yet? Um, anything you'd recommend that they consider? Yeah. I mean, I think the big one is ask for help. Um, people really are willing to help you if you make it known that you want advice and you want help. So, I mean, that can be in the FDSA Facebook groups, you know, or your other dog communities, like your local clubs. Um, and it can be at trials, like, I mean, at the first summer trial, I think every single time I talked to someone, I started with, I have never been to a trial before. I'm totally new. This is my first time. And people were so friendly and welcoming and really went out of their way to make sure I knew what was going on. Um, so that's a big thing. It's just not being afraid of telling people that

you're new and that you don't understand what's happening. Um, cause there are so many unspoken rules that you just won't pick up on without having more experienced people guide you at some level. Yeah, absolutely. And I love that. Cause it's such a, it's such an FDSA type thing, right? Like, um, being willing to reach out a hand to help, but also being willing to reach out a hand when you need help. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast, Maya. This has been great. Yeah. And thanks for having me. Absolutely. And thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in. We'll be back next week with Ken Ramirez to talk about his new book, The Eye of the Trainer. Don't miss it. If you haven't already subscribed to our podcast in iTunes or the podcast app of your choice, they're our next episode automatically downloaded to your phone as soon as it becomes available. Today's show is brought to you by the Fenzie Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzie for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty free by bensound.com. The track featured here is called Buddy. Audio editing provided by Chris Line. Thanks again for tuning in and happy training. Thank you.